2/16/13

Lighting Up My Life

It was an easygoing Saturday.  Most days are around here.  Matthew came over to work on his poi ball project.  If that confuses you, you can read about it right here.  Here's what he has so far:


Now check out the lights it makes!


Cool!!  The fact that it's working had us all popping champagne corks.  It's just the beginning, but a very good beginning.

As for me, I've been sewing.  I'm so glad to have old Bessie back.  If I keep calling her old Bessie, she'll end up with Bessie for a name.  Maybe it's too late already.  What do you think?

Yesterday I made the heart blocks for my hearts table runner.  There are ten of these:


Pretty clever piecing for this pattern, I think.  And that's about all I'm going to do on this one for now.  With Valentine's Day almost exactly a whole year away, I guess there's no rush to finish it at this point.  I wanted to make my little purple ladies for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

http://superscrappy.blogspot.com

If you'll recall, these ladies were originally dressed in pink.


Today, I changed their dresses and their shoes and dressed them in purple.  And with my nifty new paper-piecing templates, their dresses fit perfectly!


Here are the two blocks I have for this challenge so far.


And I'll be linking up to ScrapHappy Saturday today.

Then I got old Bessie set up for free motion quilting.  I think she's glad to be back in the saddle.


Today I started quilting my Two Grandmothers quilt.  I've kind of decided to outline each block and then use a motif to fit the nursery rhyme.  I started dead center in the middle of the quilt with Peter's Wife.  If you'll remember the nursery rhyme, it goes like this:

Peter Peter pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.

This one was fairly easy.


I just quilted a pumpkin vine


and also some ribs on the embroidered pumpkin.


The next one was pretty easy too.

Rain, rain go away
Come again some other day.

So, I made it rain


And I quilted ribs in the umbrella,


And puddles around her boots.


This one was a little harder.  Do you remember this nursery rhyme?


How about now?

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

With so much talk of birds, I decided to quilt some birds across the top.



I hope you can see them.  There is a cloud over their head and then the cloud gradually becomes a bird.  As I quilted out of its wing, I went to the next cloud.  I'm pretty limited in space on these blocks, and so I only did the birds across the top, then stippled the rest.  This bird design is inspired by Laura Lee Fritz's book, Mindful Meandering.


And that's as far as I got with it today.  It's been fun! I'm looking forward to moving on.  The next block is for the nursery rhyme, Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross.  It goes like this:

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.

Hm.  What would you do?

I'll be linking this post to:


30 comments:

WoolenSails said...

You have been very busy with all of your projects, love the stitchery and the quilting.

Debbie

Lynette said...

I really love how you're quilting motifs to match the nursery rhymes. Very cool, Barbara!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Fun, old ryhms - yes, very sweet with the matching motifs.

Lesley said...

Love your rainbow ladies! Your quilting is so well done with the nursery rhyme blocks!

Rachel said...

Careful with those lights, I am distracted by things that shine :-) All smart alecness aside, that is pretty awesome...way to go guys! Yeah, pretty sure Bessie stuck. Love the way those hearts go together! The ladies look awfully pretty in purple. OK, seriously. SO cute. The quilting on these are awesome. You are really doing this justice! I have already hijacked your blog so I will simply say for a large variety of reasons I would quilt music notes.

Cathy Tomm said...

Great new purple people you have today. Love the little heart block. Great start on the quilting.

Junebug613 said...

Neat lights! I like that heart. Very pretty. Bought a heart quilt pattern today after a quilt class. Cute ideas on the nursery rhyme blocks. Maybe music notes for the fine lady on her white horse?

Brown Family said...

Very creative quilting! You always have wonderful ideas!

scraphappy said...

Great purple ladies. Looks like you are on a roll with your machine back again. What a fun collection of quilting patterns.

Pattilou said...

I like your idea of the ladies. Your purple ladies look great!

Mommarock said...

Wow your stitching is FANTASTIC!! It is so perfect. I have a little book on crazy quilts that shows different stiches, but wow yours are just so beautiful. How do you get it all done?

Vickie said...

I really like the way your quilting those blocks. I've been wanting the exact Bessie you have. I can hardly quilt anything on my machine, the bed is only 6 1/2 " wide. One of these days I'm going machine hunting.

Quiltsmiles said...

Your quilting motifs are perfect. I may immatate oh heck coy your idea for the Rainbow scrappy challenge, I'm still sitting on the fence and out of the 3 ideas I have the dolls one is simliar to yours.
To quilt the next nursery rhyme how about music notes stippled along the top in the air and then a stippling of jingle bells in the bottom section. Just a thought. Jane

Rosa said...

Love your project and your quilting is just fabulous.Have a fun day!

Kate said...

Love the quilting on your nursery rhyme blocks! I think I'd do music notes on the next one.

KatieQ said...

I really like the way you have come up with a different motif for each of the nursery blocks.

LethargicLass said...

when I was in nursery school we put on a play of 4 and 20 Blackbirds. I was the Queen. During rehersal we had used building blocks to substitute for my bread and honey. The night of the play came and there was really bread and honey. I didn't know any better though, so since I had only pretended to eat it up until then, I still just pretended... my Mom teases me to this day about it.

Dar said...

Barb, Your purple ladies are so cute. And I'm impressed with your quilting ideas for the nursery blocks. My first throught was musical notes and with ladies rings floating among them. You are so good with your quilting, you probably could quilt a galloping horse waving a flag with notes streaming behind him!!! Your ideas are so creative so I know you'll do something great.

Snoodles said...

Yay! Hurrah for projects that work like they are supposed to! :)
Oh. My. Goodness. Girl, I am in awe of your free motion work....just gorgeous! Are you sure y'all wouldn't like to come to SC on your next trip, so you could teach me how to do all those neat things on my machine? LOL

Janet said...

Bells? Music notes? There are lots of options for this rhyme. The blocks are looking great!

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

Love the quilting-you really are getting good at the FMQ you've been practicing these many months. Love it.

quiltzyx said...

I like the quilting you've done so far. Maybe bells for the next one?

Edith said...

Your purple ladies are looking great with your pink ladies.

Sheila said...

You have been busy!
Love your sweet pink and purple ladies.

Unknown said...

ooh I adore the nursery rhyme blocks ! I would do a little boy on a hobby horse ( stick pony ) since that is one interpretation of what a cock horse is ! And it would play well with the child rhyme theme as well

Lyndsey said...

Matthew's project is looking good. I love the different colour lights. Your little ladies are purrfect and your nursery quilt is just so cute.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Loving the Nursery Rhyme quilting. Bells and rings would be cute. Bessie is a great name. My grandmother was Bessie, and she loved to sew (on a treadle, of course). She was always making us clothes.

Anonymous said...

You are so very creative. I would have never thought of the quilting patterns as you did. You really are creative. Kathleen

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

What a great lot of pics. Your skills are getting so much better as the months pass.

Denise :) said...

You have got to be one of the most prolific bloggers I follow. LOL! I'm going to have to do better to at least keep up with you when I'm mostly out of pocket!! Your paper-pieced gals look great! I love them in their purple dresses, too!! :)