Out of the strain of the doing, into the peace of the done...

~Julia Woodruff, Gone

I borrowed this one from Stray Stitches blog.  I don't know where she finds quotes for her posts, but she's had some GREAT ones.  This quote spoke to me because I have worked on this baby quilt for 3 months now.  (Found the pattern here).  It shouldn't have taken me this long, but I had the hardest time with the quilting. I thought I wanted to use my Flynn frame and just stipple it, but the length of the quilt was too much for the 48" rods that come with the frame.  I have been to every place in my little town that might possibly have pvc pipe and/or emt rods that I could use to do larger quilts with my frame, but was unsuccessful.  The more time that went by, the more trouble I had finding the motivation I needed to finish. I finally finished it last week.  I decided done is best.  So when I read this quote, I could truly relate.  I am feeling that peace, and it feels good.  But I will not be posting any close-ups of the quilting on this one.

Since it took me so long, I figured I would throw in a little sorry-it-took-so-long gift, so baby Britton also got a teddy to go with his quilt.  And here's something that I thought was pretty cool with this quilt...

His mama thought it would be cool if I could somehow incorporate a piece of her wedding gown.  So I pieced this block right in the center of the back of his quilt.  VERY cool.  As much as I want to see the quilts I make being used and loved, I do take it as a compliment when mama says it's too pretty to use and she plans to hang it on the wall in his room.

It amazes me how a finish can motivate me to mark more things off my list...

It's time to tackle the Christmas list.  I'm praying the motivation I feel right now will last.  I NEED it to last!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

This is my 1st time to participate in something like this as I haven't been blogging OR quilting for very long.  But it sounded like fun.  Amy over at Amy's Creative Side is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival.  When you get a chance, you should definitely go check out the other entries...SO much inspiration!

The quilt I've decided to share is my very 1st quilt.  I made this for a very special friend who had actually inspired me to start quilting.  Marian and I had talked many times about quilting and when her eyes got too bad for sewing, she very sweetly passed on all the books she had on crafting and quilting.  When she was diagnosed with cancer in December of 2008, I decided it was time to try.  I read everything I could...books, blogs, anything I could find on Google...finally, I heard about a quilting class being held at my local Hobby Lobby store.  I went to my 1st class in March of 2009.  We met once a week for that whole month, but by the 2nd week I already had my quilt top finished.

Oh, looking back now, I see just how ambitious I was.  I was determined to quilt it myself.  Thought I was so clever finding "fusible" batting.  After ripping out a few lines of stitches, I decided maybe for this 1st one, I should let a "professional" help me finish.  It was worth the wait.  I got it back about a month later and in May, I was able to give it to Marian.  I thought it would be hard to say goodbye to that quilt, but she loved it so much, it was worth seeing the joy on her face.

Miss Marian passed away on April 28th of this year.  I miss my friend.  My hope now is that maybe I can inspire someone who has just "thought" about quilting to actually give it a try...the way Marian inspired me :)

May 2009

Thanks for reading my story and thanks to Amy for organizing this Festival.

Progress

Well, it's not much, but I think it counts.  I SO want to get this one finished!  But I keep getting discouraged with the quilting.  It was too long to mount on my Flynn frame so I decided to "keep it simple" and just follow the blue lines with some straight lines.  Problem is, I'm using white thread.  Basically, everytime I get to a brown block, it looks as though someone keeps bumping me while I'm sewing...ugh.  Everytime the thought crosses my mind to just rip it all out and start over, I just can't DO it!  I hate ripping and I have to keep telling myself, done is best.  So I will push through.
Also, I started a tutorial a few weeks ago and then realized I had way too many things to finish before Christmas.  2 twin-sized, 1 queen sized, and 1 lap-sized quilt.  The tute quilt is going to be a baby gift for someone special, but I've had to put it aside for now.  Here's a sneaky peeky anyway...

I think my hope now is that if I actually SHOW you what I'm working on, then maybe just MAYBE, I can find some motivation to get these things DONE!

DONE IS BEST!!!

Darlene :)

Thank you!

Just a quick post to say thanks...to all of you for your kind words and encouragement for my 1st gig as guest blogger over at Stash Manicure. Thanks for all the sweet comments and for those of you who became followers of my blog. I am overwhelmed at all the kindness.
Oh! And I'm still working on that tutorial...my regular job sure does cramp my quilty style ;)
Stay tuned!
Darlene :)

Color me honored...

Check out my 1st post as a "guest blogger" over at Stash Manicure! I'm SEW excited...and I just can't hide it! Ok, corny, I know. Couldn't resist. Thank you Madame Samm for having me!

Help!

This past May, my guild held an auction. Members had donated stuff to be auctioned off to benefit the guild and we sold tickets for $.25 and also $1.00 for bigger items. You could "shop"the tables and put a ticket in the sack for the items you hoped to "win". I spent $20 for tickets and had fun shopping. Here's what I won... This was actually in a crate. Not organized, just a bunch of scraps, stuffed in this crate. Some pretty good sized, but none very pretty. I've been looking at these piles since May and now I'm really starting to wonder...what am I gonna DO with all this fabric? I thought about just donating it back to the guild, but the charity quilts committee already seemed overwhelmed with fabric donations. I have been in the habit of only purchasing fabric when I actually have a project in mind. I had no project in mind when I put my quarter in the sack for this treasure...that's right, it was on the $.25 table. I guess I didn't really expect to win it. So I've decided I need help with this pile o' fabric. Maybe a scrappy pattern that would cut pieces small enough to camouflage the not-so-pretty fabrics? Any of my quilty friends have any ideas?

Instant gratification...

I've had a busy couple of weeks, and we're just getting started. Do you guys realize just how close Christmas is?! I still have several quilts with Christmas deadlines and I keep getting sidelined with other projects. I made a diaper bag in the same prints as Jorden's purse, but the pockets were different on the inside.I had some pretty good sized scraps left over from Hayden's bag and I've had this pattern for something like 6 months now, so I decided to give it a try. It was quick and easy and SO cute! So Hayden's mommy got a little bonus with her diaper bag.That's right, it's a camera case. It was so fun to make, I couldn't stop...I pulled out some more scraps and made 3 more!
Once I got that out of my system, it was time to get back to work...

I have several quilts on my "to-do" list that are going to take some time to get finished and I REALLY wanted instant gratification. So, I pulled out my "Book of Inspiration", a binder that I keep (actually, there's 2 of them now) full of patterns that I have found in quilting magazines. I love the inspiration I get from magazines, but don't like the clutter of having them pile up in my house. So I bought a binder and some plastic sheet protectors, and voila! My books of inspiration were born. When I'm feeling low on creative juices, I turn to the books.

I've been wanting to try this pattern by Julie Herman of Jaybird quilts that I found in the Aug/Sept edition of McCall's Quick Quilts. I have several jelly rolls lying around (I need a 12-step program for my addiction to pre-cuts) and this one only took 16 strips. I went ahead and used 5 more strips to make the binding, but that's still only 21 strips used...I could still make another one!It took me about 12 hrs to make...mostly because I have quilting ADD and had a hard time staying on task. And I DO have a family to take care of! Oh, who am I kidding? My sweet daughter made herself some mac & cheese and forced me to take a break long enough to eat some for dinner ;) Thank you Aimee! Originally, I was thinking it would be nice to have a little lap quilt to take to church with me. It's FREEZING at my church! I caught a glimpse of one of the thermostat's, and it was set on 65 degrees! Don't these people know, room temperature is 74!

I'm pretty sure when I have my 1st hot flash, I will finally be comfortable. But until then, I'll have to start bringing my own warmth to church. Now, after I made this one (which I do love by the way) I decided it really looks like a baby quilt. So I may need to make another one and give this one away...we'll see.

Also, I am working on a baby blanket for a friend who just had a baby boy. Using a Pure jelly roll...that's right, I said jelly roll. I told you I have a problem!

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a couple of months and I thought it might make a good tutorial for beginning quilters. So, I'm working on my 1st tutorial. Yay! I'll post when it's finished.

One more little side note...has anybody noticed I also have a love for all things circle-ish? Circles and dots...I've definitely noticed a trend here.

Ok, now back to that Christmas list...

Have a blessed day!