Quilts 'n' Kids 'n' Stuff

Wrap Them In Love

2012-02-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

I mailed a box today to Wrap Them In Love. 7 quilts sent to me by other Sunshine Guild members for quilting, 2 from Mom, 1 of my own and a NAQG Community projects reject. Pictured below are one of Mom's, mine, and 3 by Sarah L. Not sure if I've had pictures of all of the others on the blog....

Advent friends "Scrappy Trips"

2012-01-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

The scrappy trips blocks have become quilts and been given to our Advent Friends. They were well received!
If you look carefully you will notice that I had to trim blocks down. One of the hazards of swaps and lottos is that with so many different makers , not all the blocks are always the same size. If the sizes are close enough I can fudge them together with slightly narrower of larger seam allowances, but if there is a 1/2" difference that would leave no seam allowances at all, which was the case with one of two of these blocks. So I decided to trim all of the blocks down to the smallest size and to use sashing strips so I wouldn't be bothered by the seams not lining up. I added the black cornerstones to continue the diagonal dark line formed by the blocks.

The Smaller quilt is for a 5 year old girl. I chose the blocks with the brighter colors and novelty fabrics and used bright red paisley for the sashing and binding. The border fabric is butterflies on a bright blue background and all of the butterflies are edged in red.

I quilted both quilts with the same all-over edge-to-edge design, which I am calling Tumbling hearts. On this one I used Cream colored thread.

The larger quilt is for the mom of the family. It has the remaining lotto blocks. On of the blocks failed to mead fabric selection guidelines but I liked it anyway and it helped me decide sashing color. Blocks were not supposed to be monochromatic in addition to the dark/black diagonal fabric. But one block that came is done with all blue fabrics. It is a beautiful block but does stand out somewhat due to its lack of other colors. We (Denny usually collaborates with me on block placement) decided to make sure all the blocks adjoining the blue block had blue in them to kind of bleed the color out across the quilt top. Actually there were only a few blocks that did not contain some blue! I chose a teal blue floral print for the sashings and binding. There was enough of the large floral I used for the border to make a back for the quilt as well.

Again the tumbling hearts quilting , but on this one I used a color of thread called "Blue Moon."

Scrappy Trips Around The World is a great way to use up 2.5"strips longer than 16 inches. The pattern for Scrappy Trips Blocks a'la Bonnie K. Hunter, can be found at http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/scrappy-trips-around-world.html

Design Wall Monday...but it's Tuesday today!

2011-12-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

Here's what's on my design wall. These will be the final gifts to our advent friends, so I need to get them done by January 8th. Mother and daughter scrappy trips quilts from November block lotto winnings!

I've been busy!

2011-12-27T09:36:00.002-08:00

I've been very busy. My quilts quilted on the Tin Lizzie now number sixty-one! 11 of those were included in my Christmas gifting!

1st gift quilt is and ABC quilt for granddaughter Serenity. I quilted the letters of the alphabet in the blocks adjoining pictures depicting things that start with each letter.

The backing is a pretty floral from the stash.

Next up is a quilt for my sister, Mary.
This is made from winning of the September 2011 block lotto. Batik Curvy Rail blocks. Quilted in an all-over freehand design I'm calling "Sun Swirl Meander "

Back of Mary's quilt also from the stash.

Next a quillow for Mimi.
I used liberated astar block which I also won in the block lotto. These have been aging for over a year. Bright green sashings of different sizes horizontally and vertically and rectangular red cornerstones finished by a fun border fabric and red binding.

The quilting shows really well on the dark green corduroy backing. I quilted a freehand ribbon-flower meander. the pillow panel is made fro a cotton velour. A very comfy-cozy quillow. Mimi loves it!

A quillow for Katy. WHen she told me she wanted a new quillow I decided I could find blocks in the UFO stash that would work. First I found 15 Swapper's Star blocks that I swapped several years ago. Not enough for a quilt top, but if I made 2 more and did alternate blocks..hmmm...could work. Then I found a bag of forgotten swapped 9-patch blocks in the same size as the stars. Surely from the 100 or so 9-patches I could find 18 that would work with the stars. I think I did! Floral border (aqnd backing) from the extensive floral stash at the guest house. This quilt came together in just a few days. I quilted with a funky feather meander allover design.

Here it is folded into a pillow. I used another 9 patch and border fabric to make the pillow panel.

Next I quilted six quilt tops Mom had made to be donated to a veteran's center. I only took picture of 5 of them. This one is outline quilted on the appliqued picture, meandered in the background and a simply feather type border.

This one has star centered fan quilting.

Outlined the Eagles and ribbon candy in the border.

Outlined the flag and the rest is allover paisley echo freehand.

Back of the above.

Back of the following. The quilting really shows up well on this. I did a fairly detailed outlining of the center panel, a swirl centered fan freehand, and a simple feather border.

Front of the above.
I also quilted one more for Mom, but failed to take a picture.

Last quilt is Johnny's. I asked him his favorite color: green. Found a large piece of green I thought he would like in the stash and used it for backing, binding, and the main diagonal of Scrappy Trips Blocks from Bonnie Hunter's website.

I quilted with a freehand swirl centered fan design. i love the texture fan quilting gives to a quilt.

In addition to the quilts I made 4 scarves, 3 skirts, 2 aprons (cooking and woodworking) , a fabric journal cover, a pair of pajamas and an apple crumb pie...No pictures of any of those...

5 more quilted in 3 days time...

2011-10-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

Mom brought me 4 quilts Monday that needed quilting. Three of them had been

pillowcased and turned and I said I could try to put them on the longarm to quilt rather than tying them. The first one i just did a quick meander, and it turned out okay,

so the next 2 I did "in the ditch" quilting....but not really a ditch as they were cheater panels not pieced tops

They turned out pretty nice, and will be going to the KC Ladies auxilary for their charities. The 4th was a panel and I had to piece together the batting.

I quilted and bound it... Note to self and anyone else who might care...printed checks should not be cut WOF for binding strips if you want the checks to line up right. note the twisted look because the checks are crooked.

Then I decided to quilt one of mine for Community projects.

The fun thing is the binding...Mom brought me a baggie with some bindings in it and one was the leftover binding from when I made Katy's hearts and chains quilt (appliqued hearts set in an Irish Chain)with a scalloped edge 13 years ago...narrow bias binding , but the colors worked. I usually like darker binding but the pink and purple theme was a bit dark and the binding was pink and purple as well. I quilted a freehand flowers and ribbons design.

I think the binding looks better with the back of the quilt than the top..

I think I have 5 left to quilt for community projects and another 5 or so for Sunshine. Guess I'll be busy. But I have NAQG board meeting Monday, KC Ladies Auxillary meeting Tuesday, girls to the dentist Tuesday, and boys to the dentist Thursday (different dentists). And Denny is working days for the next couple of months so he won't be doing school with the kids....but maybe I can have him take them to R.E Wednesday evening so I can just stay home!

A quilt for Kayla

2011-09-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

I thought I would work on the Block Lotto October sneak peek blocks, but on Sunday my husband mentioned a girl who works with Katy, whom he had been visiting with a while back and discovered that she had no memories of birthday gifts growing up, except one time she was given a comb. She has had a hard life. Anyway he thought it would be nice to give her a gift for her birthday, which is tomorrow. My thoughts immediately went to a quilt as a gift. I remembered I still had some of the Sept. 2007 lotto blocks I had won...pink/ purple Ohio Stars. Katy said Kayla would like pink. I also had border fabric in mind with pink flowers and birds on it and Katy said Kayla like animals, so I decided I would do it. From the start this quilt has just been meant to be. I pulled out the blocks and the border fabric and decided a green sashing would be best. Right on top of my greens was the perfect green with white dots...enough for sashings and binding. Then I found a scrap of a pink that was great for the cornerstones. By bedtime Sunday it was all cut and up on the design wall. Monday was community quilting day for guild so I was gone most of the day, but I sewed after I came home in the evening and had it all sewn together but the top and bottom borders. The border fabric is a standard 44" width. Being a very directional print and fairly large at that, and the quilt being 62" wide I needed to piece the fabric for those borders. I wanted to match the designs in the fabric. Amazingly it went together perfectly on the first try.....the seam runs right down the center in each of these pictures of the border.

Tuesday morning I attached the borders and found fabric and pieced the backing. I mounted it on the longarm and started quilting. I could have done a simple allover meander, but decided the the large simple blocks and sashings really needed a bock by block quilting. I meandered the border, did a heart chain in the sashings, heart in the cornerstones, and hearts in the start parts with straight line quilting in the background. It turned out quite nicely!

2011-09-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

I went ahead and bound and labeled that last quilt for Community Projects....after I had quilted, bound and labeled this one that Mom left for me to do last week.

I have more tops waiting...2 from Mom and a crumb quilt I made last weekend are all ready to go except I need to cut batting. I think I can get 4 smallish quilts out of the one king size W&N batting I have, but I'm just not sure I want to cut it up. Wal-Mart isn't carrying the cotton batting anymore...at least it hasn't been in the store when I have checked lately. And I haven't been seeing king size poly batting either. I really need to just bite the bullet and buy a roll of 96" wide cotton batting like we get for the guild community projects.

Mimi express a liking and desire for a crumb block quilt when she moves out and gets a full size bed after seeing this crumb quilt top I made last weekend. So I am sewing crumb blocks since the scrap drawer was getting too full anyway and I have no other projects lined up that I have to be working on.

More Quilts...

2011-09-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I have quilted 4 quilts. One for Habitat House, one for Sharon N., one to enter in the County Fair, and one for NAQG community projects. I have had the one for Habitat for a few months and have been procrastinating. It is a BIG quilt 102x 90, and had a n applique design on the border. I could not get inspired with an idea of how to quilt it, so I just didn't even try. I finally decided I had to get it done and pulled it out and draped it over the rails of the quilting machine and waited for an idea. It didn't take long before the quilt "spoke" to me and said to take off the applique. Once I did that it was clear how I needed to quilt it. It was great practice as I did the same freehand design in 120 triangles!

The next I did was for Sharon N. She said she would pay me to practice on it. She really did not like how the top had turned out and thought she would just donate it when it was finished. It was another case of the quilting making the quilt , because she was thrilled with how it looked when I was done with it. I had thought I would do meandering feathers and actually did start out with those, but it quickly became apparent to me that was the wrong thing. So I spent 2 hours ripping out what I had done.and then let it rest overnight and thought about it. I also asked Denny for ideas, and ended up somewhat following his suggestion.

Next I decided I ought to enter a quilt in the Cleveland County Fair. I had a top and back Just waiting to be quilted, so I thought why not. I was impressed with how it turned out, and apparently the judges at the Fair were too. It won a 1st place ribbon!

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Last one i did is for NAQG Community projects. I wanted to quilt this one because it was so nice and the backing fabric is gorgeous! I did a leaves, loops and ribbons meander.

I've been busy and sick....

2011-08-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

I had a busy week getting ready for the KC's garage sale and then I was home sick Saturday, the day of the sale. Something hit me with a fever, achy, sensitive skin (fan blowing on me hurt!), and diarrhea. But I did get another quilt on the machine early in the week and got it quilted Friday evening before I started feeling bad. This one is for NAQG community projects. I didn't make the top, just brought it home to make the backing, quilt, label and bind. Yesterday I was too miserable to bind it. But I got it done today...going a bit stir crazy with nothing to do but feel bad! I hope this quilt cheers up a child in need. I quilted with chained spirals.

Another being paid forward

2011-08-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

This one is made from another set of Lotto blocks. Theses were called Stacks as they look rather like a stack of books. Rather than making a strippie, Chinese Coins type of setting I alternated the way the blocks were turned and added a simple, narrow white border. I quilted it with a linked spiral pattern. Then I used up bits of leftover binding for a scrappy finish. My niece Claire signed up on my pay it forward post and I will be sending this one to her.

UFO/pay it forward

2011-08-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

I signed up for a pay it forward swap earlier this year and decided to send this quilt as a gift in the swap. I won the wonky shoo fly blocks in April of 2010. I think they made up into a nice cheerful quilt.

I tried to do different filler quilting on each block but ended up repeating a few. And then a circle/oval in each block center. Those circles were the most time consuming part of the quilt due to stopping and starting and burying the thread tails...but I am getting better at putting the needle down in the right spot to keep things neat!.

Catching up on what I've been doing

2011-07-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't been quilting as much as I would like. But I have done 4 quilts since my last post. I have also driven /chaperoned a few youth group outings....Turner Falls, OKC Zoo and White Water Bay. Fun but time consuming...but the kids are worth it. Anyway, back to the quilts. I quilted another one for Habitat for Humanity house, similar to the first. This time I quilted a baptist fan pattern over the whole quilt rather than outlining the roads etc....Next in line was a Sunbonnet Sue ABC quilt made from embroidered blocks from Anne W. I did simple quilting to show up the embroidered blocks. This one is for NAQG Community Projects.
After a couple of busy weeks and no quilting I finally got busy and finished Sara's wedding quilt from Mom. I had to add the borders and piece the back and quilt and bind. I've been practicing on the white board and decided to quilt with an allover freehand "funky feathers" I am very pleased with how it turned out!
I decided the quilting should be done with dark blue thread to help tie the whole thing together and to break up those big blight blue snowball blocks. Mom started this quilt 16 years ago and her fabric choices weren't at all what they would be now, but the quilting sure did help this quilt.
The back was pieced, but if I do a quilt this big again it will not have seam running both horizontal and vertical on the back....it makes it hard to roll the back on evenly. If I must piece a large back I'll do all horizontal seams or diagonal seams...but wide backing fabric sure would make it easier!
This quilt turned out 99" x 87" and I'll say I will draw an absolute size limit at 104".
I really enjoyed doing the funky feathers and decided it would be a good design to use on my first "customer quilt". Sharon N. said she would pay me to practice on her quilt. I hope she likes what I did!

I have a few more community projects quilts, a large one for Habitat for Humanity house,and another for Sharon N. waiting in the wings. I also have somewhere to go every evening this week ( hope to get some quilting done during the days I'm home) and next week will be Knights of Columbus Garage sale keeping me busy Tuesday thru Friday afternoons and early evening and Saturday most of the day...maybe I'll do some late night quilting if I have any energy left.

Another One for Community Projects

2011-06-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

I brought some blocks home Monday evening from NAQG Community Projects workday. While returning all my sewing supplies to their rightful places at home I pulled the blocks out and decided to arrange them on the design wall. Then I decided to just sew a few together and I ended up staying up until 1 a.m. and finishing the quilt top. Yesterday I got it quilted and this morning I added the binding and label. I did a faux piped binding again. This time because I had found a piece of fabric i wanted to use for the binding but it was only 8" by width of fabric. I knew I would need 5 WOF strips to bind the quilt. My normal binding is cut in 2.5" strips. But if I do the faux piped binding the binding fabric is cut 1.5" and the piping fabric is cut 1.75" so I had enough to do that. And I do like the extra little pop the binding gives to the finished quilt. In this case it helped carry the white used in the center blocks out to the edge of the quilt. My freehand quilting design on this quilt is loops and asterisks.
I used some polka dot fabrics I bought a few years ago for the backing. I hope some child in a crisis situation finds some comfort from this quilt.

2011-06-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

So I have been busy...what's new? Ginger made a little quilt top and had me quilt it for her...she told me what to do in each area. This was not done on Lizzie but on my regular sewing machine
I think the feathers turned out rather nice and they are small, as you can tell in the following picture:
After a busy week and weekend I spent the next week wishing I could just stay home but still had too many activities . But I did manage to get some quilting done. First I had a top from Guild community projects, a simple large 4-Patch alternated with muslin squares. Fabrics choices were, shall we say, interesting. I would not have used fall colors green and pink together, but someone was using up leftovers. Anyway I quilted an all over design which haven't named, with green thread to break up that big expanse of muslin. After quilting I bound it with green and added a pink piping to help tie the blocks together. Once it was finished I liked it.
Next I quilted a top to be given to one of the members of the family moving into the new Habitat for humanity house when it is finished. This quilt just needed the design on the fabric outlined and then I quilted sign shapes in the border.
Lastly I quilted another for Community Projects. I like this one much better. Scrappy half square triangles with strategically places white/cream triangles. I decided to do an allover freehand design that I think I will call meandering flourishes. It was fun and fast to do and you can really see teh quilting well on the back of the quilt.
Yesterday was community projects day and I turned in my finished quilts, but I came home with lots more than I left with in the morning. 2 more quilts for Habitat house (one queen size!), 2 more for tops for Community projects, and 2 sets of blocks for community projects, one of which I have already sewn into a finished top and I think I will quilt it next! The other set of blocks is all arranged on the design wall and should only take a couple of hours to get sewn together . But the most exciting news is I also brought home 2 quilts to quilt for someone who will be paying me to do them.

Quilting Makes the Quilt.

2011-06-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

I brought this quilt top home from guild. The powers that be was decided it was too dark and boring to give to a child in crisis.
Truly, it is rather boring. I think someone put it together, decided they didn't like it and donated it. So I figured I had nothing to lose by practicing on it. Ginger loves cats and liked the quilt because it has cats on it. I decided it is time to finally actually try quilting a feathered border...freehand feathers, although I did chalk in a spine line to guide me. I outlined the cats and the frames around them and meandered in their background. Due to a mistake I made a slight tear on one of the frames, so I went back and and added a looping design to cover the tear and actually it improved the quilt to lighten up hat dark frame.

Then I had to decide what to do in those big light squares. I knew they really wouldn't show on the front but went with feathered wreaths, with a feather/loop design in the corner of the block and a rose in the center. Since the back of the quilt is a black background print, the quilting shows up quite well on the back.Yes, my feathered border isn't quilt show quality, but its certainly not bad for a first attempt. All in all the quilting really does this improve this quilt, but I knew it could. I never decide a quilt is a failure until after it has been quilted. And even then I have had a few that improved with a washing and drying. I think I will probably be donating this one to Wrap Them In Love, through the Sunshine online guild. Ginger has at least 7 quilts already and one is a "cat" quilt.

I've been Busy!

2011-06-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

I mentioned an idea for a 4 fabric quilt using the block lotto June block on Monday. Well, I had actually picked out fabrics on Sunday, and Monday afternoon I went ahead and made the quilt top. 3 hours and 15 minutes from fabric to completed top, start to finish including cutting time. Not bad!
Tuesday I decided to get the 2 tops Pat F. in Sunshine guild had sent for quilting done. And I did get them both quilted, even though I also had potluck and meeting at church Tuesday evening. Wednesday I was supposed to take a friend for a doctor appointment in the afternoon, but she cancelled so I was home until 4:00. I sewed bindings on the 2 Sunshine Quilts.Hard to see but the one above is quilted with a meandering half sun swirl design. The quilting shows a little better on the one below. It is a baptist fan variation.

And then I pieced a back for my quick quilt. And got it loaded on the machine before I had to leave for the evening. After Choir practice I quilted it with freehand baptist fans, which I think turned out a little nicer than the ones on the string quilt. My spacing of lines improved a bit and quilted all the way across the quilt one row at a time in opposite directions. This morning I made a faux piped binding as i had seen in this tutorial and after my morning routine I sewed it on the quilt.
I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It's amazing what a difference an 1/8" line of white piping can make. Actual working time on this quilt start to finish was less than 8 hours.

What's on my design wall this Monday?

2011-06-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

First on the design wall is the ABC Blue work quilt top I started at community projects day for Giuild. Anne embroidered the bluework Sunbonnet ABC;s blocks and and it was a quick quilt to make. Hopefully I'll get it quilted before guild meeting (the 20th)

On the other design wall are the blocks i made for this months block lotto. Finding and cutting the fabrics was the time user on these. The actual sewing time for the 9 blocks was less than 15 minutes. And it got my mind working and i have selected 4 fabrics and will soon be making a whole quilt top with this block. 4 Fabric quilts aren't my usual choice, but since the blocks go together so fast I won't have time to get bore working with the limited selection, and i will give me another top to practice my quilting on! I do want to do a scrappy quilt with this block, and who knows....I could win the lotto blocks and the blue/green/purple scrappy palette suits me just fine too!

A Quilt for Father Jarek

2011-06-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

At the May Ladies auxiliary meeting we voted to give Fr. Jarek a monetary going away gift, which Marilyn gave to him that night. At that time he expressed a desire for the ladies to make him a quilt, with a patriotic fabric theme. So Marilyn called me the next day and I was thrilled. I had thought about giving him a quilt but had no idea what colors he might like. I said I thought it would be great if the ladies would sew blocks and i could put it all together and quilt it. I said I'd design something and make block kits to distribute on May 14th at the regular quilting day. I picked 2 background fabrics from my stash and found 17 red and 18 blue fabrics to make 35 star blocks. The block design kept star points well away from the edge of the blocks, so all blocks could be trimmed to the same size. With so many different seamstresses, some of whom had never made a quilt block, I didn't expect them all to come back the same size. On the 12th I handed out block kits and demonstrated the sewing of the block. Amazingly I had all of the completed blocks back in my hands by May 25th, which is really pretty amazing if you have ever done a group quilt. Meanwhile I ordered backing, border and sashing fabrics which arrived before I had the completed blocks. I trimmed all the blocks down to the same 10" size and it was an easy matter to get the top together. I had it done by the weekend. Life was busy so didn't get to put the quilt on the machine until Thursday morning, but quilting was done before I went out for the evening.
I made the binding before bed and sewed it on before taking the girls swimsuit shopping on Friday.

After a successful shopping trip, I decided to go ahead and use the leftover fabrics to make a small doggie quilt for Father Jarek's dog. I had a piece of extremely high loft batting and I think it will make a nice place for Phillip (the dog) to nap.

No change on design wall Monday

2011-05-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

My design wall hasn't changed from last time. I've been busy using my new Tin Lizzie 18. I have quilted 5 quilts and decided last ight no more quilting until I get these bound. # done, 2 to go (hopefully today). So I just pulled down the blocks on the end design wall so I could take pictures of the quilts.
Here is the first one quilted. A definite learning experience. Always stabilize the center if you want to quilt the border before the center. A vining flower border and loop-d-loops in the center. The puckering and tucks on the back of this are incredible...but I'm not re-doing it...it will keep someone warm and cozy as is. I need to decide on a binding. The backing is a big blue on white feathery kind of print. Very busy and really hides the puckering.

The second one I did was a simple cars on a road print and I just quilted down the center of the road. I added a red and black checker to the black and white checker to make the backing big enough. I'll bind with the red and black.

Next onto Lizzie was a snowball block quilt my mother donated to community projects. With two whole quilts under my belt I decided to get fancy on this one. I quited the borders and stabilized the blocks with stitch in the ditch and then went back and quilted the blocks. Each navy background block has a feathered wreath. I traced a circle with chalk and added freehand feathers. After doing a few i decided to also trace circles as guidelines for the inside and outside limits for the feathers . By the time I had done 15 of them, I have a fairly respectable feathered wreath...not show quality work yet, but it is just my third quilt! Alternate blocks have various freehand quilting

Next onto the machine was a two panel length of fabric....2 quilt tops and matching backings, I decided to quilt the 2 tops in different styles. I am very pleased with how they turned out. And I definitely want to invest in an extension for the machine to be used for ruler work and some templates/rulers. As is I made do using my 6" long add a quarter ruler. Again, not show quality work, but all in all they turned out very nice. I even got binding onto them...backing fabric for binding.

And here is a picture of my Lizzie!

Design Wall Monday

2011-04-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

Here's what's on my design wall. With my Tin Lizzie due to arrive in a week or so, I am inspired to get some tops done. These are Wonky Churn Dash blocks I won in last year's April Block Lotto. 48 blocks and I decided to not make two 24 block layouts. I'm thinking scrappy floral setting triangle for the on point layout, as the blocks are alternated between floral and plain backgrounds.
The blocks are square and all the same size. The picture is a bit angled to get it all in as my room is only 6.5 ft wide. But that is where my big wallspace is so larger tops have to be laid out on that wall. The end wall of the room will only hold a 48" top on the flannel, so I use it for smaller quilts. Easy to step back and get a good look at for moving blocks around and taking nice square pictures!. My ideal sewing room would have a 8" wide design wall with plenty of room to step back and still look straight on at the wall.
These blocks are the leftovers after setting up the on point layout. I'm considering sashing possibilities as these will only finish at 9" block size. I tried a strip of red I had laying on the table and it might be a good choice, followed by a bit of a floral border.

On another note, we have chicks. Post office called today at 6:30 to say come pick up your box.
Baby chicks are awfully cute. The ones above are the Red Star and the Black Australorps.

And these are The Golden Polish Crested and a Dominique.
We got 51 in all. 15 Red Star females, 16 Black Australorp straight run, 7 Golden Polish Crested straight run, and 3 Dominique pullets (these are supposed to make good broody hens, so maybe we can hatch our own rather than buy chicks next year).

Stash Management?

2011-04-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, when Mom moved I was given title to her mobile home which sits on our property, just across the driveway from my house It is now my guest house. However Mom still uses part as she doesn't have room for all of her fabric stash in her new house, since Dad insists that she confine the quilting/sewing stuff to her sewing room (the master bedroom of the house) and her bedroom. SO My guest house came complete with a queen size bed, living room furniture and a fabric stash, which both Mom and I will use. Boxes of stash were/are occupying 2 bedrooms and part the living room. My plan is to get it all organized into one bedroom, the Stash room, with maybe a bit in the bunkroom closet. Towards that end, we purchased 40 feet of wire shelving and started sorting fabric. Each piece of fabric was refolded around a 6.5 inch ruler to have them uniform width for stacking. Pieces smaller than 1/2 yard or things with odd shapes such as recycled clothing are in boxes awaiting the set up a scrap stash user's system. Way too many boxes of scraps, but paring a stash down can be a painful slow process. Once we started sorting I realized Mom had moved almost all of some colors of fabric, and her room in Sulphur was crowded. So I suggested she move all yardage back here, and periodically come and chose what she needs for a month or so's worth of sewing. She came yesterday with her car full of boxes. We folded and sorted all afternoon. I woke up early this morning and got through another 2 boxes. Now there are only about 3 1/2 boxes of yardage left to sort....and some to move out of the bunkroom closet....and the box of her doted fabrics......and the flannels....and....
But it really is looking like we will fit everything in once we put up some more shelves. And it will be visible for easy selection and use. The Stash room will have a cutting table in it as well, and probably an ironing board too. Here are pictures of the project:Here is where we sort by color. On the end of the shelves are some larger pieces for backing that will probably end up in the closet.This shelf unit holds the multi-color florals (bottom 2 shelves), and stripes as well as some plaids, "country" prints and fruit prints. The paper boxes stacked next to these shelves are full of solid color fabric which i will also, sort fold and shelve in it's own area.

These 3 boxes are left to sort, so yes, I will have some yellows and oranges to work with but may need to buy some if needed for a particular project.
These two picture show what is presently in the "bunkroom" closet. Definite progress as it was packed full before Mom moved.

This shows one side of the Stash room closet. Top shelf is large pieces for backings, next 2 shelves are things yet to be refolded and sorted. How many striped blues do we need?! I don't know what is in those bottom boxes....
This is the other side of the Stashroom closet. Those 2 boxes on the lower shelf are "southwestern" prints. The other 2 shelves have some sorted smaller pieces of fabric. Eventually I would like to see all FQ-1/2yd pieces folded and sorted by color in clear, shallow, covered bins.
Of course I probably ought to move my yardage over here too and do like Mom is going to and just bring enough for a current project of two into my sewing room....

I need to start selling quilts in an Etsy store or other online store site. I could call my business Mom's Scrappy Stash Quilts.

A New (Ad)Venture

2011-04-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday ordered a Tin Lizzie 18" on a Falcon (wooden) frame. I should be able to pick it up in about 2 weeks. Now I need to get busy getting ready for the machine. Space needs clearing and quilt tops for practicing on need readying. I decided if I was ever going to get a long arm I needed to lower my expectations a bit and not get the biggest and best to start off. And I did not want to have payments that would require me to make money with the machine. Although I do want to go into business, I don't want to be pressured by money issues to take on more than I can really handle. I can afford the payments on what I bought without income from quilting. If I can make an income, I will pay it off sooner and I will upgrade to a better machine when I have saved up enough to pay cash. Let the adventure begin!

What's on my design wall this Monday

2011-04-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here's what's on my design walls this Monday. The blocks on the left are for the Block Lotto this month. On the right are the stack blocks I won in the February Lotto. I still need to rearrange a few then I will add a 2" white border. Finished quilt will be bound with a scrappy brights binding...or maybe a bright stripe... See my next post for some fun news!

Quilt for auction...top finished

2011-03-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to donate a quilt to D'Angela and Kyles's adult handicapped group, Among Friends, for their fundraiser dinner and silent auction which will take place sometime in April. I chose a simple pattern, Tessellating Pinwheels, by Gayle Bong and purchased O.U. fabrics. I did change the pattern by using a different fabric for the inner border. This pattern went together very quickly with strip piecing method. Top is now finished and I have to decide on a quilting design. I'm thinking an allover pattern. Maybe freehand fans or meandering swirls of some sort. Should I go with red thread or white or...??? Finished quilt size will be 64" x 80". Nice size for a twin bed or cuddling up under at a football game.

Changes in progress

2011-02-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

Katy got almost all moved out on Wednesday. I say almost because she has a few things left in the closet to decide about, She bought a full size bed from on Craig's list, and found a bargain on a "Bed in a Bag" set marked down from $100 to $25 because the pillow shams were missing.

Today I finished cleaning up in the big girls room and moved all of Mimi's stuff to one side of the room. Gigi's mattress was moved in; Rose will be using Katy's old mattress. The boys took down the bunk beds and took them over to the guest house...getting them set up will wait until we get things done here as it will require rearranging boxes of Mom's stuff.

Tomorrow I'll move Ggi's dresser and RoseE's desk and hopefully at least get the first coat of paint done. I think 2 coats will be required to cover Pepto Pink with "Mint Shake" green. I still need to get closet organzier stuff...or maybe Denny can do that tomorrow. Hoping Mimi can move into her new room Monday or Tuesday. And speaking of Mimi, she found a job to replace the disaster of a job she had found. She will now be working at Tuxedo Junction. I hope this one works out better than $1 Jewelry Galore!

Another one finished and Changes

2011-02-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

I got this one for community projects finished last week...but didn't have the camera. Now i won't get any quilting done for a while...except at guild workday next Monday. Katy is moving out of the house today, into a house in Norman with a couple of other girls. Then we are rearranging the bedroom arrangement. Gigi and RoseE will switch rooms with Mimi...but before Mimi moves into the room we will be painting it. It will be major upheaval to empty out that room for painting! I'm hoping to get it all done and everyone resettled within a week......i GUESS THAT MEANS I NEED TO GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND GET TO WORK!

Liberated stars #1 is DONE!

2011-02-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

I finally quilted the liberated stars top this week. Snow days are good for quilting if i can get the tablespace for the basting free. I had fun doing different fillers in each block and alternating between curvy and straight designs from one block to the next.
Mimi got a job, but I'm still hoping she'll be around enough to get some patterns and clothes made for her. Looks like Katy will be moving out to share a house with Caitlin Schudalla and another girl. Things are changing!
Heading to Wichita Falls this afternoon to buy a car! Yippee!!

Liberated Stars

2011-01-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

I have finished my first liberated stars top. It will be given to Community Projects once I get it quilted....I sure do like how it turned out!

Rolling along!

2011-01-28T18:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the quilt I brought home from Community projects on Monday to finish quilting.

I also brought home a couple of yards of red fabric to to use with some kid prints in a pattern I had seen on Stashbusters. I dug through my own and Mom's smaller pieces of kid prints and made this top, started Tuesday night, finished on Wednesday.
Simple 9" squares and 9-patch blocks. But a design wall is needed to layout the pieces for the 9-patch blocks to match the adjoining squares. It went together very quickly. I decided no border on this as it is already a good size for a baby/toddler at 45" square. I'll use a red binding to finish it off after quilting.
While going through the fabric I found one I really wanted to use, but the pieces weren't big enough for a 9" square. I remembered the Batting Buddy template I just got at the quilt show had a 7.5" square and thought "perfect! I can do 7.5" finished size 9 patches. So I proceeded to cut the twelve 7.5" squares and the 3" squares needed to make the 9-patch blocks. Sewed the 9-patch blocks and, lo and behold....they were 1/2 " larger than the 7.5" squares I had cut......OOPS! the large squres were cut size 7.5" and would finish at 7" I guess I shouldn't decide to start something new late at night! Not to worry...no seams to match up in this pattern so I just used the 7.5" square template and trimmed the 9-patch blocks down to the right size. If you look close you can tell. This one was started Thursday and finished this morning!
I had just enough of the red fabric left to use as a narrow( one-half inch) sashing in my liberated stars quilt. No pictures yet as it is still in the works, but should be ready for borders tonight...if I get back into the sewing room!

Another Quilt Quilted...

2011-01-26T13:41:00.000-08:00

...for community projects. I didn't piece this one, just did quilting, binding and sewing on the label. No picture because Kay borrowed the camera. So that makes 3 for community projects this year so far. I'd like to be sure and get at least one a month done.

Another UFO Done!

2011-01-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

This quilt was a stack of squares I picked up from guild community quilting last month. Qualifies as a UFO since it was started before Dec. 31. After posting last night's finish, I sewed the top together before heading to bed. I quilted it tonight while the house was quiet. It is backed with extra fabric from Jackie and Seri's aprons. It's already been washed and dried and is ready to turn in tomorrow at work day. Not fancy, but pretty and functional...and we needed more baby sized quilts!

Another UFO Finished!

2011-01-22T18:33:00.000-08:00

This was a kit I brought home from guild for community projects back in November. Ann Watkins embroidered the blocks. I decided simple walking foot quilting suited this best.
Next up to work on.....as far as quilts go, liberated stars sashed with red. Monday is community projects work afternoon.....I have some squares I brought home last month to sew together....maybe tomorrow!

Late, but DONE!

2011-01-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

I finished the table runner for Kristi. Late for Christmas but it is done!
The top was done over a year ago in a class I took at guild. Teacher was Lerlene Neveril and the pattern was from her Hidden Block Quilts book. I chose fabrics with Christmassy music theme. Don't know why it took me so long to get it quilted.

1 down, 1 left....

2011-01-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

Late Christmas packages that is.

I finished Jackie's apron and we mailed the package without me getting a picture, but it is just an adult size copy of Seri's apron. Now I need to pull out the table runner for Kristi and Victor and see what it will take to finish it. I have a miserable cold and don't think I want to work on anything too complicated. Waiting for my pot of chicken soup to get done.... well, actually waiting for the bread to be ready to bake...a few more minutes rising I think. Dinner will be delicious and comforting and hopefully speed my recovery!

Progress!

2011-01-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

I have Seri's apron and chef's hat finished. Of course Ginger is bigger than Serenity, but she is able to model them. The hat has a Velcro closure, so it is adjustable. The Chef's hat pattern was found at www.homespun-threads.com . I used Simplicity #2319 for the apron, but instead of using a single fabric as shown on the pattern, I used three fabrics and turned the casing/facing to the outside to get color along that edge. It turned out nicely with a boutique kind of look. Jackie's apron will match. The pattern has adult and child sizes in one envelope and it is an "It's so easy, It's Simplicity" pattern which is reasonably priced. I got mine at Wal-mart. I may finish Jackie's apron tonight, but I may wait until morning. I have a miserable cold, but I do want to get the gifts in the mail tomorrow as early as possible.

What's on my design wall Monday

2011-01-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

Here are the quilts on my design walls currently. the embroidered vehicles are a Community Projects kit I brought home from guild, which I assembled on NYE. This will be a small quilt, just 42" square, so quilting shouldn't take long!
The other wall has half of the liberated stars i won in the block lotto for November. They've been up there a while and on NYE I decided they really need sashing. I have selected a small red and white check and plan narrow sashings...1" finished size. Then a blue background star print fabric for borders. It should end up a nice size donation quilt and will be suitable for a boy...we always have plenty of girly quilts!
Of course I can't work on either of these until i get the last of the Christmas presents done. 2 aprons, a chef's cap and a table runner (just needs quilting if I remember correctly).

to see what others are doing check out Judy's Design Wall Monday post

The best laid plans

2011-01-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

I had planned to spend New Year's eve sewing all day....but got off to a late start. I did finish my new black skirt...fit could be better but it will do for a while. Then I added a ruffle to a dress that was too short for Ginger. Turned out cute. Finally at about 10:00 pm. I got around to working on a quilt. I decided the stars on the design wall needed sashing and picked out fabric for that, but i needed to be washwed and ironed so i decised to work on the kit I brought home from community projects day at guild. 12 embroidered blocks alternating with 13 star print squares. Add a matching border and I had it done by 12:15 am. on January 1...a good way to ring in the new year!

I have the fabric picked out to back this and fabric ready to cut sashings for my stars on the wall. I also did get aprons cut out for Jackie and Seri...they are top of the list for sewing today as thay are Christmas presents and I want them there by the 12th day of Christmas. Seri is also getting a chefs hat. Those are on the agenda today as we get back into the normal routine. Denny is back to working 4pm-1am. I have nowhere to go today. I already did 45 minutes on the Wii fit so I am good to go for a sew-a-thon tonight!

And here is a picture of my January lotto blocks. These were very fun and easy to make. Even if i don't win tis months lotto, I suspect there are quilts of this block in my future!
One of these days I will find a plain flannel sheet for my design wall...until then the snowmen will have to do!

Lotto Blocks

2010-12-29T11:36:00.001-08:00

I made 9 blocks for the block lotto yesterday, but since they are January blocks done from the sneak peek, I can't show pictures yet. Suffice it to say they were easy, fun, bright and colorful. I'll post pictures on January 1.

I thought I'd get a skirt sewn today, but I haven't made myself get moving on that. I really need to get dressed and head into town to pay our property taxes. The skirt will wait for tomorrow....it's already been cut out and waiting for a month already.

Last minute gift

2010-12-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

Since money was a bit short this year we tried to keep things cheap and I think we did pretty good. I sewed a driving cap for Denny....no picture because it is at work with him. Christmas Eve afternoon RoseE mentioned she needed a wallet that would hold coins as well as bills. So I googgled and found this tutorial/pattern. I know it isn't perfect. some of the sewing is a bit messy...it is hard to sew neatly through so many layers of fabric and interfacing. But it is rather cute and functional and most importantly, RoseE likes it!

Progress

2010-12-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

Getting the house straightened up for the party and Christmas is coming along nicely. Today I cleaned the vent-a-hood. Whoever designed it ought to be shot. So many nook sand crannies to collect grease and dust that are impossible to clean. At least it is better now. Then I did 2 loads of laundry...nearly froze my fingers off hanging the first load. Then I tackled the sewing room. I thought I'd just make a start, but I actually finished! I think I will reward myself with some sewing time this evening. Doesn't it Look nice and inviting working on a project?

Tension...

2010-12-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

...No, not the sewing machine.....me! I don't know why I'm so stressed out lately. Hopefully it will get better. We are looking into some financial stuff ...hopefully it will all work out like we want. I hate waiting to hear about things! Mimi's graduation is in 10 days. I think maybe the house will be presentable by then. I've been working on getting rid of clutter...where did it all come from? I'm afraid I'll have to stash the mess in the sewing room in the closet to go thorough later, but should be able to get the room reasonably neat. Now I need to go...

Time Flies....

2010-12-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

...even when you're not having fun!

No more sewing done since the last post. Life is overwhelming. House is a mess and I desperately need to de-clutter, especially the sewing room. But how to decide what fabric i will or won't use in the future? Meanwhile, Mimi is graduating from St. Gregory University in just 12 days and we are having a party here to celebrate, so I really do need to get the house presentable.

On the sewing front, I have a few ideas for Christmas gifts for the kids that would use up some fabric, if I can find time to get them done. I just don't seem to have much energy for things lately.

Gabe wrecked Denny's car yesterday. Fortunately no one was injured and the car is fixable.

Finally sewing again!

2010-11-12T07:36:00.001-08:00

After a summer and early fall spent fixing up Mom and dad's new house and then having surgery that turned into a major event with long recovery I am finally getting back into the swing of things and starting to get the sewing room back in order. First project to get things cleared out was to finally get Kathleen Burn's sampler quilt quilted. Her mom asked me to quilt it because Kathleen found that the spray baste made her hands break out when she tried to work on it. It as been sitting in my sewing room for over a year. I had to do a few repairs to faulty seams before I could begin quilting. I was free to do whatever I wanted and I felt the quilt needed each block quilted differently...a perfect opportunity to practice free motion quilting (FMQ) filler designs. I felt rather dense quilting was in order as some seams were still a bit weak and quilting will hold the quilt together. It turned into a major undertaking! each of the 20 blocks took 45-60 minutes to quilt. When those were done i pondered what to do about the sashings and cornerstones. Four inch wide sashings definitely needed a fair amount of quilting to keep balance in the quilt. I considered a few FMQ designs, but by that point I was wanting to just get it done, and I didn't want the quilting in the sashings to compete with the blocks. Denny suggested just simple straightline quilting crossing in the cornerstones. I decided 4 lines would be dense enough. It turned out to be just the right thing, and straightline with the walking foot goes so quickly. I am quite pleased with how it turned out and I hope Kathleen and Carol like it when I deliver it next Thursday....after showing it off at Guild Monday! Here are closeups of several of the blocks.

.

did manage to make some lotto blocks for October and I won! Blocks have been arriving and I've started arranging them. 48 nine inch blocks should make a couple of quilts for community projects.

Here is one grouping...not all the blocks have arrived yet, but these seem to play together nicely. But before I will allow myself to work on quilts i need to get 4 skirts/dresses made for Ginger.

Where has the summer gone?

2010-07-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

I feel like life has been too crowded with things I have to do. And things are changing around here. Mom and Dad have purchased a house in Sulphur, OK and Mom will be moving there in the next month or so. Meanwhile guess who volunteered to paint the whole interior of the house and needs to help get things ready to move in....yep! Me!! No way Mom would be able to do all that work. One room left to paint: the kitchen, currently dark red with black trim on the soffits, being changed to light yellow walls and we'll see if the soffits can stay red and black. Denny still has electrical work to do and also some trim work in the bathroom where we put in linoleum. And another toilet to replace. Then deep cleaning the kitchen and it will be move in ready.
I have a sewing project I must get done on Saturday. KC Garage sale is next week...I'm hoping to paint early in the week then work the Garage Sale. And then we want to go visit Jamie and Annie Aug 25-30...still need to plan for that and make arrangements. And possibly Mom and Dad will move before our trip....Maybe in September things will settle down...until we start gearing up for wedding prep next year!

UFO Finish!

2010-05-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

This quilt top has been awaiting my quilting for quite some time. I did not piece/applique it. Mom had it from her Escapees group and it was too nice to not have some special quilting, so I said I would do it. I finally got going on it this weekend and finished it today. I like how it turned out.
I quilted the background of each quadrant with a different quilting filler design, My favorite is the hook echo design
This really adds a nice texture to the quilt surface. I found the design at http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/ She has lots of great designs. H2O is another one I used:
The other 2 quadrants were just a loopy meander and a square loopy meander.
I finished the quilt off with a red binding to bring the red from the applique out to the edge of the quilt. the binding was attached to the back iof the quilt then turned to the front side and stitched down with a machine buttonhole/blanket stitch to mimic the handstitching around the applique. Inside the light borders I did simple ribbon candy quilting. All in all I think it turned out quite nicely!

Wedding in the Works

2010-05-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

Katy is engaged to Chris Jay. Wedding is in planning stages for early August 2011. I'll have lots of sewing to do. Wedding gown, bridesmaids' dresses, flower girls' dresses, accessories, and a wedding quilt. And something for me to wear too! 15 months to get it done!

Block Lotto...

2010-05-03T07:46:00.000-07:00

I won the Wonky floral shoo fly blocks in the April Block lotto... I'm looking forward to squishies in the mail!. Here are the blocks I made, which I decided to keep as part of my winnings:
Last evening I was home alone in a quiet house and decided to try the May lotto block. Sophie is calling this one "Reeds" Black, white, or black and white for backgrounds. lime greens for free pieced reeds. A great exercise in fabric manipulation...

Katy's Engaged!

2010-05-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Katy is engaged to be married! The date is not set yet, as they have to talk to Father Boyer and get on the church calendar, but probably sometime in August 2011...Chris will be graduated by then for sure. Long ways off, but I will have lots to do. I want to make Katy's dress.

Meanwhile I am taking another pattern making class. This one is the upper torso sloper (bodice). Then I'll need the sleeve class and the lower torso (skirt ) and I'll be set to draft a pattern of Katy's own design for her wedding dress. I need to work on the class work today, fitting myself for a pattern.

Quilting has been not happening around here, but I did just win the Block Lotto for April.

I spent 6 days in Colorado with Jamie and Annie and have been trying to get things caught up at home since Wednesday. The garden needs more planting. Green beans are sprouting and I had a salad of garden greens yesterday...but those may be gone soon as some are starting to bolt to seed...too warm and sunny! I will plant squashes, cucumber, melons, okra, and Swiss chard this week.

A Dress for Gigi

2010-04-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

I saw a instructions in Sew Stylish Magazine, Spring 2010, for a simple dress that I thought I could adapt for Gigi. The one in the magazine was for a woman, and had 10 godets. The instructions given for drafting the pattern were faulty (I e-mailed the magazine about that and I was right!). But i forged ahead using what I know about pattern drafting and design and the basic idea given and made this dress for Gigi.
I designed the pattern using 6 godets rather than 10 and added 2 casings with elastic to hold it in at the waistline. I like how it turned out and will probably use the same basic idea again. I used 1 yard of the pink fabric and 2/3 yd of the green and beige gingham. Total fabric cost was under $5.

UFO Sighting...

2010-04-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a UFO but it isn't anymore! I finally quilted this. The quilt is a row robin swap quilt and my request was for orphan blocks of whatever size put together with whatever filler was necessary for a 12" x 48" row. I really like how it turned out. I received lots of interesting blocks. The top row is the row I made. 2 of the blocks were test blocks for 2 different recipients in a birthday swap (Lantern and paper pieced spiky block) The star in a circle has paper pieced curves for the star background Then the circle with star was set into a square of fabric with a circle cut out. ...I had seen the technique in a magazine and wanted to try it out.
I decided to try different quilting patterns on the various blocks. All was done free motion quilting...no marking whatsoever.

this is just a sampling...I don't want to spend all day taking pictures and posting them!

No more quilts done

2010-03-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't been sewing much, and nothing new is finished. I attended a string piecing workshop taught by Elsie Campbell and started some, but haven't even sewn the blocks together yet. I have 3 trial layouts....actually I will either do the alternating dark/light kites for one quilt or do 2 quilts, one with dark kites, one with light. These are just what I had at the time, not enough for the whole quilt. But these are on hold for a while.
I need to make some clothes for myself and RoseE for Easter. And I need to finish some of the quilts I have already started. Towards that end, I readied pattern and fabrics for RoseE's dress today, and I layered and pinned a quilt that has been waiting for quilting for about 3 years. The weather was beautiful today and I was able to get 4 load of laundry washed and hung out to dry as well. We are working on a garden area, but it was still a bit too wet since the weekend's snow to work on today. Next step is a bit more tilling and leveling and then we put up a fence and frame the beds with landscape timbers.
Johnny turned 10 on Sunday...just one child left who is not in double digits Ginger will be 7 May 31st. While she will always be my baby, she isn't a baby anymore. She's getting to be a young lady.

Quilting again!

2010-02-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

I have completed 3 of my unfinished quilts since January 1, 2010. And quilted one other top someone else made and donated to Community projects

The first was given to my dear friend Donna for her 70th birthday. She loves flowers and loves the quilt!
Next was the one I quilted that I didn't piece. I think the quilting really added a lot to this one! I did a free motion, variation of the Baptist Fan quilting pattern on the solid squares and various freemotion flowers on the 4 -patches.

Next I went to Houston for a week of babysitting and took with a stack of half square triangle blocks I had started to make Broken Dishes blocks. This was an exercise in value and started with a pile of 196 four inch squares of randomly different fabrics cut while cleaning up in the sewing room a few years ago. I sorted the fabrics from darkest to lightest and then split them into 2 stacks still in order from dark to lighter. The darkest dark was paired with the darkest light and so on down through the stackes to make the half square triangles. Once I had these trimmed I paired 2 sets of HST's to form the broken dishes blocks. Then I waited until I was home with my design wall to settle on a block arrangement. Here is the finished quilt. Careful placement of the blocks resuted in a built in border effect.
And last, but certainly not least of my accomplishments thus far this year is a quilt I have named "Encouragement". It was started as a block I wanted to try out that became the centerpiece for a nesting round robin I joined. For the those unfamiliar with the round robin concept Each person picks their starting block and others in the group add to it in rounds, passing the quilt from one to the next until all have contributed to the quilt. In a nesting round robin each participant does all the work on their own quilt, but what is done on each round is chosen by a different participant. In the is case the first instructuion was to do a round of triangles. Next was just add a simple strip or two (plain border). Then I fell behind a bit and I combined the 3rd and 4th round instuctions which were a stop sign border and a rail fence border. Next was add applique, then a checkerboard border. The final instruction was to add some stars, which I did in the applique border. I really liked how it looked, but knew I wanted to do something different for the quilting, and so it was set aside. After finishing the Broken Dishes quilt I had momentum going and finally decided it was time. I covered the quilt top with clear plastic and used a dry erase marker to get a few general ideas of what I needed to do. I decided there was too much white and so the quilting was done mostly on the white patches with a jewel tone variegated thread. I am very happy with how it turned out and will be entering it in my guild's quilt show this summer.

12th Day of Christmas

2010-01-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Today is the 12th day of Christmas. It's about time I posted here with some sewing up dates. For presents I made an apron for Kristi (no picture taken), pot holders and a potato baking bag for Josh (no pictures), pajama pants for Nick (n.p.), a purse for Jackie with a matching purse for Seri ,

Jumper and shirt for Seri,

purse for Annie (no picture, but same pattern as Jackie's but made of denim and batik fabrics), skirt and vest for Mimi(no pic yet), skirt for Katy(no pic), driving cap and scarf for Gabe, (no pic) quilt for JoeE,

Skirt and top for RoseE (no pics), Robe for Johnny,
Pants and shirt for Ginger,
and a housedress for Mom
and another is promised.

White Christmas Eve in Oklahoma

2009-12-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

I finished my sewing...gifts for Josh, Mimi, Katy, Gabe, JoeE, RoseE, Johnny, Ginger and Jim and Gail. We were going to go buy a few things today when Denny got off work, but it had started snowing, so he went to do it himself and called me for consultation on gifts. But he wasn't able to get to Wal-mart for the groceries I wanted. And he isn't able to get home! He's staying with friends tonight. Masses have been canceled for tonight and we are hoping we can get in for Mass in the morning. Fortunately the Astro has 4 wheel drive....

Note the depth of the snow by the minivan...that's a lot for Oklahoma! And we have plenty of firewood to keep us warm.

"Reversible binding"

2009-12-09T13:23:00.001-08:00

I was asked how I did the biding on JoeE's quilt and since I had some of the binding left over I took a few pictures to help explain.

First I joined a 1 3/8" strip of the turquoise to a 2 5/8" strip of the navy along the long edge and pressed the seam open, resulting in this 3 1/2" wide 2 fabric strip.
Next I pressed that in half to form a folded binding one side showing only the navy, the other both fabrics.The folded strip was then attached to the back of the quilt using a 1/2 inch seam. In the picture the orange fabric represents the quilt. Pins represent the stitching line at 1/2".
Binding is then folded away from the quilt

and then wrapped around to the front and stitched down as desired.

JoeE's quilt is done!

2009-12-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

I decided to make Christmas presents rather than use credit and asked the kids for gift ideas. JoeE requested a warmer quilt. Since his present would take the longest to make I did it first. First I checked my stash of blocks, but found nothing that was appropriate for him, so I started from scratch. I decided to do quilt as you go string blocks and use up some of my smaller pieces of batting and the strips and strings of which I have bins full. For the backings I grabbed things out of the bin waiting to be cut into the scrap users system...the only yardage I cut into was for the joining strips/sashings and bindings. I did the binding in 2 fabrics so it shows one on the front of the quilt and the other on the back, and I am really pleased with how it turned out. This gift will not be a surprise...he has seen it during construction and helped hold it up for the picture taking. I guess that is a disadvantage to homeschooling...the kids are almost always home and it's hard to make surprise gifts! No one else asked for a quilt, so the rest of the gifts should be faster to make. I hope they all turn out as well as this did. Amazingly, I am really not feeling stressed about getting gifts done....maybe I'm delusional?

I forgot to mention

2009-11-29T17:40:00.000-08:00

Somewhere along the way while figuring out how many squares to cut for the checkerboard border I messed up and so I have 40 extra 4" four-patches. I have to decide if I want to use them in the backing for the quilt or start a whole new top...maybe a simple row quilt with bright strips between checkerboard strips.....this is how one quilt leads to another and on and on!

I just wanted to try a block....

2009-11-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I came across a block pattern I wanted to try. It's a paper pieced, 12" block, found here . I liked the block, but decided I didn't want to do a whole quilt top's worth of blocks. Paper piecing is nice but gets tedious. So I decided to use the block as a center for a nesting robin I had started doing and not finished because it was getting too big and I didn't like it. The rounds were to add a round using triangles, add a plain strip, a stop sign border, a rail fence or braid border, add applique, add a checkerboard border, and add stars. Since the whole list had already been selected I decided to combine some. So I did a round with stop signs and rail fences alternating and put stars into my applique round. I really am pleased with how this turned out. Now I just have to decide how to quilt it. I don't think my typical allover meandering style is what this quilt calls for....time to grow a bit! The inner black with bright dots strip I used was leftover from that baby quilt, but I really want to bind the quilt with this fabric as well, so I called the shop in Texas, and ordered 2 yards. It just works so well with brights that I want to have some for future use! This quilt was made just for the fun of it and I will be donating it to my guild's community projects. We give quilts to Allie's house (kids in chemotherapy) and to Abbott House (a place for children who have had to be removed from an abusive situation) and I think some child will get some cheer and encouragement from this quilt!
After finishing the top today I decided to do a few blocks for an upcoming lotto.
The top right block was pieced, a circle into a hole. That was tedious! The other 4 are appliqued. I made a freezer paper circle, ironed to the back of the circle fabric, cut around leaving an approximate 1/4" turn under allowance. Than I applied starch and turned the allowance under and ironed. After applying a bit more starch to the edge and ironing stiff and dry, I removed the freezer paper, pinned the circle to a slightly oversized square, and top-stitched close to the edge with invisible or color coordinated thread. I think I may do a few more blocks.

My thrifty Mother

2009-11-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

Look how my mother decided to deal with strips of batting trimmed from the edge of quilts. She can't bring herself to throw away something perfectly good....
I'll admit I scoffed at the idea a bit, but she did it anyway. And it really does work. She loosely wove the strips of batting together and then zig-zag stitched around the edge of the resulting batt. This lays flat, and is as flexible as a regular batting. It is extra thick because weaving makes it double, but with cheap polyesterbatting this is not excessive. And in the one Mom has layered and basted already it seems to look just fine. Lesson learned:don't throw away anything! Alright, maybe not....

Baby Quilt and Lotto blocks

2009-11-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't have any baby appropriate blocks in my stash, but I decided to make a disappearing 9-patch, and picked out 9 fabrics...just a FQ worth of each gave me leftovers. I started with 4" squares of fabric and ended up with 10" blocks. It went together very fast. The most time was consumed trying to decide how to quilt it. I think the total time spent was 6 hours or maybe a bit less. Anyway it turned out nice. Unfortunately Gabe took the camera on his youth group trip,but Denny showed me how to get pictures off the camera on the phone. I used his phone to take a picture of the Baby quilt.
Then last night I got back to the lotto blocks I had started Monday before the baby quilt interrupted me. I finished them up this morning and took a picture with my phone, which unfortunately has a scratch across the lens. Johnny was eying the blocks as I was sewing and commented that they were "nice blocks".
Now I have to get busy. My little slave driver is ready for her spelling and reading lessons. She wants to get done quickly so she can go over to Grandma's to sew.

No pictures today.

2009-11-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

After a very productive Saturday, I was gone most of the day Sunday. I did get some lotto blocks started. Maybe I'll finish them up this afternoon since we're done with school and a I have a couple of hours to get ready for Guild meeting. Denny wants to know could I make a little girl baby quilt to give to one of his students whose becoming a daddy at age 48. Kicker...it needs to be done by Friday. My immediate answer was "No", but I really should see if I have some appropriate blocks on hand that I could throw together....but it won't happen if I spend too much time on the computer!

And yet another!

2009-11-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

Here is the final quilt top of the day for me...

The box for Bev has 7 quilt tops in it now. I think I can probably fit another two or three in there, maybe by week's end... and here is a picture of the top Mom donated.

Another one done!

2009-11-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

So I went and pulled out my box of UFO's and found Hope of Hartford blocks I won in the lotto over a year ago. Twenty 10" blocks. I picked out 9 that played well together and pulled out some 2.5" strips of 30's repros and was able to finish this already. I have another 9 blocks on the design wall and need to go hunt for sashings and a border. But I think I'll eat dinner first.

Getting back in the groove..

2009-11-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

This week I have been getting back in the quilting groove. I finished the ABC Quilt which will be gifted tomorrow
Here you can get idea how it looks with the quilting of the letters.

And then I pulled out a box of orphan blocks/rejects I had been sent for making Sunshine quilts.
The first 2 were super simple. The Christmas fabrics had been cut into 9" squares, I just did an alternating layout and added borders.
The next one had 2 different blocks made, but not really enough for a quilt top and I had no fabric to make more of the same blocks. So I put together what I had and found a print that picked up the 2 main colors and pulled in the blue as well. Then I added the fun polka dots.

So that makes 1 quilt completed this week and 3 tops for Sunshine. Today I am spending the day relaxing...in the sewing room. 1st on the agenda was a set of hour glass blocks . I had to trim them all to a consistent size and decided to alternate with crumb blocks . I added an inner border andthen did crumb block borders as well. So make that 4 tops for Sunshine....and when I went to show this one to Mom she added one of hers to the box as well.
Next I plan to pull out my UFO bins and see what I can find to complete another top quickly. I want to fill a Priority Mail box and get it off to BevB ASAP...

I almost forgot...I also quilted a quilt for Mom's Care Quilts group. She felt the quilt needed something other than straight line/walking foot quilting. I had said I might bre able to do it, and Wednesday she asked could it be done before Dad leaves next week so he can deliver it. I said I'd be able to get to it Saturday (today) but then decided to get going on iot that evening while everyone was gone. I surprised myself...it turned out pretty good, and since Mom's lights were still on at 11:30 when I finished it I took it over. Was she surprised, and thrilled. Here is the front.
I first did the straight lines with the walking foot, then did free motion around the magnolias. Then I just tried out some free motion designs I had seen in a video. Since it has a solid maroon back and I used natural color thread, the design rally shows up well....just don't look too closely, because it's far from perfect!

Busy Week

2009-11-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

The weather cooperated and I was able to get the new siding on the front of the house painted. No small task, as I found it best to brush the paint on rather than roll it. 2 gallons of paint applied with a 3" brush....can you say "sore arms"? But the resultse are worth it.
This is just a glimpse of the color scheme. Excuse the construction mess. Eventually (hopefully next Spring) there will be a raised bed vegetable garden here, surrounded by a fence. We are slowly re-siding the whole house with concrete siding. This is the first side done. The end around this corner should get done this month if we have decent weather.

I got the alphabet quilt top pieced, and have it basted and ready to start quilting just as soon as I pull myself away from the computer. One week until the baby shower it is a gift for....better get busy!

After months....

2009-11-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

I'm finally working on a quilt again! I am making a quilt for a friend's baby shower which is on Nov. 15. Having a deadline is motivating. I have had these ABC blocks for quite some time. I set them out in alphabetical order and left spaces between for solid squares which will have their letters quilted on them....This will count as a UFO finish when I get it done! Now I have to rush to get a few errands done before my board meeting tonight at 7:00.

More than a Month!

2009-06-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a month since I posted. In that time I have been in the sewing room a lot, but not quilting. I got the girls swimsuits done, and they turned out quite nice. Also I made myself 3 pairs of capris, a "square " shirt, and a t-shirt. And 2 pairs of shorts for RoseE (she still needs more) I still have piles of fabric and patterns and a need to get more clothes made. One day last week I decided I hade to do something "quilty" so I quilted and bound a charity quilt I have had sitting waiting for about 3 years or more.
It turned out nice, and I used fabric I had bought and rejected for bathroom curtains as a back....stash reduction is a good thing. If I just had time to practice more, I think I could get pretty good at quilting on my Viking Sapphire.

Although I haven't done much quilting I have received blocks from the "birthday" block swap, as May was assigned as my month. I requested 12" NYB blocks made of batiks. So far, from 6 of the 11 swappers, I have received 8 blocks. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with these. in retrospect, I should have specified a measurement for the placement of the final arcs so there would have been more consistency between blocks. As it is the final arc on one is actually the edge of the block, and a few is at 1/4 inch and will be the edge when the blocks are sewn together. On one block it is over 2 inches in from the block edge. I think about an inch in from the finished edge of the block would have been best on this size block. As with all the swaps I've done, I've learned for the future....but even with the "problems" they are a lovely bunch of blocks, aren't they?

.
Yesterday I realized the end of the month is sneaking up on me and I hadn't yet done Kate's block for the "Birthday" swap. It is the last month of the year long swap, and time to wind it up. Kate requested blocks with a dimensional aspect. So last evening after I finished my t-shirt, I pulled out some fabrics and started ...and I finished. I paper pieced a ring of prairie point type triangles and then set the ring into a square of fabric. The center circle was machine appliqued and then I stitched around the outside of the ring to match. I thought about stitching the points of the triangles down on the seamlines with a bead, and even tried it on a couple, but decided to leave them loose. Kate might want to try stitching them. The look is different depending on where the point is placed when stitched. Anyway, I thought the block will travel across the pond better in a flatter state.
I took a cue from Kates's blog and took a picture of the block from a side angle to better show the dimensionality.
Once I got going on this it went together pretty fast. Less than 4 hours start to finish...including the designing period. It was lots of fun to try something so different. And now I need to get back to sewing clothes again. Maybe some day I'll take some pictures and have a style show here...

This n' That

2009-05-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

That's how life as been lately...a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Car problems...computer wasn't working in mine and the front suspension had issues. We finally have the computer fixed, but there is still a noise in the front end, so I guess I'll take the car in again tomorrow..3rd time's the charm right? Hopefully it won't cost anymore, we've alerady sunk over $1000 into it in the past 3 weeks...OUCH! I sewed an inset for organizing my purse. Took all day Saturday, but it turned out nice, and will make it so easy to change purses. I sewed up some Lotto blocks yesterday...I wasn't feeling well and stayed in bed until afternoon and then just relaxed in the sewing room. I'm better today, but haven't accomplished a thing yet. Since the weather finally dried out this week I have done lots of laundry and hung it on the line..makes a big difference on the electric bill.

Sunday is JoeE's birthday, then the next Sunday is Ginger's . The following weekend I am going to Missouri for the Communion and Liberation Spritual exercises. And Kristi Victoer and the boys are coming here to visit for the week. Then June 13 we head to Texas for the big birthday bash for Mom and Dad. Middle of July is the CL vacation. Gabe will be at camp OLOG for July. And I still have lots of sewing projects I want to work on. Next in line are swimsuits for the little girls. I'm starting to look into a new serger...I'd really like a machine that does cover stitch as well as overlock and flatlock we'll see, that's a lot of money. I guess I need to really try to use what I have to it's full potential before deciding to get something better.

What's up?

2009-05-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, I went to Virginia Beach to visit Nick, Jackie and Serenity (6 day visit). They just bought a new house and are settling in. Serenity is a cute little sweetie.

We visited the Zoo, the Botanical Gardens (250,000 azalea plants in bloom...beautiful!) and the beach.

The botanical Garden has 5 bald eagles in residence (nesting) mother, father and 3 babies. We were able to see one of the adults sitting in a tree a way from the nest, I assume he/she was standing guard.(in the center of this photo).

Then we looked through a telescope that was available and Nick was able to take this picture for me.

It's too bad vandals had scratched up the lens of the telescope, or the picture could have been even better!

Since I've been home I have been playing catch-up on housework..the family saved all the laundry for me. Unfortunately it has been very rainy, so I haven't been able to hang laundry out to dry very much, though I did get 3 loads out yesterday...rain forecast again today (warm and muggy..yuck!) then cooler tomorrow with more rain and a very cool Mother's day, maybe wet.

I seem to be a bit sick...sore throat, headache, slight fever. Yesterday I just did laundry and worked on sewing projects. I completed my birthday swap 2 block for April (late!) . I think Sophie should like it. Now I need to find her new address and mail it this weekend.

I found this pattern, by Sindy Rodenmeyer on the internet. At first I thought I would do it with back basted needle turn applique, but after starting I realized it would take way too much time to finish it and I have many other projects I need to get on with, so I did fused applique with satin stitch. I am pleased with the results.

Now I am working on Nickels and Nine-Patches for a swap I joined. I started (and finished) cutting my light Nickels yesterday. While in the process I did a bit of cleaning up and organizing in the sewing room. I washed 1 full load of FQ's which I had been given a while aback and ironed and folded them all. I probably have about 3-4 more loads of fabric that I need to wash Iron and fold. I'll be working on that the next few days. I love the damp dry signal on my dryer. If I use that the fabric is easy to iron.

Next up after the Nickels and Nine-Patches are done will be getting my lotto blocks for May done and catching up m PPM2 stars, Sunshine Sampler, and Nesting Round Robin. I won't join anymore swaps for a while (probably nothing before mid-summer) because I really do need to get some clothes made for myself and the girls. Mimi finishes up at school today, and will move home for the summer tomorrow. Maybe I will help Katy get the bedroom rearranged to make room for her today...... Gabe will be working (in the kitchen) at Camp OLOG in July. Katy is job hunting and hoping to hear back from La Baguette soon.

Denny started re-siding the house with concrete type siding while I was in Virginia beach. Once he gets the siding up I will need to paint. since the whole front of the yard needs to be regraded and landscaped i came up with the idea of using the area close to the house for a fenced in garden. Denny likes the idea, so we will need to be getting that started too. I hope to have walkways in, fencing up, and beds ready for spring planting....possibly even in time for a few fall crops....

And as always I want o get some more quilts done!

2009-04-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

What a great idea! Rather than just a few pictures someone on Stashbusters made a video of her sewing room and put it on her blog. I thought "I can do that!" So I did and here it is. It is taking a long time to upload, so I guess I'll add some print commentary as well. My Sewing space is unorganized. The problem with getting it organized is that in the process I run across a started project, or a pattern or a piece of fabric that grabs onto me and demands attention. And if there is enough room to work on the project, the organizing stops and the project takes over, which of course causes more mess. I only seem to manage to clear enough room to work and the organizing ends. I know...I need to discipline myself to get it done, but how much self discipline can I have at once. It seems to be taking all I have to stick with my low carb, low sodium eating....which seems to be working! My weight is going down and so is my blood pressure. In the grand scheme of things, if I need to choose I'll choose the better health over th neater sewing room!

Good Friday, April 10, 2009

2009-04-10T07:17:00.000-07:00

I've been sewing...no, not quilts. Its that time of the year again...Easter dresses for the girls!

They are done (and we went and found new shoes as well)
and I have made a skirt for me and have a blouse pattern and fabric ready to go...tomorrow. Today is reserved for Stations of the Cross on Campus this afternoon (need to get music together and tune up the guitar, etc...) and evening service at Church.

For a time yesterday evening we thought Annie and her sister might need to come spend the night here. Their parents' house was threatened by the wildfire spreading through MidWest City and Choctaw yesterday afternnon and evenng. But with the change in wind when the cold front came through around 10:00 the dange eased up and evacuation wasn't needed. Now we need rain!

Always trying to play Catch Up

2009-03-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

It seems I'm always trying to catch up. Too much to do and not enough time. We are getting back into the swing of things with schoolwork now that a very tiring Spring Break has ended. Mimi is back at St. Greg's. She broke up with Eric after his visit. What a soap opera! And I'll leave it at that! RoseE finished piecing a quilt for Serenity, Mom quilted it in the ditch and it needs tying in the center of the blocks to be ready to go with me to Virginia Beach April 22. Nick and Jackie are closing on buying a house tomorrow. I need to see if Jackie has a sewing machine and if she'd like help making some curtains while I'm there. I figure I could take my singer as my carry-on luggage if she's interested and doesn't have a machine. I finally got in some sewing time this past weekend and did my Spring Postcards,

and some green and white blocks for Sunshine.

Monday was community quilting for guild, but I couldn't get away. So I basted and quilted a top I had waiting for donation. Finished binding it Tuesday morning. And I finished my March blocks for the Stashbusters not so Ugly, Sunshine sampler.

I'm Home, and Tired!

2009-03-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

I went to Houston, Thursday, February 26, stopping in Dallas to lunch with a friend. Itook my sewing machine, Jamie's NYB Quilt blocks and fabrics, supplies for a string spiderweb quilt and a couple of quilt tops I want to get quilted for community projects. I figured I'd have time to sew wile the boys were in school, and after they went to bed. Yeah, right! Ginger came with me so Gianni would have a playmate while the bigs boys were in school an his non-school days, and because she didn't want to be away from me for that long!

Friday was spent getting to know routines and where everything (schools, hospital, grocery store, library, church, and Hancock Fabrics) is located. Saturday Kristi was finishing up laundry and starting her packing, then we went to see "Marley and Me", to evening Mass, and out to dinner. Sunday was Kristi and Victor's cruise departure. We dropped them off at the ship in Galveston about 1:30, then headed back to Houston. We went to the library and I found that they had 2 copies of Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston, and both were checked in (in other branches). I reserved a copy, and wemnt to see what was on the shelf at 746(quilting books). grabbed a few to take with me and then took the kids to the park.

Monday dawned bright and early. The boys were up by 6a.m.! Took Ski and Tony to school, went home, showered, cleaned up breakfast mess and it was time to take Gianni to pre-school (M-W-F from 9-1). After dropping him off Ginger and I went to the grocery store and then Hancocks. Found some cute PJ satin with cats on it that Ginger loved and bought a nightgown pattern to use it with. Then we went to the library for a more leisurely lookat the books. Home, lunch, clean-up and it was time to go get Gianni. Played on the playground for a while then home and I did my Walk Away the Pounds video while the kids played outside...and then it was time to walk and meet the boys coming home from school. Snacktime, play a while, time to fix dinner. Eat, clean-up, time to start baths and bedtime routine. Evryone settled in bed by 9:00 and I was too tired to think about working on the NYB!

Tuesday was pretty much the same, except no school for Gianni. Ginger's bike kept having the chain jump off the gear...no telling how many times I had to fix it last week! I decided to make Ginger a couple of headbands and found that if I was sewing Gianni wantd to be right by my side watching. That meant no way I cold work on the NYB with it being paper pieced and needing to be cutting/trimming all the time...I was afraid I'd have little fingers in my way! Wednesday was a reapeat of Monday, but I did manage to get Ginger's nightgown cut out. Thursday my reserved book came in at the library. A good read, but I'm glad I didn't have to buy it at $70-100 to be able to read it. All told I thing I checked out 15 or so quilting books during my stay and did read most of them, so even though I didn't sew as much as I had hoped I did learn a lot and get inspired for future projects. Friday I did laundry, sewed Ginger's nightgown and helped the boys clean their rooms, and told them I had every intention of spending lots of time Saturday sewing. After reading Liberated quiltmaking I wanted to try out a few things while the ideas were fresh, so I went to Hancocks Friday morning and bought 3 remnants and 7 FQ's to have something to work with. Saturday I sewed 10 Liberated star blocks.

I tried to get the kids settled down early Saturday, due to the time change and needing to be out of the house by 7:15 am to pick K&V up in Galveston at 8 o'clock. Thay just wouldn't settle down...they all were awake until well after 9:00. And quite grumpy when I woke them at 6:00 in the morning! We picked K & V up and headed to church for Mass and a breakfast. then back to the house. I made 2 more star blocks and sewed all my scraps together for future use, and started getting my things ready for heading home.

Monday I took my time but was packed and ready to leave by 10:15 or so. We made fairly good time and got to Dallas about 4:15 and missed the bulk of the rush hour traffic. Stopped in Gainesville for dinner and were home, totally exhausted by th elong hard week, by 8:30

My house is in total chaos. Denny has been working on the bathroom update, and construction mess is everywhere....and only 1 bathroom is working right now. I have been paintg the shelves for reinstallation. Floor will be grouted tonight...wait 16 hours before walking on it, 3 days before sealing. Mean while Mimi's boyfriend Eric is coming to visit over spring break, arriving lat tomorrow night/ early saturday. I need to be cleaning house, not blogging, but I have a horrendous sinus headache. And I'm still very tired. I hate time changes!!!!

Feb 16, 2009

2009-02-16T15:38:00.001-08:00

Another non-sewing day today, and I'll be gone all day tomorrow. But I did spend some time sewing yesterday evening. Just some playing around. A friend gave me a link to a mystery quilt block. I really like the block, but it called for 2.75" squares and rectangles 2.75" x 5" and makes a 9" block. Well I don't have pre-cut strips or squares at 2.75", but lots of 2.5", so I did the figuring and I can do this with 2.5" squares and 2.5"x 4.5" rectangles and get an 8" block...so I did:
Then I played with the cut off triangles and made some 6" "maverick stars" a'la Bonnie Hunter. and a block that will be used with my crumbs...
And I did some more figuring. That Fractured Star block can be made 12" finished size using 3.5" squares and 3.5"x 6.5" rectangles, or 10" finished size with 3" squares and 3"x 5.5" rectangles....

February 14, 2009

2009-02-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

Well, Denny and the younger kids went to a basketball game this evening, so I finished the basket quilt top. The mitered borders went together without any problems and it is nice and flat. I intend to back and quilt this one myself and then I'm not sure where it will go. Maybe I'll keep it. I'll bind it with the green basketweave print I used in the inside border.

St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14, 2009)

2009-02-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

I sewed my two "Not So Ugly" sampler blocks today, and I like how they turned out. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the green with the "ugly", but it's okay!

I started sewing those mitered borders on the basket block, but I got distracted...so what's new?

Anyway, after answering someone's question on Stashbusters about how to make a "magic-Nine-Patch" I decided to put a little tutorial here.

Step 1: Decide on a finished block size easily divisible by 3, and cut squares of your fabrics 1.5" bigger than that. For my demo I am making 6" finished size blocks, so my squares are 7.5"

Step 2: Place fabrics face together and sew down 2 opposite sides.

Step 3: Cut squares into thirds (2.5" from each side), parallel to seam you just sewed

Here's what you have:

Step 4: Sew as they have been paired up, light to dark, dark to light. Press seams to the dark.

Now you have this:

Step 5: place fabrics face together, lining up seams. Take a 1/4" seam down both short sides (crossing previously sewn seams.

Step 6: Cut parallel to the seams just sewn, 2.5" from each edge (1/3 of original square size)

Now you have this:

Step 7: Sew larger unit to smaller matching light to dark and vice-versa.

Press seams to the side with 2 dark patches.

You now have two 9-patch blocks of opposite coloration.

February 13, 2009

2009-02-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

Denny took the day off work to clean out his shop, repair the back wall and install the windows we pulled out of the living room when we built my sewing room. So I was outside working all afternoon. A few years ago someone gave him a huge industrial lathe...built on a cast iron base, it must weigh at least half a ton. He decided to get rid of it. Problem is when the shop roof started sagging a bit he added an upright support which we had to manuever the lathe around. The only way to move it was to attach a tow strap to the van and pull it. we had to remove many parts that were sticking out, but we finally got it out of the garage. Now it's sitting next to the driveway waiting for a call to the junkman. I did do a bit of sewing after dinner. I sewed a label on the QAYG string quilt, as I will be sending it tomy Aunt next week. Tomorrow I will be home alone all morning and I think Denny and the kids can handle the rest of the shop clean-up without my help, so i intend to get in some serious sewing time. Hopefully I won't be too sore from the heavy lifting I did today!

February 12, 2009

2009-02-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

No sewing today. No quilt stuff. Kid stuff today. My baby lost her first tooth! Ginger will be 6 on May 31, 2009 and today she lost her first tooth. JoeE pulled it for her. And I got a little teary-eyed. My baby is growing up so fast!
Also today I bought a ticket to fly to Norfolk on April 22nd come home April 28. Gonna see that beautiful little 1 year old granddaughter (and her parents!)

February 11, 2009

2009-02-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

Another day, another quilt top done. And another one started. I finished the second baskets with 9-patches and rails top, that I laid out yesterday.

Then I went over to Mom's for a bit and helped her decide on and cut borders, sashings, and backs for 7 or 8 quilts. Someone donated a bag with 148 quilt blocks in it to the Ladies Auxiliary and Mom brought them home Saturday...these will be utility type quilts. The blocks are colorful, but wonky and mostly made with poly/cotton blend (looks to me like Palencia Broadcloth form Wal-mart). I'll try to remember to get some pictures when she gets these done.

I was gone most of the evening, but I did work on the single basket block I had leftover. It will finish out as a 45" square quilt. Here's the start:

Tomorrow I hope to work some more on this. I actually have already added the triangles needed to make this a square and cut 6.5" borders of the floral strip fabric. I just need to attach them and miter the corners, and decided not to attempt that late at night. But tomorrow will be a busy day, as I have to bake a fudge filled cheesecake and take it up to church for the Knights of Columbus' Outback Steak Dinner (Ladies Auxiliary provides desserts, Outback provides the dinner food). And then we will be out all evening for the dinner and other plans. And I just looked at the time! Yikes as busy as tomorrow is, I better head to bed now (12:50 a.m.)

February 10, 2009

2009-02-10T21:31:00.000-08:00

So, did I work on my "ugly" today? No! I let myself get sidetracked on the computer today...didn't have breakfast until lunchtime. But we did do schoolwork. And some laundry. And the house is a little neater. I put teh Amish Diamond blocks I won up on the design wall and settled on placement and will sash them in black...but I didn't take a picture. Ginger was terrified by tornado warnings this afternoon and we had to keep an eye on the TV to make sure we were not in the warning area. The storms were north and west of us. Then we did get some thunder, lightning and rain early evening, but no tornadoes here. When I put the Amish Diamond blocks away, I decided to pull some blocks out of my swapped blocks drawer. I thought I had twelve 15" basket blocks, with the baskets on the diagonal. I put them up on the design wall, but for my symmetrical mind it would take 16 blocks to use them all together, so I decideed I could sew 4 together to use as a center medallion for the Nesting robin on tyhe scrap quilting forum. Here it is...the start of a scrappy nesting robin.

Then I thought "Well, why not make two more 4 block quilt centers?"So I did. Then I looked in the drawer and found 9-patch blocks and rail blocks.
I used those with a basket center and a couple of hours later I have one top done for Sunshine, and another on the design wall, same layout. And I found a 13th basket block that fell on the floor and I've started another top with that i the center on point, borderd so far with a floral stripe. SO tomorrow may net 2 finished tops.....

I also decided that after I show it at guild Monday, I'm going to send that QAYG String quilt to Aunt Gerry, my godmother, who just had a birthday.

February 9, 2009

2009-02-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't started piling up things on the cutting table again, or the sewing table, but the reorganization/decluttering of the sewing room has stalled out. It got clean enough to work in and so I've been sewing. Sunday was 2nd Sunday of the month, so I sewed some red and white blocks for Sunshine Lotto...but I think I'll just donate them all...I sure don't need to win any blocks!

Today I finished my Quilt-As-You-Go (QAYG) string quilt. My first finish for the Stashbuster's UFO Challenge. Blocks are Quilted as the strings are sewn to backing and batting, then joined together with sashing strips front and back. I did this one totally by machine.

I also decided on a fabric for the Stashbuster's Ugly Sunshine Sampler. Challenge was to pick a Not necessarily ugly fabric (2 yds) to be used with some yellow or orange in the blocks. I've had my fabric (5yds. of it!) for maybe 5 years...about time I use it!

Babysteps...walking!

2009-02-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

I have definitely made some progress in the sewing room reorganization. The cutting table has been cleared and is usable. all that is on it now are cutting mat, tools, pen basket, and small sizes of patches being cut for scrap user system...just small piles now but as they grow I'll find some small storage bins to keep them in. And the sewing table has been cleared and is oh so easy to use with the modification to fit the new machine done. The stuff on the table is what I am working on right now and will easily be put away when I am done or need to work on something else. I will spend at least 15 minutes today on further scrap cutting/purging, and another 15 sewing.

Super Bowl Sunday...part 1

2009-02-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

I didn't get as early a start on my SuperBowl Sunshine sewing as I had hoped, but for good reason. I asked when Denny could get the sewing desk modified to fit the new machine and he started it right away, before church this morning. Then when we got home he managed to finish it just about in time for the kick off. It fits great and what a difference on my back. I finished sewing together a crumb quilt top. I really do see a difference in the speed of sewing on the new machine...it will do 1600 spm....Fast!!! Now I need to eat something and then back to sewing....quilt as you go string blocks to use up some of the strips and strings I cut from scraps yesterday and a pile of batting squares that were taking up space in the closet.

So, Do Something About It!

2009-01-31T08:26:00.001-08:00

I woke up today resolved to do something about my sewing room. It is just totally out of control. Every time I start to clean up , I get sidetracked by a project as soon as I have just enough room to work. So I'm going public with the mess and my intention to clean it up. I have recently rejoined Flylady and am going to try to apply her principles to this situation. #1 Baby steps. In place of the shiny sink I need a clear cutting table. Today I will be focusing on that. And I will also use a timer to keep me on track and take breaks. Everyday I will end with a clear cutting table before going to bed. SO between now and 3:00 this afternoon am going to work on this, then I get to sew. I have a table set up in the living room and will take all the stuff from the sewing table in there and then set the table up to start cutting those scraps into usable sizes also Bonnie Hunter's scrap user's system. I have bins in the closet that I intended for that, and even started with some already. Babysteps...15 minutes a day after the big push today. Here are pictures of my starting point.

Enough is Enough!

2009-01-30T21:13:00.000-08:00

Yikes! I was ready to leave today...just pack up and go live somewhere else. No one was cooperating. I want to get laundry done without the dryer and asked the kids yesterday to be sure and get their laundry into the laundry room and sorted so I could easily get it going and hung out in plenty of time to dry. Did they? NO!! And then when I do get in there to get a load going, I find clean folded clothes they were too lazy to put away thrown in with the dirty stuff! ARGHH!!! The house is a disaster after 3 days of non-stop playing in the snow. And we've used up all the firewood I cut last week for Denny's birthday present. And I had to pay bills. And I started doing taxes and unless Mimi's tuition costs help we will owe a few hundred to the IRS. At least Oklahoma will be refunding some to us. And how am I ever going to get to sew if I'm having to do things the kids were supposed to have done? By golly I spent all that money on a new machine, I better get to use it!!!

SO when Denny got home from work and headed out with the kids to cut some wood, I headed into the sewing room. I needed to just get something done....fast! SO I pulled out the remainder of my blocks from the Tipsy Drunkards Path swap I did, and started putting them up on the design wall. I grouped them with same color backgrounds in 4's to form blocks and alternated blue and yellow background blocks....it was okay I guess, but not good enough. When Denny came in he I asked and he really didn't care for it. RoseE said have both color of background in each block. I tried that and was pleasantly surprised...not half bad. SO I got the blocks all sewn together while Deny fixed salmon for dinner. After dinner I went to find border fabric. Dark blue check with gold stars looked okay next to the blocks, but again, it could be better. Denny suggested put another color between blocks and border. RoseE suggested red. I tried a small strip of red I ad laying on the table and it did look better that way. But I didn't have enough of that red. So I ended up with a red backgroung plaid with yellow and dark blue in it...fussy cut down the lines of the plaid. It went together without a problem. And it turned out a good ending to an awful day.

Going Around in Circles

2009-01-29T09:21:00.000-08:00

I feel like I'm stuck in a vicious circle. I need to get projects done, but it's too messy in the sewing room to work efficiently, so I start cleaning up and get just far enough to work on something, which creates more mess, so I'm paralyzed again and the cycle repeats....but I just can't make myself stop working on things until the sewing room is all done. Having just spent all that money on the sewing machine and fabric mover, I ought to be producing some finished products.

So yesterday I cleaned up a bit and decided to get a block done for the Birthday Block Swap. Amy requested circles in green, blue, purple,white and black color scheme...COOL! I wanted to try something new, so I pulled out the Jan Mullen's Magic Ballz book I bought last year and gave it a try. I pieced the circles on paper foundations, backed them with fusible interfacing, turned them, fused to the background and satin stitched in place. Then I cut away the background fabric to reduce bulk. The background was a 10" squarefrom a swap and of course the applique process shrank it slightly. Amy can trim to the size that works best for her (could be 9" finished, could be 8").

I rejoined the Stashbuster's list in hopes of motivating myself to use up stash and get things finished. Hopefully, now having DSL, I can keep up.

Stretching

2009-01-24T21:13:00.000-08:00

Today was a long quiet day at home. I quilted borders on a quilt for Mom (no picture) then decided I better get to work on the Birthday Swap block for Helen. I was unsure about the fabrics I bought, as they didn't exactly fit her color choices. So I found a few in my stash to add to the group and sent a picture to see if she thought they'd fit in. Meanwhile I did some looking at African art to find some inspiration. This was way outside my usual comfortable box. In the end I decided to use some of the fabrics, not use one and send it to Helen along with the block I did do. Her guidelines were African or African feeling fabrics:brown, orangey brown, blue, green and some black. Block size divisible by 2", at least 10", doesn't need to be square, and has to include applique of any type. I decided to do an African Mask with a pieced, mitered frame aroungd the block. I'm pleased with how it turned out and I sure hope Helen likes it. My new machine does a nice satin stitch. I've not worked with mitering much in the past, and haven't done much applique, so it was a good thing to try some unfamiliar techniques.

Time Flies!

2009-01-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while. I attended the OKC WInter quilt show, and won a fat quarter pack as a doorprize. Nice! But better than that, I bought a new sewing machine. Itwas an impulse buy, but the price was too good to pass up. Denny agreed, and I am now the owner of a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 85 with a Fab-U-Motion fabric mover system with stitch regulator. This machine has a 10" throat space and will be great for quilting. 137 stitches, 4 alphabets and lots of nice features. I only picked it u Wednesday afternoon, and we left Friday morning to visit Houston family, but I did get to play with the new machine a bit. I sewed 9 lotto blocks....the 1/4" stitch is dead on and they came out pefectly sized.

And then I pulled out a charity quilt that has been waiting to be quilted for a few years. I set up the fab-u-motion and did" scribble" quilting to get used to it...different designs on each block. There will be a learning curve to get good on this , but the stitch regulation worked well and the stitching looked good front and back.

January 3, 2009

2009-01-03T07:55:00.000-08:00

New Year's day was a lazy day around here. Church in the morning and lunch out. Then home and Denny and the kids went to find some firewood. I stayed home and did computer stuff. Printed out lists for Sunshine Lotto and QBL so I can try to do some blocks each month. Later in the evening I decided to make crumb blocks for a while....20 blocks didn't even begin to make a dent in the scrap drawer I need to set a deadline and sew crumb blocks everyday until then and then throw away the scraps that are left (I'm talking about the small stuff here...) .

After sewing 20 crumb blocks I pulled out my stash of crumb blocks (lots!) and played with laying some out. Then I had a flash of inspiration for a setting with the sashing strips looking interwoven. I tried it using some solid strips I had in the drawer but it didn't really work with so many colors of strips. It was late so I put it all away.

Friday I decided to make QBL Lotto blocks...the block is Amish Diamonds from The Quilter's Cache. Fabric choices this month: solids. Now I don't use solids much, and I don't buy fabric specifically for Lotto playing...it has to come from my stash. I was surprised to find as many solids as I did. I cut components from each color and then did mix'n'match to make the blocks.

In the process I found I had enought of 3 fabrics to use with crumb blocks. After finishing the 12 Lotto blocks i set to work. I statred out thinking I'd do a 5x5 block layout, but changed it to 5x6. It took a bit of pondering but I finally figured out how to do the construction and spent a few hours on it.I really like how it turned out.

Ihave a busy week coming up. I volunteered to help hang quilts for the OKC Winter quilt show. Hanging is all day Wednesday and the show runs Thursday through Saturday. The Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece By Piece display will be at the show and on Thursday I will be taking Mom and my friend Donna to the show. I will probably go at least one other day...I want to find some embellishments for the jacket I'll be making soon. Now I need to get busy. It is a beautiful day outside and I want to hang laundry out to dry. And I want to do some more cleaning out and sewing in the sewing room.

New Year's Eve

2008-12-31T20:53:00.000-08:00

I spent yesterday and today quilting Denny's log cabin quilt, trying to finish it in time to meet the 3 UFO challenge deadline....and I did! Yippee!!! it turned out nice and he likes it.

After Christmas

2008-12-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

It is after Christmas and I spent Friday and Saturday sewing. I needed to get a wedding present quilted first. The top was done before Christmas and the wedding was on the 27th. Here's the finished product. Gift was given this morning and was appreciated.
After getting that done I decided to catch up on a few things. First the block I need to send for the Birthday Block Swap for December. Terri Sent yellow background fabric and requested yellow and blue blocks. I used the Green Mountain Star pattern that was the November block for the Scrap Quilting Forum's Participants Mystery Quilt.
Then I did the December block for the PMQ...Martha Washington Star:
I feel almost caught up on things. My sewing room was somewhat cleaned up before Christmas, because the kids needed to hide Denny's present (large, roll around toolbox) in the closet, which necessitated having a path clear and room in the closet. So I cleaned up some. I still need to do a major reorganization of fabric and sewing supplies. I have several clothing projects I'd like to do (PJ's for the boys I didn't get done for Christmas). But next thing I need to do is get my log Cabin Quilt for Denny quilted....by the 31st for the 3 UFO Challenge deadline. I did finish the quilt for Serenity for Christmas:
The kit came with 12 blocks to embroider, but I realized that would not be done by Christmas , so I went with the blocks I had done, framed them with 1930's repro solid colors, and the 4 patch 1930's repro's I swapped this fall. I think it turned out cute, and Serenity and Jackie both seemed to like it when They unwrapped it.

Where I'm At

2008-12-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

Here is what I presently have done on Jamie's NYB graduation quilt.
I've already told him it won't be done in time (graduation party December 20). Now I need to decide if I should set it aside for a while and work on other things (Serenity's quilt, wedding present for John and Debbie, sewing clothes for RoseE). I think I have to leave it on the design wall or it will become a long term UFO. Maybe I can manage a few blocks a week. There are 24 blocks left to go and then borders.... End of the school year would be a reasonable goal for being done (Why'd he have to graduate in December anyway? LOL)

Catching up again...

2008-11-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

It seems that's all I do! Anyway after going to Houston for IQF and then immediately to New Jersey the babysit and help Krsti getting ready to move, I have spent a lot of time catching up around the house. And right before I went to Houston, "Jannie's Wedding Rings" came back from the quilter...so I had to get that binding on and stitched down by hand....and I forgot to get a picture of the final product. They took it home on Thanksgiving, and werefighting over it (LOL). Jamie will be leaving for a job in January and Annie won't be able to move until the end of the schoolyear as she is a teacher. The job is with Haliburton, in Burns Flats, OK, but they's probably live in Weatherford.

Kristi and the boys flew in on Monday evening before Thanksgiving, and we had a nice visit. Victor drove up on Wednesday. The older kids banished me and the little ones from the house on Wednesday, as is the recent tradition. They baked 9 pies (4 pumpkin, 2 cherry, 2 apple, and a chocolate pecan) and cleaned up the house. Kristi and I took the kids to the OKC Zoo (free admission!). It was a lovely day. the only bad part of the day was Ginger had to stay home because she was sick. Here's a picture of the kids: RoseE (DD), Tony(DGS), Ski(DGS), Johnny(DS), and Gianni(DGS) down below.
Thanksgiving day, has got to be the calmest holiday ever. The house was neat, dinner was ready easily, and it was an altogether pleasant day! Friday we played games and I did a bit of laundry. Saturday morning K&V and the boys left, Denny took the kids to town. The boys went to friend's house, the girls went to visit Jamie and Annie,and Mimi had to go back to St. Greg's and to work. Then Deny had to go back to town to pick everyone up. They arrived home around 6 pm. Meanwhile I had the whole day and the whole house to myself. I did do 3 loads of laundry and also hung Mom's bedding out on my clothesline, but the rest of the day I spent catching up on quilty things. First I needed to make a block for a quilt for the outgoing guild president. Then I needed to get the November birthday swap block done. I thought I had the needed fabric (red, orange and purpole batiks) bu found that my batiks are not those colors....and me home without a car. hat to do? Easy! Walk across the drive to Mom's house and raid her extensive stash. I knew she had batiks and hoped she'd fill in the missing colors. She did, and I designed and made the block below. Margaret had requested 8" New York Beauty blocks with flying geese included in one arc.

After getting that done, I decided to get caught up with my blocks for the scrap quilting forum Participants Mystery Quilt. I hadn't done either October or November's blocks. I did get them done.
After getting these done I cleaned up a bit , sewing some crumb blocks. I've been doing those occasionally, either as leader/ender pieces or just to do some mindless sewing, and stashing the blocks in a drawer....I counted yesterday and I have about 90 blocks now.

I need to get back to work on Jamie's graduation quilt (NYB) and also get Serenity's quilt done (2 blocks left to embroider). Hopefully I'll get it done for Cristmas, but if not,maybe her 1st birthday (Jan. 7). And Denny told me last week John and Debbie are getting married Dec. 27, and a quilt would be a good gift since , combining 2 households they don't need anything.....I think I'll use the set of log cabin blocks that I was going to use for Denny!

Fruitful day!

2008-09-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

What I accomplished today: 4 loads of laundry, a clean kitchen sink, 10,000steps walking, gave 5 haircuts, and made 2 more NYB blocks for Jamie's graduation quilt. So here are what's done so far:

I think I may need to find a few additional fabrics....probably a few more teal blues and greens and maybe some rusty oranges. Picking which fabrics to use together and which block style are the hardest part for me. The paper piecig is easy for me, and the curves are improving as I go along...practice makes perfect?

September 13, 2008

2008-09-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

When did I blog last? Too long ago.
I have Jannie's wedding rings ready to take to Hubert Madole to quilt, just as soon as I get the batting. I ordered Warm and Natural from Overstock.com and it is supposed to arrive Monday.

I joined the 3 UFO challenge which ended Agust 31. I completed Jannie's Wedding rings top, a Quilt for Laurie G. and finally quilted my Scotty Dogs (and gave it to Katy).

In addition I made a mini quilt for a swap. machine pieced, hand quilted, my own design. Blocks are 2.25". I sent it to Karen G. and she loves it!

I joine the UFO Challenge again, end date 12-31-2008. This time I'm really ambitious....or maybe a little crazy? I listed as my UFO's quilting my log cabin swap blocks (make into a quilt for Denny for Christmas). the OKC Winter Quilt Show challenge fabric (design, make and enter a quilt this time instead of just buyiong the challenge fabric and not using it!), and get Jamie's graduation quilt done before his December graduation. I promised him a New York Beauty quilt when he graduates college, and started collecting fabrics when he started college seminary 5 years ago. SO this week I pulled out the fabric collected and the Karen Stone NYB pattern book and got started. The first 4 of 36 blocks are done!

Before we started homeschool back up on Sept 2, I did a big push to finish some swaps and lotto blocks I wanted to do just for fun....now my sewing time is a bit more limited.

Ginger is beginning 1st grade this year, a year ahead of her age, but she wants to do it and is not having any problem grasping the concepts, so we are going ahead with it...Math, Reading, and religion. The rest of the kids just picked up where we left off at the beginning of the summer, and the first two weeks have gone pretty good. After we get used to the routine I may add some more activities for the older kids.

Katy started an additional job, and opted to wait to go to college until she can get some money together, and figure out what she wants to study.
Mimi is back at St. Gregory's. They had auditions for the fall production of Neil Simon's "Rumors", and she did not get cast in a role, but has been assigned to be stage manager, which means she has to attend every rehearsal!
Nick and Jackie moved to Virginia, and are getting settled in. I hear Serenity is getting big, but am waiting to see up to date pictures.
And speaking of pictures, Jamie and Annie gave us 2 cd's worth of wedding pictures, which I haven't found time to look at yet, let alone pick some out to share in albums.

The morning and my alone time are almost over and I haven't made it to the sewing machine yet....time to get off the computer!!

They're Married!

2008-07-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

Jamie and Annie have been married for just over 2 weeks. The wedding was June 20. I didn't get their quilt finished, but it's ready for the borders.

I did make Ginger's flower girl dress and basket, and the ring bearer pillow. Here Ginger is posing before the wedding.

And here is a pic of Denny and I with Jamie, prior to the Wedding Mass.
Here is Annie before the ceremony. She was a beautiful bride!

And Johnny waiting for picture taking after the wedding.

Now that the wedding is past, and we have been on vacation, I have nothing on my calendar for a while. I intend to spend a lot of time sewing...Quilts and clothes. I am signed up for a couple of swaps and I need to get the borders on Jannie's wedding rings. And I want to start making some more clothes for myself.

A UFO no longer!

2008-05-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

I've had this quilt top sitting on a shelf for a year or two. When I found out my best friend will soon be moving 7 hours away I wanted to make a quilt for her, but really didn't have time. Then I remembered this. I found a nice, 60" wide floral fabric on sale at Fabric.com that seemed perfect to go with the top. So Tuesday I pinned the layers and yesterday I quilted and bound the quilt. I decided to do a scrappy green binding. Now I need to get back to work on Jannie's Wedding Rings (blocks are 3/8 done, wedding is June 20th, and no it will not be finished by then!)

January Lotto Strings Quilt ....Finished!!!!

2008-04-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

Although I dropped out off the Stashbuster's list due to time constraints keeping up with all the messages, I am still trying to get some of my UFO's finished. First there was the Crown of Thorns quilt. Then a Challenge was issued by the About.com February Lotto block winners for previous block winners to get those blocks turned into finished quilts. So of course I took the challenge. After all I need to do "spring cleaning", get Jannie's wedding quilt done, and get my quilt show plans done, so this would be a great way to procrastinate! How long could it take to sew together 48 blocks that I won in January....layout decision took a few hours and making another block to add to the mix after sleeping on it. Then the top went together quite quickly. Oh Gee!! How long could it take to do some simple straight line /walking foot quilting? Only a couple of hours, but then I discovered a construction flaw on one block that left some raw edges of a couple of strips loose in places....too late to take it out and replace with another block (because I despise un-sewing!) so how about just stitching over those loose edges with decorative stitches, crazy quilt style....well that would work, but it would draw attention to the flawed block....but not if I added some decorative stitches to all the blocks.....I love how it turned out, but it would have been faster to un-sew and make a replacement block! LOL!! Like I said I despise frog stitching. Besides this gave me a chance to play with some of the fancy stitches on my machine and explore their design possibilities for quilts. Last night I finished sewing on the binding. Another UFO is history! BTW I've decided to keep this one for myself.

Alleluia! Crown of Thorns

2008-03-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Easter is here, and I finished my Crown of thorns quilt, started a couple of years ago. It all began when DS Jamie asked me for a piece of fabric to use to wipe the excess stain from a scroll sawn picture. I found a piece of a coarse woven polyester blend that I would "never use in a quilt" and thought nothing of it until he came back in the house and handed the fabric back to me with a picture on it. Instead of wadding up the fabric and wiping the stain off he carefully laid the fabric over the picture and pressed on it to absorb the stain. So i couldn't just throw the fabric away....I washed it a few times to get rid of the smell of the stain and put it away in my scrap drawer to maybe use someday in a quilt. Then a few months later I made a some crown of thorns blocks for something...I really cannot remember what! Anyway when I ran across that block it hit me that it would be perfect to use with the printed block of Christ carrying the cross. I tried to choose fabrics from my stash that would pick up the reddish brown color of the stain. Gold to frame the central block and square it up the same size as the Crown of Thorns blocks. I cut all the fabrics and sewed a few blocks before life got busy with gotta do projects and this was packed away for a while. Last Lent I pulled it back out and finished piecing it, and started hand quilting on the picture block, intending to hand quilt the whole thing.....yeah right!!! I do not know how to hand quilt (maybe someday I'll take a class and learn the right way to do it) and it is a very slow process using a stab stitch. The stitches are uneven, and i would never enter this in a judged show. When I wasn't finished last easter, the project was once again shelved as more urgent projects grabbed my attention. Then Palm Sunday I decided to just sit and watch a movie with the family and do some hand work. I pulled this project out and finished the handquilting of the center block and decided the rest would be machine quilted. I decided to try to finish by Easter and I accomplished that..... Now I need to get back into working on Jannie's Wedding Quilt. Less than 3 months until the wedding!

Jannie's wedding quilt....Block#1 done

2008-01-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the first block for Jannie's wedding quilt. It came together nicely and once I get pieces all cut to size I'll start the other 63 blocks (10" blocks)