Butterfly Rainbow block and some tatting. Happy Late National Quilting Day!

I hope you had a great National Quilting Day yesterday. I was lucky enough to spend it with a new friendship group. There were fourteen of us in all and we had coffee at a local coffee shop first then went to Shirley's house, the leader of the group. We unloaded our machines and other things we would be working on and visited for a little while. We then headed to a restaurant and had lunch to celebrate the first quarter birthdays.  Yum, food, fun and friends.  Can't beat it....We went back to Shirley's house and my friend Cheryl and I started teaching  a few of the ladies how to tat.  Lots of laughter and fun along the way.  We had a few quick learners and get the "flip" right off but we will be continuing to instruct everyone and hopefully everyone will understand and get to know how to do this great artform.  I didn't sew at all even though I dragged my machine and some projects with me but I had a great time with some new and old friends....

  I got home and the grandbaby was there and we got to spend the rest of the evening with her and the great-much needed rain. 
  Today, I got up and fed the grandbaby. We then headed into my half sewing room/half baby room and while she played with her doll house, I cut and sewed this great block. I used teal for the butterfly so I could count it as my Rainbow scrap block!    I have two more of these cute butterfly blocks to make but they will be made in different colors. These are our summer blocks for my friendship group.  I'll turn them in for a chance to win more blocks.  For every block turned in, your name goes into a drawing for all the blocks.  I hope I win as I love this block.

 

I finished up some tatting this week and wanted to show you what I ahd been working on.  I haven't shown you any of my tatting in a while so I thought it was time to share.

 

I finished this blue cross Monday night.  The other little bookmark started out as a cross but I didn't have enough thread so I made what I could out of it.  I finished this one Wednesday night.

 

Last but not least, I've been working on this necklace for a few weeks and finally finished it. I will be making a bracelet to go with it too.  I'll be giving this one to my sister as these are her colors.   I made a blue and white one for myself but my niece saw them and loved them so I gifted them to her. Now, I'll be making me another blue one.  I love this easy pattern. It's not fast but it's easy to remember and fun to make....

 

Now, it's time to go to lunch witht he kids and hopefully, we'll get back in time for me to do more sewing. I haven't had my fill yet this whole week and I really want ot catch up on my Rainbow scrap blocks.  Til next time, have a great week and happy stitching.

 

A quilt top ready for quilting, a block and a Get It Done finish!

 

 

Here's #1 quilt top all together ready for quilting. I'm using this border fabric for two of the D4P's I'm making.  These are for my two granddaughters.  They are not sisters, they are cousins.  My oldest granddaughter thinks it's cool to have stuff just like her smaller cousin so this one is one of  her birthday gifts. I plan on making a doll quilt to match and a pillowcase too.  I've got to hurry up and finish this one. Her birthday is the 11th!  

 

 

 

Here's a close-up of the cute border fabric....She like the peace signs and flowers.  I hope she likes it. 

 

Here's the block I made for a future BOM for my guild. This is called the Wonky 5-Sides Log Cabin Block and is from the Craftsy website.  It was fun to do.

 

 

Last but not least, here's a pic of my tablerunner I finished.  It is one of my 4 Get It Done Projects for this month.  Yeah!  1 down and three to go...This was fun to make and fun to quilt too.  I got this off the Missouri Star Quilt Company website. Jenny has a tutorial over there on Youtube or her site and you can get it from her there. 

 

Here's a close-up of my star...I wish I had put some interfacing on it so it wasn't so transparent but oh well, it is what is is...

 

Now, I'm off to put that quilt top on the machine to quilt it.  Til next time, happy quilting!

 

A few blocks

Yes, I'm still here. I just haven't had time to post anything.  I'm feeling alot better now and I'm so glad!  However, now my husband is sick and believe me, he's a far worst patient than I was....He's kept me hopping too.  I did not have a restful holiday and it's not any better yet.  Hopefully, by this weekend he'll be better and life will get back to normal a little.
I was able to sew a little bit Saturday.  I got the first block done of Barbara Brackmen's new Block of the Week.  The BOW is published again this year on Saturday's.  These are 8 1/2" blocks (8" finished) and you can click on the side of my blog to get there.  Look at the big badge called Grandmother's Choice.  I think she said there will be 49 blocks. Here's my first block...this one is appropriately named Grandmother's Choice.

I also did 8 blocks for my scrap quilt. I started these disappearing 4 patches with the Rainbow challenge earlier in the year. I've fallen behind on these but I'm playing catch up now.  I did some blue blocks, some teal blocks and some plaid blocks. I cut out some orange which is this month's color but didn't get to them yet. I also started working on my monthly 9 patches and just sewed the strips together.  I haven't finished them yet.

Sunday and Monday, I did the buttonhole stitch around some butterfly blocks for my MIL.  She made 20 blocks.  She is reproducing a quilt that she received when she was 16 years old.  She is in her mid 80's now and has a new bed and wanted a new quilt for it. So, she decided to make this butterfly quilt.  I'll give these blocks back to her and she'll put them together. I don't know what sashing or any other fabric she'll be using. When she gets it together, I'll show you again as I'll be quilting it for her.

My machine is finally all together and ready. I'll be putting the first quilt on it Saturday.  I haven't been home long enough this week to  play with it yet.  Tomorrow night, I'll be going to sew and visit with my friends at the church so Saturday will be the first chance I get to do it.  I hope you have a good Friday and a great weekend.  Til next time, happy sewing!

Some things I worked on this week

Ok, I have done some things this past week and I haven't showed them. My computer at work doesn't like to upload my pics to blogger anymore so I can't do it at lunch. I've been super busy this week and haven't taken the time to post....here's what I was talking about in my last post.  It's my Row by Row quilt and I finished doing the May or 5th row and added it in.  I redid the top row and took off the first pinwheel row and replaced it with the new one...I think it looks alot better.

See the blocks I took off. I changed my mind about the background color and went with white so this row of pinwheels just didn't work for me.  The pattern calls for a beige or off white background but I found this white fabric I loved and wanted to us it....I'm the only one doing white background and I'm glad I decided to use it.  Mine will be just a little different from everyone else's and I like that.  Who says we have to follow the rules?  Anyway, I like the way it's looking so far and this has been alot of fun. Only 4 more months to go on this little quilt and it will be finished. I can't wait to see how it's gonna look.

I made these two little blocks this week for the leaders of my quilting group.  I couldn't show them before now as the blocks were a surprise for them.  Everyone in our group made a heart block and gave to them.  Our party was Thursday night and it was alot of fun and the heart blocks were great.  I didn't take pics of all of the different blocks but I'll show you those when they put their quilts together.  Here's my blocks.  These were just simple little hearts with a few different stitches from my machine but I added some of my tatting around the blocks.  We were asked to do one in pastels and one in brighter colors....

Diane and Judy loved all of their blocks!

I did show the girls at Tatting on Tuesday night and they liked the blocks too.  I had done the tatting a while back and didn't have any purpose for it except to put it on something like a pillow or maybe a hankie so this worked out really well.  I have a little bit left and I'll make something else with the leftover lace.  I guess I could have put more tatting on it too but I ran out of time....

July 11th is a special day, Rally Day, Quilts and some blocks to show

Today is July 11th. It is a special day. Ok, it's 7-11 day and you get free slurpees all day but besides that...I met my honey 32 years ago today. We always play a game to see who remembers first. My hubby said it first this year about 5 o'clock this morning when I had to get out of bed. I have not felt good today and I got sick this morning first thing. What a way to start the day, huh....Anyway, he was sweet and gave me a lovely little card too. He didn't give it to me then, he waited til later! I never get him a card for this and he always kids me about that. One of these days, I'm going to surprise him and get him a card. I always tell him, it's not our real anniversary, I don't get you a card for this, but he always still wants one.



Now, as far as yesterday goes, Rally Day was wonderful. The guest speaker was Cynthia England and her quilts were unbelievable and she was a hoot too. She is very entertaining and energetic and is a wonderful speaker. She does some amazing pictorial quilts. She seemed to be real down to earth and friendly too. I never thought I wanted to do any quilts like this until I heard her talk. She made it sound easy. I guess that's what they are supposed to do, right? So, they can sell their patterns and books but I really believed her, so, I bought her book. I might try my hand at this. Nothing major, maybe just a little wallhanging. I'm putting this on my list of future things I want to try....



She did say that it's better to see a demo on this and she has some on her website with some free patterns...Here's her site, if you want to check into it. http://www.englanddesign.com

There were over 450 people at Rally Day. I do not know how many guilds were represented. Some of the guilds were selling raffle tickets for their quilts and had them on display. I guess there were about 20 quilts on display for that. All of them were beautiful. I did not take pictures of all of them because there were too many people in the way. I think I bought tickets for nearly all of them too. You never know when you might be lucky. Here's a few pics of the two quilts I could get pictures of...




A Texas Quilt, all of these blocks were made by members for a challenge. I don't know if any of these were originals or not but it was a lovely quilt.
Click on it and you can see it closer. The little lady at the right hand side says something like, There's a new sheriff in town...very cute.
Of course, there's armadillos, bluebonnets, boots, cowboy hats, oil derricks, horses, cactus, the yellow rose,the Texas Flag, the Alamo, more armadillos on this quilt, so it truly is a Texas quilt.




Close ups of some of the blocks






I wish I could have taken pictures of all of them but there was no way. They were on display in a hallway on both sides. The hallway was about 12 foot across and when everybody was in the hallway, you could barely pass through.

The church where we met was wonderful. We have been at this same location for three years that I know of and it is great. Lots of room to move around in except when everyone is let out...

Everyone was given a goody bag and some people won door prizes. I was lucky and won a door prize. Here's what was in my goody bag.
Some fat quarters, a pattern, a pencil, some sticky notes, a little needle case, a name tag for totes, a little ruler and a tape measure. It was a nice little goodie bag. They give us goody bags each year. Everyone gets one and that way if you don't win a door prize, you still get something. Oh, did I mention that the Rally Day is free. That's right, if you are a member of a guild that is a member of TAQG, you get in free. If you are not a member, the cost is $20.00. Lunches are available for purchase at the guild meetings. You have to pay for these a month ahead to get them. I forgot and had to bring my own lunch. This is a great thing to go to and it is well worth guild membership just to be able to go to this.



Here's the doorprize I won: 3 patterns, 1 included fabric too. 3 fat quarters and two pieced of flannel kitty fabric. I will keep one of these and give the others to my guild to give away. I'm going to keep the one that had fabric. It has the two little kitties on the front. It's a small wallhanging. I thought I might make it and give it to the guild for our mini auction next year. Anyway, it was fun to win a doorprize too.



I went with two of my friends and we saw alot of our other friends there too. I enjoy going to this because this is one place I see friends I haven't seen all year. You don't get alot of time to visit but sometimes it's enough to catch up a little and make plans to have lunch together later. I love Rally Day!

I got home and was able to sew a little bit too. I finished my block. The Marti Michell block I was going to work on Friday night...here it is:


Here's the other one I told you about. The big Broken Dishes block:



Here's the sweet pattern that Cornfield Quilter sent me: It's a country star...This is on my do it soon list. thanks again, Carol!



I also made my blocks 9 and 10 of the Jelly Roll Quilt Along. Here they are:

Block 9:



Block 10


Now, to watch some TV and tat a little. Til next time, happy sewing...

Amy BOM

I was able to sew up my three blocks for Amy's BOM this rainy afternoon. I love these blocks and I'm so glad I'm sewing them today. They have put me in a patriotic mood. I did not start out to make a patriotic quilt but it's turning out that way. Here are my blocks for this month.

Block 1- July 4th



Block 2 - Star and Pinwheel



Block 3 - Two Star



Happy 4th of July.

Two blocks for my sewing group and the Mesquite Quilt Show

Friday night I made two blocks for my ASG group. I made this month's block and the block for next month. I used the pattern from Freda's Hive for this month. She is one of the guest designers for the Jelly Roll Quilt Along that I'm participating in. I liked her block so much that I decided to share it with my group. Her directions were easy to follow and my group could use these to make their blocks. I made next month's block to show the girls and I used Quilter's Cache website for this block. Both of these blocks were easy and quick to make. I'll have two quilts when I'm through with this project. I like that, two for one! I'll decide what to do with these quilts once they are together. I'll show you when they are together...

This is a block I made using the directions from Freda's Hive website:




Winged Four Patch from Quilter's Cache website



Saturday was the Mequite Quilt show. It was a good little show. I enjoyed walking around and looking at all the pretty quilts. I bought a few kits and some other little items I just couldn't pass up. I'll use the kits to make Christmas gifts so I do not feel guilty about buying those! They are already cut up kits so they should be quick to sew. There were alot of traditional quilts anda few not so traditional. I took a few pics of some of my favorite quilts so I hope you enjoy them....til next time.

The first 6 quilts are Mini quilts for our silent auction. These were some of my favorites.













Best of Show in the Mini Quilts...made by two of my friends. Sharon made it, (this is her first applique block) and Sharron B hand quilted it. Good job girls!



These are blocks for next year's raffle quilt.

This is Delilah's block. She is also in my tatting group, See the little tatted butterfly? Too cute...


The right block was hand drawn by Mae...Hand drawn girls...You should see some of her other drawings. She is an amazing artist.















This is called Remembering Wisteria. Lovely fabric and the 9 Patch Pizazz book-a lethal combination.