Lazy Sunday and inspiration from a friend.

Yesterday afternoon, I went over to my friend, Jackie's house.  She has a long arm quilting frame and she has the same little mystery quilt on her frame right now that is what I call my UFO 3. We are in the same small group and did the mystery together.  She had hers put together for awhile now but she is now getting around to quilting it.  Ours look pretty much the same except for a few blocks are in different places.  She also put a piano key border around hers but I think hers was like a 4 1/2" border.  She is custom quilting hers and it is looking BEAUTIFUL!!!  She does very nice work and I'm really looking forward to seeing her little quilt done. Oh, I left her house and just wanted to go home and put mine on the frame and just quilt away!!! I wanted to but didn't.  I will do it but I want to practice on some other little quilts before I do this one.  It will get done but not until I'm a little  more comfortable. 

I did go home and was able to make two more blocks to my 30's sampler but I didn't take a picture of them. I'll take a pic tonight.

 I see where Nancy, at Patchwork Penguin picked the UFO number already for next month so I'll get my UFO 8 out and try to see where I stopped on it....I know exactly why I stopped working on this one.  It didn't fit together like it should but it wasn't because I had made any mistakes in the cutting or sewing.  The pattern was drafted by someone and it didn't fit together right.  I'm just going to put this one together the best I can and go on....It's a small quilt and it shouldn't take too long, I hope...I'll show you the progress later on this one.  I'm going to go now and see what's going on with my blogging buddies and Design Wall Monday. Have a happy day and drive careful.  We have bad weather coming in tomorrow and maybe I'll get to stay home and snuggle up to my sewing machine!!! Stay warm....

Saturday Sewing, knitting with friends and Brown Bear

Today was a busy and fun day for me. I started out by going over to my friend's house for our second class on knitting.  Both ladies are doing great.  Rhonda is doing continental knitting and Tracy is doing regular knitting or English knitting.  I can do continental knitting but only knitting. I have trouble purling with continental knitting so I don't even try.  We all had a great time. Rhonda brought banana bread and Tracy's husband fixed us hot tea and we just sat and knitted away. The cat was right there with us trying to take away the yarn and the two dogs were laid out by our feet.  What a cozy little group we were.  We will not be meeting again for two weeks but the girls have homework to do....

 I headed home and went on up to the sewing room.   I started working on another of my UFO's. This one wasn't too old.  I started working on this one  when I went to retreat in October so I don't think that's too bad.  Here it is finished and  ready to be quilted.

 This is Brown Bear:

Sorry for the bad picture, I didn't have anyone to hold it for me...

I also finished three of the five blocks from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Blog. I have two more blocks to catch up on and I'll be up-to-date. These were easy and fun to do...



Catch Me if You Can Block

 

Texas Tears

North Star

Whoop- Whoop! UFO 3 is all put together!!!

Ok, I got home tonight and after I fixed supper, I headed upstairs to my quilt room.  I sewed up enough strips to finish the piano key borders for UFO 3... I decided I would not put blocks on the corners like I was thinking. I decided to just do straight piano keys.  Now, maybe this little quilt will quit calling me...I've been thinking about the borders forever and I am very pleased with this one like it is. Here is UFO 3 (I'm still kicking names around and will officially name this quilt when it is quilted):

I'll be quilting this soon but for now, I'm calling this one a finish and I'll be working on catching up on the Civil War blocks next.  So, it's past midnight here and I want to hear a Whoop Whoop on this one!!!!



Teaching friends to knit.

Last night went great.  Both ladies were left handed!  I knew one of them was but I didn't know both were until I got there and they warned me.  I told them I would try to help them and I would show them what I know but that was all I could do.  We covered the basics, casting on, knit, purl, yarnovers and binding off.  It went really well and they seemed to catch on too.  I'm going back Saturday to help them again but we don't meet again for two weeks. They do have homework to keep them busy.  I also showed them some great You tube videos to watch to refresh their memories with during the meantime. You know how it is when you first learn, if you don't use it, you lose it....The internet is such a great teaching tool and I'm so glad it is available.  What did we ever do without it?  Hopefully, I'll be showing you some of their projects soon.  During the meantime, we are just having fun learning to knit together.

My UFO is whining to be finished, Tatting Tuesday and some knitting.

Have you ever had a quilt or project  that stayed on your mind so much, you couldn't think of anything else; or want to work on anything else?  Well, this is that one on my mind...It keeps calling to me to be finished.   UFO 3 as I call it right now.  I came home  Monday night  and continued to work on it.  I put a small black border around it and I put together enough strips  for two sides.  I think it looks wonderful with the piano key borders.  I have to put together more strips for the other sides but I'm going to make some more little blocks for the corner squares.  It's up on my design wall just begging me to work on it...I had to ignore it last night and go to my tatting group.  I did go up and look at it while I was getting my materials ready for knitting tonight but I promised  it I would work on it Thursday night.  I'll show you the progress by Thursday night.  The piano keys just make this quilt.

Last night was Tatting Tuesday and I worked on my flag.  I am getting this done slowly but I'm really enjoying it.  I don't get to tat except on Tatting Tuesdays as I've got so many other crafts to work on.  I am on the last two strips so hopefully I can get this finished by the first part of February.  One of the girls brought Primo dough last night to tatting and showed us how to do it. She brought her rolling pin, cutter and pasta maker.  She brought her cutters and made small stars.  My friend, Mary Jo,  is making a flag too and she wanted these for her tatted flag.  I am considering this but I really want to stick to all thread so I can put this in the fair under tatting and not other techniques....I'll let you know...

Tonight, I'm going to be teaching a friend of mine to knit.  Maybe I should say, I'm going to try to teach her to knit.  She's left handed and I've never taught anyone to knit. I'm going to show her what I do and try to help her get the hang of it.   We'll see how it goes tonight and if it goes ok, I'll continue next week.  If not, I'll refer her to the knitting store or my friend that teaches knitting for a living....I'm excited but kinda nervous. Wish me luck!

Weekend sewing, UFO 3 and Crazy 8's Quilt top

I have worked like crazy this weekend trying to finish this little quilt.  It gave me a run for my money, let me tell you.  I tried to put it together and it just wasn't working...The problem was the black cat block. I measured it and lo and behold I had cut it 1/2" short and it was not letting me put anything else together properly.  I had already sewed it in and had to rip it out to add to the block to get it to fit properly.  Since this black cat jinxed the quilt, I made it a star attraction by framing it!  I put it back together and trimmed up some other blocks and it fit together alot better.  I enjoyed this quilt top. It was definitely like putting together a puzzle because all the blocks were different sizes and had to fit togehter just so...I unsewed a few blocks here and there to put it all together.  It was a challenge but was alot of fun too.  This quilt holds alot of memories for me.  This quilt was a mystery sampler quilt put together by two friends in my small group.  One of our members passed away and these two ladies went through her stash and made up mystery packets for our group.  Most of the fabric came from her stash.  I also used fabric from two other friends that had also passed away.  So, while I put this little quilt together I thought about my three friends that had passed and all the good times I had with them.  I'm glad I pulled this quilt out and started working on it again as it really made me happy to think of my friends again.  I'm not sure if I will leave this as is or if I'll put a black strip around it, then do a piano key border....What do you think?  Please give me an opinion....

Should I leave as is?
Should I add a small black border, then a piano key border?
Should I just add a piano key border without any other border?
Any other suggestions?

Here's the quilt, what do you think?

After, I finished UFO 3, I also finished putting together the Crazy 8 quilt top.  I need to add the borders but at least the middle part is all together.. This one turned out big and I haven't added borders yet.  I still have a 6 1/2" border to put on it, so I guess it will definitely fit my king size bed. I'm through for now.  My brain cells are tired from working on the little quilt.  I wanted to do some blocks for the Civil War challenge but I'll have to just wait until tomorrow. Here's my Crazy 8 quilt without borders.

Some easy ribbon Chatelaines or Lanyards.

Thursday night was my small group meeting.  I always try to show gadgets or tips at the meeting.  I get alot of my tips from blogging friends. Thank you very much! These are the 4 lanyards or chatelaines I showed at the meeting.  One was bought and the others were shall we say, semi-homemade...I use all of these and like them all.

 This one was one that I put together from a few different places from the internet.  I made a pincushion (Hexagon Needle book from Angela's blog) and attached it to the tape measure ribbon along with the eye hook on the end and scissors on the other end. (I got the eye hook idea from Karen's blog, it was one of her Tool Time Tuesday tips...) and the little red bag was purchased from Fons and Porter, it was perfect to attach to the tape measure and hold a thimble and cutter), I just attached it with a safety pin so it could be taken off when I wanted to.

This was a gift from some friends and it has a little bag attached to it that holds a thimble and scissors at the other end.  You can adjust the size of the strap with the little rings. Mary and June made these and gave to all the women in our group.

I made this one a few years back.  It has a round pincushion made from circles covered in cardboard and sewn together.  The end is a two squares of fabric with batting inside folded and sewn to make a little pocket to hold thread, thimble, pins, etc. The ribbon is not adjustable, I just made it to suit myself. 

I purchased this last one at the quilt show last year. It is made from beads and can be used as a necklace with the little clip, a thread holder with the little wooden dowel, a badge holder with the pink badge holder or an eye glass necklace if you bought the little eyeglass holders.  I also bought earrings to match but haven't worn those. 

Civil War Quilts by Barbara Brackman

Thursday night was my small group meeting.  One of the ladies said that Barbara Brackman has started a new blog and is giving out instructions for a block a week.  This year is 150th anniversary since the Civil War and each week Barbara is posting a block and interesting stories from history...These are wonderful stories and great little blocks.  I love Civil War fabric and I have decided I'm going to participate in this...Here's a link for you to get there, Barbara Brackman, Civil War Quilts.  It is only the 4th week and you will have time to catch up, so, why don't you join me and all the others as we celebrate this anniversary? 

Friday night sewing

Last night, I went and sewed with some friends at the church.  I didn't know what to take to work on.  I didn't have anything cut out and didn't have the time to cut anyway. I grabbed some little blocks, my Featherweight and a small ruler and headed out the door.  I was able to do three little blocks while I visited too.  I had a great time and got a little done too....These are filler blocks to a sampler quilt that I started in 2007. I will be working on the rest of the blocks and I'm going to finish this one this year too!

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi

Ok guys, it's finally Friday!!!!  It's been a long and rough week and I'm ready for some sewing time.  Tonight is Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi, so, if you haven't signed up, go do it now.  You can click on the title of this post or you can click on the side of my blog that has the brown badge that says Friday night Sewing and it will take you to Heidi's blog to sign up...go do it now.  Go to your sewing rooms or pick up those needles and put on some good music or a movie and let's get busy.  Be sure and post your efforts tomorrow and show Heidi and be in the drawing!  This one is the first of the year and I'm ready to sew.  So, I'll leave you to it and I'll show you what I got done later.  Now, get busy!!!!

Beaded Christmas Ornament

We have some very talented ladies in my Tatting Group. We do all different crafts including quilting, crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking,  you name it and at least one of us has done it.  In December, I learned how to make these great beaded Christmas tree balls.  They are so much fun to make and I made a few of these.

 I bought enough materials to make at least a million of these and I will be making some  all year.  My friend, Elaine, was the one that showed me how to do these and I asked her to write up the directions.  She took her time to write them up and is sharing them with all of us on ther her beautiful blog, go check them out...  Thank you, Elaine, I will really enjoy making these this year....

These are extra balls that Elaine made.

All different colors and sizes of beaded ball ornaments.





Sewing, cooking and working on UFO 3

I got up this morning and the house was empty. My husband and son were gone over to a friend's garage working on their cars.  Men and their cars...what can I say. They like to work on their cars almost as much as I like to sew, so I can't complain too much.  It gets them out of the house and I get to play.  I went to my sewing room and I finished the last block to the Scrappy Sampler I have been working on.  Now, all I have to do is sew up some half square triangles and put it all together.  I was going to work on it during the week but I didn't.  Tuesday was Tatting and Thursday was knitting.  I forget what happened Wednesday but I didn't get to sew whatever it was.  Friday night I finished the next to last block and I drew off the pattern for the final pattern.  I planned on sewing on Saturday but that didn't happen.  Here's the final two blocks:

This is the final block.  Some people call this pomegranate and I've seen this referred to as a love apple also.  I don't know if there's any difference but I like this final block alot and didn't think I would....

Now, I'm making  half square triangles and I've started  putting this little quilt together. It's going together pretty  well and I hope to have it finished this week....it's alot of fun too.I'm having to use strips, 2 1/2" squares  as well as 3" squares. The 3" squares are being used for the half square triangles.  I'm using the  2 1/2" squares just as they are, kind of like a checkerboard in places...I only have scraps left for this project and I've started pulling out of my stash for this final part.     

I did stop and cook today. I made some fried potatoes and tried to make fried cornbread to go along with a pot of red beans that I made this morning. The fried cornbread didn't work out too well.   My pan was too hot or my batter too wet so I only had a small piece that turned out ok.  I have looked up some recipes on the internet and now know what I did wrong. I'll be trying this again.  I mostly just made a mess out of my kitchen and I'll clean that up later.

My guys are still gone so I got to eat this by myself.  It was ok but it wasn't anything like my Mom's.

  My Mom was a wonderful cook and I never realized it until I was grown. I was just a kid when she died and I never was interested enough in cooking to find out her recipes.  Boy, I wish I had but my sisters have helped me through the years and I am a decent cook now.  I sure miss my Mom's cooking at times though...

Grandkids

I didn't get to sew today. The grandkids came over and we watched two of their movies while their Dad worked on his project in our garage.  We watched How to Train Your Dragon and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I had already watched both of them but I love to be with the grandkids and this is what they wanted to do.  My youngest grandbaby took a nap and while he was asleep, my DIL curled my granddaughter's hair. It turned out really cute...She's so cute without her front teeth. Gotta love this kid!

A little bit of tatting - a Tatted Cross

I forgot to show you this.  I started this on Tuesday night at the tatting group and finished this Wednesday night.  It's an easy pattern and  goes very quickly. I only had a little bit of this thread left and was hoping I would have enough to make this cross.  I have made a few of these and given them away to special friends. It is my favorite cross pattern and my favorite thread and I had  enough to tat this for myself.  I do have a little bit left over, maybe I can squeeze a smaller cross out of it...I have no idea what thread this is. It was given to me by one of my tatting friends when I joined the group.  She thinks it might be Flora 20 weight or Manuela but not sure...the Cross pattern is out of the book, Tatting by Cathy Bryant.

 I have been working on my flag a little bit but decided to work on other things too. I am trying to work on the flag a little each day so I won't be so burnt out on it and still get it finished.  I am anxious to get it finished but it's really boring...I'll show it soon, I promise.

Elizabeth is celebrating her birthday with some giveaways!

Look at this cute snippets bag and pincushion. If you want the chance to win this, hop on over and tell Elizabeth at  Such a Sew and Sew Happy Birthday and you could win this or some other cute little something she has.  You see she's having a whole week of  giveaways to celebrate her birthday.  I'm a pin cushion collector and this is my favorite but she's got alot of cute stuff over there.  Hop on over and tell her I sent you, please! Click here and it will take you to her blog to sign up...Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

Working on UFO #3-Scrappy Sampler

This afternoon, I pulled out my UFO #3. It was a mystery scrap sampler from 2007. I had 4 blocks left to do on this UFO. I don't know why I stopped working on it. I thought I had messed up one of the blocks by cutting it too small (no seam allowances) but after checking the measurements, I found that the block was right. I checked all the other blocks and they were ok too. I was able to do two of the four blocks today so I'm a little closer...I still have several half square triangles to make and some four patches too. Maybe this week I'll be able to finish with all the blocks....Here's the two blocks I made this afternoon...



Church block, I still have to add a Cross to the top of the church.





14" Bear Paw block



Here's a glimpse of the sampler.  I still have two more blocks. One big center block and a corner block of appliqued flowers.  I just wanted them up on the design wall to look at...There are alot of cute blocks in this little quilt.  I think the quilt will be 50" X 60" without borders...

Weekend sewing

I was going to sew on some blue scraps for Scrappy Saturday....but,  I found some little kits that called my name first. I still plan on working on more blue this month. When I think of January, I think of blue, so I'll be working on blue the whole month.    One thing I want to accomplish this year is to sew up any small kits I have.  At one time, I was in charge of the Guild store.  I had to think up several items to sew up during the year to sell. I made up alot of kits to give out to our members and I just got in the habit of making up or putting together kits.  Alot of this spilt over from working in the quilt shops too.  Now, I try to put fabric together with patterns and anything extra (like templates or special rulers) into a kit and keep it all together so it can be located quickly. This works out really well for me but I have alot of kits to finish this year. 

I made this little fabric tray first:

I had chocolate given to me at Christmas, so this will sit close to the sewing machine for a quick chocolate fix. These little fabric baskets are quick and easy to make.  I have made them over the years to hold napkins, cards, cloth coasters or whatever else you want to put in them.  They are alot of fun to make. There is a tutorial for a fabric tray on the side of my blog...This tutorial is how I make my trays except  I use ribbon instead the fabric ties and I go all the way acoss the  fabric with a zig zag stitch to hold it down. I also put a handle on mine but you can leave the handle off, it is up to you. 

I won this little kit as a door prize from my small group a few months ago and I decided to go ahead and put it together too...It was alot of fun. It was short some fabric and I had to pull some out of my stash but that was ok too.  I worked on the blocks yesterday and finished the  bias stems and leaves today and sewed it together this morning.

I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt this yet so I'll let it sit and I'll think on it a bit.  Ok, that's all for now, I just pulled out my UFO 3 to work on and I've got to get busy with it.  I'm doing Nancy's UFO challenge this year and she chose #3. I have four blocks left on this and I've got to lay it out to see how I want to arrange the blocks...I'll show you some of that later. Go get busy and enjoy the afternoon.  It looks like I might be staying home tomorrow due to all the snow. Oh, what a shame!  Til next time, happy sewing,

Friday night sewing

Friday night, I went to the church and sewed with some friends. Actually, I didn't sew, I knitted but you know what I mean. I got off Friday afternoon and went to an antique mall and walked around. I found me a nice little tea cup and saucer and a wooden quilt rack. I had a wonderful time looking and browsing through all the crafts, antiques and what-knots. I was supposed to go home and get my stuff ready to sew on Friday night but I spent too much time at the mall. So, I stopped by Joann Fabric's and went in and got something for me to work on - that way I didn't have to drive all the way home and come back. While I was coming out, I ran into one of my friends that was also going to Friday night sit and sew. We laughed about that because she said she had just run into another friend coming out while she was going in too...we were all going to sit and sew but had to make a pit stop first at Joann's! I picked up some knitting needles, yarn and an instruction book for wash cloths and worked on it Friday night. We sat and visited and several new ladies came to sit and sew. It was alot of fun but I didn't get hardly anthing done....Oh well, I had a wonderful time visiting with all the ladies and it was a relaxing time, that's what counts, right? I have nothing to show you for my time on Friday night but I did take some pictures of Nadine's quilt and Betty's quilt top. Betty made this for a neighbor that just recenly lost his toes to infection. He is in rehab and she'll be finishing this up quickly to give to him....

Betty's quilt top for her neighbor

Nadine's quilt. I think this is called: Over the River and through the Woods.  Nadine did a wonderful job on the embroidery and this was machine quilted.  She went to Joann's to find some binding fabric for it but didn't find what she was looking for...

I finished my scarf and the Walker Bags are finished too.

I came in tonight and watched  an old movie on Encore called GI Jane. I finished knitting my scarf while it was on.  When the skein was through, so was my scarf.  I think it is a great length (64 inches)  and I'm really pleased. All I need to do now is block it and it will be ready to give away.

I got this pattern off of Turvid's Blog...Here's a link to her pattern.

I also put the velcro on the walker bags and they are ready to give away tomorrow.  I'll be going to Tatting Tuesday and give these to my friends. Then onto my ASG meeting for a Pizza Party to celebrate the end of the Pizza Box Project.  I'll show you pics of that later.   Here's a pic of the inner part of the walker bag...

Til next time...happy sewing,

Scrap Happy Saturday and finishing up on Sunday

Ok, it took longer than I thought. We worked nearly all day cleaning house, putting away Christmas and rearranging our bedroom.  He fixed breakfast and we started in.   We have a Queen size bed in our guest room and our bedroom has a King Size bed.  We switched them out and tried the Queen bed out last night. Not a good idea....

After all the cleaning and rearranging, I was finally able to get up to my sewing room for a little while. I sewed up a little blue mug rug. I got the directions from Angela's blogsite. She is hosting a Scrap challenge this year for the first Saturdays and this month was blue scraps. I told you about it in my last post.   I made the little mug rug with some of my favorite blue scraps. It was fast and easy and fun.  
I  made two Christmas 9 Patches for another mug rug but I won't be putting those together until  later this week.  I didn't finish the little blue mug rug until this afternoon. I quilted it and bound it and I'll be using it tonight with a nice cup of hot tea.

Here's my scrappy blue mug rug.  I know it doesn't look blue but trust me, it really is:

Here's my Christmas Nine Patches:

My husband and I were trying to go to a smaller bed so we would have more room in our bedroom.  Well, neither of us slept last night.  The bed was too hard and we decided we were alot more comfortable on a King size bed.  So today, we moved everything back the way it was and I'll be sleeping on my regular bed tonight.  I don't want to move anymore furniture for awhile....

After we moved everything back I was able to sew again.  I finished my mug rug and almost finished two walker bags.  I say almost because I will have to add the velcro closures tomorrow. I searched my sewing room up and down and I guess I used up all my velcro.  (All right, that means I have an excuse to go to Joann's!!)I'll buy some tomorrow and put the velcro on these and give them to my friends on Tuesday.  Both of these are for two of my tatting friends.  One is for Lucille, she had knee surgery and is on a walker right now.  She will have another surgery on the other knee soon so, she will be on a walker for awhile.  The other is for my friend, Nancy.  She asked me to make one for her Mom who will soon be on a walker. 

Here's the walker bags....

I finished up by making me an eyeglass case for my reading glasses. I have about 20 pair of reading glasses all over the house but no case to carry any of them in, until now.  I had just a dab of this fabric, it's not blue but I liked it anyway....

Ok, you have to start somewhere, right?  I enjoyed making all of these and the good thing is , they are finished (well, almost) and I get to work on something else. I'm hoping now to finish my scarf that I'm knitting and I'll show you that tomorrow.  It's back to a normal schedule tomorrow and I guess that's good.  I have enjoyed the holidays but I can tell you, I don't feel like I got enough rest.  I'll be sleeping good tonight!  Til next time, happy sewing!



Let's Get Busy, Happy New Year with new projects and Scrappy Saturday

Ok, for all you party people, drink some coffee and get up. It's the 1st day of a new year and time to get busy.  I've heard this all my life...Whatever you do on the first day of the year is what you will be doing the rest of the year.  Now, I don't know where that came from but I hope part of it's true.  My husband got up and fixed breakfast for us.  Woo hoo, no cooking!  I could get used to that!  He's putting the Christmas decoratations in the attic and helping clean up the house. Another woo hoo for him helping.  Now, we are changing our bedroom around.  After that is finished, he's going outside to piddle around with whatever he wants to and then I get to sew.  Later, I'll be putting the ham into the oven and cooking the black eyed peas, cabbage and corn bread for a later supper.  We will just be snacking this afternoon and he'll be watching sports while I play in the sewing room.  This sounds like a great start to a good year....I can handle this kind of year all through the year! 
Ok, let's get serious. Get that coffee and run over to Angela's blog. I have signed up for a Scrappy Saturday this year that she's hosting.  Today just happens to be the first one of the year and I'll be using my blue scraps. I have decided to make a mug rug and she has the directions.  I have seen these little buggers all over other blogs and I've been wanting to do some so here's the perfect opportunity.  Click here and it will take you to her blog to see the mug rug and other ideas for this month. She has three ideas this month. Each 1st Saturday, she'll be giving different ideas for short projects to use up your color palette.  It's not too late to sign up and get some of those scraps out of your sewing room and made into something useful instead of just laying around. Click here to sign up for her Scrappy Saturdays. So, let's get busy. Happy New Year and I'll show you what I did later today.