Making love with M

I helped M make this love quilt for her husband at a retreat last year. This is the first time I saw it finished. She said she was having a bad hair day so she's only peeking from behind the banner.

Spreading a little love and joy

Two little word banners I made a few months back

are spreading some love and joy

in a nursing home in my city.

The chaplain sent me these photos of the banners (two sides of the same piece)

in place in the chapel area of the multi-purpose room.

And that's not a quilt in the bottom right photo, but a tile mosaic on the wall.

A sneak peek at the details

I've finished hand quilting the banner for my sister's nursing home, and it will be installed on the weekend. I'm posting a sneak peek of the quilting here -- you can see the vine pattern (especially if you click on the picture), for which I used a variegated machine quilting thread. The binding is done, and I just need to sew on the label, which I can do sometime during the 2,000 km trip (over three days) to her house.

Ever quilt needs a bag -- here it is rolled up inside its made to measure bag, also labeled. Really, after all this work, I don't want it to get dirty or go missing!

A banner day

I'm working on a banner for a chapel at the nursing home my sister works at. I'm using a variety of dark batiks in greens and blues and purple against a light batik, all fabric donated to the cause by my mother. This is one layout above, but its a bit too blocky.

Here's another go, using bias strips from the scrap bag to fill in the blank spots. I'm probably going to use that fabric I've pinned up as binding as bias strips, but I haven't cut into it yet. The letters don't look as dark in real, but I'm going for good contrast, since this has to be legible from from the back of the chapel. My letters are 3 to 4 inches high, bigger than my usual letters, and made using 3/4 and 1.5 inch strips. I'm happy with where it is going, except for one thing: I don't know how big this is supposed to be! I'm waiting to hear the pulpit measurements (where this is going to hang) before I can proceed.
one more thing: the binding strip is from an old print donated by dear mother, called One Universe by Hoffman. It's sort of a sunset print in lots of colours. I'm not sure if I'm going to use it or not. So here's another go at it (I'm still waiting for the size, so that hasn't changed) with the One Universe fabric all around as a binding. I'm liking that more and more. I pulled in some of that print with tiny squares between the letters, and they'll get tinier still after the seam allowance comes off them. I've sewn the letters into word blocks, but none of the words are attached to each other yet, so I can move them around. I also put a strip of the print with the checked bias strip to see how it looks, but since its not on bias, it doesn't bend as nicely.