Other Things

I'm here, but not in my Hidey Hole here.

My mom was in a bad car accident

and has required some extra help and company.

She wasn't badly hurt, thank God,

but enough that she couldn't be alone.

Plus, she has needed help dealing with the insurance company.

The driver who ran the red light is uninsured,

 driving on a suspended license

and was "distracted". 

Four cars and a pedestrian were involved.

My mom's car was totaled and we are so

thankful she wasn't killed.

No one was that day, but we don't know the

condition of the pedestrian at this point.

Things can sure change in an instant.

Before this happened,

I started working on another 

Christmas tree skirt for a wedding we

are going to next month.

There are four of these strip sets sewn together.

 

They will be cut into wedges with this template

and sewn together into the tree skirt.

I doubt much will be done in the next few days,

but it shouldn't take long once I am back to my

normal schedule.

Happy Quilting!

Bible Book Block Quilt Finish

It's done!

The largest quilt I've quilted myself is finished.

About half way through I thought,

"What was I thinking?? There is a reason people are

longarm quilters for hire."

Some areas look better than others,

but as a friend says,

"Finished is better than perfect."

 "Bible Book Block Quilt"

These blocks represent the Old Testament,

minus four blocks. I couldn't put them all in the top,

so used one for the label on the back.

I had planned on piecing the four into the back and forgot all about it.

 

The information is written on the boat.

 

Last year the quilt group I belong to made these blocks all year,

while learning a bit about each book of the OT.

We could use any color scheme we wanted 

and the layout was up to us as well.

 (Our leader, Linda, comes up with the greatest challenges!)

 

Everyone's blocks were gorgeous!

The color schemes were so different and all so pretty.

 

The quilts will be on display at the quilt shop

where we meet in May.

I'll try to remember to get photos of all of the quilts

and share them here.

Onto the next fun project!

Happy Quilting!

Things I've Learned Lately.....

These past few days I have been working on different things

and have been trying new and different ways to do them.

First,

I finished two more pair of children's socks to be donated.

I am a double pointed needle sock knitter,

but decided to try the Magic Loop that I've read about

and a friend uses.

Well... I don't know if it's because I've used dpn's for so long

or if there is a step I am missing with the magic loop,

but I am not a fan of the magic loop at all.

The cable would get twisted around my hand,

it took longer to get the stitches back onto the needle

after moving the cable around

and it felt very cumbersome.

Back to the dpn's I go.

Second,

I am quilting my Bible book blocks quilt myself.

This is the largest quilt I've quilted on my sewing machine.

 After marking, manipulating, sewing,

manipulating some more, etc.

it became obvious to me that I should have used

black batting in this quilt.

Look at all of the batting fuzz on this black fabric!

 It will get washed after I'm finished,

but it would have been better with black batting.

Never thought of it.

 

Onward I will go, though.

Third,

in quilting my Bible book blocks quilt,

I decided to try using some rulers in the quilting.

While I am definitely a rookie in this area,

I am enjoying using the rulers and will do more of this.

I have a stitch regulator for my Bernina (BSR)

and have quilted with that for several years now.

When using the rulers,

I have to use the ruler FMQ foot,

which requires using the foot pedal to power the machine.

I have found that I have much more control using this foot

and the foot pedal as opposed to the BSR.

The BSR is powered by moving the fabric....

the faster I move the fabric, the faster it quilts.

The problem for me is to turn the BSR on and off,

a button needs to be pushed.

To push the button, I have to let go of the quilted piece

and it almost always moves on me.

I also realized when using the FMQ foot,

I have more control over the movement of everything.

It isn't as "loose" as it is with the BSR.

When doing meander or loops,

the BSR is great because of the speed of which I can quilt.

Otherwise, I may be a FMQ foot girl from now on when quilting.

So,

sometimes an old dog can learn new tricks

and other times, not!

Hopefully I'll have a quilted Bible book blocks quilt to show soon.

It's coming along!

Happy Quilting!

(and learning!)

Happy Easter!

The Lord is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!

 

Alleluia!!

 

 A small part of the flowering of my church this morning.

It's a glorious day!

These are some of the Easter eggs I smocked years ago.

Some furry friends have found their way into the basket, too.

May your heart be filled with Joy and Love today and always.

Happy Easter!

Making Dresses

This week, I have been doing something

I haven't done in years.

When my daughters were little,

I made almost all of their clothes.

The only things I didn't make were undergarments, jeans

and other pants with zippers.

I would go into quilt shops to buy the fabric

for their dresses and other outfits,

because they had the best selection of cotton fabrics.

Then came the day that they didn't want to wear what mom made anymore.

So, all of the patterns and piping and buttons and trims

were packed up and have been in boxes for years.

Until the other day!

My sister has a granddaughter who is almost a year old

and I was getting the itch to make something other than a quilt for her.

I looked through my stash and found some fun fabrics to use.

Dress #1

This pattern was a good one to begin with

and try and knock the rust off of my garment sewing.

Dress #2

Same pattern, but I added some piping to the bottom of this one.

Next, I found several unfinished things that I smocked years ago.

(I did a LOT of smocking back then!)

The patterns weren't with the fabric pieces anymore,

but I thought I could figure out how to finish them.

Dress #3

I can't tell you how many times I used this pattern

when my girls were little.

It came back quickly as to how to sew it together

with the lining.

I had to be reintroduced to my buttonhole maker for these dresses!

It took a bit of practice and the buttonholes were made.

This dress might be too small.

There wasn't a pattern with this one, either,

but I just had to finish it.

Hopefully it will fit the little one.

While I wasn't doing any quilting this week,

I was playing with fabric.

Making these little dresses doesn't make me want to give up

quilting for garment sewing, but it was fun to work on these

for a few days.

I'm linking to Whoop Whoop (sidebar)
and TGIFF today.

Happy Creating!

Mystery and Pillow Cases

Libby, at Life on the Hill,

is hosting a mystery quilt a long.

This is my kind of mystery!

Quick, easy blocks that are fun to make.

The  last clue was released on Friday

and the reveal will be today.

Here is my last clue sewn together.

She gave us a cutting scheme for cutting fat quarters in the fastest and

most efficient way and then has had us sew the various pieces together

into blocks.

On Friday, Libby asked us to play around with our blocks to see if

we could guess what the final reveal will look like.

Here is what I came up with:

It's like putting a puzzle together

only faster!

 

I'm not good with the names of various blocks,

but I know the outer part of the blocks below are

Churn Dash blocks.

 

It will be fun to see what Libby has designed today.

 

On a mindless sewing note,

I've made a stack of pillow cases for some of my

grand nieces and nephews.

My brother and sister-in-law have a new grandson

and the first Old McDonald's Farm quilt is going to him.

I decided to make all of their grands pillow cases

and raided my stash to find fabrics.

I had all of these fabrics in my stash and had so

much fun pulling and pairing the fabrics.

 

These all went together lickity-split!

There will be more pillow cases in my future!

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Have a great week and

Happy Quilting!

Old McDonald's Farm Part 2

When I made the first

Old McDonald Farm quilt,

I almost had enough leftover triangles

to make a second quilt.

I pulled some solid fabrics,

cut more triangles

and pieced another baby quilt.

There is something about these triangle quilts

that just makes me smile.

For this one, I backed it in a lime green chevron minky.

Oh, it's so soft!!

The minky is so wonderful on the back,

but makes it more difficult to quilt.

 It's worth the effort, though.

I already know where this one is headed.

It will be delivered tomorrow!

There will be more triangle quilts in my future!

On another note,

I found this fabric for $5.50/yd for the backing of my

Bible Book blocks quilt.

Won't this be perfect??

It may be used for the binding, too.

Happy Quilting!

On a Roll....

On Monday and Tuesday I found myself with a few free hours in the

afternoons.

Appointments were canceled,

so what is a girl to do?

SEW!!!

In those few hours I was able to get the borders on my

Bible blocks quilt.

Woohoo!!

The blocks had been sewn together over the weekend

and I was toying with border ideas.

At first I thought I would use the four extra 

Bible blocks in the corners of the outer border

as corner stones.

 Putting those blocks in the corners was too much of a contrast.

My eye went right to those corners.

I am really pleased with the solid black borders instead.

The extra blocks may be pieced into the backing.

(I had to stand on a stool to take this photo....

hence, the crooked look.)

 

 

I cut and sewed strips of various reds

and used those for the narrow red border.

I'm debating on whether or not to quilt this one myself.

It's much larger than I thought it would be when making the blocks

and I've never quilted anything this large.

 

An over-all quilting design isn't what this quilt needs, though.

I'll see if I can get my courage up to do this!

Happy Quilting!

Socks and Such

It's the beginning of another week

and it's been another few days of working on various projects.

First,

the next clue of Libby's mystery quilt was released last Friday,

and, again, it took my iron longer to heat up than it did 

for me to sew the blocks together.

I really enjoy making Half Square Triangles.

I'm getting really curious about how all of these parts will go together!

Second,

I finished another pair of socks for a child.

These are a size 2-3 and went together so quickly!

It's so nice to be using some of the left over sock yarn from other projects

and making something useful.

Third,

I finally pulled out my stack of Bible book blocks

and found some fabric to use for the alternate blocks.

I went back and forth about what to use and finally decided on black.

The black really allows all of the reds to shine.

The photos make the reds look pinkier then they actually are.

I'm going to add several borders to this quilt...

a narrow black, then a narrow red, followed by a wide black

with four Bible book blocks in the corners.

I hope it looks as nice as it does in my head!

Hopefully this week I'll have a finish or two to share.

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday today.
Please visit to see what others are creating.

Happy Quilting!

Pods and Pillows

This week has been a bit disjointed for me,

but I did manage to find some time to spend in my Hidey Hole.

 In this disjointed time, I was able to get a couple of smaller things finished.

Yesterday a friend and I went to another friends house and 

she taught us how to make the "Sweetpea Pods".

These little pouches are so cute

and go together so quickly!

Two 10" squares make two of these little pouches

and go together in no time....

once you get the zipper pull back onto the zipper, that is!

 

Mary, my friend who gave us the tutorial,

gave me one for Christmas and it's perfect for

keeping my binding clips stored.

I should have taken a photo of her bowl of pods!

They looked so pretty and festive on her counter.

Last night, while watching March Madness, 

(for which my bracket is already not looking too good!)

I finished the two pillows for my daughter and son-in-law.

They need the forms, but the covers are finished!

The colors in the photos for this pillow are not right.

The background fabric has more green than is showing here.

None the less, I am really happy with this combo of fabrics.

 

These pillows are BIG!

I said in the previous post that they are 24" square,

but they are actually 26" square.

 

The pattern I used was found in a magazine years ago

and I don't have the name or edition number of the magazine.

Prairie points surround the outer borders.

 

I will get the pillow forms and send these to her...

or may hand deliver them myself!

Have a great weekend, everyone

and

Happy Quilting!