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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~

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!!

Hedge Maze Kit

I needed to do some mindless sewing this week,

but...

I didn't have anything cut and ready to sew!

How can this be?

Usually there are a number of projects going in my

Hidey Hole,

so when the mood hits to do something,

it's ready and waiting.

Then I remembered...

I had purchased a kit from Craftsy on their half price sale.

 Out it came and the cutting began.

After some cutting and stitching and trimming

and stitching,

this quilt was made.

You know I love Kaffe fabrics!

This gave me my fix for a while.

Making this was pretty mindless...

although I did have ti take out two squares that

were placed in the wrong spot!

It's a simple design that really shows off these fabrics.

I read somewhere that we should look at kits when they are on sale

because it's a great way to get fabric at a reduced price.

Even if you have no intention of making the kit,

the fabric is a bargain,

if it is cut to sizes that you will use.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

A friend has started her own business and one of the things

she is selling is

Rotary Cutter Blades!!

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. 

Happy Quilting!!

Ombre Confetti

A few weeks ago I was in one of my local quilt shops

and saw this new fabric.

On the edge of the bolts it was okay,

but the sales clerk suggested I unroll a bit of the fabric.

Opening the fabric totally changed the look of the fabric.

It was ombre and went from light to dark,

all on the same bolt.

I quickly bought 1/8 of a yard of 8 colorways

and began to think about what to make.

I could cut a 4 1/2" strip from what I purchased

and then subcut those strips into 2 1/2" rectangles.

After pairing each rectangle with a white rectangle,

this is what I have.

Ombre Confetti!

The colors go from light to dark as the pieces

go from top to bottom.

Here is a close-up of the blues.

It went from light to dark from side to side on the bolt.

The colors are bright and deep and fun!

There were a couple of other colorways of the Ombre fabrics

that I didn't purchase.

I've already thought of a quilt to make using the 

gray to black and yellow to orange colorways.

I need to finish the corners

and then the challenge of finding some border fabrics begins.

Maybe a black and white print?

Polka dots?

This will be a bright and colorful baby quilt!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are creating.

Happy Quilting!

Scrappy Baby Quilt Finish

Scrappy quilts are not my favorite,

but I am very pleased with how this quilt turned out.

We are seeing a population explosion around us,

so baby quilts are in big demand.

This will go to one of the precious new ones

entering the world soon.

This was made with a lot of my 2 1/2" squares.

There is a twin to this quilt (not quilted yet),

but they hardly made a dent in my bag of squares.

Even with the occasional pink square and flowers,

this could be given to a boy or girl,

don't you think?

 

It took a while to find the outer border fabric...

the blue really pulls it all together.

 

This was made with scraps and stash,

except for the blue border.

Even the binding was leftover from two previous quilts.

There was just enough for this one.

My goddaughter loves Halloween

and while shopping with her mother the other day,

her mom found this panel.

This guy glows in the dark!

(My quilts always look crooked in photos!)

 

I'm not into Halloween,

but this guy is pretty cute.

And especially appropriate for a nurse and a physical therapist. 

:D

Happy Quilting!