Wraparound Shot

So, I do a lot of sewing that ends up at my neighbor's house.  Two quilts for her boys when they were born, one for her, the TARDIS and the Millennium Falcon as gifts she commissioned.... so she and I had discussed how I was shamefully neglecting her hubby -and what I should make for him.

He is a hockey player - but a jersey quilt was not going to be realistic because of the types of fabrics involved.

He is a Boston Bruins fan - so perhaps a logo quilt?

I pondered this for nearly a year.  I even acquired a panel of an ice rink to stash away for a backing when I was ready for it.

And then I found a tutorial online for a Broken Wheel block. (if I can find it again, I will repost it - but I can't find the link right now.  It was metric - so some kind non-US blogger sharing talents!)  The broken wheel looked similar to the Bruins logo- not identical but similar enough that it caught my imagination and I thought I could have fun interpreting it.  I dove into my stash for golds and blacks (including some golds left over from the Millennium Falcon and blacks left over from the camera quilt), added a bit more gold and some black yardage - and hand built a "B" for the big block.  I printed the logo from a coloring page, cut out the large B in black, and then the accents in gold - zig zag stitching all around each both inside and out.  It gave it the texture of a vintage high school sweater letter.

I quilted it in concentric circles as I felt that would work best from both the front and the back.  They were a bit wobbly in some parts, but so are hockey skaters, right?  It's not like figure skating with perfect figure eights, right?   Once again my variegated Aurifil threads came in handy - adding some dimension to this essentially three color top without taking over.  There was a black based variegated on the top and a primarily slate blue variegated on the back.

 

 

Saturday was his birthday - so "Wraparound" was given to him then.  I wasn't there -so don't know how he feels with my interpretation of his beloved team... but now their family of quilts is complete.

Unless I make one for their dog?
 

For the Boys

Quilt 2 of 6 - Christmas 2013
This was a Scrappy Trip Around the World from instructions written by Bonnie Hunter.

As I was working on this - I really didn't care for how it was turning out.  I had pulled fabrics that were all too busy - and very dark - and there was no sparkle to it.

After seeing my neighbor drying a "sofa quilt" for her 2 Scottie dogs on the clothesline that had seen better days, I decided the boys (my buddies) needed a new quilt, so I added the applique in the corner and had Jill quilt this for me with dog paws all over.

The quilt finished, bound and washed.

The boys!  I did this raw edge applique so they will get "furry"

The label.

The backing - the aqua strip has tiny Westies on it (the Scottie fabric was on pink - so I compromised).  The tiny print on either side is dragonflies, and the dark reddish strip is bricks -which will have meaning to my neighbor)

Puppy Paws!!!

 

Turtleshell Road

The fabric went from this...

to this....Somewhere in the middle -before putting on the borders - I was not that crazy about how this was turning out - it was VERY busy and really gave the eye no place to rest. Once I put on the white border - which is not in the pattern BTW - I liked it SOO much better, and then the striped border just clicked. I was not up to using this project to learn how to miter corners, so put the blocks in the corner. If I can find the right body fabric I may applique some turtles into the corners, but have not decided yet. I can't do more with this until I get some appropriate backing fabric - but the baby is nearly 2 months old already - and his brother was about 5 months old before he got his - so no rush! :-)

Turtle of the Day - Shimmy Shake

Wow - it's been a while since I have done one of these. I do have a small pile of turtle stuff to be photographed that I had buried here and there - but before I do those I want to introduce you to the new turtle in my life - Shimmy Shake.

He's ceramic - a bit smaller than my fist, and his legs, head and tail all hang from little loops built into the shell so that they wiggle and shimmy and shake whenever he is moved.

He rode to my house cocooned in this box of turtle fabric - what could be more fitting! This fabric (In the Beginning's Lily Pond plus one extra filler from Moda) will turn into a baby quilt for my turtle loving neighbor's 2nd child. Her older son (now 2) got one of my first ever turtle quilts - but I have a feeling as long as we are neighbors there will be more turtle quilts - baby and adult - in our futures!

(and no - the baby quilt won't be mine...)

Thanks Jill!

More from the Garden

This time of year I am outside - a LOT - getting my garden planned and planted. We don't have the longest growing season here in western NY - in fact our last frost warning was as recent as last week - so it is always a scramble. I don't have a lot of space, or the right lights, to do a lot of starting of seeds inside - so local nurseries and big box stores are a frequent destination when putting everything together for the season, although a few things like lettuce, spinach, peas, beans and cucumbers did get started this year from seed in the ground (fingers crossed!)

Last year Hubby built me 6 planter boxes and over the winter he bought me a book about Square Foot Gardening. Now while I did not follow the entire Square Foot plan (namely -I did not empty out the nice soil mix I had gotten started in the boxes last year in favor of Mel's mix) I was able to plan out some planting sequences, box layouts, and conservation of space that allowed me to get a HUGE number of plants into the same amount of space I had last year. Two of my boxes have the "grid" that is touted in the book, while another three got eyeballed (and the last is completely given over to rhubarb.)

Most notable in my planting this year, however, is the heirloom tomatoes and peppers that my neighbor grew from seed - she had more than she could fit in her beds so I "adopted" whatever I could fit. I think I counted about 26 tomatoes -not counting the ones in the hanging bags - and 12 or so peppers, plus 4 zucchini.

I know - sounds like we are in a rut with those - but you add in the beans and peas, cucumbers, onions and hops, and we have quite a variety!!!

And note Hubby's "cukamid" - a pyramid out of PVC for me to let my cucumbers climb on. I had them climbing and trailing last year, and the climbing fruit was much larger and more robust, and had fewer rot issues, so I am trying to get it all to climb this year.