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......

ITS A STRING DAY

I have done nothing but think about the color variation in the 'asian garden' quilt that i showed in the last post...my first plan was to take it all apart and try to get the green blocks the same color....but 'holy cow' that is a lot of work, work i am not sure i want to do right now....

So today i had to quit thinking about that quilt and got out the bin of scraps and started with the string blocks again....

i made 18 this morning , some cut ready to go and others on the right have to be trimmed up but now on a break from them...not sure if i will make more this afternoon or not....i will make that decision later....i have 3 different yardages of fabric in the washer right now, one of them is the blue for the yellow &courthouse steps quilt border...i may work on that instead....

It seems like a nice day so far and after checking the forcast last night for today i just might get in the car and get out of the house for abit...i have been thinking quilts too long and need to clear my head....that might help me make a decision about the 'asian garden' quilt...

i still have to put all that fabric away and what did i do yesterday but i got out some more...grrrr...lol...today i looked up what i thought i was going to use for the back of the asian garden quilt but 'no go' its only 2 yards and i need at least 3+ sooo...i am going to have to look deeper in the green stack of stash...i do believe i have 1 piece that might be big enough....i sure dont want to go out and buy more at this point...

i am hunting for a new runner pattern to make another one...i was asked what i was going to do with all the runners i am making....well i am using them for practice with my machine quilting and when it becomes our family turn to host our reunion i will gather them all up and hope the family will want something i made...hopefully i will get better and better at machine quilting......well gotta either cook something or get ready and leave to find a late lunch or early supper....i like the last idea better lol...more later....

MY GRANDDAUGHTERS MODERN QUILT

I finally got the camera going and took a picture of my granddaughters quilt all done....it has been a year in the making...i kept putting it aside for other projects through the year and last month i made up my mind to get it done...here it is....

but you know there is always something right behind it ready to be done and i have quite a selection to pick from lol...

its a toss up between the color study quilt i call 'MAZE TO NOWHERE'...cant remember now if it is no. 1 or 2....this one has a green border...the other one that is done has a blue border (in the first pic)....both are pictured below...they are alike except for the borders....a case of making too many blocks lol...

this is my own block that i designed and it is a very easy block to sew ...the seams dont meet so you dont have to deal with bulk there and it goes fast ...it does take a lot of variety of colors though...it took me a long time before i got what i wanted to use gathered up but it gave me time to figure out just what kind of block i was going to make...

and the other quilt to be quilted is this one...

.

i would like to get it done too...i have the back for it that i want to use but dragging my feet on what to quilt in the light space....i love feathers and i think i have a stencil that will work....i will hand quilt i think as i am not good enough to do feathers on machine and i would like to give this one away as a gift later....more on my dilemma later lol

for right now i am nursing a back ache...i aggrivated an old injury last week carrying something i shouldn't have and now i suffer for it....and believe me winter weather isn't helping...but our weather could be worse and i am glad so far that the snow is north of us but soon i think we will have some....then i will have plenty of time to sew just hope my back settles down by then...

well lunch is coming  later this morning so i dont have to cook.... i better get dressed and i could use more coffee to get woke up...happy sewing....more later....

GRAND D. QUILT AND HAND QUILTING THOUGHTS

This is my granddaughters quilt i am working on right now...i took it out of the frame to relax it a bit so it wouldn't get those ring marks on it and i wanted to see how the stencil is working that i am using to hand quilt it....

This quilt is inching along ok without mishaps so far...i hope i dont jinx it by mentioning that lol....my hands started cramping last night while quilting but i have been working on it now 3 days straight so i think they need a rest...

Here is a closeup of the detail of the quilting in the inner border...it is working just fine....when planning a quilted border i usually pick something that doesn't fit lol...but this one popped out at me when i began to think about quilting it....i didn't want a lot of 'fru-fru' for this one as it is very contempory...i was even thinking of drawing boxes here and there freehand but didn't think i could be consistent enough....

THOUGHTS ON HAND QUILTING

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

When i was first beginning this adventure of quilting was back in the 60's when i was accumulating lots of fabrics from sewing for my 2 girls....i had a huge box of scrap...my neighbor, an avid sewer encouraged me to make a quilt...so with her guidance i ventured into this world....i bet i picked her brain at least twice a week after that...lol

I learned a lot from her and from what i am told it was bred into me, as my grandmother was next to being a pro at quilting selling her quilts thoughout the county...she passed on when i was 5 so didn't get to know her long....i do have a big box of her quilting things though my aunt and mother passed onto me that i get out and go through now and then...

one of my early thoughts of hand quilting as you had to make sure the design was continueous without breaks all around the quilt...and another thought back then was no line shal cross another....so that played a role in getting me started...i was afraid i would make a mistake and they wouldn't fit right....now i am not afraid to be adventurous...lol...those thoughts came about from the older ladies at the time...when rules were strict and rigid about sewing...boy am i glad that changed lol....it has opened the door for  many new products and ideas for the sewer and quilter....

I will never be an expert quilter but i can do 18 stitches to an inch...now that is counting the top and bottom stitches...i am told that is how you count them...most of the time i average about 15....which i think it still ok...at least they dont look galloping along lol...

i have been teaching myself to machine quilt...not really good at it so i will stick to a lot of hand quilting along with learning new things so i am sure i will be adding little thoughts on hand quilting as i go along.....more later....

MUG RUGS & SMALL BAG DONE

here is a small bag i made this week...i need to make more of them to keep on hand for gifts...so easy to make and quick to add alittle bit of money or something to give as gifts when one is needed, dont want to wait till last minute to make them either....more on this later....

i also got all those mug rugs done

 and ready for my daughter to get hers and there will be some left in case that gal comes to check out what i have been doing....i need 1 each of lavender/purple ones and 1 browns/oranges and i would have a set of each to have on hand too....

this is the week i am to work on my granddaughters quilt too...i did quilt on it last night and now today my fingers are sore....i love the fabrics by Hoffman but they are harder to hand quilt because they are so dense and i put a hoffman batik on the back so makes it doubly hard to get a needle through it...when i get to the inner border it has a softer fabric for the top so will be easier...good thing as i have a 4 line border stencil to work on then....using 4 needles at a time....cant wait to get that far....almost there...maybe after tonight if i can work on it more....

got 2 of the 3 pkgs ready for mailing today....grrrr left out the note i wrote that went in one of them...so i will write a letter and send seperate....i am not going to tear open the package....used too much packing tape on it....lol... will mail them out Thursday when i go to town for a haircut that i desperately need....

well got to  check the cabinets and see if i can make a meal without going to the store...only need a light supper but that is what i lack is stuff to make something light but i could cook a 6 course full supper if i wanted lol....dont want to do that much work lol......more later......

GRANDMOTHERS FLOWER GARDEN TIP

i learned something about adding blocks on the ends of rows of the gfg quilt on the left today....it is hard to know where you are with the blocks unless you lay it out and pin where you want the block....if i hadn't double checked myself today i would have sewn at least2 blocks in the wrong places and would have had to rip out...

i have been working on these quilts this week...in various stages...cutting more white hexes, yes again....cutting a couple more flowered print hexes and sewing hexes into flowers and finally working on the rows sewing posies into place....i sure spent the hours working on these quilts....

when i wasn't doing that i was string block making....i found out from my youngest daughter that she likes quilts of a lot of colors, no matter the pattern....i didn't realize this but i should have being she likes primitive furniture...no wonder she grabbed the old 4 patch quilt i made a long long time ago i was going to trash...all made from scraps from the clothes sewing i did for the girls back in the 60's....i thought it got threw out lol....i am sure she will like the string quilt when it gets that far.....my other daughter said she wasn't too crazy about string blocks...talk about 2 girls and different personalities lol

i am still waiting for the thread order before i can work on the mug rugs and i have been getting the boxes ready that i am sending to friends in Texas and i hope to send one to Georgia also if i can find the right thing....and i have one to send right here in Il too...the dining table is a mess of boxes and rug mugs and no room to sew...ugh....that isn't good lol....

and to top it off i wasn't feeling good today for some reason....i had planned on going grocery shopping and looking around today but didn't trust my body to co operate....going to eat light for supper so maybe things will settle down...its the wrong time to be sick for sure with Thanksgiving just 2 days away lol....

well not a lot to talk about tonight....just sewing when i feel like it....going to lay down for a bit and watch the evening news...sure hope there is some good news for a change.....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.....

SHERBET COLORS QUILT

i made this quilt a few years ago for my grand niece when she was expecting a baby....i have liked it really well and almost kept it as i ran out of a lot of the colors especially the blue border which i think is very striking and i wasn't sure i could ever make another close to the same colors again....

its a basic hour glass block with all colors combos without matching when its put together hence the prism effect....the picture shows them pretty good but the colors are more striking in person as i remember....cut two strips at least 1-1/2 inches, i think i used 2 inch strips...use triangle to cut and use both sides of the fabric making a positive and negitive and use both in the quilt for contrast....

well while i was ironing my new fabric yesterday i thought about this quilt and wondered if i had enough pastels to make another to put in my cabinet for my future GGChildren if they come to be....i looked up the picture again in my photo album i keep and again on line to see if i still had a record of it....

i recently found a blue that is almost the color though it has a hint of purple here and there in the fabric but i think it will be ok....i would like to be as bold as the one in the picture....i have yet to round up all the pastel solids or blends to make it ....i am sure it will be different from the picture because some of the blends i liked are no longer available...i already tried  reordering those lol....Hoffman watercolors really stood out in the quilt but they have discontinued several of them i used....but i will keep looking because one day soon i will be making another one similar to the sherbet colors above and i think bigger....it was so much fun to make!.....more later.....

CUTTING HEXES TODAY

THIS IS WHAT I AM DOING TODAY

I am doing hexes again....i am running low on white ones after adding them to several blocks recently...while in the sewing room marking and cutting more hexes i decided to cut a couple batches of prints to add to my box for future ones....i also basted a whole block (lavender/ lavender print in pic) ready to start sewing together and to the right of those in the pic is  some of  the posies i have sewn the white half way around ready for adding to the row....

I know it doesn't look like a lot but it is a lot of patience sewing....that is the hardest thing about this grandmothers flower garden quilt...it seems if i dont work on it when i first get up and have my coffee the day gets by me and i cant seem to get to the hexes....

today is no different either....i got that much sewing done on them but i have laundry to do and i think i will throw in a larger yardage piece of fabric to do up for the cabinet...i hate doing the bigger ones as i really dont like to do ironing of anything....that is one of the memories of my childhood...mom thought she had to have everything ironed back then...ugh!....i was so glad when wash and wear came along when my kids were growing up so i didn't have to iron much....lol

dishes are in the sink soaking right now...need to do those up....i was thinking when i was drawing water ....'how does one person dirty so many dishes?' lol....but then it isn't just one day of dishes either lol....

well off i go to the kitchen...more coffee, maybe some toast ...it might be a long time to supper if i get busy and one good thing...i cooked yesterday so supper is in a casserole dish for me tonight ..yay! lol.....more later....

ELONGATED BLOCK QUILT

I was looking back through my sewing pics and i came across a quilt pic i took in 2007...boy how time flies...i didn't think it had been that long since i made this quilt....

suprisingly i remember how much i liked it then and would like to make another one in different colors...that much i know...the colors?....no idea as of yet but now that i have it fresh in my mind i am sure i will think of color combos that might look good...the picture should have been taken the other way around to show off the colors better as the long boxes should be up and down....

I also noticed that lately i have been making blocks with sashes around them.... i wonder what the deal is with that....do i go with an idea till i wear it out???....hmmmm i will ponder that one!....lol...

my sister called last week and in the conversation she mentioned that she cant go anywhere without her walker now...and that got me thinking that she needs a walker caddy....so i have been 'scouting' my stash cabinet for a good print to quilt to make her one....i got called away so i think i will go back in and start looking again....i wanted to make her a tv remote chair caddy so i think i will just start a box and fill it and send...i was reminded that the postage will go up again in Jan '13 so it would be good to beat that if i could....wont she be suprised lol.....

i have a gazillion notes and figures sticking out of the box i keep my rulers standing up at the head of my table in the sewing room....some have written on them which of the items they were for and others dont....i found a notebook that i am starting to take them and transfer the notes to the notebook for safe keeping in case i want to go back and make another....some of them would be for quilts that have found a new home and i wouldn't have the dimensions otherwise...i should have done this a long time ago....sigh!

i made it to the store yesterday and got my chicken dinner for my supper and took advantage of the sales they had and by the time i carried my grocery bags to the house from the garage i was beat so i didn't make it to $general to look around....maybe today i might...my daughter informed me she was stopping by after she gets off work so i need to be here then....time has a way of getting away from me before i do what i say so we shall see lol....more later....

BAG IS FINISHED

well here it is the week end again....i swear some of the week days get overlooked and the week end rolls around too quick, making the weeks just fly by....being busy makes them go by so fast too....

i got up in time today to see my saturday sewing shows on public tv....a regular sewing show which had a lot to do with quilting this week, Fons & Porter show about quilting, showing a new block and a Quilting Arts program....while watching them i put together another posie together for my Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt....

yesterday i worked on my bag i have started and finished it...and it all started because i didn't want to throw away a scrap of floral fabric...isn't it funny what peaks our creativity?....i got side tracked because i was waiting on a thread order to quilt it then got busy with other projects but now its all done....

i had quilted this before i lost my confidence in machine quilting and had very good luck with it at the time....i think this bag looks tropic for some reason , maybe the colors...here is a back view...wish i had, had enough floral fabric for the back...

i only have a scrap left of the green used for the bag...it was just the right color...this bag was truely built from scrap lol and it will make a great contribution to make my sewing portable...

i will be going to my grandsons birthday party later today so i will pack my bag with the mug rugs i made this week and finish them by sewing the binding down on them...right now its foggy and not very nice looking outside so i hope the sun comes out to burn off the fog so the wiener roast goes off without a hitch....

and for me i need to get around....have fabric in washer at the moment ready for dryer, need to take care of that and work in the kitchen so no major sewing today unless i do some when i get back home if i am not too full of hot dogs and marshmallows lol....more later....

TV REMOTE HOLDER

today was a productive day...though i did not know it until i went in the sewing room....when i saw some of the prequilted fabric i have been working with trying to use up i happen to think about my friend Mary....she has been after me to make her a new holder for her tv remote for her chair arm....i made her one years ago and she had worn it to threads...it had several pockets in it...for the life of me i could not remember when she was telling me about it just what it looked like...today i drafted instructions on a new one for her....i do remember the old one was small so i vowed to make this one bigger....

this time i wrote down instructions and measures , i didn't do that before...this one didn't have as many pockets but bigger pockets...i did use some of the prequilted fabric of which i quilted over it with a fabric back...added pockets in a co ordinating fabric and divided them into seperate ones....and added binding all around...the picture really doesn't do it justice but at least you can tell

...the pink fabric isn't showing up very good...the darker  part hangs over the center of chair arm and you have pockets (the pink) for a mag and tv remote in one pocket and a mag in the other one on the outside and a couple deep pockets that tuck down in the chair cushion to hold it in place...those pockets can hold maybe kleenex or smaller mags or puzzle books, what have you....

i dont mind telling you she was very happy when she found out what i brought her this afternoon and we had a good visit...she also showed me the old one and it was in shreds lol....i am going to make myself one sometimes this week i think...maybe that will keep the remote from falling off the chair arm all the time....

if you have been following this blog you know i have been in the middle of a block challenge and i got part 2 done last night and i love it....it was a big block to begin with and with adding a border and the flying geese to it make it the size of a table topper....i will  show it when our host posts all the pictures.....

my daughter was here yesterday afternoon and during our conversations she suggested that i offer some of my things on line for sale....i have thought about it but still undecided....not sure there would be much interest....more on this at another time....

today when i went to the store as i was paying the checker i noticed that one of my rings were missing...it was one that was given to me ...more sentimental than worth anything but mine just the same....that made me pretty sad as i thought it was gone forever....but when i got a glass of ice tea later i found it in the ice bin...literally on ice lol....boy that sure did change my mood in a hurry...my fingers must be getting skinny so i suppose i should stop wearing my rings so wont lose them forever....

well its too late to start anything sewing wise tonight or i wont sleep so i guess i will check out the blogs i follow and call it a night....more later....

BAGS, BAGS, BAGS

yup you could say i was the bag lady this past weekend...i made 3 of them to put quilts in for a gift.....now i know it would have been less time consuming to go buy a gift bag and cheaper too but this did 2 things....got rid of more fabric out of my cabinet and made a nicer gift....

i think i mentioned somewhere that i had fabric that was prequilted with a lightweight batt backing to use up....well i got the brainy idea to quilt a cotton back to it with a heavier batt...now that makes it more durable and double quilted...i was afraid when i started it that it might make the fabric look tacky but they came out wonderful....the blue and yellow one is the double quilted fabric on the outside and the pink one i reversed and put the cotton back on the outside to look more baby like....

i am happy that i did this now maybe i can do more with that fabric and get it out of the box in my sewing room...i had about given up on finding a use for it....it was leftover from making doll sleeping bags years ago when i was dressing dolls....

my daughter was here yesterday evening for a bit, checking on me i think....i halfway expected her...kept looking for her to pop in while i was machine quilting and had just finished when she came....i had to clear off the couch to make room for her to sit....its been loaded with the things i have been making for the past few months....i have got to find a nice place to store my things so they are all in one place....

i have been using one of my chairs in the family room as a design space lol....i put a piece of batt down the back of the chair and placed my blocks on it to see how they look..i can see them from my chair and  glance at them now and then to see if i want to make changes....makes a good temporary design wall lol...my sewing room isn't big enough for one though i wish it was....

inbetween working on the smaller projects i got some time in to work on the gfg quilt too but my granddaughters quilt took a back seat for the time being...so this week i better put some time in on that one or i will  never get done....

i have 1 runner, and a small baby quilt to machine quilt this week sometime and a pink posied piece of fabric that will make a nice lap quilt for nursing home i would like to get done too....more on this one later....

well i need some more coffee then get out of here to deliver my things and run errands...looks like a busy day today....more later....

HEXES AND HOUR GLASS

this morning i am having trouble getting started with my day....when i loaded a bobbin in my machine i noticed my bobbin box had a lot of bobbins that only had a few feet on them....so that told me to get out the hexes and use those few feet of thread for basting my hexes for the gfg quilt

i need to start adding the white ones around more blocks like the picture so i can add them to make a row and it will take a lot of white ones....i seem to be always running low on those....if i start working on this quilt again i wont be able to put it down....and i have a lot more things i need to work on too....

i quit and now not feeling very well...not sure why but i am going to try to sew and forget my 'ails'...my back is also bothering me so that could stop my sewing cause it probably hurts from all the sewing i have done lately....

 

more later....

2 QUILTS FINISHED

It's been a busy week here at home...this new sewing streak has me moving from one thing to another all day long but i am getting things done...

In the last 2 weeks i have made a little girls quilt with butterflies from irish chain pattern...hard to see the butterflies in the picture...

i have had the print fabric i know for at least 14 years...i remember where i bought it ...i am very suprised i haven't used it before this..the fabric is very pretty in person...the quilt is one width by about 45 inches....then while i was working on it and during the time when i got bored with it i started another quilt i mentioned in previous post...the red/blue hole in barn door quilt....well i am finished with it now...got it done this morning...

its the little boys quilt i decided to make when i found this combo staring at me when i opened the cabinet...i have just a scrap left of the very busy blue print....the color works in this quilt but i passed over it lots of times wondering what to do with it , it always seemed to busy to work in anything up till now and this time it seemed to be just right...

After all this sewing i been doing i have a stack of small pieces of batt ....i already has some stuffed in here and there in a shelf but now there is a whole lot more...looks like all those string  blocks i made will be made into bigger blocks and used for potholders....

 

this is just the smaller stack of small pieces of batt...the other one sits on the floor in family room behind the chair for now...this stack i will work on first i think it has the smallest pieces in it....the other stack has bigger pieces that maybe i can piece together for runners...without making too many seams...

got to take a break from sewing later today and buy some groceries....i think i will make out menus for this next week with things that i can make ahead so i dont have to stop sewing for long...good thing i like leftovers lol...

it is such a pretty day this friday that i should take advantage of it and go do a little other shopping....fall is really showing up now....hard to keep the house warm at night but i am going to be frugal and not heat the house i hope till late october or november....more later about that lol....

well its back to sewing after lunch....i have a table runner all pinned ready to machine quilt....i have been lagging in that department for awhile while hand quilting those quilts....so now its back to  practicing again....i also want to machine quilt that hexagon table topper i posted earlier for my daughter so most likely that will get done sometime over the week end...so for now its ta-ta....more later ....