Last Monday in March

Wow! 

Here we are at the end of March already...

And I thought last year flew past us!

There hasn't been much going on in my

Hidey Hole lately.

The days are full of non-quilting things.

How did that happen??

This week I have been working on this

Snowman

and have enjoyed stitching the pieces

and words onto him.

He will be filled with sand and stuffing

and will stand up when finished.

The snowflakes need to be stitched

and tiny buttons will be added to the branches.

I also need to add some white lines to the candy cane.

He will have a hat and a scarf and branches for arms

when he's finished.

I just realized....

I should be working on beach quilts!

Maybe this is why winter is hanging around!!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are creating.

Happy Quilting!!

 

Ellie Grows

It's the end of another week and I have been able to

sew a little in the last couple of days.

Ellie the baby quilt now has borders!

It was quite a challenge to find the right outer border for Ellie.

I wanted to use the word fabric for the inner border and didn't want

another aqua/turquoise for the larger border.

This fabric finally jumped out at me and said

"Here I am!"

I satin stitched around the sections of Ellie, making the parts more prominent.

Thank you, again, Libby in TN for the idea of sewing fabrics together

crazy quilt style and then cutting the pieces.

I'll add her eye and may add a sun and some grass.

We shall see!!

Onto Friday Knitting....

I have been able to knit this week and have one sock done

and the second sock more than half finished.

This "Sausalito" yarn is soooo soft! 

There was a knot in the yarn and caused the colors to repeat.

It's okay... they are my favorite colors in the yarn!

These heels are knitted with the short row method.

This is the first time I have used this method and really like how they 

look and how easy they are to make.

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are creating.

Happy Friday!

Ellie is Coming Together

Today I am not running the roads.... yet!

So, I am spending time in my Hidey Hole

and working on the baby quilt for my Niece's baby.

The parts had been pieced and were waiting to be joined together.

I sewed fabrics together, crazy quilt style and traced the pattern pieces onto
feather weight fusible.
The fusible was ironed into place and I cut the pieces out, adding a 1/4" seam allowance.

I pressed the edges under where there was no overlap. 
This way there are no raw edges in the piece.
I used a glue stick to glue the pieces to each other
and to glue down the edges.

Here Ellie is all glued together and pinned to the background.
Once I do some satin stitching, the lines will be more defined.

She will have feet.. or hooves?? What do elephants have?

I'm excited with how Ellie is coming together.
Hopefully she will be finished soon.

Happy Quilting!

It's Friday...

It's been a week since I have posted anything.

Unfortunately I had to have my shoulder injected again

and was in a sling for a few days.

It's difficult to sew or knit with that on your arm,

so I'm glad to have something to post.

I was actually gone last week and was able to get some 

knitting done while traveling back and forth.

 (My basketball team won their conference Championship!!)

One pair of socks is finished!

I made a mistake and made the first sock too short,

so had to rip out the toe and add some length to it.

The colors in this yarn make me smile.

Another pair of socks was started on my trip.

This yarn is "Sausalito" and is wonderful to knit!

This heel was made with the "Short Row Heel" method.

This was my first time knitting a "Short Row" anything

and I like how it turned out. There was no picking up

stitches with this method.

Onto quilting....

I started the Elephant baby quilt for my niece's baby yesterday.

The trunk may not stay as it is...

I think it's dark compared to the rest of the elephant.

The pieces are all cut and placed on my design wall.

Libby in TN had an excellent idea last week

regarding the piecing of this elephant.

Instead of making this with individual pieces,

I sewed the fabrics crazy quilt style and then cut out each section.

There won't be nearly as much applique stitching to do now!

Thanks Libby!

This is the pattern I'm using to make "Ellie."

The background is ready to be sewn and then I will begin

adding the elephant pieces to it. 

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are working on today.

Happy Friday!

Next Baby Quilt

My niece is having her first child in the

beginning of May.

When this niece was a baby and toddler,

she carried this stuffed elephant

EVERYWHERE!!

She named the elephant "Ellie"

and Ellie was well loved.

A while ago I was in a quilt shop and saw this pattern...

How perfect!!

My Great-niece will have her own Ellie!!

I have gathered the fabrics for Ellie herself...

(The pattern fabrics are a bit wild and bold for my liking for a baby quilt,

so I went with pinks and grays.)

The background fabrics and the backing have been purchased...

(I LOVE the elephant fabric by Valorie Wells.)

The pattern pieces have been traced to the fusible...

I am ready to go!!

This one may take a while,

but it will be a fun quilt to make.

Happy Quilting!!

The Front is Finished!

The front of this stocking has been waiting

and waiting and waiting for me to

finish two things on it!

1. It needed the cording added as the "shoelaces"

and

2. It needed the strand of "lights" added.

The pattern called for the cording to be made,

but I could not get it to look right.

I finally went to Joann's and found some cording

that would work.

The laces have been "strung" onto the boot.

The handmade cording was supposed to be made into a sting of lights, too,

but I found some gold cording and sewed buttons and sequins to it

for the lights.

These elves are busy decorating their shoe home!

Santa is helping, too!

I will make a quilted stocking and stitch this to the front of it.

It will be ready to hang at Christmas!

Happy Creating!!

A Sextuple of Hearts

For the past three years

my mom, siblings, in laws and grands

have gotten together for at least a long weekend during the year.

Each year I have made a

Patriotic little quilt to give to my four sibs and mom.

This year we are getting together in August

and I just finished the Patriotic quilts for this year!!

WOOHOO!!

Can I just say that I LOVE this pattern?

It goes together so quickly

and is so much fun to make!

I used my Go! cutter to cut the 2 1/2" squares and the HST's

and started to sew.

A friend is having a baby in a few months

and I think I'm going to make this pattern into a baby quilt.

Can't you just see four hearts, pieced in bright fabrics for a baby?

AND I have another finish for 2015!!

Here are the little quilts I made for the past two years.

I don't have a picture of the first little quilt I made.

Now....

Onto the next project!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others have created.

Happy Quilting.

Another Snowy Friday

We were visited by another snow storm yesterday

and were left with a layer of sleet/freezing rain,

followed by 3-4" of snow. 

Thankfully I made my Joann's run earlier in the day!

I was completely out of white thread!

(and so was my quilt shop!!)

How did this happen??

Hopefully after today I'll be able to show you why I

needed the white thread.

In the meantime,

I have a completed pair of socks and another pair started!

Earlier in the week I finished the

"Maryland" socks for my daughter.

These are for her little size 2 feet and were knitted using a

solid black and solid red yarn together.

She loves them and was glad to have them yesterday.

A few weeks ago I found this publication put out by "Threads"

 in one of my local quilt shops...

It cost $6.00 and is full of lots of socks to make...

some beautiful and some unique!

The one thing I really like about this book/magazine is the patterns tell you

how long to knit the foot of the sock for specific sizes

instead of saying "measure your foot and..."

If I'm making a pair of socks as a gift or for someone who lives out of town,

I can't measure their foot.

 

Anyway...

Here is the pair I started from this publication...

The pattern was supposed to extend down the foot, but I find

wearing socks with a pattern like this on my foot is uncomfortable.

This pattern is the "Alpaca Texture Sock"

and is really easy to knit.

I cannot remember the yarn name or manufacturer as I lost the

tag.  I need to put the tag and ball of yarn in a

baggie after I wind it into a ball, so I can have that information!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are knitting.

Happy Knitting!

Hearts, hearts and more hearts

On my Design Wall today is the 

completed Hearts top 

I was working on a few weeks ago.

The borders have been added and the backing is pieced.

I cut the hearts with my

Accuquilt Go! cutter and

love the precision and ease of cutting with this.

Before cutting the hearts,

I fused some Mistyfuse to the back of the fabrics.

This is my first time using Mistyfuse and I like it

better than some of the other fusibles I have used.

It took some time getting the hearts measured and placed just right.

Now to get this one quilted!

This seems to be a theme here...

I am getting tops made, but the quilting is not getting done.

SOON!!

For those of you who are good at naming quilts....

any ideas for this one?

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are creating.

Happy March! Happy Monday! and Happy Quilting!

350 Blocks Project~February

February found me sewing a lot,

but not all can be counted as blocks.

I am participating in the

Prairie Moon

350 Blocks Project for 2015

Here are my blocks for February.

First I made this top:

25 blocks total in this top with 8 I didn't use in the top, but will use in a pillow.

Next came this quilt:

Even though I do not like this quilt,

it's 16 blocks made.

I am participating in the "Gravity" BOM

and completed the first two blocks for this.

And finally,

I made six Patriotic Heart blocks

that will become mini quilts.

My February report is 57 blocks made.

I need to start getting these tops quilted!!

My completed quilt list for 2015 is very short.

Happy Quilting!!