The Beginning of Another Happily Ever After

This past weekend we were blessed to celebrate the marriage of our youngest daughter, Rebecca, to a wonderful young man, David Anderson.

If you read the post about the wedding quilt, you know that they met on-line two years ago.








I was touched when Beck showed me a picture of a wedding dress that she wanted and asked me if I would mind modifying my wedding gown from 1985 to look like it.



I stated, "well, I'm not going to wear it again.  I'll do my very best to make it all you want it to be."





















We got busy taking off the sleeves as well as the lace and ribbon at the neck line...










She was a beautiful bride...  Of course, I am heavily biased!  

















I should add that the bouquet is a button bouquet made by a friend.  It had lots of vintage buttons as well as some special vintage pins that came from Great-grandparents and a very special hand-painted pendant (painted by my Grandmother for my Mother-in-law)

If interested in a button bouquet, please leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I can put you in touch with the amazing creator.












But the most beautiful thing was watching the newly married couple look deep into each others eyes and see the love that they have for each other...

And just look at the joy they expressed as they made their grand entrance!

I present to you Mr. & Mrs. Anderson!

💕

May they be blessed with many years of happiness together.

Now that the celebration is over and the dress has been dropped off for cleaning in preparation for storage, I need to get back into my studio and get busy with the next project.

Happy Happily Ever After,

Melva

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Love is...

For Rebecca and David ~

Love is patient...

     Love is kind...
          It always protects...
               Always trusts.....
                    Always hopes...
                         Love never fails.

The wedding quilt is done!!!

They can choose which direction they want to use it...

A bit of info on the couple - 

David is 27 years old and grew up in Pueblo West with his parents, Jeff and Karen, and his older sister, Crystal. David works at Accusystems in Pueblo as a Director of Software Development. David enjoys mountain biking on the weekend, working to fix things around the house, and eating the goodies that Rebecca makes. 

 

Rebecca is 27 years old and grew up in Trinidad with her parents, Dave and Melva, and her older sister, Heather. Rebecca works at Parkview Medical Center at the Outpatient Rehab as a Physical Therapist Assistant. Rebecca enjoys what David refers to as her "old lady hobbies" which include: baking, knitting, cross stitch, and reading. 

David and Rebecca met online. David invited Rebecca over for lunch and made chicken quesadillas. They enjoy hiking and going for walks as well as enjoying watching T.V. and movies. They have 2 dogs, Sugar and Toby.

This quilt has a very modern feel (something I don't really do a lot of) but the quilt seemed to naturally progress as I pulled fabric... I did incorporate a couple of more traditional touches into the quilt...

I used my To have and To Hold block (included in volume 14 of Quiltmaker's 100 blocks) as the label...

And I used free motion quilting "script" to write in a portion of 1 Corinthians 13 on the black strip in the middle of the quilt.  This scripture is one that they often recall as a favorite...

So, as your vows are said and you become husband and wife, may you always keep the truth of God's love in your hearts and remember that if you love as God loves...

Love never fails!

Blessings from Mom and Dad

Quilt Label Quandary...

I recently finished a t-shirt quilt and started searching for a label that would be appropriate for a young man graduating from the US Military Academy - West Point. I was  in a quandary because all I had were wedding themed or floral framed  labels, or the wrong color...

I then remembered that I had some paper-backed fabric designed for inkjet printers left over from some photo quilts a few fears ago. ***NOTE*** I am not a paid advertiser, simply a creative consumer

I jumped on my computer, searched for a few borders to insert into my document, hit print and I was ready to go.

I found my printable fabric through Hobby Lobby... this one has colorfast directions and is machine washabe. There is one that is dry clean only.

So Daniel James Reape, congratulations on your graduation and may you stay safe as you serve and protect our great nation.  God speed.

Do you make your own labels?  

I would love to learn from you about how you label your quilts...

Leave a comment and let me know what sort of labels you use.

Happy Quilting!

Melva

L.A. Phant

Last May we traveled to the Los Angeles area to celebrate the marriage of Matt and Erica. You can learn about them and the quilt that we gave them by jumping over to True North.  On Thanksgiving they announced that their family would go from two to three!  YAY!

This weekend Erica was the guest of honor at a baby shower as they await and prepare (can we ever really be fully prepared??) the arrival of their sweet boy!

And every one of us quilters know that of course every baby needs a quilt! EVERY. BABY.

Matt and Erica are decorating using light blue and grey... Baby Chic is what I call it - which is quite popular now.

I pulled out a number of patch pals patterns from Quiltmaker and settled on the elephant because the colors.  Also in the grey family was a rabbit - This would have been really cute to do since their last name is Hopp!  But, alas, I settled for the Peanut Patch Pal...

One of the wonderful features of these patterns is that the main body of the tops are all the same size and the borders are interchangeable.

I softened the colors by choosing pastels for the elephant's stand and chose a different border.  The baby blue border and corners are a soft corduroy that offers a bit of texture and interest to the quilt.

I present to you... Mr. L.A Phant!

Since I was not at the shower, the soon-to-be Grandma shared a picture of Erica with the quilt with me...

Now we just need to wait for the little guy to arrive!  

Join me in wishing this new little family many years of joy and laughter.

Congratulations!

With love,

Melva

Quilter's Laundry Day

Jen Rosin over at A Dream & A Stitch and Janice Holton at Color, Creating & Quilting announced a quilt along and blog hop a few weeks ago.  The pattern was for a 16" mini quilt... and it was super cute!  And the ideas in my head were rolling - so there was no stopping them!

I really wasn't sure that I would have time to participate since I was in the midst of the Hanky Quilt and needed to continue working on the wedding quilt for our daughter... I mean the wedding is just 4 weeks away!  

But I was in need of "a change in scenery" of sorts and decided that one day away from the King-sized wedding quilt was much needed. The top was complete and had been sandwiched.  I felt that I "deserved" and had even "earned" the right to a break...

So I took one!

When I first saw the pattern I immediately thought of using the open sky space as an area for mountains.  

Using inspiration from Amy Ellis over at Amy's Creative Side  and her Majestic Mountains paper pieced pattern that I made last fall I came up with something similar... and what I think is a fair representation of our local mountain range. 






We live in Southern Colorado and every day we are fortunate enough to enjoy the beauty of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

For the quilt drying on the line in the yard I wanted to make a play on my first published block Pieces of My Heart that was included in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, volume 8.  

I took two pieces of paper 2" x 3-1/2" and drew lines on each to indicate which direction the fabric was to be sewn on and jumped into my scrap bin in search of 1 inch wide strips.








Placing 2" squares on each piece after having the strips sewn on, I marked a center line and did the sew and flip method and trimmed to create the bottom of the heart.  Using 1" squares I did the same to shape the top of the heart.





I added a border and used a fabric marker to draw in a line at the edge to look like the binding.

It was a fun break form the wedding quilt!
(I am now hand-sewing the binding)

I hope that you will stop by the other blogs and see what everyone has created. 

There are prizes to be won at some of the blogs!

I am offering a chance to win the recent copy of QuiltMaker's 100 Blocks, volume 14 (including my block - To Have And To Hold, #1310). 

Simply follow my blog 

(you can subscribe or follow along at bloglovin') 

and leave a comment about how you would add your personal touch on "Laundry Day"
before 11:59 p.m. March 12

(If you are a no-reply blogger, be sure to leave your email address with your comment.)

Join in on the fun of this hop by visiting the links below.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Melva

Jen Rosin  A Dream and a Stitch
Kate Heads at Smiles From Kate
Jennifer Fulton at Inquiring Quilter
Karen Thurn at Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats
Melva Nolan at Melva Loves Scraps
Vicki at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting
Julie Stocker at Pink Doxies
Anja Clyke at Anja Quilts
Diann at Little Penguin Quilts
Jayne at Twiggy & Opal
Susan Arnold at Quilt Fabrication
Leanne Milsom at Lizzie the Quilter
Sandra Walker at Mmm! Quilts!

March 11 Reveal Day

Janice Holton at Color Creating & Quilting

Sola at Alice Samuels Quilt Co

Jennifer Strauser at Dizzy Quilter

Amy Gerlich at Amy Scrap Spot

Sharon Denney Parcel at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs

Tami at Sew Much for Free Time

Suzy Webster at Adventurous Applique & Quilting

Tish Stemple at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Susan Gordon at Sevenoaks Street Quilts

Anne Boundy at Said With Love

Barbara Wootie at The Flashing Scissors
Jan Welander at Making Scraps

Mary Marcotte at Fleur de Lis Quilts

A Little Kindness Goes A Long Way...

This morning I had received a message from a blog reader that had a question about a pattern for the Sleeping Couple quilt that I made a few months ago...

Hi, you had a quilt with a man and woman with feet hanging out of quilt. My 86 yr old sister has made the quilt but can't figure out how to do the faces. We love the quilt and I wish I could help but I am not talented like her. My question is, do you have a pattern or video to help. It would be greatly appreciated.   Thanks, Margaret Vanpelt

I explained that I too had searched for a pattern unsuccessfully and how I went about creating the faces...

What I did was crop the attached photo so that just one of the heads was showing and then enlarged and adjusted it to the size I needed. 

I attached an example of what I did and wished her good luck.

Her response and gratitude in getting an answer...

Thank you so much. you are too kind. she is going to be so happy. I sit here tears flowing because I never expected an answer. you just made a little lady very happy. 

God bless you. 

Thanks again.

It only took me a few minutes to respond to her... I could have easily discarded the message and taken up the attitude of "Well, I had to figure it out on my own, so she can too", but I didn't - it didn't even cross my mind.  It was no big deal to me, but it made a world of difference for these two ladies...

I  am so glad that I helped... I made her day and she made my day!

What a great place this world could be if everyone made even just one simple act of kindness to another.  Has someone made your day?  Have you paid it forward????  

Happy Tuesday!

Melva

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February Mug-a-Mo

While the month of February is just 2-3 days shorter than the other months it always seems to zip on by!  

Back in the first week of the month I made several of the Mug Rug of the Month that Jen at Patterns By Jen  is offering each month.

They are super cute and quick and easy patterns.  

                           You should check them out!  
           
                                                  Just follow the above link.

Here is mine... 

Can you tell I made these before Valentines Day????

I was having such a good time making this one, I tried out a few other patterns.

I pulled out the 2015 Quiltmaker Bitty Block Heart pattern and used that for one.  The red and white one was a re-purposed item that I had received at a women's weekend retreat.  Such fun!  

And a great opportunity to practice my free-motion quilting!

March is just around the corner!  

                             I already have ideas for a few March themed Mug Rugs... 

                                                 You'll have to come back and see what I create.

Happy Sewing!

Melva

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