Coming Home Today!

My sewing machine is ready!

I am picking it up today.

Unfortunately, for my creative juices,

I am going out of town tomorrow for a week,

but it will be here when I get home...

all cleaned, oiled and ready to roll.

In the meantime,

I've been knitting and folding and organizing.

This past week I made a sock!

This Drops Fabel yarn comes in such fun colors.

I love watching the stripes appear when knitting with this yarn.

 

The second sock will be started soon.

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Things are coming together in my 

Hidey Hole.

 

This is my second cabinet for fabric,

all neatly folded and organized according to color.

 

Remember how I said I was going to finish a Bucilla kit a month in 

the beginning of the year?

Well, I got off track with that goal and have all of these kits yet to make.

OH NO!!!

IS THAT FABRIC TUCKED BACK IN THE RIGHT CORNER???

**sigh**
This shelf will look better by this afternoon.

Happy Friday!

No Sewing Machine Yet!

My sewing machine has been in the shop

for a month now.

Even though they said they will call when it's finished,

they are getting a phone call today.

In the meantime.

I've been cleaning and organizing my fabric cabinets.

Boy, does this take a while!

If I didn't have so much fabric,

it wouldn't take that long, would it?

Here are the before and after photos:

I started out organized way back when,

but it slowly became this mess of fabric,

stuffed onto shelves 

wherever it would fit.

 

Now I can see what I have and it's neat and tidy.

Hopefully it will last for a while!

I have part of another cabinet to fold and organize, too.

Onward!!

Happy Quilting!

Lots to Show!

While I was away for almost 2 weeks,

I knitted!

Knitting is so portable and I can take the needles on planes,

so two pair of socks are completed on my travels.

This yarn is so soft and cuddly.

I'm so bad at keeping the labels of yarn,

so I don't know what this is.

 

Love this yarn, too.

In hindsight, I should have removed

part of the yarn that was really thick.

You can see the thick yellow row in the foot of the right sock,

but it adds character, right??

 

My sewing machine has not yet returned home,

but I have quilts to show!!

As I mentioned a while ago,

I've been teaching three friends to quilt.

I have had more fun with this and just love seeing

their excitement and finished quilts.

Yesterday, the four of us started a quilt group, along with two other

newer quilters.

We started with "Show and Tell."

Carey's first quilt...a nine patch with a flange in the binding!

Her fabrics are so soft and calming.

Beautiful finish.

 

Lynn's first quilt was the nine patch, too.

I love the red, white and blue.

Then, for her second quilt 

she made this T-shirt quilt!

Can you believe this is her second quilt?!?

She did an awesome job.

 

She wanted it to be soft and cuddly,

so bought this blanket at Costco for $20!

It's like Minky, but less expensive.

The Long Armer she used had no problem with this

being the backing, but did not want it cut to size first.

This quilt will be wonderful on a cold winter night.

Nicely done, Lynn!!

My third friend, Dottie, has become obsessed with quilting.

They know her by name in the quilt shop already. :D

 This is her second quilt

made by using a Missouri Star tutorial.  

Her fabrics are beautiful and the shimmery silver

adds a little surprise "pop."

 

This is Dottie's third quilt.

She saw the pattern on Pinterest,

asked me a few questions and went to town.  

Look at the fun quilting design Dottie chose for this quilt.

 

This is the quilt she is currently working on

and is doing a beautiful job.

It will be a queen size quilt for her daughter.

 

Mary made the blocks for this quilt 30 years ago,

before rulers and rotary cutters!

She used cereal boxes as templates.

Look at her points and intersections!

Perfect!!

She found sashing and border fabrics, finished it

and now has a beautiful quilt.

Mary made this table runner using such beautiful sparkly fabrics.

Wouldn't this be wonderful using some gorgeous Christmas fabrics?

Love it!

Laura went to Lancaster and found a ruler to make this 

fun table runner.

I just love the circles and movement in this runner.

 

 

You KNOW I love this quilt!

This is Laura's, too. I didn't get a photo of the back,

but it could be reversible. 

Love, love, love it!

I'm telling you, having a group of friends who quilt is

WONDERFUL!

They bring such inspiration and quilty fun!

I'm off to cut out more quilts!

Happy Quilting!!

Quiet Time

It has been very quiet on my blog the last couple of weeks.

I've been traveling and returned from

"across the pond"

safely.

My husband and I took a trip he has dreamed about

for years....

a river cruise to see Normandy.

We started in Paris and cruised the Seine.

It was magical!

A visit to Monet's Giverny was beautiful...

Dahlia's taller than I am!

After a few more stops,

we arrived at Normandy,

where we had a very emotional ceremony

in one of the American cemeteries...

And were able to walk on the landing beaches.

I have a LOT of photos to go through

and will make an album to remember this

wonderful time.

Before I left I took my sewing machine in for its

annual cleaning and service.

It's not back yet!!!!

To keep myself from shaking,

I've been cutting out quilts 

so I can sew and sew when my machine is back.

This one is a kit using Kaffe's shot cottons and stripes.

I just love his stripes!

Another quilt being cut will have Kaffe orange prints

along with black on white fabrics.

Hopefully my machine will be home soon and

I can begin sewing these together.

Happy Quilting!

Quiet Baby Quilt

Calm and quiet quilts are not usually my style.

I like colorful, bold and sometimes loud.

I was making this Cathedral Window baby quilt

and had the "windows" pinned inside the panes,

but did not like them at all.

They were too dull and boring.

A friend came to visit and was looking at the quilt

and asked why I just didn't leave the "window" parts empty.

She liked the look with the panes folded back and stitched down.

The more I looked at the quilt, the more I agreed.

The quilt is made with three randomly placed colors of fabric...

golden, gray and a mint green.

The arcs are folded back and stitched down.

Stitching these down is so fun...

just follow the arcs around the quilt until they are all stitched.

This is a calm quiet quilt with a fun design.

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Just a reminder about the rotary cutter blades a friend is selling...

She asked me to test these blades for her

and I have been using one for a while.

It is sharp, smooth and has lasted as long

as a Fiskars or Olfa blade usually lasts for me.

I have not seen a difference between with these blades at all.

She is offering a coupon code for $1 off a pack of ten blades.

You can find them on Amazon

and the coupon code is "Doodlebu"...

good until October 31st. 

I'm linking to Patchwork Times today.
Visit Judy to see what others are working on this week.

Happy Quilting!!