Sunday, June 15, 2014

Father's Day

Father's Day is such a different day when you no longer have a Dad living. But - no matter - I had the best Dad in the world. Even when he isn't here, he is. I have memories.So, today I will celebrate the person he was and remember all the great times, teaching times, loving times.

 
 
In live in the house I grew up in. That means it is filled with Dad. The clock he made, The basement he finished. His tools. The rocking chair he refinished. I can't go anywhere in the house without some physical reminder of Dad. But there's more.
 
In the kitchen I remember the time Dad was in his brown hoodie looking out at the back yard and our white cat was sitting on the TV next to him. Both were just looking out seeing something I couldn't see. He was often deep in thought.
 
In the basement I can see him in his workroom making the bench for my loom because I happene to tell him about one I saw and liked. Or when I was younger, practising shots at the pool table.
 
In the yard, he's there. Mowing the lawn, clearing out weeds, practising his horseshoes. Everywhere I go, he's here.
 
So, Happy Father's Day Dad. Thank you for choosing to be my Dad. Thank you for all the wonderful memories that will stay with me forever.
 



Sunday, June 1, 2014

The Quilt - Mostly revealed

Godson and future god daughter-in-law (J&K) have seen the quilt mostly done at their party last weekend so I can post a few pictures without worried that someone they know will see it and tell them.

Before showing a few pictures, a little bit of back story. You may or may not remember me talking about BFF in past posts. Laurie and I were joined at the hip for much of our school years and that friendship remained until they day she died almost 10 years ago. At the time the boys were in their early 20s so were grown up but they are such special boys we've always stayed close. J's older brother and J have come to our groups parties and kept us up to date on their lives. I've been so blessed to have them around.

Back 10 (ish) years ago when we cleaned out Laurie's house I kept a box of her shirts thinking some day I would make a quilt of each of the boys. Time passed - no quilts - more procrastination - no quilts. You get the picture. Then J got engaged. Perfect time to make one of the quilts. And this is what I can show you some of the pictures of now.

Back about a year ago I started playing with design ideas. I liked this but the border didn't work and having the stars go all the way to the border just looked wrong.

 
At Christmas while talking to J&K I found out their bedroom would have sage in it so I started playing with the colors and changed the border. I also added some background between the border center. Much better! 

 
 
Liked the colors but tried some different ones. The border seemed too busy and the center stars were going to be paper pieced and time was running out so I simplified the center stars. Also, I kept playing around with the brown edging of the center piece. One thing that's so great about EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7) is the ability to play around with colors, designs and everything until you like the final look. Much better to do that on the computer than with actual fabric!


 
Then I found out more about their colors and the lilac changed to a green/sage and I made some other color changes. That worked. The stars around the outside are not the pale color but rather the centers are made with pieces of Laurie's shirts.


 
 
Design settled on - time to get fabric. I tried buying fabric from an online source and they were wonderful. However, I didn't read one small word in the background fabric description - flannel. OOPS! It was also more orange/gold than I wanted so I've got 7 yards of orange/gold flannel sitting around. The brown was more orange and the pale green was bright and slightly sparkly. All of them match but they didn't go with my vision of what I wanted. Off to the store to get fabric in person, other than 2 of the greens. Oh well, all the fabric was good and it will be used for something else, someday. 
 
Bert has discovered quilting and the joys of helping out. He loves when I trim up the blocks. The stars and snail's trails block were made by paper piecing so there was a lot of Bert goodies after each block was completed.

 


The pale color in the center stars is a fabric I had and it worked out perfect. It's pale brown, sage/green and pale-pale pink. It gives a little something else to rest your eyes on between the other green stars. The border (green leaves on the right of the picture) was one of the original fabrics I bought. It's actually the center background and not the outer border. The light green matched the light green of the leaves fabric perfectly even if the picture doesn't quite show that.

 
Here's the center before it got the green leaves added. Everything blends well and the blocks mix to create and interesting look.

 
That's it for now. I'll post more pictures when I finish quilting. The border is done, the binding is on. The center stars have been outline quilted. Things are starting to look complete. But before I finish the quilt - I need to head out and find a new outfit to wear next weekend to the wedding. Nothing like waiting till the last minute!