Private label and a quilt

 Earlier this year a friend of my husband's placed some beehives in our backyard and a few days before Christmas he brought over 4 jars with our name on the label.  He claims it is good honey.  Just tasted like regular honey to me.  Those billions of daylilies all around my house are not just pretty faces.  They make great bee food.

 My comother-in-law (oldest daughters MIL) is also one of my best friends.  I made her a small throw quilt for Christmas.  She loves beehives so I made a white on white (only it's linen colored) and the biggest motif is a beehive down towards the bottom of the quilt.  The top is a linen blend.  I was a little uneasy at the thought of cheating on my beloved cotton but it worked up very nicely.  It's 41 x 48 and I roughly sketched in the design with the magic blue marker and went to town with the quilting.  It was very satisfying  to see the design emerge.

 Quilting detail.  There are some birds soaring through the swirls.

 Quilting detail.  Sorry about the glare; but you can just make out the butterfly to the left.

 Quilting detail.  Beehive with a snail below it.

Penny showing off the sunflower backing.  She loves sunflowers.

My third grandchild.

 This is the most darling picture.  My mother and her fourth great grandchild.  Little Brody is a joy to care for.

Except in the matter of a delayed dinner.  He does like his nosh.  And lots of it.

I blog about his quilt here.

The babies aren't twins but the quilts are.

 The future mommy on the left is my daughter Linda (notice the tunny poking out the quilt, so cute) and the already mommy  on the right is her really good friend, Lori.  Lori had a baby earlier this year so the two boys are almost twins.  Lori was the MC for the shower she was very fun and she helps with cleanup.

 One for Riley.

 One for Brody.

 Riley was definitely the star attraction at the shower.

fall 2012 bloggers quilt festival

 Check out all the gorgeous quilts Amy's quilt festival.

 I've been having a ball perusing different quilt blogs.  I've learned a lot about machine quilting; I've been quilting for many years but there is a whole lot to learn out there..  I made myself a 72" sandwich and went to town.

Bright 72" square

 Original design.

 Lots of color.

 Lots of quilting.

 The quilting on the turquoise was inspired by a Leah Day design.

Plenty of purple.

September wedding 2012

The older I get the bigger the quilt pieces get.  Less piecing, more quilting area.  88 x 106

August 2012 wedding quilt

I'm no great shakes at photography but you can kind of get the idea.  90 by 107. 

Graduation 2012

Both quilts are made using the same layout.  The blocks are 20" with a 1" sashing and a black border.

Not just another tshirt quilt....

Out of the blue I was contacted by a young lady from New Jersey who had a request for me.  She wished  for me to construct a tshirt quilt for her daughter who is a dancer.  She had two strictures; zebra fabric and no large swathes of knits.  Happy to comply.

 I didn't quite capture the entire piece.

Backing.

Block detail.



Block detail.



Block detail.  I quilted her name into this block.

This was truly a learning experience.  To help tame the "wonkiness" of the knits, I backed the fabric with a lightweight interfacing.   The less stable knits, especially the lycra blends, were still quite a challenge.