new modern meets old traditional

I showed a blurry photo of this baby quilt as it was coming together in an earlier post.

  I thought as neither cousin who is having the babies (I am making two quilts!) knows what they are having I would make it scrappy.  I love this modern pattern.  It is quick and easy. 

This fabric is what I am thinking of using for the backing.  It is a great fabric I picked up cheap at IKEA.

The center block is a hand appliqued cat, embroidered around the edge and for the face by my Grandma.  She also use to make dog blocks.  These were used in quilts for the second generation of grandchildren.  My generation received charm square quilts.  Here is the first one she gave me when I was about 3 or 4.

I still love to sleep under it.  It is very heavy.

Here is the second one she gave me when I was around 12 or 13. 

I love to put this on my bed in the summer.  I love the shirting fabrics she used from fabric sample cards. 

I love them both.  I need to get a photo of my sisters cat quilt.  It had about 12 blocks in it.

Keep dreaming...Colleen





The first real quilt I made was for my grandmother and here I am giving it to her for her birthday.  It lived with her for ten years in the nursing home where she suffered from Alzheimer's.  I have it back and after 10 years of bleach through the wash it does not quite look like this anymore.  The yo yos made hyacinths I always loved to smell in her garden.  The red fabric for the ribbon came from her house when we cleaned it out to sell.  It is totally faded and washed out.  Except for the black sharpie ink where they wrote her name on the back.





projects

Im having a love affair with my new Baby Lock Sofia and its embroidery function.  I need to take the new owners class so I can expand on my meager knowledge.  I blogged here about two mug rugs I made with it.

The last two days I worked on this set.  Two placemats with napkins, a set of 4 coasters, and a dish towel all monogramed.  I made them for my Mom and Dad's 43rd anniversary to use in their rolling vacation home fifth wheel.  I used 5 prints from a line of fabric I found at Joann's.  They fabrics are all aquas, light greens, browns, and whites and  has a bit of an Amish feel.  Notice the clever applique on the towel done in a lacey frame.  Ok so I bent a needle when tryng to embroider Dad's name and put a hole in the towel.  Aren't most beautiful things the products of happy accidents?  Necessity is the mother of invention or innovation.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



A slightly blurry picture of a baby quilt I am working on.

One of two Im making where the center block was made by my late Grandma. 

I am using up some of my 90s stash for these quilts



Earthquake!

Just before two o'clock today I was sitting in my office in the library.  All of a sudden I heard this crunching sound above me in the ceiling and then I realized that a rolling motion was going through the office!  I raced to the outer hallway door of the library waiting for it to stop!  It was a little scary.  Las summer I felt one a little stronger in Canada.  I even have a shirt that says I survived the 4.0 Ottawa quake.  This one wasy centered farther away in northern Virgina and was supposedly a 5.9.  Wow!

Keep Dreaming...Colleen

Mug Rugs Galore

So I finished my mug rug for the scrappy mug rug haiku swap on flickr.  We had to write a haiku and include it on our mug rug.  I had a lot of fun with this as I LOVE writing haiku.  I did a modified 557 scheme.

My partner likes rainbow colors and linen.

I designed it on the computer and then

cut it apart to paper piece.

I used scraps in a rainbow of colors

and bound it in  green scraps leftover.

The haiku matches my partner to a tee!  And I had a blast using my new Babylock Sofia to embroider.

And I even made the label on the back .

Then I got mug rug fever and whipped up a couple of mug rugs for the new school year.

One for my assistant,

And one for me using scraps from Karen Gray's store.  I love her scrap bags!  As you can see I played with Sofia again.  Do you get the literary reference?  I am a teacher librarian.

Kids come back on Thursday...I hope I survive.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

My cousins Pete and Scotty the pilot in training.



Pete, Amy, Jackson and Micheal and some  dog.



Foto Finish-Things in the city

Underground train stations

Two summers ago I was in Munich Germany for a month on a study abroad.  Trains were wonderful!  You could go anywhere and you were able to walk within blocks of a stop. 

Here is the train arriving.

Here is the escalator up to the ground level.  So tall and notice how everyone is to the side.  If you ride you stay to the side as many will walk up and they dont tolerate you taking the whole space.

They even have some colorful and cool grafiti.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Book marks and retractable badge holders to sell at Flaunt!