News from the Homefront

 I did my periodic bed quilt change out yesterday.....

It brings me great joy to display quilts on beds.  :)

Also started a new project. A very special project. These beautiful red work embroidery blocks were made by my adopted brother's birth mother. He searched for her and found her a few years ago. Has gotten to know her and his half brothers and sisters. I'm so thankful they have accepted him into their family. You can never have too many people who love you! He told her I quilted and she gave them to him for me. She is soon to be 89. My brother just visited with us and when he left, I remembered that I told him I would make him a quilt. I pulled these out (he had given them to me on a previous visit a few years ago), and decided how to put them together for a quilt.  It's going to be beautiful, I think. And something he will treasure, I know.

I have 32 of the red work blocks, plus about 50 other embroidered blocks she made.  I may be making several quilts from these beautiful blocks. Always wanted to do a red and white quilt, so this is my chance.  Can't wait to see it unfold.....

Long arm quilting

 My long arm quilting machine is back up and running but now with a tablet and the QuiltEZ software to   automate the quilting.  There is a huge learning curve, I've discovered.  I like it, but I've made so many mistakes already and am having to figure out how to remedy or save the quilt.  So far, I haven't totally ruined a quilt yet, but the more I do, the more I realize I need to learn.  I practiced on a couple a small baby quilts. I created this fast little pattern a few weeks ago and submitted for publication but they were not selected.

I did some dense quilting on the pink one.

And some much looser quilting on the blue version.

I did a patriotic design of stars and stripes on this fun truck patriotic quilt, design by Erica Arndt.

Then I did some a swirly pantograph on my Grace quilt, made from a kit from Thimbleblossoms.

I love this next quilt so much!  Notice the hymn lines in some of the boxes.  It is called Guiding Stars and uses a fabric line called Songbook.  I finished this one for us, but have made another as a gift.

And because it it now October, let's put a fall quilt on the big bed.....

And my Songbook quilt will reside on the couch to cozy up with .....at least for a few weeks.

I don't do a whole lot of all decorating, but usually by cooler weather, I like to add a little 'fall' in the house.