Turtles in Paradise

Today I would like to showcase a small wall hanging that I made for a very good friend in March 2010 for her birthday.  Normally I wouldn't show you such an old project, but this one has recently been returned to me under very sad circumstances.  On December 3, 2015 I lost my friend Beverly.  I decided that showing her quilt would be my way of paying my respects to her.  Her loss has left a big hole in mine and all of her friends hearts.  Here is an excerpt from her obituary.

Beverly A. Brown, a retired aerospace administrative professional, died unexpectedly on Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 as a result of an automobile accident. Bev was born in New Bedford, MA, March 28th, 1948 to Edward Earl Brown and Clara Miriam Woolley.

Bev is survived by longtime friends, Jacqueline Grillion, Cherri Kincaid, Joan Winnett, Jennifer Hubert, Dr. Lisa Edwards and many former co-workers from Pan-Am, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing. Bev is also survived by her beloved pet cats Louie, Zoe and Fancy.

Bev had many hobbies which included quilting, sewing, genealogy, photography and creative writing. She loved to travel, touring 12 countries; however, her favorite place to visit was Hawaii, where she traveled numerous times with family and friends. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her.

 Bev loved turtles!

Here is the label on the back:

And since I was sharing all things Beverly, here is a tote bag that I made her in honor of one of her trips to Hawaii.

Beverly and her good friend Jackie:

Her she is with Zoe:

Good Bye Beverly, you are missed every day!

Update and a Share

First, I wanted to show you a final finished picture of the Cherri Tree Branch quilt.  I didn't finish it the typical backing and binding way.  I did what Chantell calls TIRSO (turn it right side out).  Which basically means putting the quilt front and the backing right sides together and stitching around it leaving a 'hole' big enough to then turn it inside out.  I then just stitched in the ditch and glued a few little flower buttons that I bought from Stamp-in Up on it.  And here is the result, first an over all picture.

Then a close up so you can see the little flower buttons. 

Although I am not really a 'stamper' I do find that Stamp-in Up has lots of products that can be used for my quilting.  I have a wonderful Stamp-in Up demonstrator, Catherine.  I will add her website on the right just in case you might want to check out what they have available.

Next up is my 'share'.  My sister Patti asked me if I would stitch her a dragon on my embroidery machine for her.  She was taking a quilting class at our local quilt shop and had bought some fabrics to make her quilt with and one of them had dragons on it.  Mia had digitized a set of dragons for me a while back and I immediately thought of the one which was my favorite.  Below you can see the results, her finished quilt.  I think she did a great job!

Here is a close up of the dragon fabric.

And finally a close up of the embroidered dragon.

The Cherri Tree Branch

Time to share my latest project with you.  It started out with an idea for a new competition quilt.  But before I could start working on the new quilt I needed some help from my friends Chantell and Mia.  Mia and I had already discussed the idea that I wanted to create and she has already worked on her part and has most of it done.  I started out thinking that I would use Chantell's tree and branches that I had used on the Owl Quilt.  But the more I looked at it, the more I realized that I needed something a little different.  So I wrote Chantell and requested just a tree branch, no tree.  She said yes, but that I would have to 'draw' out what I wanted.  Well I spent way to much time trying to find some clip art that would work, but nothing was exactly what I wanted.  So I went and took some photos of actual tree branches and traced different parts of the photo and came up with a pretty good drawing.  I sent it to Chantell and she cleaned up the art work and produced eight panels for me.  All of these needed to be test stitched, so I did that.  This was the end result.

Well, of course I wasn't happy with it yet and wanted to add a couple more panels.  I felt that the concept of what I was trying create needed more panels, it just wasn't quite wide enough.  So I went back to the drawing board and came up with two more panels.  I think it will work out much better for the idea I have for the competition quilt.

 

Not wanting to waste anything that involved that much work, I decided to go ahead and make this into a small wall hanging.  I added some birds that Mia had previously digitized to the panel.  It is not quite finished yet, I still have to put a back and binding on it, plus some little extra's that I am going to add, but you can get a good idea of how its going to look.  I will post the final product when finished. 

Now, that I have all the 'tools' that I need, I am off to create the new quilt.  I might post a sneak peek or two as I am creating it.  I have the feeling that it is going to be another one of those that takes months and months to finish.

Just in case you would like to create your own 'Cherri Tree' branch panel, Chantell does have the design set up for sale on her website.  Just the tree branch, not the birds. 

On a sad note, my friend Bev lost a member of her kitty family this week.  Jake will be missed by all, he was a sweet boy and loved lots of attention.  Here is a picture of him in one of his very favorite places, the kitchen sink.