Back up and running.

Finally, I'm able to blog again.  My computer connection has been out for many weeks and I was not able to post or even go online.   We first thought  that it was my computer,  but found out quickly it was ok...figuring out the problem was hard.  My service guys finally figured out the problem and got it fixed. I won't bore you with the details but I'm glad I can get on and see what everyone is doing.  I could use my Iphone but it's not too much fun to see things on it so small.   I do have a few things to show you and I hope you didn't give up on me by not posting. 

The first thing I want to show you is my Christmas present quilt.  I love this.  I almost gave up on the border and just put a solid fabric and called it finished  but I'm so glad I didn't do that.  I used 2 1/2" squares and did a double border with them.  I want to quilt this one soon but it doesn't look like it will be ready for this Christmas...I have too many quilts on my quilting stack right now that have priority. 

 

Here's two quilts I quilted for a friend.  Yes, they look almost exactly alike...She made these for charity quilts and gave them to me to practice on. She was very pleased with them and they were fun to do too.  

 

I made this block for a friend of mine going through Chemo.  The girls in my tatting group all made blocks and the quilt is being put together by another friend of mine.  I'll be getting the quilt back tomorrow to quilt it so you will see the whole quilt soon.  The fabric in my block was Quilt for a Cure fabric from several years ago.  I was given a love quilt that had some of this fabric in it when I was going through my chemo years ago.  I made two quilts using this fabric and I had a small amount left over and just had to use it for my friend.  I know she will love this little love quilt. I can't wait to get it back. I've seen the blocks and they are wonderful but I haven't yet see the quilt together yet...

 

 I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and enjoying your family time. Last week, we went to Holiday in the Park one night and here's a picture of my son and his little family...The little person in the middle is why I'm not sewing as much as I used to!  I keep her on Friday nights and  Saturdays and she keeps me hopping! She's alot of fun and I really enjoy my time with her.  She loves fabric and colors and I hope she will be a future quilter!

 

Here they are again with my sweet husband. 

 

 

Yesterday was my youngest grandson's (Trent)  4th birthday!  Time sure goes quickly! I can't believe he is already 4...We went and celebrated his birthday. He had a soccer birthday party.  So much fun!

 

Ok, gotta get busy now.  I'll have more to show later in the week. Please come back and see me.  Until next time, happy quilting....

 

A Few Things to show..

I don't know what it is here lately but I just haven't had the time to blog.  Hopefully, things will change and I can find the time to post.  I have been very busy with family. I've been sewing a little too and here are some of the things I've been working on....
I'm trying really hard to figure out my machine and it's a slow process but I'm getting there.
I quilted this little lap quilt. This was the first quilt for me on my TinLizzie.  This one is quilted and ready for binding.  Hopefully, I'll get better quickly and will be able to quilt my quilts like I want. I have been watching all kinds of videos on Youtube and reviewing all my quilting books.  That's another thing that's kept me from blogging.  There's just not enough time in the day to do it all! 

Anyway, this one is quilted and I'll be binding it soon.

 

This is a little quilt I made with leftover blocks from another project.  I made my oldest son and DIL a king size quilt out of these fabrics.  It was a Yellow Brick road pattern and I didn't use these blocks. I've had these laying around for about six years.  So, I grabbed these up and put them together. I found the fabric in my stash for the borders and now it's ready for quilting. 

 

This next one is the same way. These were blocks that I've had for a while. I did some demos at my local guild and group on how to do these 3D bow ties. I grabbed these up and put them together and pulled the brown fabric out of my stash for the borders.  Now, it's ready for quilting....

 

This top was given to me to practice on with my quilting machine.  I don't know who made it but she used all kinds of fabrics in this one. She put scraps together to make small pieces for this quilt. Now that it's quilted, I love it...It will be a good snuggle quilt or picnic quilt and be well loved.  It is now ready for binding too. It was fun to quilt this one and not worry if I messed it up.  I played around alot on this one and had a good time. I guess that's another reason I like this quilt.  It's a big quilt and has no border.  It really looks alot better in person....

 

These Christmas blocks are what I worked on this weekend.  Every year, my small group puts together a quilt for the church we meet in as a thank you to the church for allowing us to meet there.  This year it was decided we would be doing a Christmas quilt.  Everyone has been asked to make two blocks and turn in 5 strips of the fabric that we used to make a piano key border. (See the little strips at the top of the block, that's what those are for.)  I made one of these quilts last year and actually I'm still working on it.  I have the quilt all together except for the outside border. I decided to make the border a double row of 2 1/2" blocks...I have been collecting Christmas fabric and have three complete borders done and half of the last border. I'll be showing you the finished top soon....

 

These two dresden plate blocks are for our Christmas drawing.  We have two drawings a year.  One in the summer and one at Christmas.  The more blocks you make, the more chances you have to win.  I hope I win.  I love this block and it was so much fun to make.  I used the EZ Dresden ruler to make these.  

 

I also made these blocks for my scrap quilt.  Leftovers from my other projects and I put together 13 other DP4 blocks but didn't get a pic.  I'll show you those later. 

 

I hope everyone in the storm's path will be safe, please take care.  Until next time, happy sewing.

 

Christmas Package Quilt

I came in Friday afternoon and was going to go sew with my friends.  I got off a little early Friday and came home and instead of going up to my sewing room and getting ready. I laid down on the bed and decided to finish a book I had been reading. Well, needless to say, I fell asleep, didn't get to the sewing night with my friends and didn't finish the book either!   I woke up and decided it was too late to go sew with my friends but I did go on up to my sewing room.  I sat there for awhile trying to decide what I would work on.  I have so many projects to finish and was feeling overwhelmed.  I decided to just pull out one of my projects and work on it and see how far along I could get. If you don't get started, you can't finish, right?  Anyway, I pulled out the Christmas package blocks that I won at my quilt group from our Christmas party.  I put them on the design wall and played with the layout and decided I needed to make more blocks.  I won 16 blocks but wanted this quilt to be a bit bigger so I made 9 more blocks.  Here is the middle part of the quilt put together.  I finished sewing it together tonight.  Now, I'll be putting a white 2 1/2" strip around the outside, some 2 1/2" blocks sewn into strips for the next round, another white 2 1/2" strip, then a final outer border of a Christmas print.  I'm not sure what that will be yet.  I think this has turned out pretty cute so far.  Here's the middle part to this quilt...

I'll be working on this later in the week to see if I can get it to the flimsy stage.  I'll show you my progress later.