Changes

Well, since Google has decided that it does not want any Blogger users to continue to use Internet Explorer, I have decided to remove my blog from Google's blog hosting. Nothing else has changed; I just refuse to bow to Google's insistance that I use their "Chrome" browser if I want to use their blog hosting. All of my previous posts & any future ones will be found at my new WordPress blog. The blogspot address will probably remain live for a while, but I'll be shutting it down altogether soon. I hope that you will all come visit my new "home." Please update your favorites/links/little post-it notes to reflect my new address: texasmomquilts.wordpress.com

Thanks for reading! Keep on quilting!

"Grandmother's Flower Garden"

When Jack & I got married, his grandmother gave us a set of tea towels embroidered with different fruits. I have long thought that they needed to be preserved in a quilt/table topper/wallhanging of some sort, and had been thinking of using 30's reproductions, but I never had found anything that I really liked for them pattern-wise.

This spring I went to the Missouri Quilt Guild show at Powell Gardens and saw this kit using pre-embroidered baskets in a hexagon log cabin setting and I knew I had found the pattern for me! I haven't yet done the fruit towels, but here's the kit I purchased and put together so I could try my hand at the weird angles before cutting into Jack's grandmother's handiwork. (BTW I found a GREAT video tutorial on machine-assembling the hexagons on YouTube - of course I forgot to save it... but it's there, I promise!!)

Now I need to tackle G-ma's fruits, but there's only 6 of them... any ideas for a center block since I don't really do embroidery?

Fun Skirts

These skirts all come from Serendipity Studio's "Fashion Formula Skirt" combo pattern. This first one is "Trixie" done in yummy, springy Anthology fabrics. I made another one from this pattern for my mom that was black & white prints with hot turquoise for the contrast trim.

This next one is "Penelope," done in the oh-so-popular chocolate brown and robin's egg blue. Not my usual color scheme, but I really do like it.

This one is "Fiona," a faux-wrap skirt in simple green and yellow, which my mom picked out for herself. I happily trade sewing for fabric - she buys fabric for two skirts, one for each of us, and then I do the "labor." Everybody's happy!!

My Amazing Cousin

My cousin Jennifer, who is just a few months older than me, has an amazing life story. Here's a quote from her new blog "Running From My Heart":

To celebrate my 40th birthday in April and the fact that I'm actually able to celebrate my 40th birthday in spite of having had three open-heart surgeries to correct Tetralogy of Fallot with Pulmonary Stenosis, I'm running a 5K the week-end of my birthday. I wanted a way to share that journey and possibly encourage others. Hopefully other Adults with Congenital Heart Defects or parents with children with Heart Defects will see this as encouragement that a diagnosis of a Congenital Heart Defect is not the end of the road but just the beginning.

I'd like to invite my readers to share in her journey and help cheer her on. May you be as encouraged by her as I have always been.

"For Daddy"

Flannel Rag Lap Throw, my own design (OK, no design, I just threw it together...). This was a Christmas present for my dad.

The squares are 9" cut, with a 1/2" seam allowance for ragging. Since he lives in Texas, I went with three layers of flannel and didn't use batting in the middle of the squares. This was easy & fun to put together, but sure made a mess in my washer & dryer when I ran it through to fluff the rag seams.

"Wild Strawberries"

51" x 63" Lap throw. Pattern is "Tilt-a-Whirl" using Moda's Strawberry Lemonade line (jelly roll & charms plus yardage).

This one turned out way cuter than I was afraid it might. I put this "kit" together for myself a couple of years ago and just decided to put it together this summer. I got scared of all those wild colors and put it aside more than once, but after all is said and done I kind of like it. My 5yo daughter LOVES it.

"Flag Day"

Small (28x28) wall hanging from a Connecting Threads kit.

I've had this cute kit for quite a while, but never got around to making it. I put it together as a thank you/hostess gift for a friend who put up with my rowdy crew for the better part of a week this summer. I'm not much for applique, but there wasn't TOO much of it with just the stars (used fusible & then machine-stitched). There's also a star quilted in the center red square.

"Whimsical Girls"

When I saw Moda's "Whimsy" line, I knew it just HAD to be made into a baby girl quilt! So I grabbed a few charm packs and did another disappearing 9-patch using the darker pink/red squares for the centers. It's backed with the green polka-dot fabric from the line (thought it would hide dirt better than some other choices, plus I LOVE polka dots) and long-arm quilted with crib hearts. There were several charms left over from the quilt, so I thought I'd make a "Mini Charmer" bag for Mommy too.