WASHING FABRICS, SORTING, FINDING SURPRISES

 

This is a quilt i started years ago, left it to find a border....well on my table of fabrics to be washed and put away i am finding quilts mixed in with them ...this is one of them....on top of it is what i think i will use as a border for the quilt....hard to tell but the pattern is courthouse steps and the blocks are a mix of the colors shown I call it Jungle quilt....before i get back to that i am trying to get all the fabrics washed up and put in my cabinet....the years i wasn't sewing i kept buying fabric and tossing it on the table....now i am back to sewing again and need the table ...this has been what i have been doing lately washing fabrics....

I did do a Christmas swap in the quilt group i belong to and finished that...My son will mail it out for me next Tuesday....my leg and back problem keep me from climbing steps....

Baby shower coming up  and i have to figure out which 2 baby quilts i will send....got 3 pieces of flannel for  receiving blankets to make and i have cut out 2 lap or burp pads to quilt....also have  a Christmas table topper to quilt and a couple other things waiting to be done.... now if my health will co-operate i will be happy...

I work very slow now so i get aggravated at myself for not getting as much done as i think i should......more later.

PASTEL BABY QUILT IS FINISHED

I finished the binding on the small baby quilt I machine quilted this week....again I was up late but I wanted to get it finished....I even got the label sewn in it and the irish chain quilt..

I love these pastel modern type quilts...they look so fresh in design and soft and sweet....its a pleasure to work on them....the picture shows it a little brighter than it really is...

I have a chore to do today that has been long overdue....My little ironing board that sits next to me when I am sewing needs a new cover...

I was going to fix it earlier in the week but could not find my electric staple gun....I thought it must be in the basement but rather than risk falling down the stairs I waited till help came along....Last night my son came and he found it in the basement...so now I am in business when I get to it...hopefully today...That little ironing board is becoming an antique lol....I made it in the 60's for use on vacations ..that was before motels thought to put ironing boards in the rooms....it has been many miles and ironed many miles of fabric...

2 FINISHES

I

the fold back part is the pretty back ....i found this fabric and knew i had to use it as the back....it goes with the quilt so good..i may have quilted it too close i think...another ufo off my list...

this is the very last quilt made with the old courthouse step blocks i made a very long time ago...this was one of the first blocks i made when i really got into quilting big time....i must have made a thousand of them cause i sure have  made a lot of small quilts with them....guess i should have made a big bed quilt from them...but i thought i had them all done then found more...

here is the 'mini square' quilt i showed in another post all done now with a dark ruby red binding....it will go to my daughter as i mentioned before..

Well its off to quilt on the blue quilt...and hang up the 3rd load i have in the dryer....and make sense of my day....more later....

FINISHED RUNNERS PLUS

Well here are 2 pictures of runners i finished....i am so disappointed....they are batiks and they photograph bad....in an earlier post i posted one of them and these didn't turn out any better...in person they are fine....i guess that is what counts but they wont look very good in the book i keep pics of my projects in

They are about 12 x30 inches,

the bottom one a little smaller....but i got a lot of practice with my machine quilting on them....

More practice is coming....i have i hope the last of the smaller quilts with courthouse steps to quilt....i could have finished it while back when i mentioned it, as i had a back ready but changed my mind and ordered fabric i saw for the back...

The fabric at the top is the back and the lower one is the quilt....I think it will look great with the variety of color the quilt has....so i am going to work on it sometime over the week end unless i get side tracked....

I made a bunch of labels for my quilts while i was waiting for the new quilting foot to come to replace the one that broke....and now  i have all but 3 sewn in the quilts....guess i should have made more of them....i have a bunch of partial filled bobbins that would be good to use up ready to wind for full bobbins and new quilting....

I took this picture through the storm door of the back porch and yard....we dodged a big snowstorm that was headed to the midwest thursday over night....we only got less than 2 inches....i was glad so i didn't have to shovel snow....we need the moisture and have gotten a lot of rain this winter instead of snow that should help....its blowing and dreary looking today so i suppose the snow could blow...but it looks like we got some ice on top of it .....

well going to sew this afternoon after i figure out what kind of a meal i will have later...maybe something simple so i can sew more....lord knows i need to sew 24 hours a day as many projects i have going at the moment....more pics about them are coming in more posts lol....but for now gotta run.....more later....

LAST OF THE COURTHOUSE STEPS? MAYBE FISHING IS NEXT!

Well yesterday i did get to wally world for a bit....i got my lunch at a fast food place and wrote out a small list so i wouldn't forget what i wanted in case i got into a conversation with anyone and my thoughts went out of my head lol...i got there at a good time too, the parking spaces were up close but the wind was sooooo strong, glad i wasn't wearing a wig! lol....

here is the yellow background, courthouse steps quilt i fnished the other day....

AND i sure hope this is the last of those pesky courthouse steps blocks that i have had for the last 30 years....why o why i made so many of them is beyond me....but  i think they are all made up now....i know i said that before but i have looked in every nook and cranny and dont see anymore...i have made a lot of smaller baby type quilts with them for sure....and i am ahead and ready for the next new babies in the family...

this morning i got out all the fabric for my sons quilt....i found FISH fabric about 2 years ago for his but couldn't make up my mind on how to make it...not only that but i finally washed up the last of what i got for it so its all ready to work on now....i measured and decided on how i was going to make it today....in fact i might go in and work on it later today while everything is fresh in my mind...at least get the top done....and today i feel confident enough to machine quilt it....hah! have to see how i feel when i actually go to quilt it...that might all change lol.

yesterday i got enough goodies to make a veggie soup and i think i have a chunk of roast that i cut off some time ago in the freezer for the beef part....then later i can make ground up meat sandwiches with mayo,celery, onion and pickle relish to go with the soup...i never add the meat to the soup as it get old faster than the veggies do so this is a good trade off for nutrition......lol, my idea is simple, i wont have to cook for a few days and that leaves the door open to sew lol....plus the weather is going to get close to 10F daytime and i wont go out in that if i can help it lol....

i want to play around wih those new modern blocks i am creating....maybe add another element to them or make the bigger one smaller...they look too plain at the moment...more on this later as i stated...but they will be on my mind till i get them worked out  so i am sure i will pick up where i left off yesterday....

hmm...i left a coffee cup somewhere and i need to find it and warm it up again...cold coffee isn't bad either...i get a lot of that when i am sewing and too lazy to go warm it back up lol ...lets see where was i last?.....more later......

FLOWER GARDEN QUILT IS GETTING MORE BLOCKS

Today i am on my laptop...it sure is different to use....i should use it more often i guess...i make too many mistakes on it compared to the other one lol though....

this is what i am working on today and most of the week...at the top you see the blocks into place...i have to add some white to one of them before i can add it and some to the other one also i see...i will have the row complete when they are sewn into place....but lately i am thinking i may need to make both of the quilts  longer...that will mean ripping out the end pieces...i should decide before i add more rows across....the last time i talked to the girls they expressed how they would like it long enough for their bedspreads....that is something to think about considering they both have king size beds...i will think about this...but i doubt i will make each one that big or i might not ever get done with them....

this is what this one looks like today so far....i have the other one on the almost done with the 6th row across...i need to work a little feverishly on these...i had put them away for awhile while i got my granddaughters quilt done...so now it the grandmothers flower garden time again....

i also have the courthouse steps quilt with the yellow background pinned and ready for quilting....i havent decided for sure if i am going to hand quilt or machine quilt it...will do that later...dragging my feet again lol....i would like to find a new design for machine quilting that would be easy for me to try so i might do some practicing also this week and see what comes from it...

the weather is to be lousy for the next few days with lots of rain....we need the rain bad and i am glad its not snow and the ground is not froze so it should soak in...peoples wells will suffer soon if we dont get the needed rain....i dont like the dreary weather but i can avoid it by sewing up a storm inside instead of looking at the one outside lol....

well i gotta get to the kitchen and find out what is going to be for supper...so far not a clue and i have to cook whatever pops up fish and chips would taste good...and oh yes some fresh strawberries , yum yum lol so more later......

SMALL QUILT DONE

the sun is out today but i am sure its deceiving as the temp is just above freezing....i was suprised this morning when i looked out the kitchen window to see ice in the corners of the window....i dont think there should have been....maybe the window isn't tight anymore...will have to look into that i think....

saturday i walked by this quilt laying on the table ready for quilting and i said to myself several times during the morning 'i better quilt that today' and the last time i thought why not just sit down and do it now...lol....

so i did....got it all done including the binding before the day was through....hopefully these are the last of the pastel patches i cut out years ago....they have to be at least 20 years old lol....i had a habit of cutting way too many squares for things back then....but then i was making a lot of baby blankets for kids so i guess i thought i was ahead of the game....well they all grew up and now their kids are having kids and i am back making baby things again for great neices and nephews ...not as many though....

i wanted to make a quilt top for my good friend who is very sick with diabetes and other health problems but after figuring, i couldn't use the fabric for that particular pattern... i didn't have enough so now i am looking for another pattern to use....

Not sure what the rest of the day will bring....this morning i worked on sewing the posies to the main part of one of the gfg quilts...i think this week i will work on that then by Thanksgiving day i will need to baste more white hexes again so that will be my sewing while i am visiting and eating thanksgiving day lol....

but for now i am just going to get another cup of coffee and ponder my next move.....more later.....