My mom is pretty awesome...actually, I am blessed to have 2 very creative parents. I'll have to make a post soon about one of the "crafty" things that I have worked on with my dad, because I can't leave him out. He get's lonely.
Back to my mom for now. I always remember her to be a "crafty" person. Our Christmas tree was always a work of art. She could hem and sew pretty much whatever you needed her to. I remember two Halloween costumes in particular that were pretty phenomenal. She made a mean broom angel/doll. Remember those? Google it :) To top it off she can handle a power tool like a bad ass...even after a traumatic injury that would keep most of us FAR AWAY from a nail gun for the rest of our lives. Yeah, she's pretty awesome.
So a few years ago when she picked up a new hobby, it's NO surprise that her newest "power tool" has been dubbed the "Binford" in my parents' house. (Insert Tim Allen grunt here:) Here long arm quilting machine has been her best friend recently. She has cranked out quite and amazing group of quilts. She is obviously the talent in the Tim Allen/Binford pair, because I don't care HOW MUCH a machine costs, it can't make things this pretty on it's own. (Shout out to Dad here, he does consult on the colors pretty often. Don't want him to get lonely.)
I can't fathom making anything as awesome as these, but here are a few. Yes, these are quilts, not just cool pictures.
This one is a Mariner's Compass. If you look closely at the bottom, you can see that she quilted it with white thread, and stitched whales and seaweed/reef into the quilting!! This one appropriately ended up at my Aunt and Uncle's house - they both served in the Navy for many years, and were thrilled/surprised to get such an awesome gift!
This one was just a little "pet project" since she doesn't have any grandkids yet to share this one with. It is just so cute!! I actually like it better in pinks than I think I would in blues.
The "Peppermint Forrest" lives in MY HOUSE!!! WOO HOO. This was my Christmas present last year. Now, I don't care for red. At all. In my house at least. It's great in other people's houses, even pretty. I just don't know why, but I would be OK if there wasn't any red home decor in my home. Except at Christmas. Or any other holiday that I can justify having this out. Since it is red and white and SO GORGEOUS, we have dubbed it the "holiday quilt." So it has a home for Christmas, Valentines day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day...any day :) It is so pretty. The white with the red just make it pop.
But the real reason that I wanted to blog about my mother and her Binford, is because she made something pretty cool a few weeks ago. My mom and dad have recently reconnected with some long lost friends from Iowa. A few years back they went on their first LONG motorcycle ride with a group of "outlaws" (ha!) from Arkansas and had a blast. They've done one other big trip since then. Everyone has heard about T-shirt quilts, right? The premise is that people collect shirts when they travel, from high school, from college, from races they run in. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!
So Barry has a TON of T-shirts from his years of riding. My mom took them and made a T-shirt quilt. Oh, but this isn't your ordinary, throw some shirts together, put some batting in it, sew on the back and call it a quilt kind of quilt. It's legendary. Barry drives a Forest Green Honda Valkyrie. Of course, she used green fabric to put an edge on all the blocks that she made and to make it even more special. It's hard to see all the quilting, but if you look at the grey and orange blocks of the bottom half, you can really see it.
It's a pretty special quilt, and it got an overwhelming response from the recipient. The main reason that I wanted to post about this is because I was not really a fan of the t-shirt quilt. I thought that it was fine for a college student to put in their dorm room or apartment, but the one I had seen prior to this one really just didn't do it for me. The best part about this quilt is that you can really tell a lot of stories with just one quilt. AND I wouldn't be afraid to use this one, like I sometimes am with my white one. The truth is that it's not necessarily a "cheap way" to get a quilt, but I think it's an awesome way to make a cool scrapbook.
What do you think about it?
PS - I don't have a picture of the Binford, but here's a picture of my quilt-makin'-motorcyclin'-Mama!
*Andrea*
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