Tatting Demos at the State Fair.

Friday I took the day off and went to the great state fair of Texas.  Me and another sweet lady, (Patty) did tatting demos all day at the Creative Arts Building.  We had a lot of interest in the tatting and hopefully we will be having a lot more members come join our group.  It was a lot of fun but we didn't even get a chance to walk around or eat either.  So, Saturday, me and the hubs went to the fair and looked at all the displays in the Creative Arts Building (quilts, photos, tatting, crochet, knitting etc) and we played all day too.  We will be doing more demos next year at the fair too.  This was my 4th year to do this and it's fun. I'm always amazed at how many people say my Grandma used to do this.  I'm also amazed at the men that are interested in it too. There were a lot of young people interested this year too. I'm really hoping they show up at our meeting so we can teach them to tat to pass on to the next generation.  Fun times. Til next time, I hope you get some crafty time in.

Crochet, knitting, tatting and a new thing for me-Golfing.

I have been busy with a lot of things lately. Not just quilts.  (That was the name of the first quilt shop I ever went to. I wish that shop was still open.) I've been crocheting, tatting, knitting and golfing.  Yeah, that's right. I'm learning to play golf.  I have gone to the driving range 4 times and I'm learning my swing.  I've bought two books to read about golf and of course, I watch all the golf shows on TV.  My husband has always played golf and I wish I had learned a long time ago.  I didn't want to impose on his time though and that's one reason I didn't. But, I decided to go ahead and learn and impose on his time and we can travel, play golf and go to quilt shops too.  Anyway, I'll show you what I've been working on later. I took pictures of my crocheted hats but can't find the pics right now.  I've been making them for the hospital I work at. I made 15 chemo hats and gave to them last week. They are real simple to make and make up fast.  I can do them a lot quicker than tatting, knitting or golfing!  I hope everyone is having a great week. I'll post pics later.  Til next time, happy stitching.

Blocks, pillows, table runners, two little quilts and some tatting.

I have been working on my sewing room today trying to get it reorganized.  I finally gave up and decided to sew a little too.  I made some 4 patches and some half square triangles for a swap I'm doing and worked on some other blocks too. It is so hard to concentrate on my sewing when I feel so disorganized....Hopefully, this week I can get my room a little more like I want it....

I went and sewed with friends yesterday.  I got three blocks put together from my first swap on Thursday.  Here's what the blocks look like so far.

My friendship group is doing the Sunny Lanes quilt out of Pat Speth's book, Nickel Quilts.  I love this book and all of her books.  There are 20 of us in this exchange.  We are making 4 patches and half square triangles to exchange.  Then we put them together ourselves to make the blocks...We exchange 24 4 patches and 24 half square triangles each month and that is enough to make three blocks.  Lots of fun.

 

I also finished 5 heart pillows today. My friendship group always make heart pillows every February for breast cancer patients.  Thursday night we got together and finished  stuffing the pillows at our meeting. I brought them home to package them up, count them and get them ready to give to the hospital and the American Cancer society.  Here's how many we did. There are 130 pillows altogether! 

 

They are now packaged up and ready to go. 

 

I have a few other things to show too.  Some of my finishes that I haven't shown you yet....

 

I finished this table runner yesterday. This is a pattern from Jenny Doan's site, Missouri Star Quilts.  I used 5 inch charms to make this.  I bought the charm pack from Missouri Star too.  I used all but three of the charms.  This was quick and fun to do.  Jenny has a video on YouTube you can look at to make this easy table runner.

 

 

I made two of these table runners too. These are 60 degree table runners.  Lots of fun to do too. 

 

 

 

 

This was a quick and easy small quilt to make. I used 6 1/2" squares to make this.  It is a charity quilt. I just wanted to make something easy and quick without having to think about it. I just pulled some squares out of my stash  and started sewing them together into big 4 patches.

 

 

Here's a close-up of the quilting I did on it...

 

I made this cute Minnie Mouse quilt for a friend of mine that had her first baby.  Quick and easy to do from a panel.  She loved it.

 

 

 

Last but not least, here's some of my finished tatting.  I still have to put the closure on the bottom one to make into a necklace. 

I did these three crosses too.  The middle one is from a Mary Konoir book, the outer two are from Gina Butler's tatting pattern available online. 

 

 

 

Well guys, that's all I have for now. Our weather is getting bad here and I hope I get to stay home tomorrow. Maybe I'll get some more sewing time in.  Until next time, stay safe and warm and happy stitching.

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.

 

Family time and tatting.

Wow, I need to stop time so I can catch up!  It was a very busy weekend and I got a little bit done but most of the time was spent with family.  Friday night and Saturday I kept my youngest grandbaby so I didn't get any sewing time in.  I took her with me Saturday over to my #1 son's house to help pack.  They have bought another house and are starting to move this weekend.  They can't officially move in until Monday when they close on the new house but the sellers have agreed to let them move their stuff into the garage starting Saturday.  The house they are selling has to be cleared out by Monday so the new buyers can move in.  It's a lot different now since we bought our house 20 years ago.  Anyway, this week will involve helping the kids move.  Saturday night I had both boys and their families over for my #2 son's birthday and his fiance's birthday too.  Her birthday was Friday and his is not until the 28th but with the moving and everything going on, we decided to celebrate early.  It's not like we have a party anyway, my boys are grown. But, we gotta have cake and ice cream, right?!   After everyone left, the hubs and I watched a little TV and got to tat a little bit.  I made some more earrings.  These are so simple to make and go so fast.  I made one of them Saturday night while watching TV.  I finished the other one Sunday afternoon and made another little pair too.  Here's the pair I made. It's the same pattern as last week.  This pattern is so quick and easy and fun to do.  I just love this color...This was made with Lizbeth size 20 thread.

Here's the other pair I made Sunday evening.  In our Tatting group, we like to use up bits and pieces of thread on the shuttle.  I made a little tabletopper out of left over threads. Nancy is currently working on a piece that this little pattern came from.  She is also making a tabletopper but hers is made using this pattern.  I've been kidding her about this one.   It's easy to remember this little pattern.  I have teased her about it and called it Damien because it uses a 666 pattern....For those of you that are old enough, you might remember back in the late '70's, the movie, the Omen. The little boy in it was named Damien.  Anyway, it's kind of a standing joke with us and it made it easy for me to remember the pattern...

I'm calling this pair: Dear Damien

Here's the pattern if you want it...

It takes 30" of thread wound on the bobbin, don't cut your thread from the ball. I put 5 beads on the ball thread before I wound my shuttle and placed them where they were called for in the pattern from the ball thread.  You can put them on the shuttle if you want to but since the bead is on the chain, the bead shows up better if used from the ball thread.  I tried it from the shuttle and didn't like it as well.  Just so you know....

Put  5 seed beads onto your ball thread.  Push them down and  pull out approximately 30" of thread and wind your shuttle. 

R6-6 cl,RW (this first picot needs to be a good size because all of the rings will be joined into this...)

Chain 6 B 6 RW  (B means bead. After bead is in place, work 2nd stitch (to lock it in place), then do your 6 stitches as normal.  I like to lock the bead like this as I think it looks better. If you want to leave this step out, it's ok too....

R6+6

Continue in this pattern until you have 6 rings. The last chain, is ch6 - 6. Join in base of first ring and cut and tie. I do not put a bead in this picot space but you can if you want to.  Add the earring finding that you prefer and you have a cute earring to keep or give to someone. These are quick and easy.

Block exchanges, tatting, knitting and a little wallhanging.

I did a little bit of sewing on Sunday afternoon.  This week is my small group meeting and I wasn't ready for it.  I'm in two exchanges in this group and I had to get ready.  So, even though I wasn't really "in the mood" to sew, I had to suck it up and do it anyway.  So, I did. I made my 40 nine patches for my 9 Patch exchange and I started working on the other 5 blocks I needed for the other exchange.   Here's the 9 patches I did Sunday.

I finished my tatted earrings and my knitted scarf too.  The top earrings have seed beads on them. The little owl earrings have seed beads for the eyes.  I found the metal owls at Hobby Lobby and made earrings out of them too.  The other metal owl I found at Walmart and I'll just make a necklace out of him.  I like owls...can you tell? 

Here's a close-up of the earrings with the seed beads.

Here's the knitted scarf I finished.   It's made from Premier Starbella thread.  It was fun and easy to make. I have some gray/black/white to knit up too.  This one is a gift and the other one is for me.

Tonight, I finished the other 5 blocks I started on Sunday afternoon.  These are all made from Civil War fabric and we are about half-way through with the exchange.  This is going to be a great quilt.

This last picture is for Lesley, the Cuddle Quilter.  I told her I had made a small quilt out of the maple leaf blocks and had done it the same setting as she had done...I made this a few years ago and  enjoy this little wallhanging every time I see it. I had put it away and had to hunt for it to take the pic.  Now that I have it out, I'll put it up on the wall and enjoy it for awhile.

I hope you have a great week and get some creating time in.  til next time, happy sewing.

Tatting, quilting and rambling!

Woo! What a week!  It has been busy.  Why is it that time flies whether you are having fun or not????  Oh, well, June is over and so is half the year!  Do you believe that?  Bring on July and celebrations!
 When I think of July, I think of July 4th first...We always went down to see my Grandmother and cousins on this holiday.  It was always hot in south Texas (she lived in Bryan, Tx, you know, where Texas A & M is)  and my Grandmother did not have air conditioning.  I don't know how she did that but I guess it's what you get used to, right?  She always had her windows and doors open  and she had lots of trees so the house stayed fairly cool. As kids, I thought it was hot but we dealt with it.  I don't think I would deal with it too good now!  We, my brother and I always had to sleep on the floor and we always listened to the crickets or cicada's churp at night and talked and giggled until my parents or someone hollered at us to go to sleep.  Great memories!  Fireworks, food, family and fun times! 

Ok, I got off track but I just had to share.  I worked on a few things this week.  I did two more tatted crosses. I worked on one at tatting and finished it the next day, then started another and worked on it while I watched TV this week.  Had to watch Dallas!  I'm loving this show, all the sneaking around.  JR is back!  Anyway, I finished the two crosses and then I finished binding a charity quilt.  I quilted this earlier in the week and put the binding on but finally finished the binding Thursday night while watching the movie Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. I loved this show too. If you haven't seen it, it is a good show to watch. I liked this show as the two stars didn't hog the whole show. There were two younger singers in the show too that were wonderful.  I didn't recognize the two younger singers at first but  found out later who they were.

Here's the tatted crosses...

Back to quilting, right?  I bound the quilt. It is a Project Linus quilt and it turned out really cute.  I used off white quilting thread on the front and blue on the back. The blue kept coming through to the front in places but all in all, it is ok.  I'm going to have to practice more and not use different colors for the quilting too.

Here's the Project Linus quilt...

I also finished quilting my July 4th round tablerunner. I cut the binding and I'll be putting that on when I finish this post.  I'm also going to pull out my purple fabric and see if I can make some blsince this is the last day of June.  So for now, I gotta go get busy, I'll post more later today, I hope. 

The middle stripe is the binding. I'm going to go sew it on now and

Tatting Tuesday and some free fabric!!!

I went to Tatting on Tuesday and several of my friends were there that hadn't been there in weeks.  Some of them have been sick, one of them had a house fire and the other two had moved from their houses and combined into one (they are sisters.) It was so good to see all of these sweet ladies. I have really missed their smiling faces.  Everyone that comes to Tatting is not just a tatter. Everyone does all kinds of different crafts. Some do jewelry, scrapbooking, photography, crochet, knitting...you name it and I bet these ladies have done it.  Every now and again, we like to clean out our closets. So, we bring stuff up to the meeting and put it on the table and anyone that wants it can have it.  That's what happened last night.  Two of the girls that had moved and combined households had a clear out and brought stuff up to share.  Everyone got some stuff and I got some great stuff. I got several patterns and some fabric too.  I got two pieces of fabric that is patriotic fabric and is perfect for the tablerunner I just made.  I'm going to use some of it for the backing and I have some ideas in mind for another runner for the rest of it.  I'm very excited!!!  It's fun to get others castoffs to see how you can play with it! 

We met a new tatter last night too. She found us from Intatters and came to our meeting. She is a needle tatter and just started tatting in January. She said she learned to tat from the internet and books.  She's done a lot of great stuff and was excited to find a group of tatters to belong to.  We only have one other lady in our group that is a needle tatter.  Everyone else uses the shuttle to tat.  I tried needle tatting and didn't like it too much but I never had any lessons or saw anyone else do it.  Now that she is coming, we can share our knowledge. I can see how needle tatting is done and she can see shuttle tatting.  We are really excited to have her as a new member. 

Here's the tatting I finished this week.  I made a cross. I love this pattern. It is fun, quick and easy.
I use this pattern alot for crosses.  It's one of those patterns you can make it and not have to think about it too much.    With the same thread, I made my other favorite pattern. The Spinning Wheel Glass Mat.  I haven't done one of these in awhile and it had been on my mind the last couple of weeks.  I'll be making more crosses and more mats all summer.  Easy tatting and great gifts. 

Here's the stuff I came home with. Some patterns and some fabric.  Most of it is scraps but there were two patriotic fabrics in this that I'll be using.  You'll see it soon!

Tomorrow is my small quilt group meeting so I'll be showing you what my group is up to.  Until next time, happy sewing!

Some finishes..tatting, sewing and quilting.

Well, hello! I haven't meant to be away so long but I just couldn't find the time to blog. I've thought about it and thought about it but just couldn't find a spare moment. I used to blog at work during lunch but can't do that anymore. We have a new computer system there and it's got all kinds of firewalls and won't allow me to post pictures. So, I can only do it at home and I just haven't had the time...

Ok, so much for my excuses...

Here's some stuff that has kept me busy.

 I made this sweet little pincushion last week.  I won the little kit from Susan of DesertSky Quilts. The pattern is called Heirloom Tomatoes and is from Rana over at Sewn into the Fabric. She has a pincushion of the month and this one was January.  It was fun and easy to do.

I quilted this little mug rug from leftovers of another project. 

Last Saturday, a few of the ladies in my American Sewing Group got together to have some sewing fun.  There were 10 of us all together and we spent the day eating, talking and making this bag.  This pattern is the Harmony Bag from Studio Kat Designs. Only four of us made the bag while the others worked on other projects or just sat and chatted.  Cathey from our group had made two of these bags and she walked us through the pattern.  It was great. I don't know if I'll keep this one or give it as a gift.  My sister really likes red so I'll have to think about this one...but I do like it and think it turned out really cute.  Her pattern was very easy to follow.  Here's a link to her site, she has alot of different bags...

Here's a tatted necklace I made last week. I got this pattern off of the Yarnplayers (Marilee Rocklee) Website.... This was a free pattern and it worked up so quickly. I love her stuff. 

And, I finished my tatted bag. I have been working on this for about a year and I finally finished it.  It doesn't look very big or very pretty in this picture but I think it's lovely. I made twisted cord from tatting thread for my drawstrings and I'm so happy with it.  I'm glad I finished it. It was alot of work. It wasn't hard, it just got boring after awhile and I kept putting it aside....I'm not sure if I'll leave it like this or line it but I like it this way right now.

Ok, gotta go for now so I can sew today.  Until next time, happy sewing!

A few things in progress...

Here's the last two rows of my Row by Row quilt I was telling you about in my last post.  This was a mystery for my group but it is on the internet and here's the link to this little BOM quilt....This has been alot of fun and I think this little quilt will be really cute when it's finished.  I had just enough background fabric to do this. If we's had one more row, I would have had to use another background fabric. Wow, I was sweating it for awhile. You will see the finished product soon. This Thursday, I go to my small group and we'll get the finishing instructions....

I've also been telling you that I'm working on a little tatted bag but I haven't shown it to you. I'm still not finished with it. I've got 5 more rows to put on it before it's finished but I wanted to show you what it's looking like so far.  Yes, I'm still tatting but not as much.  There's just not enough time to do everything....anyway, here's what the little bag looks like. I didn't realize the picture was so dark until I posted it.  I'll take better pictures when it's finished. 

Ok, come back tomorrow and I'll tell you about the surprise giveaway I'll be having soon.  I'm so excited and I hope you will be too. til next time.....

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....