I Haven't Abandoned You, Mystery Quilt

 Well, the mystery quilt,

"Mountmellick",

by Di Ford is officially over.

What that means is everything

 has been revealed.

It's no longer a mystery.

The last installment was in the latest

Quiltmania magazine # 104.

I had been waiting for the ending

to finish.  Not because I was concerned 

about what it was going to look like,

but because, borders 5 and 6, of course,

had applique pieces that I thought

would be difficult to place correctly

if the borders weren't attached to the quilt beforehand.

So I waited and

now I'm working on the last two borders together.

 First I added border #5 which is a 

2" strip, finishing at 1 1/2".

 Can you see how close those applique pieces are

to the edge?  I know I would have had a hard

time keeping the applique out of the seam allowance.

So instead of appliqueing those,

 I pieced border #6 and 

 

added that to the quilt top.

Granted, the top is now bigger

and a little more difficult to handle,
but worth the extra bulk
to get the appliques centered properly,

so they won't being gobbled up
in the seam allowance.

It makes it easier for me figure out.

Border 6 will take awhile.

Lots of English Paper piecing to do.

No problem.
Unfortunately,

there's still plenty of winter left.

Until Next Time-

Birthdays and Polka Dot Cake

 There are certain life markers

that indicate the passing of time.

Like getting an invitation

 to a high school reunion and thinking 

40 years?  Really?

Or 

retiring from a career that has

been the majority of your lifetime.

Sometimes it's birthdays, 

it can be your own,

or the birthdays of your children.

It seems like only yesterday they were babies

and now they're  grown 

with a family of their own.

And you say, "When did that happen?"

This weekend we headed to Denver to

celebrate the birthday of our oldest daughter, Elizabeth.

What a joy she has been to our lives.

 5 years old

 1986

A birthday celebration

always requires a cake.

And in this case, it needed to be a polka dot cake.

Here's how you do it.

First, you make some polka dots.

Bake them in a cake.

Have a good helper.

Then smear big globs of chocolate frosting.

Add few decorations.

Along with a candle.
(Any one will do)

Sprinkle in a few hugs and kisses.

And you have a fun birthday celebration.

Then next year,

you'll wonder again,

"Where did the time go?"

Until Next Time-

Blue Tumblers

It really didn't take me long
to get that tumbler quilt top basted and quilted.

I wanted to be able to turn it in at
tomorrow's meeting.

The color just fit with the
color of the sky and the foothills
yesterday.

The color might also be on

beaches of the Caribbean, but for now

I'll  have to stick with the snow and mountain.

I love how this pattern

from the Missouri Star Quilt Co.

was so easy and fast to piece.

The blocks can be laid out so the tumblers

go every direction.

I used this polka dot flannel for the backing

and at the quilt groups holiday party,

 

 I received a piece of this blue fairy frost fabric

which was the perfect color for the binding.

I quilted straight lines in the white background to

make the seams less noticeable.

I didn't mark anything, I just stitched

along the edge of some masking tape.

I didn't even quilt in the tumblers.  I wanted
the fabric to be the star.

It's nice to have my obligation done,

but I hope, it will be even nicer for some

new baby boy to enjoy a little quilt from me.

Until Next Time-

There's No Stopping Me Now

 It sure helps when you

have encouragement from friends.

You feel like you can do anything.

 Just so you know, I did have a great aunt who was a bareback rider

for the circus.  So it's in the genes!

I have been working steadily on

my giant wool applique quilt.

The pieces are now all whipped into place

and the scalloped border determined and marked.

I've even done some embroidery.

Today it's all about basting.

So not even another buck-a-roo can stop me now.

Especially, not a cowgirl

carrying a six shooter and a guitar.

(And yes, it's me.)

Until Next Time-

Something New, Something Blue

I'm not the kind of person who
let's obligations or commitments
slide to the last moment.

Remember those big science or
Social Studies project in school?
I would get right on those as soon as
the assignment was given.
 (The other kids hated me for that)

Even now
I still can't put things off
 especially, if I've promised 
something would be done by a certain time.

One of the quilt groups I belong to
has promised to make baby quilts for a church's ministry.
This has allowed the quilt group to meet in the
building for insurance purposes.

So when the calendar page flipped,
I decided to get a baby quilt made.
(I'm not totally deviating from 
the wool applique.)

I friend gave me an
 unwanted charm pack and

I knew it would make a fun
modern baby boy quilt.

The pattern I decided to use is from the 

Missouri Star Quilt Co.

It's called the Tipsy Tumbler Quilt.

You can watch a video here.

I used the cardboard from the back of the

charm pack to create a tumbler shape

and cut out 25 pieces.

The whole idea of Jenny's method is to
start with a tumbler shape, set it on
a 10" square and iron and fold

the square over the raw edges and sew.

The raw edges are

enclosed in a seam.

Then do it again 

with the opposite sides.

Look a tumbler block.

Trim the outer edges to make an 8" square.

Here's the back.  You can see

how those

seams are all enclosed.

I was afraid it would make the seams

feel too thick, but it didn't.

Doesn't it look like I had to cut out a lot 

of different shaped pieces?

I laid out the blocks on

my design floor and 

I use these nifty preprinted

plastic lay out squares

by Quilt Dance.

(I couldn't find them online anywhere, sorry)

So here's the quilt

sewn together.

 You could add a border if you wanted,

but I wanted to keep it under 40" so

the backing would be one piece.

I'm hoping those

seams fade away more once the

batting is laid underneath.

(I think they're showing up more being on a wood floor.)

My neighbors have been gone for awhile,

so I went next door for a photo shoot.

They have Grecian statues

next to their pool.

Doesn't she seem thrilled with the quilt top?

Until Next Time-

Love It or Leave It

This project has been lurking 

since 2004 or 2005.
Nevertheless, it's 10 years old.

It's time to either love it or leave it.

Each year
 I continue moving
this wool applique over
 to the next new year to finish.

Every once in a while,
 the guilties

have surfaced
 and I've stitched a little bit more on it.

But the question is

why haven't I finished it?

 Are there things I can do to

make me keep going or

is this year for a final good bye?

It's a design that was is the Spring/ Summer

Quilt Sampler Magazine, 2004.

The wool applique , I think,  is patterned after

an applique kit

 called Poppy Wreath by

the Progress Company.

(This photo is of the quilt Mary Schafer made in 1953
which is from the book Mary Schafer, 
American Quilt maker by Gwen Marston.)

I really like the pattern, but there's a whole
list of reasons why it's been neglected.

First, the finished size is about 55" x 70".

It's all wool and very bulky to work on as one big piece.

Fun factor = 0

Secondly, I originally didn't want to fuse
 the wool pieces onto a wool background.

I didn't want the top to feel too stiff.
(Remember, products have changed in the last ten years.)

  So it was a challenge

placing the pieces and then keeping them in

their proper places.

Fun factor = 0

We, meaning my other quilting friends
who wanted to make the same quilt,

 

 had to create a giant plastic overlay pattern

in order to place the pieces properly.

The pattern got slightly skewed

so when it came to using it, there

was quite a bit of adjusting that 

needed to happen.

Fun factor = 0

I decided to use wool that I already had.

I liked everything but the gold wool.  It

had a looser weave so it tends to look ravely

 around the edges even though all

the wool had been prepped properly.

I should have gotten a different piece, but I didn't

Fun factor = 0

The pattern suggested buttonholing

around each piece, but I decided,

in my wisdom, to just whip stitch

around each piece.

It would be fast.
 Thinking back, maybe if I had buttonholed

the edges would have been more defined

and less ravely looking and 

maybe I would have gotten it done....faster!

I have way too much done to start over.

Fun factor = 0

I also decided to use DMC wool embroidery thread to do the stitching.

It blends in nicely, but

again doesn't create crisp edges.

Fun Factor = 0

Oh, one more thing,

when I do eventually quilt this,
 probably with black perel cotton using a big stitch,

it will be black on black.

Fun Factor,  a great big = 0

Okay I know, it doesn't sound like I want to go on,

but I'm going to see if I can.

Really, 10 years is way too long to have something lingering.

I have to start with more whip stitches around the pieces, which are all

in place.  I think, I must have glued the final pieces.

 Sounds like I did one thing right!

I'll keep you posted if the fun meter changes.

Until Next Time