Blogger's Quilt Festival

                                                          

It's time for Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival! For those of us who are unable to attend quilt market and the accompanying quilt festival, be not sad. Amy is hosting an online festival that is sure to inspire and add more projects to your list! Here's the link to all the fun - Thank you Amy, for giving us a place to gather and for pulling everything together.

I'm entering my latest finish:

We know a dear couple with whom we've been friends for 20 years. Our kids spent many a day exploring and finding adventure around the roping arena where the men would gather every chance they got. I still think of their little girl, Haley, as a darling 6 yr old, and I'll bet her Mama and Daddy do too, but apparently she grew up...into a lovely young woman who is about to marry her prince.

Still, I think of this child like this (She's the pretty little red head on the right. Our two hooligans are to the left of her) :

And children this age should not be getting married!

 As soon as I heard the happy news, I knew I had to make a quilt. I visited with her Mama and found out that they were decorating in yellows and grays. This was the first time I had worked with this color combination, and I am tickled with the end result:

With the days getting longer, my stitching time is dwindling quickly, but with a wedding date drawing near, I needed to get to work! It wasn't that long ago when we were in bed at 8 pm and now we're just getting back into the house at 8. Still, when I picked up Haley's quilt from Jackie, I set to stitching just a bit of the binding on every chance I got. I've got to get it into the mail. It ended up being 67 x 72" which makes a good 'hang out on the back of the couch and grab to snuggle with quilt'.We planned on making the trip, but we're working cattle that last week in May and it's just not going to happen. :( Unless we get rained out! I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I really want to be there.

Those weeds in the above photo are mustard weed. It's a nuisance and its always a battle to keep it at bay, but I found a use for it - it makes a pretty good prop for a picture. And to think I almost mowed it down the other day. :) It's too dry for even mustard to grow, but I've been watering the tree behind the fence like mad in order to keep it alive, so we have this pretty little stand of mustard in this one spot.

Jackie quilted this Happy Day pattern across the chevrons and she used this gorgeous yellow thread that was the perfect choice:

I really like the way it looks on the front and the back, and I fell in love with all of the sweet prints I ended up using:

So now it is quilted and bound and labeled and filled with much love and prayer for the happy couple as they begin their life together:

Yellow and Gray HSTs

I finally started cutting into the pile of yellows and grays for Haley's Wedding Quilt. Lots of HSTs  will come together to make what I hope is  a lovely gift for a sweet girl and her groom-to-be. We've known this child since she was 2, and it is hard to  reconcile those childhood memories with the gorgeous woman that will soon walk down the aisle.

This child has the most amazing red hair. The kind that so many people try to coerce from a bottle, yet she has a glorious crown of the prettiest hair you have ever seen...naturally. However, that is not the prettiest thing about her. That would be her heart. She is bright and pretty and witty and funny and wise and kind and all things lovely. Her parents are pretty amazing too so it's a case of the apple not falling far from the tree.

I remember one day very clearly. She was probably 6, and our girl was 3. We were all spending a Sunday afternoon at a friend's arena watching the men rope. Spent lots and lots of Sunday afternoons there. Gave us girls a chance to catch up and cheer the boys on and the kids just created one adventure after another in the farm fields.

On this particular day, our girl was running and when she fell, she acquired a mouthful of dirt. As she sat up to spew it out and make those funny faces that kids with a mouthful of dirt make, Haley sat down next to her and proceeded to put a handful of dirt into her own mouth. Our daughter just looked at her wide eyed and asked her why she did that. Haley said she felt bad and thought it would make our girl feel better if she too had a mouthful of dirt. LOL.

So, how many of us would do that? I'm betting not many, but Haley has the kindest heart and does not like to see anyone in distress. It's what I remember most from those years.

And now she is a grown woman and her impending wedding is cause for the creation of a quilt. So, I stitched hsts all weekend until I had enough.

I am thinking chevrons:

But I may let them go rogue:

Still deciding. Do you have a preference?

Fabric Has Been Selected...I Think

On the day I went to visit the CPA, whom I adore, I drove right past a JoAnn's. I am hoping to tackle some applique quilts here some time in the near future, and wanted to pick up some light fusible. Well, of course I had to walk past the fabric. It can't be helped and yes, something jumped off the shelf and landed at my feet:

  And then it called out to all of it's buddies:

 and before you knew it, I had the makings of a quilt in my cart:

And I decided I really like this combination although I posted that initially, I was perplexed by it. Hmmm...looking at this photo on the computer makes me think that middle yellow is going to scream in the quilt. I'll probably change that out for a more subdued piece. I think it will be much happier if I turn into a duck...stay tuned for that one. I've got enough for both if I change my mind though.

Of course, the fact that it was on sale, made me love it even more and I even chose backing:

So all systems are go on Haley's Wedding Quilt!

Seems like the minute I made that UFO list and vowed to concentrate on it, all diligence went out the window. I'll tell you, new projects sure are bossy. :)