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...

MORE ON MY CHALLENGE SCRAPPY QUILT

The holiday weekend is over and I spent most of it sewing on the challenge quilt..here it sits in 4 panels so far....I debated on how big to make it but have decided on twin size...here is a pic of the top so far....

I had to order fabric for the borders and the back as I never seem to have the bigger yardages on hand...the smaller border will be a deep red and the bigger outside border will be a blue like some of them in the quilt top....this quilt will be about 65x75 when finished....

I think I am going to machine quilt this one....I don't think all those seams and me would get along hand quilting....I must say this quilt is turning out better than I thought it would but I had enough variety to make it a pretty one....

Today is half over already...I seem to be staying up later at night but then I cant get started in the morning so I have to try to change that as I am losing time lol....today though I want to get out my daughters quilt and add the 2 rows on side and bottom...

 then wash up the back that I purchased about 6 months ago for it....with those 2 extra rows I hope I have enough yardage to use what I planned for the back...not sure there will be a border on this one...will have to measure again to be sure....this quilt is the 'sister' to the one I made for my other daughter...other one was blues and reds...this one is softer in color with more greens, pinks and lavenders..

Got more pictures to take and if I wind up the machine I might do some more machine quilting while I wait for the fabric to come....I got really behind from being in hosp. and recouping....so now its try to catch up time.....more later....

MAKING A NEW 'CHALLENGE QUILT'

Finally I am posting....I have been busy with stuff here at home trying to get caught up with stuff I need to do that I haven't taken time to post much....

This past week I had a water line break in the basement...thank god I was home or I would have had a flood down there....a lot of water sprayed all over as it is....plumber will have to come back to fix...he didn't have time that day to do the repair...I am glad he didn't have to have the water shut off all over the house just the line to the downstairs sink....

I have been working on string strips again trying not to let the scrap stuff get to far ahead of me....and I started a new quilt of stars and 9 patch...the original pattern for the block is in Quilters Cache....I made it for a challenge while back...here is that one in archives...I love this pattern....

 

 

Speaking of challenges I joined another challenge of sorts....the online quilt group I belong to posted a pattern for a 'scrap basket' quilt....and I am going great guns on it right now....here are some of the panels I have put together so far....I need 25 in all...

 

I have to put it aside today at least till I get the flowers fixed for the cemetery...Memorial day crept up on me again this year....I guess because I was raised with the holiday being the 30th weekend not before that ....so confusing sometimes lol...

 

My 'Dewey' blocks are put aside for the time being....and I dug out the 4 patches I had and putting a ivory triangle around each side to put them on point for a good size quilt....I have about half the blocks done for that....

 

I need to take more pics...I finally finished the small childs quilt I was hand quilting....don't know why I didn't finish before only took me 2 hrs to finish quilting and couple more to bind....grrr...lol....

 

Well this catches me up for now and just maybe I can get the camera wound up again sometime this week...I know there is more to show....

MINI GRANDMOTHERS FLOWER GARDEN PICTURE

It has been a busy week for me...I had errands to run, more than usual plus I went shopping one day with my daughter and now I am tired and need a couple days to recoup lol....but it was a good time to be out...no snow or rain just sun mixed with warm and cool breezes lol....

I finally got a picture of the mini grandmothers flower garden quilt I have been working on....

I have about 7 more rows to add and maybe I might add a row wider...more on that later....I haven't decided if I want to put a plain border on it and applique a vine or not...I haven't done much applique so far so it could end up a challenge...

I always have something lined up to work on whether I am home or visiting with my family....

now is no exception lol....there are several different posies ready for  half of the white that goes around each one ready to work on...there are some small ones and some large flowers too....I forgot to add that I am making another one with the big flowers....that will be the 3rd one...before I am done with hexes I think every immediate family member will get one someday lol....

While back I ordered small yardage of fabric I thought I would like and I do and have waited for it to go on sale....

I have a favorite block from quilter cache that I seem to like its star pattern and a 9 patch combo....I have made several runners with the pattern and now I want to make a full quilt using this fabric as the color surrounding the stars which will be blues and purples with very light gray background....I have all the fabric except more yardage of this...as of today I have that now...so any time I can get started on a new quilt top....like I really need to lol...the picture doesn't do the fabric justice but it wont be left whole anyway...the biggest piece will be 3 1/2 inches big so it wont look like this when finished..

Hopefully I am getting back into my sewing now so I can get a lot more done...I really got behind this winter.....got lots of ideas for future project too to work out of my head...happy sewing and more later......

HOME FROM HOSPITAL--SURGERY

Well here I am again....since I was here last I was taken to emergency at the hospital and had abdominal reconstructive surgery.....I am home now but I am very rocky and sooooo tired...but I am functioning day to day....

It seems this problem has been with me most of my life but decided to shut down my body now after all these years....I am very happy there was no cancer...I was very scared that was what they were going to find....

While recouping in the hospital I did a little hand sewing making some hex posies when I felt like it....I forgot to put a thimble in my little portable bag of sewing so had to let up so as not to get my fingers too sore....

So I am thinking it may be a few weeks yet before I do much sewing while I am getting back on my feet again....might be sooner...right now just taking things a day at a time...

Thank you all for understanding......more later...

SMALL GFG BLOCKS ARE MAKING A NICE QUILT

This is what I have been doing while being sick and tv time...I am now on row 7 with 10 in a row of various colors some leftover from the gfg quilts for the girls....I will make it 17 rows long before I am done....I think the quilt will be about 72x90 with a border on it....

 

I still have my stack of the colors I want to use for these on the sewing table...most of the time neatly stacked if I can keep them that way...I hope to use up a lot of the florals I have collected over the years...the white you see here is what I am using for the connecting of the posies...

 

If I don't use all of the colors by the time I get tired of making gfg quilts I think I will use them with some blenders and make either road to Oklahoma quilt or a pinwheel quilt....but more on that if it materializes....pun lol...

 

I am feeling better but not all sure it was the flu that hit me...I think I need to see the doc about my innards ....I am subject to bouts of gastritis....just hope it isn't going to serious but for now its sew, sew, sew....more later....

SNOWBALL QUILT IS FINISHED!

Well as I promised here is the picture of my daughters snowball quilt all done....so glad too!.... All hand quilted...In the center of each snowball is a quilted heart 1 row up and 1 row down so it looks right from either way....the borders are quilted....had 6 needles going for this one...I am happy with it and I think she will be very happy with it also....

 

So being I an done with this one I am moving on....I went looking for a batt piece big enough for my blue quilt I want to finish....

 

oh what  a mess....and of course none were the right size....I considered piecing the batts but it seems none were the same weight....so that was out...I opened another batt to relax...I really want to get that blue quilt done with so I can move on to more....I want to get as much done as possible before going back to the girls gfg quilts to quilt...that will take a lot of my time the size they are....

 

I have to make up my mind today what I am making for the quilt meeting tomorrow...its our annual Christmas dinner meeting....whatever I make I have to get the 'fixins' yet so cant wait much longer...plus I have some errands to do while out...and mother nature is 'smokin' again....lol...its really foggy again today...suppose to get really cold by this evening though...

 

ok I have a lot to do today so I better get going on it....look for more pics this week...I have a little teaser later....more later....

YESTERDAY, NOT WHAT I PLANNED! AND MORE HEXES?

Yesterday I finally put some effort into accomplishing something and had to have laundry soap so I went to $General to get it...then I thought ok I will pick up a chicken dinner at the store and I wont have to cook my supper....WELL, I got the soap and then on the way to the store I just kept on driving and found myself out in the country looking for fall colors....and ended up in a neighboring city with the idea of going to Walmart but I went by it too and ended up at a little fabric shop...I don't go there very often as they stock mostly primitive type fabric and some country....but I thought I could pick up some small yardages of florals I needed for my 'mini grandmothers flower garden' quilt....which I did!

 

Right about now you are thinking 'another flower garden quilt?'...well I had hexes from the 2 big ones I am making so I needed to do something with them... and I needed some hand sewing to do while sitting around...so I am making a smaller quilt with posies of 2 rows then the white , later I will add I hope applique floral borders...

 

and believe me it is going much faster than the full grandmothers flower garden quilts...only one problem I need a little more variety with this one...calico prints such as these are getting hard to find in favor of the brighter newer style fabric...

 

I did find a few fabrics that will blend ok in this quilt I think...

 

the yellow prints are the hardest to find....maybe I will have to have a swap with the quilt group to see if I can pick up some....

 

My plan yesterday was to wash up the fabric order I got this past week and some I had been putting off till I went on my little excursion...I hadn't done much else all week so I thought maybe that would get me back going again....so now today I will try it instead lol....In my order I got a couple blues for binding I thought would be good with that blue quilt I need to finish.....more later...

 

 

 

 

 

LOSS OF A FRIEND...

The past few days have been very depressing for me....I haven't been able to concentrate on much of anything....

My friend of 62 years has passed from years of health complications....she was getting worse but it is a true shock when it finally happened..

This week is also my death anniversary of my husband...all the memories of my friend and her family along with our memories have come flooding back to haunt me again...at the moment I am not feeling very well and I am sure it is from depression....

The quilt I have been working on is laying on top of the quilt frame ready for me to quilt the borders but I just haven't felt like doing it....hopefully this will pass soon but for now I will just have to deal with it....thank you for understanding....more later....

SNOWBALL QUILT IS LOOKING GOOD

The snowball quilt is coming along really well so far....I got it laid out Friday night...I had to take a lot of breaks because of my back...but I got to sit down to pin it which was a plus but toward the end the muscle spasms really kicked in but I kept at it....after they settled down I quilted for about 4 hours....Saturday and Sunday I quilted all day...so that was a total of 20 hours...Today I have quilted for 4 more hours ...taking a break for awhile....I took this picture a little bit ago.....

 

After spreading the quilt out I see I am about 2/3 the way finished with the center...you cant really see but there is an outline of a heart quilted in red in each of the white spaces...

 

I was going to use a leaf on the white border quilted in red but have decided it needed a heart something instead....so I am playing around with making a heart connected with ribbon along the  border all the way around....more on that later....

 

I think my daughter will be surprised at this quilt....this should fit into her 'primitive' décor that she likes....

 

My other daughter likes the other snowball quilt that I started last year and have 2 more rows vertically and horizontally to add....

 

she wants it and says she likes her sisters quilt but she wants navy blue on hers lol...I forgot just how big it is at the moment so I don't know yet if there will be a big border...this quilt doesn't have the reds the other one does and is showing greens and blues, softer colors....it makes each of the quilts quite different from each other....more about this one later.....

 

Today has to be laundry day...running out of clothes being I have been sewing so much....work beckons ugh!....more later...

SNOWBALL QUILT READY FOR BORDERS

Today my thoughts are back on the snowball quilt I am working on....the center is done and now deciding on borders, how many and what width....so far it looks like there will be a 2 inch inner red border and then finish off with the wider 4 inch outer ivory border like the snowballs....

I was trying to figure out what kind of design I was going use on the outer border which would have decided the width and gave up drawing one but while thumbing through old quilt mags I found a leaf that is just perfect....

I can quilt it end to end and with a little jump make it continuous which will be a big help and its a 1 needle one...not only that but it is the width of the block so no big problems spacing....still have to decide on the corner though....maybe a leaf diagonally placed....

I have pretty much decided on quilting in red this time....the back will be just a shade darker than the snowballs (couldn't get the same color for the back)....I guess you would have to say I will be doing red work quilting instead of embroidery lol.....it will show up on the back well too....there will be a red quilted heart in each of the snowballs too...and diagonal quilting on both sides where the corners met the snowballs...it will show up like an on point box around the hearts....

Earlier I thought about using 4 patches for one of the borders but most of the ones I have made are not all 4 different...

they are mostly co ordinated or done with white etc and just not right I don't think so back in the bag they will go for another quilt.....

I have finally made I think all the decisions for this quilt unless something goes wrong and I think it will make a great gift....I am liking it already and it might be hard to give it up when the time comes.....more later.....

UFO GETTING ATTENTION TODAY

Today while drinking my coffee still trying to wake up I decided to look at the back pictures in my camera file to see if I missed anything....sometimes I take a lot of pics to use with posts here and I miss one now and then....well I am not sure but I think I found one lol....

This a UFO I started couple years ago...all it is lacking is the rust border maybe about 5 inches or so then it will be ready for quilting....I started it because I wanted a different layout for the string blocks...I call it southwest stars....it reminds me of the colors you would find there....the background looks white but it is a very light gray...these colors you wouldn't normally find together but they somehow work just like the sunsets in the southwest....it will be bed size when finished....this is on the agenda to finish before the year is up....

I seem to have a fascination with star blocks....

I keep going back to a challenge that I participated in while back and made this topper....I like the colors and the design of the topper ....I wonder if a large quilt would look good with them.....or something similar ....maybe more later on this one...

Update on the snowball quilt....I did get it to the narrow border stage after getting the rows done but didn't take a picture yet....I have been trying to decide on just how big to make the borders or how many....that will be the story for later this week lol.....

One of the first things I have to do today is do up the dishes and straighten up the kitchen....when I work on a project in sewing the kitchen always suffers ...I just eat and pile dishes and go back to sewing....so now it judgment time lol plus I gotta cook something today so I can do both at the same time lol....geez its a new week again....time is flying....and so am I lol....more later....

MAKING SNOWBALLS BUT THERE IS NO SNOW

Yes I am making snowballs today but its raining not snowing lol....as I mentioned in previous posts I am making a snowball quilt as a Christmas present and will hand quilt it so its get down to business and get the top done so I can get on with the quilting....

 

The 9 patches have been done and I started on the snowballs earlier in the week and between last night and today I have them ready for putting together....in the picture is the quilt so far in various stages....I used 1075 -2 inch squares in this quilt so far....I just might use up all my little squares lol....I could even possibly have enough 4 patches to use as a border....more on this later....

 

When I leave my blog I will go back to the sewing machine and start putting this quilt in rows and maybe be ready for a border later today or tomorrow....

 

I put a few together to see what it is beginning to look like....the ivory 'snowballs' will be ok I think as she does not like things to look 'too new'...I worry about the squares looking a little too bright but will have to see after it is put together....

 

I made her this small quilt for display in her old cabinet while back and the colors were bright but the background was dull and she thought it was ok....

 

I got the batt out today to relax on the couch, no pun intended lol but I don't have anywhere else to stretch one out...I thought about  fixing some mounting  things in a double doorway but the batt might get ripped as people would move it to go through the doorway....so will let things be the way they are..that is all the info I have about this quilt so far but more to come later....

 

The prism quilt???? its on the sidelines till I get the snowball top done and in the quilting frame then I can work on it when I get tired of  snowballs lol....

 

So I need to find some lunch now and then get back to sewing...more later...

NEW TECHNOLOGY AND OLD SEWING MACHINES

I am all bummed out today....I wanted to start doing a lot of straight line machine quilting but I don't have a even feed foot for either machine...so I went looking for them....and I found that I cant get one for either of my sewing machines...now I did have doubts I would find one for this machine....its a Neechi...

I bought it in 1960 so it is ancient by todays standards lol...but my Husqvarna I bought in 1995 I thought would still be ok to find parts but I am finding not so....is it a fossil too??....I know technology has advanced with leaps and bounds the past 10 years I guess I haven't  lol.....but oh to start deciding which is the best machine to buy now is a challenge with all that they do....my Husqvarna does some lettering and fancy stitches but no embroidery....

I guess I will be looking for a new machine sometime in the future very soon.... but for now I have a snowball quilt I have to get done by Christmas so that comes first....then the winter months I will be working steadily on the girls grandmothers flower garden quilts hand quilting them...so it might be spring before it get around to looking seriously for a new machine...but I am keeping an open mind about all of them while I investigate.....

ok off to the machine....and quilt for the week end....more later....

FISH QUILT AND DESCRIPTION READY FOR CHRISTMAS

Here are pictures of my sons Fish Quilt I made for him this past 2 months and is hand quilted throughout....

I had gotten the fabric about 3 years ago...I found it on sale in one of the fabric catalogs...at the time I didn't know how I was going to make the quilt but at least I had the fabric...I particularly liked the collage fabric but I didn't have enough to do much else with it...in fact I just had enough to use as a border after I matched it...the ends had to be seamed to work.

 

I drew a fish to use as a stencil for the brown border and quilted it in navy blue...I put them in a line to look like a fish swimming....the ones at the top seem upside down but this is a directional quilt so if the quilt is upside down to my son when using it he can see the fish right side up....lol...I freehanded the cattails in the corners of the quilt....I think they should have been bigger now after looking at the quilt....

 

The back is still some of  the fabric I bought to go with the quilt at the same time....its an all over fish print...

 

I was going to use on the front somewhere but it seemed right for the back....the binding gave me some trouble...on the last side it kept twisting and causing ripples along the edge of the quilt so finally had to hand baste as I went along to get it to lay right........its the color of the narrow border around the panel in the center to tie it all together...the  batt seemed a little thick though it didn't say it was extra thick , it did turn out fine....I am glad this one is done and now 1 more to get done before Christmas....

 

I hope to keep up with the pictures lol....I just don't take the time to get the camera going....I could bombard you all with pictures if I took of all the  things I did in a day lol...but you would get tired of seeing them I am sure lol....but I will try to do better than I have.....more later