Thursday, May 30, 2013

Saying It With Flowers & Give-Away

Today, I am saying it with flowers!  I have enjoyed all of the beautiful flower projects on this hop this week.  I was having some trouble posting, but here it is!

I do love flowers and am fortunate to live in central Illinois where we have beautiful spring flowers.  See yesterdays post if you would like to look at pictures from my yard and woodland.

My first project was made this month for a house warming for our friends' son and daughter-in-law.  My quilt club had been making braid quilts, so I wanted to incorporate that into the table runner.  I made the braid and appliqued flowers and leaves on the borders.

                                        Jared and Becca seemed very pleased with the outcome.

Next, I wanted to make some flowery postcards.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them.  I cut cardboard to postcard-size.  Then, I appliqued the block.  I glued it to the cardboard and sewed around the edges.





I will definitely try making more of these.   The patterns came from the book:  "Quilted Post Cards" by Cheryl Haynes, Barbara Cooley and Beth Davis.  There are more great ideas in the book.

Recently, a good friend of mine made 2 mini barn quilts for my new shed.  She knew that I liked the Rose of Sharon pattern.  Each quilt is 12" square.


The blocks will go on each side of the windows in the background of the picture.  Aren't I lucky to have such a good friend?  Thanks, Sue!  I really like the block because my mother had started blocks for a quilt, probably in the 40's or 50's, using the Rose of Sharon pattern.  I quilted and put binding on 4 for my 4 sisters.  This week, I quilted and put the binding on a 5th for me.  I did a simple echo hand stitch around the pattern, not wanting to detract from my mother's beautiful hand applique.  She passed away in l993.


I'm going to hang it above the bed in my bedroom as soon as I finish the 2nd block that she also hand appliqued, using the same fabrics:


                                                                  This one is ready to quilt!

My final project that I made Wednesday for this hop is a tulip basket, well, 5 tulip baskets.  (I think I got carried away.)  One of my friends taught a lesson on how to make these Tuesday night at our quilt club.   The pattern is for the largest basket, but I experimented with making a couple smaller as well.



                                                    I loved the way I could stack them together.



                                                This is a view of the inside of the basket.

               And, this was my first use for one of them--my first strawberries of the season!


The pattern is from The Back Door, website:  www.backdoorquilts.com and was very easy to make.

Thank you for stopping by to see all of my "flowery" creations.  If you have gotten this far, stay a bit longer for a give-away.  Let me know your favorite colors, and I will make a tulip basket and send to you.  Just leave a comment.  I will ship anywhere--I sew enjoy seeing projects from our international friends.

Thank you, Mdme. Samm and Carol for this great hop!

Visit the other quilters for today and just keep quilting!

May 31st

Spring Flowers 2013

We are blessed to live in the country in Central Illinois, where we can grow many beautiful flowers.  We also have many beautiful wildflowers in the woodlands around our home.  These are some of the pictures I have taken this spring in our yard and woodlands.  I hope you enjoy them.