T-Shirt Quilt by KL

 KL made this T-Shirt quilt for her granddaughter, who was active in sports and other activities in high school.  It measures about 57 x 87 inches.

 The quilting was a combination of free hand quilting around the T-Shirt motifs, and using a template to stitch a chain design in the sashing and borders. Every block was stitched down, stitching in the ditch.

The chain design shows up well in the borders.  KL's granddaughter will cherish this quilt because it comes from her grnadmother's loving hands.

Sweet Pea Smocking Design for Wee Care Grady Gown

This Wee Care gown is smocked with an original plate, "Sweet Pea," designed especially for the SAGA Grady Gown.  I used floche and DMC stranded cotton to complete the smocking.

It is a simple design that works up pretty quickly and you are invited to use it for personal items or items donated to a program such as SAGA Wee Care.

Click here for a copy of the smocking graph and instructions.

Please do not sell the pattern or sell garments made using it.  Thank you!

It is assumed that you have some smocking experience.  If you need to learn how to smock, contact SAGA to find a chapter near you.  Also, check out the various You Tube tutorials on smocking, or look for books on smocking at your local library or book store.  The A - Z series published by Country Bumpkin are excellent.

Scrappy Apple Core Quilt by GK

Mom has done another scrappy quilt using the Apple Core Block.  When you think of the time involved in completing a quilt like this, it boggles the mind!

The quilt is approximately 78.5 inches x 87 inches.  Mom has her methods of quilting and I don't fully understand them.  However, I watch and learn every time I visit with her about her quilts and quilting in general.  She has fabrics sorted into colors on bookshelves in her sewing room.  When she gets an idea for a quilt, she takes her time in cutting the pieces for it, separating them into piles of lights and darks, as used in this Apple Core Quilt, for instance.  Then she stitches the pieces together into blocks of the chosen pattern.

For this Apple Core Quilt, Mom used a cardboard pattern and traced the "core" pattern onto the wrong side of the fabrics.  She cut them out individually.  Each piece was marked at the center point on each of the four sides.  She hand-basted the pieces together, "for accuracy" she told me, before stitching them by machine.  She matched up those marks she made and that helped her get accurate seams.  That is mind-boggling!  You can see that she alternated lights and darks, and that not very many fabrics have been repeated in this quilt!

You can see in the photo above that the edge of the quilt was left in the wavy shape made by the apple core pieces.  To anchor this quilt on the longarm frame, I carefully basted the top edge following the wavy edge, then did the same along the sides for the section exposed in the work area.  It took time, but I'm happy with the results.  The quilting pattern is a simple medium meandering stitch.

This is the back of the quilt.  True to form, Mom used up some of her fabric stash to complete the backing!
We used Hobbs Poly Down Plus batting and A & E Perma Core thread.  I'm curious to see how she binds this quilt.  Mom intends every quilt she makes to be used and loved.  Her term is "used up" and I'm sure the lucky recipient of this quilt will do that with much appreciation!  Thanks for all you do, Mom!

Benedict's Log Cabin by MV

 MV made this Log Cabin quilt for her son, Benedict.  It is 69 inches square.  We used Warm & Natural batting and A & E Perma Core thread.  The quilting design is a simple meandering design.

The black, red, and white color palette is always striking, and I think Benedict will enjoy using this quilt made by his Mama!  Click here to view a quilt MV made for her nephew.

Starting the New Year with a Springtime Quilt by EH

Happy New Year!  This Springtime Quilt helps set the mood for a joyful 2012!  

 Made by EH, it measures 64 inches x 82.5 inches.  We used Hobbs Poly Down Plus batting, A & E Signature QT thread, and Patricia Ritter's pantograph, "Poppies."  

The large blocks are comprised of basic 4-patches and rectangles.  EH used up some scrap pieces in a lovely way, don't you think?

And this is the back of the quilt!  I love this!  It reminds me of my mom's quilts and I just love looking at them.  I think this quilt will be used lovingly with great appreciation!

Smocked Christmas Ornaments

 One of the smocking classes I teach occasionally is this smocked Christmas Ornament.  These modeled here are leftover kits from past classes and were just finished within the last week or so.  The basic stitch is a 1/2-space wave.   Styrofoam balls, 2-1/2 inch diameter, were used as the base.

 Even though the basic design is the same, each one can be embellished to make it a one-of-a-kind ornament.

This fabric is a polyester silky type fabric, very inexpensive, stitched with DMC rayon gold floss and finished with a frou-frou of ribbons and a Christmas pick.  (My apologies for the poor photography again!)

 The pick was set in place by plunging the wire end into the Styrofoam ball.

 Beads and 1/8-inch ribbon woven through the stitches dress this one.  The number of pleats is planned to be sure the design can be smocked in the round.  You should not be able to see where the seam is.

 Looking like a candy cane at a Christmas recital, this one features 1/16-inch ribbon woven through the stitches.  I found this narrow ribbon in white and red at the local Hobby Lobby store.

Gold and ecru make this ornament ready to welcome the royal Christ Child, the One whose birth we anticipate with excitement and celebrate with joy!  These ornaments will be given away this Christmas as gifts to my daughter's music teachers and to friends who have supported me in more ways than I can acknowledge this past year.

Christmas Blessings to all who read this post!

I finished a skirt!

I'm so excited!  I finished a skirt for myself!  This is one of those UFOs or PhDs that has been lying around for a couple of years.  (Okay, okay, I need to lose weight...I've been trying forever, will continue to try, and will let you know if I ever reach my healthy weight!  But these UFOs?  I'm finishing some of them and wearing them in spite of my weight!)

Just look at the skirt, not the rest of the photo!  The skirt is a tan, cotton, crinkle-gauze fabric purchased locally.  (The top was purchased at a local clothing store on the sale rack this summer.)  I have an idea in mind for a more flattering top to wear with this, but that's another UFO!

 It was inspired by Jennie Victorsen's  “Au Chocolat,"  in Australian Smocking & Embroidery Issue No. 79.  Her version was made in cotton lawn and was shorter.  I like longer skirts, so adjusted the dimensions to suit myself.  This is the third skirt made in this fashion.  I made a navy blue lawn one and a green gauze one for two of my daughters.  That was a few years ago.

The smocking design developed as I went along.  Here is a closeup of a section.  The smocking design uses a surface honeycomb/3-cable combination, beads, 3-step trellis and 7-step trellis.  The floss is in two colors, tan and brown, or a light and a dark.  The beads are 4 mm Tiger Eye beads I purchased at a local Hobby Lobby store.  This skirt used about 8 packages of beads and since it took me forever, I used the 40%-off coupons that Hobby Lobby puts in the newspaper a few times to cut down on the cost of supplies.

Here's the design roughly drawn out.  After making the skirt, there are a few things I would do differently.  One is to pleat the fabric with 1/2-space rows.  The top two pleater needles would be threaded with water-soluble thread.  The top row, row 1/2, is a holding row.  Row 1 is the first row on which the smocking stitches fall.  When the smocked tier is sewn to the bottom of the middle tier, the two rows pleated with water-soluble thread would be used to help position and stitch the tiers together.  The water-soluble thread would magically disappear when the skirt is first washed!

If you use this smocking design for any of your projects, will you share photos?  What fun!