Grand Illusion & Applique Update

I realized I never published this post..  My bad...
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I thought I would give you an update on my quilting.  

I am still quilting but like many quilters my eye's are bigger than my capacity to do things.   There is just so many things I want to try!

So first an update.

Last couple of years I have focused more on applique by machine and took several classes from the local quilt shop and through a quilt show that comes through every few years.

I thought about hand applique, but quickly realized that would just lead to more unfinished projects.  I have enough of those.

Although I have finished a few of these class projects, I have a few more that I started that I need to complete.

Here is one that focused on button hole applique.  I really like the stack of pumpkins, but not that crazy about how the welcome turned out.   I guess I should use smaller letters.   I have enough orange fabric to make another stack, so I will give it another shot with a different layout.

Another applique project I finished is this chick-a-dee.  I really like this one.   It uses a smaller button hole stitch.

And the final completed applique is this reverse applique.  Although the book shows how to do this by hand, we learned to do this by machine. I really like how this one turned out.

And then finally my Grand Illusion status.

I have the top done, now just the quilting is left to do.

Mom’s stash

I haven’t posted is quite a while, but now that my son is off to college and I have a taken a step back from mentoring the robotics team, I have a little more time.

First thing that I am working on is moving my sewing room to the loft area that used to be my son’s play area, as he grew from toys and lego’s to video games.  Now it is my area and I am gradually setting up the area for me.  I am currently waiting for my sewing machine cabinet, but have my cutting table and ironing board set up.   I will post photos of my sewing area once the my cabinet has arrived.

While in the process of setting up my sewing area, my Mom became ill and eventually passed away at the end of October.  She was 92, so lived a long life, but I still miss her and think of her often.  I inherited all of her fabric, scraps and various starts as she tried new blocks.  It is a little overwhelming the amount of starts and scraps she had started, especially when added to mine.  As I was going through the scraps and fabrics and organizing the pieces, I began to wonder if she realized how many quilts she had started and what she was really planning on doing with all of these blocks.  So to make sure none of her work goes to waste, I will do my best to try and use up her scraps and fabric for quilts for the family. 

Below are just the scraps she had cut that I found so far.

 Triangles

and squares

 and various blocks

and flannel.

My first project will be to use up some of the pinks and make a few twin size quilts for my great nieces as there seems to be an abundance of pink.