Good times with friends and some finishes to show.

Hello, I hope you had a great weekend.  My weekend was wonderful. I got to sew with friends on Saturday all day with my small group and we had a wonderful day.  This was our last sew day this year since we are going into the holidays so we had a pot luck lunch too.  It's so much fun to get together with friends and share good times, sewing and good food too.  Can't beat that!

 I worked on a new project while I was there. I have a lot of projects going on that need to be finished but I have to work on easy things when I go to a sit and sew. I just can't concentrate when I'm with all my friends.   I like to visit and chat too much to concentrate on hard things!  Anyway, I got a few blocks sewn together for the new project and had fun chatting too. I'll show you those pics later when I get more of the quilt done.... 

This past week I worked on an easy strip quilt for one of our groups charities.  I quilted it yesterday and I'll bind it this week. I was going to bind it tonight but I have to go to a visitation tonight.  I'll show you the charity quilts later when I finish this last one. 

So, I wanted to show you some of the things I have finished since I haven't been blogging.  I have more things to show but here are a few quilts that I recently finished. Three of these are old projects or UFO's but the last one is fairly new.  This one I'm calling Green Brick Road. I used Thimbleberries fabric and the Yellow Brick Road pattern for this one.  These three have been hanging in my closet to be quilted for many years and they just got finished....this one is probably 10 years old or older.

 

This one I'm calling Happy 14 because the top was a shop challenge done in 2000. It has a white backing fabric on it from the year 2000 also.  I put that fabric with it then to quilt and just never followed through. That's how I know I did it in the year 2000.

 

This one was a class for beginners I used to teach and this one was for  a teenage class I taught back then probably in 2000 or 2001...I haven't named this one, I just called it a Teen Sampler.

 

This last one is my One Block Wonder quilt and I named it "The Empress". I worked on this one last year and I just quilted it so it's not very old and hasn't aged like the others!  This was a lot of fun to do and I really liked putting the blocks together on this  and how differently they turned out too. I love the fabric on this one too.  The picture does not do it justice. It is a beautiful quilt and is one of my all time favorites.

 

I am working on UFO's and still trying to finish as much as I can. I am really enjoying pulling out old projects and finishing them up.  I hope you have a good week and get some sewing time in this week.  Until next time, happy stitching.

 

Easy Projects and some more finishes!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday.  Mine was great. I got to see my kids and grandkids,  color and hunt for Easter eggs, eat and sew  too.  It was a very fun weekend.  We went to church on Saturday night and this allowed us more time on Sunday to be with the family.  This is the first time I've ever gone on a Saturday night for Easter services.  It was strange but good too. 
I went and sewed with friends on Friday night at the church and on Saturday at one of the girl's homes.  I had some quality sewing time this weekend. I didn't take a machine with me Friday night, I just took the cupcake quilt and Lighthouse quilt to sew down the bindings.  I only worked on one but got it almost finished before I left.  I did finish it up Saturday after church and the other one I finished up Sunday night after everyone went home from the Easter egg hunt...

Saturday at my small group, we worked on two things.  We worked on a project board to safely carry our projects with us and a machine skirt to hold our tools.  I don't have a picture of the project board but I will have one later  this week  and I will also share how to make your own.  It is very simple but will come in vey handy too.  Here's a picture of the tool machine skirt we made.  This one isn't mine. It was someone else's and I just took a picture. I will also share with you later about how to make one of these for yourself. These are easy to put together too. I finished mine but I'm going to make another for my MIL and I'll share the instructions at that time.

I was able to quilt 3 quilts over the long weekend.  I finished up a quilt for my MIL and two quilts for me.  I finished binding the last one last night while watching TV and listening to the rain.  It was storming so badly I did not want to turn on any of my machines....We needed the rain but my dogs sure didn't like the storm!  This is the butterfly quilt I finished for my MIL.   I didn't have anyone around to hold it up for me so I just laid it over the rocking chair....

 

Here's a close-up of some of the butterflies.  This took me quite a while to quilt. I just did a simple meander stitch on these blocks  and swirls on the sashings and borders...This was a fun quilt to work on and my MIL loves it.

I finished my little cupcake quilt. This was a block exchange last year with 11 other ladies.  We each did our own cupcake blocks and then traded them. These were easy to do as they are all ragged edge blocks.  Sorry, I can't think of the proper term but they were not traditional applique, we just sewed them down and didn't turn under the fabrics.  Easy, quick and fun, my three favorite words....

 

I won this kit several years ago at a quilt show and put it together  but I never quilted it. It's been hanging in the closet forever and I just decided it was time to make it not be a UFO.  Very simple quilting on this one.  I have wavy fabric on the back of the quilt (like water)  so I decided to do wavy line quilting on the blocks.  Another quick and easy quilt to finish. 

 

Another Flimsy finish, a tablerunner and some fun times.

I have had a busy week working on finishing up some things.  I did put another border on one of my old UFO's and it is now ready to be quilted.  That's number four for March and April since I started doing this...I'm now pulling fabric for the backings so I can quilt these finished flimsies...
Here's my quilt top, this was a pattern by Bonnie Hunter, it is called Orange Crush.  This is the second one I've done.  The first one was finished and given away a long time ago...

 

I finished quilting this tablerunner too.  This was a lot of fun to do. This is an old pattern from 1999.  I have enough fabric left over to make what the pattern calls a bread warmer!  I thought that was pretty funny.  I hand appliqed this but machine quilted it...

 

This last picture is something I've been wanting to do for along time.  I went Saturday to a workshop that my guild had.  There were 4 different classes or workshops going on.  Two were small quilts and one was for double wedding ring. The one I took was a workshop on using orphan blocks to make a quilt.  I put about half of this together at the workshop and continued working on it Sunday afternoon.  I still have about 40 or 50 more blocks and will be making a few more orphan quilts.  This was actually a lot of fun.  This includes the first block I ever made as a quilter and blocks I didn't use for my two sister's quilts.  I'm thinking I will call this one finished without a border but I'm still looking at it...I'm calling this Alexander's Orphanage. 

I had intentions of working on my blocks for my Rainbow scrap challenge but that didn't happen. I'm going to try to do that this week.  Plus, I started quilting another quilt last night and hope to have it finished tonight or tomorrow...This is going to be a busy week.  I hope you have a fun and productive week. Happy stitching!

A few finishes for the weekend.

This has been a cold weekend so I've stayed in. I had the grandbaby yesterday and didn't get to sew except for when she took a nap.  I sewed up a set of pillowcases for my friend. These go with the Love quilt that I showed you last week.  She loves penguins so these will be right up her alley.

Friday night, I finished up my Wingspan shawl.  Not sure how long it took me to knit this but I'm glad it's finished as I need to work on making some wash cloths for a friend of mine.  Here's the finished Wingspan. I just have to block it now.

 

 

Last night, I finished quilting a tablerunner I've had done since last year.   Today, I finished the binding on it and I'm so excited it's finished...

After I finished this up, I finished up another older project. I used this little quilt to teach a class of beginner quilters at my church and I decided it was time to quilt and bind this one too....

You can tell this one is older from the fabric used in it but I really like this one as it brings back some sweet memories.  I didn't quilt it too heavily but it's just right for me. I'll hang this one in my sewing room for awhile.  Ok, that's two more UFO's for me this year!  I can't tell you how excited I am to see my stack of UFO's going down just a little at a time but I am going to really work to have all of them done this year. 

I was going to work on some pink blocks for the Rainbow Scrap challenge for this year but I put my pink fabric up and couldn't find it!  I finally just gave up and worked on these old projects and my swap blocks and lo and behold, I found my pink fabric!  I don't have alot of pink and put it up so I wouldn't lose it...Ha, ha, you know how that is??  Well, now I can work on my pink this week....

The last thing I did was make my 5 swap blocks for this week.  We will swap these blocks this week and we only have one more month and the swap will be finished. I'll be able to start putting this one together.    I didn't have 40 nine patches to do this month like I thought. That swap was over last month and I got the last 40 blocks Tuesday night.  We swapped 480 nine patches!! Do you believe that?  Now you know why I was so burnt out on nine patches!  It was so good not to have to do anymore of those!  Here's my swap blocks for this month....

 

Ok, now for some TV time and knitting time.  I hope you have a good week and get to sew some.  Til next time, happy sewing.

Weekly happenings and a few finishes.

Time flies whether you are having fun or not!  It's already Thursday and I only have one more day of vacation... Wow!  I have gotten a little done but not near as much as I wanted.  Mainly because my husband is off with me. Need I say more?   Anyway, we have been going here and there this week and I've gotten a little sewing done. I had planned to sew and quilt on my new machine this week but not too much of that has happened.

Monday, we both went to the dentist and had our teeth cleaned. We then went and got my MIL and took her to lunch. We went to Joann's aftewards and I helped her pick out some fabric for her butterfly quilt.  We got the sashing, border and binding fabric for her quilt.  She was thrilled to find just the right fabric for her project.  I can't wait to show you but I'll have to help her first.  You'll see it in a while.  After Joann's we went to the Salvation Army and a new Goodwill store.  I had never been to either one of these and always wanted to ... I was disappointed in the Salvation Army story. I had heard so many great things about it and was surprised that it was so clean and neat. I thought it would be more like a junk shop.  What I had pictured in my mind was not what it was.  I like to look at thrift stores and antique stores too.  I don't know why or what I'm looking for but I do enjoy browsing.  At the Goodwill store, I bought two quilt books.  I didn't have either one of these and I got them for cheap!  We then went to my son's and DIL's house for dinner.  It was a fun day but we were gone all day! 

Tuesday, we got up and went to the golf course but they were having a tournament and we couldn't play. We went to breakfast instead.  I do not play golf but watch it alot and my husband has always wanted me to go with him. I told him I would. He is so supportive of my hobbies, I have to do the same for him. I started to say, reciprocate but was afraid I couldn't spell it right!  Hah, fooled you, didn't I?  After breakfast, we came home and I did get to sew.  I finished quilting this little wallhanging and started quilting a little placemat too.  I bound both and finished both on Tuesday night.  Oh boy, if I can do two projects every day, maybe I'll get alot done on my vacation.


I made this little wallhanging at the end of last year but didn't get it quilted to hang at Christmas.   The border fabric is holly fabric and I quilted little holly leaves in the border. I quilted this on my sewing machine and I'm still not a great free motion quilter so you won't be seeing a close up!  They say to practice, practice, practice so you will get better. Well, I thought I would finish all my small projects on my machine and tackle my larger projects on my quilting machine.  Anyway, I won this little kit at my small group last year and really like it.

 

I made this cute little pumpkin placemat. I quilted the pumpkin like a pumpking and I put maple leaves in the brown squares.  This was fun to do.

Wednesday came and we got up and went to the golf course.  It was so nice on the course.  We got there early and it was breezy and cool.   I took a book, my knitting and some tatting along just in case I got bored.  I didn't.  I drove the golf cart and enjoyed the course, the scenery and looking at the beautiful homes or backs of the homes on the course.  It was actually alot of fun. 

My dh comtemplating his shot...

 

It was nice and breezy (almost too breezy) and there were butterflies and bugs everywhere.  Squirrels too. I don't think I've ever seen so many butterflies before.  They kept landing on me. I think they were resting their wings.  Well, one of them must have told the others that I was ok, I think 10 or twelve of them landed on me during the day. Is that supposed to be good luck?  I hope so. It was fun to see all of them flying around. 

The wind never died down.  We finally came off the course before it got too hot.

 

We stopped for lunch and then went to Hobby Lobby to see if they had another skein of yarn I needed. I bought some fabric to put on the borders of my Bento Box quilt. I got these blocks back last

 week and was thrilled with the exchange. These are the blocks on my design wall. I was auditioning fabric for the edges.  I liked it but it was too busy.  I bought triangle fabric and border fabric too.

  We came home and laid down to rest for just  a few minutes.  A few hours later, I got up and went and sewed on my Bento Box quilt.  I decided on the layout and sewed all the blocks together. Then, cut up the fabric I bought for the triangles and outside borders.

This morning I got up early. My number one son called and woke me up...He called to let me know traffic was bad and to tell me happy birthday.  Yes, today is famous, it is my birthday. Anyway, I got up and finished putting the bento block quilt together.  Now, shield your eyes....are you ready, maybe you should put some sun glasses on first...Now, are you ready?  This is a little out of my comfort zone but I think it turned out ok.  The yellow is a little bright but I kept seeing it in the quilt and the green too so I wanted to bring both of them out.   I don't think it glows in the dark but I guess I'll find out. 

 

Well, now I'm going to break for lunch then go upstairs and see if I can get my quilt machine working.  Til next time, happy sewing!

Two UFO's finished, two Grandmother's choice blocks and my DP4 blocks!

I was able to finish two UFO's this weekend, woo hoo!  I'm so excited.  I had this lovely quilt in my binding stack for months and finally decided to finish it...I wish I would have finished it a long time ago but you know how it is...procrastination, it's an ugly thing!!!

This is a Row by Row quilt. It was a swap that we had in my small quilt group.  Each row, we made 5-10 blocks (whatever the row called for) and we kept one block and exchanged the others.  We did this swap for 7 months (that's how many rows there were) and then we got the instructions and put the quilt together.  This was a fun swap.  I hand quilted this quilt and finished the hand quilting several months ago.  I had to buy extra fabric for the binding and couldn't find the "right" fabric until recently.  I finally found some that I liked and put the finishing touches to this sweet quilt. 

This block I've had on my design board for a long time too.  I took a needle-turn class last year and this is what we made from the class. We learned points, circles and shapes to needle turn.  I quilted this on my machine and did pebble quilting. I've been wanting to try it for awhile and thought this would be just the right size to learn on.  This was alot of fun.

This is block two of the new Barbara Brackman Block of the week, the Grandmother's Choice website. this one is called Amethyst.

This is block three of the BOW-Union Square. I'm up to date now and feel great!

These are my DP4 patches for the rainbow challenge.  I have alot more blocks to do with alot more colors but I'm really liking it so far...

Well, that's it for now.  It's my TV night and I'm going to knit for awhile.  Hopefully, I'll show you some more things later.  til next time, happy sewing.

Saturday sewing

I got the little block from Friday night finished.  It's the block on the left with the pink star in the middle and blue around the outside.  I finished it differently than the pattern called for because the pattern measurements were wrong and I didn't want to take the time to figure out the correct measurement, I just put the rectangle around it and called it finished.  The other two little blocks went together just fine.  These are all 6 1/2" blocks.  They are  alot of fun to do but they take more time to do for me than bigger blocks.  I worked on these during the day yesterday while watching the grandbaby and doing a little housework too.  The pinwheel and 4 patch on the bottom were leftovers from the blocks and I didn't want to waste them. I'll put them in with all my other orphan blocks and one of these days I'll put together an orphan quilt.  That might be coming up pretty soon as I think I have enough blocks now to do it..I'll have to put those on my design wall soon and play some. Here are the little blocks I made:

Doesn't look like much work for a whole day, huh?  Oh well, it was fun and I'm this much closer to a finished quilt too.  These go in one of my UFO's (the 30's Sampler- Number 1 on my UFO list) and I only have about 12 more blocks to do, so I'm slowly whittling them down.