Daysail Quilt

I've completed piecing the top of my Daysail quilt ~

The Daysail fabric was designed by Bonnie and Camille, a mother-daughter team whose fabric lines I love.

As soon as I spotted the sailboats, I thought of my nephew and his family who bought a boat last year and enjoy sailing in the Chesapeake Bay. This quilt will be a gift to them.

All that's left to complete it is to make a sandwich with the top, batting, and a pretty backing fabric, quilt it, then the binding. Hoping to complete that before their spring launch.

The words are perfect for a sailing family - I think this panel covers most of what's involved in owning a boat.

Meanwhile I've sewn seven dresses for Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child (see here) which I will send to their headquarters in North Carolina in December.

These require only one yard of fabric and a bit of bias binding for the ties. And can be whipped together in a flash.

My inspiration was a video of Lillian Webber, who will turn 100 in May. Lillian hopes to reach her goal of 1,000 dresses made for the Little Dresses for Africa project in time for her birthday. Read about it here.

 

Just for fun, this weekend my family visited Walton's Mountain in Schuyler (pronounced Skyler), Virginia. The museum is housed in Earl Hamner's old high school, each room depicting a room from the television house. What a delightful day trip! (Sorry for the grainy pics, taken inside with my phone camera.)

I enjoy so much hearing from you, hope you have a lovely week.


Happy Sewing ~
Mary

Sharing at:
DIY Show Off
Between Naps on the Porch
Cozy Little House
and ~

Lovely Spring Colors

Don't you love it when the dead of winter ends and new life springs forth?! My yard is showing it's colors.

We planted daffodil bulbs last fall. The soil was so rocky I wondered if any would come up. But they have.

There's lots of new color inside as well. I made this pillow from 2.5" pieces of fabric called mini charms. I love the happy colors from Moda Fabrics:

In 2014 I participated in a "block-of-the-month" quilt-along. It was a very challenging learning experience, but I'm pleased with my completed quilt.

Here's a close-up - I enjoyed hand quilting, outlining some of the designs with a red running stitch. Don't you love the fabric that says "Dishes Men Like." Now that's a very vintage sentiment!

Has spring come to your part of the world yet? Any pretty flowers "springing" up?

Happy Sewing,

Mary

Quilty Fun

Voila! My quilt is completed and hanging on the den wall.

What visual interest it adds to a long, barren area. The quilts in the chair were made by my husband's mother and grandmother - treasures for sure.

I sewed along with Lori Holt at Bee in my Bonnet here. You simply must visit her to see the quilts she makes - and her home decor is amazing, too.


The mittens are perfect for February, although I must admit we're having very mild weather in Virginia.

Hubby and I sip hot chocolate most evenings in spite of the mild weather. We also sit by the gas fireplace and read. Cozy, it's all about cozy in this house.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my quilt. Did I mention it took a year to complete - wow, it really stretched my quilting skills. Which was a good thing.

Don't forget to visit Lori!

Mary

Busy Fun Week

The Masonite siding on our house, where we've lived the past five years, was falling off in patches, so we saved and saved and saved and finally, this summer had new siding and windows installed ~ 

I love the gray with black and white trim - so very colonial. We became more interested in landscaping once the house redo was completed. Elizabeth (18) and I began creating a new flower bed around our mail box, starting with five of these lovely fall mums ~ 

I recently completed the August block-of-the-month - following along with Amy Gibson (Stichory Dickory Dock). Can't believe we've completed eight blocks with very little effort already. I even got to learn English paper piecing, which was on my list of things to do in 2014 - it was a real challenge but I've conquered it ~ 

The cherry fabric is from Lori Holt's Bake Sale line. Lori blogs at Bee in my Bonnet. I love visiting to see her cottage full of wonderfully painted furniture, as well as her many quilts. Lori has two books out (and word has it there'll soon be a third). Quilty Fun and Great Granny Squared are both available on her blog.

Here's a quilt I made earlier this year from her Quilty Fun book ~ 

That's it for this week, friends, hope you have a lovely week.

~ Mary 

Happily sharing at: