Memory Quilts

I'm excited to show you the 2nd Metamorphosis quilt (by Lo & Behold Stitchery) I made for the 2nd oldest niece of my colleague and friend. You can read about their story and see the first quilt here. As with the first quilt, the wings of the butterflies are pieced from their mom's clothes. 

The background fabric is Kona Dusty Peach. I quilted small connecting circles along the body, and some heart motif in the wings. In the background, I FMQ some wandering meanders with some butterflies. The butterfly block is 12" x 13" and the quilt finished at 55" x 67"

After my friend showed her family the 1st quilt, her mom was wishing for a small something to remember her daughter. I suggested a pillow and her mom loved that idea. After finishing the 2nd quilt, I made a small throw pillow. Since I had limited large pieces of clothing left, I decided to make the butterfly wings from quarter circles and then piecing them into the familiar butterfly from the pattern. 

I used a 12" pillow form so I made the butterfly 10". I also added an invisible zipper so that it could by removed. Again I quilted connecting circles in the body, but semi-circles in the wings. 

While I was working on this project, I felt a need to make a butterfly for my friend and her other sister. I know that they were close to their sister and her loss was very hard. I made smaller butterflies (8") with quarter circles, pieced and quilted then I stretched them over 10" canvas frames. 

Last Friday, I was able to visit my old school to deliver the quilts. My friend was very touched by the surprises. I hope that these small, special gifts help in the healing process. 

Now to make the last quilt for my friend's nephew. I won't be doing butterflies for him so I will be making something more masculine. This one will have to wait a bit!

I'll be back soon as I have more to share but this post is long enough! 

Best Buds and RSC

 I joined in on the Best Buds QAL which is hosted by Lindsey @PenandPaperPatterns. I have made several of her patterns (and purchased several more). I am drawn to her designs!  Her patterns are well written and easy to follow. I am using fabric in my stash. To figure out if I liked the combination, I made 2 blocks - 1 in each color combination. 

I liked the outcome and it will feel so good to use these old fabrics in my stash!

In between sewing these cute flowers, I was working on the 2nd Metamorphosis quilt for my friend's niece. I am holding off showing these pictures until I deliver it. Maybe next week if I can get in a photo shoot. 
Today, I got back into sewing along with the Best Buds QAL.  It is week 3 and by Friday I should have 14 flowers stitched. This is what my design wall looks like now - 10 flowers finished!

These blocks are 14.5" (unfinished) and 5 blocks just about span the entire width of my design wall. 

I'm linking to Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Linky Party @Patchwork and Quilts,  and Wednesday Wait Loss @theinquiringquilter

Last week I also worked on my RSC block for February. The color is red this month.

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday over @SoScrappy.

For Valentine's Day, I made 2 fabric postcards for my grandchildren. I follow the tutorial by Annie @FreezeFrame03 

and I played with paints, masking, stencils and collage making several Valentine's for some special people in my life! 

Hope you all have had some productive weeks in February!

A Reveal!

 This week I finished my Harmony and Light quilt! On Saturday night I put in the final stitches in the binding. On Sunday, I buried threads before throwing the quilt in the washer and dryer. I pulled it out so soft and wrinkly! 

Since the sun made a brief appearance (the first in almost 2 weeks), I decided that I needed to go on a photoshoot right away. You never know when the sun will come out again! 

The Harmony and Light pattern was designed by Christina Cameli @afewscraps. Back in 2022, I saw an notice that there was a free tutorial and pattern offer by Quilt Daily if you signed up. Christina's version of the quilt is beautiful made in her Sagura fabric line. I fell in love! I signed up and received the pattern download. While my husband and I were vacationing out west, we decided to stop in Hamilton, MO on the way home. I shopped for the fabric for this quilt at Missouri Star Quilt Co! I decided on Ombre by V & Co. in several different colors. 

I did use similar colors as Christina but I basically used solids rather than prints. 

It took a while to start cutting all the wedges but Christina's method was very helpful. Once finished with the cutting, I was again intimidated by all the colors and how to place them. The video tutorial again was very helpful as Christina described her method. Slowly, I started sewing the wedges into triangles with the white wedge between 2 colors. Once I had the required 140 - 60º triangle pieces and 20 end wedge pieces in piles based on the progression of color, I needed to decide how to lay them out in the quilt. Once again, I turned to the tutorial to learn Christina's thought process on this stage of the quilt. I did want the diagonal movement across the quilt so it meant dividing up the colors into several rows while maintaining a flow of colors.  

   The cutting, piecing and placement took a good year to accomplish as I finally                                  finished the top in the beginning of January 2024!                      There was one last tutorial for the QAL and it was all about how to quilt the quilt. Again, Christina talked about her method of breaking down the shapes in the quilt - the white diamonds and the 'kite' shapes on either side of the white diamond. She suggested to start quilting at one of the kite shapes on either side of the white diamond (with feathers), then the other sides kite shape, followed by the whole length of white diamond (wavy line). Once you finish the diamond, you can turn your quilt and do the kites on the other side. You can actually go across the whole quilt in this method eliminating too many stops. 

I found the perfect wide backing that had all the colors that I used on the front of the quilt. I love it so much that I used it to bind the quilt also!

Harmony and Light finishes at 61" x 70"

If you are interested in my reveal video, you can find it on my Instagram or Facebook page. (I couldn't get it to load on blogger 😩)

Linking to Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Linky Party @Quilting, Patchwork and Applique, Wednesday Wait Loss, and Put Your Foot Down