Thursday, June 16, 2011

A New Kind of Quilting

I have been working on a surprise for Charlotte. I know very well that giving her a surprise is not going to fill the hole in her heart where Fred and her son belong, but I can't help but try to cheer her a little.

Recently, I wrote here about discovering McKenna Ryan's art quilting. I decided to make one of these squares for Charlotte. Just one square, not the entire quilt, because this is applique quilting with topstitching, and it's NEW to me. This is what the ingredients looked like, as I was getting ready to start:
...and this is what it looked like, partway through the top-stitching:
I've enjoyed every step of the process. Unfortunately, my machine has not taken a liking to the clear filament thread which McKenna uses, so I used a variegated thread instead. It doesn't look quite as perfect as McKenna's does, but I am still happy with the overall effect. It is going to be a pillow. I'm making the pillow case now.

David just returned from his week in Arizona, spent with his best friend from high school. Best friend attends college in Hawaii, and his parents have moved from Washington to AZ. I have never seen David looking quite so tanned.
He had a wonderful trip; they took trips to Sedona and the Grand Canyon, ate lots of good food, did the usual sort of "hanging out," as well as having fun staying cool in the pool.
Thank you, Kimbel family!

7 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I love the quilt square -- what beautiful work you do.

Your son is really handsome (but I'm sure you know that!). I mean, really! :)

A.Smith said...

He looks wonderful and happy. As for Charlotte, I am sure she would love her pillow. I know I would. When I was teaching cooking one of my students brought me a present. A little handpainted spice can with a single word: love.

She told me she knew that that was the special spice I put on my food and she thought it would be a good idea for me to show it to new students so they will know what makes all things special. I am sure every stitch in the pillow has plenty of that spice sprinkled all over it, and Charlotte will only need to take one look at it to realize why that pillow will always be so special to her.

Love from here, as always.

ChiTown Girl said...

Oh my gosh, I'm SO impressed with your beautiful pillow case!!

I'm glad David was able to take such an awesome trip. Ah, to be young and carefree again... :)

Gberger said...

Elizabeth, I agree, he is...and when I received this photo, it hit me anew that - even though I am his mom, I can see it - he is a handsome young man. Kenny & Taylor are pretty great-looking, too! =)

BTW, his airline ticket was purchased with airmiles - yippee! Otherwise, it would have been a long walk to AZ (just kidding - sort of).

Thank you for the encouragement about the pillow. I'm hoping that the case part of it will go smoothly.

Busy Bee Suz said...

I think you are doing a beautiful job on the pillow...I am positive your gift will be received well.
So glad David's summer has started off so well. I LOVE Arizona, so much to see and do.
xoxox

Ellen said...

Such lovely colors in your choice of fabric and the design is charming. Can't wait to see the project completed...do share!

Karen said...

Wow, you're an artist too! Not fair for so many talents to be embedded in one wonderful writer/mother/wife/friend! What else is in there, Karen?
Love the picture of David and hope you all have a marvelous summer.