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!

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.

Crazy 8 Blocks Finished and Knitting with Lucy Neatby

Yesterday, I got all of my blocks made for my Crazy 8 quilt. I laid all the blocks out and decided how they needed to go.  I pinned  them all together but that was it.  I didn't even take a picture.  I'll do that later when I have the blocks sewn together. I was tired and decided to take a break from sewing. I came downstairs and turned on the TV. I put in a DVD I picked up last week at the Woolie Ewe.  It was a knitting DVD by Lucy Neatby and it was her New Knitter DVD, #16.   I  picked up my knitting needles and  finished knitting a small hat. This will be for Parkland Hospital. (Yes, another community service project. My quilt guild makes hats for Parkland and for soldiers too.)  I knitted it flat and now I have to sew it together.  This is not my favorite part of knitting but it is small and should go pretty quickly.  I would have knitted it in the round but this was the first time I knitted this hat and wanted to make sure the pattern was accurate.  It was, so now, I will knit it without the seam next time.  I'll show you this once it's all sewn together.
Lucy Neatby's DVD was great. Lots of  info on this one and it helped me with the sewing up part to my hat too. I am ready to go back and buy all of her DVD's, now I know what I want for Christmas!   I am not new to knitting, but I consider myself a beginner.  I have only knitted for about three years.  There are so many things I want to knit but I am very slow. 

I crocheted another rose for my hat but I didn't like it. I'm going to make another one that's medium sized.  I made a big one but I'm not felting this one so it was way too big.   I'll get it right soon and show you that finished product too. Ok, gotta go for now, I'll show pics tomorrow, so til next time....happy sewing!