Patriotic Wall Quilt

This is one of the first machine quiting projects that I made on my Bernina. My good friend and I had been to the National Quilt Convention and one of the things that intrigued me was a demonstration on the square-in-a-square technique by Jodi Barrows. I ended up buying her book and a few of her rulers and decided to begin my adventure with the project entitled "Constellation". The final project measures 25" x 25".

I'm really not sure why I chose the red, white, and blue theme, but after it was finished I decided it needed to be displayed in a patriotic grouping. While I was trying to determine what to do, I ran across a few old photographs.

This is my grandfather. He was drafted into the army during World War I. He was a man of honor and always had a kind word to say about others.

This is his son, my uncle, who volunteered at age 16 to serve in the Navy during World War II.

He needed to get his parents permission to enter the Navy because he was under age. He was a very pleasant man, and always enjoyed a good laugh. One time he offered to get me a soda at a family gathering and ended up putting a rubber fly in my glass.

This is my father-in-law who was drafted into the army during World War II. He was stationed over seas for several years before he was able to get back to the states. I believe that is the time frame when this photograph was taken. He never really talks about his time in the military. Doesn't he look sad?

This is my father, who was drafted into the army during the Korean War. I believe he was 18 or 19 in this photo. He was very bright young man and has always had a positive outlook on life. He has blessed my life greatly!

So...armed with my photos....

...I decided to make a  display on my laundry room wall. This small quilt adds a nice touch of warmth to the room, guarded by my own family patriots.

Here are a few photos of the other displays in the laundry room.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour!

Jean Quilt Makeover

It doesn't look like much, but this denim blaket has been through a makeover. I originally made this quilt for my son-in-law about ten years ago, on a sewing machine I hated. I fought with every stitch and seam, and the fact that the denim was so heavy added to the difficulty. I was just beginning my quilting journey, so I decided to simply knot it and used a plain cotton on the back.

Last year when I asked him what he would like for his birthday, my son-in-law asked if I could repair his blanket. He loved this blanket!  In fact he loved it so much that the backing was raggy and falling apart. Hmmm....what was to be done?

When I determined that it was worth the effort to repair it, I decided to remove all the old backing and replaced it with a striped flannel. The original blanket had quilt batting, so after the flannel was pinned to the top, it was a candidate for machine quilting.

I left the original knotting in place and simply machine quilted around the yarn. If you attempt machine quilting on denim, I highly suggest using special denim needles like "Schmetz Denim Needles" available at stores like JoAnn Fabrics.

I am very pleased with how it turned out!

 Better than I imagined!

Thimbleberries Lap Quilt

 I have long admired Thimbleberries fabrics and patterns.

A quilt entitled "Harvest Mix" caught my eye from the book entitled "At Home With Thimbleberries Quilts" by Lynette Jensen. It combines the Ohio Star pattern, Nine Patch, Sixteen Patch, and the use of half-square triangles to make an interesting quilt. I  consider this a "scrap" quilt because I used what was left over from other projects.

I altered the formation of the blocks to use  the fabrics I had on hand, so my quilt is larger than the project that appears in the book.

Don't you just love the scrappy look? For the backing, I used a Thimbleberries flannel so the quilt be extra warm and snuggly.

I machine quilted the inner design, and used cross hatching for the borders.

I started this project back in 2006.

 It may have taken me over three years to finish this quilt, but now I can declare it finished!

Yippie!