A Finally Finish: The June Quilt

Last year, I participated in Crazy Mom's June QAL and I finished the top in July (you can read about it here) and has sat in the studio waiting to be quilted.  It was on my Quilty Confessions, UFO Busting List which I have to admit this list has been put on the wayside along with some of the other lists I made for 2018.  Even though the June quilt would have been perfect to finally finish in June, I still hadn't plan to quilt it until I happened to come across a photo of the top on my Pinterest board this past Tuesday.  My eyes immediately saw the quilting lines, just simple diagonal and horizontal grid lines and I was suddenly in the mood to start machine quilting.  It also helped that we were experiencing days of heavy rain which is perfect quilting weather for me.  So, with less than ten days left in June, my June Quilt was rightfully and finally finished during her namesake month.

The machine quilting was an absolute breeze and made me wonder why I waited so long.  But it's a good thing I did because I only started machine quilting the Jacqui Gering and Christa Watson method of starting the quilting on the side rather than the center.  In the past when I did grid quilting and started in the center, there was always the inevitable puckering and pinches when quilt lines intersected and for some reason when you start the quilting on the side, this doesn't happen.

I chose to use black thread for the quilting which went well with both the top and the perfect backing which I love.  Last year when I was on my fabric diet and  really didn't want to purchase any new fabric, I did break down to buy more of this fabric since I didn't have enough of it and didn't have any other fabric in my stash which would work as well as this print did.

The binding was done with the happy green polka dot fabric which is the same print Crazy Mom (Amanda Nyberg) used in her June Quilt in her book No Scraps Left Behind and was generously given to me by my good quilt friend Mary Etherington who got me involved in participating in the June QAL.  I normally don't machine bind quilts which are for me but I had to so I can show off the black thread some more.  

And now for some glamour shots which were taken on Saturday, our first day of sunshine and no rain.  The grass was so soggy and there was no way I was going to lay it down so I thought I would use my cute bicycle as a prop to hold the quilt.  It's sad to admit that I don't ride this bike which was a birthday gift from my hubby two years ago.  Three years ago, he gave me a choice of either a new sewing machine or a bicycle and it should be no surprise my Juki 2010Q came home.  The next year, I had no choice and I found this bicycle waiting for me on the front lawn.  Her name is Banana and it has some really pretty patchwork details on the frame which still doesn't inspire me to ride it.  My old legs need a bicycle with gears since we live in a hilly area and the cruiser is only good for level roads (at least this is what I tell Hubby).  I thought my vintage looking quilt would look pretty with my vintage looking bike; they go together, don't you think.

And another photo with my metal farm animals.  I've been wanting to use my metal goat, which I purchased when I was in South Carolina in April, for a photo shoot with one of my quilts and I thought my June Quilt which also has a farm vibe would look good with it.  I haven't named my goat yet but Mary Etherington suggested Susannah which is the name of her dearly loved and departed goat which when she was alive was how Mary and I became friends since I was such a fan of Susannah.  My hubby still talks about the time Susannah butted him and is just glad that this goat won't, so he thinks.  Since Mary did give me the happy green polka dot fabric, I should name my goat Susannah.  I also think since I have some blocks left over from the June Quilt, I should make a small quilt to place over her back and sides; won't that look cute?  I would love to keep my goat out on the front porch, decorated with quilts and all, but hubby is afraid of it disappearing because Susannah is just that cute.

I'm so glad I finally have a UFO quilt to cross off my list; would you believe it's only my second UFO finish for this year.  I have ten more on my list but won't be working on anymore for the rest of the month since my dear, sweet granddaughter, Micah, is arriving next week for a six-day visit which means there is no chance of quilting in the forecast.

Linking up with:  Tish Adventure in Wonderland, UFO Busting, Cooking Up Quilts, Main Crush Monday, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Oh Scrap!, My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday 

It's Squirrel Time!

By squirrels I don't mean the four-legged ones, but I'm referring to the image many of us quilters envision when it's time to play in the sewing room.  I had to laugh at myself when I first saw Louise's latest post title: A Whole Family of Squirrels and really thought she was going to show some actual squirrel photos.  It started me wondering how they got on her boat but quickly realized after seeing the first quilt photo she meant quilt projects. I've been busy catching up on my QALs this past week and am now in pretty good shape so it's time for me to let the Squirrels in for some DrEAMi projects. But before you see my squirrels, I should show you my progress on the three QALs which I'm currently am participating in.  This is going to be somewhat of a long post for me but I figure since I'll be leaving for vacation later this week, I may not be posting again for awhile.

Classic Meet Modern QAL (hosted by Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation)

May Blocks:  Crossroads (right) and Double Arrow (left)

June Blocks:  X-Plus (left) and Ribbon Star (right)

The Classic Meets Modern Quilt so far:

I am now ahead of schedule and will link up my June Blocks later this month.  I am loving the way the quilt is looking and I am really tempted to sew the July Blocks now.

Plus Playtime Quilt Along (hosted by Sandra of MMM Quilts)

This QAL started on May 1st and as of June 1st all I had done was choosing the fabric. I was gifted with a shopping spree at The Red Hen Shop where I found the wonderful gold print (upper right corner), RJR's Confetti Basic which reminds me of the color of a Crayola Crayon box and was the perfect color for the main background color.  Once I had this fabric in place, the other fabrics came together quickly which are from several fabric lines:  Lily and Loom's Square One, several Indah and Mixology prints which were used in Sandra's Free Fall QAL from last year.  And like the Free Fall quilt, I didn't have enough of the other background fabric and so I made do with two different blue prints:  AGF Allover Bartack Printed Denim and Wilmington's Navy Essential Tossed Triangles (upper left corner).

With my color diagram which I sort of followed, Sandra's instructions carefully read and marked with notes, and the strips numbered, I first proceeded cautiously and made the first block.  I really had to pay attention to all of this because it was easy to be confused since the blue background in Sandra's instructions were going to be gold in my blocks and the yellow background in her's were going to be blue.  In addition, I alternated the blues and had to make sure I used the right blue for each strip.

OMG, was this a fun block even with all of the nuances I created.  

I was so hooked after I made the first row which is all I needed to do to be on schedule. This is such a fun pattern and sews together very quickly; once you get into a rhythm, you get into a zone.   I didn't want the fun to end but I had to go to bed since it was 1:00 a.m.  I decided I needed to finish the quilt the next day because I knew it would be hard to resume the rhythm process and get back into the zone.

I have a flimsy now which means I am ahead of schedule of this QAL.  I love the colors and believe me when I tell you the yellow pluses are not as fluorescent as they are in this photo.  I will say after I made the first row and did not like the last plus block I made with a blue and white print, I did not hesitate to rip it out and change it to another blue with less white because I knew it would bug me later.  There are a few other pluses I would have like to switch around but can live with the way my Plus Playtime quilt turned out. This pattern is so clever and while I was making the blocks I kept wondering how ever did Sandra came up with this idea.  The Shadow Quilter, so aptly named by Kathleen, deserves the Nobel Piece Prize for this pattern. It's really good for the brain cells and I really know my increments of threes now. It can be addicting--after I was done, I really wanted to make another one right away but sadly will have to wait another day. I am looking forward to hanging this quilt up once it's been machine quilted--I already know there will be straight and curvy lines involved.

Fireburst Mystery Quilt Along hosted by Tish's Adventure in Wonderland

I really did not think I would have time to start working on this QAL which started also on May 1st, with days left before we hit the road, but I surprised myself.  The fabrics were chosen last month which are from my Lonni Rossi and gray stash but sat on the shelf until Sunday.  This QAL really has an easy schedule since completion is until January 1st and I could have waited but cutting directions have been out since May 4th and piecing instructions just released last week.

I will say that I'm glad I was behind schedule and did not do the cutting until Sunday, because I realized when I was reading the piecing instructions that the above patches could be die-cut and that's what I did.  Thank you to my Sizzix HST and trapezoid dies.  Once again I learned my lesson when die-cutting non HST patches, like the trapezoid and HRT, you have to pay attention how the fabric lays on the die, it's all facing up or facing down depending on the direction.  You cannot fanfold the fabrics like you can with HST.

I'm now on schedule with the Fireburst Mystery QAL and there's no way that I can get ahead since after all it's a mystery quilt and the instructions are only released once a month.  I think I read somewhere that Tish could be bribed with chocolates.

During the midst of working on these QALS, I did find time, since it involved TV watching and upstairs sewing, I worked on these two DrEAMi projects which happened because I came across the fabrics while tidying up the studio:  Ernie strips made from Denyse Schmitz fabrics and lots of green HRTs inspired by a recent acquisition of some green batiks from Sandra of MMM Quilts. She has once again enabled me with another project by with some my collection of green fabrics given to me over the years from my dear Quilt Partner-in-Crime, Carol.  I'm thinking of creating another title for Sandra: Master MMM-nabler; really she has released some squirrels in my studio several times this year.

And finally, I have a new road project which involves appliquéing 2" feedsack circles made years ago onto 3-1/2" squares. Recognize them, Susan? I'll be carrying this project in my vintage Moda oversized, metal lunch box which makes a pretty good base when appliquéing in the car.  I couldn't decide on what I wanted to bring or to make while on the road this time and I thought I wanted to work with new fabrics but the feedsack circles spoke to me when I came across them, again, when I was putting something away. My plan is to make nine patch blocks with these circle blocks and hopefully I will be able to share a test block soon.

Now, it's time to say That's All Folks!  Sorry for writing such a long post but I am feeling a sense of freedom with the QALs done for now and I have time to work on other projects before any new squirrels find their way into my studio.  I'll be busy but am in a Happy Sewing frame of mind and hope this will last awhile. And now the mountains are calling me and I must sew, whoops, I mean go.

Linking up with:  Cooking Up Quilts, Main Crush Monday, My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

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Fun and Done: The Chicago Cubbies Baby Quilt

When I first started working on the baby quilt this week, I didn't know what the gender of the baby-to-be but I knew the baby was going to a future Chicago Cubs fan.  The Chicago Cubbies Baby Quilt is for the son of Mary, one of my closet peep, who I swear it was only yesterday he was sitting in the backseat of his mother's car slurping his ice cream and driving me nuts but that's what little boys do.  

Knowing that he and his wife are big Chicago Cubs Fans and one day will be starting a family, I purchased these Chicago Cubs fabrics several years ago right after their wedding and these two pieces have been sitting in my stash waiting to be used.  I mentioned in a previous post that I find it challenging when I make a quilt with only a few fabrics, and this one was no exception.  Thankfully again, I had the right shade of red and the dot fabric, which is from my Crazy Mom's Good Neighbor stash and was the perfect shade and scale. Sad to say, the red dot print is almost depleted, there's no more to be bought,  but I have enough to make another Cubbie Quilt for myself since I love this quilt.

I had the perfect pattern to showcase the fabrics, the the Jungle Crosswalk Baby Quilt which I just made earlier this year for the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Quilt Blog Hop.  I made some modifications to this pattern as follows:

• only one focus print (3/4 yard) was used for the blocks (Yes Shannon, it does work)
• only two prints (one yard of each) were used for the checkerboard squares
• the blocks finished 8", so the focus print was cut 4-1/2" x 8-1/2" and the strips were cut 2-1/2", twenty-five blocks were sewn, thirteen of Type A and 12 of Type B and set with a five by five layout
• a 2" finished border was added after the top was made since I thought the quilt would look boring without it and once I found out the baby-to-be was a girl, I knew I could add more red dots to this quilt
• this quilt measures 44" square and I was able to use the WOF of the other Cub fabric since it was 60" wide.

Since I added the border to this quilt, I wasn't looking forward to having to bury all of the threads when I quilted each row/pass.  While I was basting the quilt, I had the bright idea that I could still do edge-to-edge quilting since the border was only 2" and I like how it looks.  As with the Jungle Crosswalk Baby Quilt, I just did simple quilting with diagonal crosshatch lines and stitch in the ditch around each block with red thread.

It's a good thing that I am a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan having grown up several miles from Wrigley Fields.  Otherwise, this quilt which screams Chicago Cubs would not have been so fun to make, like the time I made a quilt with Chicago White Sox fabric for a gift. This is the last of the baby quilts needed to be made and I am now ready to work on the QALs, which I am so far behind, but only for a short time since we leave for another vacation next week.  After that,  I will be free for big time Summer Sewing. Yay!

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

A Finally Finish: The Mauve-lous Panda Quilt

I love going on vacation, especially when it involves spending time with my Granddaughter Micah, but I really miss leaving my studio. I always bring a road project but it just not the same, is it? With that being said, I am SO behind on my QALs but before I can start working on them, I have a lot of baby busyness which needs to get done first. The Mauve-lous Panda Quilt, which was finally finished yesterday, is for "T" who is the owner of the local nail salon I go to and she is expecting her baby girl on June 1st.  I finished this quilt with days to spare.  In April, I had told "T" that I wanted to make a quilt for her baby and we were discussing themes which I am so glad we did. I was prepared to make her an Owl quilt, a popular baby theme, which to my surprise would have been a no-no since her family is from Vietnam and Owls would not be appropriate for a baby quilt since it symbolizes death according to her husband.  So "T" and I decided that Panda Bears would be a better choice and I was so glad to have found the mauve Panda print by Makower's from their Flo's Friends line.

I came up with this pattern because, pardon the pun, I couldn't bear to cut up the Panda's into small patches.  I was going to use nine patches for the sashing strips between the Panda panels but then I realized that I had the Checkerboard Express Block that I designed for Moda's Countdown to Christmas QAL last year which would be more interesting. I spent more time on finding the right fabrics for the sashing strips and backing since I knew I had to have had the fabrics in my stash than making the quilt itself. Personally, I feel if you are going to use less than five different fabrics in your quilt, they all have to play nice with each other; the colors just have to snap as I like to say. I really hunted through my Pink and Green stash to find the right shades. I used a Moda "Coral Rose" Grunge for the checkerboard and a Jade Green Dot from Benartex purchased many moons ago with a black and white gingham print and sure was glad I had enough of all three to make the sashing strips.

I quilted a combination of vertical organic lines with horizontal straight and crosshatch lines on the sashing strips and chose to use White Aurifil thread for the quilting which blended very nicely with the colors in the quilt.  

And yay for finding this sweet pink and black ric/rac stripe for the backing in my forever stash. This quilt measures 40"x42" so I was able to use WOF with an inch to spare on each side.  I'll be happily dropping off  the Mauve-lous Panda quilt to "T" this week.

As I mentioned before about my baby busyness, Micah will be visiting me this weekend since she will be attending the high school graduation party of our grandniece and getting to meet some family members who have not yet the little sweetie.  We'll also be dropping off the Jungle Crosswalk Baby Quilt to our niece, the mother of the high school graduate, who is expecting a baby boy in August.

  

I am so excited about seeing Micah so soon since it will only be six days since I've last seen her; usually it's weeks between visits.  Remember the Dot Is Crazy Quilt I made for her to use on her play porch?  I've committed a major Grandmother Quilt Crime by taking back the quilt since I found out after I had laid the quilt on the bench that her mother intended to leave it out all the time on their uncovered and unsecured front porch.  This may explain Micah's sad face in this photo knowing that Grandma was not going to let her keep the quilt.  I know that once a quilt is given away, the recipient is free to use it as desired but I'm sorry, I could not bear to see this quilt possibly getting ruined or stolen by outside forces. And it has nothing to do with my Mother's Day gift from Micah, a book about a Grandmother's Quilts which my DIL was so excited to give me. Unfortunately, she didn't read the story first because when Micah and I were reading the first page, the grandmother had passed away.  It should be no surprise that the book was taken back by the DIL.

There is a replacement quilt for the Dot Is Crazy quilt which is one I made several years ago as a test to see if fleece could be used instead of batting which happily worked out very well.  The nice thing is that fleece unlike batting does not need to be quilted as much and washes very well.  It's a nice, fluffy quilt, very colorful, the main focus print is from Joann's which I still have some left and I won't feel so bad if this quilt gets abused or goes missing because I can always make another one with the same fabrics.  This quilt will be going home with Micah, hopefully with no complaints.

I only have one more baby quilt to make by next weekend and then I can resume working on my QALs (Classic Meet Modern, Adult Playtime Plus and the Fireburst Mystery QAL and maybe I can get sidetracked by a DREAMi project which I also have started a few of them.  There is always something for me to sew which is good, right?

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

My Fassett Fab Four

I've now have four quilts with Kaffe Fassett fabrics which are finally finished for the year so far with this past weekend's finally finish of the Kaffe Appliqué Quilt.  I wrote about this quilt on my Farewell to Fassett February post which I detailed the finishing of the top after being an UFO for several years.  

I don't do a lot of appliqué quilts but for some reason when this Going Green pattern by Darlene Zimmerman was published by American Patchwork and Quilts in February, 2011, I decided I was going to make two of them, one in feedsack fabrics and the other in Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  The feedsack version was finished around three years ago and after that the Kaffe version was an on and off again project.  This quilt wasn't even on any of my project lists or 2018 but somehow I caught a bug to finally finish it probably due in part to the other three Kaffe Fassett Quilts finishes.  And now the fraternal twin quilts are together at last.  Both of these quilts measure 66" square.

I quilted the Kaffe quilt the same way as I did with the feedsack quilt with diagonal lines on the pieced blocks and quilting in the ditch around each block with black thread.  (Why is it when you quilt in the ditch, you always go off in the area where it will show the most, in this case the blue blocks.)  I also sewed a coconut button in the center of each appliqué block to go with the tropical feel of this quilt.

And look at the fun backing I found in my stash which I bought yards of it maybe ten years ago.  I'm glad I finally am able to use it, and I still have some left; I think I may have bought the entire bolt.  I'm pretty sure it was on sale.

Here are my Fassett Fab Four and am pretty amazed that these were finally finishes for this year  and it's only May. This has happened in my quilting past when I always find myself in a Kaffe Fassett phase, never a rut, and I just have to force myself to stop using his fabrics. Once again, I am finding that I should take a Fassett Hiatus (say that five times real fast) or for that matter just a break from any sewing which I will do next week.  I'll be vacationing with my darling granddaughter Micah and her parents and I do not plan on doing any sewing.  But I will bring my forever 30's hexie project with me just in case I start getting antsy.  Who knows, I might finally finish this project.  

And the sewing respite will be brief because upon my return I'll have to kick into high QAL mode because I'll have some catching up to do with the Classic Meet Modern (hosted by My Quilt Infatuation), Adult Playtime Plus (hosted by MMM Quilts) and Fireburst Mystery (hosted by Tish N Wonderland) QALs.  All of the links to these QALs are on my sidebar.  I can't seem to get enough of participating in QALs because there's two more coming up this summer:  Christa Watson's Dot Dot Dash and Meadow Mist Designs and Quilted Blooms' Modern Plus Sampler.  It's just hard to pass up good QALs.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

The Regatta Quilt is a Finally Finished.

I thought I should finally finish my Regatta Quilt, a.k.a as the Whitewater River Rafting Quilt before I started two new QALs:  MMM Quilts Adult Playtime Plus QAL and Tish's Adventures in Wonderland Fireburst Mystery QAL.  I finished the top back in January but was in no hurry to quilt it since this was a "no pressure" QAL as the host Roseanne of Homesewn By Us gently suggested.  I had to take a photo of my Regatta Quilt with my collection of wooden sea birds as a shoutout to Louise who quilts on a boat since I was telling her "ya gotta regatta!"

Some of the reasons I participate in QALs are if I like the pattern and if I already have the fabric I can use to reduce the stash.  The Regatta Quilt was a double whammy because I loved the pattern because it used 2.5" strips, my favorite, and that I had the denim blue Aged Muslin sitting in my stash for several years now and the other fabric was the leftover from my Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt made several years ago and which I used Amy Ellis' Modern Neutral fabric line from Moda.

My Regatta quilt measures 51" x 74" which is six inches less in width that the Regatta pattern designed by Studio M.  I decided not to follow the construction method and instead cut my strips to size which would have worked had I not cut some of the strips wrong coupled with sewing all of the strips together in one direction rather than alternating them like you're suppose to to avoid wonkiness which is what I ended up with.  In order to square up the quilt, I needed to trim 6" from the width and the quilt still needs some stretching in order for the sides to  be straight  Yikes, how embarrassing.  I almost wanted to rename this quilt to Seasick.  If you read my Throwback Thursday post, this could be my new picnic quilt.  But then it's also the perfect size to take to our local movie theater which has the comfy reclining seats and the air conditioning is cranked up during the Summer so both my hubby and I can share for snuggling.  I've been known to fall asleep during a movie because I'm just that comfortable.  I'm also planning to take the Whitewater River Rafting quilt when we go on our Colorado vacation this summer and hoping to take some photos of the quilt by the river.

Here's a close up of the quilting: a combination of straight lines with curvy lines in between which is becoming my favorite to use with strip quilts.  Also, my new quilting friend are the Schmetz Microtex Sharp needles  which I used since the Aged Muslin has a very tight weave.

I was hoping to take a photo of the quilt laying on the grass but we had torrential rainstorms last night so Hubby suggested he hold it up instead.  I really need a clothesline .  I almost got Hubby to put up patio fencing but then he mentioned it would block my view of the squirrels who visit us every day to partake in the lovely nut spread we leave out for them.  That idea was quickly kaboshed because I couldn't have that, squirrels are an important part of my quilt being for Dreami projects.  I just came up with a thought this week that the number of squirrels in my yard at one time would be the number of Dreami projects I can be working on so today there were five of them.  But, before I can start on them, I need to get some other quilts on my UFO list quilted.  BTW, we've had more than five squirrels at one time.

Happy Quilting!

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

Throwback Thursday: The Picnic Quilt

Since May is the month of Mothers' Day, I thought my May Post for Throwback Thursday should be about a quilt which brings back Quilt Mom Memories, the Picnic Quilt made at least twenty years ago.  When I first mentioned to my Hubby that I wanted to write about this quilt, he knew which quilt I was talking about and even knew it by name.  But then he made me panic when he said he hasn't seen it for awhile and I really had to remain calm.  It wasn't in the car or the garage like I thought it was but then realized several years ago I moved it to my studio so it wouldn't get tossed or lost. Whew, this made me take a few deep breaths. It's one of the first quilts I made when I started quilting but not until I first made each my two boys a bed quilt because that's what a quilter should make before anything else, right?

I didn't start quilting until my boys were respectively around 13 and 9 years old which I think I was pretty fortunate since they were somewhat self-sufficient and left me alone when I was quilting.  I should mention that the boys had Mario Brothers to play with also. My two boys, in fact, were pretty receptive to my quilting even when I exercised Quilter Mom Eminent Domain and took over the upstairs TV/Computer/Toy room which was next to their bedrooms and was renamed The Quilt Room.  It really was no problem since the basement was after all finished and the computer was moved to the never used formal dining room which was good for me to keep an eye on their computer use while I was in the kitchen.  I used to cook back then.

I still remember when both of my boys were in my quilt room, kneeling on the floor next to each other, watching me use the rotary cutter to cut off the legs of my oldest son's ripped khaki pants to turn them into shorts.  Mike, my youngest, with his mouthful of bubble gum turned to his brother, Tom and said "aren't you glad you have a mom who quilts."  Mike is the one who blurted out quite a few memorable lines when he was young; my favorite being, when when were going out to dinner at a local buffet restaurant and we're walking in the parking lot and he said, "I'm so hungry, I can eat TWO all you can eats." This same Mike also committed the worse quilting travesty by using my rotary cutter to trim a photo he was going to use on his Science Fair board when I was not home.  He did not quite grasp the knowledge that anything under the rotary cutter is going to get cut too and laid the photo on top of a just appliquéd lady bug block which happened to be laying on the board.  He never did that again; I made sure I never left my rotary cutter laying around after that.  And not to leave out my oldest son, Tom, out of my Quilt Mom memories of him is he was recanting to me a discussion he was having with his then wife, now an ex, about their bedding and her wanting a down comforter and he telling her his preference by saying "I grew up sleeping under handmade quilts" which just warmed my heart even though he was off by a decade.

Getting back to the Picnic Quilt which is in a sorry stage now, is made up of mostly Tom and Mike's old blue jeans and madras summer shorts which at that time they had outgrown with some batiks, plaids, denim and fun fabric from my stash.  The utility side of quilting appealed to me so I remember cutting the tumblers out individually and then hand piecing the tumblers together during numerous weekend road trips and watching TV.  The rows and the blue batik border were sewn by machine.  I guess this really isn't a quilt but a throw since I only backed it with denim and there is no batting in between, but for the sake of this memory, it is a quilt.  It was always meant to be a picnic quilt kept in the car in case we needed it to put over a picnic table or to lay on the ground and it was used for that reason many times.

Here are closeups of the fabric and patches and as you can see, some of the hand pieced patches has fallen apart and were mended with some real noticeable stitching and some of the patches from the boys' jeans included grass and mud stains--see the big green arrow on the right. I still love the multi-color denim print with the purple and green which was from a pair of muscle pants, a popular style back then for boys and it's hard to believe the print is over twenty-years old and still looks cool.

My best and favorite memory of the Picnic Quilt is when I was making it and sitting in front of the sewing machine with the patches strewned all around, Mike was walking past the Quilt Room, popped his head in, gave a cursory glance at what I was doing, made a quick, subjective interpretation and then ran down the stairs. Mike, being the Gallant to his brother, the Goofus who was probably laying down on the couch watching TV (if you've read Highlight Children Magazine while at the doctor or dentist office like forever as I have, you know what I'm talking about) was yelling, "Tom, Tom, you gotta pick up your clothes off your floor, Mom's cutting them up and making a quilt; she must be out of material!”. I am hearing this and my mind was responding, I am?, no, I'm not, these are old clothes you've outgrown, is that what you think I'm doing and if that's what it takes to clean your room, then I am.  I had to chuckle about Mike thinking I was out of material.  Did you notice the usage of the word "material" which at that time was what it was called back 20+ years ago and soon after I started working at a Quilt Shop, I quickly adapted the more proper word to say and write "fabric".

There are times when I wish my boys were little again, probably when I feel the years creeping up over my mind and body and when I see Tom and Mike facing grown-up problems which we don't want our kids to have, but that's life.  If there's a quilt I want to hold on to for the memories of my boys when they were little, it would be the Picnic Quilt.  It will always hold a special place in my quilt memories and will remind me that I'm a Quilt Mom who has two boys who love quilts...and also someone who still has not yet ran out of material.

Linking up with:  MMM Quilts, Throwback Thursday