Sunday post and a start of a cold

Well gang I know I promised to show off my winter project from last year which is the quilt I made with an Oz theme. Some of you, who read this blog may have seen it at "The Wizard Of Oz Festival" as I took it with me, it seemed only fitting.
It took a little bit to get all the pictures, and then resize theme so I could use them in the blog but I am now going to show them off. I started this in October of last year and finished shortly before Easter of this year.

Keep in my mind part of this time frame I was very ill last year and this quilt was really the only thing I was working on at the time. It took what little energy I had to do this much. The blocks are all hand embroidered, and the top was "pieced" by machine but the quilting was all done by hand as well.

I have not been able to master "massive machine quilting" as of yet but I also think that the hand quilting adds a very nice and personal touch to the piece.

The blocks are for the most part iron on transfers I took to the library and enlarged and then traced off unto paper. To make the quilt not quite queen size.

The Glinda block, the wizard in the ballon block and the Wizard of Oz with Franks name and publishing date though were all hand drawn and not iron on's or from tracings. I did that to come up with the number of blocks I did and for it to be uniform and tell the whole story if you will.

Once the "Strip were sewn to the blocks and the figures either drawn or traced I embroidered them. LIke I said mostly sick this entire time I would sit and watch movies and sew these blocks till I went and laid done from sheer exhaustion. I think it was what kept me going last year, to see this quilt put together.

Once all of the "character embroidery" was done the blocks then were sewn together by machine. I also want to point out that every bit of fabric, thread, batting and needles I used were all on sale and all in all I think I have about $95 in materaials invested into this--its the time though. that makes this piece a labor of love.

Once all of the blocks were sewn together I felt the quilt lacked something in a major way and I them decided to embroider words from movie and the books into the light solid green strips. The embroidery was done in a dark green and were all hand written by me.

So here is what is embroidered around each block........

1). The title block--- "Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who wasa farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmers wife... This of course is from the book "Wizard of Oz" and is the very first words.

2).The tornado block--- "The house began to switch, the house to pitch, and suddenly the hinges to started to unhitch. Just then, the witch to .... from the movie--the words alternate back and forth through out.

3). Glinda block- "Glinda, the good of Oz sat in the grand court of her maids a hundred of....

4). Munchkin block-- "Come out, come out where ever you are and meet the young lady who...

5). Dorothy with Scarecrow block-- "There was a great corn field beyond the fence, and not faraway she saw a scarecrow placed high on a pole...

6). Tinman block-- " When a man's an empty kettle, He should be on his mettle, and yet I'm torn apart, just because I'm presumin' that I....

7). The Lion block-- " The cowardly lion of Oz paced to and fron on the wide veranda of the loviest palace in Oz, it....

8). The Wizard Block-- "We're off to see the Wizard the wonderful Wizard of Oz , We here he is a whiz of a wiz, If ever a...:

9). Dorthy and Toto on YBR Block-- "They came to herw willingly, and Dorothy passed her hands over their faces and forms and decided one....

10). Wicked Witch Standing block-- "I thought you said she was dead, that was her sister the Wicked Witch of the East , this is the....

11). Wicked Witch Melting block-- "The witch shreiked in disbelieve, in panic that now the world should twist so, offending ....

12). Wizard in Balloon block-- "Somewhere over the rainbow way up high there's a lnad that I heard of once in a...."

Yesterday here was just beautiful and my parents with my brother and nephew all went to Sharon Pennsylvania to Kraynak' as they have this huge Christmas tree display from about early october to January 1st and it has become a family tradition for us for years to go. http://kraynaks.com/ Any how Jim was working that day so we went to lunch as well and Shane--that's my brother bought me a Dorothy and Lion music box while there which I will have to take pictures of.

The leaves were in that section of Ohio and Pennsylvania were in there peak and the day was just gorgeous beyond words. Somewhere along the way I think I caught a horrid cold, my chest aches, my muscles are throbbing and I sound like some cowboy reject from some old John Wayne movie--kids it ain't pretty .

Today was spent fairly much miserable and if it is the cold Jim had It is going to last about a week. Thursday night Jim and I went to see "A Chorus Line" which kicked off the season at he Clevalnd Play House to which we have this year season tickets. It was my first time seeing it on stage versus the movie version and it was wonderful. We also did the pre-talk before the performance and the after talk and got to meet some of the cast--wish they gave autographs but oh well.

Our next tickets are to "Legally Blonde" the play not the movie but I am sure there will be some comparisions. Until next time enoy the rest of the photos and the Youtube post.