sunny side up

the Moths celebrated their first wedding anniversary today ... this is the log cabin quilt that i made for Mrs. Moth's wedding present ... it is made of fabric leftover from Little Nonnie's blue and white 80th birthday memory quilt (and i still had enough left to cut strips for another log cabin quilt ... it is ready to sew sometime when my brain won't function for more than sewing straight seams) with yellow for the center hearths ... who knew that the yellow and white would end up looking like fried eggs?!? so i named it sunny side up...
...i used flannel for the back and for the binding ... it is queen-sized and much heavier than i would have thought - lots of thread goes into a log cabin block and the weight really adds up ... after sewing the last few stitches on the binding, i found out that their bedroom was gonna be brown and turquoise, so this doesn't go with anything they have - i should have just bought something from their registry!
p.s. - and there was enough flannel left for a baby blanket (good thing there are flowers on the blue flannel - the baby is a girl ... that is, if the little stinkpot ever decides to make an appearance!) ... hey, i was just thinking ahead!

ahem ... more about the wedding quilt

wedding wishes on dragonfly's wing ...... Auntia was working across the sewing table from me and, bless her heart, did all of the pressing for the dragonfly blocks. i would probably still be standing there with the Rowenta gurgling and phwooshing if she hadn't come to the rescue. Auntia is much better at pressing than i am ... i tend to not press as i go, and then i whine about bunchy seams and warped blocks. between the two of us, all of the blocks were sewn, pressed, and trimmed in time for the wedding.

we did have to make another trip over to Tomorrows Heirlooms for a bit of dark green faerie frost ... the copper and blue were so bright that the purple looked like mud next to them; the green provided a bit of balance.

a table was set up at the wedding reception with the blocks and pigma pens so that guests could sign the wings. there was a photo mat for signatures, too, and many people opted out of signing the quilt blocks ... all in all, we ended up with 30 signed blocks. well ... actually, there were 31 ... one block had to be disassembled ...

one of the guests wrote, "Remember to kick her when she's down." on one of the wings ... and the fool actually had the cajones to sign his name! then some other fool wrote "Butt Hole" on the same wing ... the block couldn't be tossed out because another guest had written a nice sentiment on the other wing ...... it took just a few minutes to take two blocks apart and reattach the wings to make one acceptable block ...... but, seriously, who does something like that?

anywho, i was struggling with how to arrange 30 blocks into a wall hanging. a rectangle just wouldn't do for the intended wall space. what i really wanted was 36 signed blocks so i could make a square of 6 by 6. after sorting through the blocks again and again, i realized that Earth Science and his family hadn't signed any ... needless to say, i took over four blocks and hovered while he and LAB (his children's mother) wrote their messages, and Corbadoo drew squiggly lines on his block. LAB signed Peanut Butter Cup's block for her ...... and then there were 34. still needed two ... hmmmm ... what to do, what to do? sort, sort, sort ... aha! Little Nonnie (my mother) hadn't signed a block and neither had Traveling Man ... so, a short drive to Near South Broomfield and a longer drive to Near Lyons ...... and then there were 36. woo hoo!
with blocks in hand (9 of each color), i cleared a space in the living room







and started to arrange and rearrange the blocks ...








every arrangement looked like a diving bomber squadron of mosquitoes.
what happened to the lovely flitting dragonflies?!? maybe ... this way:




much better ...

but look at all of those crazy points to match!



much, much later, after a few choice words and lots and lots of reverse sewing, Auntia helped me sandwich the flimsy, basting with pins. i stitched in the ditch around the wings and bodies with a greenish brown thread (Earth Science thinks the quilting looks phallic ... sheesh). after that, we took out the pins and loaded it onto the Inspira frame. i freemotion quilted dragonflies with metallic copper thread on the top and brown thread in the bobbin, then more dragonflies in the borders. i am still learning freemotion quilting, so it isn't the best ... but i am getting better with each quilt. there is a hanging sleeve stitched into the binding. wedding wishes on dragonfly's wing is now displayed on Mrs. Moth's wall.

the rest of the story will have to wait for another day ... in case anyone is wondering what happened to the 63 leftover blocks.

a techno-phobe tries to blog with pictures

when i tried to post a picture the other day, i was unable to find any of the picture files on the computer ... now that my youngest daughter has given me trained monkey instructions, i am ready to try again.

ah - there they are ... now, a little story to go along with them.

last year, after reading about the wedding signature quilt here, i offered to make one Mrs. Moth and, with some hesitation, she and her soon-to-be husband accepted. this is the fabric that they chose. as you can see by the time stamp on the picture, it was already march 9 and the wedding was planned for april 12 ...... i do like a challenge. she loves dragonflies, so i modified the rosebud block and came up with a plan for a dragonfly block. my sample block was shades of lavender, with a white on white print for the wings - plenty of room for signatures. i thought that the happy couple's favorite color was blue and i pictured lovely little dragonflies, with wedding wishes from all of the guests, flying against a sky blue background. i took the bride and groom to Tomorrows Heirlooms (one of the local quilt shops that has an abundant supply of batiks) and they chose ... omigawd ... brown. yes, you read that correctly ... brown! i tried to explain that the background was going to be most of the quilt ... i showed them bolt after bolt of pretty batiks in blues ... lavenders ... i even tried to convince them that grey would be a lovely choice ... but, no, they knew what they wanted - and what they wanted was that brown that you see. then we went to the faerie frosts ... and they selected blue, copper, and dark purple, with ivory for the wings. oh-kay. i had the fabric torn (i love the fact that Tomorrows Heirlooms tears the fabric - i always have enough because i am not paying for off-grain cuts), and bought a roll of one and one-half inch (finished) half-square triangle paper and two big spools of medium grey thread. i took my purple bag of goodies home, sighing all the way and wondering what i was going to do to make a murky brown quilt seem anything but depressing. i pre-washed the fabrics and waited for them to air dry, hoping against hope to receive a phone call telling me that they'd made a terrible mistake and not to start cutting ... alas, said phone call was not forthcoming. and so, rotary cutter in hand, i started slicing and dicing and came up with the first block. groan. the bride's little sister took a picture with her cellphone (again, i am a techno-phobe and have no idea how to perform such electronic miracles) and sent it to the netherworld. and that was followed by a text received, requesting more. ninety-nine more! did i say that i like a challenge?