Funny How Time Slips Away!

Oh - hello - and happy New Year!  I had no intention of taking such a lengthly break from blogging, but time has just slipped away the past few weeks.  Not to mention very little quilting has been done!

My life is finally starting to return to its normal pace.  Or at least the "new" normal, as DH and I have promised ourselves to expend extra effort on eating less and moving around more (ELMAM).  I don't mind the moving around more, but it does require some juggling of priorities - like quilting and blogging.  I think I will have to add "sleep less" to the ELMAM strategy!

Since New Orleans is in the grip of college football fever, I thought it would be fun to share some of my LSU (Geaux Tigers!) quilt efforts.

My youngest son asked me to make an LSU quilt for him several years ago - I think it was during his freshman year at LSU.  When your child actually sketches out a quilt design and asks you to make it, how can you say no?  His original design was a little more like a flag or banner, so I added some pieced quilt blocks to make it more quilt-like.  My vintage sewing machine friend Annie Kusilek did some wonderful free-motion swirls and other effects to really bring the quilt to life.  

David with his LSU football quilt

I'll have to devote another blog entry to what the entire quilt looks like, but it's essentially an hommage to LSU football and records all the SEC and Championship titles accrued by the team.  David and I have had some minor discussion on what to do about the outcome of the 2011-2012 football season, but we don't want to jinx anything by making serious plans yet!

Being as David's LSU quilt was very scrappy, I wound up with a huge collection of purple and gold fabric when the quilt was finished.  I created another scrappy quilt for a dear friend of his, but the purple and gold scrap pile was barely dented.

This is the completed quilt before quilting.  The border fabric is a wonderful tiger print by Robert Kaufman from their "Portraits of the Wild" collection.  I was inspired by a quilt in one of the Better Homes & Garden quilt magazines - a combo of nine-patches and hour-glass blocks.  The quilt was gifted several years ago and I no longer have access to it for more pictures.

Now I'm using the purple and gold scraps to piece some string blocks.  The center fabric is a very pale yellow batik.  I usually prefer to piece my string quilts onto fabric, but I didn't have enough of the yellow batik to use it as a foundation fabric.  I put a size 14 needle into the sewing machine and shortened the stitch length, so removing the paper foundations has been pretty easy.  

I haven't decided yet just how these blocks will go together; I may do the traditional spiderweb quilt setting or I may add some other blocks.  For now, it's just comforting piecing that keeps my hands occupied while I'm watching football!