Dick and Jane go to Japan

A few years ago, Toshi and Miyuki came to NY and got married.
Two summers ago I picked up fabric to make a baby quilt for them.
Less than two (but more than one) year ago, their daughter Nanami was born.

And as of today - the quilt is FINALLY done... sewn, quilted, bound and washed to crinkly goodness.  I finished the flimsy back in September - and love how the quilting really made the pie wedge pieces pop so much more so than without it.

I brought this quilt with me to SC in April and handed it off to The Chipper Quilter to do her magic. I send many of my quilts to Darling Jill Quilts, but she specializes more in overall designs and I knew this one needed a bit of custom detail attention.

I will let the photos speak for themselves:

Now to get it packaged up and on it's way.

 

Flimsy Excuses

Lots going on around here - demolition and reconstruction of our front porch, gardening, tree removal, work, planning for our local Lions Country Fair, rearranging the attic to fit my new quilt frame... and in between a wee bit of sewing.  These are my four latest flimsies- three of which I finished up this weekend.  Finishing them will have to wait a bit - my walking foot has developed a limp and needs replacing, and the new frame is not set up yet...  that will have to wait until the porch is back together.  We are nearly down to the footers in the demolition process - and then the rebuilding can begin.

A scrappy "math test" - more on this one to follow in another post.

Christmas gift - the recipient doesn't check the blog so I think I am safe.  This was in strips, and this weekend I finished the sashing and added the outer borders.  It will be bound in the same fabric as the sashing.

This one was made from leftovers - and could have used a bit more pinning in places (it is not just an optical illusion - the horizontal is off.  This will be a good practice quilt on the new frame.

This was made up of leftover bits from another project - and will get some funky quilting to fill up all that white space.

I have a few more projects in the design stage (mostly in my head) and hope to dig into those once the fair is over.  Munchkin goes back to school in a few weeks (!) and bedtime bumps earlier again - which expands my evening sewing hours a wee bit.

 

Toropanya

Sometimes life gives you lots and lots of triangles -in my case it was a Moda Turnover of Patisserie that I won a few years ago from another blogger. Another identical turnover joined it last year during my jaunt to Ohio and some shop hopping at Fabric Shack.  That is 160 already cut triangles.  What's a girl to do???

I was indecisive - and so they sat.  Until April, when I was suddenly possessed with a desire to make hourglass blocks.  Lots and lots of hourglass blocks.  I dove into my white pindot and cut 160 white triangles - and started sewing like crazy.

I was told at one point that this was a "broken dishes" quilt  - but I don't know if it really is - as the blocks are assembled differently from what I know as  "broken dishes" block.  The end result looks the same though. 

At any rate - it's my bull in a bread shop... Toropanya  - a bit of French (I think) and a bit of Japanese... and a whole lot of cozy.

On the clothesline - this needed no borders.

The very last of my yellow shirting - love this fabric for backings but this is the only bit I kept for myself.

Cozy summer snuggles.

 

Dirty Tales from the Garden - the REALLY big growing things

As much as I work with the small plants and vegetables, and the occasional medium sized shrub, one cannot overlook the BIG growing things around our house - namely a whole host of black walnut trees, a maple, a catalpa, a blue spruce, and some neighborly maples and oaks on the street and property lines.   Unfortunately, our maple has been sickly for some time now, and it was finally time to take it down.

With about 12 hours notice, hubby and I dropped some fencing and cut down raspberry canes surrounding the tree... and lickety split we went from standing wood to firewood.

Before

Knotty old thing

Not too healthy

Burly skilled men at work

Going

Gone

Firewood

The stump, soon to be covered back over as the raspberries return.

It was a long overdue decision - as much as I hate cutting down trees - this one was too sickly to be safe anymore.  We have one more on the property that will probably come down in the spring - planning now what I can plant in their place (must get along with black walnuts).

I've Been Framed!!

It's not set up yet, and needs a little TLC, but this machine* and the 12' frame that goes with it - plus some pantos and bobbins - are a new addition to my "studio" We do need to figure out how to get the 12' flat table portion upstairs to the attic - but hubby has mad skills and I am confident we will be up and running soon.


I've already rearranged all the furniture (it is 95 outside today - and I am in my attic moving furniture.... woman possessed!) and need to do some purging -but there IS room!!!  And power and lighting - all in the right spots!!!


Learning curve ahead!!!

*(picture from the internet - my machine is sitting in the attic closet for safekeeping right now)