A Day of Sewing

Don't you just love having a day with nothing on the agenda besides sewing? That's the day I've had and it was great!

Sharon was here with me as it's our Monday sewing day. She had some fun stuff to work on - really yummy, mouth-watering stuff. Honest!

Three Sisters' Roman Holiday.

Need I say more?










She began a new project today meaning that she was mostly cutting. What wonderful fabric. Have I mentioned that this is my favorite fabric of all time?

So, I worked on the kit I cut a couple of weeks ago with the French General fabric.




There was much chain stitching, pressing, and more chain stitching.



I finally got all 42 blocks finished. Just because I wanted to see the "look" I laid them out on the floor. I will do much shuffling before I begin sewing rows together, but this gives me a hint of how it will look. I think it has a playful look to it - those polka dots and stripes make it fun.

My Bernina is still in the fixit shop, and now, so is my laptop. Doing this post from my iPad is different. I am not overly fond of typing on the iPad screen, but I've not blogged in several days, and just knew you all were dying to know what I've been doing. (Yeah, right! lol!)

I have several pressing items I must address and get off my to-do list! I should make them my priorities for the week.

Well, peeps, that's all for now. I have some fun things planned with some of the quilting friends, so stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Finish for Sharon!

An 8-year UFO, or thereabouts, has been completed! Work on the Tumbling Blocks king size quilt top has finally ended. Sharon even put the borders on! This is one incredible quilt. The size as well as the pattern make it truly unique.

 

It is HUGE! Even for a king size quilt, it is huge. This big guy measures out at 104" x 144". I think that is long enough for 2 beds! It weighs a ton, too. It has left us both wondering if the store clerk calculated something wrong, you know?

In this picture, it is folded in 4ths, length-wise, and we have to take it down the hallway in order to have enough space to lay it out flat. (It's wrong side out, by the way.)

Why would a quilt need to be so big? This is definitely puzzling me.

Well, whatever, the entire quilt top is pieced and the borders are attached. I don't know what plans are being made for having it quilted.

The quilt was originally Amanda's project - Sharon's daughter. But she is so busy with her job and raising her family, that Sharon took on the task of getting it finished. 

While Sharon was over on Monday, we also took a look at the backing fabrics she bought at the recent sale at Ben Franklin. These are totally scrumptious!

These 7 fabrics will be wonderful backs. I believe Sharon has tops made for all of these, with the exception of the deep green floral in the first picture. This fabric was just too appealing to pass on, so Sharon grabbed it up. She did quite well with her shopping, as this was a Super Bowl Sunday sale, and fabrics were 30% off. Nice, huh??!!

I continue to work on my Le Petite Ecole kit from Bits 'N Pieces. It is fun to work on, but I just seem to be so busy, my time for sewing is limited. I hope to correct that over the next few days, if I can.

I have 22 blocks completed, and have about that many more in the queue.

 The work is ready for me, whenever I find the time!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Visit to LQS

A recent visit to my local quilt shop (LQS) was quite fun, and I didn't spend a dime, either. After quilting with the Frankfort girls last Friday, Sheryll and I went to Old Town Fabric Shop to look for fabrics she could use in a snowball quilt she had planned. I wrote about that project here.

My intention was to take my birthday gift certificate with me and splurge on some pretty stuff, but I left the certificate hanging on the front of my fridge, doggonit! Plan B: look and look and shop and shop. If I happened to find a fabric I was crazy about, I would think on it over the weekend, and go back with my certificate and get it another day. And I did find a fabric that met the criteria. It's red with white flowers; I haven't gone back in to get it, but I have thought about it all week and I do think I will. I really want it.

So, while visiting with the ladies at the shop, I got to take a sneak peek at a beautiful quilt they are getting ready to display. I got permission to take pictures. You'll be upset with me for not having details on the pattern.

 

Simple half-square triangles - broken dishes blocks, perhaps? I think the fabrics are all recent lines by Barbara Brackman. I wish I had attempted to take a full-quilt shot, but I didn't want to trouble the gals. It is quite large, and will be absolutely stunning when it is quilted and displayed. I must remember to get a picture. I am sure this quilt has a name, and a pattern, but that too will have to come later, as I didn't write it down. Counting on me to remember it is a big mistake.

I tell you, my list for 2013 is long enough! But when I see gorgeousness like this, it tempts me to add another item to that list. I have quite a lot of Brackman fabrics, so I think I could replicate this rather handily. And just think of the stash-busting that would occur!

I'm talking myself into it, aren't I? *grin*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sewing Times Two!

I had the pleasure of sewing twice this week with friends. On Tuesday, Terry came over for some stitching and visiting. She worked on some blocks for her Farmer's Wife quilt. She has quite a few of these blocks finished - over 80, as I recall. This makes me want to get back to working on mine. I don't even have it on the to-do list for 2013. Sad.

Then on Wednesday, Sharon came for our weekly sewing. She was very excited to get the final two quarter-sections finished and attached, making a half.

This is the bottom part of the half that Sharon completed. Below is the other part. It is a l-o-n-g quilt! It is king-size, obviously. It will weigh a ton!

 

I have been working on the kit from Bits 'N Pieces using the Le Petite Ecole fabric from French General. It goes together very fast, and I am eager to keep working on it.

And, finally, I can show you Flynn's baby quilt. I have the binding attached and have been turning it today. I should be able to have it done sometime tomorrow. I would have finished it today, but I got so drowsy while I was working on it that I had to change activities to shake those drowsies.

DH and I went to the funeral home this evening for Alexis. What a crowd! I knew that she and her parents had touched many lives, but I was really surprised by the length of the line of well-wishers for the calling hours. Tomorrow is the funeral; it too, will be a full house. For being just 22 years old, this young woman impacted the lives of so many people. I am so blessed to have known her. And I really wish that someone would cure cancer. It has taken the life of too many people, both young and old.


Happy Quilting, Friends!

Binding and Valentines

I currently have two quilts that are almost done. I just need to tack down the binding on both of them.

Here is the quilt I'm giving to Mom. It's quite large, and when you are stitching around these big quilts by hand they just seem bigger! I am over halfway around, I think.

I try to work on it in the evenings when we are watching television. I also took it with me to quilting on Friday morning when we Frankfort girls met. I got a lot done there.

Another quilt I am binding is the baby quilt for Flynn, Sharon P.'s grandson. It was this project that I had on the machine when my feed dogs quit working on my Bernina. That may have been over 3 weeks ago, now! Anyway, since I've got a loaner machine to use, I stitched the binding on last evening, and now have it ready to stitch, too. I can't recall the last time I had 2 quilts at this point of completion at the same time. I will get a picture of Flynn's quilt soon.

And because Valentine's Day is coming up, I wanted to share with you a cool little treat I found on Pinterest and tried last week. It's fun! And yummy!

Spread rows of waffle pretzels on a cookie sheet. Place a Hershey Hug Kiss on each pretzel. Warm in oven until the chocolate is melty enough to press a Valentine's M&M onto the top. Gotta' watch them closely or they will melt too much.

Aren't they pretty? They are fun, but melting that Hershey Hug is tricky. I want to make some more today.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Abundance Is Pieced

Every year, Lori at Humble Quilts blog does a doll quilt-along with her followers. I have made Cheddar and Crackers, Starry Night, and Pink Lemonade with her. All those are still just quilt tops; I think I need to make quilting them a priority.

Now to join those 3, I have Abundance. It is 12.5 inches square, and was a fun quilt to make. It uses lot - I mean LOTS - of scraps, so that is how I approached this. I tried to keep the idea of pioneer mothers "making do" for little projects like this.

If I were to remake any  part of this, I would choose a different pink that forms the flying geese units on the brown geese.It is too dark, in my opinion. All the rest of the fabrics are quite pleasing to me. But, I'm not changing it; it will stay as is.

If you'd like to see more Abundance doll quilts, check out this link to Humble Quilts. There are dozens of them shown there made by people just like me who followed along with Lori's quilt-along.

What did I sew with, you ask? Miss Bernina was sent away to be fixed, so I have a loaner machine from Old Town Fabrics, and it works quite well!

 

Bernina 350, gently used, was traded in for a fancier, bigger model, I'm told. She is doing wonders for me.

Well, I'm going to get some sewing done today and I will tell you all about it in my next post.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Into Each Life...

...some sadness must fall. And sadness has certainly found its way to me. Early Sunday morning, my young friend and former student, Alexis, died. At age 22, she had fought a long, tough year against cancer.

You may recall the flannel quilt that Sharon and I made for her last February and March. This is the flimsy; I don't seem to be able to find a picture of it quilted. Anyway, we gave it to her to keep her warm through her chemo treatments and to cuddle in when she felt the blahs.

As I look back at this post, I realize that it is just a year to the day since she had her cancer surgery. There was much hope after that surgery that all cancer was removed, but by the end of summer, suspicious things began appearing on the scans, and her cancer had spread. This past year has been one of many ups and downs for her and her family, with the end coming peacefully in the early morning hours Feb. 10. 

The cancer she had was epithelial sarcoma; it was a tumor on the back of her neck, just under her left ear, as I recall. Her parents were so good to remain upbeat and optimistic throughout this ordeal. Her mother sent out (mostly) weekly 'Alexis Updates' in a mass email to friends and family. They are an amazing family. And now they've lost their sweet daughter, and I cannot imagine the grief.

Here is the obituary from the Chillicothe Gazette. I'm sure her family would appreciate a little prayer, if you are so inclined.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Quilting with the Girls

Yesterday the Frankfort girls met at JoAnn's, who no longer lives in Frankfort, but has moved to Chillicothe. Nevertheless, we are still going to be referred to as the Frankfort girls, just because that's the way my simple brain operates.

Can you believe that not a single one of us had a show and tell item??? This is unheard of! That's a good thing, I guess, because I forgot to take my camera with me. But since I had my phone, that's no big deal -- we always have a camera these days, you know?

No show and tell, but there was a fun project that Sheryll shared with us. She came into possession of a big box of men's shirts. A niece's husband's grampa had passed away. Someone asked if Sheryll could make a quilt out of his shirts. Here is a picture representative of the shirts.

Rather nondescript, aren't they? This picture actually shows the most color in the entire bag of shirts. Most are tan, gray, brown - very monochromatic and dull.

Sheryll had picked out a pattern that she wanted to use from a Kim Diehl book.

Looks like a great choice to me! As we discussed ways of adding color into this quilt, given the shirts she had to work with, we came up with changing the triangles on the snowball block. Instead of using a neutral, use color.

So after we adjourned, Sheryll and I took a little field trip to Old Town Fabrics to find suitable fabrics for this quilt. Here is what Sheryll ended up buying. I think she nailed this! It is going to look spectacular!

The stripe fabric will be used as the border, while the two prints will be used as the triangle blocks, which when placed together in the quilt will become red and blue hourglass blocks. Very nice! I cannot wait to see how this turns out.

Is anyone else experiencing trouble with blogger this morning? It's as if demons have taken up residence inside the program and they are causing things to jump around - messing up margins, moving my cursor, etc. Very odd.

Well, since the program is throwing fits, I will just leave it at this for today. I do have some more things to share, but that will just have to wait until tomorrow! Like the loaner machine I have while mine is in the shop, for example. That's pretty exciting, right?

Oh, by the way, I did fix the previous post done from my iPad; I just knew that was not working right. ;-)

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Interruptions

I doubt I get much sewing done today, as the card club girls will be here tonight. So I have some cooking and cleaning to do today.

I found this appropriate definition on Pinterest, and thought I'd save it for a day like today.

The pic above was also taken from Pinterest. It is sorta' my inspiration for some future yellow and gray (or navy or black) quilt. I have it listed on the 2013 goals list. I find lots of inspiration on Pinterest. DH calls it "pinspiration." :)

Actually, two of the recipes I am making today came from Pinterest.  I will take pics and let you know how they turn out.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

PS--This was done from my iPad ; I'm sure it looks different; sorry. I will get back to the laptop tomorrow. :)

Mom's Gotta Brag

Allow me a moment to introduce you to my son, the author.

Yep. You heard that right. Adam has written and published a book, and I am just as proud as can be! I hope you won't mind terribly if I take a post to share the good news.

This is my handsome, smart and witty son. He's worked on this book for about 3 years, and it (hopefully) will be the first of a planned trilogy.

It is so cool to actually hold this book in my hands and see his name on the cover. It is available through Amazon, and can be downloaded for the Kindle for a mere $1.99.

For those who don't have a Kindle, a hard copy can also be had for around $16 including shipping costs.

Because he self-published through Amazon, he's been back through the book a few dozen times and has found typos, which absolutely drives him crazy. But he did this without a trained editor! For goodness' sake!  I helped, but I am no pro. He gets hung up on that though, and I understand.

Anyway, I just had to brag and share this exciting accomplishment.

I will be back tomorrow with more quilty-related stuff.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Happy Accidents

I've stored up a lot of memories from my years as a high school English teacher. One popped into my head just as I wrote that title - Happy Accidents. A literary term, oxymoron, is defined as an expression that joins two opposite things to make a point. To make it easy for students to understand, I would use "happy accident" and 'jumbo shrimp" as examples. There is an entire soliloquy of these in Romeo and Juliet that with the deeper application, is called paradox, yet another literary term.

But we aren't here to re-live my years as an English teacher. We are here to talk all things quilt-related. And that takes me to my happy accident.

Yesterday while Sharon was here to sew, I was cutting out a project (machine is still in the shop). And you know how conversations go, weaving from one subject to another with no particular direction in mind. Just conversing the way friends do. Well somewhere along the line, something led me to pull out a Thimbleberries book, which led to Sharon saying that this one particular quilt is one she has always planned to make. That led me to taking a closer look and considering it for one of the unnamed quilts on my 2013 goals list, which led me to go to the closet to drag out the tub with the yellow-blue-gray fabrics I'd pulled. (Are you with me??)

 In that tub was this fat quarter bundle from a couple of years ago. It's all blues from Jo Morton and Andover Fabrics.

Get ready for the happy accident here...As I turned the bundle over and studied all the pieces, look at what jumped out at me!!

This is the fabric I was desperate for late last year. Click here to read all about it. It is technically black, but it has such an interesting hue to it that it works just fine in that navy/indigo blue FQ pack.

I was elated!! *happy dance*

(Happy dances are much easier to do now that my sciatic pain is 95% eliminated.) *more happy dancing*

With this FQ pack and a yard of a really pretty yellow, I think I might have a quilt decision made. And with this "happy accident" I now can more easily look for additional yardage of this wonderful black.

I just had a call from Kelly at the quilt shop who has been trying to fix my Bernina. It looks like my old girl is going to have to take a little trip to the factory. The feed dog troubles are a bit more involved than Kelly has been trained for (my machine is quite old; Kelly's training has been on the newer models.)

I am going to get a lot of projects cut out for the eventual return of Miss Bernina, aren't I?

Hmmm...Could this, then, be another Happy Accident??

Happy Quilting, Friends!