Here is the finished quilt I teased you all with in last week's blog.  I was given about 50 ties to make this quilt with.   I was told that I could do whatever I wanted as long as it was masculine and large enough to fit on a bed top.  I settled on the Windmill patter which is a variation of the pinwheel.  Do you see the signed Cal Ripkin Jr tie in the lower corner hiding behind the aloe plant?  I choose to showcase several of the ties with character or importance.
In order to get it large enough for a bed spread, I went to my silk stash.  This is a bag of silk fabrics I inherited when I was a teenager from a rather famous Taos,NM artist.  So, 20 years later, some gorgeous brown silks from the bag made their way into this quilt as sashing.  The windmills were actually kind of static so I arranged the sashing in step-ladder style to move the eye across the quilt.  
Once it was all quilted with free motion pinwheels and ribbon-cable sashing, it looked better than I had envisioned.  This is pretty rare for me.  I love this quilt!  Now comes the time I hope the client loves what I did too.
It's another windy day here in the mountains.  The boys are out blacksmithing anyway.  They haven't built a shop yet so last time I looked, they had hooked up a steel plate in the vice on several logs to create a wind block for the forge.  Hmmmm, those boys.  I suppose I should make them stew for lunch if I want to be really nice.  At the moment, I should be doing my sales taxes for the year.  I might just enjoy a day off in between quilt projects though.  COOKING AND CLEANING, HERE I COME!
HAVE A QUILTERIFIC AND CRAFTASTIC WEEK!

Remebrance Quilts

Quilts almost always tell some type of story.  Sometimes, however, the story makes the quilt.  It is really quite special for me when I get asked to create these "Remembrance Quilts".  They are so unique as well, they would have to be as they tell the story of someone or event that should be remembered.
The quilt pictured to the right here --------------> was the Christmas gift I created for an accomplished runner.  For this quilt, I was given her cross-country and track or marathon t-shirts.  All the teams she she called hers and all the competitions she ran are here in this quilt for her to remember.  They aren't in a box somewhere at the bottom of the closet anymore.  This quilt in now in her college dorm room screaming to world that this girl loves to run!
   

Another silk tie quilt is about to be born.  In this photo, you can see how I am chain-piecing these Windmill blocks.  My awesome husband once again fused the interfacing to the ties and cut all pieces for me.
(Note:  Choose the lightest weight non-woven fusible interfacing that is made for sewing into clothing.)  This quilt is going to the grandson the Johns Hopkins graduate.  This was a great tie collection with a lot of character and what I started dorkily calling "NovelTies".  I did some special pieced blocks out of some of the ties and then we made 56 windmill blocks.  It was a touch small for a bed so I added sashing strips in beautiful brown silks and then borders.  I finished the top yesterday and am going to quilt today.  I must say, I think this quilt is gorgeous! It turned out so much better than I had imagined and that is really rare!  I am so excited to quilt it today.  Here is the Hopkins Block, tune in next week for photos of the finished quilt.

We have a lot of tree clean up to do this week.  They came through and cleared 5' each side of the power lines on our property last Wed.  Now, I know this was a necessary thing and we kept all the logs to make furniture or such out of.  The Lorax in me though is so very sad at this tree death.  These were even healthy trees without signs of pine beetle. So, while I quilt today, I think Sid and friends will be cleaning up all this mess.  At least the professionals took down the giant tree with a rotten core that was going to fall on my studio and long-arm!

That's all of a catch up for now, I have to get to quilting.  Happy New Year and Happy Quilting!

Sunday Update

This will be just a quick update as I've sworn to myself to write each week.
First of all, my heart goes out to those whose memories and feelings are very strong today.
I wanted to include a nice photo this week but haven't found the time. Besides, everyone can see lots of photos of work soon as the Quilters Newsletter website extras is up (under workshops) and the subscriptions have been mailed. Whoohooo!!!
It has been wonderful here at Mountainjoy. The wildlife was quite active the other day. We had a momma moose and her two young come near the property. After we quieted the dog, Sid went out to get some photos. He got a photo of the mother but decided it would be smarter not to sneak up behind the babies. So, no photos of the smallest pair of moose we've seen. By the way, a while ago, I saw baby elk, they were all dark brown. I realized 2 things right then. The first was that I'd never seen baby elk before. The second was that just like deer grow out of their spots, elk grow into their big white behinds!
My friend gave me another few flats of plants to get in the ground before our imminent winter and I've agreed to work a lot at the farm this week. Quilt orders are beginning to roll in, I got to the other day out of the blue before 9 am. I am happy and busy as a bee.
Speaking of bees, there are only a few reasons I look forward to this winter. The cold will make the yellow jackets go away for a bit. They have been horrible the past few weeks. But I am truly looking forward to spending all my time quilting and cooking bread and stews again.
Of course I wrote longer than I thought. So I will bid you all a creative week. If you are feeling down because of the dates reminders, creativity is a great outlet. Use whatever you do to create something healing for yourself or someone else. This is what makes the world a better place.
Many Blessing!!!!