New Quilt Pattern and New Quilt

Last June I posted my progress on a quilt for my son and his fiance. Now I'll finish that story. The quilt is finished - ALL 1000+ square inches of it, completed with binding and label. Here's what the quilt required:

18 9" Ohio Star blocks

18 9" Indiana Puzzle blocks

49 4.5" Square in a Square blocks

(See photos of these blocks on the June 23, 2010 entry.)

In addition, the quilt required 84 4.5" x 9" diamond blocks like the one shown here. The diamond blocks will go between and surround the Ohio Stars and Indiana Puzzle blocks.

There was also a triple border which was dark brown on each side of the creme white center strip. This quilt top was much bigger than I wanted to try on my home sewing machine so I asked a friend who is in quilt guild with me to quilt it on her long arm machine. Besides, if I had tried quilting it, it would not have been finished in time for the October wedding. As you who are quilters know, once the quilting is finished, the quilt still isn't finished. There is still binding to put on and also a label to attach to the back. So that was my project this past weekend and several evenings as well. It's a long way around a 103" square quilt. (That's what it measured after quilting.) This quilt takes the prize for the largest quilt I've ever made.

Before the last bit of binding could be completed, I needed to print a label so that I could attach it on two sides as I put on the binding. Everyone who has seen this quilt has commented on the circular patterns (the quilters are reminded of the familiar weding ring pattern). So after much thought and study of the various patterns in this quilt, it was given a name - INDIANA AND OHIO RINGS. My kids like the symbolism in this quilt as my son was born in Indiana and his bride in Ohio.

Now, here is the photo of this quilt, designed on EQ5 using the requested colors of: eggplant, pumpkin, cranberry, chocolate and vanilla.

This quilt took me beyond my comfort level in both design and colors used. I don't think I would have chosen to work with all of these colors prior to designing and making this quilt but I'm very glad that I did. It was a joy to work on and I'm very pleased with the end result. I hope this quilt, once given to its new owners, brings much pleasure and enjoyment for years to come.

Tatted Heart

This little heart was made for the top of a wedding gift. The gift was being mailed and a fancy ribbon and/or bow just wouldn't make it and look nice when it arrived so I tucked in this little heart into the card as an extra little gift for the bride and groom. The beads are a yellow-gold color which was used on the wedding invitations. This pattern is the "Y-Knot Heart" from Hearts belong to Tatting by Karey Solomon.

"Something Old" butterflies

These butterflies were made to give to 2 brides to be, both of them getting married in Oct. I have made a butterfly for this poem several times and brides think they're pretty special and they have been used on wedding day. The butterflies were tatted with varigated with size 70 or 50 thread. Here's the little poem explanation that accompanied them:

Something Old - the art of tatting
Something New - a butterfly to represent new life with your spouse
Something Borrowed - this is yours only until you pass it along to a special person in your life
Something Blue - the thread from which this butterfly is made

Misc. Bookmarks

These are misc. bookmarks tatted while I was traveling this summer.

Tatted bookmark

I have been busy with both tatting and quilting but my blog has not been a priority the past 2 or 3 months. When you read the entries for Sept. 2010, you'll see what I've been so busy doing.

In July, our family had a family reunion. I made a bookmark like this one for each of the 3 members of the planning committee. I failed to get a photo of all of them prior to giving them away. They were all this pattern but were done in different colors. The bookmarks were much appreciated. The pattern for this bookmark is one from Lenore English.