Superstar

Last week Monday was surgery, instead of going into rehab I was such a superstar patient I was sent home.  Lucky for me my hubby is taking 3 weeks off to help take care of me and the girls.  

 Flowers from my baby girl who is traveling

Now onto quilting things~ I have had time to read so many more blogs with all this non sewing time, I have 20-30 I read every week.  With all this extra time on my hands I have ventured out into some new territory, a silver lining to my week of torture.  Do you have any favorites that I can add to my list during recuperation?

 

Our New Quilt Bloggers Bee October block was sent this week, it's going to be a maple leaf block.  I LOVE MAPLE LEAVES!  My childhood home had such a gorgeous maple tree I picked October to get married so I could use it as a backdrop.  The weather was beautiful and my tree was perfect that weekend.
 

My wedding day

After checking out my wedding album I decided I could at least pick out some fabrics, I REALLY WANT TO SEW.  I can easily cut out squares on my spinning 12" cutting board on my lap while still elevating and icing my knee right?

fabric pull

We have the option to do either two 12" blocks or one 18" block.  Our queen liked the gold, orange and red so I am making her all three.  Kate was able at the last minute to move her month from November to October to fill in for a member who has yet to make any blocks. BIG THANK YOU KATE!

 

18" Block

12" Block

 

12" Block

 

The burgundy/red one is I need to revisit at the sewing machine.  Each of the squares are a perfect 6 1/2" square~ but its not as flat as it should be?  Its not the difference in fabric, the gray is Kona cotton and the burgundy/red is quilt shop cotton (Joel Dewberry) MmmMmmm, I will figure it out before I send it off.

 

The orange one I need to look for a solid to compliment the leaf as a stem.  Sometimes I think I have more solids than prints so it shouldn't be a problem

 

 

Ice, ice elevate

Pam

Pause

Well I was able to work on one WIP over the weekend.  It was a pop up on my FB feed from an Aurifil LIKE featuring Spoon Full of Sugar blog the " Folded Star mat"  I decided I didn't want mine to be round, so I am still playing with it

I already had Christmas fabrics out from working on Bee blocks.  It could be interesting, Christmas is my favorite holiday to decorate for. 

For now I am at a pause,  I will be reading all your wonderful sewing/quilting with envy while I will be joining a team for my adventures in rehab.  On Monday after putting it off for 2+ years I finally had my knee replaced.  Now to get through the worst of it before the better and yay I received pretty flowers to brighten my room.

I will be reading!

Ice, ice elevate!

Pam

Revealing the Secret

I know, I know everyone wanted a picture of what I was making last week. Well until I knew it was delivered I really couldn't without breaking the surprise.  The gift is for my beautiful niece and her husband who were just married "Congratulations" Rosemary & John!

The quilt pattern is Pixelated Heart found on the Blue Elephant Stitches blog, plus I added my own little twist.  Now you know I can not make a pattern exactly as written, that so would not be "Wilde" it had to be done and I like how it turned out.

I used all medium scrappy 4 1/2" squares for the heart and a mix of creams and white for background.  The quilt also contains a couple of special pieces, you may be able to tell from this picture that there are two small hearts within the large heart.  I did this by layering fabric and batting on each side of the main batting UNDER the top piece.

Once I placed them where I thought they should go within the heart, I basted them in place.  Using the window I was able to double check the placement before layering the sandwich. (Top-batting-backing). I did the same thing to add a second set of hearts on to the back

For the backing I added a pink solid triangle to write a message to the couple before attaching the binding.

 

I also wrote a wish to the couple inside the binding, other than this picture I expect it never to be seen.  You see it is within a triple layer of fabric - love is magical and wishes do come true I believe ~ I wanted it to be there without showing



May your lives be joined together like the pieces of this quilt, filled with love, joy and happiness  
 XOXO Aunt Pam Wilde

The  back shows the hearts both with a slight change in color and texture due to 3 layers of batting.  To complete the quilt a triangle pocket was added hiding the personal message, it wasn't necessary I just prefer a clean finish to the overall look of my quilts.

In the blogosphere there are a couple of quilt patterns often used for weddings, with the addition of my hearts, I think this is my new favorite.

XOXO  HAPPY COUPLE

Aunt Pam :)

 

linking to my favorites Quilt Story, Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced

It's a secret

I am again so glad I read blogs!

Sounds strange as an opening line, yet so true.  When I first retired two years ago adding new blogs to my list was a highlight to my daily routine.  Of course at the beginning it was ALL food blogs as my little girl was a food blogger, it is easy to spider off of great reads.

Then when I started quilting I added quilty blogs.  This is the only reason I saved my scraps to cut into squares later.  Love a good tip and may I just say a little Yay!   Now I am feeling extra good I did all the trimming on my summer vacation.  You see on Sunday I decided I wanted to drop everything and make a gift.  After getting some reccomendations on a pattern I got started.  

 

With the trimming part already done my project came together quickly, unfortunately since the receipent and this gift are still a secret, I did a little magic on the next photo.

It's called the "Toon" app, changing it into a cartoon- can't give it away quite yet.  As soon as it is received I promise to share.

So I guess my take away is to save your scraps and trim them up, you never know when you need to do a quick project.  (Not the final project I didnt show you)

Ok, that was a little fun.

 

For those of you who so kindly sent good thoughts to my Izzie girl, she is feeling better.  Still on medication, she is now giving her sister some much missed playtime.

 

 

My girl

I don't post many puppy pictures on my blog but this girl has most of my attention this week so she gets top billing. You see my Izzie girl hasn't been feeling well and just wants to cuddle, even her sister bringing her toys has done little to perk her up.  A trip to the vet confirms she has a UTI so hopefully a few days of medication should bring her back to her fearless spunky self.  Bella and I will both stick close till she's back to herself, taunting her sister to play.

The little sewing I have been able to do consisted of Bee Blocks to get ahead of myself.  

To finish up the "Feathers" quilt top I decided it needed another size feather so I made some minis to fill in the open spots and to throw off the symmetry.  

 

Once I had them all in I made one more to add to the border to make it look like an extension of the tail.  The colors around the outside are a 1/4" thick, since the Michael Miller challenge I have been obsessed with 1/4" piping.  

I will do what I can this week to ditch all the feathers then move on to the free-motion tree I will create within the piecing.

Off to cuddle with my girls, cant leave anyone out of the cuddles.

Linking up with my favorites Lets Bee Social and Freshly Pieced WIP's

Update

(hint on who is who- Izzie wears purple and Bella pink)