President's Quilt traditions

Our quilt guild makes blocks for each outgoing president at some point during that next year and we give them as a thank you gift to that member.  This year we each made a scottie dog block. The dogs are all black (solid or dark print) with bright colors. We each had the same background white dot.  At our quilt show this summer we had a display and a "bed turning" of president's quilts.

This is my block and you can see that we sign them as well.  We presented these blocks last week at our December guild meeting.  It will be fun to see what she does with them.

More travel pillows

More of the kid's travel pillows are ready for gifting.  I think this makes 17 of them in the past few weeks and I just might have to make more of them.  So quick and fun.

More traveling star blocks coming soon

I've fallen a little behind making my Traveling Star blocks using the 6" squares shared by guild members after a trip.  Last month I think we got 5 squares, and this month we got 4 more.

The front 2 fabrics were from a couple of ladies who had just been to Israel. The blue one represents peacocks which was an important memory of the trip. The other has beautiful script in the background. The 2 fabrics in the back are from Wyoming (I hope I'm right).  

I just love this practice. Members have made some gorgeous scrappy quilts using these squares. My Traveling Stars blocks will make a beautiful scrappy quilt. And it will always be a wonderful memory of my guild friends.

Friendship quilt

A dear friend, fellow educator and fellow quilter, has just retired and 4 of us got together to make her a quilt to celebrate.  Sylvia loves cardinals, so our choice was this birch tree and cardinal design. There is a cardinal for each of us - making 5 total.  Yesterday was her big retirement party and we presented this to her there.  

I was so excited to finish this and give it to her. Each of the 4 of us made 3 birch tree blocks. Then the blocks headed 300 miles away to one friend who appliqued the cardinals. Next the blocks all came back to me and I cut all of the borders. Three of us got together to arrange the layout, and one took it all home to sew the rows together and add the borders.  Two gals picked out the backing and delivered it to the quilter (beautiful job).  Then I added the binding on Friday, finishing it up about 3 hours before the party.

I added a small label on a back corner, but we've talked about each of us signing a cardinal on the front.  And I'm hoping that the honored recipient's husband got a couple of good pictures of her with the quilt.  This was definitely a project filled with friendship and love.  

Birds of a feather

When I saw this song bird fabric I just knew I wanted to use it to make an apron.  Loving the soft colors in this and had a hard time deciding which coordinated print to use with it. The plaid ended up being a good choice because it blends in nicely instead of standing out. And these little heart shaped buttons actually feel like tree bark.  

My girls

I love my smart and beautiful girls! It has been really great having them and their families so close all of these years. But life changes, and the younger daughter's family has just moved 300 miles west to the Black Hills.  We will just have to plan ahead when we want to see them, instead of spur of the moment visits. 

Design Wall Monday

My Sunday evening sewing included finishing the final 4 Heartstrings blocks for this set.  I laid them out this morning on the family room floor so that I can rearrange these into rows without similar strings meeting up.  The top will then be mailed off to a Heartstrings volunteer to quilt or tie, and then donate to a worthwhile location.

My 2015 set of Heartstrings blocks are going to be black and white, with either pink or bright center strings.  I'm leaning right now to using several different bright colors for those centers, or go with just pink scrappy centers.  Either one will be fun.

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.