O-H . . . I-O! Score!

I suppose most who read this blog know that I am in Ohio and in these parts we root for our Ohio State Buckeyes. For those who are not in the know about Ohio State, one of our favorite things to do is spell out O-H-I-O. Yeah, that's odd, but here's what makes it fun - let's say we are in a crowd on game day. A fan can holler out O-H! and sure enough one or 50 or 200 people around will respond with I-O! Tailgaters at the ball games will hear this for hours from every direction.

I have been on vacation in places far, far away, and if I see a tourist wearing an OSU t-shirt or hat, I can say to him/her "O-H" and I will get an "I-O" right back. Buckeyes have a huge fan base, and they are everywhere.

Well, I did not begin typing this post with the idea that I would be offering up a lesson in Buckeye-fandom. I guess you all need to be educated, though, even if you might root for some other team. *wink*

The reason I am on a Buckeye kick is this fantastic fabric I bought yesterday at JoAnn Fabrics in Chillicothe.

I needed to find a backing for the baby quilt I made earlier this month out of Ohio State fabric. I want to get started quilting it, so a backing had to be located. I wandered around and considered many options, but when I saw this flannel plaid, I knew I'd found the perfect backing for the quilt. A baby quilt with a flannel back is exactly the right way to go with this. And this particular fabric is a very soft flannel, not like some that are quite stiff.

Not only is flannel perfect for a baby quilt, a couple of other factors indicate that my choice is spot on. First, the price was right - and got better at the cash register. The sign said it was $8.99/yard. It ended up being on sale and I got it for $5.39/yard. SCORE!! The second SCORE! was discovering that it is 54" wide, not the typical 42" - more yardage for less money! I was really happy. I took the entire bolt of 5.3 yards and paid a whopping $29. Now that is a big win for this Buckeye!

Here's how nicely it goes with my fabric and the quilt top. Seeing this work out so well makes me very eager to get to stitching.

I have cut the backing for the quilt. Next up is to get into the batting. I will likely piece some bits together. I will straight-line machine quilt it on my little Bernina. I think this yet to-be-born Buckeye is gonna have a pretty awesome quilt.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Erin's Diamonds - The Beginning of the End

As planned, albeit somewhat sooner than expected, I removed Erin's Diamond from the frame and unrolled it from the roller bar. Seeing the back makes me very happy - have a look:

The backing is pieced with three large sections of KF florals, two of which can be seen in these photographs. I am absolutely thrilled with how the diamond shapes show up on these backings. Successes are wonderful, aren't they?!?

Here is one tiny section fixed up in the hoop and ready for final quilting. I question how speedy I can be with such a small space; it will mean moving the hoop fairly often, I imagine.

Well, that's a trifling issue to fuss about, isn't it?

Hope you have a fantastic Tuesday!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Barnsgiving16

Back in June, on the hottest day of the year, my niece Abby got married on her parents' farm. The reception was held in their old and very picturesque barn which is over 100 years old. At some point on that hot, hot evening, some of the cousins hatched the idea of having Thanksgiving in the barn.

And so we did.

What a wonderful day it was, too. My sister and her husband did lots to the barn in preparation for the wedding, so they had just a day or so of work to get it cleaned up for a feast. The cousins who hatched the idea showed up on Wednesday to set the tables, decorate, arrange the lights - all that fixy sort of stuff.

Here are some pictures of our magical Thanksgiving Day feast. Enjoy!

The barn: Ohio, circa 1890.

The food; fantastic; potluck style; yummy stuff!

Special touches - butter molded in shape of a turkey.

Looking up to the loft (haymow).

Looking toward the front door; dessert table and drink table to left.

One of my favorite shots of the interior; lights, table; loft.

Looking down from the loft; left side.

Look down from loft to the right side.

The loft became the living room complete with all the outdoor furniture and area rugs.

We even had a television rigged up for football!

The very best part: the family, plus extended family and friends.

Our 2016 Thanksgiving was certainly a memorable one! I hope you had a special day of thanks, as well.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Major Development

Today I am thrilled to report some major developments on my quilting of Erin's Diamonds.

After quilting all day Friday - and I do mean, I practically DID quilt all day and have the sore fingers to show it - I rolled the quilt to the final section yesterday. And when I did, I discovered that I had way too much backing gapped away from the batting and top. When I put this quilt in the frame (many weeks ago) I was certain I had everything as taut as possible, but apparently the layers shifted a good bit. I couldn't quilt it that way; it would look terrible. It left me puzzled for most of Saturday. Finally last evening, I decided to remove the quilt from the frame and finish the last of the quilting in a lap hoop. The frame needed to be moved out of the way of the painting, so this seemed as good a time as any. (Click back through posts from the past month and follow the great painting saga at our house.)

The unrolled quilt looks pretty darn good, doesn't it?! I am so happy with the results. It gives me the encouragement I need to stay with it and get it finished.

This closer view shows off the diamonds so well. It's a sight to behold! And most of it's DONE!

Today's job will be to get a hoop out and load this in. Right now, the entire quilt is rolled onto one of the frame's roller bars and is laying across the kitchen table. I will get it all in order today, and maybe even take a few stitches.

In this last section that I quilted, I did something different. I left all the tails of the quilting threads loose to pick up and continue with after I had moved to the next section. Below is what the edge looked like before I took down the frame. Sorta' looks like a scraggly, bearded mess. I see that I have a couple of threaded needles there, too, waiting to be stitched. I have been a regular assembly line of productivity with this project, let me tell you!

I left these tails in the hope that I would be optimizing my time. I certainly quilted the last section more quickly by not having to bury the ends every time I reached the edge. For this final section, my threads are ready and just need to be quilted in.

Are you all are having a relaxing end to your Thanksgiving weekend? After our big Ohio State win over Michigan yesterday, today will be much calmer and quieter. Double overtime nearly did me in! I can only imagine the pandemonium in the 'Shoe. I am sure Columbus was celebrating all night!

Moving on, I promised to share pics of our Barnsgiving - which I will do tomorrow. I took a couple of days off from blogging, so my wrap-up of our Thanksgiving feast in the barn will be next.

I am linking to Slow Sunday Stitching. Kathy's post today is about some very old sewing notions that a friend of hers recently purchased in an online auction. It makes me think about all the old stuff in Grandma's sewing kit. I wrote about some of her treasures several years ago.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Happy Thanksgiving

From my quilting room to yours, I extend my warmest Thanksgiving greeting to one and all. While several readers reside outside the USA, I am still grateful for your encouragement and loyalty in following this humble little blog.

Feasting today finds me heading out to my sister and brother-in-law's barn. Yes, you read that right. We are having our feast in their refurbished barn. Back in June, their daughter Abby got married on their farm and they held the reception in the barn. And on that scorching hot evening, the idea of returning for Thanksgiving was hatched. I promise to share a few pictures of the event.

Blessings to one and all.

Guest Blog By Pam

Back in the spring, I posted here about the quilt that my friend Pam and her youth group made in an effort to raise money for an international mission effort supported by her church. You can click here to go back to read about it.

Well, Pam contacted me over the weekend to tell me that their quilt had at last been auctioned and they raised a whopping $1050 for their cause! Isn't that fantastic? Pam has agreed to fill you in on all the details, so here she is as today's guest writer. Take it away, Pam! :)

You may have read about the Zentangle quilt that I hosted for the Scarlet Thread Sewing Ministry at my church on this blog last April. Well, the auction was on Sunday night and the quilt went to the highest bidder for $1050.00! It was then GIFTED to our youth pastor and his wife. The money will be used for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering that is part of the international mission effort that our church supports.

This is a picture of the quilt. You may notice the red ribbon. One of the ladies entered it in a show in the category of group projects. The quilt received 2nd place!

The picture below was taken by a friend of mine at the mission auction. The quilt that I hosted did not make this photo, but you can see some of the other beauties that were auctioned off. There were also pillow cases, pillows, wall hangings, table runners and an apron created by the quilters and seamstresses from our sewing ministry. The total collected for the mission fund was over $9000.00.

The woman  in the picture above is the leader of our sewing ministry. She is the one who taught me to zentangle. I then taught the youth while we were on a retreat last February. I had cut squares of white fabric before the retreat.  The fabric contained a small percentage of spandex. ( a recommendation made to me for this project.) I outlined the shapes on the fabric.

Then I gathered lots of black artist pens, gave a few instructions, and let them create. I asked each person to add a Bible verse to their square. Some added just the address, while others wrote all or part of a verse. Many included their name or initials in their design.

The next step was to cut the colored squares for each  block and create kits for the Scarlet Thread Sewing Ministry to assemble. The ladies made the blocks at the March gathering. I sewed the blocks together, made a label, assembled the back, and took it to my friend, Pat,  for quilting. When I got it back, I attached the binding. Then one of the ladies from the sewing ministry volunteered to hand sew the binding. ( I really do not like to do hand sewing.)

This quilt was certainly a group effort and multi-generational, too! I hope that after reading this you have a better understanding of what it means to “host” a quilt. I am already planning for next year!

Note: The block that I used for this had been “taught” at one of our monthly meetings of the Scarlet Thread Sewing Ministry. We call it an exploding block. I am sure that it has other names. I like the diamond that occurs when the blocks are sewn together.

Thanks, Pam! Great post! You and your youth group are to be commended for such an awesome project as well as for the amazing donation it brought. What an accomplishment! Think about all the various lessons involved in this effort that those young people have learned. They certainly gained a lot, too.

Do you suppose a budding quilter might emerge from this experience??

Happy Quilting, Friends!

One Day - Two Finishes

It is a rare day for sure when I can boast not one, but two finishes.

After taking the last of the commissions to Terry's, I headed straight for two quilts I'd kept waiting in the wings for binding. I have had these quilts since late July, and showed them off in this post soon thereafter.

I started applying the binding to 16-Patch Stars on Friday evening, but got interrupted and didn't get back to it until yesterday, when Sharon was here for sewing. Before lunch, I managed to complete the binding on it. Yay!

It has been chilly here, but I took it out to the front yard anyway for a photo-op. The sun was shining, but the temps were shivery.

After lunch, I decided that I would finish off the binding on Eventide. Yes, I did!

Two quilts bound in one day. I feel so good about these finishes, let me tell you! I was enjoying the sunny late afternoon despite the chill, so I snapped some shots of the two quilts together. I am afraid that these two quilts are destined to be forever linked to one another - in my mind, at least - because of their finishes.

What a great way to start the week! Hope I can accomplish lots more, too.

I am linking up with Connie over at Freemotion by the River - click on over to see what other quilters are making.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Many Updates

It seems as though I have many topics that have been needing updates, so I will combine them all into one conglomeration of updates today.

First, our downstairs remodel is moving right along. DH has finished the hardest areas - the spaces with both crown molding and chair rails. Those detail-laden aspects of the dining room, front room and entry hall really took a lot of time. Here are a couple of pics of our front room slowly being put back together.

The wall that the sofa will sit on has yet to have its wall decorations put up, but it does give a good view of the Agreeable Gray wall color along with the Pure White trim.

A corner of the opposite wall has our antique secretary and a leather chair put in place. A few accessories have been added, too.

Now the work has moved into the family room area, and we are really feeling the pinch, as this is where we live. Traffic through this space is heavy, and we are tripping over ourselves and each other as we navigate the painting. It doesn't help that I still have the quilting frame up, which takes up a huge amount of space.

Speaking of the quilt frame, this I can also update. I am working my way down the rows you see above; I suppose I am about 1/3 across this section. I find that I am going to be running out of my thread, and my local quilt shop has discontinued it. I need Sullivan 5 pearl cotton in Lt. Christmas Red (#35398), if anyone in the central Ohio area has any leads for me.

At quilting on Friday with the Frankfort girls, I continued to quilt the throw that I began October 1st at History Day. It is nearing completion. Since History Day, the only time I've worked on this is at our bi-weekly get togethers.

And finally, I have finished the last of the commissions and have delivered it to Terry for quilting. After quilting, I will have just the binding to finish off and then delivery. In this new-found sewing freedom, I have rewarded myself by working on binding a quilt Terry finished for me months ago. As a reward for finishing the commissions, I held this back. I can't wait to show you the finished quilt.

Hope you all are having a great weekend! I am linking this post to Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching linky party. Go on over and have a look!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Frankfort Girls Update

Yesterday was a glorious day for getting out and visiting with friends. We met at Terry's for quilting yesterday morning and enjoyed 70-degree temperatures, sunny skies and warm breezes.

Today, we have howling winds and temps in the 30s. Brrrr. What a chill-down!

So let's warm ourselves with these wonderful quilty creations. What variety in today's offerings!

We will start with Sharon O. who makes the most gorgeous table toppers, table runners, little quilts of all sizes. This pretty Christmas table topper was having its border attached, and is ready now for the holidays.

Sheryll, too, was prepping for Christmas. At our last get together, she showed us the two little quilts she'd made. She is now adding the embroidery to the white sections, and it really adds a lot of interest. The meticulous nature of the embroidery alongside the simple construction of the block works well.

Terry  had two quilts to share, both in the binding stage. You saw this cute car-themed quilt about a month or so back - the quilt using all the license plate blocks she'd collected. This finished up so cute.

The top picture is the entire front, and the lower picture shows what the backing looks like. What an adorable quilt.

While we visited yesterday, Terry worked on binding this Minnie Mouse quilt she is making for her granddaughter.

Jan came prepared to organize units for a quilt made with weathervane blocks. She'd prepped some of the units, and spent the morning laying out the blocks for easy chain piecing when she gets back to her machine. This is going to be a very pretty quilt. This is one blocks I have always wanted to make, and even have fabric and a pattern set aside to do in the coming year.

I will show you my own work in tomorrow's post. It's not like it isn't something you haven't already seen! Ha!

Happy Quilting, Friends!