Susan's Needlemagic

Borders how do you decide

2012-01-29T13:49:00.000-05:00

Well well, borders are my question. How do you decided what size to make those borders? Of course that is if you are making it on your own. I very rarely go by a pattern. I may attend a quilt show and see something that I like and later, sometimes years, I will remember seeing something wonderful and try to recreate it by memory. Oh I have patterns but you will find them in pristine condition, well there is one or two I actually followed, but normally I just go for it. So then I get to borders and sometimes I just get lost in what size to make them. Oh I had a fellow retreater pull out a book that gave 'rules' for size of sashing to block size with border size to quilt size. Well I am NOT a rules person and then to think that there are rules for being creative! So at another retreat one time I was debating on borders and a fellow retreater, Gail gave me her perspective, 'I just cut my borders the width of my ruler.'
This is Gail at a sew in we had recently.

Well I gave that a thought and grabbed the 3½" ruler and cut, sewed, then there was an 8" ruler so I cut the next ones with that. So I went and bought different size rulers and have lived by that 'rule' now. So when you are designing on your own what dictates your border size? Do you go with the 'rules' of acceptability or just do your own thing.

Well this is a quilt I call Simple Girl. Note the borders. Not what was found in the book. But what I wanted. When making this the fellow retreater with the 'book' kept telling me I was wrong to do it this way. She finally gave up trying to make me see it the 'book' way and left me alone. I really like the results of this. I really like how it turned out. These borders came from what fabric I had left from the center top and went from there on how to use it most effectively or efficiently. And that is how I figure my borders, what do I have left and or cut it with what ever size ruler I have.

Well the grandson turned 9 couple weeks ago and two weeks before his birthday he and his brother inform me that they need new quilts for their birthdays this year. So I went to retreat the weekend in between and had to make his quilt. Note the borders were easy to decide, had to go with how much fabric I had. I had bought fabric couple years back for him a new quilt so I got it out and got it done. I used all fabric but about one strip 4½" x 8". Yep cut it close but he loved it.

I hope he gets some good use out of it. He loves science and that kind of stuff so the planets and space was his theme. He even told which planet was which on there.

So let me know what are your thoughts on borders!

Record 2 days in a row

2012-01-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

Yep, It is me again. Back to fill you in on my of my doings. Well right around Thanksgiving my camera went on the fritz so I thought I was getting pictures but didn't. I know everyone always stops in to see the pretty quilts but I only have a few to show. I have gotten a new camera and of course learning something new again isn't the easiest. Christmas was wonderful. The grankids were here two weeks before and help put up the tree. We had a blast. They didn't break any of the ornaments and got them distrubuted fairly evenly. Then the day after Christmas they came over and the middle child had a cold. He was just shakiing with the chills, well that didn't stop me from hugging and kissing and guess who got sick on the 29th of DEC? Yep me. Still have a bad cough but I only missed one day of work with it. Somedays I didn't think I was going to make it but I trudged on through. I have to say this cold is horrible. Well the grandkids were here last weekend and they helped me take the tree down and we only broke 3 ornaments. hmmm taking down not near as cautious as putting up.

This is Mary's. I love love love pink and brown. This one reminds me of candy. I dont know why but I just think of pieces of hard candy when I look ot this one. Great job Mary, makiing me hungry,lol.

When the Grankids were here last weekend the oldest boy came running into the living room yelling 'grandma ya gotta come quick you got a serious problem!'
What is it Devon I ask
'You got water running everywhere'
Ok it wasn't everywhere but it was coming out of the ceinling of my sewing room, right onto my cutting table. UH OH that is coming from the sink upstairs. So now I have started out 2012 with a doozy of a cold, camera broke and now my house is leaking. Yep 2012 is going to be my year I can tell.

Ok I better go try to figure out how to take my pics off the new camera and put them on here. see ya soon!

Well oh Well oh Well

2012-01-22T00:14:00.000-05:00

This quilt was appliuqed by Paul. He is a hand stitcher and usually does a whole cloth. I had given him this kit a couple years back and when he found himself in rehab he found that all he could do was applique, so this kit was done and then he gave it to me to quilt. I thought for sure he would had quilt it, just goes to show you I shouldn't think. It is a stunner. I was given three of these old applique kits and I kept one and my mother got the other one. I told my Mom that Paul had done his so she got hers out and I am sure that she has it close to being done by now. Mine well..............................................someday. someday.

I went home for Thanksgiving, it was great to see the family, or at least what I got to see of them. It is so hard to see everyone when you have such limited time and each family was celebrating individually. For those that don't know I am from SW MO area but raised in SE KS. All that area is 'home' to me. I don't get to go back as often as I would like and when I do it is always a struggle to see everyone.
I took quilts down to Joplin for the tornado victims from my local club here in IN. I had informed my sister that lives there what I was bringing so she hooked me up with some of her past co-workers that had lost their homes in the tornado, so we passed some of the quilts out to them. I then left the remaider with her and my Mom to pass out as they wished. They went down one street and handed them out to people who had rebuilt and moved back in as welcome home quilts. Wish I could have went with them, but once again that time thing.

This is Anita's cute wallhanging, loved making it into Buttflies in the Garden. The lovely floral just screamed garden to me and what better to have but butterflies fluttering in the garden. She seemed to be thrilled with it!

This is a bay quilt made by Rejena. Now I have to say that my camera has been acting up and sometimes it would take pics and then other times NOT. Like when I went to Joplin none of my Thanksgiving pics turned out. So I tried using my hubby's camera. Why is it we get used to something and can't seem to adjust to something new. Well I am not please with the quality of the pics with his camera, everything seems orangie. I guess what I am trying to say is this quilt is more vibrant than what this shows. Once again great job Rejena!

This is Sherry's for some reason I am thinking I may have posted this one. But oh well it deserves a 2nd look. This is a pattern I have always wanted to try but cutting by templates scare me to death. When Sherry dropped it off for me to do she said if I had any problems just call her. So of course you know I had to let her know that a problem had arisen "I couldn't pry it out of my hands" Oh how I love it. So you know I have added it to my list to do. I wonder if I will ever get my list done or even make a dent in it.

So much more to say, like my 12 goals for 2012 but getting late and my eyes are heavy so better get off for now. Tomorrow I will come back with more.

Time has flown by with my eyes wide shut!

2011-10-22T14:33:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that it is the 22. I last blogged on the ......9th. I knew I probably wouldn't make every day but I thought for sure I could do atleast 2 or 3 times a week. Well boy was I wrong. But I have been working.

This is Rejena's. She loves this pattern and has done it on another quilt or two. Can't you see why!Such a striking quilt for such a simple design. This was her first works with Homespuns and I have to say she did great with them. I now know when I need assistance with those stretchy Homespuns who I can turn to. Once again Rejena great job.

This next quilt is Melissa M's , her and I bartered for this quilting. She had a bunch of old Feed Sacks and I have long arm. Well you now know who owns some of those feed sacks don't you. She is making a series of quilts of the 4 seasons. These hang in the entry room of her home. She has Summer hanging still, so this is her Fall. I hope she gets it bound in time. Or I guess I hope she has Winter started.

Well now I just need to find the rest of my photos. hmmmm wonder where I put them

Day 8 of blogtoberfest

2011-10-09T12:42:00.000-04:00

Whewre has time went. One day it was day 4 and I was going to post pics the next day and now here it is day 8 and I am just getting back to my blog. All I can say is working working working. Day job is going great guns and with Christmas coming the quilting is steady and in demand. So Yes my only excuse is I am staying busy. So here is a couple I have done.

This is Arletta's. It was so big that I couldn't hang it outside so I just grab a shot in the house.this is the first one I have done for her so I hope she likes it, She had other quilts done by someone else and wanted me to do the sam thing as they had. Uh Oh ! Gotta do what some one else did, I hope I understand what she wants right. Well then she had and emergency and her hubby picked it up so I may really never know if it was really what she wanted or not. But from what I could understand by her explaination it was just meandering hearts. So I did just my basic meandering hearts. But no matter Arletta what a lovely quilt.

This is another of Margie's. Margie is more than just a great quilter she is a great friend. I love getting her quilts they are all so different. If you don't rememeber I did a whole post of nothing but hers sometime last month. You can find it here. so just add another to that show. She was a little skeptical on this one. She thought the borders may be to big and struggled for months on quilt it or take it apart. I am so glad that she had it quilted. Even tho it is slightly off it still looks wonderful and after she washes it no on will know. Heck I doubt if many would know now. This quilt is made from her late Mother In Laws left over scraps and I believe maybe some clothing. So yes the fabrics are questionable in todays standards but the meaning of this quilt out weighs any of that other stuff. Margie I know your Hubby or one of the kids will love having this quilt made from Mom or Grandma's things. And to top it all off it is a wonderful design and beautiful quilt. So pretty!! Another job well done Margie.

Blog Blog Blogging away, Days 3 oops and 4

2011-10-04T22:28:00.000-04:00

Yep Day three just slipped right away. I mean I woke up and it was day 4. Does that mean I did nothing or does that mean I was so busy that I didn't have time. I am going with the latter. That is my story and I am sticking to it. I got 2 customer quilts done but have not downloaded a pic of either so you will have to wait. You know I was telling you about the shop hop I went on,,, well I won one of the smaller gifts. Yeehaawww. I have only ever won one other time so it is cause for celebration. Whooott WWhoooottt Toot Toot. Happy Dance Happy Dance. I am going out to buy lottery tickets tomorrow. I mean my luck has changed I won the FQ's from Linda last month and now this. I went and picked up my winnings and got a small bat of Dream Blend and pattern book and some Christmas fabric. Yep feeling pretty happy about it. I also have started knitting a pair of socks for a friend of mine. We are bartering services. She is a wonderful fantastic artist. As in painter. So she is going to paint my sign out front for wool winter socks. Yippee! I love to knit. Yep I will have to get a pic of them too. But right now that darn camera is so stubborn. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Hmm sounds like the owner. Ok pics tomorrow I promise!

Blogtoberfest Day2

2011-10-02T20:19:00.000-04:00

Well I have been having trouble with my camera but I managed to get a pic of the quilt I did for Ruby.
I have never done a whole cloth panel so this was something new. I love trying new things. I sure didn't want to put to much one here and Ruby wanted it double layered with batting so it was puffy. I had some glow in the dark thread that I wanted to do the outlining of Jesus in but I think it was too old, it wouldn't run at all. It broke before I could take a stitch. So I pitched it and went back to normal thread. I think it turned out great ans she seemed to love it. As a quilter sometimes you get nervous when the customer comes to pick up their quilt, you just don't know how they will react. I mean just because I like it doesn't mean they will. But she seemed pleased and ohhhed and ahhhed with a smile on her face. I am thinking that doing a panel wasn't so bad.
Well my birthday was Friday, did I mention that? see the age thing is creeping in. Well any how my hubby sent me this cute balloon to work.

The gals at work thought it sounded like me too. So my new favorite phase (apparently I say it all the time anyway) is whatever.

Well it was a good day for football, my beloved KC Chiefs finally won this year. Wahoo go Chiefs. If only Carl Edwards would have won the NASCAR race it would have been a perfect day.
Well I have to finish another quilt so I better get er done.

Another year gone as another month gone

2011-10-01T19:48:00.002-04:00

Small blog Hopping going ons, I did spend sometime checking out new blogs. You know some people seem to have a lot more blog sense than me. I can't figure most of this out. I want buttons to go to different pages but no I can't manage that. But any way I getting way off track but then not really when you read this next part.Also for my going ons in SEP , I really haven't kept track but I posted the going ons in the previous posts. And you know what I need some instructions on how to make those collage pics that so many do. but check out the button on the sidebar for the small blog hop or the fresh sewing day. It is really a great way to meet other bloggers.

Well Well Well, yesterday was birthday so I am another year older. Hmm I don't feel older I feel younger. Ok OK I know I am lying now. The hubby took me out for a steak dinner and then home where I spent time looking through some quilting books. Yep you can tell not much on my mind. I went on a Shop Hop today. Yea. I said I wasn't going to but then I thought go for it. Take the day for me. My journey was for black and white FQ's and I did well. Only veered off the path a few times. Once for a new bolt of red of Bella solids from Moda. I think I got heck of a deal. $57.00 for 16 yards. Then again veered off at a sale table that had some solid Tan for $5.00 a yard got 5 yards, should make a nice back for some quilt. Also got a yard of tree, leaf type for my son and grandsons hunting quilt. Not sure what to do with it but for $5.00 yard I know I can throw it in somewhere. so the third time I veered it was for again some sale fabric a nice beige for $5.00 got 5 yds of it too. Then the 4th and last time I went down the wrong road was for just 2 half yard cuts of yellows. They were just $2.00 each and it seems I am always needing a yellow for something. So 9 shops and I only went down the wrong road 4 times. I really didn't think that it was too bad. Now I managed to acquire 14 new black and white FQ's. I think I have what I need now for what I want to do. I would show you a pic of my new yummies but the camera doesn't want to work for me. Yes it has been acting up so I think a new one is on the short list. But I have managed to get a couple pics of things I have been doing so here goes.....

This was on my machine for the last FNSI and I did get it done and it was hanging for the contest. This belongs to Diane M and her ability to pick out colors is superb. I would have like to keep this one I love the lime and blue combo. OK I know what am I talking about I want to keep all the quilts that come through my door. But yes I really liked this one. I liked how she chose to use the same background fabric as the sashing,making it look like all the blocks are floating. Great job once again Diane!

So this next quilt is mine.

I did this top as a mystery for a retreat in 2008. When I did it I just pulled from what I had enough of and boy howdy did I ever pull out some weird ones. The aqua is of some really cheap 70's fabric. But since it was just for a sample I thought why not. Then the burnt orange came from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I knew the two colors didn't go together but since it was for a sample I didn't care. So for the past three years I have been trying to quilt this. I would start something then have to take it off the machine and it sat for a year or so. Put it back on and think OH I don't like that but this is too cheap of fabric I can't rip it out. Take it back off and let it sit for another year or so. Finally I got it all done all in all I think I had this on my machine at least 8 times and off it 7. So I know the curves aren't the same and swirls are different but Oh well it will be going on my bed for me to use and I know it help keep hubby and I warm and that is all that matters. I thought about giving it to Joplin tornado victim but I just can't give em that cheap fabric. Well even with all of it's ups (were there any) and it's downs I love this quilt. I call it Odd Couple since these are two colors that normally aren't together.

So I also have decided to join Blogtoberfest just another way to meet other bloggers. Use this link or the button on the side bar.

Well I have to finish one for a customer that is going out the door tomorrow so I best be getting to it.

Friday Night Sew In and...

2011-09-18T10:36:00.002-04:00

Well this post was suppose to be yesterday but I got so busy. Life has been busy the past couple weeks or should I say strange and confrontational. I will get to that later but here is the FNSI doings.

These are crazy Birds. I did a swap on internet group and was talking with my sister about them. She thought they were cute so she decided she wanted to swap some of them too. Well then she got our mother roped into it too. So I am making more of them to go with the ones I swapped via internet. Oh goodie I should have a nice wall hanging when done.

When I got bored of the birds and grass I worked on this quilt. It is a customer quilt and has to been finished this weekend. I believe the pattern name is tangled and the designer was around here recently and even signed this top. This next weekend is a shop hop and LQS is sponsoring a contest with all the Tangled quilts. I gotta get this done so she can bind it and have it at the shop Thursday.

This is my design wall and it has plenty of projects on it. The one I worked on FNSI was the applique border. I worked on the right one it is in by my chair in the living room, so when I watch TV I can work on it. I looks like the one on the left. I have over half of it done, I am using the needle turn applique method. No I am not to good but practice make better right.

So that is what I worked on for the FNSI

Well you remember a couple posts back I won a give away. Well here are the yummy FQ's

I won these from Linda I really really love the top pink and brown one. I have been making and swapping pink and brown 6" blocks for years. I mean years. I laid them out once and decided I needed around 22 more blocks to do what I wanted. I can see the top 3 of these fabrics being in that quilt top now. So guess what I got those and put them in sight. So now I may actually work on them soon.

Now to tell you everything that has went on here the last couple of weeks. As you know the ankle problem well it must be better I am starting to walk to work again. YAY ! Well anyway... The hubby decided to change from DishNetwork to Direct TV and take the unlimited long distance off our phone since we both have cell phones. So one day I come home from work and we can no longer call out on our phone just receive calls. Ok no problemo we have cell phones. Labor day weekend the Direct Tv goes out. No it is not storming, yes it all plugged in. Sorry but we can't get any one there till Thursday. OMG now no TV and your Sorry. Not near as sorry as I am. I mean what am I going to do. I still can't stand that much and I have the sewing machine tore apart cleaning it. I spent alot of time cleaning out the machine and I did manage to quilt some.And of course went blog hopping. Like I said every day the ankles are getting better but still not 100%. So now on Tues I go off to work and come home to no phone at all and no internet. NOW what. Well it seems when embarq saw that we took off our long distance someone there thought we cancelled our services. NO we still wanted stand alone internet. So now it was a very quiet day, I needed to let Linda know that the FQ's arrived and the hostess of the Crazy Bird swap that mine arrived. I think by this time we had an antenna so we could at least watch the basic channels on one TV in the house. Sewing machine is back together and I am quilting a little bit. Then I get the call from ex daughter in law could I keep the kids for the weekend. My son well lets just say I don't blame her for not wanting the kids there. So talk about exhausting and head spinning. I am not, absolutely not used to kids being around. Took them to the Healing Field.

This is a place to Honor, Respect, Reflect upon those that have given their life for our country. It is also a Memorial for all those that perished in the 9/11 tragedy. Had a World Trade Center Museum with bits and pieces from there. Very moving.

Come Mon I think I felt a relief when I had to go to work. After work I came home and fell fast asleep in the chair, woke up with a stiff neck. I am hoping that things are calmed down now and I can get one with my boring ole life. So now that catches you up on the short version of my life. Aren't you glad I gave you the short version?

In a giving mood

2011-09-16T21:02:00.000-04:00

I saw this over at Natalie's and like the idea--who doesn't like getting random gifts in the mail throughout the year? So, here we go:

Rules:

1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people that comment on this post. It will be a surprise and may arrive at any time in the next 365 days (yes, a year).

2. To sign up to receive a gift from me you must play along too. Share the giving love on your blog by promising to send a handmade goodie to the first three people that comment on your blog post.

3. You must have a blog.

4. After commenting on my post, you have to post this (or similar) on your blog to spread the love.

I don't know if three people will even get around to commenting on this, but I will say that if you find this post 6 months from now and only 2 people have bothered to comment, you can still be commenter #3 and get a random goodie from me! When you comment, I'll email you and get your address and then you should get something from me sometime before next September.

Back to the Grind

2011-09-05T23:18:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I have to go back to work. UGH! I have been working on quilting this weekend so it is not like I haven't been doing anything. I Have spent alot of time right here at this computer surfing small blogs and playing games. I would have liked to been watching some TV but Direct TV put a stop to that. We changed from Dish Network to Direct 2 weeks ago and Sun morning whisssssstt nothing but white. I guess it has done this a couple other times while I was gone and the hubby called them and they talked him thru resetting it. Well reset didn't work so back on the phone. 'Oh were sorry but the soonest we can get somebody out there is Thursday'. That is unacceptable! A long weekend and no TV. You don't realize how much you depend on it till it is gone. So..... I have been listening to music, and playing on the computer. Since I still can't stand for any length of time, I would quilt awhile ,sit and play games awhile, quilt awhile, surf blogs, quilt, play games. OK you got the drift.

Ok this is what I managed to get done this weekend. This is Karen O's. This is Bonnie Hunter's RRCB pattern. I didn't do this one and wow what a stunner it is. Lots of little pieces but then what do you expect with Bonnie.

So it be fitting for me to post once again Bonnie draped over my machine.She surprised me with a visit one night while in town. Very very nice lady. Karen did a wonderful job with this one. The close up is the quilting I did on it. It is Feathered Leaf panto a Jodi Beamish design. It has become one of my favorites. I have never been much for pantos but I love this one!

So this next quilt is Diane V's. She did this for her daughter. Some of the hearts have inspiring saying to honor a daughter. The colors on this one are so gorgeous. I absolutely love the color combo!! Diane you did good!

Now did I ever show you the quilts that I have gotten done for myself this year. I am sure that I have in some stage of completion but did I post totally complete. Well I wouldn't think so since I just took pics of them recently. So here they are

Pinwheels Across Indiana. A row by row done with an Internet group from Indiana. I think it turned out wonderful. Better than I had hoped. I love pinwheels and there are a lot of them in this quilt. Thanks to all that had a hand in this quilt. I love it.

Scrappy Diamond Plates. A row by row that I did with my Local Quilt Club. It was their first time doing a row by row so I wanted an easy pattern for them. I was surprised when some of them stated this pattern scared them becuz of having to match all the seams. You know I had never thought of that. So I guess I didn't make their lives easier but instead stressed a few of them. But never the less they did a wonderful job. I took the border pieces from another quilt I was making and made them work for this one. Thanks ladies I love this quilt.

This is also a row by row I did off the Internet. Just a fun fun quilt and one that will always hold a dear and special place in my heart and home. This row by row was specific in having to have red in the blocks and the hostess named the swap Ravishing Red. So that is what I asked everyone to do. Do what you think of when you hear Ravishing Red. Everyone did a wonderful and thoughtful job. I was amazed the shoes have beads sewn on them and the gloves have rings and watches,these gals really put some thought into each row. I mean look at it garters with lace for example. Thank you Thank you ladies of the 4"quilt block group.

Well I best be off for now.

I won something! Little Forrest Quilt Along and Small Blog Meet

2011-09-03T15:26:00.003-04:00

Wow, I can't believe it but I won a give away at Linda's. I think I better go buy me a lottery ticket. Or maybe it is too late since I was picked last Fri. Shucks I should have thought about the lottery ticket earlier. I am excited to get my yummy FQ's. The fun will be deciding what to do with them.......... Oh thanks for having the give away and thank you random generator for picking my number. Go on over and check out her blog. She is co hosting a Little Forrest Quilt Along.with Stephanie,from peas in a pod. I am doing this and I am also joining in a small blog meet and greet. Well that is not the official name but find the button on the left (small blog meet) or check it out here at Lily's quilts and check out some other small bloggers. Since hurting both the ankles I haven't done any sewing. The month of July and Aug have been do only what I had to. I had a couple quilts that had to be quilted and they took me for ever. Only being able to stand for a few minutes at a time and being exhausted from HAVING to work the day job, I let my sewing and quilting get behind. The Orthopedic Dr was bit concerned with my ankles still swelling 7 weeks after falling so he put my in the sexy compression socks and braces on both. One week later now and I went to a one stop shop hop and spent 2 see that 2 hours on my feet. YAY I hope the recovery is a permanent one and not one that I have to wear these things forever. I wish I could show you a bunch of pictures of things I have done this past month but me eating while feet in the air would not be a pretty sight so continue on down to the next post for a virtual quilt show.

Quilt Show

2011-09-03T14:04:00.001-04:00

I have quilted quite a few quilts for Margie and I know I did some of them before I started blogging so I thought I would treat you to what I want to call Margie's quilt show. This is fun just showing everything one gal has done. Oh I do know that she has more but this is just the ones I have easy acess to. The others may just be on film. I hope you enjoy this small cyber quilt show. Some I know the name for and others I don't or just not for sure but either way they are still wonderful to see. Great job Margie, as always I look forward to the next one. Thanks for your return business and the friendship we have made.

As Time goes By

Just for Fun

October Fanfare

Ramblin Rose

Starry Night

Twilight Flurries

Moody BluesDeep space ChristmasTime

Rainbow Fandango

give away and quilt along

2011-08-21T10:31:00.000-04:00

Well! Well! Well! I haven't done much quilting since I have hurt my ankles but thought I would try today and boy within minutes swelling and pain. I can't wait to go to the Orthopedic Dr. I am sure he will tell me it is all the weight that is hampering my recovery. but %&^* I am tied of the hurting!

Well I found this quilt along check it out here, thinking this is kinda of a cute top. Might have to go searching for some fabric for this one, but I am thinking............................ ok you will just have to wait and see. She is having a give away too so don't miss out.

Well It's about Time I showed Up

2011-08-17T22:12:00.000-04:00

I know over a month ago I said "I am going to do better. I am going to make a comeback". Guess you tell that power of postive thinking has done nothing for me. So lets start with way back in July. I had my sisters and parents coming for our 'girls annual gathering'. My dad would stay here at the house and keep my husband entertained while us girls went up to MI to a lake cottage.
Here are the quilts just to keep you entertained!

This is Diane M's. These Lady bugs are so cute! How can you not love this quilt! Diane is a great piecer and I am sure will turn out to be a great quilter too. She is learning to do her own machine quilting on her domestic machine. Go girl! I bet she becomes great at it and won't need me any more so Till then I love looking and working on her tops!

Just a close up of the Lady bugs!

Three of the sisters and my parents all came together in one vehicle from MO, well the sister with the vehicle was over the line a bit into KS. A days drive and they were here. The sister from VT had already arrived and we got to have a nice quiet visit before the others arrived. Then the next day us girls set out for MI. for a wonderful weekend on the lake. While sitting on the deck staring out onto the lake us sisters have a chance to catch up. Two of my sisters quilt along with my mother, one sister is a retired art teacher and the other loves to scrapbook. So sitting there the sis from Vt starts to tell me how I have inspired her by all the internet stuff I do so she looked on the net and found 'this crazy lady doing a mystery' She then holds up a top and viola it is my mystery from this past winter/spring! Then the sister behind her holds up and top and says 'I found her too' and then my mother holds up a top and says 'me too'.

Me standing under the three mystery tops. Sister on left and Mom on right are from MO and sister in middle is from VT. You know I still can't find mine. I know you say how can you loose a top. Well my family has been here and they have seen. I have totes of tops done and when I look one then they seem to get shuffled around. I have to admit I really haven't looked to hard for mine since I don't have time to quilt it anyway. I believe these quilts are all being donated to Joplin MO tornado survivors! I know I need to get mine and put right along with these. Put that on a list of to dos.

So while here at this cottage I took a spill down the stairs. Sprained both my ankles. Not one but BOTH! We are going on 6 weeks now and I put my tennis shoes on for the first time today. Granted the laces were pulled out but I had them on. Weeks ago just the shoe against my foot and ankle hurt. Yes they still hurt and are still swelling. I went to the DR just a few days after I did it and they didn't examine them or even take x-rays. I would think you see this old fat lady and think hmmm brittle bones better check em. But she looked and said it was swollen and wrapped the left one and didn't do a thing on the right one, then sent me on my way. Now mind you the left one is still swelling like a cave mans club and if you put the ace bandage on it it HURTS. The right one hurts on the inside sharp pains but not as much swelling. Crazy I tell ya crazy. so I went to my family Doc on Mon and had x-rays and made an appointment with an ortho doc. Got the call from my Dr today that they took x-rays of the feet not the ankles. So I get to go back again. Yep what ever (if anything) I did to them they will be healed that way by the time I get to the Ortho Dr. So I really haven't been doing much of anything but having my feet up. But here are some quilts I did before all this happend.

This is Kathy's and it is made from recycled mens shirts. Our local club had a challenge for their quilt show this year and it was to use a mans shirt. Soem got energetic and went to Salvation Army and bought more of them and made whole tops out of nothing but mens shirts and others just added a yo yo or two out of the shirt fabric. Me I didnt' even get it started. Next year! Yes I will do it I have to I have the darn shirt here.
But Kathy told me she was going to give this to her Dad so I quilted vintage cars in it. Well I think her hubby has now decided that he wants it.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I don't know if you can make out the car or not. This was fun to do!

Great job Kathy I love the quilt. Outstanding as usual!

These next two are my Moms

What a Beautiful Quilt

Mom is an appliquer and a good one at that. I almost hate to work on her things afraid that I won't do them justice. I want to do justice to everyones but YOU MOM. Well it is just scary!

This is the pattern From Four to Nine. Last summer while visiting I showed this to my mom and she went right home and made this with some fabric that she got here in IN. She calls it Blind mans Bluff. I believe it is named becuz she feels either that even a blind man could see this fabric or it makes you go blind, and it was bought in Bluffton IN.

Just a close up.

These are two awesome quilts.My mother always does a wonderful job. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful teacher!

I know there is more but I have been working on this post for an hour so it is time to hit the post button

Happy 4th

2011-07-03T23:19:00.001-04:00

Well time just keeps flyin' by! It seems like just yesterday I posted on here and I look and it has been over a week. Wow where does it go? I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe 4th. My oldest grandson was here but not for long! He was going to spend the night with me but his friend, from my area, called and it was, please grandma can I spend the night. So we had a couple good hours and I took him over to his friends house. Geez he sure is getting old! Being with grandma is not near as fun as it was when he was a little guy! I am going to go get him tomorrow and I am going to get his picture, I haven't had a new one of him in ages. Well I am on vacation right now and I am trying to get my Mom's quilts quilted before she gets here at the end of the week. I also need to clean the house, hmmm which is more important, clean house (work) or quilting. DUH we know the answer to this even if it wasn't my mom's that need the quilting, I would still rather do it. I guess I will post pics of them later, right now I will try to catch up on some quilting.

This is a quilt my mom had made and given to me to pass out. It is (or was) a honor quilt for a soldier's mother. The yellow star represents the soldier gave his life in duty. Unfortunately it is going out this weekend. Another friend is doing the binding and will do the presentation this weekend.

This is a T-Shirt quilt that Martha made. I just love the T-shirts in this one. Such cool shirts! So many times you see just sport shirts but this had such a variety! I love the Marilyn shirt and the Beatles. The it has some machine embroidery ones. Yep this one was just too cool.

This is one of my quilts. I call this one patriotic spools. The blue spools are from 80's fabrics and the red is from the 40's or so. I love using old fabric and turning it into beautiful quilts. I know some people only want new fabrics but I am one of those that couldn't care less. I love it all. Vintage fabrics are wonderful!

Well that is it for now, everyone have a good and safe holiday!

Making a come-back

2011-06-19T13:08:00.001-04:00

I know I have been way off these past few months but I am going to try to make a comeback. I have had a lot of things going on but I have been sewing and quilting just not blogging about it. So lets start with NO I did not do the Friday night sew in like I had planned. I had lots of items lined up to work on, first one was to find my mystery top. I know you say why is it so hard to find? I have lots of tops lying around in all sorts of stages. I try to keep the finished ones over on the shelf for quilting but since I don't seem to quilting my own, that shelf became to small so now they go wherever I can find a spot. Mixed in with those still awaiting borders or in the tote of fabric. I had so wanted to spend the evening sorting. Somehow my addiction has gotten a hold of my sewing room and took over. But with one text (Oh read that text) my Friday night went into overdrive. I hadn't planned on my grand kids but my son text me asking me if I could pick them up for he had to work. Well I hadn't seen them in ages so yes it would give me some grandma time. After agreeing to that and making the arrangements with their mother, he then asked if I could keep them over night, he had to work on SAT. So the Fri night sew in was a bust. Played with the kiddos instead.

Here they are, two of the grand kids. Didn't get the oldest one. If you can't tell they had played with those temporary tattoos. No not with me! Kyler has one on the throat center and Savanah on her cheek. And Kyler had his hair cut into a zig zag Mohawk. Crazy little ones But still love em to death, even though they wore me out. The spent alot of time out riding bikes and scooter. Only had two or three spills and very little blood. All in all good time. Their Daddy came and picked them up on Sat evening after he got off work. Hubby and I then took his father out for supper for an early Fathers Day meal. We did tell him that if no one offered to take him out on Sunday we would be game to do it again. Yes I love the days I don't have to cook!
So I guess it is now time to show what you really come to see QUILTS.

This is Monica's for her niece. She has that computer program that kaleidoscopes pics, so she used pics and items in the baby's room to do the kaleidoscopes. The she appliqued cute, fun bugs and flowers in the border. This is such a bright cheery quilt. She really didn't care what I did to it just something other than a meander or panto. I had fun debating on what to do. I hope she loves what I did on it.

This is Rita's. This is an antique top made by an old friend of hers. Of course the quilt maker is no longer with us, so that makes this top so special to Rita. She gave me the reins on this one but I chose a simple older looking panto. I didn't want anything to busy for quilting to take away from all those vintage fabrics. This top was hand pieced and Rita had machine washed it before giving it to me. So the shrinkage on it was weird! I am sure that is due to the different variety of fabrics it has. It sure turned out to be a stunner of a quilt!

This is one of my quilts. Yes I have one done. This was a row by row that I did with my local club. I wanted scrappy scrappy scrappy. I had the border blocks already made for another project, but seeing that that project wouldn't get done for awhile I chose to use the blocks here to get something done. 1 UFO off the list. Of course the borders would have looked better if I would have done some planning instead of just grabbing and sewing. I mean the top and bottom corner units are opposite of each other. I don't know why I couldn't have seen that before I put it together. But done is done and nothing I can do about it now. I did the binding with left over bindings that I had hanging around. That too I should have planned better for I just grabbed and sewed. Some of the bindings were narrower than the others so the overall binding experience was a tough one. but I love the scrappy look of the binding too. Nice job ladies that made rows for me on this one, it will always be treasured. Thanks!

This is Ginny's quilt. It was pieced by her friend Brenda Sue. I mean what can I say about this quilt is is gorgeous! I quilted this with a rose in the smaller squares and a large leaf motif in the large squares. The outer border was done in all roses. I had such a fun time working on this one. Thanks for the pleasure. I know Ginny has to be happy with her new quilt it is such a beauty!

Well that is all I have for you right now, but I do have so many more to show you but will have to wait for another time.

May was a bad month

2011-06-07T20:03:00.001-04:00

Please forgive me for not being on here. May was a bad bad month for me. First my Mother-In-Law passed away. she was a wonderful woman and no matter how much we had tried to prepare for this, it threw us for a loop. She passed just days before Mothers Day so you know my Hubby had a hard time on that day. Barb suffered from Dementia and Alzheimer. Not a pretty thing.

Here is a quilt I made to represent my opinion of Alzheimer. As you can see it is threads over threads and what you may or may not see is items behind the threads. At the top the items are hidden well and towards the bottom you can make a few out. The white bottom half is words or phrases that my MIL repeated over and over again during the time I made this quilt. The lines of lettering are shaky like she was and the whole quilt is not square or straight and it has fuzzy yarn around it. I had stated that it was like a brain with Alzheimer's nothing black n white, nothing straight and always frayed around the edges. I had wanted to send it to Ami Simms but it went into an art gallery around here for a little while then I brought it home and it hangs by my door. Maybe it is time to do something constructive with it.

After getting through the rough time with the hubby over the death of his mother things seemed to be settling back into their normal routine, until I get frantic text messages from my oldest son. 'and they haven't been seen since'. Ok that got my attention. Well it seems it was part two of the text and part one was telling me about a tornado in Joplin MO and my niece,his cousin hadn't been heard from. Now for those that don't know me I was born just south of Joplin in Neosho, MO. I was raised just over the state line in Erie, KS. My parents moved back to MO and Joplin has always been a part of my growing up. I have Aunts,Uncles,nieces and a nephew that call Joplin home. I also have a sister that just lives South of the city limits. So yes this stopped me dead in my tracks. After calling him I turned the TV on and was glued to the coverage for days. Needless to say with the help of Facebook and cell phones we managed to get word that all family members were accounted for and in wonderful shape that first night. One niece has lost her home but not a scratch on any of them. I had planned a trip home for Memorial weekend, with aging parents I have to make as many trips as I can as often as I can. My two sons went with me and we did drive thru Joplin and any pictures I have seen still can not really portray the devastation that you see and feel being there.
I am adding this link just in case you would like to give. All in all my family was blessed to have scrapped by within blocks. I do know that the local quilt store. Sew Neat was demolished in the storm. I had talked about this shop a couple months back from a FNSI. I was doing a quilt and I had bought the ruler and pattern there. Well I have managed to get the borders on this top so I will show it now

I buy so many patterns but rarely make any of them,so this is a monumental occasion that I bought and made with in the same year. I loved Brenda's shop and will truly miss it. I guess she has decided it is time to retire. Sew Neat had the best sale room of any shop I had been too. I have another quilt that I got the fabric from there but have yet to start it. It has the 'A' word in it. Savin it for a rainy day.

I did manage to get the mystery posted but I sure don't recall ever telling anyone that I did. Here are final sewing instructions. but I still can't find my pic of the finished top. I really need to look for it. Or better yet the the top back out and retake the pic. I have decided that if I ever want to share a pattern I will just post it. You just never know what comes up and being on the net is not high priority when family crisis are calling. I know that I left this mystery hanging at times and had thought that next time I would have everything wrote out and just have to hit post, but have since decided that just putting it all out there would be for the best. So sorry for those that were trying to work along.
I have come to the conclusion that I never finish my quilts for the sole reason I hate to bind. I have a friend that loves to bind so we now are bartering. I long arm for her and she will bind my quilts. Now what will my excuse be now for not getting any thing done.
Well I am sure that I have bored you to death now so I better be off

More mystery and an oops 243rd pics

2011-05-01T19:22:00.000-04:00

Well I know someone out there is making this but for some reason no one has mentioned the fact that I asked for you to sew things that you didn't even cut. I had been calling my color 1 and color 2 the same number but I have corrected it and you can find it here. I had asked you to cut color 1 but then when I asked you to sew it I called it color 2 and there were no such pieces. I hope that with the pics you can understand everything. It really isn't that hard. I just wish I could have gotten this proof read. I have done it twice but since I know (OK family members don't say a word) what I am doing then I just skipped right over it. I will be back in a couple of days to finish this out. But you should stay busy for now.

This is a quilt I made for a soldier. It went to retired MSG Robert Baldwin of Parsons KS. And the bottom quilt a friend and I made, and it went to retired MSG Robert Mikels of Parsons, KS

Update mystery and...

2011-04-30T13:21:00.000-04:00

Wow just when I start to breathe my son comes over with my grandkids. Now you would think that this is great and in most ways it is but... my precious grandkids are just a little how do I put it politely, rambucious. Kyler is 8 and wants to spend every waking moment on my lap, hanging on my shoulder or just with me. Savanah 5 is into everything and if I pick it up she wants it and wants to know what I do with it and why. Devon 12 is just bored and well you know how that goes. Now of course you know the son sits and watches TV and tries to entertain the kids with a movie but they only see him and I only every other weekend so clingie is the word. I send them all outside and I try to get to the sewing room or the computer but they catch me. G'ma I want to play on the computer! so when they are here I don't get anything done but cooking for them. I love those 3 but they are exhausting for sure.

Find more of the sewing for the mystery here. scroll to the bottom of the page for the sewing. All new sewing is in red print. I will post more later. I don't have the kids over this weekend so I should be able to get to it with out any problems. lol.

Here's a quilt that I did for Michelle.So birght and beautiful. I love the colors in this. Such a joy to work on something so wonderful. Yes can you tell I really like the bright colors. Such a great pattern too. I didn't think that a sashing in between these blocks would look good but this quilt proves me wrong! It is out of batiks and just stunning. Great job Michelle.

This is a quilt pic that I found hanging out on my computer. It was done as a row x row. But when the owner Joynell, got it back she decided that she wanted to re-set the blocks, so she took all the time to rip out the whole top and set them on point with a plain yellow setting square. She doubled the size of the top and boy isn't it a stunner! I am glad I got to quilt this one. She de a great job and resewing it together!!

This quilt was made by Mary. I am sure it went off to CA soon after she got the binding on for a great grandchild. I think this may be one of my most favorite surprise blocks. I call it a surprise for when I first saw this block I tossed it aside thinking 'how boring', but some people way smarter than me have used it and have made these wonderful quilts out it. This is just another example of how to make this simple block into a wonderful quilt. Way to go Mary.

So enough for now. Will be back in a shorter time to update the mystery. Thanks for your patience on this.

OOPS Where have I been

2011-04-17T01:07:00.000-04:00

Boy oh boy, where does time go? I went off to a retreat and had a blast come back and went on overtime at work and lost all track of time.
Go here to get more cutting for the mystery. After I get this blog caught up on all I have been doing I am going to get the sewing instructions caught up too. So look for it before the week is out.

When my sisters came up this past summer one of them bought a jelly roll and then we decided that we would go in halfsies and do a challenge to make a purse out of them. Well you know I had my parents for the next three weeks but she went home and made the darn thing. So when I took my parents back home she boasted her new bag in front of me. No sense in me making it now. So now almost a year later I got it done.

Ok she won that challenge and I don't care! Bologna I hate loosing so.... when I took my parents back home and she had finished her purse she decided to make another challenge or was it me. OH who knows her LQS had the Christmas fabrics on sale. I mean it was the middle of July and I for one was not thinking of Christmas but she decided that was our next challenge. She picked out 8 half yard cuts of this Christmas looking Christmas fabric. Oh no I have a mental block on doing anything with Christmas fabrics. Christmas maybe my favorite holiday but I just can't seem to get it together when it comes to the fabrics. So I picked out the 8 most un Christmas looking fabrics. My sister said that they did not go together and even the shop owner cringed over my selections. But I took it as a challenge, to make them work together. I mean that is what we were doing right, having a challenge. So as I stated above I went to a retreat and I was in charge of doing a mystery for it. It thought it was about time to do something with the 8 half yard cuts. I knew that my sister hadn't done anything with hers yet so if I really could make this mystery come together I could win this time. So to the drawing board.

This is what I came up with. I know you really can't see but the light fabric in the zig zag border has the green brown and turquoise in it and the strip fabric has all of the colors in it. One lady there messed up on the zig zag border and it ended up being all flying geese, which looked great too! That is the freat thing about borders you can just do....

Here is a top I completed at retreat. This was a row by row that I did on the internet in 2006. I loved the top so much that I have been looking for the right red for the borders. I first thought it needed a plain border so not take away from the inside but when I made one side I hated it so I then had to re do. It took me almost another year to figure out the zig zag. I almost went with the woven ribbon but gals at the retreat said the zig zag from the mystery would be better. And weren't they right!

I did get these two other tops finished at retreat. The log cabin blocks were made for me years ago by internet friends but had gotten lost. They are doggie themed and were for my grandson, well he is a little old now but I am going to check with him and see if he still wants them or save them for the next grandchild. NO there is not one on the way!

Oh please look how hard the two retreaters are working!. The other quilti is for my husband, it is all cow themed. I posted pics of it on here a year or so ago. but I managed to get the border on it so it is now on the shelf for quilting too.

Ok I have more for you but since I have to get the sewing instructions up I better runa nd get the next post together and I will add quilting pics there. Sorry for the delay in posts but I am sure everyone knows just how life goes!

Mystery Time Sewing

2011-03-19T23:01:00.013-04:00

are around.

First cutting instructions up to this point are found here.

This is the second set of sewing instructions so lets go. Take the 40 bckgrd 3" sqs you just cut and draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the wrong side. Then draw a stitch line 1/4" on each side of that line. Layer this RS (right side) together with the Color 4, 3" sqs you just cut. Stitch on your two stitch lines and cut down the center line. Press these open to the dark side and trim to 2½" You now have 80 HST.
Take on of these units and with Color 4 on bottom right lay right side up, take a Color 1 2½" sq place right side down, stitch across unit so when opened it looks as shown here.

My bckgrd color is the grey looks blue in this pic. Color 4 is the magenta.

Now take the 4½" x 2½" Color 1 rectangle and sew it to the unit you made in previous sewing.

Your unit will now look like this. Make 80 of these.

Take both the units you made now and put in your bag for later.

That is it for now.

Ok now take all those squares I just had you cut and make a diagonal line on the wrong side of the bckgrd fabric. Then mark a line 1/4" from each side of this line, for stitch lines. Layer the bckgrd with a color 4 sq and stitch on the stitch lines. Cut apart on the center line. Press open and square up to 2½".

Take the unit from 2 pics above the one with the Color 4 half square triangle and the color 1 sq and add another color 4 half square triangle to the color 1 sq. adding the HST so the pattern points into the other HST. this unit is shown on the left in this pic.

To make the unit on the right add a 2½", color 2 sq to a color 4 HST add the the sq to the color 4 of the HST. Then sew this unit onto the unit from above.

You will be making 80 of each of these.

Take the above unit on the right and make a quarter turn counter clockwise and sew it to the bottom of the unit on the left. You will be making 80 of these.

Your unit will now look like this. Make 80 of these. To set these together, if using the Color Z just rotate these units clockwise one quarter turn. The center will form a pinwheel and your 4 corners will be your Zinger. If using only 4 colors just keep eye on the 4 corners they will form a block. I thought I had downloaded a pic but I guess it is still on the camera. Now using the 1½" strips or one inch which ever you have, cut out of the fabric you have set aside more strips to match the size you have. These will be a frame out border. Your quilt is 4 blocks x 5 blocks, 48½x60½, so make your frame out strips to match. I always do the short side first, so make two strips 48½", mixing up the colors. Then make two strips 62½ if using 1½" strips or 61½" if using 1" strips. Make borders to suit.

Mystery Time

2011-03-06T21:47:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay. I have hit that age where I decided that I needed a full and complete health check up. Spent just about every night after work at the DR office this past week. So far they say I am normal, now my hubby would disagree with that but so far so good. Earlier in the week I tried to get the flu bug but I felt it coming on and I went and got the Halls Defense with Zinc and Echinacea. Those little drops really work. I felt so much better but then the Dr visits started. I still have a couple results outstanding and have one more test on the agenda. But at least it will be done and I can get on with it. So I am trying to put all the cutting together in one spot and then the sewing will be put together in another one. These will be on the side bar soon. But till then here is more cutting.

Cutting 2

Color 1 Cut 5 strips WOF at 2½" and sub cut in to 80- 2½" sqs.

Color 1 Cut 10 strips WOF at 2½" and sub cut in to 80- 4½"x2½" rectangles

Color 4 Cut 3 strips WOF at 3" and sub cut these into 40- 3" sqs.

Bckgrd Get 3 strips WOF at 3" that has been set aside and sub cut these into 40- 3" sqs.

FNSI and Mystery

2011-02-19T11:07:00.001-05:00

Alright sorry I had to rush off so quickly the other day. I have decided that I am trying to do to much. I work a full time job and then quilt for others part time and sew, design, take care of hubby, cook clean (OK so not so much of that) but now I have started going back to gym. OH Lordy what have I done to myself! I ache in places that shouldn't even exist. I tried a Latin Dance class and I tell ya it hurt to breathe. I have the Zumba DVD's but that doesn't mean I try hard at it,but being with others you always try harder and yes I strutted my fat stuff right into dislocating things I didn't have. But I am better now and even thinking that I might do it again. but enough of that lets get onto things you really came to see.
Friday Night Sew In was last night. If you want to check it out go to my side bar and click on the button. I sewed on some snowmen blocks for a swap. Bless Lou Ann's heart these should have been out already but I ummm misplaced mine. I had taken them to my retreat last NOV and no one did the swap so I tossed them, no I laid them in a pile of stuff to do later. Well thinking I didn't make them for no reason I put the swap back up on the group and this time there was one taker. So waiting till the last minute I go get mine and you know for the life of me I couldn't remember what I did with them. I finally found them and only had 6 pairs made. So in reality only 6 for the swap and 6 for me to keep. So I had to get a few more done.

I am sending these off today and now I have 24 for me and I cut enough out last night for 8 more. I really have no clue yet how I am going to set these. I don't think I like them by themselves so I was staring at them and thinking maybe an evergreen in between them. but that will a project for next NOV retreat. Yes you are right no sense rushing in to things. I mean this winter is on the backside and I won't feel like snowmen in a week or two.
So off to the tote of blocks they will go till I am feeling snowy again. That is all I managed this FNSI but really that was enough, I got up at 5am and worked all day skipped the gym but manged to stay up till 11pm. Wow is that sad. I used to stay up till the hubby got up to go to work at 1:30am. I am either getting old or this working out is wearing me out. I thought it was suppose to make you more energetic?
Next on the list of things is what have I been up to. Well let me post some pics.

This is a baby quilt made for a co worker. Monica is expecting her first, little Alexa. We had a shower for her at work and I found out the week before the shower that her colors were pink, black and white. Well last year some time I did a pink and black block swap. Of course I do these swaps with nothing in mind so the blocks sit for months, Oh lets face it years. I put the blocks on the wall and didn't like them together, just didn't look baby to me.
!Light bulb! I have the accu quilt die cutter and the heart die. Yep looks more like a baby to me. I quilted it with meandering hearts and bound it in a pink/black fabric same as the back. With time running out I wanted to bring the back to the front and bind it that way but never had. So on the phone I went to a friend, Gail, that had demo'd this at club. first she said was to cut the front and batting off even but DO NOT CUT THE BACK So I carefully fold the back away and start trimming up the front and batting. Well you know what I did don't you? Yep I cut the back so quick call back to Gail "Umm thanks but I cut the back!" So now I had to do it the hand method that I know and this was on MON night and the shower was on TUES got the binding done and at my first break I sewed on the label and wrapped it. DONE and on time!

This is the raffle quilt for one of the clubs I am in. If you have been following for awhile you will remember the other one I put together for a raffle. Well this is for the same club just different year. We were all given fat quarter of this black print. After all the blocks were turned in I took them and had hopes of making two tops for the same year but for some reason I couldn't get the second one done on time. Looking back at this pick I see I would have moved a couple blocks around but you know what they say 'hind sight is 20/20' Not changing it now. I am in hopes of passing this off to the member that has the quilting frame and in charge of getting the hand quilters together, MON night. Whew that will be a relief to have that check mark on the done column.
Check here for the other top I made. Sorry I couldn't find the pic of it anywhere on my pc even did a search for it. Probably another one of those things I lost when the computer crashed. Things that wanna make ya go hmmmmmmmmm.

This quilt was made by Margie. Yes her name comes through here quite often. I love all the different things that she does. Some of us get stuck in a rut but I have never seen two alike from her. Even when she did three fan quilts they were all different. This one I believe is upside down in the pic. She said that she loved the center fabric so much that she couldn't cut it. The simple sqs around the outside in coordinating colors makes a striking quilt. good job Margie!!!!

This is Diane V's this is a free pattern off the Internet and at our last MAR retreat we did this pattern. I believe it is called wicked easy. I am not for sure of anything anymore so please don't quote me on it. But you could search it if you wanted the pattern. I didn't do it so I don't have the patten handy to give you any of the information. The past four retreats that I have went to I have worked on UFOs and other stuff and none of the offered projects. Well this year I want to do some of the projects. Yep there I go again starting things. Yes more UFOs.But back to Diane's quilt. Love those colors don't you? so soft and pretty. I did an edge to edge panto on this one and it turned out great. Sometime I would like to use this panto on one of mine it looked so good on here. Great job Diane can't wait to see what you do next.

So the Mystery is next first I want to say I am going to get things together sometime this weekend so all the mystery can be found in one place. But for now here goes.Last post I told you to cut 160 2½" sqs. of color 2. Be sure to keep the left over fabric for later. Take your bckgrd 3" sqs and color 4 or z squares and on the lighter of the two mark a dotted line on the diagonal of the wrong side. Then mark a solid sew line 1/4" on each side of the dotted line. Layer one bckgrd and one color 4 or z right sides together with your marks on top and sew on the sew line. Do this to all 40 of your squares. This is easiest if you chain sew one side then the other. Clip apart. Cut on the center dotted line and open and press to the dark side. Trim these up to 2½" square. You will have 80 half square triangles. Lay these half sq triangles right side up with the color 4 or z to the top left and your bckgrd on the bottom right. Place a color 2 right side down on top of your half sq triangle. Stitch across the bottom. Do this to 80 of your color 2 sqs. Put the other 80 aside for later.

Mystery Time Sewing

2011-02-15T21:20:00.017-05:00

Sewing 1

Take your bckgrd 3" sqs and color 4 or z squares and on the lighter of the two mark a dotted line on the diagonal of the wrong side. Then mark a solid sew line 1/4" on each side of the dotted line. Layer one bckgrd and one color 4 or z right sides together with your marks on top and sew on the sew line. Do this to all 40 of your squares. This is easiest if you chain sew one side then the other. Clip apart. Cut on the center dotted line and open and press to the dark side. Trim these up to 2½" square. You will have 80 half square triangles. Lay these half sq triangles right side up with the color 4 or z to the top left and your bckgrd on the bottom right. Place a color 2 right side down on top of your half sq triangle. Stitch across the bottom. Do this to 80 of your color 2 sqs. Put the other 80 aside for later.

Sewing 2

Take the 40 bckgrd 3" sqs you just cut and draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the wrong side. Then draw a stitch line 1/4" on each side of that line. Layer this RS (right side) together with the Color 4, 3" sqs you just cut. Stitch on your two stitch lines and cut down the center line. Press these open to the dark side and trim to 2½" You now have 80 HST.

Take on of these units and with Color 4 on bottom right lay right side up, take a Color 2, 2½" sq place right side down, stitch across unit so when opened it looks as shown here.

My bckgrd color is the grey looks blue in this pic. Color 4 is the magenta.

Now take the 4½" x 2½" color 2 rectangle and sew it to the unit you made in previous sewing.

Your unit will now look like this. Make 80 of these.

Mystery Time Cutting

2011-02-02T09:06:00.010-05:00

No borders are given for this quilt. If youwant borders please get more yardage than it states here.

Mystery Time
Color 1: 1 1/8 yd
Color 2: 7/8 yd
Color 4: 1 1/4yd
or if using 5th color use 7/8
and 5th color is
Color Z: 3/8 yd
Bckgrd: 1 1/8 yd

Cutting 1
With color 4 or if using the 5th color Z use it. Cut 3 strips WOF (width of fabric) at 3" wide. Sub cut these strips into 40- 3" squares. Each strip should yield 14 squares, thus leaving 2 extra squares. Place the 2 extra squares in to a ziplock baggie marked extra. If using color Z cut the rest of the fabric into another 3" strip WOF, leaving a strip at 1½" *, Place both these strips into the baggie marked extra.

Take the bckgrd color and cut into 13- 3" strips WOF, thus leaving a strip at 1½" *. Take one 3" strip and the 1½" * and place in the baggie marked extra. Cut 3 of the strips into 40- 3" squares. Place the 2 extra squares with the other strips you have just cut for a later use.

* If you do not have 1½" strip don't worry it is not critical. If you have 1" then save it and from now on when I say 1½" just use 1".

Color 2
Cut 10 Strips WOF at 2½" and sub cut these into 160 2½" sqs. Put remainder fabric in your extra baggie for later.

Cutting 2
Color 1 Cut 5 strips WOF at 2½" and sub cut in to 80- 2½" sqs.
Color 1 Cut 10 strips WOF at 2½" and sub cut in to 80- 4½"x2½" rectangles

Color 4 Cut 3 strips WOF at 3" and sub cut these into 40- 3" sqs.
Bckgrd Get 3 strips WOF at 3" that has been set aside and sub cut these into 40- 3" sqs.

Cutting 3
Take out the 6 of the bckgrd 3" strips and cut these into 80- 3" sqs
Color 4 Cut 6 strips WOF at 3" and sub cut these into 80- 3" sqs

Give Aways

2011-01-23T00:37:00.001-05:00

I have found a couple of give aways that I like, you know maybe I shouldn't tell anyone about them so I could have a better chance of winning. Oh well here goes, Stray Stitches is giving away some wonderful fabric. she has a great blog!
The of course you got The veggie Hunter who is giving away some beauties herself. Check em out.

Don't forget the mystery here, couple posts down is fabric requirements. Cutting is coming soon!

It seems that all my sisters have gotten on the band wagon for loosing weight. I need more motivation or something. I have a feeling next time we get together for our Sisters retreat (no not in Sisters OR, We 5 siblings get together for a weekend in MI) I am going to be the fat one!

Fri Night Sew In and ......

2011-01-22T14:46:00.000-05:00

Ok so last night was the first Friday Night Sew IN of the year. I sewed and I am remembering to post about it. First off if you want to be part of it go here to Heidi. she is one of the hosts of this. It is just an encouragement to get something done. Sew what did I sew. First I tried to finish a top that I had started for a demo at club this past week. I only had 3 rows made and got busy on the rest. Now first off if you know me then you know if I got something done that fast it would be a miracle,so I got stumped on my border.
Here it is, it is called Twilight by Saginaw St Quilt Co. It uses the ruler Curves for Rectangles from Creative Grids. I bought both the pattern and the ruler in a shop in Joplin, MO this past summer. I believe the name of the place is Sew Neat. I just know my Mom goes there and calls it Brenda's. She had the top hanging and I fell in love, had to have. I don't usually pay much attention to tops or quilts hanging around, but this one caught me. I knew I wanted it bigger than the pattern and I definitely wanted something a bit more umph for the border. So I took some of the pieces that you make and I cut them again and sewed them into these little border pieces,but now I am not sure. I am thinking that I want to get one purple batik for the frame out border then put these pieced ones. My problem is that when I make these border pieces I have two and the other ones are the opposite of these shown meaning that the lights are the long triangles and the dark would be where the lights are now. So that would mean I would have to make twice as many and I know I don't have the fabric for that. So............resting on this one moved on to the next.

This is the Morning Star block from Quilters Cache. I did a swap of these on one of my Internet groups. But I wanted more so I started adding my own to them making and making them,but I guess it got to late can you see what I did. Or shall I say what I forgot to do. Yep That will be ripping out for football game tomorrow. I have decided that I want to add another row to the side to make it 6x7. I know you can't see all of it on here but trust me it will be 6blocks x 7 blocks with a wild border. This will be called MM'S, for the blocks in it will be from Mary, Maggie and Susan. I went to bed when I found this mistake and now I am going back to the quilting machine and see what kind of trouble I can cause there.

All in all it was a great Friday Night Sew In even tho I didn't get done what I wanted to but next month I am going to bring these two back out and finish at least one of em. Thanks to Heidi and Bobbi for throwing these Friday night parties.

Where oh where have the..................

2011-01-19T19:24:00.001-05:00

Yep I think I need to get it together. This past year I entered into two count em two weight loss challenges. The first one was for $440.00. I got right on it and lost 34 pounds. BUT I didn't win the money. I guess that discouraged me and by the time I got home from vacations I didn't even try to get back on track. So I joined another challenge less people so the pot was only $250.00. Do you think I did anything but gain. That was a bust the gal that won only lost 7 pounds, ya hear me 7 lousy pounds netted her 250 smack-a-roos. So to date I have gained it all back but 4 pounds. So the gross loss for 2010 4. So now my sisters and I have another challenge going on the pot $100.00 Notice a trend they get smaller and smaller, which so does my enthusiasm. But I have to do something so I am claiming on here to all keep me honest. I will be keeping a total on the side bar and if I forget to add at least monthly ask me about.

My son was over this past weekend with the grand kids and my grand daughter decided she wanted to make a quilt. Well she pick out the fleece so we made a blankie instead.

Here she is doing all the tying. I cut the fringe and then cut a slit in it and all she had to do was fee the two layers through and pull. And she did every single one of them. Yes look at how proud she is!

Here is the finished blankie, a nice cuddle blankie for watching TV.

Next I have a quilt that belongs to Diane.

This the 4 patch stack n whack pattern and she did this at a retreat.

Here is one of the blocks. I don't know if you can see the quilting or not.

And this is a freehand border pattern.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mystery Time and stuff

2011-01-15T22:33:00.002-05:00

Well here it is the 15th and time for the fabric yardage for the mystery quilt. I have had the grand kids over today so I am late in getting this posted. They are both asleep now so I have a little piece n quiet to do my thing!. You know those little ones wear me out!

I did this pattern last year and I used 4 fabrics. I lost the pattern when my computer crashed so redoing it, I decided to add a 5th color. So I am going to give you the instructions for both but I want you to know that I am adding that 5th color as I go, the official instructions are for the 4 colors. So I will be writing the 5th color additions as I go. but things should be fine. Lets keep the fingers crossed. No I am not a designer, I just dabble and like to share those dabbles.

Also NO yardage is given for borders. I find that I have never liked or done borders from a mystery as stated so I just don't give any on my mysteries. With that said the overall size without borders are:
48" x 60". This is traditional pieced.

Here are the fabrics I used with the 4 way

As you can see I used a black (1) and tonal black (2).
Then a grey (bckgrd) and magenta pink (4).
Now I am adding a lime green as a zinger (z) this
time around.
If picking for these I would use for 1 and 2 something dark and very close to the same. It doesn't have to be black. Dark browns, Navy, Dark greens .....................
Color 4 is something that will pop against your color 1 and 2.
Bckgrd color is something that shows great contrast with your other fabrics.

Yardage:
Color 1) 1 1/8 yd
Color 2) 1 yd
Bckgrd) 1 1/8 yd
Color 4) 1 1/4 yd if using 5 colors 7/8 yd and then color z) 3/8

Now you have a couple weeks to get the fabrics and then the 1st I will post some cutting. Any questions post comment here (just in case it might be helpful to others). Thanks

Now lets see some eye candy

This is Margie's I believe she called it Think Spring. I know some of you are ready for spring but I love the snow and cold. This is a beauty though. Margie always does so well with colors. I will say that Margie starches all her fabric after she pre washes it. So her quilts are wonderfully square. The first time the hubby saw some of the excess starch on one of her tops he thought he had done something to it. Oh he puts on the tops on the long arm. Isn't he a sweetie. Well anyway it was funny to me to see him a little worried. I love the fabric in this top and I really enjoyed the color combinations that Margie used. Once again Miss Margie great top!

Just a pic of the back to show the quilting.

See ya later

Mystery and old bag challenges

2011-01-02T11:00:00.001-05:00

Hi all it has been awhile! I hope every ones Holiday was just the bestest ever. We had a very Blessed time here in IN. My family in MO always has Christmas the week before, I was unable to go but I had my kids here that day so we could participate via phone. I bought a couple items off the family auction (which reminds I must get the check in the mail). My sister in KS bought the zebra quilt that I sent down.

My son who is going through a Divorce finally got a court order for visitation on the 23rd. So with very little notice he got the kids on Christmas night till this past Thursday. Well you know he had to work so guess who got the kids! Yep grandma got grandma time. I am worn out, I had such grand plans of quilting but!!!
I would watch the kids through the day and then he would either come her or I would drive them to his house so he could spend the evenings with them and then they would sleep at my house. Yep I know why we have kids when we are young!

I wanted to start the mystery but with them here plans have changed. Starting JAN 15th I will start posting the mystery.
JAN15 fabric requirements
FEB1 Cutting
FEB 15 Sewing
MAR 1 Cutting
MAR 15 Sewing
APR 1 Cutting
APR15 Sewing
this mystery is traditional pieced and is a 2 thimble in difficulty out of 3. (ya like that terminology)

I did go through some old floppy discs last night and found some pics of quilts I thought I would share. These three tops were bag challenges. This first one Judy sent me a bag of scraps with a bit of yardage. I had to make something out of it and this is what I came up with. This is off of a pattern called Message in a Bottle by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. I of course made the border different.

This top Mary sent me these diamonds or were they in the strips.Oh who knows. Mary would! I really wanted to do something different. My thought was to make them look like they blew up but they ended up just looking like they are falling or blowing in the wind.

This was for Teresa, she sent me the Ohio Star blocks all made up she had gotten them in a swap and then she had the 9 patch squares made up in matching fabrics. Se then sent matching squares and yardage in a coordinating print. All this made me nervous, like she already had a plan and I better figure it out. I never did hear if she like the top for her life to a sudden change and she has been off the net shortly before receiving this back. But I loved how it turned out. Just hit me I should have done this for the mystery. Well guess maybe I should write up a pattern for this one, just in case later down the road.

Ok so that is it for now. Don't forget to check back in for the mystery.

Give Away CLOSED Let there be a winner and more voting??

2010-12-18T02:17:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and left me comments. So many nice comments I wanted to give everyone something, to bad I am not a rich woman, so I could do that but alas one winners name was drawn form the hat and it was... first I want to say if you are a quilter come back after the first of the year for a mystery. OK the winner...

cat song and she said Wow, I love what you've made!
I really love photography and scrapbooking :)

CONGRATS, I will email you privately for info.
Her two favorite crafts are two that I have never tried! Hmm I do have a sister big into scrapbooking, but know nothing about photography.

While be-bopping around on this give away, I visited sites I hadn't been too in awhile. One of them Quilting Bloggers, check out the button on the side bar. they have online (I am going to call them) quilt shows and you vote for your favorite. I decided to enter my Christmas quilt call Christmas Log Cabin. Click on it and vote for it or for some one elses. Just go look and maybe next time you will enter something.

Once agian Thanks for stopping by!

Give Away Day

2010-12-12T21:44:00.001-05:00

Sew Mama Sew is hosting a Give Away Day Mon the 13th. This just means that different blogs have signed up to give away a hand crafted gift to a lucky winner. This is my gift to one lucky person.

This is a hand knitted Beret embellished with three little flowers on the side, hand knitted gloves, and a crocheted collar. These are in a size small to medium women's. I know these are not of wool but now unsure exact brand of yarn. Yes I made these a couple years back for a gift then never gave them out. So now is a good time to gift them to some one else. The head is not included.
To enter just leave me a comment on what is your favorite craft. That's it, one comment per person and one entry per person. This goes on until the 17th, so go visit all the other give away participants.
So my favorite craft, knitting is my passion and quilting my love. I used to do stain glass work but when my hubby bought me my long arm quilting machine I promised to cut out some of the hobbies. Stain glass went along with beading/ jewelry making. Never got to serious about those so they were easy to give up. Stain glass was a little harder. I did sell all but one complete set of crochet hooks, so I can do any thing in that that I may want. My knitting needles still hold a dear place in my heart. Yes I love to knit, I love to quilt. I would hate to have to chose between them and hope I never have to.
So leave me a comment on your favorite craft.
Thanks for stopping by

Give Aways

2010-12-12T14:43:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple give aways, I can't believe that you have a chance at a Yo-Yo quilt in this give away. But a great gift for sure and such a fun way to win it. Christmas eve memories!!
Then Janet has Honey Buns up for grabs. OH OH I want one.
The don't forget tomorrow is Give Away Day I am joining in on this one and will be posting later tonight my items that I will be giving away. Please come back and check it out and then you can skip right on over to the next blog in the give away and sign up their for a chance at theirs. It should abe a great time

Family Auction quilt, giveaway day

2010-12-11T20:57:00.001-05:00

My family is having their family Christmas this next Sat (18th) due to my brother who lives in FL will be home at the parents home in MO. I can not make it home for this I have to work! Ugh! For years we had a gift exchange of sorts, you know you bring a present draw a number then hope for the best and hope that no one steals yours after you get it. Well with the population explosion we have to rent a place to be together so to raise the money for this, and the eating utensils and such, we started a family auction. Even tho I can not make it home for the gathering I sent a quilt down for the auction. I posted a pic of this a couple posts ago but I re posting it now done!

This quilt came about from a two different Internet swaps. The first one was probably in 2005 and it was a black and white block swap. When I made my blocks I must have made 8 blocks only for I had 10 blocks and two of them where ones I had made, so I must have only swapped out eight. Don't know why I didn't do very many I love the black and white color combo. But I had them for years and did nothing with them. Then couple years ago I did a row x row and one of the rowers used some swapped blocks for her starter. Ah Ha that is what I wanted to do to rid myself of some blocks! So the next row x row that I joined in that was swappers choice, that is what I did. These were 12" blocks and I used my two and 3 others for the starter row.My starter row is the third on up from the bottom and my two blocks are the two on the right. I know you can't really see them but I thought I would tell you anyway. There were only 5 participants but I didn't care I had another five blocks to make a sixth row. It is the bottom row. So now I have all my black and white swapped blocks used up! I do know that one other rower used her black and white swapped blocks too. I was lucky she didn't have any of the same blocks I did. I quilted this with a variegated black and white thread in zebra stripes to match the borders. I also used the zebra fabric on the back and binding. I am hoping that this quilt is bought by my sister who lives in Parsons KS, for her family has a pair of real zebras and she is crazy about anything zebra print.

I am joining in on Sew Mama Sews' give away day. I tried to put her button on the side bar but for some reason it just put the link. Well you know sometimes things just don't turn out like you plan. I do have my handcrafted item picked out and it something I have knitted. Hand knitting is my passion and quilting my love. Or is it visa versa. Any one I am usually do one or the other. Knitting has taken a back sit recently for quilting, well when you quilt for others sometimes it has to come first. But come back tomorrow or Monday to check it out! Maybe you will win it or someone elses.

Give Away Day

2010-12-10T19:34:00.000-05:00

Oh Oh I just found something I think will be really fun. A Give away day. The jest of it I pick something handcrafted or supplies for such and post on MON 13 about it. Then one lucky person will win it. I have picked out my item a hand ...................................just in time for winter. Here is more info from Sew, Mama, Sew on the giveaway day. I hope to see you joining in.

And.......

2010-11-27T10:15:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful and filling Thanksgiving. It was the first year that I did not cook. it is also the first year that I didn't get to see my grand kids. This was a downer for the day and week and month and well til the divorce is settled their mom is with holding them from us. could go on for days on this but lets move right along before I get depressed.

The and................. I forgot to post, so here it is. Months ago I was away back home in MO and the hubby goes to an auction and makes a couple of purchases. When I get home I was pleasantly surprised with these two beauties.

These two wall hangings are hand quilted machine pieced. I don't know the maker of them and neither have labels on them. but I love em just the same. I can't believe the hubby got them for me. He is the one always complaining I have to much stuff in the house and I need a scoop shovel and trash dumpster to get it cleaned out. Well now I have the man trained!!! He got each of these for $20.00 and they both came with their rods to hang on the wall. This flying geese one had a cute wooden rod with the hearts on the end. Take the hearts off and slip the wall hanging on. The second wall hanging the flowers, was on a cream metal rod with silver tips. I had to trade the rods on the quilts to fit the spaces on my walls to hang them. But never less $20.00 !!! I believe he got a good deal. He even picked up a floor quilt rack for displaying the quilts. It now sits at the end of the bed in the downstairs bedroom. this pretty blue floral wall hanging is a lot prettier in person. Don't let the goldie walls fool ya.

This next quilt is Karen O's and we have dubbed it the monster. I believe she used that in her description and I have kept in suit with it. I am not a homespun collector and really have no plaids in my stash. (you know I have found by keeping this blog I am really biased in my stash. And I need to learn to branch out more) but when I opened this top to quilt it, I never wanted it to leave. She gave me a brief history of it making by calling it a monster. Now if she didn't then I am putting words in her mouth for I took that out of her words. But since reading her little excerpt I have called it the monster, maybe cuz it is so huge. We chose a panto to do on this one, it looks wonderful! I would think that the stars where from a swap, but not sure. If so what a cleaver clever way to use them up. I think that is what is so cool about quilting for others is to see what and how each one uses their blocks and specially their orphans. Sometimes I get so many ideas in my head from the quilts that I quilt that I feel I am going to explode. OH maybe that is just from all the food I have eaten this weekend. But it is a beauty of a monster and I hope she is pleased with what I did on it. If not I volunteered to keep it for her.

Close up of the monster! Great job Karen O can't wait to see what you do next!

Well I have one of mine own to do today so I better get with it!

Fri Night Sew In and ......

2010-11-21T23:12:00.000-05:00

Ok I got the pics of what I did at the Fri Night Sew In. Now this in itself is a miracle, considering the last couple months I didn't even post about what I did. Now two post and pics!!!!

This is Kathy's, I taught this method at a retreat that she attended a couple years back. Kudo's Kathy for getting it done. I just sashed one of the samples this past retreat also. So you are ahead of me by getting yours completed. She made hers out of homspuns! Isn't it just wonderful. The colors are so lucious, I just want pick it up and taste. It reminds of a bowl of starbursts candy. Yum Yum. I was so pleased with her piano key border. I was really worried that it would stretch out of shape, being homespuns, but it didn't! Yay Kathy great job! Her backing was of a nice heavy flannel, pieced together in color blocks. So cool and it will be so warm this winter!

Here is a close up of the quilting!

Here is Stacy's bag challenge. I have had the top made for months but kept it to demo it at the state guild meeting. I had to go to SW MO to help in my Dads recovery care so a friend did the demo instead. Since I had it so long I decided to quilt it for her and then Fri night I decided to make her a pillowcase to store it in. Well before I could make the pillowcase I needed to cut the binding for the quilt so that is the binding, that little blob just to the left of the pillowcase. The body of the pillowcase is the same green as that small first inner border. The it has a small flange of the green floral outer border and the last trim of pillowcase is the same as in the outer row of blocks lighter color. I used almost every scrap of fabric that she sent me! I just hope Stacy likes it
So these are the items that I worked on at the Fri night sew in. Now back to sewing

Fri Night Sew IN and Can Creativity Be Lost

2010-11-20T20:38:00.000-05:00

Well I have done it! For months now I sign up for the Fri night sew in and I sew but I never post about it so I am going to do it now even before the photos are taken. After coming home from eating out I got busy quilting a clients quilt. Yep that is how I spent the Fri night sew in. It seems I can't stand at the machine for long periods of time. OK really I can't do anything for long periods of time. I guess that is why it is so hard for me to finish a quilt I get bored of it before to long. And I guess that is why I have some many UFO's. So anyhow in between times of (I call it resting) I did piece together some scraps for a pillow flange and binding. Months ago I did a bag challenge but never sent the finished item to the owner for I was asked to demo the block construction for our state guild.Stacy wsa kind enough to let me keep the top until this was done. I didn't get to go to the state meeting, becuz my dad had surgery, but a friend did it for me. So I decided since I have kept this womans top for so long I would quilt it. Yes advantage of having a Gammill on hand. Well in my resting moments last night (I normal look at patterns to start something new) I decided that I would use the left overs and make a pillow case for the quilt. When I get the pillow case photographed I will post it all. so that was my Fri night sew in. maybe I cna ge the photos up tomorrow but til then look at these.

This is Karen's Christmas Scraps and boy is it a beauty. So clever use of fabrics. I get some sort of brain freeze when it comes to Christmas fabrics. I have a hard time with them. Yep so fall colors and Christmas colors are my downfall. My sister and I have a chllenge with Christams frabrics going on. I bet she makes something wonderful with hers and I don't even think I can find mine. But getting way off track, this simple block made such a beauty of a quilt. I used Jingle Bell Dance panto from Meadowlyon on this. I really like this panto it is such a great Christmas pattern. I think it really looks great on this quilt. I hope Karen loves this as much as I do. Her is a pic of it a little closer.

This is another one of Karen's. I want to say that this was swap blocks but I am not sure. I seem to remember a swap of this sort sometime back. but I could be totally wrong. I have been before and I am sure I will again.Here is a close up of it.

Now here is my question in the header. Can Creativity be lost? I was given this wonderful baby quilt. It is such a cutie. She told me she wanted stars. soem meandering stars in it. If I could do something else with stars then do that on the borders. BLANK I couldn't think of one thing to do for the borders. On hand I feel liek a heel for not being able to do anything for her and on the other hand I am wondering have I lost it? I have never (at least not like this) before, drew such a blank when it comes to quilting. It has me worried. These past couple quilts have been pantos so that is easy. I am worried that the next custom job, creativity won't be there. Can it be lost, Will it come back??????? I felt so bad about his one I didn't even charge her full price for it. Could stress be getting to me?? I hope this was a fluke and it doesn't happen again. I love standing in front of the machine and just creating. I hate to think that it would be gone. But anyhow here is the cute little baby quilt.

Ok I need to get pics taken of what I did last night and oh what got done today. It will amaze you!

Quilting, and giveaway

2010-11-14T18:53:00.001-05:00

Check out Corrie for a great give away. I am in hopes of winning this one. Great frabics for sure!
So to some eye candy.

This is a quilt for Teri. It was made by Margie. She wanted something other than an edge to edge pattern. No problem! I love to create what the quilt wants. Teri picked out the center motif for the Ohio stars, but I was free to do anything else I wanted. I hear that she loves the quilt and I am glad! Here it is on her bed. OH I love the bed! I am an antique nut. I have this bad habit of buying antique beds. This one is a beauty. Ofcourse it does have a georgeous quilt on it. And look at that quilt hanging on the wall! A basket quilt and I love the way it is sashed. UMM what a nice room. Here is a close up of the quilting. I don't think it shows real well but when you take the pics you never really know.

and the back

Eye Candy

2010-11-14T00:41:00.000-05:00

I went to retreat this past weekend and it always takes a full week to recoup from it so, I will try to post some pics form it. But I have to warn you the ugliest quilt you will ever see is in the group of photos. I took my own advice and tried to go outside of my comfort zone. Oh it failed, failed horribly.

Ok this pic has the 3 tops that I got done at retreat. The far left I added borders to the black and white row x row. The far right I finished the shuffled 9 patch blocks and sashed them. The quilt in the center is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I tired I really did. Why is some can work with these tones and I can't. I used the disappearing 9-patch method and I thought it was going to be great but as you can see it is a horrid blob! I am hoping if I add borders it will help but I don't even know where to start with borders. Stay the course of dark or find something light or....... Oh oh oh what to do. I am at a loss. I really wanted to learn to like these tones but I guess I still have to practice with them. I thought I was good at putting colors together but...... well we can see that something went wrong with this one. In fact so wrong that even ReJena the gal that loves these colors was at a loss for words with this one.
so now lets get to the good ones.

This black n white is a result of two differnt internet swaps. First was a black n white block swap on one of the yahoo groups.Mailblocks I had done this swap years back and had the blocks sitting around. I love the black n white but just never seemed to get anything done with them. Maybe it was because I only had 10 of them and since I like big quilts I just never had the time to make more. So when a rowx row swap came up and we could do anything we wanted, I decided to use the black n whites. 3rd row down was my starting row. After it came back I added the top row on,so now all my balc n whites are gone and in this top. I struggled with borders. I had an old piece of black n white zig zag fabric that I loved, but there wasn't enough of it. I knew I needed something to make the borders flow or move. I found the zebra print and that was it! I only wish I would have made the border just a little bigger but you know what they say about hind sight!
Well it is late so I will have to give you more eye candy tomorrow when my eyes are fresh and fingers can type better. Night all

Eye Candy

2010-10-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

Well I don't think I will ever catch up on things! I know of course if I would stay off Facebook I would have more time for home stuff. I have been busy getting things done and I thought I better get some pic on here. So here goes.

This is Carmie's and it is for a grandson. The back is just as wild and I thought I had got a pic of it but like with everything else, I must have thought wrong. Carmie usually does everything by hand, but like the rest of us, time is getting away from her and she decided that getting a few machine quilted wasn't a bad idea. she has another one that she is getting together for a grandaughter. I can't wait to see what that one looks like.

This belongs to Miss ReJena. Now I have to tell you that this quilt did nothing for me. Oh don't worry ReJena knows it too. These are absolutely not my colors. I get quilts like this to quilt and sometimes just have a real hard time figuring out what to do on them and am very thankful when the owner tells me what they want. I think for a real challenge I am going to go out and get some fabrics in these tones and force myself to do something with them. Then just maybe I will get over the blahs for the mutes. Now ReJena had asked for just a bunch of leaves. I kinda cringed I thought not a bad design but it could have so much more. But look at that pic somehow the tree behind me got into the pic. See I guess leaves were destined to be there. Too dark for a shadow...but getting off track. I got a call from a sister (has a long arm too) and she said she had a couple pantos she was getting rid of and wanted to know if I wanted them. One was a pumpkin panto. OH OH yes yes that is what this quilt needs pumpkins not a bunch of leaves. So I got with ReJena and we waited for the panto to arrive.

We waited and we waited. Days turned to weeks. I really think that ReJena thought I was just trying to get out of quilting it. But alas it arrived. I think it was well worth the wait. The front fabrics have pumpkins in them. This is the back pic.

Then I have this one that is ReJena's. It is a baby quilt for someone in her Church. It has precious little doggies on it so I put little Scottish terriers on it with a meander. I

This is one of mine. I needle turned the appliqued baby animals. It is really my first quilt with needle turn. I think I am going to have to learn to love doing needle turn, for every pattern I pick out is appliqued. I know I know I could machine it but... applique is one thing I believe in old school on it. Funny isn't it. I wouldn't hand quilt if my life depended on it but I it is reverse with applique. So hand applique it is with machine quilting. Yes I am just shaking my head here too. Well back to the quilt. After quilting it I realized that I forgot to embroider the details of the animals. So know I am struggling with do I embroider or just use the pigma pen and draw them on. Any thoughts on this from anyone????

This last one is mine also. It is made with this cool template tool called the X Block. I did many demos of this and with each one I added a new top to my UFO list. Well check one off. This is a little boy quilt and the one above is a little girl. I told my youngest son, I am ready. He laughed quite loudly I may add. (Nope he isn't even dating anyone) Grandma can hope. But I am ready. Ok that is it for now I think.

Hectic

2010-10-17T09:45:00.000-04:00

I did the Fri night sew in for the past two months but have forgotten to post after wards. Well this month I got very little done that Fri. night. It was the rehearsal dinner night for my Step daughters wedding but I came home and quilted (long arm) a baby blanket. Camera battery out so I will have to wait to post pics. The wedding was beautiful, thought life was back to normal, trying to catch up on some quilting but I had a little hitch on the quilt that was on my machine. So I spent a few days piecing. I was 7 months behind on my buck a block and I had a secret sister block of the month for years now that I have been working on. but the quilt got repaired and done. Pics to come once I get new batteries. So life back to normal NOT. My birthday came and was a wonderful day until that night got a call from sister that lives close to parents. Dad is going in for heart procedure. Guess they call it angioplasty (I have no clue she just said they go in and try to open veins with balloon). So 750 miles away I stress all the next day, get home from work and yep by-pass surgery. He is 86 more stress.Get the call, quadruple by-pass.I hate being so far. For a week keep in touch by phone and the sisters, there are 5 of us, decide that we need to be there when he gets out. One sister living close has hurt her leg so her help has no ended so that leaves the other sister close, she does a might fine job of transporting mom back n forth. Props to ya Marla. I arrange to take a week off work so I left on the Oct 9th for MO. I have spent the past week helping with whatever I could to take the stress off my mother and to assist with my father. Got home late last night. So now can life get back to normal. Gosh I hope so.

Soldier Quilts

2010-09-11T21:24:00.001-04:00

The Grandkids are here this weekend, well 2 of the 3 are. Maybe I should get adjusted to just having 2. My son is getting a divorce and the oldest child is not his. The mother said she would never take him away from us but I feel as tho she is. I know I know I am just feeling sorry for myself. There is so much to this story, but anyone who reads this just pray for that little boy, he is 11 and my son has been the Dad for almost 10 years now. I am sure he (grandson) is very confused.
OK so I have dedicated today for the soldiers. My local quilt club gives out quilts to our local service members, so I thought today would be the perfect day to make a few quilts for that purpose. Here are 2 that I put together. This first one was from swapped blocks that I have had now over a year. I thought I had lost them then one day, 'poof ' there were here. I have more of these blocks and thought I would put them altogether but........the mind takes over and I guess I have decided to use them in 4 different quilts. All the pieced blocks (Friendship Links) were made by the same swapper, Karen, so the blues on the diagonal from bottom left to top right are the same and the reds going from top left to bottom right are the same. Thought this basic 9-patch setting was nice and I know it was easy. I see quilting big feather hearts in the red squares. Maybe I should just do feather circles since some guys might think it too sissy if it has big hearts. Hmmm any thoughts?

This next top took a little more time. I used another one of Karens Friendship Links block for the center and went out from there. I do a lot of swaps with what

we call Happy blocks. The scrappy squares are made up of them. They have bee collected for the past couple of years, and these are from Ramona, Mary, Maggie and of course me. I put four together and then surrounded them with a gold. The stripe fabric corners has been donated from one of the club members for the soldier quilts. I have used it on a back before but I wanted something with a little more interest then just plain squares. The tan and Navy stripes are dotted with blue and red stars. I think I like this top as it falls in to my scrappy catagory. I guess now I just have to find time to quilt them. I guess if I would stay off the computer I could have more time for such things. I do have other pics but I will wait and post them tomorrow.

Eye Candy

2010-09-07T19:57:00.001-04:00

Well I have been working so I thought I would post a few pics of what I have been doing.

This is Billie's, I love the fabrics in this one. I wouldn't care if this one was never picked up. This is for her daughter and I heard that her daughter likes butterflies so I meandered them in. plain and simple but hen with that fabric you didn't need to much!

Lee brought this one to me. A friend of hers did this one and found out she had late stages of cancer. So we hurried on this one so the woman could see it done and give it to whomever she had planned on. I really love doing this one. I think that is probably my best time ot the machine when I can just 'do it'.

.

This is a bag challenge on one of my Yahoo groups. Stacy sent me this bag of floral fabrics. Way out of my comfort zone! There was lots of the floral green and small amounts of the fuchsia, cream/fuchsia mix,dark green and the beige. I used this ne (to me) technique, take a four patch and cut it up into a 9 patch. I used all the fuchsia set them on point but it wasn't big enough go I then di the same thing with the cream/fuchsia mix. It is now 71 x 71 so it will make a nice couch throw. I was to have this back to her the 1st of Aug but I begged her to keep it till later this week when I have to give class demo on this technique again. I really like it now that I have it done and believe that the beige border just 'makes' it.

On pne of my Yahoo groups we did a 30's sampler swap. Only 7 entered it so to make a nice size sampler we all did 3 blocks. Here are 2 of mine the 3rd one is needle turned appliqued double fans. Yep I know I need to take a pic of it. I didn't take a pic of all of them before I sent them off to new owners but I do have mine. I never really liked the 30's repro fabric but it is growing on me.

Now this is mine. I did something for me. I have had this baby quilt pieced for about a year or maybe more. I decided that I needed to do something for me to get some UFO's out of the way. This quilt was made with the too called X Block. If you don't have it get it! It is great the designs you can make with it. The border pieces are from the left overs of the center. In this pic I don't have the binding down but it is done now and I just need to add a label.

This was done by Margie for her brother. He is a Harley rider and the fabrics state that. The skull and cross bone panto was a good fit for this one. She called to tell me how much he loved it.

Well that is about it for now.

Give Aways

2010-08-23T05:18:00.001-04:00

Jackie has a great give away going on but you have to hurry it is over on the 26, so hop on over to Jackie's if you want a chance at an AccuQuilt Go.

Also I have found another leaflet to add to my give away so that is three leaflets. This last one is Southwest designs, so go back to my previous post and enter there,

Trying to catch up and a Give Away

2010-08-21T17:02:00.002-04:00

Ok this summer has been a wild one. First I want to post a couple pics of eye candy. This first quilt belongs to Neva. I had to get this one done before the parents came. You may remember my ribbon quilt and one that ReJena did. We all did them at the same retreat.

The while getting the room ready for the parents I managed to get these two done

This is Jean's. She won the fans at her Local Quilt Clubs raffle. Lucky Jean! She made a wonderful choice in how to set them. I was honored that she brought it to me to quilt to do.

This one is Kathy's. If I am not mistaken this one is for a friends daughter. They were leaving to go on a missions trip in just a few days so I had to rush rush on this one so she could get the binding on it in time.

The summer then brought my parents, they are from SW Missouri, and I was happy to see them. Even tho getting them a bedroom downstairs forced me to clean out the junk room and totally exhausted me for weeks I was happy to do it for them. We had a wonderful time. I do hope they did too.Now I know it was trying for my hubby and a bit boring for my Dad. Dad being a carpenter all his life likes to still dabble in and is always doing something around their house. He just built them a garage and a front parch in the past couple of years. So for him taking a vacation is almost like a punishment. Well he found a wall in his room that wasn't finished so that became his project. I will get a pic of it sometime, but for now it is done, and he seemed to enjoy his stay l little better with something to do. The last weekend that my folks were here my sisters, 2 from SW MO and one from SE KS all came up then we met my sister that is in VT at a lake in SW MI. We (including mom) ( no guys allowed)stayed in a nice (big) lake cottage of my BIL at a small lake just inland from lake MI . It had been a long time, (actually never) since we had all gotten together and done something like this. We had a great time. Well I did and they seemed to too. I think we are going to try to do this every year. NOTE spend as much time with your family as you can. The hubby and I took the parents back home to SW MO. I decided it was time for him to see where I grew up Erie, KS. Now there is not much to see but at least now he knows where my love for old houses comes in. I took him by our old place and it still looks a regal as I remember. Mind you in is not a grand old house just an old big house. Some one was walking in the door she saw me gawking and I should have just jumped out and talked with her. Maybe I could have seen the inside again. AAAHHHHHHHHH the memories it would have held.We then got together with a couple of high school classmates of mine. Love ya Sheryl and Melody, so glad to have seen you after all these years.Hubby and I then jumped over to Pittsburgh KS. We had seen the food war on TV's travel channel about the two chicken places their. I had eaten at one or maybe both growing up and I thought it would be great for him to try it. BUT they were closed due to being the 4th of July. Shucks! We did stay at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast called the Himmel House

the people that own this beauty should be proud. They are delightful and very helpful. Will stay there again if they let us. No I really didn't cause any problems. Beautiful place can't say enough nice things for that overnight stay. We sat in their 'garden patio' and watched the cities fireworks display through the trees. this was after walking the neighborhood and drooling over the other beautiful homes, and watching the locals shoot off fireworks just above our heads. What a 4th to remember. So back home to Indiana. Computer had crashed while we were gone. Still don't have everything back as it was but am thankful that I got the puter back. I don't know what happened but the computer was blown up while gone then hooked the laptop to the router and it went out on us. So it was not the best homecoming but life goes on.

Trunk show in Ohio and class to teach. Boy I think I may have scheduled them a little to close together but they got done and I think everyone had fun. I had Mom's quilts to do then. She left a couple of them for me to do and since I was going back down in a couple weeks I wanted to get them done so to save on shipping.

She had made this quilt from a pattern she had gotten from me a couple of years earlier when they were here. The book I remember I got a Christmas present at my Local Quilt Club. Fat Quarter Quilt Blocks, published by House of White Birches here in Berne, IN. So I guess that is one Christmas present that I can say has now been used.

Now this second quilt was left over batiks from the first one. I love scrappies so both of these are just right up my alley.

I then went back to Kansas the first of AUG for (I know this will shock some of you) my Army Reserve Reunion. Yes I was in the Army Reserves. I wish I had never gotten out but at the time I thought it was best for my family if I did. These are some of the people I love the most, think the world of, cherish highly, honor to no end, and just generally glad to have met, are the men and women I served with. I have pics of that too,

There weren't many of us here this year, I think that they heard that I was coming and stayed home. Last year they had over 30, this year 14. Two are missing from photo. I think that the heat, yes it was over 100 and very humid that weekend, kept alot of them home and in the air conditioning.

I took my sister that lives there and had her be my photographer. Another great weekend except the hotel pool was closed. So no swimming but then I don't know when I would have found the time. I met up with high school classmates (different than those the month before) and spent small amounts of time with each. My sister and I decided to go back to Pittsburgh to eat,what else but Chicken. Oh the hubby will be mad. But as the meal went on I decided that I could take chicken home from both places for him. My room had the lil fridge. So left overs and a to go order. We both picked Chicken Annie's, even tho Mary's won on the Show but we still think that the chicken we had in Miche Tavern in VA was the best. Sorry Annie's and Mary's.

So life has slowed down now and pretty much back to normal. The computer is back out of the hospital even tho I lost a bunch of stuff, I am sure I can live with out it. The mystery that I wanted to do on here is gone, but maybe someday I will get the directions wrote back up. That is if I can remember what all the notes and marking on the rough draft mean. So to make it up to my faithful followers that were looking forward to this mystery, I am going to do a give away. I have two leaflets Quilting Toppers for Every Table. Has 7 seasonal Table Runners NICE! Second is Quilting Bold and Bright Kids' Quilts features 3-D Designs

The rules are leave a comment to this post and gain one entry. Either state that you are a follower or become a follower and get 3 entries. If you blog and you link to this post (and not a follower) than that is 3 entries also. If you blog and are a follower and you link then that is 5 entries. I will have a random drawing on the 1st of SEP. Good luck and hope every ones Summer has been as hectic and wonderful as mine!!!

Computer Troubles

2010-08-01T13:04:00.000-04:00

Well I got my computer back with a new hard drive BUT lost most of my stuff and what a lesson to learn. The mystery pattern I was going to do on here was on that hard drive. I have my first rough draft, but not the copy with all the corrections, after it got back from the tester. Sometimes Life is just unfair. I am taking the tower back in to see what is going on with it. Everytime they try to log in by remote log in, my screen goes blank. So back to the hospital it goes. But I thought I better pop in here to say yes we are still hanging in there and trying to get everything back to the way it was.

Just wanting to say I will be back

2010-07-09T15:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry for being AWOL, I have had my parents here and then went to take them home and came home to find that my puter was dead. Left the grandkids here on it. Wonder what they have done now. Last time the granddaughter was on it she lost my wallpaper and I was trying to add comments to some comments on one of my blog entries and it dissappeared too. Now this time the whole computer is black. So we took it to the shop and I am on the hubbies laptop. When I get the puter back or a new one I will get back to the mystery that I just couldn't find the time for with my parents here. Sorry to anyone who was waiting on it.

It's been a crazy couple weeks

2010-06-06T13:31:00.002-04:00

The online Quilt Festival was a blast. I didn't get to everyone in that week but I tried. Lord knows I spent way to much time on here surfing and not quilting. I have had to clean my spare room up. Now mind you this was where I would throw just about anything. Of course most of it would be sewing related. But my parents who live about 750 miles away are coming to visit. I have an old house and the stairs are steep and I just didn't feel that at 85 and 80 going up and down these things would be the best for them so I had to make them a bedroom downstairs. That of course is my junk room. Which I knew for resale value of the home a down stairs bedroom would be great. So the venture started and now has ended (so to speak)

Quilt frame and boxes full of YARN! White rubber drawers full of fabric and old hankies. From this to that. Walls are not done but atleast it is cleaned up. Antique dresser with antique dresser scarves and anitque gas lite. (Perry's grandmothers)

That is one corner of the room as you walk into it from the bathroom yes this room will get to use the new bathroom and I will go back to the old tub n shower bathroom across the way so I won't (possibly) wake the parents when I get up to go off to work.

Now this is looking into the room form the living area, before and after. Perry is trying out the bed after I made him set it all up. Please don't get the wrong impression I didn't make him carry all the boxes out. He only took the stuff down to the basement. Yarn and fabric had to stay inside and upstairs. see you have to go out side to get to the basement and that would just be to hard for me (ok out of my way) to go get something if I needed it. so I took boxes of it upstairs to the closests, and other areas that weren't being used. I wish money would have allowed for us to really do something with this room but.... still paying off the bathroom make over and until it is paid off I will have to make do with this.

The Mystery wow I have almost forgotten about it. I do have a pic of my fabrics and in the process of cleaning out the spare room I have shuffled other things around so give me a few days to get it together I know I had the instructions laying here but right now I can't seem to locate them.But here is a pic of my fabrics.

As you can see I have 4 fabrics. Solid Black then a Black with grey. Then a grey and a magenta. To make a queen size quilt pick fabrics that you have at least 3½ yds of each. With out my directions exact measurements are just a dream. What could I have done with them??? Finding them is on the top of my list!

Spring quilt Festival

2010-05-21T20:04:00.002-04:00

Ok I am going to get my post done now so I don't forget.Check out the side bar for more of the blogger quilt show .! Here is one of my favorite quilts that I have made. I call it Susan's Vacations Interrupted. I started out my quilting journey by buying a Rubbermaid tote of 2½" squares out of all sorts of fabric at an Estate auction in a box of other fabrics. Some very thin and sheer, some poly cotton blends, but beautiful in their own way. I thought I want a Trip Around the World. Well not having a pattern in hand I just started after about 5 rounds I realized I was never going to have enough squares of one color to do what I wanted. Plan B had to start. Of course I had to get a plan B first. I had no quilting room (yet) and worked off a card table in the living room. I dug through the box of goodies I purchased at the auction and there was a stack of 9-patch blocks. OK now what oh oh I have a couple yards of this cream... now I spent days sorting out the little cut squares, putting all the like ones together and coordinating ones around them. I had to figure how many of each color, darks, light and such. This process went on for weeks maybe months all the while I started collecting quilting magazines researching quilting on the net. Graph paper became my friend and I started to draft out my new quilt, I made the mini trips connecting them all with the cream and interrupting them with the 9-patches.

I figure mini trips are my vacations and nothing I do goes off with out some sort of problem thus the interruptions. So the cream represents my path through life and all the mini trips are my journeys, with the 9-patches as all the obstacles I have endured along the way. This quilt has over 2200 pieces and I have to say one of my favorites. I gave this to my oldest son and sometimes wish I hadn't. I look at this and think of all the time and what it means to me and wish I still had it. but then reality hits and I realize every quilt I make has some sort of meaning to me and I can't keep them all so I let it go. I do borrow this one when I do trunk shows. I think how far have I really come from this first quilt (OK real close to being first) I still refuse to throw fabric away and will make a quilt out of anything. I still got to estate sales and buy up old fabric and blocks, no matter the condition or quality. (yes I do shop at my LQS too) I do now have a dedicated room for sewing and I now cut with a rotary cutter. I own book after book but have never made a quilt from a pattern in them. I even have EQ6. Yes I have come a long way but when it comes down to it, I still love to draft out my patterns with my graph paper and stroke the fabric as I yay or nay it in the pattern process.

Give away

2010-05-21T19:02:00.000-04:00

OH OH this one is the one I want to win. Who wouldn't. Check it out Bitter Betty's such a cool blog. Loaded with interesting info.

Mystery! Selvage, Anniversary

2010-05-17T22:45:00.000-04:00

Well the Mystery is ironed out and I think I will start the 1st of JUN posting it here. This is a traditional pieced that is simple enough for a beginner but yet interesting enough to keep the advanced quilter intrigued.

So JUN 1 I will post fabrics requirements and then the first of the month there after I will post steps. I will leave the steps here on the blog for a couple of months only.

Well the selvage wall hanging is growing. I have decided to use all the different colors of poly cotton blends that I have and do a set of four of these blocks and then just see what this turns out to be. I think it will be a beauty, but sometimes what I think I see is not what it turns out to be at all. BUT with just this small sampling I think I am going to like it. I have found (of course there may be more hiding) 5 other different colors and then some colors have slightly different shades and I haven't decided if I want to use them or just stick with the one shade. I guess I will take it one set of 4 at a time.

It was my anniversary this past weekend! Perry sent me these gorgeous roses at work. I counted them and there was 9, I thought how odd, we have been married 10 years. but then I decided I couldn't fault him I mean he did remember without any prompting from me. In fact he reminded me. When I got home from work I left them downstairs and went up to the family room to see him and thanked him for the roses and casually asked him how many years we had been married. He stated 10 so I just had to ask why then 9 roses. It seems the florist shorted him one rose. The receipt was for 10 so they brought me one more. Yep I got a good one!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-05-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

This is Carols, for her grandaughter, she says she has one more to go. I will miss seeing her grandchildrens activities. That is the one thing about T-shirt quilts all the cool things you get to read and just imagine what the child is like and how they dealt with their every day life, but I guess that is the way of life.

This is Martha's. Her sister in AZ does the embroidery and then Martha pieces it together than I get to quilt it. I have decided that I want one like this, maybe not this pattern but a hand embroidered one. So Martha and I are working out a deal. I will buy the blocks and she will embroider them for me for quilting. I love bartering!!! Now I just have to go and decide what pattern I want. This could take some time I have saw some just lovely ones.

This is Margie's, she grew up loving the Beatles so she had to make something to honor them. She asked for just meandering hearts but I had to go that extra inch for her and do soem stencil hearts in the border. I mean could I really just meander the whole thing? Well I guess I could have but I just felt that the border should have something special in it.
I know I have more to show you but since it is Mothers Day (Happy Day to all of you out there) I am going to make this quick and will be back later or tomorrow.

Oh I forgot a Give away

2010-04-14T20:11:00.000-04:00

I found this Give away and it sure is a great one. I spent alot of time wandering the pages of her blog so be prepared to for some nice eye candy

Catchin' Up

2010-04-14T19:45:00.002-04:00

With everything goin' on I have fallen behind on my quilting and my posting. Guess I will try to catch up.

This is ReJena's Ribbon Quilt. A couple of us did this at a retreat last fall. Mine is at the bottom of this post.. But I want to show her back. She chose a plain muslin and just a simple panto. Great quilt!

This turned out beautiful. Now I have to make another one of this pattern for me. I mean when you get to mine you will see why I have to do another one.

This is Deb's. She didn't care what went on it! Oh I love that, freedom to create what the quilt tells me. And this quilt toalked. I have had some quilts that I just couldn't figure out what to put on them. Not this one, I knew instantly how I wanted this one.

Beautiful Blocks aren't they? so simple yet so majestic! (simple as in two color!Piecing wise Woohooo)

This is Christine's T-shirt quilt for her son. These are his college shirts and she promised this quilt to him 4 years ago. She had made one other T-Shirt quilt and tied it so she thought this one was so late that she would get it quilted as a special, I 'm sorry so late. I love quilting T-Shirt quilts, looking at all the different shirts and their sayings. In fact I have another one sitting here to do. Oh I wonder what lovely shirts I will find on it.

Ok this is my Ribbon Quilt. I call it Dem Bones. 5 maybe 6 years ago I made quilts for all the kids. Ok all but my youngest son. I just couldn't figure out what to do for him. The step daughter loves animal prints so that was an easy one. My oldest son loves and collects dragons, and wolf stuff. So a dragon quilt was in order for him. The step son was graduating so I made him a memory album quilt. But Nathan, oh my Nathan, into really nothing, likes wearing dark shirts with those skull transfers on them. One day a few years after I had the other ones done I spotted this skull and cross bone fabric. Got some of it but now what. It took me a couple of years to find the bones fabric and then what pattern. This is it. At this point Nathan doesn't really ever think that I will finish this so I am sure he will love it not matter what. Ane hey he just got his own place and has moved out so I need to get this done and surprise hime with it. here is the back (Yes the sun is shining through)

I found this skull and crossbone panto and just love it. I really hope this quilt isn't to girlie for the boy (Man he is 27)

This is Simple Girl, I call it Simple Girl cuz it is a simple block made by stackin the deck method and the pretty girlie colors just call out. Thus Simple Girl. I loved playing on this top. I love feathers and I got to practice the circle feather wreath. I did a new meander in the center (new for me, I had never done one like this before). I just loved creating the quilting.

Sadness

2010-04-11T12:50:00.000-04:00

Well today I have to go say my goodbyes to Maria. Maria was my friend that we found out just 8 weeks ago that she had cancer. She fought hard and brave, but God wanted her. Makes you realize just how precious each day is.

Give away

2010-04-10T06:38:00.001-04:00

Another great give away. Great blog too. Sue Hauser of Alderwood quilts. Inspiring! Sometimes I spend way to much time on here. I am getting way more ideas than I will ever have time for.

Retreat!!

2010-04-03T00:48:00.004-04:00

Last weekend I went to a retreat just a couple of miles away. That makes it nice in case I forget something. Like my toothbrush, hairbrush and all other toiletries. Yes I packed in a hurry. Woke up Sat morning ate breakfast and ran home fast, if I would have been many miles away I don't know what I would have done. I think some times I think faster than I can move. Kinda like my typing. I only get every third sentence typed that I think. The retreat was great as usual. I got some sewing done. I spent alot of time just gawking at what others were working on in jealousy. I put the borders on this Row x Row. I am not sure what I thought it was going to turn out like when I started this RR but it will be a great quilt for the one son that loves black and white. That is if I can part with it.Then I worked on this scrappy top I have been doing for years now. I call it Hidden Stars.

I don't have a pattern for this just making it up as I go along. I have decided it would have been better if... So I might go and change it but then why, it is just another quilt to use. It is not like I make show quilts, so who cares if the colors are a little confusing. So I guess I will plug along on it and if it turns out to look like something then I will look like a genius and if it doesn't then it was never suppose to.

This top is called Paisley Sherbert. I did it off some mystery. It really looks more pink than orange. I had lots of comments on this one, 'I would have never thought to put those colors together. where did you get that idea' Red, Pink and Orange. Well the red Paisley fabric was from the 60's?. It was 36" wide and I bought it in a box of fabric at an estate auction. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. The Paisley has pink and orange in it so I just went with it. I even have a pillowcase to match it. Now I just have to get them quilted. I still have 3 from the last retreat that I bordered yet to quilt.

This is my second Row x Row for my club. I did two robins so we could keep the groups even. I had seen this one a couple years back when I did it on a Row x Row for someone else. I knew then that I wanted to do one.I have to get this one bordered yet. Not for sure how to do it. I was thinking maybe frame it out with some dark Navy then add small white border then maybe scrappy either color blocks or piano keys? Any suggestions?

This is one of my first selvage projects. I had to do a demo at my local club and I decided that it would be on Selvages. I made a potholder and gave it away as the door prize. I made a few flying geese to show right and wrong ways to put selvages together. (overlapping and such) Then I made these two projects. The wallhanging will be a bed top someday. I decided since I was using a part that we have always just thrown away that I would use more fabric that most just throw away. So I dug out the poly cotton blend and used it. I have a wide variety of colors of poly cotton blend and have decided that I am going to make one of these stars out of every color I have, then join them together, to make a full size top. So yes now I have another UFO

The purse I made in one afternoon, I just wanted to show them that you could do anything. After visiting Karen's blog my small samplings seem like a drop in the bucket. But boy these gals where in awe. I told them to go to Karens and there they would see Awesome. This purse pattern is from 1946. I really don't see how anyone could sew anything back then. The pattern was horribley (I know there is no such word is there) written. Line with Cheese cloth add stiffner. What the heck is that? Well the picture looked like the boning we have now. I used batting and that was a mistake, the sides should have 3 pleats but too thick. But it does stand on its own tho. The stiffner went around the top, so the zipper would stay receded. I am guessing! But it is usable and I have had a lot of remarks on this one!

Ok this is a Row by Row off the internet group, it belongs to Nancy. This is a stunner. I sure hated to pass this one on. I am going to keep this pattern in mind for my next row x row.

Friday night sew in and other

2010-03-20T15:56:00.000-04:00

Well last month it took me almost the whole month to post the pic (Last post) of what I worked on at the Friday Night Sew In so this month I am doing better. I worked on the Gammill. I wanted to get the quilt in the mail today so I needed to finish it. then I over slept and by the time the pic was taken and the package fixed and addressed the PO was closed. They just don't stay open as long as they used too. I thought noon but NOT so it will go out on MON.

This cute quilt belongs to Karen H. She wanted some custom work done on this one. Suns peeking out of the corners, I used some neon orange to do these. Then she wanted swirlies in the piano bars, stippling around the flip flops and waves in the log cabin borders. This was such a fun quilt to work on. It sure made me want to grab the bikini and head for the beach. Oh if I could only wear a bikini! I hope she likes it. After getting the flip flops done I worked on getting a purse ready for sewing today. You know finding the right pattern. I have the fabric in mind, but no clue as to how or what I wanted it to look like. And that was my Friday night Sew In. But earlier in the day I put the last touches on the Chemo headband. A couple of post ago I mentioned a friend that had just found out she was in Stage 4 cancer. After 3 weeks of intense radiation on the 38 leisons on her brain she is now in her 3rd week of Chemo.

So I had to get her some chemo caps. Another friend of mine, makes these and she gave me the two on the left. The farthest left she gave me 3 of those in different color paths. I had hand knitted the beret and crocheted the floppy hat. So after work I went to her house and delivered the caps. It was really sad. Maria has always taken care of her mother and brother who are disabled and now the two of them are doing their best to take care of her. I wish I lived in the same town as her and had more time so I could help her more, but gave her my number and told her that if she needed something after 5pm and couldn't get anyone else call me. I drive up there to help.

So now where have I left off with my other quilting pics. Oh I know I still have one of Jeans to show.

So here it is. I believe this is a pansy pattern of some sort. I know I have seen this somewhere. But then I could be wrong. I have been wrong before and I am sure that I will be wrong again. Jean does a wonderful job on her quilts and I am honored to have worked on them.

I have worked on the internet row by row but for some reason I didn't download the pic so I will get to that one later. Sorry Nancy for not showing it, right yet.

Ok now this is my problem. I love my junk room and I love having a room I can just throw anything into but yes it is getting (no it has gotten) out of hand. AND I need to have this room as a bedroom in 2 months. My parnets who live in SW Missouri are coming to visit. I have 2 extra bedrooms upstairs but at 86 and 81 I don't think they need to climbing up and down my steep narrow stair case. So that leaves this room to become their bedroom. When we bought this house, I told my hubby that one room a year remodeled was good enough for me. This year it is this room but I have to do it fast. It has that awful dropped ceiling panels and I think they will have to stay for now. I will be happy just to get my stash put away neatly. Most of these boxes hold fabric (all different types) or yarn. I love to make purses so I collect weird fabrics for them and the dresser hutch and boxes right infront of it are stashed full of this type of fabrics. The computer of the left was to be for my embroidery machine but I haven't the room to move the machine in there. (OK so now would be a good time to get that done). The ott light box holds an old knitting machine. I know the box in front of it holds denim. That short little dresser in the back has this cute little cutting board that swings out. I say it is little but it is really the width of the dresser and I had gotten this so I could sit beside it when I paper pieced so I would have the cutting board and mini iron right there. But once again I hadn't gotten to it. Once again maybe just maybe I (no I have to no maybe's about it) Well anyway Jun 10th this room must be a nice bedroom for my parents. Keep you posted on this one.

Great Give Away and everything else

2010-03-13T13:27:00.000-05:00

Found this great give away she hand dyes laces. Just another one of those things I have thought about doing but never have. I even bought dyes, laces and such. Well now maybe I will win hers and I wouldn't have to do my own. Check it out!

This is the row I made for Becky's Row xRow. I have been in two rows at club and now they are over. Yeah I have two tops minus the borders. I will have to get pics of them soon to post on here. Becky had put in all the fabrics and since I was the last person to get it I had some very small scraps to choose from. And some great yardage too. I wanted to include a little of all her fabrics so my row would fit in any where. Well it would have to be every other row for she had requested that the straight up in down rail fence be in everyones row. Three one row Two the next. I can't wait to see how she borders it. This was the first time I did a RxR and we did not sew the rows together. It was really hard for me. I had a hard time picking the blocks and colors not knowing where it was going to go in the quilt. I put everyones up on my design wall and spent days moving everyhting around and in a case or two just threw up my hands and did something. We all have to have them in a completed top stage by our May meeting, I will try to get pics of all them.

Here's a quilt that beloongs to Margie, she is a piecing demon. She picked this one up and dropped of 4 more. Guess the winter has been a little worse than usual to get that many done. When I first met Margie she was a one maybe two at a time top piece. But now she always has 4 or 5 things started now. She claims that I have been the 'bad' influence on her. We talk and search different quilts and the next thing you know she has one of them started. Yes I am jealous. No make that JEALOUS. She is so talented and has no fear of any pattern, with a stash to envy also. So neat not like my chaotic mess. I know I know I just need to apply myself more.

Here's another customer quilt. This one belongs to Jean. I absolutley love this quilt. She says it is not her color at all but she did it anyway. Well I love the brights and would take this quilt as my own in a second. (What quilt wouldn't I take) I think that these are swapped blocks since some of them have signatures on them. Well Jean no matter what I think this is a beauty!

Busy Busy

2010-03-07T21:53:00.001-05:00

I have been busy,or shall I say lazy. Take your pick. I spent two weeks glued to the TV with the Olympics. I have so much respect for all the atheletes. It is such devotion and dedication to give up so much to persue that gold medal. Hats off to all of them. But while I was watching them I managed to work on some hand applique. I got it back out on the Friday night sew in and just stitched away. I have been so close to being done on this I could taste it but thenjust when I thought I was done I found I had skipped the cat on the middle row. This pattern is the Disappearing 9-patch. Looks different! I decided to put the four corners together and my first thought was to do some wonderful quilting in the blank spaces. Then I got to thinking that this would be a great time to practice my needle turn applique. I Still need lots more practice too. I have yet to embroider the noses and eyes on them but atleast I feel I have made some headway with it.

Here is the club quilt all put together. I still need to have it quilted by this Thursday. It turned out better than I thought or not what I thought. A friend came up with this idea of the gingham checked star sashing. She was going to put this one together while I put another one together, but as we all know things happen and I found myself doing them both. Each member of our club has made a block with everyone using a bit of the sashing fabric as a focus. When I first staarted this I thought it was way to busy. But when you stand back and look at it, it tells me that it is just one of those samplers. I hope everyone in club is pleased with it, whether or not I get it quilted could be another story.

This my row for Janets Row by row that we are doing at club. She is doing a red white and blue them of each row being a different block. I chose the Spinner (Brave World) (It has other names too) block. I love the look of this block the way it moves. Blocks showing movement have been my favorite but I have to admit I am seeing the beauty in those blocks that form chains too.

These blocks are for a swap and the patter is called Trail to Treadleonia. This block is just one fourth of the Spinner block. Here is the same block but the small square is replaced with a 9-patch., I also made the large triangle corne into two pieces. These are very close to the same shade of burgandy. I had never even heard of the tradleonia's when I did this one. I had always loved the Spinner block (from Judy Hopkins, Around the Block book) and always thought that varying it would be cool. Here is another way to set the same block. This one is with the 9-patch corners too, but the large corner triangle is all one piece. this pile will make a cool scrappy one when everything is said and done.
I have more done but time is running short so till tomorrow. Sew On

Friday night sew in

2010-02-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

Last night was the sew in. I managed to stay in. With the Olympics going on I seemed glued to the TV. Speaking of which, we got a new one. Couple of years ago ours went out. Instead of getting a new one we have been using my sons, since he is living here why let it go to waste. Well he is moving back out in a couple of weeks so we had to go invest. Well anyway back to the sew in. I worked on some hand work so I could watch TV too. I also spent a lot of time on the phone with a friend I hadn't talked to in months. I pinned a quilt on the machine, and worked on some swap blocks. I will post pics later but for now I want to get back to work on the swap blocks before my 'get up in go, goes!'

Ok See How Horrible I was

2010-02-15T20:06:00.001-05:00

My last post got me to thinking, 'How far have I come in my quilting?' So I went to searching for one of my earlier pieces. Most had been given away but I still had this one. This is one of my first quilts I quilted. When my machine was delivered I had the normal show me how to do it and then he was off. I finished up on that piece and then I thought I want to do something, not practice. So I grabed off the pile of tops I had and went to town. This was probably done within the first two weeks of owning my machine. These were swapped Tulip blocks off of some yahoo group. Looks good from a distance. It looks good close up if you are not a quilter.

Look at those stitches. Small, medium, large and extra large. Can you tell I have no stitch regulator! And look at the overall quilt you can see where I clamped it. It bows out. Gosh I hope I still don't have those tell tell signs. And I sure hope that my stitch length has improved. Now that I have this quilt out, I think I am going to give this to a friend of mine that was just diagnosed with lung cancer that has spread to her brain. She needs a comfort quilt and these spring tulips should bring some joy to her room. Yep this is going to Maria. She won't care about my ugly stitches. I think these flowers will be better off with her then packed away with me.

Another Week

2010-02-14T22:31:00.000-05:00

Well it has passed by so quickly! My Saints won the super bowl, I was so glad that the hubby was in bed so we didn't have any fights going on. Once again I was rooting for the 'wrong' team as most other Hooiser's would say. I was even Boo'ed at work. Well I am used to controversy.
I am working 9 hours at work and even overtime on Sat. Yes I am thankful that I have a job but gosh it sure doesn't leave much time for sewing, knitting or much of anything else. I did manage to get 2 quilts quilted this week.

This first quilt is Mary M's, she is over 90 years young. She was my first ever quilting customer. I thought with her first quilt that I would give up quilting for others. Her piecing was well lets just say not the best.She had just started piecing and I had just started long arming. What a pair we were! But now years later she has improved so much. She gets her points to come out the majority of the time. Her fold and tuck method is down to a minium. It has been such a pleasure to watch her grow as a quilter. As I look at her pic right now, I see one of her pieces is turned. Oh well still a quilt to be proud of. I know she is giving this to her son in law so she just wanted a the simple meander on it, nothing girlie. Great Job Mary!

This quilt is one of mine. Yes I am trying real hard this year to get one done a month. This was done with the Simple Stack the Deck method. I did a demo for this at my local club and I pulle dfabrics from my stash to make it. I had all the simple blocks done and wanted to use something to set them. I found this cheap ole black and white plka dot. It had been folded the same way for so long that it has fade lines in it. But I used it anyway. I mean my quilts are for using not for shows. I wanted to border it with what I had so... more pulling from the stash. You can see in the bottom right corner there is a large block, there is also one in the opposite diagonal corner. I didn't have enough of anything on hand that matched to make wide enough borders (I don't like small quilts) to make it a big quilt that I had to go with something a bit unusual.

But I think it all turned out ok. I have a 71x83 quilt that I will give to my Granddaughter this next Christmas. Now onto the binding. But speaking of bindings. I didn't like the leather thimbles. I know I need to learn to push with the middle finger but sometimes I still do with the thumb. Practice Practice Practice. The leather thimble did no good on the thumb I couldn't even grasp the needle. (yes I know that is why I need to learn to push with the middle finger) So the leather thimble on the middle finger was to far down on the finger that I still had the raw spot on the tip. So will try something different next time.

Sundays News

2010-02-07T20:21:00.001-05:00

It's Super Bowl time. Go Saints! I picked the Saints the first of the season so even tho they are playing the colts I am sticking with them. It's halftime so I thought I would get some puter time in. While watching the game I am doing needle turn applique. I only have one and half more little animals to applique on and the baby quilt will be ready for quilting.

I do have my first finish of the year. It is a Christmas log cabin. The center 4" blocks were lottery blocks I won from a yahoo group. I won them in 2004, but I never knew what to do with them. In 2007 I joined a bag challenge off another group and then the top was made for me by a friend in this bag challenge. This top was made in 2007, so 2010 I will get to actually put it out on the bed for the Holiday. I was so happy to have the top made I rushed out and got the borders but then everything stopped. It got shuffled to the side and lost in the pile of UFO's. I finally got it back out NOV of 2008 and got those borders on but once again it sat. I wanted to do something special on the quilting. I thought feathers all in the red part of the logs. Nice big feathers scrolling from one side to the next but then what in the green. HMMMM so back to thinking. I had this cute panto of Jingle Bell with bow and holly leaves and I kept thinking somehow I needed to use it. So I ended up doing the panto in the center and a loopy in the gold border with meander in the green/red border and in the red outer border I did scroll feathers to the center with a jingle bell with bow in the center. I really like how it turned out nice but not to fu fu but yet not to plain.

The son and his car and suspended license has been a riot. I couldn't feel to sorry for him for if he would have changed his address to where he is currently living none of this would have happened. But then that would have made sense. I hope he has learned something from all of this.

Well I guess it time to get the snacks ready for the second half.

Weekend doings

2010-01-31T22:17:00.000-05:00

Boy oh boy, what a weekend. The youngest son calls hysterical, he had been stop by the police and they told him he was driving while suspended. They were threatening to tow the car but luckily they were not taking him in. He doesn't understand how, why or anything else that deals with this. So needless to say my shy little boy has been pretty vocal these past couple of days. I know nothing from the BMV had come here since he has moved back home and that has been almost 2 years now. Drat it all he was going out this week to check out places of his own to move back out, but now with this unexpected turn of events, money could be a little tight for him to do that.

Sat. I had to work and my crazy employer starts work at 5am on Sat mornings so I spent a couple of hours Sat afternoon snoring on the couch, no it was in the chair. What a waste of a good sewing day. I didn't get started sewing until late Sat night and here are the two things I worked on. This first photo is of the club quilt that I (Have no clue as why) volunteered to put together. We were all given some of this black floral and told to make any block. Then there is a good 15 more yards of it. I still have 2 more rows to add to this but this is what I got done so far. I also have 12 blocks that were not quite the correct size, so I am going to make a second top for the club once I figure out how and what I want to do with them. Will keep you posted on that. I couldn't believe all the yellow in the blocks.I used orange and green in my 2 blocks I made but look at all the yellow! I can count on one hand all the yellow fabric I have in my stash. So now you know what I think of yellow!

These two rows area row robin that I am doing on one of the groups I am on. They belong to Sharyn. I have always thought that this was to boring of a block for me. But I see now how wonderful it looks all put together that I may just have to make one for myself. She sent thangle papers for everyone to make the half square triangles. I had never done that befor so it was quite the learning experience. I have to say that I am not a very good student for I still had trouble with some of the triangles being off just ever so slightly. Guess I need to really stay on the line or just on the inside part of it. I did notice that I was sewing on the outside edge of the lines sometimes. So as I said in another post I need to be more detail orientated in my piecing. This is going to be a very striking quilt when it is all finished.

Heat and quilting

2010-01-30T14:58:00.000-05:00

Ok so the furnace is sort of fixed. It is at least working right now but they can not guarantee how long it will work. We kind of knew this when we bought the house but.... we always want things to last longer than they really do. This house had been neglected so we knew that everything and I mean everything needed updated or new. Our plans are to put a gas fireplace in the living room, not only will it make it look nice it will help with the heating.

I am planning on going to another retreat and need to get my money in so I thought I better get another quilt done to help cover the cost. So here it is.

A beautiful little baby quilt. It belongs to Rejena and I have to say she does wonderful work. Her quilts lay so nice and flat. I sure wish I could get mine that square. I know she says it is her pressing, and claims to be the pressing queen. It is more than her pressing it is eye for detail in her piecing. Nope I don't think I will ever be that detailed oreintated in my piecing. Can't wait Rejena to see what is next from you.

I have one of my own tops on the machine now. Great, just means when it is quilted I have binding to do. Not my favorite thing to do. I did go out and find these leather finger thimbles and I think once I get used to it I might like them. They come in a pack of three, and they are joined in the back with elastic so the thimble can fit on any size of finger. With that I am wearing one on the thumb and one on the middle finger to sew my bindings on. So far so good but it is slowwwwwwwwwwwww learning. As you can tell I am not a hand quilter. I am doing a baby top with needle turn applique and yes I am using those leather thimbles for that too. Maybe I will learn to love hand work.

Ok I need another quilt...

2010-01-26T21:12:00.000-05:00

Came home from work today and thought the house to be a little cold. Hubby has been on a kick of trying to save money so really didn't think to much about it. he came on downstairs and I commented on the temp and teased him that outside was going to be warmer soon. So he became worried looked at the themostat and headed down to the basement. Darn furnance has went out and repairman busy and can't get to us till tomorrow. Thank goodness it is only getting down to 20° tonight and I do have some quilts to cuddle under while watching TV. Now ustairs is nice and toasty it has a gas fireplace so won't have to worry while sleeping. Starting to shiver just sitting here typing. 50° right now. Gonna hurry this post up.

Got the red white and black quilt done that was pictured a couple weeks ago. This is Margie's quilt. I wish I could have gotten a better pic of it.

Great thing my Grandson did. Project Night Night

2010-01-22T20:45:00.000-05:00

Well for those that have been faithfully following you will remember that back last spring/summer my 10 yr old grandson Devon finally finished the quilt that he had been working on for 3 or 4 years. He had won second place in people choice in the kids division and had the hopes of giving this quilt away to some little boy that had no home or anything else. Well two weeks ago his hometown had a monster fire in their downtown district. Two historical buildings were totally destroyed in this fire. Now of course the upstairs we rented out in apartments. My son, Devon's daddy, just happened to work with a guy that lived in one of the apartments, and he has a two yr old son. This little boy lost everything that was not in the diaper bag. So this was Devons chance. When he was told the story of the little boy he said 'yes yes this little boy had to have his quilt. Cuz the quilts that gramdma (Me) makes for him makes him feel better so this little boy needs to feel better' I tear up everytime I think how did he get so generous,giving and heartfelt. As the story gets to me, when the little boy saw his quilt it was like Christmas morning for him, his eyes brightened for his favorite things of all were on this quilt, tools like what daddy has and dinoseurs covered the back and there are his favorites. Appearently the little guy collected dinoseurs.

This is a reminder pic of Devon and his quilt!
Thank you Devon for being a great kid!
I am so proud of him for being so thoughtful!
I just don't know of too many 10 yr olds that
really want to give to others.

Now all this got me to thinking there must be thousand of kids out there in the same situation, and I hope that they have a Devon out there to cheer them up. I found this sight and it seems like a great thing. If you have been looking for a charity cause check them out. Project Night Night provides a sense of security for homeless child.

Ok break time up I have other things to tell you but I have to get the quilt done and need to back to it before it gets to late.

So till tomorrow

Sundays News and give aways

2010-01-17T12:26:00.002-05:00

I had to watch football last night, the Colts of course, but I am secretly hoping that the Saints win the big dance. I had my hand applique there with me but...... I did none. Oh I love the look of it I just wish I could love doing it.
I have been working on Perry's quilt top and have decided that it will become the next Fridany night sew in item to work on again. I have borders to do yet. Top is pieced otherwise. So I guess rest of the day will be on the gammill and the red, white and black. Yes I will post pic of it after I am done with it. But a short story on this top is: LQS was doing clothesline blocks. Giving you small amount of one fabric and they had coordinating fabrics you could buy. Make blocks and turn in and possible win all of them. This color scheme is the only one I did and I made 6 or 7 blocks. They had enough blocks turned it that two people won. Margie and ME. This is Margie's top out of yep (alot of) my blocks. Nope I haven't done anything with mine yet.

This is my grandson Kyler and yesterday was his 7th Birthday. His Uncle Nathan and I gave him money, then Uncle Nathan and Daddy took him shopping while the other two came back home with me. The skate board is what he wanted. Daddy and Uncle Nathan did talk him into the helmet and pads. Good thing for that. He has the skate boarder look down doesn't he. I hope he likes it and doesn't break to many bones on it.

I have been going through my comments and going to their blogs. Oh there is so many nice things out there! I found this Cathron's giveaway she is so talented I am so jealous. Check her out and drool over it.

And here Sue is having a give away too.

My Sew In Accomplishments

2010-01-16T13:20:00.001-05:00

Well I partook of my first internet sew in. It was really just like most other nights here. Hubby goes to bed around 6pm cuz he has to get up at 1:30am to milk those cows, so I often sew anyway. Well last night my son brought over a movie but I told him nope gotta sew but I see this morning he did leave it for me to watch today. So I really did just sit and sew, and leaf through books, and fondle fabrics. Went to bed around 1am. I decided that I needed to work on Perry's quilt. I have never made him one, but have had it started for years. I do something I call a shuffled 9-patch, I think some people have said that they have seen it called crazy 9-patch. But anyhow I started this thing way back in 02 and have taught this class many times, and when I do I either make blocks for Perry's quilt or I have found this makes a wonderful soldier quilt. So any way I had 3 sets made in cow-i-fied theme and decided that another one was needed so I fondled fabric and sorted till I found some, made another set of these blocks.

First photo here is of all the blocks before squaring up. aren't they just wonderful. John Deere tractors, farm fields and cows cows cows. Yes the hubby likes his dairy cows. I hope it looks manly. I truly have a hard time thinking guyish. All the first blocks I had made had red plaid. I thought that it was looking to girlie so I then added just the plain blacks to these last two sets of blocks and I think that was a winner.

Second photo here is of the few rows I got squared up and sewn together. I had struggled with sashing or not to sash. I decided that I would go sashless. I had done one other top years ago sashless and I liked it but yet I have done every other one with sashing so I was torn. BUT I like it sashless adn I think the hubby will be very pleased. But then I do have to figure out borders yet so it could be awhile before he gets this anyway.

In between doing this, it seems I can't keep my mind on one thing for long, I quilted on a lovely red white and black top, see here I am quilting on it.

But anyhow this is what I did on the first Friday night sew in of the year.

Friday night sew in

2010-01-15T05:23:00.000-05:00

Just found this and I am IN! I have alot I need to get done and since I am picking up the grandkids Sat. Fri night is a good time for me to just Sew Sew Sew. You can find out all about the sew in at Heidi's Blog. I hope to finish quilting a quilt I have had on my machine since Christmas.

What I did at retreat

2010-01-14T15:45:00.001-05:00

Well as you know I didn't do much,way to hot. But I did manage to get a few rows done and these are important rows I might add. This is Melissa's row. She wanted African Masks and provided the background fabric. I am not a very good (Just haven't done it very often) fusible web appliquer (I know no such word) I wish I would have cut the eyes out bigger but I guess she (Melissa) can add bigger eyes if it bothers her.

This is my starter row for the row by row on the 4"group that I am in. This is the color of my living room. For those that don't know it hubby and I bought an old run down should have been demolished house and have been remodeling. Can't wait to see what this will end up looking like.

This is Sheryl's rows I have them all laid out together. This is the first Row by row that I haven't sewn the rows together and I don't think I like it. I have a hard time deciding what to do not see the whole picture. My row is the second to the last. I put it there since 3 rows where of one background and 3 rows will be of the lighter background. I wanted to see how it would look and other than the first light row is sewn wrong (spools going wrong direction) I think it is going to be a great one. But I guess I am cheating here I had this all done before the retreat just wanted to show it to you.

This is the New Years Eve mystery that Ann (not for sure of last name) did for us on several groups. I wanted to do this fabric so badly and I knew I didn't have much of it so I just did a small top and then thought I would border it differently as to add more size. Well not being a very good eyeballer I ran out of the blue before I got the border done. So I am on the look out for this blue but of course I don't have a selvedge to go by. Ahhhhhhhhhh sometimes lifes little challenges just keep me going. I will find it or I will figues something else out. But I am not I repeat NOT ripping out the half square triangles.

I have club tonight and I have the lesson. Guess I better get and get it together.

I'm still here

2010-01-12T22:21:00.003-05:00

I know that you all thought I fell off the earth. Well not really, just seems that way, I have been real busy. I still have the Christmas photos to post and 3 row by rows that I have been doing. Two are close to being done and are ready to be passed on Thrus night at club meeting and the 3rd is a new start from an internet group. I went to a retreat this past weekend and tried to sew up a storm but get this it was so hot I could hardly work. Now mind you it was 15 outside but (it felt to me) like 100 inside. I found myself wondering the front rooms supervising layouts of blocks instead of in there sewing my own. Still had a great time and did get some things done. I wish I would have brought hand stuff to do but oh well hind sight.....

Here are some quilts that ReJena has made. She does wonderful work!!

Winner is

2010-01-01T09:38:00.002-05:00

First I want to thank everyone for stopping by. I hope that you continue to stop in and check on me. I am planning a mystery soon. I have the design made just getting to the steps!
Next order of business is Happy New Year. I hope this year brings frabric and yarn all around me, health and happiness. And it brings whatever you wish and or need in abundance to you.
So that leaves us to the winner. random.org tells me that Colleen is the winner! So you need to email me with all your info so I can get this out to you.

Thanks again

Susan

Got the last one of the year done

2009-12-27T11:45:00.004-05:00

Here is one of my quilts. I taught a mystery at a retreat and this was it. This is one block and just one way of setting it. By twisting and turning the block you get other settings. I will post another one as I get it done. I plan to give this one out for a baby quilt. Who to not sure.

I hope everyones Christmas was bright and cheerie! We had a great time here. The grandkids came over on Christmas eve and we opened presents then. It is always so nice to see the kids with there honest faces and expressions. When Savananh opened the baby doll you would have thought it was her first baby doll ever. She shook with excitement. Devon loved his camo jacket and cried when he saw it. Kyler was just excited about all the remote cars he got and we spent the evening dodging the cars as he sped them past. Christmas day was very quiet with just the step son and father in law over. We had the left overs which was still a splendid meal in its self. Now it is time for piecing and trying to get all those small projects caught up before they are due out in the mail for swaps I joined. Today is football!! My beloved KC chiefs are on TV here and I get to see them play. They maybe a loosing team but they are still my team and will have them on while I piece away the day. So now off to the machine

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T20:46:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas to all! May your Holiday be filled with Joy and laughter! Family and friends! Don't forget the reason for the season!

OUT MY WINDOW

2009-12-23T19:17:00.004-05:00

This is the view I look at when I am quilting. Through the tree two blocks is my Local Quilt Store. Sure is nice when I need something it is so close. But it sure is hard on the pocket book to have one so close. Not much to look at. Sure was a nicer view when we lived out in the country.

Christmas give-away

2009-12-20T10:43:00.005-05:00

I have been wanting to do a Christmas give away. I know this is a little late but it seems time has just crept up and hit me smack in the face. So I will keep this give away open until Dec 31st. To enter leave a comment on this post,one entry. Follow my blog and leave a comment stating such earns 2 entries. (If you already follow state such and I will give you that extra entry). Follow my blog and post a comment on your blog about this give away with a link and post a comment here stating such gives you 3 entries.

This is the little basket I will be giving away. It has 2 fat quarters. Quilters World magazine, pattern from Country Stitches. Book: Beautiful Threads byMary Tatem, personal fan, wrist pin cushion, thread spool candles, sewing kit,and quilter's adjustable finger guard. If I can find other items between now and then they could be added.
So..

Good Luck!!!!

Merry Christmas

Quilting, Rambling

2009-12-13T21:39:00.006-05:00

Here are a few more quilts I have done.

Shelly's

Melissa's

Margie's

I have all my Christmas quilts done know and have decided to do one of my own. It is a Christmas quilt that I have had the top done now for, this is the 3rd Christmas. I don't know if I will actually get it done before Christmas this year but it will at least be quilted now and will just be waiting for the binding. I have one last border to do and then the quilting will be done. The it will be back to working on the quilts that are not Christmas presents but just sitting here waiting to get done.

I did get some Christmas shopping done this weekend. At least the grand kids will have something under the tree. Well that is if I get the tree up. I told the hubby to bring it up from the basement but he hasn't done it yet. So it seems the tree will be making a short appearance this year.

Quilts done

2009-12-09T17:56:00.006-05:00

This is Karen O's. Cute little tea cup and pots with plants in them. I did a wondering feather all over this quilt. I really liked the finished product.

This was Karen's too.

Another Karen's but Karen H. Beautiful colors!

Have Trunk Will Travel

2009-12-06T16:16:00.012-05:00

I know this is a little late but here are some pics of the Trunk Show I did way back in OCT. I really enjoyed doing this show and can't wait for the next one.

Me on left showing a Grandmothers Flower Garden made by Husbands grandmother.

Me on left showing an antique quilt from the late 1800's made by my Mother in Laws ancestors. The darker black fabric is a swastika fabric. When I had an appraiser look at this one she was joyed, amazed to almost speechless. She had heard of the swastika fabric but had never seen it. It seems most of the fabric and or quilts were destroyed during WW2 when Hitler made this ancient religious symbol and evil one.

This is Midnight Madness a Dereck Lockwood design. I started this as one of my first quilts. Needless to say that I had to put this one away many times and go learn more before I could go on with it.

Time Flies

2009-11-22T21:50:00.011-05:00

Ok I know it has been weeks! Believe it or not I have been busy. I still have my Trunkshow photos to go through and share them with you. But for now I have quilts and more quilts.

This is Karen H's, the color is messed up with my camera on this one. Believe me it is a beautiful quilt and more green than the yellow. I quilted the feather meander on it and it turned out great, I hope she loves it as much as I do.

This is Anita H's string pieced pinwheels. I believe she said she started this almost 10 years ago. A UFO almost done and out of her way. I know that will make her happy, this is quilted with swirls.

I went to a retreat the first weekend of NOV and I spent the time teaching classes and bordering tops I have had for years. This is the mystery that I did. I had saw this quilt on some web site and wanted it. So I drafted my own pattern. I have no clue as to the real name of the top but I call it weaving ribbons. (the red looks like a ribbon weaving in and out). No that is not me in the pic. That is Janet a gal from club she was seated there and with the room set up there is no good place to show quilts without some one in the pic so Janet is it in all my pics from that night.

This quilt is a row by row that I did on the Yahoo group Quilting in Indiana. I call this Pinwheels Across Indiana. I love the bright! Thanks ladies I can't wait to quilt this one. Janet again gracing the pic.

This top was a demo I did on Stacking the Deck. Yep some book by someone can't remember who, and not going to go dig for it. This was simple and really turned out neat.

This was a mystery that I did at retreat a couple of years ago. Take a scrappy 9-Patch and triangles and arrange them in different patterns to get a different look. These two are the same block just set different.Yep Janet again taking center stage.

The top row is blocks I started at the retreat when I got bored of bordering. The bottom row is the row by row that I am doing for club and belongs to Anita.

I have another quilt done but it is still on the machine so maybe tomorrow I can get a pic of it andposted.

See I have been busy. I had one of the grandkids yesterday and he spent the night. Yes I woke up tired. I don't know why but I never sleep good when one of the kids are around. They are not babies but I still worry. What if? What if? Grandpa went and got cereal for breakfast and I started feeding Kyler the Halloween candy that was left. Yep he was pretty wound up by the time his daddy come and got him. Well isn't that my job as grandma? Really he was a good boy stayed on Nick junior playing games, or chasing the dog. It was great to spend time with him.

Ok enough for now. Guess I will go get that other quilt off the machine.