Some sewing at the church on Saturday

I got to sew on Saturday with my friends.  It was an all day thing and it was great.  When I walked in, my friend Sheila, asked me to make a walker bag.  She hit everyone up first thing when they walked in.  Most of us made one or two and it was a great way to get warmed up to sew and good for charity too.  I'm not sure how many bags we ended up with but here's a picture of the bags we made.  It was an easy pattern to do and quick too.  These will be given to the local nursing home in our area.

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After making the walker bags, we could sew on whatever we wanted to.  I brought my D4P blocks to finish putting together.  I had all the rows made and I just needed to sew them all together.  I got all the rows put together and showed it to the group and  they loved it.  I then had to teach them how to make them... So, we had a class right then. All I need to do now, is put borders on this and it will be ready for quilting.  I didn't take a picture of it but will once the borders are on.  You've seen one like this a few times on my blog so I won't bore you with it now.....

 

One of the girls was making hot pads or hot bowl pads. I'm not sure what you call them.  She was using leftover pieces of batting measuring 9 1/2" and squares that measured 10 1/2".  She put these together and made a hot pad to hold bowls coming out of the microwave.  I'll show you how to do these this week.  I didn't take any pics of it either but she gifted me a finished one for showing her how to do the disappearing 4 patch block.  This was fun to make and see how it was done.  She said she gave these as gifts for Christmas to everyone she knew and everybody loved them. 

Here's a few pics from Saturday.

 

This quilt was made by one of my friends. She made it for her young friend that goes to church with her.  Dana is her name and she loves red and purple and thinks the red hat ladies are great so my friend Linda, searched the internet to come up with fabric. A few years ago, this fabric was everywhere. Of course, she didn't need it then!  Anyway, this was made and quilted by Linda and Dana got it Saturday when she came to see what everyone was doing...she loved it.

 

My friend, Suzette was making this Harley Davidson quilt for one of her friends.  She made a quilt for her boyfriend last year and someone saw it and asked her to make them a quilt.  The middle part of the quilt is a Harley flag...

 

It was a fun day and productive too.  I want to have a lot more fun days like this this year!

 

 

 

Chain blocks and sewing with friends.

  I've been working on chain blocks, 32 of them. I started working on them last Friday night. I took them to work on when I went and sewed with some of my friends.  I can't do hard things when I go sew with my friends as there is always too much going on and I just can't concentrate. This was repetitive sewing so I knew this would be ok. I got the blocks started there and I finished a few Saturday morning but I had to get up early to do those. Once Carmen was awake, that was all the sewing I had time for, I was running after her once she was up!

I finished these up today...now to start on the other part of the project.

These are all made with florals.  My group had a fabric swap and these were what I got...

I also made a friendship star.  There are 31 of these for this project...this is number 1, 30 to go!

Close up of some of the blocks.  The 4 patch in the corners are 3 1/2", so this block ends up being a 9" finished block.  I looked on the package and this project was from 2008!  Hmm, I thought I was getting caught up on my old projects but I guess not! 

Ok, I got to get busy on the other part to this project and get those finished. I don't want to let this project get any older! Enjoy your week. 

A Wonderful Weekend with family and friends

I had a wonderful weekend with grandkids and sewing friends too.  My DH has been out of town and I played all weekend!   I went on Saturday and hung out with my buddies. We worked on our One Block Wonder quilts.  Four of us were doing this quilt and we met at my friend Sharon's house. She had made some design walls for us and we set about putting up our OBW blocks.  I got mine all laid out and then we started moving the blocks around. It took at least a good hour to play with the blocks before I was happy with the setting.  My friend, Bev, helped me pin the rows together to take home with me to sew together.  Thanks, Bev, for all your great help!  You were a lifesaver! 
I would show you some pics, but my sweet husband took my camera with him. I took some pics with my cell phone but they aren't very good...very blurry, so when my DH returns, I'll post some pics. 

I spent the day with my friends doing my OBW, then helping them do theirs.  It was alot of fun.  We also did our snowman swap. I got back 16 different snowmen.  One girl didn't come and we will get her blocks soon.  I have to make 5 tree blocks and 20 or 24 alternating blocks to put the quilt together.  I'll show you the snowmen when my camera comes back home.
We went to lunch together at Posada's Mexican restaurant, it was great. An older gentleman brought me and Dee an ice cream dessert and sang happy birthday to us.  This is our birthday month and we were given fat quarters, cards and I also got a cute little mug rug.  Lots of goodies to celebrate.

I got home and had a package from Amazon. I ordered the Farmer's Wife quilt book and it was there along with a collector Barbie doll I bought too.  (These were gifts to myself for my upcoming birthday, or at least that's what I told myself.)   I started sewing on my OBW and have sewn together 6 of the 22 rows so far. I'll try to sew more this week.
On Sunday, I went to church with my kids and grandkids, then took the grandkids to lunch so my son and DIL could have a luncheon at their church.  Me and the grands ate barbeque and came home and watched The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts.  Wow, it brought back memories of when I was a kid!  It was a full weekend and I had a great day with friends and family. It took my mind off of missing my DH for awhile.  He'll be back Tueday night and I'll miss Tatting with the girls to go pick him up from the airport.  He's been gone a week and I'm ready for him to be home.  I'll post more tomorrow and tell you about my day today.  I want to post pics as soon as I can so please come back and see what I did on Monday!  til next time.....

Fun times with friends

I went today and sewed with some of my buddies. We met at  a friend's house and sewed together. My buddy, Sharon, has a great big craft room and we got together to cut out a new project.  I didn't take my machine.  We met together to cut out a One Block Wonder quilt.  This is my first on this quilt. I've done a stack and whack and it's very similar.  It was alot of fun to get together and learn the tricks and do the project quicker.  There were four of us that came early to work on this project,  the others came later during the day. They decided to work on other things  besides this project so they brought their sewing machines.  Anyway, my friend Martha, has made four of these (OBW quilts) and she was teaching us to do this.  It went very quickly with her telling us what to do.  I love this...I didn't even have to read the pattern, she just walked us through it....

I had been worried about doing this project as I had not been able to find enough fabric for it. I knew we would be doing this project for about two months and I've looked all over.  I found lots of fabric that I liked but there wasn't enough yardage of any of them. I was looking for a blue fabric.   I didn't find any blue but I did find a beautiful black fabric and I am so thrilled with the way my blocks are turning out.  

I got all of my triangles cut  and I'm  able to start playing with the triangles to see how I wanted them to be sewn together.  Martha called it twist and twirl....anyway, I was sitting and pinning my triangles together to sew at home. I told my buddies I felt like I was having withdrawals from not being able to sew.  Sharon had her machine set up already and said, here, sew on mine....ahhh, relief!  Anyway, I twirled the blocks around and put several together while I was there.  I have about 85 more hexagons to put together.  These are so much fun to do. I love seeing how each one is coming together.  This is what I call mindless sewing,  I'll put a tape on tomorrow and just sew these little jewels together quickly.....We will be getting together again in September to sew the quilt top together.  We have to have all of our blocks ready for this and we will play with the arrangements together.

  Did I tell you that we eat at these gatherings too?  Wow, talk about great food!  These ladies can really cook.  Sharon made pickles for this and she's going to teach me how to make her pickles and "can" them too.  I can't wait!  I've wanted to learn how to do this for awhile and she has said she will show me how. 

Judy shared her recipe for Pimento chesse with me today too.  I love her homemade pimento cheese and now I can make my own...It's so nice to have sweet friends like this.  I love getting together with these sweet women. I didn't take any pics today as I had left my camera at home...

Ok, here's the blocks I worked on today.  I have them pinned together.  These will be sewn together in strips and that's why I have not sewn them together all the way. You leave them in this condition and we'll play with the placement, then we sew the strips all together matching your other hexagon side...I'll show you that later when I do that....

I  was also able to put the final border on another quilt today too.  I had put this top together a few months ago and really wanted a border on it.  The problem was I didn't have enough fabric for a border.  I was short about one strip of fabric (I estimated this- I never measured. )I knew one of my buddies had some of this fabric so I begged her for some.  I asked her for a 6 1/2" strip and I thought that would be enough.  She was generous and gave me two strips. Boy, was I glad she did.  It took both strips and I only had a piece of fabric left that was less than 2" wide.  Woo, there for a while I thought I was going to have to beg some more! I am so much happier with this quilt now.  I liked this quilt but I really wanted a border. I had been thinking about this quilt or maybe I should say fretting about it.  I had gone online trying to find more fabric and it was no where to be found. It had really been bothering me not to have the border on that I wanted. I'm so glad I have friends that have the same taste in fabric.  Thanks, Judy, I really owe you big time!!!  Here's my Crazy 8 quilt with the border on it...Now, I can get it quilted and it will be just like I wanted it.

  Ok, don't forget about the Pick 4 Blog Hop.  Kim over at Magnolia Bay Quilts is the book reviewer today.  Go check out her post about the book and leave her a comment to be entered for the book drawing.  This has been alot of fun to see reviews of a new book coming out.  What a great way to bring out a book.  Click on the link above to go to her blog....Hurry up! Go now and enter and see what Kim is working on!

 I hope everyone is taking care of themselves and the people in the path of Hurricane Irene stay safe, our thoughts and prayers are with you!

til next time, happy sewing!

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobby

Tonight is Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobby. (If you click on my title of this post, it will take you to Bobby's site to sign up for tonight's FNSI or you can scroll down on the right hand side and click on the badge). I'm already sewing and trying to catch up on some things I've been wanting to do.  I'll be joining some of my friends later tonight to sew. I've been missing going to the church to sew for various reasons.  Mostly family related and I have sure missed seeing my buddies.  It will be good to see all of their smiling faces!

  Won't you join in the fun and sew tonight too?  I'll post pics later tonight or tomorrow and hopefully, I'll be getting something done. I have a free weekend for sewing and I can't wait!  til next time, happy sewing!

Weekend Sewing and Cupcakes for dessert and a quilt too!

Ok, I know on my last post I said I would sew and show you what I did. Well, that didn't happen but I guess you can tell that....Anyway, life is still not  back to normal or whatever normal is...but it's getting there. 

I haven't been sewing hardly at all. I just can't seem to get motivated right now.  I have been looking at all my projects and reading books and magazines but when I have the time, I don't have the want to.  When I don't have the time, I just keep thinking of all the things I want to be sewing on.  This holiday weekend is a long weekend for me so maybe I can get a few things done. 

I was able to sew a little on Saturday. I  got a little hand sewing done and some tatting too.  After that,  I got some stuff ready for a sew day on Sunday with my friends.

For the Sunday sewing, we made cupcake blocks and we will be swapping them later...it was so much fun to get together and sew with friends. Of course, we had to have food and cupcakes for dessert.  I had a good time being with my buddies and actually got some sewing done too... We all met over at Martha's and we spent the afternoon making our cupcake blocks, playing with her dogs and eating cupcakes.

We had real food too.

Yum, those cupcakes are good!

Dee's first cupcake block...

This is so much fun!

Another one finished!

Aren't these cute?  Judy gave us all ceramic cupcake boxes with a piece of chocolate inside!

Here we are with one of our cupcake blocks.  We had alot of fun working on these together.  It's so much fun to see how everyone's was so different.  The instructions were to have a pink background with a cupcake on the diagonal. We all drew up our own pattern and we'll exchange later next month.  Some will embellish and some won't. It's left up to the individual but they were all cute!  There are 4 other ladies in the swap that couldn't make it. We will have 12 blocks each and we can put it together any way we want. We will be getting together to swap and sew the quilt up next month.  More fun times with friends to come for the summer months. We planned 3 other swaps too so please stay tuned!  Til next time, happy sewing.

Friday night sewing, a few finishes and a friendship block

I went to the church to sew with my friends on Friday night. There were 7 or 8 of us at the church and we sewed until late into the night. I made the binding for my two little pink quilts and attached it and I also made a block for exchange. Now, all I have to do is sew the bindings down by hand and put labels on and I can call these two finished. Woo hoo, that will actually make me three finishes for the month. Cuz, I finished another little quilt too.

Remember this one? This one is Dear Blanche and it is on my UFO list as number 2. It came back from the quilter a few weeks ago and I just laid it aside so I could work on other things. The binding is now on and ready to be hand sewn down...



This next one is Table Manners and it is ready to have the binding hand sewn down too....



I finished this one earlier in the week. It is on my UFO list as #8, known as Funny Flowers. I don't like the name but I'll think of something cute. I hand quilted this one just because I wanted to. You can't see the hand quilting but it made me feel good to do it. I love this little quilt because it is so happy. This is one of my favorite patterns for quick baby quilts. It is from the book, Easy Baby Quilts (an older book) and the pattern is called Will Work For Fabric. Don't you love that??? I have always liked this fun pattern. It makes up quick and you can hi-lite whatever cute fabric in the middle squares. Anyway, all I have to do to this one is put a label on it and I'll do that when I think of a cute name.



I made this friendship block for one of the girls in my small group. This one is for Rita...

Friday night sewing

Last week was crazy. I had something going every night and it wasn't quilt related. :-( I was so busy I really didn't have any time to blog...

Friday night changed all of that. I went over and visited with my quilting buddies at the church. We had a great time and ate, sewed and chatted. I got done what I had set out to do and was able to sit and visit too. Swooze and her daughter, Darcy even came for a visit. It's always nice to see her. I met her on-line a few years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) and we've tried to get together several times and it just hasn't worked out. She's a busy lady too. Anyway, her and her sweet daughter came and sat in on our little group. We had alot of fun. I worked on sewing together 50 solid pink and 50 toile squares. I marked them diagonally and sewed on both sides of the line. I got those done at the group, ready for the next step. I left them together so I didn't lose any and started working on some little hexagons for a small project. I went home happy from seeing all of my quilting buddies.

Friday Night Sewing with Heidi and Bobbi and friends

This Friday is Friday Night Sewing night with Heidi and Bobbi. Come and join us. Click on the brown button on the right hand side bar and it will take you to Heidi's blog to sign up. I'll be sewing with friends on Friday night here in my area and I'll take pics of all of the stuff we will be working on. We have food too so we are not missing anything! I so enjoy sewing with my buddies, I get alot done and I usually learn something along the way too. Happy Quilting!

Friday night sewing, Saturday sewing with friends

Sorry, no pics for this post.

So far, this weekend has been alot of fun sewing with friends. Friday, after work, I went straight over to my friend, Judy's house and worked on binding some pillows for her. During the meantime, she quilted two of my quilts. Dear Blanche and Table Manners...she finished late Friday night and I took them home with me. They are beautiful. I will take pictures and share them with you when they are bound. Hopefully, I'll bind them this week as I'm ready for these two to be finished...She did a great job and I am so pleased with them.

This morning, I went over to sew with my ASG friends at Lana's quilt barn. We had a blast. Everyone worked on whatever they wanted to. I took some things to work on but changed my mind when I got there. Sandy was cleaning out this week and brought some things to give away. I took some of the things from her and started working on them. As some of you know, I have a soft spot for teddy bears. She had a teddy bear cut out and I just had to have it. I sewed it all together but didn't have any stuffing. Next, I started working on my Placemat bags. I got one bag half way finished. I'll work on this one later this week too. Several of us made scissor fobs. I'll show you that later too. It was a fun day and we had good food and fellowship, as usual.

I came home and took a nap. It was so hot today and I was exhausted from all the fun! I got up later and found out I didn't have enough stuffing for my little bear. I had enough to stuff the legs and arms. I'll have to go to Walmart or Michael's tomorrow for stuffing so I can finish. I'll show you the cute little bear then. For now, have a wonderful Sunday.

Saturday Sewing

Saturday, I met with my ASG group and we worked on making bags from placemats..We all brought salads and had a great time...it was so much fun to sew with all the girls at the great sewing barn.

Here's the bag I made. It was so easy and fun to do. I plan on making alot more and giving as Christmas gifts. This one will probably go to my older sister...

Sewing with Shirley and Crazy Quilt Blocks

I went to Shirley's again today and we sewed our little hearts out on the crazy patch blocks. These blocks will be given to our ASG group to embellish and make whatever they want to out of them. We finally finished all the blocks today and put in thread, buttons, ribbon and all kinds of trims for the kits. Shirley and I are very excited about the blocks and we think they turned out very good. I was dumb and didn't take pictures of these but will this next Saturday. We are getting together this Saturday and will be playing around with stitches to decide what we want to teach or show the group. Now comes the fun part. I have never been a big embroiderer but I am enjoying this. I have ususally learned the stitches just by looking at a book, so it's fun to get together with someone that actually knows how to do the stitches in person. Everybody in our group probably knows how to embroider so I'm hoping we can teach them something....maybe, they can teach me something. Who knows! Getting together is the important thing, right? I hope they like it. I brought two of the blocks home with me so I will take pictures of those and post. These will be my blocks....I'm not going to do a quilt. I'm going to make a small book cover or maybe a needlecase. I'm not doing anyting really big with mine. I might just frame it...it just depends how much I like it when I'm finished. Time will tell. I'll show you what I do so you can see the results. Til next time....

Sewing with a friend and Crazy Quilt Patches

Have you ever said you would do something, thinking it wouldn't take you very long - just to find out it takes you forever? That's what has happened to me the last couple of times I have told someone I would help them out....and it's not that I put it off either. I started working on some blocks with my friend, Shirley, on Saturday. She and I are doing a demo together for our sewing group. We are making crazy patch blocks and showing the group how to do embroidery stitches and embellishments on these blocks. We are making about 25 - 30 blocks and they are taking forever! We worked on these Saturday and only got 6 done. We had a great time and laughed alot but we were both surprised at how long these blocks were taking to sew up...We are getting together again this Saturday. Shirley and I decided to do these crazy patches with embellishments and embroidery stitches after we went to Martha Pullen. At Martha Pullen, we sat in on a class by Sandy Jenkins from Fredericksburg, Tx. Shirley had taken her classes in the past and loved her. She is a crazy patch queen. Go check out her website, very impressive. I'm not into crazy patch that much but she made me want to be! She does lovely work. I watched her video and she makes embroidery work look so easy!

Sewing with friends

The reunion quilt is quilted and partly bound. My two Judy's and I worked on the quilt last night until 11:00...Judy and Bob will be on their way later today on their vacation to the Texas coast, Judy will finish up the binding on the way in the car. We did about a fourth of the binding last night so it shouldn't take her too long to finish. The quilt turned out great! Judy has done this for 6 years now and this is the first one that she didn't really want to give away. Judy's sister, Chris and Judy's son, Jeremy are in charge of the drawing for the quilt. Chris said she's going to try to rig the drawing so she can win. She loves the quilt. I think this is going to be a big hit at the reunion. I can't wait to see pictures of their reunion. It has been alot of fun working on this project with Judy and Judy and I'm looking forward to doing my own quilt with them. Judy took pictures last night but it was too late when she got home to load them on the computer. She will send me the pictures and I'll post a picture later today or tomorrow. Til next time....

Sewing with friends continued

Thursday night we finally put the finishing touches on the Reunion quilt top that my friends and I have been making together. Judy is now quilting it and we will bind it Wednesday or Thursday this week. None of us had our cameras so I still don't have a picture. When we do the binding, I will take a picture of us and the quilt. We do plan on doing three more of these so more fun will follow. I am looking forward to doing this with my two Judy's. We will start on these during deer hunting season as the guys go hunting. This gives us enough time to get our fabrics together. This quilt was a kit that was purchased at the Dallas Quilt show in March but the fabrics probably aren't available. It was all Moda fabric and it was from the 76 Trombones line. I have some patriotic fabric but will have to add to it. This will also give me time to finish up some more projects I have in the works now.
Til next time.....

More Sewing with Friends

Okay, the girls exaggerated a bit when they said they were finished with the quilt...I got over there Tuesday night and no, the top was not finished but they really had gotten alot done. We continued sewing and putting together and had another good time sewing together. It was not finished when we left but was further along. It should be finished this week sometime. Judy said she was going to continue working on it and hopefully get the borders on it by this weekend. The borders have a swag and stars on them and really make the quilt. This quilt has piecing and applique but we are not doing needle turn. We are using Steam-A-Seam and we are doing the buttonhole stitch around the applique. It is turning out really well. No pictures yet, but will have some by this weekend. We might have to make three more of these. All of us like it and have enjoyed working on it so much and this one will be given away, so....it looks like we will be sewing together more but working on triplets (one for the three of us). I love patriotic quilts and this one is turning out soooo good. I can't wait to share it with you. Til next time...

Sewing with friends

I have been sewing but haven't had any finishes to post or brag about. I went over to a friend's house Friday night and we sewed on her quilt. She is making a quilt for her family reunion. She was thinking she couldn't finish it in time to get it quilted so another friend and I chipped in on the sewing to help her finish. Judy had quilted a quilt for me on a rush basis, so that was the least I could do. I love to sew with friends anyway so this just gives me an excuse to get together with my friends. We had a good time Friday night. My other friend, also named Judy, went over again on Saturday and they got to keep up the sewing marathon. I had to work and could not participate in the fun. They finished the quilt top Saturday, or should I say early Sunday morning. I'll take pictures when I go over there Tuesday night and post so you can see. It is a red, white and blue patriotic applique and pieced quilt and is very cute. Judy is a Longarm quilter and will quilt it herself...We will be binding it Tuesday, I hope. Whatever, it was fun to do this and I look forward to sewing on something Tuesday night.
I worked on some hand piecing yesterday for a class I am taking. It is so nice just to sit and relax and do handwork.

I am going to take an embroidery class in August and I am looking forward to that too. I have done redwork and embroidery but I learned it on my own. This will be the first class for me on this. It's a beginner embroidery class and covers 16 different stitches. It looks like fun and alot of my friends are taking the class with me. Oh boy, I can't wait.

No new pictures to post so I will quit rambling for now, til next time...

Sewing and Manual Labor

I didn't get to work on my Orange Crush quilt this weekend but I still sewed. I went over to a friend's house- (her name is Judy) and helped her cut and sew on a quilt she is doing as a giveaway at her family reunion. (She gives a quilt away every year at her family reunion! She puts all the family members names in a hat(the ones that show up that have not won a quilt in the past) and draws a name...Can you imagine! She said her family really look forward to this and she will continue doing this until all of them have a quilt. She is such a good hearted person. Judy is my friend that is a Longarm quilted and she quilted the heart quilt for Steph. We had so much fun together. It's so good to be with friends that share a common interest. We sewed for a while and she decided she needed something from the quilt store. So, I stopped sewing and told her it was a real hardship for me to stop but I would go along to the quilt store with her. We went to the LQS and I found several things I couldn't live without. I didn't get any fabric but I did buy a new gadget called a Halo. It is a circle weighted object. You lay it on your quilt and it aids you in machine quilting. I can't wait to try it. Several of my friends have one and they love them...I'll try it out and let you know. My husband had gone golfing, he called while we were at the quilt store and we met him for lunch. Afterwards, we went back to Judy's and continued working on her quilt. We got about half of the quilt done before I had to leave. It was a fun time and very relaxing too. When we finish the quilt, I'll take a picture and post it...It is part applique and part pieced and it is patriotic.

Sunday, we went over to my oldest son's house and helped him move his fence. He had already dug the holes and put new fence posts in. We just had to take down the existing wooden fence and move it and build new fence too...We worked all day in the good Texas heat and sunshine. It was really hot but we got it done. I put on sunscreen but you sure can't tell it. I look like a lobster today...I'm not sore like I thought I would be but boy, manual labor is really hard! I don't work in the heat and I sure appreciate the people that do!