Quilt Gifted...

My son-in-law's mother, Lucy, lives with him and my daughter's family.  Lucy asked me one time how much it would be for me to quilt a quilt for her.  When I told her how much I charge, I knew there was no way she would ever be able to afford it.

So when Dale asked me to make a quilt for his sister, I decided that I would also deliver one for his mother at the same time.

When we went to Tennessee for Ellie's birth, I delivered the quilts...one for his sister and one for his mom.

Unfortunately, the only picture I have of the whole quilt is this one that was taken at the guild meeting in June when I took it for "show and tell".

Lucy was shocked when I gave it to her!  I told her that now everyone in the house has their own quilt!  Unbeknownst to me at the time that I was quilting this for her, her room in their new house is painted blue and white!  :)  Lucky coincidence!  

Here's a close-up of the quilting...all done freehand on my Tin Lizzie18" sit-down long-arm machine...

Loretta

The Newest Addition...

On August 9th, we welcomed a new addition to our family...Eleanor Tillie Gwen Paez...our fifth grandchild!  

We were headed to Tennessee to welcome her into the world, but she made her entrance before we could get there.  She was born late morning and we arrived around 5 PM.

What a JOY to meet and hold her!!!

Here was Clark seeing her for the first time!!!  He was immediately enthralled with "Baby Sister"!!!

Big sister, Sera...

Andy has always had a way of calming a crying baby...I can't even calculate how many miles he put on our carpet when the kids were young...walking them to soothe them...and here he is doing it once more for a fussy Ellie!

One of the family traditions is that I give the grandbabies their first sponge bath at home!

We were able to stay a few days and spend some time with all 3 of the Tennessee grandkids.  I took Sera to the pool a couple of times and we had fun!

It was difficult to leave them when the time came to return home, but until the day that I can retire, we have to leave them and just plan for our next visit!

Loretta

Quilt Finished...

Quote for the Day:

"Finished is better than perfect"

~a favorite saying amongst quilters

Last year I was gifted some quilt tops from a friend's mother's estate.  Most are pieced by hand, probably using templates and scissors, which makes for some "wonky" quilt tops.  But they are all still beautiful in that special way that antique or vintage items are.

Many years ago there used to be a shirt factory here in Grafton (way before our time of moving here.)  I've been told that you could go down there and buy "remnants" very cheaply, so many of the old quilts/quilt tops from this area have shirting material in them.

I believe that this particular quilt top is made from that mixture of feed sacks and shirtings, probably obtained from the former factory.

Here's a picture of the quilt top when it was given to me....

The middle was pretty, but it had a narrow solid, medium-blue border that was VERY WAVY (meaning that there was NO WAY it would ever lay flat!)  Also, that particular blue was not reflected anywhere in the quilt, so it looked like it was just an after-thought...slapped on for lack of something better.  I also didn't think the width of the border complimented the rest of the quilt, so I removed the offending border and added a wider border made from a 1930's reproduction fabric that complimented the red and pink already in some of the quilt blocks.

I purchased a cream-colored, solid backing and used 100% cotton Warm & Natural batting.  I quilted it on my Tin Lizzie18 sit-down long-arm machine using Aurifil 50wt. cotton thread on top and Bottom Line 60wt. polyester thread in the bobbin.  

I LOVE the way it turned out!!!

One of the feed sack blocks...

Shirting blocks...

The new border I added.  Free-hand feathers...no computer or pantogragh used...just me and my machine.  They aren't the prettiest, but I sure have fun doing them!!!

The back...shows the "figure 8's" and the "loops" that I used to quilt the blocks...

I hope the recipient will like it!  


Loretta