Comfort Quilt Day

Has it really been a whole week since I blogged!? I'm slipping. I haven't been doing a lot of new sewing lately, but this past week was Comfort Quilt day so I'm showing some of the colorful results of that productive day.

We meet once a month at the Quilt Revolution shop in Gig Harbor to work on lap quilts for breast cancer patients. A cozy quilt can take the chill off of those chemo treatments.

 

The four-patch is made up of Hawaiian prints. The blue and white half-square triangles below also remind me of the ocean and waves.

Speaking of waves, here was the activity last weekend behind our house. We don't have "real" waves but we do get a lot of boat wakes that make for more interesting kayaking.

Have a colorful day

New old summer quilt

I pulled out another old quilt top this week and quilted it with lazy meandering lines inspired by the water and plants that surround us here in the Northwest ... easy, breezy summer stitching.

Now comes the part that I hate: squaring it up. It's bigger than my tables and my rulers, which is why I procrastinate.

Here are some inspiring gentle curves in photos that I snapped this week on a beach walk and in our garden:

Here is what fueled me yesterday: a big chicken salad sandwich at Kandi's house before the Feet and Forks embarked on our beach walk. It was delicious! (We had planned to go kayaking but got too lazy from sitting in the sun.)

Have a colorful day

Fog and sun

This is how it looked yesterday morning from our back deck. Grey. Then I set the camera's white balance for cloudy and it turned the world a pretty blue. (I guess I could wear blue sunglasses for the same effect -- or rose colored ones.)

Later in the day the fog cleared and late afternoon sun made these wonderful highlights on a piece of gnarly, barnacle-encrusted driftwood.

Have a colorful day

STITCH: Of Mice and Women

 
STITCH met today at Pat's house, and the theme could have been "Of Mice and Women." She served cute little mice cookies (with licorice tails and almond ears) and taught us all how to make "reverse anti-aging voodoo dolls."

The dolls are labeled with all the afflictions you don't want to have in old age, and you stick a pin in to AVOID that condition.

Then we did show-and-tell and talked about our exhibit coming up in October at the Gig Harbor library. Here's a sampling of show-and-tell:
 

Carol's graphic quilt highlights her collection of New Zealand fabric.

Anne's batik portrait of her granddaughter will be framed with some colorful African fabric. The face is mainly cut from different batiks to achieve the different colorations, but she also used a little fabric paint.
 

Karen modeled a sweatshirt jacket she made in a class by sewing fabric rectangles onto a purchased sweatshirt ...

... and Linda showed off her hand-appliqued and embroidered snowman quilt that was two years in the making. 

There was more, but in all the excitement I missed get photos of everything.

Greeting us as we headed downstairs to the studio was this grand old lady, a doll Pat made from an elinor peace bailey pattern.

Have a colorful day

Circle quilt done

"Just For Fun," 40"x40", by Sherrie Spangler

I finally finished my fractured circle quilt, only three years or so after I started it! I called it "Just For Fun" because that's why I made it.

I finished it by sewing each square to the green backing with invisible thread and then tacked a button in the middle of each circle. Done!

The quarter circles and big hand embroidery stitches were inspired by Jane LaFazio's recycled circles series. Here's a link to one of them done in mixed media: http://janelafazio.com/2012/02/recycled-circles-in-blue-orange/

In other sewing news this week, I started teaching another wonky log cabin class today to two delightful ladies who got wonky right away!

Have a colorful day