"Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning, the devil says...."Oh crap! She's up!" Unknown

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Looking back....

....on the quilt I made for my 
Oldest Daughter's bed...


This quilt was a 
CHALLENGE!
Especially since I was new to quilting and...
what did I know??

The butterflies are Stack-N-Whack
BUT
The wing pieces are mirrored...
Meaning the back of the fabric had to show the design
almost as much as the front because the mirrored piece
was cut with the back as the right side.



You can see the slightly "faded" pieces that are
"upside down" shall we say?

The butterflies are made from a 
Hoffman print... I do remember that.

The border shows the whole fabric.



My Long Arm quilter did an
AMAZING job on this one, 
but it's hard to see her work on the fabric in a photo.


I can't remember the pattern name or the book from which it came.

Happy Quilting!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Machine quilting....

.... is not my forte,
but... I keep working on it.
I can quilt a decent looking meander, 
but beyond that... not so pretty.

I quilted this baby quilt and have the binding sewn around
 the edge, waiting to be turned and hand stitched.




This is the quilt that I had this disaster on the other day.


NOT what you want to see on the back of your quilt!

HOWEVER...

A hanging sleeve will cover the problem!
AND... thank goodness the quilt can be hung from any side.

PHEW... problem taken care of 
and no need for the 
SEAM RIPPER!!

Once this is finished, it will be another check off of my

Monday, August 26, 2013

I need Bright Colors!

I was playing in my 
Hidey Hole
(sewing room)
and after working with all of the 
reproduction fabrics of late,
I NEEDED to get out my batiks and play.
I needed BRIGHT COLORS!!

Out came my box of 5" Batik squares...
I cut 5" squares from white...
and I began to make a
(Great Tutorial at the link above.)

Let me tell you...
these blocks are so much fun
AND
go together so quickly!






Having a swivel cutting mat makes cutting these
a breeze.

Ready to take to the sewing machine!



 
Now to decide on the layout....
I am leaning toward the second layout, but
I like them both!


My color fix has been taken care of for a while!

See what others are working on at
Patchwork Times .

:)

Sunday, August 25, 2013

UGH!!

Have you ever had
ONE OF THOSE DAYS??!!??

Well...

NOT what you want to see on the
back of the quilt!

And this was after I spent last night doing this...

The results of
Free Motion Quilting
gone wrong!

I have stopped the FMQ for a while...
Things do come in three's!!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

A mini from left over....

.....half square triangles.
I had HST's left over from making 
and put them together to make a 
Mini!

Here it is, waiting for borders.


One thing I do when I am sewing rows of blocks together
to help keep the blocks in the right order,
is I leave the pieces joined after chain stitching each row.
I don't cut the blocks apart after I've sewn one row.

I just keep adding the next row of blocks or pieces
to the previous row
until the section or top is complete. 


All of the rows are joined at this point.
Now I will go back and sew the vertical row seams.
I do pin each intersection at this point.

The rows are all sewn, but not pressed.
Doing this helps me to keep things in the right order.
Plus, it also helps line the seams up easier. The stitching keeps the
blocks or pieces from moving too much.


With this mini, it is easy to use this method of joining the blocks.
It does become cumbersome with a big quilt top, 
but I think it does save time and keeps things
organized!

Happy Quilting!

Friday, August 23, 2013

One more....

... Christmas project...
This stocking is on my

The top is finished!
Now I need to make the quilted stocking
and sew the top to it.

These are sooo much fun to make!




One place I have purchased these kits is
Merry Stockings.

Enjoy!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Christmas in August continues!

While I am on this roll,
I thought I would share what I made last year for
my Christmas Tree.

I had wanted garland, but could not find any that
I liked.
So.....
What is a quilter to do?
Make her own!!
It was fun..
and mindless...
and went quickly...
and did I say fun?

I made yards and yards of these:



This large spool is a GREAT way to store these
strings of yoyo garland.
They don't tangle!

I made some for gifts, too.
Looked great wrapped around a package!

I have a big tree and wanted LOTS 
of garland.

It's a great project to work on while watching a movie,
waiting in the car, 
or if you have only a few minutes.

Happy Quilting!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Being tested....

I mentioned before that I am pretty much a 
self-taught quilter.
My mom began teaching me to sew when I was 8 years old
and since, I have made many, many garments, window treatments,
flags, quilts, etc.

Since I have taken very few classes over the years,
I am excited when I read or hear about a tip to make sewing easier.

Today I read a little tip on-line about ripping out seams.
The tip was to rip every 3rd or 4th stitch and then
pull the bottom thread right out.
I have always ripped each stitch.

WELL...
Here I am ... sewing the rows of the 
Christmas Tree Skirt
and....
You guessed it!
I had to rip out an entire row.
Then it was two more seams!
I have not had a sewing day like this in a
LONG TIME!
  
SO...
I tried my new tip
and
IT WAS SO MUCH FASTER!!

(This is why I don't pray for patience!  I don't want to be tested! :D)


Tuesday, August 20, 2013

More Christmas....

... in August!
While I had the Christmas fabric
out of the bin, pressed and sorted,
I decided to cut some squares
for table runners.

I used this
but modified it for the table runners.

It is QUICK AND EASY!!




The blocks for each runner are arranged differently.
 

Boy!!
I have A LOT of machine quilting
that needs to be done.
Would someone come pin baste for me?
Please??

Happy Quilting!
 :)

Monday, August 19, 2013

Design Wall Monday 8/17/13...

This week has had a 
Christmas in August 
Theme.

I have one Christmas Tree Skirt
top finished and ready to be quilted
and the other needs
the blocks to be sewn together.



This one is ready to be quilted.


This skirt needs the set in triangles
and then the blocks can be sewn together.

The fabric with the red bows is
dated... 1993!
I'm sure I didn't pay
$11/yard for this fabric!

The Christmas Tree skirts are on my
It will be nice
to have another check off of that list.

You can find the free pattern for this Christmas Tree skirt
here.

Happy Quilting!




Sunday, August 18, 2013

Some knitting....

I have been doing some knitting
here and there...
and have finished a few
projects.

Knitting is so portable and the
one thing
I can do in the car.

Here are three shawls
I have finished.
None of them are blocked yet...
...something I have not done before!
(I've only knitted socks and washcloths before now.)
BUT I will learn how to block soon!

:)


This shawl is called
3 S 
and was an easy pattern. 


 These two shawls are called
and were easy to make as well.
This is a good travel project because it 
requires very little counting 
or keeping track of where you are.
My kind of pattern!


And, NO...
your eyes are not deceiving you!
I didn't realize I had two different colors
of Sausalito yarn
until I was well into the second skein.
The difference isn't as noticable in person
BUT...
It SURE is in these pictures!
Oh well..
It's for me.
:)
 

Friday, August 16, 2013

Onto the.....

.... next project!
Christmas Tree Skirts!

We are invited to a wedding in 
October 
and the gift is going to be a
Christmas Tree Skirt. 
AND while I am making this one,
I'll make another one for a 
Christmas gift!

I have a bin FULL of Christmas fabric,
some dating back to the early 90's.
It's been fun pulling out some of
these fabrics and cutting into them
for these gifts.







The Tree skirt will be made with these
Hourglass blocks. 

As I was cutting for the tree skirt,
I cut blocks to make a table runner.
I'm playing with the blocks on my
Design Wall.

Happy Quilting!