Quilter in the Pines

Quilting Gallery

2012-01-27T06:32:00.001-06:00

I entered a quilt I made for a customer in the weekly contest at Quilting Gallery. The pattern was for four separate quilts, but she wanted it all in one. You can read about the making of the quilt starting here.

I have the backing and binding fabric and batting for the memory quilt. I decided to wash the flannel before using it. So when that’s done, I can layer it and start quilting.

I better get my sewing cabinet cleaned off so I can sew!

FMQ

2012-01-25T21:08:00.001-06:00

This was one of those days when the clock went much faster than I did. I intended to finish up on the tax stuff, put away the Nativity Scene and angels, then get onto Leah’s lesson for this week.

First I got sidetracked by my Avon website, something wasn’t working as it should, and tech support couldn’t fix it either.

When Mike got home from work, we figured out how to anchor my sewing cabinet to keep it from moving. When my dad made it for me it went into a corner, but now that it’s in the center of the room, not up against the walls, it wouldn’t stay put. It won’t move any more!!

Right before that, I dug out a small quilt top I’d done months ago. I found some flannel for backing, I think it will work for a baby quilt. I decided to use it for practicing FMQ, I just hate to practice on a nothing block. I listened to Leah again and did the stitch-in-the-ditch. Wow! It worked! I placed my hands like she suggested—I had so much more control!

I outlined the flowers in the center.

Then I did some of the leaves.

This is the backside of the quilt.

Then it was time for supper. Looking back, I can’t imagine how I accomplished so little today—where did the time go?? I was busy all day, really I was…

Embroidery machine

2012-01-25T20:37:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of my first attempt at machine embroidery.

I had it set up for the heart, then I checked on something, and went back to do the heart, only I forgot to choose it. The Santa was the first one, and that’s what started. When I finished it, I moved onto the heart, but I didn’t move over as far as I should have. But I think there’s enough space in between to be able to use both of them.

This shows the three different sizes of the alphabets. I had thought there were three different alphabets, but when I went to do this sample, I could only find block and script. Other than doing the name for the memory quilt, I haven’t done any more playing. I’m going to have to do something little-girlish…

A quilt top done

2012-01-25T18:19:00.001-06:00

I finished piecing the memory quilt top yesterday.

This is the top half on my design wall. It turned out to be about 84” x 100”. It’s from a few t-shirts, a few woven shirts, lots of camo hunting clothes. The bottom border is the same as the top, 8” wide, it was like a pillow case, but with a drawstring. It was the perfect size for these borders, I only had about 2-3” left over—I like that! The side borders are about 4” and from a khaki denim pants. It was pretty much of a jigsaw puzzle to put together, and I’m very glad I had EQ to work with. There are a few 14” squares, some 12”, and the rest was just what I could get. I started a Custom Set layout in EQ and make blocks the size I cut the clothing. That gave me an idea of what size I would end up with. Then I just started putting the blocks up on the wall. Then I’d go to EQ and see what I needed to fill in. EQ made it much easier to work with. I didn’t intend to make it 100”, but I didn’t realize how big the T/B borders would end up to be—I could have left out some of the fillers I used.

My customer wanted her son’s name embroidered on it. And now with Cari’s embroidery machine here, I could do that. I didn’t have that done when I took this pic, I’ll take a pic of that when I have it quilted and bound.

Disappearing 9-patch

2012-01-20T10:50:00.001-06:00

This is the quilt top I pieced for a customer…

from leftovers from this quilt:

This one is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Charm. This one is made from 5” squares, the one I made earlier is with 8” squares.

I haven’t done much sewing this week. I worked on income tax junk. I hate that! But I have almost everything done, just waiting on 2 things.

Today I will be picking up a tote-full of clothing for a memory quilt. Once I see what all is there I can let her know how big a quilt can be made.

And best of all—I get to pick up a new toy to play with. Cari inherited a Janome Memory Craft 9000, an embroidery machine. Since she’s still going to school along with working, and having a home, a husband, and a one-year-old, she’s kinda busy. Being the good mother that I am, I very graciously offered to sacrifice my time to try it out for her. Wasn’t that nice of me??? I’m really excited about this. Yesterday I joined 2 yahoo groups for the machine, I know I’ll need help with it.

I haven’t done much on the FMQ Challenge this week either, other than read. I once again set up my HandiQuilter on my sewing table, wide enough to do full width of fabric. The table is too wide (front to back) to use comfortably. Some modifications need to be made, like some handle-type thing. I’ve saved lots of info and pictures of how to do this, just need to get Mike going on it. I had some problems with the leaders. I thought I had them on straight, but when rolling the quilt, it was wonky. Considering all, I think I did pretty good. It’s about the second time I tried to do any quilting with it. I’m pleased with the results. The worst problem I had was with the leaders.

This is where I started: The wrinkles are from having it folded after I took it off the frame.

This is where I ended:

There are a few little puckers, or more like fabric not smoothed out.

Even though I was using a frame, I did try to follow the tips from Leah. I didn’t try any leaves, I wanted it to be all the same so that I can use it for a baby quilt.

Now I remember what I last sewed. Monday I finished up three more aprons for someone. They were the same as the ones I did here. Two were with one color of bias tape, so I did them first. 6 hours it took me to do them. I had such problems with the tension on my Sapphire 850. I had to finally put the tension all the way up to 9 to get it half decent on the bobbin side. It was so frustrating!! When I finished those and started on the third with different thread, I switched to my mom’s second-from-the-bottom Janome, which is older than my S850. All I did was put in the correct color of thread and sew. I was done in less than and hour and a half. Wish I had thought of that machine earlier. These samples show the difference between the two machines.

The Janome is on the right, the S850 is on the left. Top is needle thread, bottom is bobbin thread. I did get it looking better on the aprons than it does in this sample.

I love my Sapphire, don’t try to take it away from me!! But I sure do have tension problems!

Winter finally arrive this week, we had a low of –19.3 C. There are flakes floating down now, but the sun is almost out.

Well, it’s almost time to get ready to leave. Hope you’re all having a great day!

Free Motion Quilting

2012-01-11T19:51:00.001-06:00

Last Wednesday I dug out some practice squares from a free motion quilting class I took a long time ago. My intent was to make a quilt out of them. Well, that never happened, and I’d dig them out once in awhile. I only have 11 in the bag, so I don’t know how I figured to make a quilt out of that number—did one get lost or walk away??

I tried both lessons, Frances Moore’s and Leah Day’s. The straight lines in this piece is from old stitching, I put my leaves and wiggles on top.

The first stitching I did was the green thread, the orange is the second time. I tried feathers (above), echoing and just new wiggles (below).

This is the whole piece and the backside

Looking at these, it’s hard to believe I’ve ever free motioned before!!

I did some more today, this I’m more satisfied with.

I started with Leah’s lesson for today (the dark thread is the old work). Then I tried the leaves again. I’m happier with these.

There is some room for improvement…what an understatement!!

I know I need to use a new quilt sandwich, trying to work around old work isn’t working. Maybe I should put something together for potholders or something, a set of placemats. Even a baby quilt. But I need to get in some more practice before tackling a baby quilt though.

I definitely need more practice, practice, practice!

Scrap Bag block

2012-01-10T20:43:00.001-06:00

This is the latest block in the Eleanor Burns Treasure Chest Sampler. Of course, I opened up my EQ7 project file on the challenge and proceeded to draw up this block. Oh my. It’s obviously a 5-patch, BUT not an even 5-patch. I tried drawing it up with the measurements in the cutting instructions. The center square is cut to 3.5”, but the 9-patches are squared up to 3.75”. The strips for the 9-patches and Rail Fence blocks are cut at 1 5/8”. Three of those sewed together will be 3 7/8”, so the 9-patches need to be trimmed to 3.75”. I just realized that there is no instruction to trim the Rail Fence to 3.75, the strip set is cut into 3.5” segments, and they need to be 3.75” x 3.5”.
Anyway, when I first downloaded the pdf and tried to draw it up, I ran into problems right away. I emailed the info-eq list and asked if anyone else was doing the Challenge. I didn’t know if it was something simple that I was doing wrong, or what. There has been A LOT of discussion on this block in the last week or so, lots of suggestions brought up.
Being as stubborn as I am, I refused to do it as a true 5-patch, because that is not what the instructions are telling me to do. I sat down this afternoon and tried again to draw it up. It’s been rolling around in my mind for days now, and keeping all the suggestions in mind this is what I came up with.
First of all, I set my drawing board to a 16” finished block, which is what the sampler blocks finish at. Then I drew a 2x2 grid, and converted those to guides. That center square finishes at 3”, so I drew lines 1.5” from each side of those center guide lines, both horizontally and vertically. That gave me four corner squares. I drew a 2x2 grid in each of those squares. Then made the HSTs. Add a 3x3 grid for the 9-patches. Then the Rail Fence blocks.

After each step, I checked the rotary cutting guide to make sure the sections were all the same size. When I finished the drawing, I checked and I found that the cutting size for the 9-patches was 1 9/16—oh! But then on second thought—1/2=8/16, 5/8=10/16, so this is right between. Not a weird measurement at all. I could easily get that:
So that’s how I cut the strips for the 9-patches and Rail Fence blocks. And it came out perfectly at 3.75”, no need to square up. I continued on with the rest of the pieces and sewed it all together.
I first learned to quilt by watching “Quilt in a Day” when a new tower was put up in our area, for a PBS station, many years ago. I decided then that Eleanor Burns’ way of quilting was the way to go, and I would only make quilts I could make her way. Well, that resolution bit the dust long ago, but I do use her methods whenever I can. Many times I will change a pattern I’m working on so I can use her methods.
I’ve been working on the FMQ Challenge, but I’ll post about that later. I hate to think how horrible it would look if I’d never done it before…

Free Motion Quilting

2012-01-02T19:43:00.001-06:00

I am determined to improve my FMQ skills this year. So many times as I’m sewing, I make up my mind to try some of the designs I’ve seen in various places on the internet, only to decide I “don’t have time” to do the FMQ. So out comes the walking foot, and I do my usual quilting.

When I made the tablerunner last week, I used the walking foot. When I put it on the desk, I was sorry I hadn’t done meandering or something in setting triangles.I just may at some time redo it.

I was just catching up on the blogs in my Google Reader. I listened to Leah Day’s video on what she has in store for this coming year. I’m excited to jump in and try it! I’m going to try very hard to play along on Wednesdays, no matter what else I may have that I “should” be doing. The only way to improve is to practice—and it’s time to start practicing!

I had a very frustrating day today, working on something I wanted very much to take down and through in the furnace when I fired up. But since it’s not mine, and I don’t want to waste money replacing the fabric, I will finish the nightmare!!! I don’t even want to think about it.

Another goal for this year is to start using the HandiQuilter I bought almost three years ago. I believe it’s the original one. I had it set up two or three times. The lady I bought it from had the track screwed to a 2x4 framework. We bought some folding table legs for it, putzed with til it sat level. But it was 10’, and took up so much room. I had hopes of being able to have it in my sewing room, but the room is just too small. We need to figure out something so that I can use it at a smaller size—I don’t need it set at 10’ all the time, I could be using it for many quilts that are smaller. The times I did try it, it was so much fun!

Now, to see how I do with the Quilt Along Wednesday…

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T20:59:00.001-06:00

Just a quick note to wish everyone a Happy New Year. We had Christmas with our kids today. Well, some of them anyway, two were working, and I’m not sure why the other one didn’t come. The three littlest grandkids were here, Mason almost 5, Kaylee a little over 1 1/2, and Elizabeth just over a year. There were only a few tears, and a couple of screams. Of course, somebody else’s toy was better than your own, and the empty boxes were loads of fun.

Most years we draw names to exchange gifts, but for one reason or another, this year that didn’t happen. Yesterday morning I decided I couldn’t not give any gifts. So I made an ornament for Cari and Amanda. I started with the Styrofoam ball covered with Prairie Points (tiny PPs). That was a little too putzy for me when time wasn’t on my side. So then I made some Poinsettia ornaments, I followed the directions here. Be sure to check all of the tutorials, they are good. I didn’t make mine exactly like hers, mine are just one sided, without a doily.

They can also be worn a wristlet—just ask Kaylee.

After I finished those, I decided I had time to make a couple of oven mitts. I noticed Cari’s are looking kinda grubby, and Amanda’s are older. I decided that the part that grabs the hot whatever should have an extra layer of batting. I know I have InsulBright somewhere, but couldn’t locate it, so I used 100% cotton batting. What I had felt thin so I used 2 layers for the front and back, and 3 layers for the grabbing part. I didn’t get them done yesterday, so I worked on them this morning. My machine let me know that it wasn’t happy with all that batting—there ended up to be LOTS of layers in two sections. I gave up and had to hand stitch the binding down, the last two I finished AFTER the gift was opened. And I forgot to take a picture of them. I imagine this description makes absolutely no sense without pictures to show what I mean. I’ll have to make a couple for Brittany who wasn’t able to be with us today, and I certainly could use some new ones. I’ll have to work on that extra later part, to keep it out of the edges. It’s so easy to just quilt up a rectangle, and then cut the shapes. Back to the drawing board on that.

Friday I had finished the doll dress to match Elizabeth’s Christmas dress. And I made an angel ornament, like the one I made Cari to match her first Christmas dress. I’d like to know how I made Cari’s 27 years ago—I had a heck of a time figuring out how to do this one. Cari’s is still very stiff. I mixed up a very heavy starch and saturated the pleated fabric. The next day after it dried, it was soft. I then fused Timetex/Peltex/??, and then it was stiff. I wonder where I got the idea—how did I do it?? I now look back on things I did years ago, and wonder how I did it. I couldn’t find the little wooden doll face beads at JoAnns, I bought a pack of plain beads. Before opening the new pack, I took a chance that I might have some leftover from years ago, and there it was. She’s cuter than I could have made it.

Enough for tonight. Mike goes back to work tomorrow after having last week off—maybe I can get myself back into my routine and finish up the sewing projects I have going.

Corner Star Block

2011-12-26T07:45:00.001-06:00

This is my December block for the Eleanor Burns Treasure Chest Challenge. I sure had trouble with it. I had to take apart the center and make the squares smaller in order for the Flying Geese sections to fit. I followed the directions in the pattern, which called for 3 1/2” squares, but it didn’t fit. I drew it up in EQ7 to finish at the correct size, and EQ told me I needed to cut those squares at 3 5/16”. When I did that, it all fit together and it’s the correct size, the same as the other two.

Have a good day!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T08:51:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I spent the day with Elizabeth yesterday, she’s such a sweetie, it was so much fun!

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Wilderness Park, and Four by Four

2011-12-21T21:07:00.001-06:00

This is the wallhanging I finished yesterday.

Today I finished cleaning the kitchen cupboards, I had done the upper ones last week, and just needed to finish the lower today. There is a desk in the kitchen. I have a tablerunner on it, and it needed to be cleaned. I decided the desk needed a Christmas, or at least winter, tablerunner on it. So instead of working on my coat, I made a tablerunner.

The pattern I used was Four by Four from Libbie Lehman. I used EQ7 to determine what size I needed to cut my pieces. I wanted it to be the exact width of the desk, and I wanted to have the pointed ends hanging down from the edges at each side. The backing is a blue print that is pretty enough to make it reversible.

It looks so nice and neat, but once I get my cookbooks back on there it won’t look like that. And it’s a dumping ground. But for now, the kitchen looks nice and fresh, with a new quilt.

Catching up

2011-12-20T21:04:00.001-06:00

I delivered the t-shirt quilt to my customer on Friday. She was very happy with it, and may want one for her daughter’s birthday coming up in the spring.

Today I finished up a wallhanging for Mike for Christmas. He liked a quilt I made for someone else last summer. It’s a wildlife panel, so I thought he’d like it as a wallhanging. All I need to do is to block it. I’ll do that tomorrow when he leaves for work. I’ll take a picture of it then.

I baked my coffeecakes today. I mixed up a big batch of Danish Coffee Cake dough. It’s actually supposed to be made with solid shortening like pie crust, but I usually just use oil, it’s easier. I made one Cheese Filled Coffee Ring, one pan Carmel Rolls, several kinds of loaves -- Date Orange Nut Bread, cinnamon with dried cranberries and walnuts, poppy seed, and several poppy seed coffee cakes. That stuff is so yummy.

I’ve been working on my coat too. When I did the Folded Triangle tabletoppers , I decided I had to find a way to put some on my coat. I took the pocket flaps off the fronts. I thought it would be so easy—wrong! I cannot imagine how Joanna of DJ Richards Designs dreamed up this method! I’ve spent a few hours on those two pocket flaps. It involved quite a bit of ripping and redoing, but I finished them. They didn’t end up how I’d pictured it in my mind—that just didn’t work out—but I like how they turned out.

Five or six years ago I bought a coat on clearance at Walmart for $25. It was white. But it was $25. It has a zip out liner (down-filled) which can be worn as a jacket. It has zippers on the pockets. There is a zipper pocket close to the center zipper on the front left. There is a zipper pocket on the left sleeve. I just love the features of it. But it’s white, now a very dingy white that no longer comes clean.

Last year I decided I would make a new outer jacket and just use the down-filled liner with it. But I couldn’t find any zippers that were compatible with the ones on the jacket. I’d have had to replace all the zippers. My plans changed to just making a lined winter coat. I bought some batik for it, with a fleece type lining. On second thought, I added some Thermolan or some such interlining, I want it warm. I quilted that to the batik on the fronts, back, and sleeves. The hood I think will be fine with the fleece lining.

I have the zipper pocket on the sleeve done. I did some Folded Triangles on it. I have another strip of FT started for the zipper pocket on the front. I’d like to jazz up the hood, but I’m about Folded Triangle-d out!! Maybe I’ll just put a contrast strip of batik around the front. I’ll see when I get back to it again—hopefully tomorrow.

Enough for tonight!

2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge

2011-12-16T20:45:00.001-06:00

I’ve just signed up for this, but with the new Blogger interface, I don’t see how to add the badge, so here is a picture of it. You can join by going to sewcalgal. This should be interesting—I need the help, and an incentive.

Tree Farm

2011-12-14T13:37:00.001-06:00

This is a quilt I just finished binding. I had pieced the top for a customer last July, and she contacted me a week or so ago and asked if I could bind it, she had it tied. This was a different experience, I haven’t done much with floofy poly batting in quite some time. Definitely a different feel to it.

Here are some pictures of the top from last summer, I don’t think I posted anything about it back then.

It’s hard to believe Christmas is only 10 days away. We have lights up outside—thanks to the grandkids who were here at Thanksgiving. I have a few decorations up, but not as many as I’d like. I don’t know where time goes. I haven’t done any baking yet. Next week is looking pretty full. I still have doll clothes to make. I have to make my coffee cakes or it just isn’t Christmas. I need to make Christmas cards yet…

On to the next project. I have to finish piecing a Disappearing 9-Patch for this same customer. I had wanted to finish my new winter coat, but I don’t think that will happen. Oh well, there’s always next year.

I see the turkeys are out my sewing room window, on our snow-less ground. Sounds like it may be a brown Christmas.

I almost forgot—we finally installed the extension onto my sewing cabinet. When my dad made this cabinet, it fit up against the corner of the room—nothing could fall on the floor. Now it sits in the middle of the room, and quilts hanging over the edge just was not good. I don’t know what I would have done without the extension working on this last quilt. (Yes, I do know what I’d have done, and it wouldn’t have sounded pretty!)

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(Someday that Chex box will we covered with leftover wallpaper…someday!)

Hope you’re all having a great day.

Merry Christmas!

T-shirt quilt

2011-12-11T09:55:00.001-06:00

This is the quilt I finished yesterday. It’s 68” x 85”, so about a twin size. I hope to get it delivered to my customer this week, weather permitting.

I used the serpentine stitch on my machine to quilt diagonally through the blocks, and the sashing and the cornerstones, and straight lines through the borders.

Off for now!

Time flies…

2011-12-10T21:24:00.001-06:00

It’s hard to believe that we’re halfway from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Our weather has turned cold, but very little snow. It’s been white out a time or two, but it’s all gone. Mike is worried about our sewer freezing up. I’m just enjoying not having the mess of snow.

I’ve been busy at sewing. I just finished a t-shirt quilt, but haven’t taken any pictures yet, I’ll do that tomorrow.

Marty and his family were here at Thanksgiving. They came Wednesday evening, that’s when we had our Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, ham (almost 8 year old Brandon called it pig, which technically is true), dressing, the whole bit. In the morning, 10 year old Tyler spotted my mom’s donut baker, so we brought it up. I had made dough for cinnamon rolls, so tried some of that in the baker—edible, but I wouldn’t recommend it. When I was rolling out the dough, I turned my back for a second, and he took over the rolling pin, and did a great job of it.

I made another of the Eleanor Burns challenge blocks. This one is Honey Bee.

That reminds me, I need to do this months’ before I run out of month. It uses her Flying Geese ruler which I do have.

I made a couple of small tabletoppers using patterns by DJ Richards Designs, using folded triangles.

It’s time consuming, but worth it. They’re beautiful. I still haven’t finished my new winter coat, and I know there will be folded triangles on it somewhere!

Enough for now! I hope to be back sooner next time.

A Christmas Dress

2011-11-12T17:34:00.001-06:00

Or should I call it a Birthday Dress??

The fabric is from the Wintergraphix line by Jason Yenter from 2009. The skirt is leftover from a tree skirt I made sometime in the past (I can’t find a picture, so it may be older than I think). My quilt store had coordinating fabrics to add to it. I hope it fits Elizabeth, it looks so big. Her first birthday is coming up in 3 1/2 weeks—how can she possibly be a year old already?!

Blogger’s new design, and a giveaway

2011-11-03T21:09:00.001-05:00

One of today’s emails was from blogger about the new templates. I’ve decided to try it out. A couple of them look kinda neat. But I don’t see anything for the list of followers, or for the links and buttons. I’ll have to do some more looking. Let me know how it works for you visiting here.

Also there is a giveaway for 8 fat quarters and the Lil’ Twister template or ruler, whatever it is. Just go to Quilting by the River to check it out. I made a quilt like it without the template/ruler from a class on the learning fiber arts yahoo group. It was fun to do. You can read about it on my October 25, 2009, post. With the new design I don’t know how to give the direct link to it. One the template I’m using now—Flipcard—it’s way down on the bottom, the second from the last picture.

Hmmm…that’s another thing I’m not pleased with on the new template.

Some new things are the ability to sort the posts by ‘recent, date, label, author’. That I like.

Okay, here is the link to the post about the quilt.

I think this is it for this time…

Two finishes

2011-11-02T07:02:00.001-05:00

I finished two customer quilt tops this week.

The first is “My First Flannel Quilt”. It’s a 40” x 60” very snuggly quilt. Very simple design, just squares in a variety of flannels.

I tried to keep from sewing two squares of the same fabric together, but of course, I did. Twice. But as it turned out, they were both near the center of the quilt, and both were in the same color family, so at least it balances.

The second quilt is Twinkle Twinkle Little Charm by Joanie Weiser Designs, published by Quilt Woman.

As the name implies, the pattern is for charm squares, but my customer wanted it to have larger blocks. EQ7 to the rescue!

She wanted it to be about 70” x 80”, and I knew she wanted the blocks to be the correct size to make the most efficient use of the width of the fabric. So I used EQ7 to determine how many blocks it would take to get the size wanted, and not have a lot left over from each width of fabric. I also played around with the placement of the fabrics, and this time I managed to keep like fabrics away from each other. Some are diagonally connected, but none side by side or on top of each other.

The blocks form a slanted star, but I have to really concentrate to see them. For some reason, for me anyway, the light star points don’t show up as well as the dark on the front of the pattern.

I think winter is coming closer, there really is snow in the forecast—rain on Saturday, turning to snow on Sunday. I guess we can’t avoid it forever. But here it is, November already, and we’re supposed to have 60’s yet this week.

I better get to some cleaning done, then I think I’ll do a couple more of the aprons for another customer. One of these days I need to get back to my winter coat. Winter will come whether I’m ready or not, so I might as well try to get ready.

Bye for now!

Two zipperless sleeping bags.

2011-10-28T21:00:00.001-05:00

I’m not really sure what to call them, it’s a small quilt that has the two bottom corners meet in the middle, and then that edge is bound to keep front and back joined.

I’ve made quite a few of these for this customer in the past seven or eight years. The quilts measure about 60” x 72”.

For these two, I bought 2 yards of 2 different cotton fabrics and 2 yards of fleece for each quilt. I cut various widths strips x the length of the fabric. I started with one strip down the center, laid that on the center of the fleece, wrong sides together. I think the strip was about 12” wide. I pinned that securely, then pinned a different width strip of the other fabric on each side of the center strip, and sewed them down. Smoothed them out, pinned and layered two more strips of the first fabric, repeating until I filled the width of the fleece. Here is an EQ7 export:

Then I just bound the edges. I started at the bottom, went up, across the top, and back down to the bottom. Then I marked the center across the bottom, and brought the left and right corners to that mark, and bound the layers together. For the second one, I varied the width of the strips, so that they didn’t look exactly alike.

I don’t know where she came up with the idea of these. She said they’re great for watching tv, her feet tuck into the bottom corners and stay covered up.

In the past I’ve used flannel for the backing, with a hi-loft poly batting. She said when she called last month that she likes the cuddly fabric I used for the inside. And that’s the hardest part of this quilt—picking out fabric for someone else! This time I found some fleece that was the same price as flannel, which made the fabric much less expensive. With the 60” width of the fleece, two yards was sufficient, whereas, I would have needed four yards of flannel, plus the batting. And fleece definitely fit the bill for cuddly.

As I was picking out the fabric, I saw some of the beautiful wildlife prints, and wondered if she’d like one of those. I’ll have to remember to ask her next time. As I’ve been typing this my mind has been on that thought. I could have that print with much narrower strips of a contrast fabric between, kind of like looking through a window. Or bars…

Since the strips are sewed on through the fleece, it’s a quilt-as-you-go, so when I’m done piecing, it’s ready for the binding.

Other than that, I did get the carrots dug last Saturday, and washed the windows outside. I did a few on the inside too, but the rest are waiting for me. The weather has definitely cooled down, but so far none of that four letter word. Hope it stays away for a long time yet.

Universal Craft Blog Directory

2011-10-28T20:49:00.001-05:00

Universal Craft Blog Director is a blog I recently found. It’s a new blog, and lists crafty blogs. If you have a blog, you can add your blog to the list, as long as it craft-related in some—even if it’s only buying crafts apparently! You can get there by clicking the link above or the button to the right.

There is a downside though—lots of new blogs to check out. The only one I recognized is the one that lead me there. What I need is more hours in the day—any one know where I can get some??

So grab a cup of something good, and spend some time looking it all over.

Eleanor Burns challenge

2011-10-28T20:45:00.001-05:00

Eleanor Burns is having a monthly challenge, you can read all about it here. You will have a 12 block sampler quilt at the end of it.

Here is the block I did today:

A free pattern is available for download, and there is a deadline to submit a picture of your block to be entered for a chance to win $50. The deadline for the Pineapple Block is this coming Monday, October 31. Let me know if you enter a block.

Garden, yard, grandkids and a giveaway

2011-10-19T08:30:00.001-05:00

The weather has cooled off, the leaves have fallen from most of the trees, the garden is mostly cleaned out.

We no longer have 80’s for temps, and now that four-letter word is in the forecast—snow. We have the leaves picked up, and piled by the wellhouse to insulate it, and the rest have gone on the sewer mound. I have to get out there and spread what Mike dumped last night when I wasn’t home to do it.

I transplanted my raspberries and those we mulched with pine needles. Next spring when I haul the leaves away from the wellhouse, I’ll put those around the raspberries too.

I still have the carrots to dig. Maybe I’ll get at those today. Or maybe it will warm up next week, and I can do it then. I didn’t get the windows washed yet, so I really hope it warms up again.

Here is a picture of the turkeys that were in the yard on Monday. They kept walking back and forth all forenoon.

Last Saturday Cari, Elizabeth and I went down to see Marty and his family. When we got there the first thing out of 7 year old Brandon’s mouth was, “Hi. When came we come spend the night at your house?” Then as soon as we got in the house he asked to hold Elizabeth. And when we left, he gave lots of hugs. He is such a love bug. 10 year old Tyler is now wearing glasses. He’s more quiet, unless he gets onto something he enjoys talking about, then he’s not so quiet. 5 year old Abby is loving kindergarten, and is quite a little lady, wearing a skirt and top. That along with the flipflops made me shiver—I was at times cold with my long sleeve shirt and fleece sweatshirt over it when the wind blew. Before I left home, I was really proud of myself that I remembered the camera. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any charged batteries, and so far no one has sent me the pictures that were promised. I did take pictures with my phone. I spent several hours on Sunday trying to transfer them to my laptop, but nothing I tried with the help of tech support worked. But now I have a new wallpaper on my phone, just no pictures I can show you.

Yesterday I spent with Elizabeth, daycare was closed. I had some sewing I brought with me to work on while she was napping. I wasn’t done with it when she woke up. I brought her excersaucer into the sewing room. For about 15 minutes there was absolute silence—she just sat there and took in everything I was doing. When she finally figured it all out, she was back to jabbering. Then I put my project up on the design wall, and once again complete silence. What is that grandma doing???

And finally, this morning when I was reading Stitchin’ Therapy, I found about another giveaway. This sounds really neat, it’s for software for scrapbooking, but it can also be used for making banners for blogs, and possibly quilt labels. The giveaway is on the Quilt Rat. Check it out and enter to see if you can win it.

And now I need to get busy. Before I can even think about sewing I need to do some cleaning—what fun.

A first

2011-10-04T19:52:00.001-05:00

I don’t think I have ever walked in the leaves while wearing sandals. But I did today. I finished cleaning the living room carpet, went out and transplanted my raspberries, and it was HOT out there! I came in and changed into shorts and my sandals. Before supper I went out to the clothesline, and walked in the leaves while wearing sandals—I love it!

A scrappy top

2011-10-04T09:53:00.001-05:00

I’ve had these glittery velour leftovers for so long that I have absolutely no idea where they came from.

Someone must have given them to me, I don’t think they came from a grab bag—it’s a mystery.

These patterns have also been around for a long time, but I’ve never used them, despite the fact that the envelopes show a lot of wear.

I used the one on the left, and pieced the scraps with the larger glittery spots (on the left in the above photo) for the yoke. I had to piece it to be able to use it. No problem there, I can do that. As I laid it out, I kept checking for nap, I wanted to make sure everything was going the same way. I wore it to church on Sunday under a jacket. It’s the only way I’ll ever wear it—one part of the front yoke is turned wrong, the nap is going the wrong way. I guess I have a new around-home top. Maybe it’s not noticeable to others, but it is to me. Darn.

But now I better get busy so I can get out in the garden later. Thanks for stopping by.

Binding and jelly rolls

2011-10-04T09:37:00.001-05:00

I’ve been trying to use up some scraps and leftovers. I always save the binding left from a project, thinking that I can use it for a scrappy binding. I decided to see what I can do with all those leftover binding. I also had some jelly roll strips that were mis-cut, two different fabrics.

I started with these binding scraps: then decided I didn’t want to do Log Cabin.

I remembered the jelly roll strips, and started making 9-patches. I started an EQ7 project. I used a sashing with a 2-patch, and a 4-patch in the cornerstones to frame each 9-patch and this is what I ended up with:

I’m not a fan of square quilts, unless it’s a baby quilt, but I ran out of jelly roll strips and had to stop here. This is about 55” square. I could have made it 4x6, but that was too long and narrow. I have no idea what I’ll do with it, but at least I used up some fabric that was laying around. The sashing and the five squares in each 9-patch are the jelly roll strips, and the four squares are from the binding scraps. I have trouble doing scrappy because I like things symmetrical and even and balanced, but this worked well. The ten light squares are the same fabric, and the others are two and three of the same fabric. So I’m happy, scrappy but and even and balanced and somewhat symmetrical.

I had made one block I couldn’t fit in, so I added some borders to make the front of a pillow cover:

Both will get set aside for now, until I figure out what I want to do with them. But at least there are less scraps setting around doing nothing—that’s a plus, right?

Fall is here!

2011-10-04T08:06:00.001-05:00

Our weather has been beautiful for the last week or so. Yesterday I heard that our temps are 20° higher than normal—I’ll take it! I’ve been working on getting the garden cleaned up.

I dug around 120# (according to my bathroom scale) of potatoes. The ones that I stabbed when digging, the tiny ones, and ones that had green spots, I made into hashbrowns and froze them. I tried something new this year, I canned some potatoes. We haven’t used them yet, so I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again.

I pulled out most of the cucumber and squash vines (forgot one area), and the tomatoes. I have all the green tomatoes in the garage. So far, I have a 3-qt bowl and a gallon freezer bag with tomato chunks in the freezer. The variety I planted this year is an heirloom tomato called German. They are a late tomato, and I got them in late and so far very few have ripened. I hope the ones in the garage ripen so I can do some canning.

I had Mike mow on the sewer mound. The weeds had really taken over. I transplanted some phlox that were escaping another flower bed onto the mound. I put them in between some of the orange lilies. I have more of them I can put there. I hope to get enough flowers out there to be solid mass of color. Hmmm—wonder how long that will take?? Now we need to start picking up the leaves and I will spread them on the mound, to try to control the weeds a little. Here is a photo of a flower that started blooming a couple weeks ago. I’m not sure what it is, or where it came from, but it’s pretty. It looks like a daisy, but I don’t remember seeing a pale pink one before, or having it bloom so late.

This is a view of the mound before mowing,

and after mowing.

I picked two 5-qt and one 4-qt ice cream pails full of grapes. I ate many, and made juice of the rest. I was shocked that there were so many.

My onions were pathetic this year, very small, some hardly bigger than the sets I planted last spring. Last year the onions sprouted soon after putting them into the basement. This year I decided to chop them up and freezer them before they started to grow. I did a few sliced too. It’s so nice to just go into the freezer, grab the bag, and throw onions into what I’m cooking—and without tears.

I still have carrots to dig. I want to look for more ripe flower seeds. When the last of the flowers in the vase are done I’ll clean up the vases, and the hummingbird feeders. In a few weeks we’ll have to start bringing the wood into the house. So far, we haven’t turned on the furnace—some days were quite chilly in here.

I looked for mushrooms on Sunday, but didn’t find any. We had very little rain during September, so I suppose that’s why.

Today I hope to transplant raspberries, after finishing cleaning the carpet in the living room.

I have been doing a little sewing but I’ll write about that separately.

Hope you’re enjoying the fall!

Another Christmas tabletopper

2011-09-14T14:11:00.001-05:00

It’s 36” x 18”, and it’s from the leftovers of the tree skirt I made last month. I already made one tabletopper from the leftovers, you can read about that here.

I had these leftovers laying around for the last couple of days. I used EQ7 to try to figure out how I wanted to make it. I wanted to use the Lazy Angle Ruler, but then I’d have had to cut away some of the print, and I couldn’t bear to do that. After sleeping on it, I decided to just do a 9-patch. I finished that and laid out the pointed ends and decided I liked that better than just the square.

I did have to piece two of the large poinsettias. You can see the seam from about halfway down on the left to the upper right corner.

The stripe section in the corner blocks aren’t all alike, two were cut one way, the other two have the long edge on the other side of the stripe. I can safely say that I have made good use of this fabric.

I do have some of the green background fabric left. There would have been enough to use for backing or binding or maybe both, but I chose to use a different Christmas print for that, and it will be reversible.

I used gold metallic thread in the bobbin when I quilted this.
The pictures don’t do it justice, but I looks rather nice in person.

I didn’t like the green background fabric with the backing, so I used the backing fabric for binding.

Before we know it, it will be time to use this tabletopper. Today is definitely fall-like. I’ll have to cover my tomatoes, and some of the cucumbers tonight—temps into the 20’s are forecast.

I’m not ready for this!!

Another giveaway

2011-09-07T07:17:00.001-05:00

I found a new blog today,http://happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com/ and she’s having a giveaway. I’ve never used AuriFil thread, but I’ve heard so many good things about it. Check out her September 6 post if you’re interested.

So far this week I haven’t done much –any—sewing. I did some bookwork yesterday, and cleaned more kitchen cupboards. I did some last week, and there are more to do. This morning I threw all the potholders in the washer with the towels, and now throw pillows and covers are in there.

Some of these drawers and shelves haven’t been cleaned for at least three years. To say they’re a mess is an understatement. In the potholder drawer I saw a little pinkish thing. The last dolly I got for Christmas is over 50 years old. She’s been through me, and my three kids and my nephew, and a bunch of grandkids, and who knows how many other kids. She’s well worn. She is missing fingers, and one whole hand. Well, two of her missing fingers are no longer missing—that’s the pinkish thing in the potholder drawer. Why, why, why???

It was kind of a walk down memory lane. There are potholders in there that I haven’t seen in years, very fancy crocheted ones. These are made of a cotton thread.

These are a synthetic yarn.

These are handle jackets and a potholder with a handle jacket for use with cast iron pans (or any pan with a handle that gets hot). I was thinking I should make more handle jackets, the ones I have are getting rather ragged and frayed. Now I don’t have to—YAY!!

I also went through the cookbook drawer, also a mess. I copy down a lot of recipes, either from the radio or internet, either scribbled on a piece of paper, or printed out. If we like the recipe, it stays in the drawer. When I get enough to fill a page, then it gets printed out and goes in a 3-ring binder—well, that’s the intent, it doesn't always happen that way. So I need to go through all those and toss what I won’t ever use.

I have my sewing machine turned on, the iron heating up, and I’m working on some leftover pieces from another quilt. I’m not sure if it will amount to anything, but I’ll give it a try.

My books have arrived!

2011-09-02T13:06:00.001-05:00

Just as I hit ‘publish’ on the last post, I heard a horn honk. I looked at the clock—hmmm. could be the mailman, but what are we getting??? So out the door I went, yes, the mailman, and---the books I ordered from Amazon last Saturday, with an expected delivery date of Sep 6 to Sep 9, are here!

Now how am I supposed to get anything done for the rest of the day?!?

Winter Gleam

2011-09-02T12:56:00.001-05:00

I just finished a quilt top for a customer. It’s a free pattern from Wilmington Prints, for a 33” x 38” quilt. She bought a yard each of two more fabrics that weren’t in the pattern, but coordinated very well with the fabric in the pattern, to make the quilt larger. Just adding those 2 fabrics as extra borders would make it look ‘added on’, so I used EQ7 to play. I rearranged and added and left out and came up with something that fit the fabric I had to work with, and it came out to be 68” x 86”, about twin size.

Their pattern ended about where the red/green uneven 4-patch is, but with pictures there instead.

If I wouldn’t have EQ, I’d probably still be sitting here figuring out what to put where!

Sewing with Nancy

2011-08-27T21:40:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note tonight.

If you like giveaways here is a great one. Years ago I watched – and recorded – Sewing with Nancy every Saturday on our local PBS station. I learned so much from these shows. I’d been sewing clothing for forever, and her techniques improved my sewing tremendously. I got away from sewing clothing some years back, but I miss it, and I do sew some now.

This morning on Leah Day’s blog she reviewed Nancy’s new book. That led me to Nancy’s blog (link above), and from there to all the blogs that have reviewed the book so far.

Then I searched for it on Amazon. I have – had – a gift certificate. The quilting book I wanted wasn’t available so I decided to buy this one. It qualified for free shipping, but I need $5+ to get it. So I looked around for more books, and ended up getting 2 more of Nancy’s. I spent a whole $1.29 for all three books. I’m so excited! But my books won’t be here for maybe two weeks.

Be sure to go check out Nancy’s giveaway, and all the other blog reviews.

Have a great rest of the weekend.

Diaper bag redo

2011-08-24T10:33:00.001-05:00

I just finished redoing the diaper bag I made before Elizabeth was born.

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I used the Lazy Girl Designs Miranda Day Bag pattern. I had to make some changes—there is only a front and back to the Miranda, rather than front, back, sides and bottom. I had to add on to the front and back pieces to make them wider. I had used the stiffener on it originally. Cari wanted it stiff to stand up, what she’s using now is floppy. So I added another layer of stiffener. I needed to move the outer pockets too. The outer pockets on the sides I moved to the inside, and I used one inside pocket in there too. Lots of improvising, I needed to use what was in the original bag. But it worked! And it is stiff enough to stand up by itself—not floppy here!

This week I finally started going through all the boxes in the basement. When we started remodeling after my mom died, I just filled boxes and hauled them downstairs, and added them to all the boxes of what we’d moved here. The boxes have been gone through so many times, just looking for this or that. I’ve emptied lots of boxes, brought some things up to use, and consolidated some boxes. I’ve washed a lot of her clothing, some of it is still wearable, some not so much. I’m eyeing all with the thought of a memory quilt. I’ve made so many of the memory quilts for other people, I should think of something with this. I wish I had more of my dad’s, but I think my mom must have gotten rid of it. I do have a couple flannel shirts that I wear in the winter, and don’t want to give those up for a quilt!

It’s an absolutely beautiful day—the sun is shining, the humidity has gone and it’s 73°, the windows are open—I could take 6 months of this. But the days are getting shorter, and I know what’s coming…

Now I need to get busy.

A Minkee quilt and an apron

2011-08-23T10:54:00.001-05:00

This is a ‘quilt’ I did for one of my beauty shop customers. She’s one of my ‘summer ladies’, up here at the lake for the summer, with trips back to the Cities every once in awhile. Her granddaughter had seen this fabric, fell in love with it and wanted it for an upcoming summer camp. Since grandma didn’t have her machine up here, and wasn’t going home in time to get it, she had me sew it together. It’s just the two layers of Minkee sewed RST, turned and topstitched around the edges with the triple zigzag stitch. Both grandma and granddaughter were very happy with it.

Very simple and very cuddly!

This is an apron I made for a customer using an old apron as a pattern.

I didn’t do it exactly like the old one, I simplified some things, and did my way on some. She wanted it for a family reunion, to raffle off. She said it was a big hit.

Mystery flower

2011-08-23T10:35:00.001-05:00

Last spring I bought a pack of Moonflowers. My recollection is that it’s a vine. For several weeks now I’ve been watching a plant in the front flower bed, definitely not a vine, about 12” or so high. Then it appeared that it was developing a white/cream bud, standing straight up. Last week the flower opened—a beautiful trumpet shaped flower. (Ignore the grass surrounding it—where did that come from?!) There are two more buds coming on either side. The first is done, and the other two aren’t open yet. It smells wonderful. I thought that it must be the Moonflower, even though I had thought it was a vine, and I don’t remember planting it (or anything else) there. It’s closed during the day, and opens in the evening.

Yesterday, I determined it was not a Moonflower. I was by the wellhouse, and noticed the Moonflower marker was by a vine crawling up the strings I had put up for the climbing plants I had there. And it didn’t look anything like this. So now I’m back to wondering what this plant is and where did it come from???

This I know is a 4 O’clock, with a marigold on each side, and the mystery plant hiding behind.

How do you hang an octagonal quilt??

2011-08-23T10:18:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I finished a small wallhanging I started last spring when we did some remodeling in the small bathroom off the kitchen. The medicine cabinet with the mirrored door was straight in from the door, so when looking in, you would see yourself. After looking in at that mirror almost my whole life, it really bugged that all I saw was a blank wall. Solution??—make a wallhanging.

This is basically the same as one in Pieced Tree Patterns Tiny series. I used EQ7 to make it the size I wanted, and to fit the fabric I had too, probably.

Right now I have it hung with two t-pins. You can see shadows where it isn’t flat up against the wall, too. How do you hang a quilt with these edges? There must be some way to make it hang straight without wobbling—HELP!

I quilted this one like I did the border print poinsettia one I did last week—top and batting only. When I had it turned right side out, I stitched in the ditch around the inside and outside edge of the green blocks, too. I had quilted 1/4” from both edges of the green ‘ribbon’. In the center I did curves.

The fabrics are four different batik ‘leftovers’.

Then I made a cover for the switchplate just a few inches away.

I used Timetex (or something like it) on the outer piece, sewed it RST with another piece. I cut a slit in the center, turned it right side out and pressed it well. Then I took another piece of fabric, fused the stiffener to it. I marked the size and position for the opening on that piece and sewed it RST with the front piece—just like doing a bound buttonhole. It wasn’t quite big enough, so I stitched another line of stitching, then it was big enough. I cut into the corners and turned that piece to the backside. I put the switchplate in between the double front layer and the one I just added, pinned it well, and using a zipper foot, stitched as close as I could get to the edge of the switchplate. All that was left was to poke a couple of holes for the screws and put it up. One screw went in, but the other wouldn’t. A longer screw fixed that!

If you have any ideas on hanging the quilt, please let me know. I don’t like what I have, but I’m not sure what else to do.

Grandmother’s Flower Garden —another type of memory quilt

2011-08-17T17:14:00.000-05:00

This is another customer quilt. When she called me about binding this old quilt, she said it had scalloped edges. When I met with her, I found out it was a GFG. Two edges were straight, and the other two had the hexagon shapes—even worse than scallops!!

My first thought was to just do a facing somehow. I asked one of the girls at Gruber’s and she didn’t like that idea. She suggested straightening some of the hexagon edges off, so that I wouldn’t have so many turns to make. So that’s what we decided on.

This is what I started with—lots and lots of corners—inside corners.

I lined up the ruler on seams and trimmed off the points.

That eliminated most of the corners.

The ends weren’t both the same. One came to point between flowers, the other end didn’t.

The quilt was hand quilted. Such beautiful work!

How did that stool get in the picture?! How come things like that are only noticed when it’s too late to take another picture??

I thought I had bound inside corners before, but I don’t remember not having a ‘corner’. Maybe you can see in the picture above that there are no folds on the inside, the bias binding just sort of curved around the corners. I think it looks okay, but not what I expected. I saw Heather Mulder Peterson’s tutorial, but try as I may, I couldn’t get the little folds. So I gave up and let the binding have its way.

This is such a beautiful quilt, but not one in my future, too many little pieces for me!

Border print tabletopper

2011-08-17T08:10:00.001-05:00

This gorgeous 26” tabletopper is made from leftover fabric from another project. It’s a 58” border print. The original was a tree skirt. The center of this was the outer edge of the tree skirt, and no way I could throw away this fabric. From the point of the wedge (the center above) I measured about 15”—it just looked ‘right’—and cut. As it turns out, this was about perfect, because there was enough left of the widest part of the wedge to sew together for the backing.

I didn’t want binding, so I quilted the top and batting-just gentle curves that really don’t show up much-then trimmed the excess batting to get an accurate edge. I marked the seam line onto the batting at the corners so that I could turn at exactly on the seam when stitching together with the backing. I layered it right sides together and stitched all the way around. When I leave an opening on the edge, I can never get a nice even edge that isn’t very obviously where it was turned right side out. Since I had pieced the backing I had a seam I could open up far enough to turn. If I had had fabric large enough to have one piece, I would have pieced it anyway, just so that I would have had a seam for turning.

After turning and poking out all the corners, I pressed it well, and handstitched the opening on the back. I also did two rows of quilting then—one was about 2” from the outer edge, and the other around the center. This should hold it all together.

When I started this I had intended it for a wedding gift—but, gee—I love it, I don’t know if I can give it away…

And now, after hanging out a load of clothes, I’m going to start taking apart that diaper bag. After I got it done, I didn’t like it. After taking care of Elizabeth a month or so ago, and using the diaper bag myself, I thought ‘this is ridiculous’. I told Cari I would redo it into something better. She said when she was done with it, I could have it back to redo. It didn’t take long she said I could have it now. Here is my original post about it. Unfortunately, I did A LOT of reinforcing stitching to make sure it would withstand heavy use, so that means it’s going to be a pain to take apart.

Oh well.

Another Daydream Flowers

2011-08-16T16:45:00.000-05:00

I had a lady call me in early June about quilting and binding a Daydream Flowers kit she had sewed together. We had a hard time connecting, so she finally just mailed it to me. I had done the whole project for another customer about a year ago.

I finished it a mailed it back to her two weeks ago.

She’s going to lay it on the bed, over a black bedspread. It should look really nice.

I think if I ever do something similar, I will quilt the top and batting and put it with the backing after the quilting. I just don’t like the back with all the threads showing. Using black for the bobbin, I have to adjust the tension so that it doesn’t show on top. That’s a problem I’ve had, especially with the background quilting. I just did straight lines back and forth, and when I changed direction, that’s when the bobbin thread would show. I would prefer to use a thread that matches the needle thread better. I hope I remember if I ever need it…

Two more 10-minute Tablerunners

2011-08-16T12:08:00.001-05:00

I wonder who named this pattern?? I’ve made four of them now, and all took considerably longer than 10 minutes. Yes, these two (1.25 hours) and the second (40 minutes) were with 58” wide fabric, so that would add some time, but the first with 45” fabric took 30 minutes. I think the only way to do it in 10 minutes is to set up the machine, cut and press the fabric, then start timing it. Maybe don’t count the final pressing either.

I’m not sure how I did it on the first, but on these two today, I stitched-in-the-ditch from the point through the seam to the edge of the theme fabric. I also s-i-t-d along the borders. I think that will help hold it together when washing.

I was going to give a link to the pattern, but I can’t find where I got it. If you google it, you’ll find lots of links. One is for a 15 minute version which has the points turned to the back. This will give you a little different look. A couple links mention using batting in the center section. I thought of that myself, but didn’t use batting in any of the ones I made.

Even though it's not a 10 minute project, it does go fast. Just think of all the special occasions you can make for.

Now onto another project for me!

Clothes for me

2011-08-15T16:18:00.001-05:00

Last week I also made myself a pair of what in the Olden-Days were called petal-pushers, I guess now they’re capris. Awhile back I won a giveaway on a blog. It was a box of leftover fabrics, two of which were enough for capris, another I think is enough for slacks. Then I won two fleece blankets. I haven’t checked them over yet, but there is something wrong with them that they can’t be sold – a flaw or dirt. And I won again, and this was a box with white and black fabric. That just came a few days ago, and I haven’t checked that out either, but I think some of those will also make slacks, and a black/white knit print that should make a top.

This the first practice petal-pusher I made. It’s good enough for around home by myself, and then I tweaked the pattern for the second pair. I used a pattern I’ve had since I don’t know when, never used before, and boy, is it baggy!!

The next pair I don’t have a picture of, it’s in the wash. It’s still a bit baggier than I’d like, so I’ll do more tweaking. I’ll have to measure more closely on a ready-to-wear pair that I like, and try to get the pattern to that size.

Saturday I decided it was The Day to clean out the freezer. The freezer is in our attached garage. Before I could even think of taking everything out of the freezer, I had to do some cleaning. I did some rearranging, then sweeping. With a gravel driveway, and mud with all the rain lately, there was a ton of dirt to get out. I mopped then, and after numerous changes of mop water, it was looking pretty good. Then I tackled the freezer. Amazing what you find when it’s all sorted out. If only it could stay that way. But I know what we’ll be eating for the next week or so—without going to the grocery store!

I’ve made two gallons of refrigerator pickles. When they’re freshly made they go pretty fast, but will keep til next summer. They sould be ready to eat in a day or so.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get at some sewing—maybe more of that giveaway fabric or a wallhanging I started a couple months ago or remaking the diaper bag I made for Cari before Elizabeth was born (that’s a whole ‘nother story) or…

I’ll let you know!

a Reunion

2011-08-15T16:01:00.001-05:00

I played catch-up last week. Last Sunday (the 7th) was a Country School Reunion that a friend and I worked on for about 13 months. When we started, we were just going to do the schoolmates we went with. But that would have left out our brothers who were out of there before we started. Then others asked about their older siblings, and we decided to have it for anyone who ever went to school there.

As it turned out, the oldest student to attend is 97 years old, and the youngest are around 50.

We had so much fun doing the research and planning everything out. One thing that was very frustrating was finding that the County has no record of our school. You’d think that all the records from the school would have gone to the county when the school closed—not so. We checked with the school where the students would have gone, nothing there either. The county Historical Society has nothing. All we could find is a teacher’s record book from back in the 1930’s, which one of the school board members had, and now his daughter has it.

Years ago my uncle had done research into the history of our county after he retired. He had given my mom a three ring binder full of articles he had copied from the various newspapers. This was mostly the local columns. I remember a neighbor lady calling every week to see if we had any news—did we have company, did we go somewhere. Some of the things published are just hilarious now—one man went to the Courthouse for a marriage license, but wasn’t sure on the bride’s name—there were several women he could ask, but didn’t know which one would say yes—how romantic!!

Anyway, it was through those columns that we found out when the school started. It was published that someone had started building the new school house in September of 1910. The last class there was in the school year of 1966-67.

So many people have so many wonderful memories of their time spent in that little one-room schoolhouse. We learned so many things that the kids today aren’t taught, among them respect and responsibility.

It was a lot of fun to work on the reunion, but very time consuming, especially the last few weeks.

I finished the second memory quilt, finished up on another project, did a little work out in the garden, and did some cleaning in my sewing room. I didn’t start out to clean, but I was looking for some elastic and decided to sort out the mess in two boxes. I didn’t find the elastic I was looking for, but at least now I know what I have, and sent in an order to Newark Dressmaker Supply for more elastic, and a few other things.

Today I also put in an order to Connecting Threads, today is they’re last day of the thread sale. I stocked up on the colors I use most. The white was out of stock, so I decided to try their new poly thread cones. I order two other colors in that too.

I ordered a thread stand, so that I can use the cones. It’s such a pain to wind bobbins to use for needle thread. I also ordered some titanium needles—wonder if they really do last longer??? We shall see!

The 2nd memory quilt

2011-08-15T15:19:00.001-05:00

I finished the second memory quilt for my customer last week, and shipped it off today. I did go with a Log Cabin block. I used EQ7 to design the quilt. The block I used is Quarter Log Cabin 2. It starts with a rectangle instead of a square, which gives it a different look, almost a pinwheel.

I used that same red/black print shirt for the centers, and the 4-patches in the corners. I didn’t go with any certain color in any certain position, not even lights on one side, darks on the other. When working with a limited amount of fabric, it would have been impossible.

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I used a couple of the pockets in the 6” border, and part of one in a log, and some of the labels in the logs.

Working with smaller pieces, it naturally took more time to do, but there wouldn’t have been enough shirts to do larger blocks. Much of the strips are what was left from the larger blocks in the first quilt, here.

I think I’d like to use this block again with planned colors. The strips on one side are cut at 2.5”, the other side are cut at 2”, but since you sew on only 2 sides, it doesn’t make a ‘curve’ as when sewing on all 4 sides. But something worth looking into!

Another Memory Quilt

2011-07-19T20:41:00.001-05:00

This quilt is made from shirts belonging to the father of my customer.

It’s 84” x 98”. One shirt was a red with black print—it made such a nice accent. The squares are 4” for the smallest ones, 7” for midsize , and the largest are 14”, with a 7” border. I used EQ7 to design it, and to somewhat figure out how the fabrics would be arranged. The borders are planned out also. I like things symmetrical—scrappy drives me crazy. Planned scrappy is fine, but just random—that’s very difficult for me!

There are enough shirts left for another quilt. I’m thinking on doing something log cabin-ish. There is more of the red to use for centers, and smaller pieces left from the shirts in this one. Hard to say what will come to be!

Two quilt kits

2011-07-19T20:23:00.001-05:00

Back in March I picked up two kits to finish for a lady. Several years ago she had started them, then life got in the way, and they moved to a closet. She decided she wanted them done. The quilts are for her son and daughter. One has a border and backing with animals on it.

(I wish I was really creative with my photos. I like all of the quilt to show, but I don’t have the room to get decent photos. And I can never get the quilt to drape right if I try that.)

This one has a fabric with stars, and a coordinating one with hats.

I think they finished to a full size.

So that’s one of the projects I’ve worked on in the last few months,

I’m back…

2011-07-12T13:46:00.001-05:00

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted anything, a lot has happened since way back when.

In early June my father-in-law was hospitalized. He was there for a week, came home, and the next day, was taken back by ambulance. At that point, most everything in our life was pushed to the back burner, as we spent many hours in the hospital. After five days, it was decided to place him in Hospice care. We were blessed to be able to have him in the nursing home just a few blocks from their home, instead of the hospital 35 miles away. And we were also blessed that the Lord took him home after only a few hours in the nursing home, his suffering was over.

So with everything that was going on, the first three weeks of June passed pretty much in a blur.

Summer FINALLY arrived, and that meant lots to do outside. I didn’t get anything into the garden until June 1—NEVER have I planted garden so late. So far we’ve had a few radishes, and a few strawberries. The weeds are doing fantastic!! I need to get out and stake up my tomato plants. I think that by now the cucumbers should be starting to climb their fence. Potatoes are starting to bloom. I’ve been able to have fresh (and some not-so-fresh) flowers in the house, mostly from perennials. We did get the lawn all mowed last week, and I mulched quite a bit of the garden with the clippings, but I can use more. I planted lots of flower seeds—marigolds, cosmos, cut flower mixture,etc—and have transplanted them into a few places. Earlier in the spring I put up strings along two sides of the wellhouse for morning glories, hyacinth beans, and one other kind of climber but I don’t remember what it was—moon flower, maybe???—and planted the flowers to climb the strings. It’s a beautiful day today, and I plan to go out later on and do some more in the yard.

I had a couple of fun days ~~playing~~ babysitting with Elizabeth. I’ve never seen such a good natured little one. Such a joy to be around.

But now I better get back to sewing. I’ve completed several projects and I’ll get pictures up in the next few days, hopefully.

Hope you’re all having a great summer!

A special ‘memory’ quilt

2011-06-07T08:24:00.001-05:00

A couple of months ago, a gentleman called me and asked if I was interested helping him with a quilt that his late wife had made. It was queen size (I think), and he wanted the center taken out and finished off for a wallhanging, the whole quilt was just too big. I said I’d be glad to take a look at it and see what it would involve.

We met, I looked at it and said that I could do it. I asked him what he was going to do with the borders I would be cutting off. He didn’t know, I suggested putting them together somehow, possibly for a lap quilt.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a picture of the whole quilt. I’m sure I took one, but that was during the time of my computer nightmare, and I can find no sign of it. This is what I ended up with:

When I got the center cut out, I laid out the rest on the floor to see what I could do with it. No matter how I arranged it, it just didn’t seem to be working out. If I remember right, it would have been 40 x 72, or something like that. So I kept thinking about it. I then suggested taking the pinwheel blocks and 9-patches that were in the borders, taking them out and sewing them back together in a different layout. I told them I could make it a wallhanging or maybe a baby quilt. He liked that idea.

I used EQ7 to plan it out the positioning of the blocks.This is how that turned out:

I had to do add some of the setting triangles around the 9-patches. The border is from the original quilt, I just randomly added them, now I wish I had planned the position of the HSTs—why is it that seeing a picture of something (after it is completely done) shows more than just looking at it?? The binding is from the original quilt. Too bad I hadn’t thought of using the original binding on the first quilt, but I guess at that time I was still in the mode of sewing it all together to make a lap quilt.

I had one pinwheel block leftover

This was something I hadn’t noticed until I saw the picture—I like the contrast of the light to the other fabrics, the light and the red really pop out.

I tried to mimic the quilting of the original quilt when I did the second quilt. She had curved lines about an inch apart—I know there’s a name for that, but I’m drawing a blank now.

I feel so honored to have had the opportunity to do this. What a tribute to the quilter, to display her work, and to cherish her work after she’s gone.

A cookbook giveaway

2011-05-29T07:08:00.001-05:00

I’m trying to catch up on some of the blogs I’ve missed the last month or so. One of them is What Matters Most? I’ve gotten some really good recipes from Lovella’s blog, and some of the other girls. Today she linked to another blog, and Vee is giving away a copy of Mennonite Girls Can Cook. So head on over there and see how you can have a chance to win too.

Gosh, I have to get a new picture on here—I love my deer, but the snow is getting to me. I tried to change it last week, but the pictures I was using were too big, and I didn’t take the time to try to fix it. Another day.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

T-shirt quilt

2011-05-17T15:07:00.002-05:00

I made a t-shirt quilt for a customer.Her son was homeschooled, so there were no school colors to work with. She saw the Psalms fabric and asked to have that put in the borders. I was going to piece in the psalm cuts, but with a large print I like to match. I tried to figure out how to match the crosses around the psalms. I finally gave up and decided to frame each cut with sashing fabric. I think what I did was to sew the red on like binding, fold it to the back and stitch in the ditch, and then sewed to the border with a buttonhole stitch.
For the quilting I just did the gentle curves using the walking foot.
I also framed the four corners. These were from embroidered t-shirt and were smaller than the others, so they didn’t work with the rest of the shirts. This picture shows two of the corners along with the border and backing.
The backing was a wide fabric, and was used for the sashing and binding also.
I surprised myself and did it all in two weeks!

Cleaning

2011-05-17T15:04:00.001-05:00

One of the things I did in the last month and a half is to clean out my sewing room. There were bags on the floor, you can see a little of that in the background. I have LOTS of fabric in Avon boxes.Some in plastic zipper bags from curtains, sheets, and blankets.

An armoire full also.

We put up another row of shelves in our walk-in closet, and I moved most of the boxes there, after sorting through all of them. I labeled all the boxes, and printed out a list of all the boxes. It’s nice to know WHERE something is, and to be able to find it when I want to use it. I put customer quilt projects in the armoire drawers, but I’ve already started putting bags and boxes on the floor again.

It was so nice to get that whole mess cleaned up. I didn’t take any pictures of it when I was done, and unfortunately, it didn’t stay clean long.

A little catch-up

2011-05-13T13:51:00.000-05:00

I’ve been without my laptop for three weeks now. The tech support person told me it sounded like a loose connection. I had lines running across the screen at times. Turns out, the hard drive is bad, and I have a bad dc connector. And, wouldn’t you know it—they’re having a hard time getting the parts. The hard drive is supposed to be there in a day or two, and they hope to have the dc connector then too, and get it all done and shipped back to me. When I talked to someone a week ago, he reminded me that they say to allow 7-10 business days. I reminded him that at that point, they’d already had it 2 weeks. I’m limping by with my old in-an- emergency laptop, and my husband’s computer. He doesn’t want all my ‘junk’ on it, but I’ve had to put a few programs on it, including today, I installed Windows Live Writer. After using that, writing on blogger itself is not fun. If you have a blog and haven’t tried Live Writer, check it out. It’s a free program from Microsoft.

I have been getting lots of sewing done lately.

~~~~~~

Well, that was three and a half weeks ago (this is Friday, 5/13/2011). I still don’t have my laptop. They returned it with the new hard drive and a ‘repaired’ dc connector. I have no idea what happened, but I ended up reformatting the second day I had it. I did all the Microsoft updates and started putting on my programs and restoring everything. Almost had it back to MY computer. Four and a half days home and the power icon was flashing and the screen flickering. The flashing icon said it was plugged in but not charging. So much for ‘repairing’ the dc connector.

The repair service received it this past Wednesday morning, but as of yesterday afternoon, they had not yet diagnosed it. I inquired if they could kinda speed thing up since they had it for almost a month before. I just now got a call that it’s done, so I should have it back by Tuesday.

So hopefully I can get back in the swing of things and post more often—if anybody is still here to read it! Not only have I not been posting, I haven’t been reading any blogs either. I use Firefox and there is an add-on called Morning Coffee. You add websites to it on whatever days you want, or every day. Then you just click on that icon and the websites you have entered for that day open up. I also use Foxmarks (I think). and that stores my bookmarks, so that all I will have to do when I get my laptop back is to log in and restore all my bookmarks. And without those, I have to rely on my memory to get me to all that I have in Morning Coffee. And I’m really short on memory!

Our weather has been pathetic. We had a couple of nice, warm days. I even dug out the summer bedspread, aired it out and put it on the bed. That lasted one night, last night we put the winter one on top too. Tonight we’ll have to start up the furnace again. Will this winter ever end!?!

I have lots of pictures to share of things I’ve finished, and started in the last six weeks, but that will be for the next post.

Hope all the mothers had a wonderful Mother’s Day! I’ll be back soon—keep your fingers crossed for me…

~~~~~~

And now it’s Monday. LiveWriter has an option to schedule a post. Evidently I don’t know how to use it. I had set this to be posted on Friday, and it didn’t happen when I connected back up to the internet. Saturday I looked for this and it was nowhere to be found. So much for using the Search box. I just now stumbled across this and will post right away.

Today we’re having a beautiful day. The wind is picking up again, but the sun is shinging. YAY!!

EQ BOM

2011-03-12T09:32:00.001-06:00

I’ve been working on a Block of the Month from the EQ blog. This is not limited to only those who use EQ7. In addition to the pj7 file, you can download pdfs of rotary cutting, foundation piecing and templates. You can find more info here.

This months’ block is March Madness.

This is all three of my blocks.

January Jumble, February Frolic, and March Madness.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. These will finish at 6”. I played around with a Custom Set, but haven’t yet come up with any layout I like.

I looked at the blocks in the Gallery. It’s amazing how the same block can look so different with a change of fabric. Some are hard to recognize as the same block. Quilting is so much fun!!

Hope you have a nice weekend. We didn’t get much snow, maybe 2-3”, but it’s very windy out there now.

a blog giveaway

2011-03-11T20:49:00.001-06:00

JayBird Quilts is giving away her new pattern, Hugs and Kisses, fabric to make it, and the new Lazy Angle Ruler to use to make it.

The new new Lazy Angle Ruler is the same as the one I’ve had for several years now, with an update. You can read more about it on Joan’s blog or on the Creative Grids website, it’s under ‘specialty rulers’. I’ve never used any of the Creative Grids rulers, but they sound like they would make cutting easier.

I first learned about Lazy Girl Designs from watching videos on Kaye Woods website. I was hooked! I love how the ruler makes complicated-looking designs so easy. If you look to the right, you’ll find more posts with the LAR, if you want to see more examples of what you can do with it. Here’s a quilt I made for my mom’s 92nd birthday.

Those circles are made with straight cuts. I think this is my favorite quilt.

So check out JayBird Quilts, enter the giveaway, and while you’re there, look around Julie’s blog. She has much interesting things to see.

Chenille rug

2011-03-11T19:56:00.001-06:00

I’ve been wanting to make a chenille rug for the bathroom for awhile now, and finally got to it Wednesday afternoon. I finished it up yesterday. Well, I thought I did, but I saw when I took it out of the dryer and laid it on the floor that I missed a couple of rows of cutting. This was after the second wash. I noticed and cut some I missed after the first wash. This is the ‘top’ side.

This is the ‘bottom’ side—how could I miss that much cutting!!

This is about 20” x 54”. The last few I’ve made, I put a plastic mesh between the layers of fabric. I decided to skip that this time, but when I went to put it down I remembered I did that to make it lay flat instead of scrunching up. So we’ll see if I goofed by leaving out the mesh.

A few months ago the Learning Fiber Arts group had a class on chenille, which I took. The instruction gave examples of doing something other than straight lines. I started in the middle with curves, but I wondered if there was too much on the straight of grain. so I changed to straight line. It looks like the curves will chenille just fine.

Oh no—I think I see another spot not cut—the bottom left square.

To get the patchwork effect, I just layed different squares on the top layer. I had to pin all the corners. I’ve wondered about sewing pieces together before laying them on the top, but I haven’t tried that yet.

I started with a 54” x WOF. I left it WST, and layered on 4 or 5 more layers, but I made them smaller giving about a half inch of the base sticking out all around. That makes it easier to get in to cut without getting the base layer too. When I had that layered, I flipped it over and layered on 4 more layers on that side, then did the patches. I cut the patches according to the fabric I had and the area I had to cover. These turned out to be 7” squares. I added a 2 1/2” strip on each end.

When I finished, I used the triple stitch zigzag to go all around the layers. I then cut off the selvedges and the fold of the base, and clipped into them so they’d fray, too. The base still stuck out beyond the layers. I’m thinking that binding might be nice to put on, too.

This I about the same length as the bathtub, so it will be hard to miss getting out of the tub.

We’re having some sunshine and melting snow today, but the forecast for tonight until noon tomorrow is for rain and snow.

Bye for now!

an Easter dress

2011-03-08T06:46:00.001-06:00

This is the dress I made for Elizabeth for Easter. I didn’t make her a dress for Christmas since she wasn’t even 3 weeks old then. This was actually a border print leftover from a tablerunner.

I made a matching bonnet, here’s the front and back:

It can be worn with either side out:

It’s made with a KwikSew pattern I bought when Cari was a baby.

New kitchen additions

2011-03-03T08:54:00.001-06:00

I had some time last week to make two valances, a cover for my mixer and a cover for a new tabletop convection oven [any tips on using that would be greatly appreciated].

One valance is on the window on the north side of the house in the kitchen.

It’s a pattern I came up with when making a valance for someone else. It originally was like this: It’s a pain to finish off the ends with the angle there. After I had it done and up, I decided to add another triangle on each end, and I like that much better.

Then I did another for what used to be the window over the sink. I hated loosing that window when we added on, and refused to lose it completely, so we left the opening. I had planned on putting in some shelves, and discovered that I really like it left open. It’s right by the front door, and it’s handy to have a place to set stuff. Anyway, here is the valance there. It was really hard getting a picture.

The plant has been hanging there forever. My mom always had some kind of plant, and this one in particular for years. It used to get lots of light, and now all it gets is what comes in the door, but it seems to be fine with that. This is from the hallway. The back side had to look good too.

My original plan had been to put it inside the opening, til I went and looked from the hallway. I then realized I couldn’t do that with the plant there, so I made it to fit between the cupboards on the kitchen side. Thank goodness I discovered that before finishing it. It needs to be very close to the correct size. The other one I should have had a half to an inch longer, and this one should have been that much shorter. Oh well.

This is the cover for the oven. I just did a quilt-as-you-go technique for this. It’s the same fabric as the sink valance.

The cover for the mixer is out of another fabric—all of these were made from leftovers. This is the front. The fabric was from a kaleidoscope quilt.

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This shows the sides, back and top.

The multi-color valance is from a Twisted Bargello quilt I made several years ago. I taught a class on the pattern. I wanted to have something to be working on in the class, but didn’t want a wallhanging as large as the pattern. I used EQ to redo the pattern to about 30” x 40” or so.

The brown is from a photo quilt I made for someone else. She picked out great fabric, way different than I would have picked. It was fun working with the fabric.

I can’t find a picture of the kaleidoscope quilt.

But now I need to get to work. I have to get my Avon order ready to submit, and then I’m going to get started on an Easter dress for Elizabeth. She was too tiny to make a dress for Christmas, but now she’ll fit into a size I have a pattern for.

a new laptop bag

2011-02-22T13:24:00.001-06:00

When I got my new laptop almost 2 years ago, I knew I needed a new bag, since the laptop was wider. I could cram it into the bag so I made do. Last week I finally decided to make a new one. Not only was the old one too small, it was getting rather ratty looking.

I used EQ7 to determine the size I needed to cut the strips to make the Quarter Log Cabin blocks I used on the front and back pockets.

I decided I wanted it stiffer than the old one. I dug through my interfacing. I found Décor Bond, and some other thicker, stiffer stuff. I don’t know what it was, there was so label on it.

The bag has exposed seams on the inside. Thank goodness I didn’t attempt to make the lining separate and turn the whole works! I was going to try to serge all the seams together instead of serging individual pieces. I also left the interfacing in the seam allowances, thinking it would help stiffen the whole thing. Big mistake. I had the front and the back pieces layered with the pockets, and it was so thick I couldn’t serge the seams. So I had to do some ripping so I could get at the seams to cut away the interfacing. The front and the back consists of an outer fabric and a lining. I fused Décor Bond onto thin poly batting and layered with the fabric. Then the two pieces went wrong sides together. And on top of that is a pocket and lining, with one layer of batting and DB. Rather thick. I had quilted the front, the back and both pockets, so I had to undo some of that to trim. I left the pockets, since I didn’t want to undo that quilting, the front and back were covered by the pockets, so I didn’t worry about how that would look undone and redone.

Sewing the side/top zipper unit was a bit tricky with the stiff pieces, but nothing compared to sewing in the bottom rectangle. That was a struggle with all the stiff pieces that didn’t want to bend and move like I wanted them to. Two arthritic thumbs didn’t help much. And turning it all right side out—I thought I was going to have Mike help me, but he was out plowing snow, and I managed it by myself.

I do have a nice stiff bag, it’s standing up here on the floor, no sagging.

The front and back I drew lines and quilted with a decorative stitch

The pockets I marked with the lines on the quilt blocks and just did straight stitching.

I’m glad it’s done, and I hope it lasts at least 4 years like the last one.

Next I’d like to make a cover for my 1+ year old Kitchen Aid mixer. The cover I’m using is about 6-8” too short. I’ll have to see what’s in my stash for fabric. I should make curtains too. It’s nice to be making something for me for a change.

quilt video

2011-02-20T07:10:00.001-06:00

Check out this video on different quilt blocks:

http://www.nfb.ca/film/quilt/?ec=en20110209

Leah Day had it on her blog yesterday. It’s fascinating to watch the blocks rearrange themselves into all the different configurations!

Starting any time now, the forecast is that we could get 6-13” of snow. All I can say is, at least it won’t last long this time of the year. A lot of our snow melted last week. We really don’t need to have a replacement though.

Have a good Sunday. I started working on a new laptop bag. When I got this laptop two years ago I really needed to make a new one, as this laptop is wider than my old one. But I could cram it in, so I just made do. Now I have some time to get at it, so I started yesterday. Of course, I have to make some quilt blocks to go on it. I have those made and now I ‘m ready to start on the actual pattern pieces. The instructions are to just layer the batting and fabrics without quilting. No, no, no—must do quilting. I have some time before we leave for church, so I’ll work on it a bit. Pictures will follow, of course!

this and that

2011-02-17T16:14:00.001-06:00

I finished some napkins today to go with the round tablecloth I made last fall. I tried to do a rolled hem, but I couldn’t get the serger to to cooperate with me. So I serged the edge, then folded it over and topstitched it down. Not much to show…

Then I made a new money bag. The one I had was getting kinda ratty. I could get another from the bank, but why would I do that when I can make a pretty one?! From this: to this:

I started with some leftover strips sewed together… I fused timetex to batting …then placed it on the wrong side of the strip set.

I quilted it with decorative stitches using variegated thread. I chose a stitch and curved back and forth from one edge to another.Then I switched to another stitch, and repeated until I decided it was enough.

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I took the zipper out of the old bag. It’s actually one side of the zipper tape, with each end fed into the pull.I put a scrap of fabric over the ends, I made the bag just a touch longer than the original, so needed to make the zipper longer.

I did put a lining in it, but I forgot to take a picture of that.

Then I finished – up to a point – another Kaye Wood pattern. This one is called Rhapsody. I chose fabrics from my stash, but I’m not really pleased with the combination.

The stripe looked great with the fussy cut circle fabric, but it doesn’t touch that fabric, and I’m not sure I like it in there. There is a 3” border next, with cornerstones with a small fussy cut flower. I don’t know what I’m going to use for the border. Maybe the floral??

With the borders will be about 37” square, which made me think of a baby quilt, but I’m not too sure of that now, with the fabrics in it—not very ‘baby’. What do you think??

Guess it’s time to get started on supper.

A Kaye Wood pattern

2011-02-13T18:18:00.001-06:00

Today I played around a little. I have a new pattern from Kaye Wood, Double Cross. It’s a pattern for A Quarter Quilt—quarter the bed size, fabric, time, and money. I really like the design, but I don’t want anything that size, so to try out the pattern, I decided to just make a couple of blocks.

I actually made three more, and I’m not sure what all I’m going to do with them all, but I really do like the design.

So check out Kaye’s website, she had some really beautiful patterns there. Also check out kayewoodtv.com.

Oh, my! I just went there so I could put in the link, and McAfee Siteadvisor says it’s a red website. Evidently they consider it unsafe if there are no reviews for a site??? I’ve been getting newsletters and going to the website for a long time, and I’ve never experienced any problems. I tried to login and leave a review. It appears I’m registered, but I don’t remember my password, so I can’t get in.

There are many interesting and informative videos to watch on various subjects. I love Kaye’s method of doing Y-seams. A couple of years ago I did a wallhanging with lots of Y-seams. About half way through them, I went looking for an easier way than what the pattern said to do. I found Kaye’s method in her videos and also as a pdf download. Now I consider Y-seams a piece of cake!

I think it’s supper time so I better get busy with that!

A Carseat Cover

2011-02-13T17:40:00.001-06:00

My sister-in-law and her husband are adopting a baby, and he’ll be here next month. She had seen the carseat cover that Cari has for Elizabeth’s car seat and asked if I had made it. I didn’t but I said I’d be glad to make one for her.

She was going to Joann’s a couple of week ago and called me about how much fleece to buy. I told her to just check out the patterns. Then I got to thinking—she’s not a sewer at all, so I googled it. I found a website that had a pattern, and it was much cheaper than any at Joann’s, I’m sure. It was a downloadable pattern, but, of course, the payment had to go through before they’d send the pattern. So I just guessed at how much fabric would be needed, and told her what to get.

The pattern is for two layers of fabric with batting in between. I took a look at Cari’s again to see how it was made. Hers also has a zipper down the center front, so that all you have to do is unzip to get the baby out; the pattern didn’t have that.

This is with the flap up

and with the zipper open

I found that by using the [stretchy] fleece instead of the more stable ‘quilt’ I did have to made some modifications. Cari’s has ribbing around the opening. I just serged the edges and turned a half inch hem. That was a huge opening, so I threaded 1/8” elastic through the hem and pulled it up just enough to keep it from stretching out. Ribbing would have been better, but I didn’t have any and I think this will be just fine. I also had to make the flap bigger, turning under that hem made it bigger.

But I think it turned out well. And when do I EVER follow a pattern the way it’s written?!

Did you guess dad is a John Deere guy???

The Mountains are finished!

2011-02-13T15:10:00.001-06:00

I finished the mountains last Monday.

After much emailing back and forth, Linda and I decided on the placement of the flowers. I dug out all of my floral printed fabric, and found several with flowers that were the right size. I fused the paper backed fusible on the wrong side of the fabric. I cut around the flowers and leaves, then removed the paper. I did a lot of positioning and taking pictures, and changing and taking pictures…and above is the result.

I did use the folded squares for the hangers on the back. I think is Ami Simms method.

I cut squares—I think they were 5” squares, that’s the size that worked out with the fabric I had. I folded them in half diagonally,and put them onto a corner of the back of the quilt.You could baste them into place, but I just pinned them, and stitched them on with the binding.

I stitched the binding to the front of the quilt, and pressed it away from the quilt. Since I started pressing like this, it really makes the binding go on so much neater. [That’s just the strap from the camera hanging there.] I also press the binding over the raw edges as it will be sewed, and that helps to make it stay in place.This really is the same fabric, and I think it’s the same camera setting also, I don’t know why it looks so different.

I glue baste the binding into place instead of pinning it. Just google Sharon Schamber on youtube for directions on this method. It’s ‘binding the Angel’ or something like that. I think there are 3 parts to it. I love doing it this way—no more getting stuck with pins, or sore fingers and wrists from the pinning.

This was a time consuming project, but it was fun to do. And to think, the first time I was supposed to do applique, I almost said ‘I don’t do applique’! I wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but I do enjoy it occasionally. And working with batiks didn’t hurt either!!

Hope you’re all having a good day. It’s dreary again. The sun was out, but now it looks like it could do something. It’s warm and dripping off the roof—feels like spring! I wish.

Back to the Mountains

2011-02-02T09:12:00.001-06:00

I thought I was going to finish this last week—where was my brain?

I have the quilting done. I tried to free motion the sky, following the design of the sky fabric. After I finished one sky, I hated it. So I picked that all out. I just did some curvy lines across the sky with the walking foot, and I’m pleased with that look.

The sashing/border I did straight lines. I lined up the ruler with the corners of the blocks and drew diagonal lines. It somehow worked out to have the lines 7/8” apart. I didn’t sew the lines at the corners, I would have had to end there, and didn’t want those thread ends to bury. I only quilted where I could turn and keep going. I also had to improvise at the center of each block, because the 7/8” didn’t come together with that spacing.

A couple of places I did have to redo the stitching, because the squares were really off, but for the most part it turned out well. This morning as I sat down to do the sky, it occurred to me that Attic Windows would have looked really neat. Oh well.

Now, I’m trying to figure out the flowers. These are mostly on the border: [That’s just a stray piece of dark green fabric on the sky—maybe there should be some birds???]

These I moved up onto the block:

I’m wondering if there should be something up on the top right, maybe even just the green ‘vine’.???

The binding is going to be the same dark brown as the accent strips. I’m using squares folded into triangles on all four corners for hanging. I’ll put the triangles at the bottom so Linda can put in something to keep the bottom edge straight also. I almost did all that before the flowers, but realized in time that stitching down the flowers would close up those triangles, so the binding has to wait.

Welcome

2011-01-28T06:47:00.001-06:00

I’d like to say ‘Welcome’ to the new followers to my blog. I hope that you will find something of interest once in awhile, and that I can give you a good hint now and then.

I have no pictures to show, but yesterday was one of those days. I wasn’t working on the mountain wallhanging, it was something else. First I sewed lots of blocks together wrong and had to rip out and resew. Then I sewed one side border on wrong. More ripping. Then… I sewed it back on the same wrong way. More ripping. But I finally conquered it.

Thanks, Judy and Connie, for the complements on the mountains. It isn’t my design, it’s a pattern from Enchanted Valley Arts, ‘Northwest Mountain Scenes’. As you can see, you can do some neat things with the pattern, such as frames for a message board or chalkboard. Instructions are included for making the frame.

I’m going to stop here and go layer the mountains. I want to get it quilted and bound before I do anything with the flowers. I have some petal shapes fused to fabric. The mountain pattern shows flowers, but they don’t give the patterns for them, so I have to wing it. Hopefully, what’s in my mind will transfer to the quilt.

Have a good day!

Another step done

2011-01-26T14:14:00.001-06:00

I have the accent strips sewed on, and sashing added, and the blocks sewn together with the border on.

Next is to layer it and quilt the sky, and maybe do some quilting in the sashing and border, then bind it. I’ll be using the dark brown for the binding. Right now I’m playing with some scraps for some flowers to fuse on. I’m thinking of having a group of small flowers [and leaves] in the lower left border, onto the block, trailing up the side and across the bottom. Unfortunately as soon as Mike gets home we have to leave, so I will have to stop playing!

More on the Mountains

2011-01-26T10:17:00.001-06:00

I have the four blocks done. Free motion quilting isn’t really the correct name for it. I was just sewing through fabric, there is no batting yet. I have all the raw edges stitched on, and some more stitching over the surfaces of the pieces, which really isn’t showing up on the pictures. Even without batting, the stitching has given it some dimension. The sky I will wait to quilt until I have it on the batting, because I want more dimension there..

Here are the fabrics I started with.

And here is the snow applique—lots of tiny little spaces to cut into.

Linda’s Mountains

2011-01-25T12:21:00.000-06:00

I’m working on a wallhanging consisting of four mountain scenes. The pattern is for four individual quilts, my customer wants them all in one, which I think will make a very pretty wallhanging.

So far, what I’ve done is to trace the pattern pieces onto paper-backed fusible, then fused onto the fabric, cut them out, and fused them onto the background. I started with the mountains, they’re the darkest, the foothills are lighter. The meadows are several shades of green, with darker green trees tucked in here and there.

As you can see in this first picture, I’m free motions quilting down the edges of the snow. The snow is Fairy Frost, everything else is batiks. I used poly monofilament on the snow, with Essentials cotton thread in the bobbin. I did lower the tension a bit, and had no problems with thread breaking, skipping stitches, or bobbin thread showing. The combination of monofilament and batiks can some times cause huge problems, but it worked like a charm this morning.

Then for the mountains I switched to a charcoal grey Essentials. I left the bobbin with the cream, and it was going great. I made it all the way across the width and turned and was going back. The front looked great, but I thought I should check to see how the back was doing. All I did was lift up a corner and take a peak. It looked fine too, but when I started going again—I had bobbin thread showing on the top…. Ok, fine. I ripped. Hopefully letting it sit a couple of hours will settle it down and it will be fine again. Or maybe I’ll just change to grey in bobbin.

Here are the other three scenes.

Don’t worry about those uneven edges, I cut it all oversize, so that I could trim them all off evenly.

Elizabeth

2011-01-23T19:47:00.001-06:00

Today was Elizabeth’s baptism. She slept all through Mass, didn’t mind the water poured on her head. But by the time Mommy was taking off the baptismal gown, and putting her dress back on, she’d had enough! Here she is with Mommy and Daddy, all dressed up. The bonnet she has on is from her godmother. It’s a hankie folded up with ribbons sewed on, that she can carry on her wedding day. I’d never heard of that before, but what a wonderful idea! Thanks, Lisa! She’s wearing the baptismal gown that my mom made when my oldest was born, 35½ years ago. All three of my kids wore it, but for one reason or another, she is the first grandchild to wear it. I’m so glad Cari wanted to use it.

Here she is with me and Grandpa.

Auntie Lisa caught this one of Elizabeth and me having a good conversation. She is a very smiley baby already, and is starting to ‘talk’. I think she’ll soon be laughing out loud.

And on my side of the family, this is as many generations as we have. We were really missing my mom and dad today. My mom and dad had four grandchildren, and each grandchild has a child born in December. I thought that was kind of neat.

a little about my background picture

2011-01-21T20:16:00.001-06:00

I’ve been meaning to write a bit about the picture I added to the blog. One morning I looked out my sewing room window and saw – something. I didn’t remember a big rock there, and there was no snow on it (it had recently snowed). I got out my camera and went from window to window and took pictures. When I loaded them onto my laptop, and cropped them, I could see that it was a deer.

In fact, there were three of them. I kept looking out the window, and checking on them. After awhile, they started moving around, and then I saw another, four in all.

I tried to get a picture with all four, but they didn’t cooperate with me.

This morning I looked out and saw them again.

I had to leave, so I don’t know how long they stayed. We see tracks in the yard all the time.

Last summer one evening they were out in the yard and garden.

We also have turkeys

This was the work of wildlife visitors to our deck last summer.

We believe it was a raccoon. I don’t remember how many times I planted those same flowers, some of them didn’t make it.

We also have squirrels, birds, a woodchuck. In the deer picture above you can see the hummingbird feeder right outside the window where I was taking the picture. I also had a feeder outside my sewing room window too. I don’t have a clothesline put up yet, just line strung between some trees. One little hummingbird would take a drink, then go sit on the line for awhile, then back to the feeder. They are so much fun to watch!

Today we had a very cold day, it was –29.4F this morning. It warmed (?) all the way up to –4. And we had some snow. I’m not sure if it’s still snowing or not.

Enough for now.

An Amazing Quilter

2011-01-18T10:20:00.000-06:00

I just watched a you tube video.

Look at those beautiful quilts! I can only hope to do that good.

Over and Under baby quilt

2011-01-16T14:52:00.001-06:00

I’m a member of the Learning Fiber Arts group, and made a quilt from a class this weekend. Usually, I sign up for a class with good intentions to work along with everyone, and then---life gets in the way. This time I had the day free to work on the class. This is what I accomplished:

Years ago I made a summer bedspread similar to this. I had seen a segment of Georgia Bonesteel’s PBS series, and she showed a quilt, using two fabrics. I don’t remember the name of the quilt, I don’t think it was O & U, maybe Woven Wonder or Interlock. I never remember. I had no pattern, I just went by the episode I had taped. And I must have used the measurements Georgia used.

The blocks in this are much larger, just two across. I had planned on making all blocks, and no borders. But I got tired of that and stopped at six, which covered the mattress and up over the pillows. So then I proceeded to make a couple of fussy borders. Hmmm, don’t quite remember how I thought those borders would be easier/faster. The other side of the quilt is three shades of white on white and cream on cream. There is no batting, since I wanted it for summer. So I decided on those neutral, light, colors so that they wouldn’t show through the green/white side. It doesn’t show. Anything. It’s a very blah quilt. And I spent a lot of time on it. And I hate it. So I always use the green/white side, which I love.

So anyway, to get back to yesterday’s class, these are the fabrics I used:

I used fabrics from my stash, so the colors could have been better, but I think they go together alright.

I worked on all four blocks at a time.

It was recommended to use solids. I don’t like solids. Since I was making a baby quilt, I used a Care Bears print for the main fabric, then picked four as close as I could get to the colors in the print. Not very close, but somewhat there.

I got the idea to keep each background piece together with the strips just separating the pieces. So I sewed contrasts to backgrounds, and intended to lay it all out like a jigsaw puzzle and sew the next ones together. I had all the strips sewed to a background [which are bias edges], and I was pressing. It occurred to me, that the strips had to be sewed to the proper side of the background to make it all fit back together. Yup. They weren’t. So I didn’t get to sew it back together like I planned.

This is how I planned on putting the blocks together:

I took pictures of the different ways of arranging the blocks [turned out to be only two ways], and I’m glad I did, because I liked this arrangement much better.

I almost stopped there, at about 30” square, but decided that was smaller than I wanted. I had enough of the dark green for cutting 1 3/4” strips for an inner border. Then I cut 2 1/2” strips for an outer border. I didn’t use a binding, I sewed right sides together with about a half inch seam. Trimmed the batting to the stitching line. I used a decorative stitch all the way around the edge to close in the opening for turning.

For quilting I just chalked curved lines from point to point, and straight stitched with a walking foot and variegated thread.

While I was working on the blocks, I kept thinking of having a large print separated by strips of fabric. Someday I’d like to try a large scale print, maybe a pillow panel, and use one inch for the contrasting strips. One inch would keep the background all in position as it was. Providing I can remember to keep everything all arranged and going the right way. But that’s for another time!

Christmas gifts

2011-01-09T20:41:00.001-06:00

Here are things I sewed for Christmas. This is a reversible apron I made for Amanda.

Here’s a close up of one of the pockets: The ruffle I made with both fabrics, so that each side would have the contrasting ruffle.

Then I made another one, also reversible. For this one I put the pocket piece all the way across and sewed it into 3 sections. I remember my mom having an apron with the pocket all the way across. That eliminated the need for exactly positioning the pockets on each side so that the stitching catches them both. The pockets could be of contrasting fabric, but I didn’t have any.

The neck strap and tie are all one piece, run through casings on each curved edge. This wonderful, neat idea I found by doing a search and finding a blog, yardsandyards. If you’re looking for an apron pattern, be sure to check out Anna’s tutorial.

I also made some potato baking bags. I searched for patterns for this also, and CraftSanity had the best, simplest, pattern that I found.

I made a Cootie Cover for Elizabeth, too. I think this is the fourth one I’ve made from the pattern. I decided to use fleece instead of batting and a backing. Wow. Did I have problems with that! I kept having skipped stitches and thread breaking. I wrote in to both of the Husqvarna groups I belong to, and had all sorts of suggestions, including eating cookies, and using a ballpoint needle. I had to go buy the needles, and that did the trick. Or was it the cookies???

The purpose is for putting on a shopping cart, it’s draped over a chair here, those are the leg holes, with the webbing belt above. It has elastic all around the edge [is that ever fun putting that through the casing-NOT!]

I hope I haven’t bored you all to death with all this posting on one day. Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things and post more often.

Happy New Year everyone!

Veggie Tales diaper bag

2011-01-09T19:09:00.001-06:00

This is the diaper bag I made before Elizabeth was born. I started with a tutorial I found in Moda bakeshop. Of course, I had to change things. I put pockets along the front and back. It’s a Veggie Tale border print, and the perfect size for pockets. The whole front and back is pockets, divided by the webbing into 3 sections. This shows the pockets with stuff sticking out.

There is also a pocket on each end, but I don’t find a picture of that, and they’re cute. I’ll have to take a picture of that too.

I used Timtex [or something similar] in all of it, I wanted it to stand up.

For the pockets on the front and back, I fused the Timtex to the wrong side of the print

I trimmed away the excess

and then I don’t remember what I did. I know the pocket was lined, but what exactly I did, I don’t know. And I can’t find the Word document I did up on it.

I also put pockets on the inside [can’t have too many pockets]

I did a search and found my Word document, but it’s not very complete. I was having lots of problems with it, and I knew I’d never make another one, so I guess I have up writing down what I was doing.

I had a few strips sewed together that were leftover too, and it was just enough for what I needed. The original pattern had a zipper down the center of the top, but I thought that that wouldn’t leave enough room to get into the bag. But of course I didn’t think of that until I had it all cut for a center zipper, that’s why there’s a strip of black in the middle of the top. I put a zipper with 2 pulls around the sides and front.

I just used black for the bottom of the bag, and for the shoulder strap.The quilting I did was just a gentle curving line, crisscrossing back and forth. I had a variegated thread that was the perfect color for this project.

I had the Timtex fused to all the outside pieces, so I couldn’t sew the lining to it right sides together and then turn it, it was too stiff for that. So I had to struggle with sewing the zipper to the bag first and then secure the lining to it. What a job! No wonder I gave up writing down what I was doing!! But I got it done and to Cari in time to get it packed and ready for the trip to the hospital. She was pleased to get the blanket that matched the bag. And I still have some fabric left!! I’ll have to figure out what to make out of that—maybe a small wallhanging??

Cat in the Hat!!

2010-12-29T20:10:00.001-06:00

If you love the Cat in the Hat, like I do, Dawn’s Quilt Corner is giving away 7 [yes, SEVEN!] yards of Cat in the Hat fabric on New Year’s Day. I would love to have that fabric. That was my favorite book. My mom’s cousin gave it to me, and my mom had to read it over and over, until I learned to read it for myself. I read it to my kids, too. So head on over to Dawn’s blog and enter!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Wishes

2010-12-25T08:12:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas to all! I hope you have a wonderful day. There are a few snowflakes floating down. New granddaughter Elizabeth will be here in a few hours—haven’t seen her in a week and a half—. I have to put the turkey and the ham in the oven, and try out a new recipe for crescent rolls. Baked beans, stuffing and sweet potatoes are in their crockpots. Potatoes are peeled, just some little things to get going.
So I better get going.

Merry Christmas!

Hi! Remember me??

2010-12-22T22:29:00.001-06:00

It’s certainly been awhile since I posted anything. I still don’t have my computer up and running like it was before I had to send it in.

Are you ready for Christmas? I’m not. I still have a couple of gifts to sew up yet. All of our kids will come on New Year’s Day, so I do have next week to finish up.

Here is the quilt I made for Elizabeth. Of course, I used EQ7 to design it.

I didn’t do much for quilting on it, stitch in the ditch around the black sashing and border. I just free motioned around the tops of the figures. I don’t remember if I did anything in the outer border or not.

Somewhere I read about using fabric to frame a label, to make it easier to sew on. What a great idea! It’s always so hard to handstitch through the photo fabric. Two sides are the binding, and the other two are the fabric. Wish I would have known that years ago.

I also made a diaper bag out of the same fabric, but I can’t find that picture.

Here is a stocking made for Kaylee, the granddaughter born last April.

I made one for Elizabeth, too, but I’m not finding that either.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Introducing Elizabeth Rosina

2010-12-08T14:01:00.000-06:00

She was born 11:53pm Monday, December 6. She weighed 6# 14 oz, 19". Long, thick, dark hair just like her mama when she was born. She's just gorgeous!

I've had computer problems, and now am trying to get this laptop up and running again with all my programs. Hopefully I'll find some time in the very new future to post what else has been going on.

Quilt Stolen

2010-11-17T11:58:00.001-06:00

I just read about this stolen quilt and thought I’d pass it on in hopes that someone sees it, and it’s returned to it’s rightful owner.

A quilt from the past…

2010-11-14T18:07:00.001-06:00

I made this quilt in January of 1984. My third baby was due in May. I already had 2 boys, one would be almost 9 and the other almost 7 when the baby was born. I hadn’t done a lot of quilting up to that time. I found a strip of blocks, they must have been 6”, just a remnant, that I thought were really cute, so I bought them. I think I must have found more of the fabric later.

I don’t remember if I asked my mom how to do it, or if I just followed my own ideas.

I cut each individual square and sewed [basted] it onto another square, then hand stitched around the outline. I slit that foundation square and stuffed each figure, sewed the slit shut.

I didn’t know if it was a boy or girl [this was back in the dark ages] so I used greens and yellows along with the pinks and blues . I used yellow as the background between the blocks and the first border.

The second border is a print with all the colors and white, it’s not as pink as it shows in the picture above. I also sewed 2 widths of 1” lace at the edge of this border after sewing on the outer gingham border, and I mitered the lace at the corners. I just folded this border over to the back instead of binding, and topstitched that down. The backing is a print with the same colors and cute little animals.

I hand quilted along the seam lines of the background fabric after all the layers were together.

And I know all this because I had a little notebook that I wrote down info about the things I sewed – date, who it was for, pattern, size, changes I made to the pattern, anything I thought was important. I scanned this page and made a label for the quilt, along with my name, address, phone # when I made it, who for, and who that baby turned out to be, and that it was now for her baby, who is due very soon.

It took me about 3 days, and cost about $10.

More Fall and a taste of Winter

2010-11-03T06:05:00.001-05:00

We had some snow a week ago, the ground was white in places, but thankfully, it didn’t stay. It made for some yulcky roads. Just a taste of what’s to come. I’m ready for spring. [Would you believe I’m not a fan of winter??]

Here are more of my fall quilts. I think I made this one for my mom several years ago. I put it on the back of the rocking chair—not enough flat surfaces. The back is Christmas fabric.

This one is just squares and a border. Those flowers are the last of the marigolds. I’ve never had fresh flowers so late in the fall before. I finally threw them away on Monday, they were dried up, so I gave in and tossed them.

It’s not very visible, but there is a tablerunner under there. It’s stars with fussy cut cardinals. I just love that fabric. The plants are a Christmas cactus, an amaryllis [thank goodness for spellcheck!] and I’m not sure what the last one is, it’s a type of cactus. Some of the ‘leaves’ are wide and flat, and some are just little round things. Whatever, I like it. The ghost is something I bought from Avon. It lights up and the color changes. There is also a candle on the right. It’s a clear glass with the black candle floating on water above ghosts. The clock in the background is one that my dad made years ago. It chimes every quarter hour. I like the sounds. I have a small one here in my sewing room which also chimes. That one is about a minute or two ahead of the one in the living room, which is a couple minutes fast also. So we know what time it going to be…

I found a new sewing blog today, Shellie Sews. It doesn’t appear to be quilting, but clothing sewing. I haven’t had a chance to look all through it, but I’m going to. I used to sew all clothing, and I’m trying to do more of that. So hopefully, I’ll be able to learn from Shellie.

She’s having a giveaway, a really cute little girl skirt pattern, and some fabric to make it. I think my Abby would look really cute in that skirt! So go check out Shellie’s blog and sign up for her giveaway.

Now I have to get to work. I’m working on Cari’s baby quilt. I won’t post any pics or give any details til after the baby is born. Cari knows I’m making it, but isn’t sure on the fabric. All she knows is that the fabric isn’t Classis Pooh—I couldn’t find any of that. But I think she’ll like it. I made a diaper bag also that I can’t post about until I give it to her. Another month to go—can’t wait!!

I think fall is here

2010-10-23T16:55:00.001-05:00

We’ve had a change in our weather—it’s dreary and rainy today. This is the first rain we’ve had in about a month.

The other day I packed up and put away most of my summer clothes. I finally found the box with my winter long-sleeved shirts and my winter jammies. I also found my fall wallhangings. These 2 are quite old:

The first has fluffy poly batting. Way back when I made it, I didn’t know about cotton batting. It is reversible, with Christmas fabrics on the back [I’ll show you that later].

This one is also reversible with Thanksgiving on the other side, which is why the binding doesn’t really coordinate with the border—it does match the other side.

I know I have some dowels for hanging, but I have no idea where they are. So…I went out and cut some twigs with leaves on them. The only leaves left on the trees are the red oaks.

This one is with a fall theme on the other side.

Now I have to write up instructions for making a tree skirt made with 5” squares. I’ll post a couple more fall pictures later.

I installed Microsoft Office 2010 today, and part of it is for blog posts. This is working like Word, by capitalizing words, and auto-correcting. I like that, but I’m not seeing how to use categories for the post. If anyone knows how to do that, let me know please.

Okay, that didn’t work—no pics, so I went back to Live Writer—no auto-correct, but now I have categories to add.

Copyright issues

2010-10-13T06:30:00.001-05:00

Debbie at Stitchin’ Therapy posted a link to Bonnie Hunter’s blog post about an magazine article about copyright. It’s so refreshing to read about a designer who wants her work to be used and seen. I believe in copyright, but some carry it much too far.

When I write my patterns up so I know what to do the next time I want to make it, I KNOW how much goes into a pattern. The tote bag I made recently—I started out writing down what I was doing, then just gave up. I don’t ever want to make THAT bag again. It was such a pain doing it the way I did it—I don’t want that pattern! Same with the diaper bag I’m making. I had found a diaper bag tutorial and started there. But I had my own ideas of what I wanted in it, and have made numerous changes to it. I kinda gave up on keeping track of what I was doing, especially after ripping out goofs so many times! And I don’t want to make this bag again!!

So yes, respect designer’s rights, but let’s not get carried away!

Not much sewing lately

2010-10-12T06:15:00.001-05:00

We’ve had such beautiful weather the last couple of weeks, above normal temps and lots of sunshine.

Saturday we cleaned up the yard. Mike mowed off the sewer mound and then picked up leaves. The whole mound is mulched. I hope that with all the leaves on it, I can get ahead of the weeds next spring, and the flowers will take over. I have lots of daylilies I can move onto the mound.

Yesterday I transplanted strawberries. We didn’t get much for strawberries this year, I should have set over a new patch last fall already.

Then I washed the van and the truck. Of course, today rain is in the forecast.

I have been sewing on a diaper bag for Cari. Once I give it to her I’ll post some pictures. She knows I’m making it, but not what the fabric is.

Zippered Patch Pocket instructions

2010-10-04T05:33:00.001-05:00

1] Prepare the zipper as for the hidden zipper. The zipper should be about 1½” shorter than the width you want for your pocket. The prepared zipper should be the unfinished width of the pocket.

2] Cut or piece the front of the pocket to the desired finished size plus about an inch longer and wider for seam allowances. Cut a lining the same size. If you want a firmer pocket, cut and fuse batting to the front, keeping it out of the seam allowances. Cut the top/back of the pocket about 2” longer than the front. Cut a lining the same size.

3] Pin the right side of the front to the right side of the zipper. Pin the lining piece to the wrong side of the zipper. Stitch close to the zipper teeth. Repeat with the top/back pieces.

[Disregard the length of the zipper in the picture--I now know better.]

4] Topstitch close to the teeth on the front piece through the zipper tape and lining.

5] Fold the top/back piece down behind the front.

Press a crease and trim to the same length of the front if necessary. Fold it to the front and sew a seam along both sides, trim seam allowance slightly. Turn right side out.

6] Place the pocket on the bag. If the pocket will reach to the bottom of the bag, place it with the raw edges of the bottom of the pocket even with the raw edges of the bottom of the bag. If the pocket doesn’t go to the bottom of the bag, turn the raw edges of the pocket under. Pin to keep it in place. Topstitch the sides [and bottom, if necessary] close to the edge, and again about a quarter inch from the edge. This will completely encase the seam allowance from step 5.

You now have a zippered patch pocket, with an open pocket behind it.

Hidden Zipper Pocket instructions

2010-10-03T09:25:00.001-05:00

Zipper in purse back [or front]

Cut 2 pieces [any fabric you are using in the bag] 1½” x 2½”. Fold in half crosswise and press a crease. Open up and place the piece RST with the zipper, the crease at where the zipper will end. The zipper should end ¾” from the raw edge at each side of the purse body. [When finished, this zipper unit has to be the size of the width of the purse body. Depending on the length of the zipper you may have to cut the pieces longer than 2½”, for example, if you don’t want the zipper to go all the way across the width of the bag].

Stitch across the crease [blue dotted line], you will be stitching across the zipper teeth, so stitch carefully.

Fold fabric piece WST in half again and sew across the zipper tape at the end of the teeth [purple dotted line] and trim the tape. This is the wrong side of the zipper. Trim the fabric pieces even with the edge of the zipper tape[red lines].

This unit will be at least as wide as the purse body. It can be trimmed later if it’s too wide, but keep the zipper tape out of the seam allowance to eliminate bulk.

Cut the purse body back in 2 sections [can use 2 different fabrics] along the line of zipper placement, ADDING 1” to both sections for seam allowances; after the zipper is in you will cut the correct size. [Optional: if you want to hide the zipper, add 2” to the bottom section.] If there is no zipper placement indicated on the pattern, determine where you would like the zipper to be. 2-3” below the top of the purse is a good location.

Find the center of the zipper tape [black line above], and the center of each purse body section. Match center of tape to center of bottom piece, RST. Stitch close to the zipper teeth. Press fabric away from the zipper teeth and stitch on the fold close to the zipper teeth. *

Cut the batting and interfacing same size as the original back piece before modifying to put in a zipper, fuse interfacing to the batting. Cut the batting and interfacing in 2 sections also, but no need to cut any extra length.

*optional: to hide the zipper, bring the fabric up [right side of fabric against the zipper teeth] and fold back down [wrong side of fabric to wrong side of fabric], with the fold just above the top [unsewn side of the zipper tape] of the zipper. Press a crease. Place the bottom batting and interfacing section against the crease.

Match the right side of the pocket** to the wrong side of the zipper, raw edge of pocket even with the edge of the zipper tape, stitch in the seam allowance from sewing in the zipper. Start and stop ⅜” from the edge of the pocket piece. Topstitch through the pocket and zipper seam allowances.

**cut the pocket as wide as you’d like it to be, you can make it the entire width of the bag, or the length of the zipper.

Sew top of zipper to top section. Press away from the zipper teeth. Fold pocket piece up and sew right side of pocket to wrong side of zipper, along the entire edge of the pocket piece. Stitch the edges of the pocket together with a straight stitch and zigzag or serge over the edges [no need to finish the edges of the pocket if it will be the full width of the bag. If it’s not the full width, keep it small enough that it’s not caught in the bag seam allowance].

Place the top batting and interfacing section against the crease[where the top of the zipper is sewed to the top section]. With the pocket hanging to the bottom of the body, stitch along the zipper teeth on the top section.

[If you did the optional hidden zipper, fold that back up and baste in place to cover the zipper.] Now use the pattern to cut the completed piece to the correct size. Quilt the bottom and/or top section if desired [pin the pocket out of the way].