Beach Jewels

We've been super lucky to be able to live near two beaches, Kodiak, AK and Sandy Hook, NJ. So far away from each other and so very different. But each had smooth beautiful colorful beach glass to hunt for. Once again I was inspired to make a quilt. My very talented niece of Kathryn Peters Photography helped me capture the dreamy colors of this quilt back in my home state of Alabama. Next to a fluffy cotton field! So southern and so beautiful. The things we quilters can make with cotton. :) Her photos are amazing!! 

Love the sunshine peaking through the quilt & the pecan tree up in the corner joining the party.

kspphotograhpy.com

So here's the typical loot we could find and bring home. There were many more colors in Alaska. Somewhere tucked away are the really rare bits of red and pink. The sand in Kodiak is dark! It's formed from the volcanic rock that the 

island is made of. It's got bits of white in it too so I wanted to add some black and white fabric along with the blues and greens. My favorites. 

I bought this black and white fabric years ago. I could only find a few fat quarters. So sad, I love it! I'm seeing the simple line drawings like this show up in fabric by designers more and more. Yay!! 

The sands back in New Jersey were much lighter. One special piece we found has New York molded into it. 

The handmade net floats are the real deal. You can find them washed up on the shores of remote beaches in Alaska. 

I hand quilted the center portion with Perle cotton and used this beautiful variegated Aurifil thread to continue the chevron design with machine quilting all around the center of the quilt. Bound the quilt with fans from Good Fortune collection. And how fortunate we were to be able to walk the beaches with our  young ones and look for beach jewels all year long. And yes, those beaches are cold in the winter! Had to use to black & white snowflake fabric on the back along with this polka dot fabric.

Keeping the squirrels out.

We've got more squirrels here than any other place we've lived. Plenty of acorns for them too. Though I hear someone nearby feeds them corn. Ugh! Can't plant anything without them coming to investigate. By that I mean digging out your carefully planted flowers, plants, and shrubs just as soon as you leave the yard!!

I have found one thing that slows them down quite a bit is dried sago palm fronds. Those palms are painful when they are green and even worse when they're dried. The squirrels don't like to mess with them. So we keep one sago palm (not my favorite shrub) around just for mulch. 

Happy  Gardening!

God is my anchor.

I've seen so many cross quilts lately. Really beautiful ones! Some folks call them plus quilts and some of those quilts remind me of screen savers from a long time ago! Kind of like the way the anchors dance around in this fabric after it's cut and pieced together again. I wanted to do a small wall hanging with this cross pattern and was inspired after reading a friend's quote this summer. 

Center stage is Anchors Away fabric from Out to Sea. Perfect.

Diamond dots from Duchess Metallic to echo and frame the crosses.

What a ride it's been!

I got the idea to do this project when Hometown fabric was released. One of Sweetwater Scrapbook's prints caught my eye and someday I hope to order it. For now, I'll settle for my homemade version that was a blast to make, typos and all! There is so much to say and I'd probably change some of what I wrote here next time. But this is what I narrowed it down to so far.

We've had the privilege of living in all kinds of towns and cities. Each is very different, even right down to what they call themselves. From as small as an island to as large as a major city. Boroughs, counties, cities, townships, and now a parish. I wanted something to remember them all. Not only that, I also wanted to try and note just a little bit about all the ways we got managed to get around. Oh the stories we could tell from that alone! Can't wait to see what life brings next. 

Playing with color and a no-sew project.

Fall and a little less humidity can't come soon enough around here. There's not much leaf peeping to be done this far south. Apple cider from the grocery store and a little autumn color here and there around the house will have to do.

I'm embracing the pink in our antique brick floors. I bought two of these chairs years ago at a local consignment store. They were well worn then and well loved now. It was past time for an update! 

I thought Tina Given's On the Fence linen blend in pink & vanilla would work. Love how it echoes the caning.

One more :) Decorating garden style.

From baby book panel to quilt.

Time for a baby boy quilt! I had some Life in the Jungle alphabet book panels in my stash, but wanted to make a quilt out of one of them instead. I followed the order of the letters on the fabric designer's pages and came up with this layout.  A bit of a meandering effect I think.

The Lorax fabrics are organic and amazingly soft and easy to sew with. The Textures fabric in the center is such a beautiful grey.

Converting the panel from book layout to quilt form was surprisingly easy. Looking forward to trying it again. :) So many ways to quilt this one! I kept it simple with triple machine stitched rows.

So many fresh and fun baby fabrics to choose from these days!

Keeping it Fresh

Another baby quilt has been in the works. Fresh pinks, green chevron, bright yellow, turquoise, and a little bit of black for contrast. Dena Designs has some of the most beautiful fabric for girls and their nurseries. I've been waiting to use some of her jelly rolls and the time was right.

I added some Aneela Hoey's sherbet pips and Alexander Henry's Shoopping Bags for fun. The back could be another quilt in itself! I think my kids would have loved to wrap themselves up with a Suess book.

I rotated the back, so I could still do some simple quick machine quilting along the strips on the front. I didn't want the story lines of Cat in the Hat to become unreadable with too much quilting.

Happy Monday!