Salt Air Butterfly Effect Quilt

After 5 days in Idaho for a family reunion, then back home trying to catch up, I haven't been sewing much.  I am missing those few hours of alone time when my kids were all in school!

So I am hoping a quilt from Amy Smart's book Fabulously Fast Quilts is just that --- fast and fabulous.  I had a scrap bag of Salt Air fabric by Cosmos Cricket...mostly long strips.  So I decided to try the Butterfly Effect quilt.  I love the fabric but am still unsure if I chose the right pattern for it.  But I did enjoy using the strip piecing tips in the book and the tube method (that is probably not the technical term.)

Here is a crooked picture I took with my Kindle.  The computer is occupied so I am making do.  I am linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and to Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

Grandma's Quilt

Recently my mom brought me some embroidered blocks of Grandma's -- some extras.  Grandma died more than 15 years ago, so this is a special project for me.  I've never done anything with Embroidered blocks -- there are 50 of them, 6 1/2 inches square.  I ordered some fabric from Connecting Threads, "Nana's Pantry".  The colors work well, which was a relief since I'd never seen them in person.  I was inspired by Crazy Mom Quilt's quilt here.  I would have never picked out this fabric, but seeing it in her quilt made me love it.

I'm still unsure of the design I will do -- either a block I'm not sure the name of -- it's the inside of the economy block -- kind of like the first picture below.  The blocks would be on point so the birds would not sit at a diagonal.  I've contemplated a Log Cabin too, but there are 50 blocks and more than one or two strips might just get too big.

Another thing I've been debating is whether or not I match the bird to the background color.  Does that make sense?  (Red Cardinal, Red background; Bluebird, blue background -- or do I mix it up?)  If you have an opinion, let me know.  (:

I can just picture Grandma sitting in her quiet, clean house, watching Lawrence Welk or Billy Graham, doing her embroidery.  She made a lot of embroidered quilt blocks which my mom made into wedding quilts for each of us.  Here is my oldest, Andrew, sitting in front of my wedding quilt -- it only shows one of the twelve blocks, but you get the idea.  Plus, Andrew is so cute I thought I better share!

Just a bit about Grandma - she lived across the street from us when I was growing up.  She smelled of Mentholatum and Coty's face powder.  She had the "gift of gab" -- something I didn't appreciate like I would now.  She had a great memory for details.  She knew everyone's birthday, childhood friend's full names, and war-time songs she was taught when she was growing up.  Sometimes I wish I could go back and visit with her again so I could really pay attention to all those stories, songs, and poems she told me.

Lastly, I will leave you with a cute picture of Tanner -- "peeling corn."  Whenever he sees corn on the cob he says "Oh yah!  I peeled corn with Grandpa one day!"  That was about a year ago, but he still talks about it.  Funny how clearly I remember doing the same thing with Dad when I was little.  (:

I'm linking up to GoGo Kim's Saturday Sewjo Party.

I'm linking up to My Quilt Infatuation party too!