Pie Time Wallhanging

Finished this one Sunday night.  I'm giving it to Jess, my oldest son's girlfriend.  She is a wonderful pie-baker and we adore her!  I found these vintage images and just had to do something with them (the puppies sealed the deal).  My favorite blocks are the last two:

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

Unfortunately that doesn't seem posibble be this year.  However, we are watching a possible snow storm for the day after Christmas.  That would be wonderful too since snow days in our home = peace.  Who couldn't use a quiet snow day after a busy Christmas Eve and Day?
P.s.  This is my new wallhanging, small and easy to do but I love it :)

Charm Quilt

I'm just about to put the sleeve on this one but pinned it up to photograph it. This is a Christmas charm quilt.  Each tea cup is a different Christmas fabric.  I think Helena and I will have fun with this on Christmas Eve.  She loves to play games like "I Spy" and "Where's Waldo" so I'll make her hunt for the different pictures in the quilt.  Each block is 3 inches and there are 90 different blocks.  Making the teacups was what I did whenever I was stressed during the last few months.  It's funny how fabric can bring back so many memories!  Some of the fabric in here was 30 years old :) 

Another Christmas Quilt

 Copyright MJMcLaughlin, 2010

We took Mom back into the hospital today for another procedure but I am happy to report that she was allowed to come home.  We do have to take her back for another one next week but I am happy for her that she gets to sleep in her own bed!  Peace and Joy to you all!

In Honor of Paddie

 Copyright, MJMclaughlin, 2010

Vintage Revisited...

Remember when I talked about Mary Kerr's book, Vintage Revisited?   On Wednesday, our minigroup met and shared the quilts we had made.  If you recall, we started with this bow tie block, circa 1900:

It was wonderful to see my friends again (I've been so busy with my mother's health issues) and share our creative processes: 
Pam is a gardener and she used buttons to make these funky flowers.  Some of them are buttons on buttons!  What a great idea!  She loves black and white and red quilts and this one will go with a bed sized quilt she has been making.  I love the border print she used as well which ties it all together:

Both Kim and Pam used some reproduction fabrics in their quilts and I love the result Kim got with her bowtie quilt.  Her quilt has a really crisp feel to it!  I think the plaid fabric in the border adds a really fantastic dimension to the quilt.  She worked on hers while recovering from illness.  Look at the cool fabrics she used:

Julie went a different route using embroidery to embellish hers.  The strawberry fabric makes it sing!   She is going to hang hers in a room in her house.  I love the greens  and the gingham she used.  She still needs to bind hers (and she has an awesome binding too!) and will have done it by our December guild meeting:

Close up of one of the embrodiery sections:

Then there is mine,  I went through various ideas before I settled on "Peter's Merry Little Christmas" celebrating the special relationship my son had with my Dad and the various Christmas traditions we have in our family--like Danish Ribbons, St. Nicholas Day, my Dad's tradition of nerf guns or sword for the boys (and Dad which made Christmas particularly raucous) and the annual gifts of slinkys and yo-yos:

PS--the black and white plaid fabric is the train rails and the reindeer antlers.

I emailed Mary Kerr today and hope she will check out our blocks...and if she did one, we will post her photos too!  

Next challenge?  A dresden plate block that Pam supplied us.  Our new challenge quilts are due in March and we are all probably going to start ours in January, but the ideas are coming already!!!!! 

Russian Proverb

Here's a wallhanging that I made for our guild challenge this September.  I have a background in Russian Studies and own lots of matroyshkas that I bought during my visits.  I've been fascinated with the trend of quiltmakers using these motifs during the past few years.  Anyway, this is the best I could draw from some of mine.  The translation of the Russian proverb is:  "The egg does not teach the hen."

bunny quilt

Finished this UFO during the last few weeks as well.  It is a bunny quilt that I decided to make into a wall hanging.  My idea was to try to emulate the old Easter eggs we used to get (way back when!!!) .  Those eggs were large with a peephole and a picture inside the egg.  Anyway, I embellished the middle of the yellow on point squares with Easter egg buttons and a basket button. 

Wickedly Wonderful!

Some of the kids in our family moved into their own places this year including Nicole, who just moved in to her first apartment efficiency this fall.  Nicole loves Halloween and when I saw this panel, I just knew I had to make a wallhanging for her!  The "Welcome" quilt holder is going to be mailed with her quilty.

Autumn

 I finished this simple little wall hanging in time for the first day of Autumn.  I've had these paper pieced blocks for years from a swap I did with the pcpiecers.  Anyway, since this summer was so productive, I used them up too and heavily quilted it.  It's a nice touch for our dining room right now.

"Dude, share that bone please"

Have a nice day!

Sunbonnet Wallhanging

Back to the garden...

Easter is over! We had a lot of people, a lot of food, and much merriment in our little cottage and garden...
Helena found many many eggs and loved her baskets... Miles was adorable and seems to like the new Phillies Jacket we got him :)

Nana Betty loved the new wall hanging for her room and we took her dinner and then out to the terrace where she could enjoy the blooming daffodils, tulips, and cherry blossoms.

It was a wonderful day and very busy. Now I need to clean up and start working again in the garden...Have a wonderful day!

Sunbonnets Finished!

Another for the finished box! A while ago, someone gave me these blocks that an elderly lady had started and abandoned. I redid most of the embroidery and pieced it as best I could (the blocks were all different sizes--a real challenge). Anyway, I like the dear sunbonnets on the quilt. I thought about adding yo-yos at the intersections of the sashing but my spice quilters group voted a strong NO so it is done...

Wallhanging for Nana!

Pattern from latest issue of Quiltmaker. I love the hummingbird quilt holder :)

Prelude to Spring...

Can you feel it? I woke up before 7 a.m. this morning because IT WAS LIGHT OUT!!! Spring fills me with such a wonderful energy--despite all the snow we have had and are expecting this week. This month I have a ton of projects to complete (all of which I started in February). Nothing like longer days to get inspired to finish things! Hope you are enjoying this preamble to the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Share love...

One of the rare quotes that Nana Betty would share was by Mother Theresa:

"To be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."

Wallhanging for Nana Betty I made this year.

Happy Valentines Day!

Let it Snow!

I just finished this wall hanging last night, in time for the snow storm we are getting this evening. We probably have 2 inches out there already and aren't expecting more than 3. It's just in time for St. Nicholas' Eve. Tonight is the night we put our shoes out and St. Nicholas leaves little presents in them.

This snowman is for my Nana Betty. She has loved snowmen all her life and used to sketch them for her grandkids and on the cards she mailed us. Family legend has it that she had "hot flashes" her entire life. As a young child, she was frequently sent to the cellar to cool off because she would actually be redfaced with heat discomfort. Now near 90 and a bit off her game, I am going to hang this in her room at the nursing home.

It was a fun Halloween!

Usually, I don't like Halloween; partly because I don't like the horror, partly because my least favorite color is orange and partly because I had orange and black birthday cakes my entire childhood. This year I had fun though "boo-ing" loved ones. The teddy bears were for our granddaughter, Helena and Kaylin, my niece's one year old. The dogs I made for my niece Nicole (away at college), our neighbors who own George the cat (included on the wallhanging) and a new friend, Cindy, who recently donated a lot of fabric to me. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving projects now :) DH is going to be working a lot the next month and doing so more little gifts, as well as finishing some Christmas presents, should keep me busy.

Challenge wallhanging

Our guild has a challenge every September meeting. We were to take a normal name of a quilt block and change one letter in it or rearrange the letters to invent a new quilt block. I made Irish China out of Irish Chain. I used photos of my grandparents and my Dad and also copied Nana's recipes onto fabric.

Here's a close up. I think I found the cups and teapot on fatcat.com as a free download. The embroidery is actually a photocopy of Nana's embroidery. When I was a little girl, all my pillowcases were embroidered by her.

We were supposed to do 4 blocks but my wallhanging was getting too big. I made a matching tea cozy with the remaining teapot and recipes. Thats all for today!

For Helena...My Sweet Cupcake

Well Helena's cupcake ensemble is finally done. As you may recall, I had been learning machine applique which is easier on my carpel tunnel. I made so many cupcakes (in the pursuit of figuring out how one does this technique) that I made the original wall hanging and then some pillows, then a placemat. I have two cupcakes left that I will probably make into a tote. One last is on my bulletin board, for Helena's someday quilt.