Monday, February 28, 2011

Hazel's Legacy & Church Banner

I looked back at my quilting scrapbook, and apparently February and March are usually very productive months for me! And not just because of the annual quilt retreat (this last weekend was my third year going to the Pella Area Quilt Guild retreat). Of the 28 quilts I have completed (I'm not counting little projects), 12 were completed in February or March.
So I finished the quilt from Great-Grandma Hazel, and I named it Hazel's Legacy. I blogged about receiving the box of fabric here. I admit it really grew on me.
It's a nice couch throw size and Ryan fully intends to put it on Hazel's bed when we convert it to a toddler bed. It was amazing to work with fabrics from about 6 different decades in one quilt. I'm convinced that the red and blue flower fabric in the detail view is a feed sack from the 30's. 
I also pieced the back out of the large scraps that were in the box. The pink block cracks me up because like the front it is hand-pieced, and there is only one. It has about 30 different little diamonds and triangles, and it is obvious that Hazel finished the one block and said, "Ok, that's it! We're going to something a little less complicated..."


When we moved out here we decided that part of being adults, being part of a community, and living in the country was joining a church. So this is actually a picture of our church, and I just love how rural and close-knit it is. This is one of those city/country things in my opinion; when you live in the middle of nowhere you need a group of people like those in our church. So on that note I decided that I would make a banner for our church, and I finished it about a week ago.
I made this using a product called "Scrap Grid" by Scrap Therapy. It's a grid on the back of some fusible interfacing that helps you put together all your little 2" squares easily. It was OK, but the maroon colored print on the grid comes off as you sew, so now my sewing machine has a pink smear on it leading up to the needle. I think in the future I'll just mark up misty-fuse or something with a sharpie to get a grid. 


So back on topic, I quilted this one with Flame Stitch kind of radiating from the center. The phrase on it was a suggestion from the lady at our church in charge of banners, that way it could be used for every church season including Lent.


Here's to another very productive February, a short but full month!

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