The Quince Anos, And "Easy Street" Goes To Its New Home!

Our first experience of a quinceanera, we were so honored to be invited to join the celebration with this beautiful, poised young lady.

The ceremony  was lovely, I only have one photo in the church.

For those who have not experienced this event, it is a dedication and also a  celebration of a girl transitioning to womanhood at 15. She wears a white gown symbolizing the innocence of childhood, Mass is celebrated and prayers are offered for the Lord to bless and guide her in her adult life- then comes the celebration!

Here she is with her "court" , chosen from her closest friends and family. There is lots of music and dancing, food and fun for hours!

 This is a choreographed dance with the court , "T" is partnered by her grandfather.

 It's really fun to watch, the young people had done a great job of learning all the moves.

 Then her parents remove her tennis shoes and present her with heels….

and she dances with her Dad.

 This very poised young lady made a fine presentation of her thanks to her family and friends for their love and support

The beautiful cake was made by her aunt who also made the cakes for our son and his wife's engagement and wedding.

 Not only lovely to look at but absolutely moist and flavorful

Then this morning there was a follow up to the party in this beautiful setting,….

 delicious pork posole for lunch!

And here's the quilty part of the post, I had a quilt for "T", her cousin helped choose the colors of this "Easy Street" Bonnie Hunter design because I had no notion of what would suit her- and it blends perfectly in her room!

 So "Easy Street" has gone to it's new home, may her dreams be sweet and restful under this quilt

 And finally, here we are with our son's wonderful Mom and Dad in-law, we are so happy to be included in this delightful family.

We returned home this evening and I got to work and finished the piano key border for Allietare, I may even get the top completed tomorrow!

Allietare Borders

What do you do when a quilt is not large enough for it's intended purpose? I am not happy to just continue to add strips around the outer border, or one huge border, so I usually try to come up with a pieced border to add interest and avoid that "it wasn't big enough" look!
The Allietare top is only about 72" x 86" before borders and it needs to be about 100-102 to just clear the floor on either side of a queen size bed, requiring an additional 30".
After some deliberation on this quandary here is my solution;
 1.5" stop border
 4.5" piano key strip
1.5 " strip
 then the planned 5.5" border
and a final 2" strip!
That's an extra 15" on each side, additional 30" total to the quilt both vertical and horizontal. Finished the top would be 102"x 116" adding sufficient for a pillow tuck and eliminating the need for shams- in my experience guys do not like to mess with extra pillows on their beds!

Here is how it might look…..

Or maybe like this? 

Though to me this version is a bit too bright, too much gold?

What do you think? What would you have done to make it large enough?
Linking up with Heather over at "Needlework Tuesday".

QOV Number Three!

Here is number three quilted, now to box them all up and get them on their way so I can move along to the next project!

The fabulous, fast Baptist Fan, so great for traditional quilts and especially for guys, neutral thread again allows the theme to shine.

 Simple and fuss free, I love to use BF it always looks good.

And shows up so nicely on the backing, makes the quilt reversible.

Now to finish the Bonnie Hunter mystery Allietare I just need to add borders to make it queen size.

Two Down, One To Go!

The second of the three QOV's is done, and the third is going on the long arm next.

All over peacock feathers were used and again a neutral thread with Quilter's Dream batting.

Another QOV

There are three QOV's I need to quilt, hopefully the other two will be finished in the next two weeks before my shoulder surgery puts me out of commission for a while.

So this is the first one done, they will all be sent to another quilter for binding. I used a patriotic flag pantograph with a neutral thread.

Allietare Mystery

Cannot believe I have been so absent from blogging, the Boston vacation was most of it and we have been home just a week and busy trying to catch up plus this is our time with The Boy.
The last few days I have been working on the Bonnie mystery Allietare, finishing up all of the clues, pressing and trimming.

Taking care to sew the little blocks accurately and then pressing and final trimming of a sliver here and there makes it all go together flat and square with no tucks, I am very happy with it! 

All ready for the borders, I am awaiting word from SIL in Australia to find out the drop measurement of nephew's bed before I cut borders, I suspect it's around 24" but want to be sure.
Hoping to get borders done tomorrow, then it will be next up on the LA after I finish the QOV that's on there now. I don't plan on the curved border Bonnie did since this is for a guy simple is best, and I think Baptist Fan will be a good choice for the quilting design.
Linking with Heather at Needlework Tuesday

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.........

Well, that's my only excuse for falling behind both in quilting progress and blogging. We came up to Boston right after Christmas and have been so busy with family stuff, add in the 10 year old twins and their busy schedules too and there's little time for anything else.

We did go to see "The Force Awakens", drove to another state in fact, Providence RI in order to watch the film at the IMAX in 3D! It was terrific everyone of us loved it. 

Here we are watching the game in the lounge area before the movie- there's a full service bar and you are even permitted to take your "adult beverages" (the kids had Shirley Temple type drinks) into the theatre, nice!

In the days prior to viewing the film we watched the last three Star Wars movies to get up to date/refresh the story line so we knew what had led up to The Force awakening.

The only sewing I have done is a bit of catching up on my "Allietare" Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, working on the clues I had not completed. 

Using an older Kenmore model sewing machine handed down from the twins' great aunt,  which she purchased and apparently never used because it was in pristine condition, not a hint of thread or fluff.

I had enough clues completed to do a mock up of a few blocks so I have an idea of how my chosen fabrics will look in the completed quilt which is for my bull rider nephew in Australia. 

I inadvertently placed the rectangles in the side setting triangle incorrectly so that looks a bit odd, fortunately they were not sewn. I'll try to get a few blocks together tomorrow, I will have the day "home alone", sort of, the twins will be at school, attorney niece at the office, and DH and nephew busily working on the interior of the addition, I should be free to sew most of the day.

I am happy with the combination and anxious to see it together. That won't happen until we return to AZ,  I only have a tiny cutting board and rotary cutter an a 6" ruler, no where sufficient to trim blocks etc.

Linking up with Heather at " Needlework Tuesday"