Irish Lake Quilter

......snippets and quilts, family, pets and friends....

Monday, January 29, 2007

Wintery Days


Winter has come to Chicago! We are in the deep freeze this week and that makes for a good time in the sewing room. I'm currently working on my Monday Morning Stripper's Bee quilt from two years ago. It has been a headache and I'm struggling to finish it. We chose 12 blocks as a group and then had to use 9. I chose to applique four additional blocks and to use piping around each block. The piping was a good idea - just not too practical! I'm adding a picture of it and if you have suggestions for borders, please don't be shy!

Currently I'm working on a batik quilt just for fun. It is made from all the batik scraps I've accumulated over the years. The more I work on it, the more I like it. Who gets this one? Maybe a friend of DS. She's been a great pal since grade school and we all enjoy her.

Today, our other son's girlfriend decided that she would like to make a quilt. I helped her make Christmas stockings for her entire family during the Fall, doing Redwork or embroidery on all of them. She had never done any sewing but has caught on very quickly. She did a lot of Redwork on the stockings so she got a fairly good introduction to hand sewing. Today we chose the Circle Play book, got out all my Asian fabrics and played for the afternoon. She has put together some awesome blocks and is working on appliquing the second one already. She spent a year in Japan so the quilt choice was not surprising.

The temps here are quite cold and not a time for the furnace to die. However, die it did and we were rather chilly over the past few nights. Fortunately, our home has two furnaces and the downstairs one helped keep us from freezing until the new one was installed. It is in, running and keeping our beds toasty. Something to be thankful for on days like this!

4 comments:

Meredith said...

Congrats on your blog. I just started my own in December 2006. The applique is beautiful. Would you consider doing an applique border? Sometimes I take photos of the broder fabric next to the quilt to audition different fabrics. The view from your sewing room is lovely.

Carolyn said...

Welcome to blogging, Judy! I don't have any suggestions for your borders, but the quilt is gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

I can't help you on the borders - they are my problem too. How nice for your son's girlfriend to take up quilting :-) Love the grandmother's flower garden quilt - I'll have to make one some day. None of my family sews so it will be made from my stash.

Shelina said...

Welcome to the world of blogging. I've not heard of a house with two furnaces, but so glad that you had that, cause it is way too cold to have to go without a furnace. I like the name Monday Morning Quilters Bee, and really like te quilt you made there.