Anna's Dreams Quilt 2019

Anna is my oldest granddaughter.  She is a mover and a shaker.  She loves physical activity.  She used to sit on my lap at my sewing machine when she was very young.  I have no sisters and no daughters.  She was my first little girl.  Clearly woman are not the same as men.  I learned so much about women from her just being a little girl.  She's not a little girl any more.  She graduates from High School next year (2021).  Anna is aiming at becoming a doctor.  The full choice is not yet made.

So Anna's quilt is called Anna's Dreams.  She does have big dreams that I hope she sees them come to fruition.  Anna's Dreams is one of her favorite colors.  Turquoise.  It is a panel quilt.  I saw it on a fabric web site maybe five years ago and asked her if she liked it.  She did.  And I ordered it.  I thought I would get it done sooner, but I needed to learn Free Motion Quilting on a home machine first.  It took me a while.  Then I started piecing it and realized it was just a small lap quilt.  Now what?  I had ordered material for backing at the same time and realized I needed it for the front.  So that was what I did.  There was a lot of fussy measuring and cutting involved with the inner border fabrics.   

I needed an extra inner border to separate the original border from the outside border, but I didn't have any more the the lighter aqua in the center.  I found a piece in my stash and it worker out well, I think.

Because this was a panel quilt, I wanted the quilting to be the focus.  Although I chose matching thread, the backing made the perfect place to show off the quilting.  This ended up being done on Phoebe rather than my sewing machine and was done from the front.  I was so pleased with the quilting when I took it off the frame.  I felt like a kid playing!The back of this quilt is actually Aqua and soft lime green. Anna finally receive this quilt when she was 16 and now she is 17.

I'm very proud of you, Anna!!

Counting my Blessings...2
Love,
Grams

Bryson's Optic Illusion Quilt 2019

Bryson is our oldest grandchild.  He is a man now.  He will be starting his senior year in college this fall.  I cannot believe he is an adult already!!  Bryson is tenacious.  He wanted to solve a Rubics cube.  It took a while to learn, but he did it.  He entered competitions, and practiced more.  He can solve the puzzle in around 10 seconds, sometimes less.  Not easy.  When he first entered High School, he introduced himself on stage in a talent show, then solved the cube in front of the student body. He did it again just before he addressed his graduating class.  He spoke about the value of failures.  He really is something especial.  He spent six weeks or so in China in a study program just before Christmas 2019.  His quilt is called "Dr. Tang".  Let's see where he goes!

This is the beginning.  It was a rough quilt to work on because it was hard to look at.  I had to keep taking pictures to see my progress and to double check if I was doing it right.  I downloaded this  pattern from the quilting website, Craftsy.com (Bluprint)

Yellow is Bryson's favorite color.  I had to make sure I used it.

It was very important to make this quilt masculine.  I think it worked out that way.  In the center, the quilting is a diamond shape sort of.  I went through the centers of the black patches.  I did in-the-ditch stitching around each border.  The yellow is done in piano keys and the gray borders are echoed zig zags.  All quilting is ruler work.

I'm very proud of you, Bryson!

Counting my blessings...1

Love,

Grams

2019 Quilts for the Grand Children!!

Last year was such a productive year.  I have seven grand children that all needed new quilts.  I couldn't start with the oldest and work down because younger siblings would have to wait too long for theirs.  So, I decided to make them all quilts for Christmas 2019. 

I'm so proud of the work I got done.  Each quilt is made especially with that person in mind. Back row from left to right.  Jonny:  That's his favorite color.  He was 13 when he received it, but now he's 14 and ready to be a freshman this year.  He is my Lean Green Drumming Machine.  Adia:  She loves running, moving and colors.  She was 11 when she received it and is now 12.  Her expression was priceless as she hugged her quilt after she opened it!  Bryson:  My oldest grand child.  He is twenty-21 and attending WPI.  He will graduate next June and enter the real world.  His quilt is an optical illussion in the center.  Front row left to right:  Anna:  She was 16 and is now 17.  Her favorite color is this turquoisy blue.  Her's is a panel quilt with extra special quilting.  She kept looking at the back!  Jessie:  She was 12 then and still is.  She is always so concerned about others.  The quilt is called Sweet Jessie Berries. Her favorite color is blue red; this is a little to the other side of red, but she loved it anyway.  Riley:  She was 10 and still is.  Her favorite colors are yellow and blue.  She stroked the yellow dresden plate with a smile of pleasure.  Nora:  She is my crafty grand child that knits, crochets, loves her sewing machine and makes quilts among other things.  She turned 14 the day before she received her quilt.  She was fun to watch as she examined the technique.  I sat with tears in my eyes watching this beloved group of "Children".  I expect they will always remember the day they all received one of Grams quilts.  Good memories!!!

What is happening in this country is out of control!

So, we are still trying to reopen businesses in this state...very slow on the uptake.  I'm ready to be free again.  For me, I can go out in my yard and work in my gardens without a mask.  People walk by walking their dogs and children with no masks.  This is the advantage of living in farm country in eastern Massachusetts.  I've gotten in my car to simply to keep it running.  But I'm still feeling like I'm being forced to comply with regulations that were intended for NewYork City living.  I have a little quilt shop not too far from here that I would like to go into to purchase something because when I needed a marking pencil, they walked out to my car so that I didn't have to go in.  There are so many freaked out people that think you should be in panic as they are that I feel intimidated by what their responses might be.  This is a disgusting situation.  I want my freedom back.  I want to choose whether or not I wear a mask.  Masks are breading grounds to all kinds of things.  Gross.  I am a country girl  that has always believed fresh air is good for what ails you.  Now, the truth is, my husband has had a kidney transplant; he is compromised.  I do theses things because I love him.  I wouldn't go into church without a mask.  In my church, we are almost all in the compromised age group.  I love them.  But truly I really don't care about those that are control freaks.  I have no interest.  Stay away from me.

That's my view on the coronavirus shutdown.

Meanwhile, American cities are burning.  Truly I do not understand the reasoning behind this other than "never let a good crisis go to waste." My heart breaks for the family of George Floyd.  I cannot image having to live with this reality.  Someone knelt on my little boy's neck until he stopped breathing.  What is wrong with this police officer?  I'm not satisfied with 3rd degree murder chanrge, not at all.  That's not justice...and I'm white.  But why destroy a black community?  It makes no sense.  Haven't they been through enough with the COVID shutdown?  Now, all hope of getting back to normal is gone.  I'm so angry over this.  People have worked too hard for too long to have all simply taken away from them.  Heads should roll on this one, too!

I've vented.

This is my Coronavirus Blog April 2020

Well, this is the year of the Coronavirus.  It has been brutal in many places.  Massachusetts has spent a lot of time third on the list of Number of Cases.  We, my husband and I, have been in since March 16th.  I'm finding it hard to really figure out what is going on here.  There is so much conflicting information non stop. There is very little information on how many people have left the hospital healed or on the mend.  We hear tons on how many in hospitals have died.  So many are afraid and near hysteria over every little thing.  Most information is fast changing.  And as always,  the President is unable to do anything right.  I like nothing better than having the TV off.

Merry Christmas 2019

I have worked hard this year from scratch to finish eight quilts.  This has been a major accomplishment for me.  I, first, needed to quilt a couple of unfinished tops.  Two I've already posted and the third one that had been waiting for about six years is also finished.  This one is a strip quilt using my favorite colors from my stash. 

 

I stitched this quilt on a 1878 Wilcox and Gibbs chain stitcher.  The little machine is a really nice, smooth machine.  It is one of the most relaxing things to do, to sew at a treadle machine.

 

Along with these quilts, I also made 8 quilts from beginning to end this year.  One was for my cousin Claire to celebrate her birthday.  She came up to New England from Florida this fall to see our beautiful fall foliage.  She has had four little dachshunds in her life and they were great little friends to her, each in his or her own time.  As a gift to her to celebrate, I made her a Dogs in Sweaters quilt by Elizabeth Hartman.

 

One of the little dachshunds suffered a broken back, hence the little wheel to represent the wheelchair she used.  The little guy on the bottom it wearing a lizard print jersey because he keeps the little lizards out of Claire Florida home!!

I also made seven quilts for seven grandchildren ranging in age from 10 to 21: two boys and five girls.  I plan on adding each quilt individually to the journal, but for now just a picture of all together.

I love this picture.  It is a record of an incredible year of quilting.  I have never been this productive in all the years I've been quilting.  I've always had so many distractions through the years.  This year I was able to set a goal and keep to it.  It is really exciting.  I would not have been able to do it without Phoebe, my Q'nique 15R long arm.  I love standing at her frame and free motion quilting or ruler work.  I don't have a computerized system and I have to say I'm glad about that.  I love the freedom that comes from deciding as I go what I want to quilt.  This year has given me some giant leaps in quilting as well.  I also free hand embroidered messages in each quilt on my sewing machine.  I haven't FMQ'd (free motion quilting) in some time and was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to easily return to FQM. I'm looking forward to doing some more this coming year.

This Has Been A Productive Year 2019

I'm so excited about the work I have accomplished this year.  I have pieced and quilted 8 quilts this year (or it will be soon that all are complete).  I also quilted two tops that were made years ago.  I have a baby quilt for Juno who was born the Monday before Thanksgiving yet to make.  I'm looking forward to adding them to this Journal.  Come January, I will go back through my quilting journal to remember the work that was done and I will add pictures at that time.  Right now I'm in a time crunch and need to get all finished and washed.  Looking forward to doing this work and showing off these quilts I'm so proud of even with all their issues!!