St. Patrick's Day Quilt

The Irish Chain

The Irish Chain Is the perfect quilt for March.  The colors are bright and cheery.  I love this quilt and one day I will quilt it.  Oops.  The Back is on and the sides are all finished, but I have not put it on the frame  yet to quilt. It will have quilted shamrocks in the center of the large white spaces. 

I will put the quilt on the large quilt frames for a queen sized quilt and baste it all across both ways then use my mother's small frames to quilt it from the center out.  These techniques will prevent the top from moving around.  I will add those pix as soon as I get those steps in motion.  Soon, I promised myself.

With Dan's New Camera Nikon D3300

With My older Panasonic Lumix Camera

Can you see the difference?  Dan got a new camera and so I thought I would compare the pix.  I personally cannot see much difference.  He used my blog as his excuse to buy a new camera.  Now is he going to take all of my blog pictures? I will have to learn to use it myself with all the bells and whistles.  I don't do bells and whistles too well.

I also made the pillows covers with the same pattern and  put zippers in them so they can be stored flat in a smaller space.

Pillow with Green Center

Pillow with White Center

Zipperr placket

I also made a baby quilt several years ago that I can use on the sofa as March decorations.  

It has been quilted, and the back is a white with green polka dot.

I love to change the color of the towel, pictures and some of the curtains to match the holiday of the month.  The window valences and curtains have already been replaced with Easter colors. 

Master Bath

The corner of my master bathroom has greens and greens.  The picture of daffodils was painted with pastels by my third daughter, Alicia, when she was in high school.  The little planter rack on the toilet back holds extra hand towels and wash cloths.

You might notice the little electronic device on the wall under the picture.  It is an emergency light.  

Emergency Light

It comes on when the power goes off.  There are several of them placed around the house. 

Emergency Light Switch

This one is the switch.  When the electricity is off (or when one of the grandkids pull it out of the socket) it sends a signal to the others to turn on the light.  It is a great idea when the power suddenly goes off at nightime.  You can maneuver around the house without a lantern or candle.  I bought it at Amazon.

Sorry for the late post.  Life got interrupted before I got it done.

HAPPY "WEAR'IN OF THE GREEN"

CYBERGRAM

I Make Quilts, Too

My mother was a quilter.  She made many lovely quilts for my daughters and myself.  I worked with her for many years learning to make pieced quilts and quilting by hand, not tyed or with a sewing machine. 

I wish to feature a quilt that I made for January, a dull and depressing month.  I must hurry to take the picture before February comes and I change to my hearts quilt.

This is such a lovely quilt and it is tyed, not something I usually do. The squares just lend themselves to tying.

My mother brought these squares of fabric from Hawaii when she visited my sister.  They were all cut and ready to sew together.  I pieced them together randomly then set them together with a two inch piece of batting (Yes, it is thick* so I only use this quilt in the winter.) and beautiful sky blue tricot back.  I purchased a couple of fuschia pillow covers for accents.  It lifts my spirits and makes me think of warmer days.

With the thick batting it puffs up the squares better; it would be puffier if I quilted around each square, but that is impossible because of the thickness--another reason it is tyed.  Perhaps the sewing machine could handle that job, but it is finished in my opinion.

Two problems:  the tricot backing makes it slippery.  On restless nights the quilt is almost off the bed by morning.  And, it is too heavy for my feet if I lay on my back to sleep.  It is especially heavy if folded back on warm nights.  We had unusually warm nights this January. It was 53 degrees outside at midnight one night. (That was in February--I had to post date this post because I got behind.)  These are record breaking warm days and nights for Utah in January and February.

*An interesting story about the 2" batting.  When I was manager for HOF one year, I found a brand new roll of our thickest batting in the back of the room that some man had peed on.  I was totally shocked at the idea that he thought he could do such a thing.  My district manager told me to write it off and discard it.  I took it home, cut off the pee part then laundered the rest of the roll in my bathtub (several times) and let it dry out in the sun for several days draped the length of my deck.  I had no clue what to use it for--it cannot by quilted--it is too thick.  I finally decided to make this colorful quilt for those gloomy days of January.