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

ANSWERING A COMMENT AND MORE INFO ON A QUILT

To answer a comment from the last post by Love of Quilts....at first I thought the border might be too bright too but after I remembered that am going to add a quilted heart of the block color in the center of each block I think that will make it better and also the border might not be that wide...I will play around with it some before deciding...thank you both sheri and love of quilts for your comments...I always like comments....

Sometimes I have a hard time deciding on a color for a border unless its very similar  or the fabric like the rest of the quilt....I don't seem to put a lot of contrasting borders on them....

I have to get the fish quilt done before October 3 for show and tell at the quilt meeting....maybe if I hustle I can have one of the small ones done too to show....but high on my list is PUT ALL THAT FABRIC AWAY!!!! .....more later

MORE QUILTS IN PROGRESS

The fall festival is over for another year....the weather was great, a little cool but ok.....the crowd was a little thinner I think and looking not buying unless it was food....that was the busy places...according to one vendor people just seemed to be out for a stroll lol....but then I kind of expected this as I hear every day on the tv that the economy is still not the best....

Here at home at this very moment I have 3 quilts started on the back corner of my table....I think all three will be at least  double bed size....you will see more of them as I work on them but I had to package them up to keep it all together...that becomes a problem sometimes as limited as I am for space...

 

I got my order Saturday with the border fabric I am going to use with the floating boxes quilt...that should make it twin size....

its another one of those conversation thingys that my family most likely will comment on....its kind of a fun quilt so why not put a fun border on it....it might go to the nursing home to brighten up someones life...more on that later.....

 

All those medium and pastel fabrics I had out when working on the sherbet colors quilt I decided to make another one only prism design....

years ago I made one with pastel prints where the colors are with white as a background....it went to my nephew's family and I liked it so well that it stuck in my mind and I said one day I would do another....the colors I had out seemed the right choice for this one instead of the prints....more on this later too....ok I am editing this...I was looking over the blog and found I had a picture on the right of the last prism quilt with the prints....so you can see what one looks like done....

 

Life is back to normal for me now lol....my brain is working overtime as usual so maybe I will come up with some goodies .....more later.....

HERE IS THE 'SHERBET' QUILT

Well here it is....the 'sherbet' quilt all finished with hand quilting....it too will go to the fall festival...not sure it will sell, the public is hard to figure for sales but at least my work will be out there to show...

 

While the pastel and medium color fabrics were out all over the sewing room I decided to make another pastel quilt larger baby size this time....4 different color triangles around a  light beige square....I made one of those only with plain white center and calico print triangles around the outside...as I recall the blocks were smaller and on point...but it made a beautiful baby quilt....my nephew got that one for his new one years ago...its pictured on the right with the caption 'Nicoles Quilt'...anyway I made 19 blocks which will be 4 1/4 inches square....not very big but the quilt will be very colorful as is this one I am showing today...

 

I am on the outside border of my sons fish quilt, may work on it later today some....right now I have so many things going its hard to keep track of them....I have got to get some order to things or I wont get much done just running here and there....

 

the weather has been so nice I feel I better be outside and enjoying it so I guess I will get a few groceries sometime to day....I really need some good ideas for meals lately I have been fed up with food lol...no time to sit and look for recipes so will have to wing it ....just roam the grocery store looking for something good.....more later....

A FEW MORE THINGS FINISHED THIS WEEK

Today feels like a fall day...and it wont be long till it is fall here in Illinois...and that means lots of sewing projects for Christmas....which right now my head is so full of quilty things that there are no ideas for anything else....

I have done a lot of sewing this last 3 months and I am not caught up yet....I finally got pictures taken and put in computer of things so I can post them for awhile till ya get tired of them lol

As some of you know I am participating in a fall festival with my gd later in the fall so have been making up some things....

 

couple of runners.....

 

 

At the moment I am trying to finish my sons 'fish' quilt top so I can sandwich it and start with the hand quilting....I have been talking about it for the past couple years or more and now finally getting started....I hope to finish by October for his birthday but if I don't there is always Christmas lol....or next year....I have learned not to make promises though the years....lol...

 

My new computer has taken a lot of my time lately trying to find things that are there but not where I would have liked them to be lol and today I had to load a couple more programs that didn't make it....first I had to look up the disk I knew was here....grrrr got mixed in with the empty cases....that took about 2 hrs to find....as you can tell I am not a very patient person lol....

 

Looking forward to Chicken salad sandwiches for supper tonight...I got hungry for them for some reason so thawed out chicken breasts, cooked them and will make it when I am done here...might save out one and use broth and have a 'dab' of chicken and noodles...

 

That seems to be all for today....not too gabby today but then I haven't been doing anything but sewing....I am sure there will be more later.......

 

 

HERE IS MY 2 GRANDMOTHERS FLOWER GARDEN QUILTS

Finally!!...i have had trouble trying to post this picture....here are my babies....these are my 2 Grandmothers Flower Garden quilts so far....the tops are done so the next step is to sandwich them and start hand quilting them....so it will probably be at least 6 months before they get done, maybe longer....they measure 74x92 inches and are all hand made and i didn't use any paper disks....as i dont like English paper piecing or any paper piecing for that matter lol

I am back on my laptop today...my new computer quit working....tech and i thought it was in the computer since he installed a new monitor and it still didn't work...but after he left....my mouse decided to die....so now i need to get a new one and hope that was the problem...to tired today to make the trip to get one....

I have been working in scraps most of last week and so far into today.....and this afternoon i worked on straightening up my work table....geez what a mess!!....i hope i can keep it cleaned off....FAT CHANCE!!...i did put some of the 'stuff' in bags sorted so that helped and maybe i wont be moving it around.....

Its been a long day so far and i need some food and i am tired, brain tired....hope you enjoy the gfg picture...the girls at the quilt meeting helped hold them up so pictures could be taken....they were a spectacular site seeing them both together.....so glad  i stuck with making them.....more later....