Thursday, November 20, 2014

Weekend before Thanksgiving

I have a busy weekend planned just ahead of the holidays.

Friday, Nov. 21st from 6 - 9 pm I will be part of Webberville's (MI) Ladies Night Out.  This is the 6th year for this event, my first.  Should be a fun time with all the vendors out there catering to women (JamBerry nails, Mary Kay, etc).  It is held at the Webberville Library.

Saturday, Nov. 22nd, I arise bright and early to head to the Sand Creek Craft Show (6518 Sand Creek Hwy).  This will be my third time there -- always a fun time and lots of crafts to look at and buy for Christmas presents.  I will be in the high school gym, booth #106 from 8 am - 3 pm.

Sunday, a little closer to home I head to Morrice Elementary School where they hold their annual PTO Fall Craft Show from 9 am - 4 pm.  This is one of first ones that I did when I started out. 

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Daughter's Graduation Quilt

My oldest daughter has graduated from college.  Hurrah!  She is now a Funeral Director!

While I was in Florida this past March I naturally stopped in the local quilt store.  There I found a panel of eight horses.

 My daughter spent many a summer at horse camp and still dreams of owning her own horse.  Since she would be graduating in another few months I thought this would be the springboard for a quilt. 

When my husband and I drove from Michigan to North Carolina for her graduation I brought the panel along.  Knowing that I hit every quilt shop along the way she already had a few lined up for us to go  visit.  The second shop was a gold mine.  The owner had a fabric estate sale going on and her shop was loaded with material plus sale prices. 

My daughter found two pieces of fabric that she loved but worried that they wouldn't go together.  They were both bubble fabrics so I figured we'd see what happened.  I could always take one out.

Next we found some fabric with variations of blue with a little bit of purple thrown in and a hint of green.  Okay, there was some of that going on in the panels.
Now how much to buy?  I had no idea what pattern I was going to use so I guessed.  And boy, as you'll see I lucked out.

I came home and found a pattern that I thought would show off the panels nicely in the 100th issue of QuiltMania entitled Eleanor, which I had also purchased in Florida.  Slight problem though, the panels were too small.  Hence, the black line that you see.  The quilt also needed something bright.  Going through my stash I found the yellow/orange piece.

And then -- what do you do with eight blocks?  I needed one more but what?  I went through many ideas and eventually decided to quit this quilt for awhile and go on to my fairy quilt that I had lined up next.  I actually had backing for this one: huge flowers that I found in a shop a few years back. And that's where I found my last block to do. Since my daughter's middle name is Rose I thought that would be apropos.  
The banner that runs along the bottom was ALL that I had.  I have one inch left over.

I have a little of the other fabrics and hopefully enough of the blue left for binding.  My daughter also liked a panel of foxes with matching fox fabric.  That will go on the back.

Hope to have this done for Christmas!