Shirley Anne’s Heart

DEAR JANE

So far I have made six blocks for my Dear Jane Quilt…..but when you consider that I am making TWO DEAR JANE QUILTS at once I have made twelve blocks.  The RED AND WHITE Dear Jane represents my PRACTICE blocks.  I make the red and white blocks first before I make the REAL blocks in the civil war repro fabrics.  The IRONY of it all is that my RED AND WHITE BLOCKS always turn out to look better than the real deal.  I can’t really figure out why either……..maybe I will get better with time.  This is my first attempt at needle turn applique and I am woefully “UNSKILLED” at this….I can’t believe I am even putting pictures up! 

First is A-7 Dad’s Plaids

And second is E-1 Aunt Exie’s Phlox.  I love the names of the blocks.

Quilter’s Corners Quilt

To cheer myself up and convince myself that I am not a total QUILTING DORK - I made the July Block of the Quilter’s Corners Block of the Month Quilt.  Whew, that made me feel better!

And since I needed A LOT of CHEERING UP after those Dear Jane blocks, I made my second July BOM a different way…..

 I don’t like to follow directions so I just had to make my second block MY OWN WAY….LOL.

AUGUST LOG CABIN ONLINE EXCHANGE BLOCKS

And since I needed to be SERIOUSLY cheered up after making those DEAR JANE blocks I made my 12 AUGUST blocks for the online decentralized log cabin block online swap exchange. 

I felt much better!

HEAT BUDDIES - HEAT SWEET

Yesterday I made my mother’s birthday present - it took me ALL DAY.  I used her favorite color - orange - and I think she will like it.  I used 8 layers of fabric and stuffed it with rice and cinnamon.  So all she has to do is stick it in the microwave - and voila - a Heat Sweet!

The 8 layers include 4 layers of 100% cotton - 2 layers of cotton batting and 2 layers of cotton t-shirt material.  That should be ample protection from HOT RICE! 

Her second HEAT SWEET HEAT BUDDY is LARGER - and it is pieced and channel quilted - it is actually a quilt disguised as a HEAT BUDDY ( the quilting is probably why it took me all day to make these two!) 

 I had to make TWO because I figured she might want to share with my daddy.

The back is exactly like the front.

OH DEAR - my mother reads my blog - so there goes the birthday surprise.  Oh well, she is a good actress, she can just PRETEND to be surprised on her birthday July 30!

Tags: Dear Jane Quilt, Decentralized LOG CABIN, Heat Buddy, Quilt Block Exchange, Quilted Pillow, Quilts Completed in 2008, Quilts in Progress by drsao
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Ever since I saw a featured quilt artist (can’t remember who) on Alex Anderson’s program “SIMPLY QUILTS” I have been wanting to try the technique of REVERSE APPLIQUE. 

Last year, I even bought a book on how to do it (where else, at the Quilter’s Corner.)

May 22, 2008 is my 20th wedding anniversary so I decided to make Max something this year…..and that something is a Raggedy Reverse Applique Heart Heat Buddy.  Here is the front of it.  I think he will like it since his favorite color is blue.  It seems like a good size  -12 1/2″ square (because that is the size of my OMNIGRID ruler….LOL)

Here is the back of the Heat Buddy…..

I decided to let the edges rough up and ravel naturally.

The front of the Heat Buddy has a top layer of the blue cotton fabric….under that a layer of blue t-shirt cotton material and then finally a layer of the red striped fabric.

I stitched a heart shape through all three layers of fabric and then cut away the heart through the top two layers (the light blue and the blue t-shirt material) so that only the red shows as a heart shape!

Then I added another layer of cotton quilt batting QUILTED to another layer of the light blue fabric.

The bottom of the Heat Buddy has one layer of blue t-shirt cotton material under the outside layer of the blue cotton material.  (That makes six layers total .)

Then I just stitched about 3/4 inches inside the outside edges with a decorative blanket stitch…..and…..

Now here is the GOOD PART. 

INSIDE it is filled with uncooked white rice dusted with LOTS of ground cinnamon.  It smells so good.  After I sewed up the STUFFING HOLE, I put the HEAT BUDDY into the microwave for two minutes and then put it on my shoulders…..oh my, did it ever feel AND smell wonderful.

I am not sure if it is washable or not….I would guess it is - the fabric is cotton and you can wash rice (the cinnamon might wash out and turn everything brown?)  Or…..I guess it can be used until it needs to be replaced!

I HOPE HE LIKES IT - OR - MAYBE I HOPE HE DOESN’T LIKE IT (then I am sure I could FORCE myself to use it whether I need to or not!)  It was fun to make!  Goodness, even if I never used it, I would love to just smell it. 

Maybe I will make myself a rice/cinnamon pin cushion

(I wonder if cinnamon would corrode pins?)

Tags: Heat Buddy by drsao
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The Thimbleberries Lodge Lap Quilt is a wrap.  I just finished it tonight and it has a home on the wall in the family room - with its pillow (one of the ALL THE RAGE Quilter’s Corner’s Block of the Month blocks!) cousin.  YEAH.  It is always fun to complete a project, isn’t it!!! 

My son-in-law, Greg (AKA der5er.com) sure did stain and hang those quilt blocks PERFECTLY!

As I stood admiring my “masterpiece” my grandangel, Leanna, tactfully wondered (outloud) if I had made the trees upside down…..I immediately ran to get the pattern to show her  that I did, indeed, get those trees right side up!  (I am known in my family to have geographical incompetencies - so it was a logical concern!)

Valerie of A NEEDLE RUNS THROUGH IT in Goochland, VA, my longarm expert, did a great job of quilting it.

And here is the pillow!  Another line item crossed off my TO DO LIST.

 I just don’t know what was more fun today - finishing this lap quilt (and crossing it off my list) or helping two classes of approximately 50 first graders (all at the same time) sort 30 to 40 bags of plastic, paper, styrofoam, metal and glass recycled trash to be made into art.   I was an ART substitute teacher today - and that was one of the BEST ART PARTIES EVER KNOWN TO MANKIND!  The kids didn’t even HEAR the relaxing background music played for the purpose of interjecting calm and order into the project!!! 

Tags: Quilted Pillow, Quilts Completed in 2008, Thimbleberries, Thimbleberries Lodge Quilt, Thimbleberries Pillow by drsao
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I was a substitute teacher for 2nd graders Thursday and Friday of this week - and in my spare time I relaxed with another Thimbleberry project. 

Every quarter, in the Thimbleberries Club, there are free directions for an extra project and this quarter the project was a 60″ x 60″ lap quilt. 

Since my large Thimbleberries project is a quilt being made with the Thimbleberries LAKESIDE line of fabric, I decided that the lap quilt would make a great wall hanging for our family room - and it was made out of the LODGE line of Thimbleberries fabric.

Here it is, all put  together and ready for quilting - I think this will be a project for Valerie - my longarm quilter at A NEEDLE RUNS THROUGH IT in Goochland, VA.  To be truthful, I actually did THINK about quilting it myself, but I am not SURE that I am brave enough!  I took the machine quilting class in February - and so I SHOULD know how to do it….but the question becomes ON WHAT DO I PRACTICE?  So far I have liked everything that I have made and I don’t want to commit it to the practice run…..I would be sad to ruin it! 

So, I said, “SELF, maybe you could practice machine quilting a top for a matching sofa pillow.”  AND SO I DID THAT!  I felt encouraged - but I STILL don’t think I am brave enough to try to quilt the lap quilt…..maybe I will practice on a quilt made with some of my online exchange block swaps! 

Here is the top - quilted by sao herself!  I used a ton of quilter’s safety pins and fusible batting.

TA DA…..here is the finished pillow - it measures 18 1/2″ square….and it looks kind of cute on the little sofa loveseat!

I am happy - it is my FIRST quilted pillow!

Tags: Quilted Pillow, Quilts in Progress, Thimbleberries by drsao
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