Another one for the Duke

Another One for the Duke

A John Wayne quilt - twin size, approximately 60x80 inches. There are eight printed 8x10 pictures of John Wayne, four vertical and four horizontal. The pattern is divided into four quadrants, each identical. The sewing was challenging because the corners don't match. Sections were sewn together and then pieced by only sewing halfway down the block, finishing the next section and then completing that seam. It's very time consuming. It was a really great project, I had fun in the quilting too. There are signatures of John Wayne in the dark brown strips, movie titles, famous quotes and some cowboy illustrations randomly placed but mostly on the larger blocks. My favorite is the outhouse. And as will all my quilts I learned a lot, this time about John Wayne, I think this may be the surprise bonus, more learning.

Giddy-up Santa!

A quilt for Jarrod. He gave me very specific instructions and a drawing. He wanted to the quilt to have a big Christmas tree on it with a Santa. He said he wanted to cuddle up by the tree with the blanket. Well, obviously, I didn't do exactly what he wanted. There is a Santa, but no tree. I made a John Wayne quilt for Jarrod's Grandpa and had a bunch of extra fabric. I used it to make the front, then kept with the cowboy theme and found the cutest cowboy Christmas fabric i've ever seen (it's Alexander Henry - of course!). So - for Jarrod - "Giddy-up Santa" and he had it in time for Christmas.

Sublime Perfection

I am actually really excited to announce that after dozens of patterns, sixteen boots and some that I can't count because they are really just awful (the McDonalds one for example) I have finally found perfection. It came in the form of the interior lining, once folded over creates the perfect fuzzy furry top. I have found perfection and I have spent the evening admiring my own work. Not very humble I admit, but to be fair, i've spent weeks on this project and attaching the fur at the top has given me trouble from the start. Aaaaaaah perfection. Now I can create a finished pattern, one that i'm happy with.
So with a finished pattern, I made my boot. Isn't it pretty.

A Snow Day

For once it looks like Christmas in Las Vegas. It snowed and snowed. Then they cancelled school, so here are the pictures of Wednesday night, and the Thursday morning that school was cancelled. This would never have happened in Salt Lake, only in the desert. So for once, you won't find me behind my sewing machine, i'm going out to snowball fight.

Christmas Boots

So I have now completed 14 boots. It seems that demand for them has been ever increasing. So I put them all under the little tree and took a photo. They are so merry and bright.

Christmas Trees

This wall hanging had no pattern, I wanted to make trees so first I cut triangles, and then created a background that would make a rectangle. I added the bottom to the tree and then a final piece of fabric to separate the tree from the sashing. It was a pretty fun project, not too difficult but creating the pattern was half the fun. For the quilting I did stippling around the tree and on the sashing, quilting the fabric like that around the trees, which I left unquilted, really makes them pop out of the quilt. A great project.

It's a Charlie Brown Christmas!

This great wall hanging is for Jamie. It was supposed to have retro colors to go with it, but when the time came to sew it up I looked at the fabric and thought - green with stars. So that's what it turned out to be. Neil says it's the coolest wall hanging i've ever made, probably because there is Charlie Brown on it. Subject matter counts after all.