End Of Summer Projects: "Romeo's Starry, Starry, Night"

I finally finished this quilt!  I had everything but the trim done when my ex- split, and like so many things from those dark days, it got folded up and forgotten on a shelf.

Then my beloved Romeo arrived in April of 2013.  Still full of puppy juices, but such a good dog.  In all of his time with me, he only got into chewy mischief twice.  Once was with a roll of paper towels.  The other with this quilt.  Fortunately, I discovered his error before he had time to do too much damage.  At the time I just thought, "Well, someday I figure out how to patch it, and it'll be fine.  After all, it was made of patches, right?

Then my boy passed on into Ancestry in July of 2023 and those marks took on a different meaning.  So now I say, this is the only quilt that Romeo and I made together.  And his handiwork is now carefully preserved with borders--the singular hole in the middle in red like a heart.  Like a heart that still has, will always have, a hole in it.  

The exterior trim in blue with red thread.

The hole trimmed in red

The hole, the bite....

...and the three tears.  Sown back together with zigzag stitches by my little sewing machine.

Holiday Project

A longtime friend of mine asked me back in October if I knew of anyone who could create a Christmas stocking for he and his husband's niece.  I thought about it and then I offered.  He wanted it to be quilted, and other than that gave me complete freedom in terms of design.

His niece is on 18 months old, but he did say that he hoped it would be a keepsake.  So I found this large print fabric that I loved, but there was a problem.  It was too large to fit on the size of the stocking.  I gave it some thought, and decided to still use it, but to reassemble some of its components with appliqué techniques.  What I loved about it most was that it depicted so many winter animals.  I just thought how much children love to contemplate animals.

He also wanted me to embroider her name on it, but I don't have a fancy sewing machine, and doing that by hand is a little tricky for me.  My solution?  Frabic paint.  He seemed pleased with the final result.  I thought it turned out well.

The appliqué process: first the snow owl and the arctic hare gets lifted over part of the owl.

 This the Polar Bear.

 And finally the Arctic Fox

 The back side matters two and gave me the opportunity to include a second polar bear and an arctic wolf!