A Bee Block Finish!

A Bee Block Finish! Sometimes we just need time! Here is Sandy's bee block finish from way back! Old post here.  I love how she finished off her quilt!

It is definitely worth a snuggle up!

Sandy says: I haven't kept a quilt for us in a long time, so I'm looking forward to snuggling up in this one, drinking coffee, and reading a book.  

I may just do that every morning!

Patty's Tea Towel Finish

Patty A. sent me a follow up as she just finished her Tea Towel Challenge from way back!  I still love seeing what you are finishing or making inspired from this site!  Beautiful finish Patty!!

From Patty: I finally got mine done!  Fabrics used - the waistband from a pair of Irish linen men's pants, Belgium linen, Essex cotton/linen, vintage Maremekko, shot cotton, Kaffe Fasset print, vintage drapery cotton, an Australian cotton print (binding), and a piece of hand dye shibori linen (on the back with the rest of the vintage drapery cotton).

Better late than never!

Her original posts are here:

http://www.15minutesplay.com/search?q=Patty+A.

You can still email me your finished projects...

infovfwquilts at gmail dot com 

Even though this site has gone quiet, there is oodles of good stuff here!  Feel free to browse, and always give credit where credit is due.  Thank you!

Friends!!

Just when you thought it couldn't get any cuter! The Giraffe has friends!! AMAZING!

Cyndi says:
I love anything African and have been collecting everything scrappy that could possibly represent the colors and patterns of Africa.  After making the giraffes I felt like it wasn't complete - that it needed something added to it.  Jonas and I went through all the African animal choices (I nixed his tongue-in-cheek idea of a mother baboon picking nits off her baby) and we settled on elephants.  He designed the silhouettes and I did the rest, using many of the same fabrics as the giraffe quilt.  I love the "made fabric" method of quilting and already have my next idea for a larger quilt made with these interesting, unique and awesome blocks!

Adorable Giraffe!

Cyndi Z Made this adorable made fabric quilt and added Giraffe Silhouettes
and she is making a partner quilt with elephants as well!  SO SWEET! I love it!

My husband and I love African-themed quilts.  I have a large basket of small scraps of prints that I use in my quilts that are not officially African in nature but evoke to me the color and vibrancy of Africa.  I did not know what to do with all of my small scraps until I received your book as a birthday present last year!  It was the perfect solution for me.  My husband drew up the mom and baby silhouettes and I used diluted Liquid Thread (my favorite way to add applique to a piece) to secure them until I was able to quilt them down.  We live in a small 100 year old farmhouse in NH.  All 7 of our children have grown and gone and we are down to living contentedly with our 5 cats. 

Thank you for sharing this with us Cyndi! You made great use of your made fabric in a new and unique vision!

something to talk about...

RESOLVE 

WONKY XMAS CABIN detail

Resolve
This first piece was started by Mary Ann H., a contributor here at 15 Mins of Play as well as being a member of  the Add A Border group over at Flickr. She made the starter for the ugly fabric challenge issued by Victoria a number of years ago and donated the block to the AAB group for the 2013 New Years Resolution Challenge. I received it and made my additions and unwillingly sent it back into the group, even though I really wanted to keep it. The next person, Heidi @ Red Letter Quilts added more and really did a great job keeping the mood and style of the piece. I luckily managed to get it back into my possession and I got to finish it very close to what I had envisioned.
 I felt a real connection to the piece and was so glad that it came back to me!
I am planning lots of big stitch hand quilting with various threads on this one.

 WONKY XMAS CABIN

Wonky Xmas Cabin is another quilt resulting from the Add A Border group. This time I made the starter which I really did not like at all and sent it in to the group. As the others started adding rounds, I was very intrigued at the direction it was taking.
When the group was done with it, I requested it and proceeded to add the crazy Christmas patchwork fabric that a friend had given me and challenged me to use!      
I love letters so I added them and then wanted to add some wonky snowflakes.

 It was pure, liberated fun and I am so happy every time I look at this quilt!

Sarah W's quilt

Sarah W, sent me this image of a quilt made for a friends wedding using made fabric and pieced letters! ;-)

Brights and Lights

This quilt includes a lot of my 15 Min Play 4.5" crumb blocks.  I have quilted it very heavily to make sure none of the tiny seams come apart.

Fun Circles!

Sunny K's completed quilt based on the technique taught by Victoria Findlay Wolfe at the November 2014 class at Minnesota Quilters. Sunny calls the quilt Crop Circles.

Thank you for sharing with us, Sunny!

Mimi's Project...

This was a Mimi's work from the class I taught  at IQSCM" QUILT HOUSE" in Lincoln, NE, a d week ago...

Mimi sent me a few emails on her progress that I thought was fun to share...

Last week: 

Yesterday I attached all my dresdens and as I did, I remembered what you said about conjuring up happy memories from the past.  My dresden looked just like something my  Gammy would have had in her china.  She was an amazing seamstress but only did fine sewing: embroidery, smocked dresses for me etc.  So I knew I wanted my dresden to connect to Gammy.  So I searched through my basement and found 12 damask napkins that Gammy had monogrammed for her mother-in-law, my great grandmother, “Gee Gee.”  While they are around 100 years old, they have been cared for well and when I used to put on the dog for family and in-laws, I would use these napkins when I entertained, washing them immediately and ironing them and putting them away carefully.  It just so happens that I am Gee Gee’s namesake so  her monogram is MY monogram!

I found these napkins, set aside the few with worn holes etc and found several that didn’t have any problems and realized I was going to put my dresden on one!  I love how the outer points look, so I am not going to sew them down, instead, I am going to make radiating quilting out from the center, stitch in the ditch, avoiding the corner monogram.  Then I think I’m going to cut a monogram from another napkin and put it in the center with tiny piping of yellow around it.  At least that’s what I was planning in the middle of the night! Heh heh  (No one in my family entertains like this anymore so I don’t mind cutting up some of them, to give them renewed life in a different way.)

So while I love to do close quilting,  I plan to do stitch in the ditch and many not so much quilting.

The center monogram isn’t scaled and you can’t see the yellow much, but do you think appliquéing it to the center would be a good way to go.

Thanks again for the techniques you taught but also the idea that quilters can gain much joy from connecting themselves to family members from the past who deserve a type of resurrection!

Follow up: 

This weekend I finished my “Three Grandmothers” wall hanging.  I am happy how it turned out and think your recommendation of yellow for the piping/border was right on!  I am pleased to give my great grandmother’s damask napkin new light, especially since my grandmother hand embroidered our monogram on it to give to GeeGee as a gift.  I figure they are about 70 years old.  I cut up a second napkin for the monogram square in the center.  The yellow piping/binding is fabric that has all the different names for grandmothers.

Thanks for the inspiration and the encouragement to look back to the women who came before me.  As I sewed, I thought of them and how fascinating it would be if this napkin could talk!

Have a great week.

Mimi M.

Lincoln, NE

Thank you for sharing your journey Mimi! I love the thoughts that went into making your wallhanging!  Well done! It's a beautiful, heartfelt and special project!

~~

If you get a chance to go to QUILT HOUSE, please see my Traditions Made Modern Exhibit of Double Wedding Rings!

Pam's play!

Pam N. has been playing! I look forward to seeing what fun will become of these! She says,

 I've actually been working the past few mornings on these nine blocks. They will be 20-inch star blocks with blue background and orange/pink star points.

I really do enjoy this kind of playing with fabric. It seems to clear my head, but not just for other creative work. For me, it's a stress reliever when more serious things are on my plate.....   Thanks for all your inspiring posts.  You really take your SHARE word seriously!! Pam.

HAWAII

 Here is another completed quilt. 

The inspiration was the small block with the newspaper clipping,that I received from my Add-a-border group on flikr. 

I used 'made' fabric for the leaves and the  machine appliqued them.

  That long pieced strip on the left was made from the leftovers of the leaves that I could not bear to throw out!

It is big stitch quilted with perle cotton in different weights and hand dyed embroidery floss!

started Sept.2012 and finished Jan 2015

28 by 23 inches

(so sorry the pics are crappy)

Cut It Up

Several days ago I was working

on a block for a Quilts of Valor block drive.

It needed to be 10.5" and mine was too small.

So I thought I could increase the size 

by adding in a cross.

(top block)

That was not working to my satisfaction either.

Instead of tinkering with it further, I chopped it all up to make 

15 minutes made-fabric.

Voila!  A whole new block

which I happen to think is more dynamic!

(bottom block)