Saturday sewing

I got up really early this morning so I could sew.  This is the wedding weekend and I'll have the grandbaby until Monday. I knew if I didn't get up early, I wouldn't get a chance to sew...she keeps me hopping! 

I made my purple Box block for the Rainbow challenge and I'm really liking this block.  It's a fun and easy block to make. 

 

 

I also made my 5 blocks for my small group swap. This is the final 5 blocks and the swap will be complete. Once these blocks are swapped, I can put the blocks up on the design wall and start putting the quilt together. 

 

 

 

 

I also put this scrappy crazy block together. 

 

I used templates from Sharlene Jorgenson for this block.  I have alot of fabrics cut out for this but I just sewed this one up to see what it would look like.  I think I'm going to like this one.  It's going to be very scrappy and I can sew it whenever I get scraps cut out for it...it will be an ongoing project. I'm going to use anything and everything in it and see how it turns out.  This was a fun block to put together and went together great using her templates.

 

 

Well, that's all I did and all I had time for.  I hope you got to sew today and have a fun and restful weekend.  Until next time, 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.

A Love quilt and some finishes!

I have a wonderful quilt to show you. This is a lovely little quilt made for a tatting friend that is going through chemo for colon cancer. My tatting friends and I made the blocks.  That's right, my tatting buddies.  A few of these lovely little ladies are quilters but not everyone.  Two of the blocks have crochet on them. Some of them have tatting as embellishing .I will be quilting this and hopefully be finishing it and giving it to my friend by next week.  I gotta get busy! I'll show you this again when it's quilted and bound...The picture does not do justice to this wonderful Love quilt.  I'll try to take better pics when I'm finished with it...

 

This is a small wallhanging I finally finished.  I love drunkard's path quilts but hate the name...

I made this one a while back and just finished quilting this on my new machine.  Lots of fun!

 

 

 

 

These last two were also quilted on my new machine.

 

This one was alot of fun.  It doesn't look like much in the picture but I love this quilt.  I did all kinds of quilting on this one. It was one of those I practiced on...I wasn't worried about messing it up and I really enjoyed doing it.  This will make a great picnic quilt or cuddle quilt...

 

And, here's my latest swap blocks.  I only have two more sets to do and our swap will be finished. Then I can start putting this quilt together. I can't wait!  We have been exchanging blocks all year and I've gotten some get blocks. This will be a beautiful quilt! 

 

That' it for now, I hope you all are having a great holiday season.  I've been to two parties already and have two parties to go to next week. I love this season. It gives me a chance to get together with friends and family and have great times.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having time to sew too. Until next time, happy stitching! 

Catching up again! Some swap sewing and retreat hi-lites.

Last week came and went and I just couldn't find the extra time to blog. I was busy every night.  I had to make some choices and the computer didn't win...

Since the last time I blogged,  I went on a quilt retreat with my friends and had a great time.   I only finished one thing but I  got a few things further along too.  Good food, good friends and relaxation.  It's so nice to get away and not worry about making dinner, answering the phone, cleaning, laundry, etc, etc.  Nothing but me time.  That's what I like about retreats. I can sew until I'm too tired to sit any longer or take a walk or even a nap.  Of course, I didn't do those things. I just sewed and sewed. and ate and talked alot!  I took my tatting and my knitting but didn't touch either one.  We did make a trip into the local quilt shop and I bought a new project too.  Like I needed another project, right?  I saw this quilt and just had to have it, it was beautiful and I didn't want it to get away from me.  I'll be starting it soon but I have to finish at least 3 things first.  I started out telling myself I had to finish 5 things but decided to lower it to 3!  Ha, ha, I don't know if I can wait but I'm going to be patient and get some small things done first. 

When I came home Sunday, I was so tired. I brought all of my stuff in from the car and put my sewing room back together. I planned on sewing some but it just didn't happen. I sat in my chair and started watching some TV I had recorded and fell fast asleep. No sewing that day or the rest of the week either.   I didn't get to sew again until this past Saturday afternoon!  Last week was busy with grandkids and friends and family but no time to sew. I did watch TV one night and I knitted for awhile.  I'm still working on my Wingspan shawl. 

Saturday, I planned on finishing my blocks for my current swap but I only sewed on them a little while.  The grandbaby didn't want to cooperate and take a good nap. I had to finally put my sewing away and play with her....What a sacrifice! Not!

 Sunday afternoon, I was finally able to finish them up.  I made my 5 blocks for my swap this Thursday....These blocks took me forever!  Have you ever made a block and had to unsew it because it wasn't right?  Well, these blocks and I didn't get along at all.  I used fabrics for the outside triangles that were two different fabrics.  I had enough to do 3 blocks of one fabric and the other two were supposed to be the other fabric. I had to unsew them because the outside triangle fabrics weren't the same. I wasn't paying attention and sewed the wrong fabrics on the blocks.  They looked almost alike and I started to leave them as they were but I just couldn't stand it. I had to rip out.  I got my trusty seam ripper out and unsewed them. Then, I was stupid enough to sew two blocks wrong again!!!!I didn't think I would ever get these simple blocks done.  I was so aggravated with myself.  I was trying to watch Felix Baumgartner jump out of that balloon 24 miles up and I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing.  OMG, I am so glad those are done too! 5 blocks took nearly all afternoon but I finally got them done.  One more thing out of the way for the month! If you click on the pics, you can see how close the fabrics were....

One of my accomplishments at retreat was my 40 Nine Patches for the month. I love mindless sewing when I'm with someone.  I can chat and sew and not have to think about what I'm doing.  These weren't so bad this month.   We are down to only 4 more months and we'll have enough nine patches for the quilt... Yay! 




I wanted to show you what I worked on at retreat.  I decided I would make both my granddaughters the same quilt.  I think I told you that last week.  Well, I got alot of the blocks done at retreat.  I still have more to do but I am alot further along on this now.  I ran out of white fabric and had to buy some more.  That was my main reason for going to the quilt shop at retreat.  I couldn't stand the temptation though....

Can you tell there are two quilts on my design wall?  I still have some more blocks to make. I'm making them 6 X 8. I'm trying to make them both alike but I have a few blocks in there that are different. The colors are the same but the fabric is different, but just a few.   I think I still need about 20 more blocks.  I have so enjoyed making these blocks.  I even showed the girls at retreat how to make these and they started making some too.  These are my Disappearing 4 patches I've been working on for the Scrappy Rainbow challenge this year.  I've already decided what my borders will be for these two but have to find the fabric.  All of the fabric used is scrap except for the white. I had to buy extra white on white fabric as I used all of mine from my stash.  I hope my sweet granddaughters will like them. 

 

Now, here's a few pics of what some of my friends did at retreat....

 

Karen was working on a Trip Around the World quilt....

 

 

Ruth and Jessica (Mother and daughter team) worked on this beautiful Christmas quilt. Click on the picture and see how pretty this quilt is.  They almost finished this one. They still had to add the beautiful border on it when they left...This was a kit they bought a few years ago. The daughter will get this one...

 

This is a quilt that Judy was working on. The pattern was in a McCall's quilting mag from 2005. 

Some Christmas Dresden blocks. Glenda did these and they were going to be for our Christmas challenge swap but she liked them so much she decided to keep them and make a runner out of them.  She bought two fat quarters and made 5 dresden plates.

 

 

This is Witch Judy...she dressed up for us the last day we were at retreat.  So cute but I wish I had taken a pic of her socks...

 

 

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge and some 9 Patches

Today is another Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I haven't done too much with the challenge this month as the color is pink. I don't have alot of pink but I did find a little bit to work with....I saw these blocks on another blog that I follow and wanted to make them.  I'm going to be doing them in all colors like Teresa from Fabric Therapy did here.  When I saw hers I liked it alot and decided I was going to make one.  It's been one of those thinkgs I couldn't get off my mind...I decided today was the day I was going to start.  So, here's my feeble starting to this wonderful quilt.  More to come later!!!

Here's some more 9 patches I'm doing for an exchange.  Here's 20 of the 40 I need for the month.  I almost have the other 20 completed but I had to stop and play with the baby. I'll be sewing more later. I hope you have a beautiful weekend and get some sewing time in!

Weekend Sewing and Cupcakes for dessert and a quilt too!

Ok, I know on my last post I said I would sew and show you what I did. Well, that didn't happen but I guess you can tell that....Anyway, life is still not  back to normal or whatever normal is...but it's getting there. 

I haven't been sewing hardly at all. I just can't seem to get motivated right now.  I have been looking at all my projects and reading books and magazines but when I have the time, I don't have the want to.  When I don't have the time, I just keep thinking of all the things I want to be sewing on.  This holiday weekend is a long weekend for me so maybe I can get a few things done. 

I was able to sew a little on Saturday. I  got a little hand sewing done and some tatting too.  After that,  I got some stuff ready for a sew day on Sunday with my friends.

For the Sunday sewing, we made cupcake blocks and we will be swapping them later...it was so much fun to get together and sew with friends. Of course, we had to have food and cupcakes for dessert.  I had a good time being with my buddies and actually got some sewing done too... We all met over at Martha's and we spent the afternoon making our cupcake blocks, playing with her dogs and eating cupcakes.

We had real food too.

Yum, those cupcakes are good!

Dee's first cupcake block...

This is so much fun!

Another one finished!

Aren't these cute?  Judy gave us all ceramic cupcake boxes with a piece of chocolate inside!

Here we are with one of our cupcake blocks.  We had alot of fun working on these together.  It's so much fun to see how everyone's was so different.  The instructions were to have a pink background with a cupcake on the diagonal. We all drew up our own pattern and we'll exchange later next month.  Some will embellish and some won't. It's left up to the individual but they were all cute!  There are 4 other ladies in the swap that couldn't make it. We will have 12 blocks each and we can put it together any way we want. We will be getting together to swap and sew the quilt up next month.  More fun times with friends to come for the summer months. We planned 3 other swaps too so please stay tuned!  Til next time, happy sewing.