Allie's Quilt Top is Finished

DD Allie just sent me more pictures of her "Going Around in Circles Again" quilt. She has now finished appliquing the circles and has it sandwiched, and will start the machine quilting on it in a couple of days. Tomorrow is market day for her - she goes to the Greenmarket in Union Square in NYC for Hawthorne Valley Farm, where she was an intern during the summer of 2007. On some Saturdays she goes to the Inwood Greenmarket too. In between these times she will be quilting away. I think she will be outlining the circles but don't know what else she will come up with. I think she has done a great job with adapting the double wedding ring pattern to make it her own.

Senior Center Gift Quilts Finished

Last Friday the quilting group that I lead at the Senior Center presented the two quilts we have been working on for months to the director and associate director of the Center. Both are the Turning Twenty pattern, one in blues - with a large lighthouse panel on the back - because the assoc. director likes blue, and reminds us of that every day we are there, and he likes lighthouses. We made this one for the director - I used some large pieces of sunflower print on the back - At the time we were making this one the director was involved in getting a raised garden going behind the building, so we thought lots of floral prints would be appropriate. These were both made out of fabrics donated to the Center. One of the members of our group has a long-arm, and though she didn't want to volunteer to quilt them both she was willing to show me how to use a pantograph so I quilted both of them. The quality of the quilting does not stand up to hers, but we got them done - and the recipients seemed to like them. If they suspected anything during those months we were working on them they were kind enough not to say so. I am hoping that the woman who took some pictures will send them to me so I can add them to my collection. Here are the labels -the is Ray's and this is Jeri's I was finishing up the labels about 2 hours before their monthly musical program at the Center! I had quilted Jeri's the previous Friday, and though the other ladies said they would help me bind it at our meeting on Wednesday, I decided I didn't want to ruin the surprise by having one of them ask who it was for at that late date, so I just did the binding - and the labels - myself.

Allie's "Going Around in Circles Again" Quilt

Allie is working on a new quilt - this one as a belated wedding gift for the niece of the family she works for in New York. She wanted to do a version of the double wedding ring, but different. Here is what she has so far. She is using a pattern called "Going Around in Circles Again" using scraps of blues and greens. The circles are paper-pieced, then machine-appliqued onto the background fabric. Here is a closer view - with some of the pins in. Here and here you can see the design even closer. I believe I recognize some of my fabrics! When Allie comes to Virginia she stays in our guest/sewing room and sometimes some of my fabrics make their way into her bags. She has been having more time to work on it recently since it is very definitely winter still in the Hudson Valley. I'm hoping she sends more photos soon!