A Quilting I Will Go...

I've had a bit of back trouble for the past few days that I am positive is the result of a kitchen injury. I KNOW that it came from slinging around a heavy iron frying pan and multiple loading/unloading of the dishwasher. It's right dead in the middle of my back and it has kept me from sewing.

So for the past few days I've had to entertain myself with doing some hand quilting on this, a version of Grandmothers Flower Garden:




Although it is difficult to see in the photo, I am using a variegated quilting thread. I am liking this effect a lot:



This quilt is entirely hand-pieced. I started it in September and finished the top right after Christmas. I think a hand-pieced top deserves to be hand-quilted, don't you?

Hopefully this back thingamajig will last until the Manly Men that live here decide to vacuum, mop, clean bathrooms, and do all the laundry before I recover. Sounds like a nice little four-day weekend for me, doesn't it?

I'll keep quilting and hopefully be back on my muslin by tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Getting A Few Things Out Of The Way

I have a couple of projects that I am trying to finish up before the 2011 Crazy Project I will begin on January 1. Here are some snaps of one of the things I'm trying to move on outta here:






This will eventually be a king-size bed quilt, specifically requested by my husband to keep him warm at night. And, gee, for all these thirty-odd years I thought that was MY job. Oh, well.



The quilt pattern is a variation of courthouse steps and is made of 100% cottons, some of which are from the late 1970s. Yeah, I have quite the fabric stash in this place.



The only left to do to this puppy is to arrange all 49 squares into something pleasant to look at and stitch them together into a completed top. I have the quilt batting, but I need to come up with a backing fabric. Excellent excuse to go to my Not-So-Local-Quilt-Shop, isn't it?



I intend to get this one out of the way today. Then I'm going to drag out a couple of hundred vintage patterns and start gearing up for the new project!

A Quilt! And A Luau!

I promised pictures of my quilt in progress, and here it is!

Meet Fruit Salad!

The blocks aren't sewn together yet--they are just straight pinned to the wall, so it looks a little weird right now. The colors I used were bubble gum pink, lime, orange, fushcia, hot pink, black, brown, yellow, dark pink, and anything else that got in the way while I was cutting up.

The actual colors are about ten times brighter than what this looks like on my monitor--hence the name. Here's a close up of the piecing on one block (I can't believe how dull this looks in a photo):

Check out this corner:

And how did I accomplish such great work? Well, here's the secret, on the backside of this square:

It's foundation piecing! I recently bought a great book by Karen K Stone, smack full of wonderful patterns and ideas for quilts. It has all the patterns you need for this kind of work!

In other news, a Random Teenager recently celebrated his 16th birthday. We threw him a surprise Luau Party:

Aren't these guys cute with their little leis?

Of course The Princess was in attendance. And look! She's wearing Jamaica!

The Duke of Cute was tearing into the cake, outfitted in his Hawaiian shirt:

Here we are with the Birthday Boy (yes, my skirt is falling off, I know):

Here he is again, with me and our two daughters (check out those cute outfits!):

And yes, I made him wear that shirt. And if that wasn't embarassing enough for a 16 year old....we then did a hula dance just for him!