Rainbow Scrap Blocks and a finished wallhanging.

I hope you have had a good weekend. I've had a busy weekend with the grandkids but I have had a little time to sew too.  I have been working on my Rainbow Scrap challenge blocks this week and I got my Boxed in Block done for this month. I didn't do a pink one as I had already made a pink one last year for this project...one more block closer! 

 

 

I also got these little 6 1/2" blocks done. I am playing catch up for the rainbow scrap challenge. These are from January and I have alot of catching up to do but these blocks are fun and easy to do so far and I'm hoping to get caught up soon.

 

I made more Carolina chain blocks too...I made these for this month's color but I also made alot more colors and I had enough to put together 9 blocks.  I now only need 10 more blocks to finish this quilt....woo hoo, I'm so excited. This has really been a fun and easy project and I have enjoyed it alot.  These blocks are easy and quick to make and you can just sit and sew them together without thinking.    I just went in my sewing room and shut the door and just sewed away the stress

I put together these blocks too. These are cobblestone blocks or that was the name of the pattern I have. I have seen these same blocks on different blogs and I've seen them referred to as Happy blocks, whichever name you choose, these are easy too.

 

After the grandkids left today, I finished this little wallhanging. I quilted it this week but put the finishing touches on it today with binding, a hanging sleeve and a label.  This is another project that's been laying around for a few years that needing finishing. 

 

 

That's all I have for now.  I had so much going on this weekend, I could not make it to the Dallas Quilt show.  This is the first show I've missed in years but there are others coming soon that I hope to go to.  I hope you have a good week and get to sew or craft and show us what you're working on. Til next time, happy stitching, Linda

 

Some Projects I've worked on this month

 

Here's some of my blocks for the Rainbow scrap challenge. This month's color is teal or bluish green from the Caribbean Sea.  I'm still searching through my stash to find some scraps.  I made 33 different blocks yesterday but they weren't all teal.  I'm playing catch up from February too so I did some pink blocks too.  I made blocks for my Carolina Chain quilt and Cobblestone quilt. 

 

 

 

I made this little wallhanging during the week. This was a fun little project. I've had this little kit for about five years and decided to finally put it together. I used fabric markers for the words and hearts.  The hearts were two different methods. The bottom part was paper piecing and the top was just regular piecing. I had to make half square triangles and quarter square triangles for the top of the hearts. 

 

The next block is for a swap in our guild. It is a disappearing pinwheel block.  Here are the steps to make it.....

 

 

 

 

Here's two  hand embroidered wallhangings I finished. I took an embroidery class to do this project. 

 

I crocheted around these two little fleece blankets.

 

Last but not least I put the top together with black sashing and scrappy cornerstones for my friendship star quilt.  I'm trying to decide on the final border.  I'm thinking about a full black border or a black border with small friendship stars for the corners....I'm really leaning toward the small blocks on the corners but not sure yet....

 

 I'll show you the finished quilt top once I make my mind up. 

 

I have several other blocks to make this week  and I'll show you those once they are all together. I hope you have a great week. Until next time, happy stitching!

I've been free motion quilting this week and I'm almost finished with this little calendar quilt.

Woo hoo, it's Friday and I'm on vacation for a whole week!  Of course, it's a working vacation but I'm still at home!  We are getting our wood floors put in starting Monday. They are bringing out all the wood and supplies tomorrow and will start early Monday. We are moving furniture again but this time it will be to get the floors in. 

I have been free motion quilting on this little wallhanging and I'm almost finished with it.  All I have to do is decide how I'm going to quilt the border and do it.  Then I can bind it and it will be done. I think I made this little top about four years ago. It was a block of the month and was fun to make.  It will be fun to look at when it's finished...

I'll show it again when it's all done...I'm linking up with Leah Days' site as she wanted to see what we had been free motion quilting this week.  If you haven't found her blog or site before, you have to check it out. She is amazing and has some great free videos on free motion quilting on her site and Youtube...Here's a link for you to her blog.  I hope you've had a great week and have been able to sew or relax...Until next time, happy quilting!

A Few Things to show..

I don't know what it is here lately but I just haven't had the time to blog.  Hopefully, things will change and I can find the time to post.  I have been very busy with family. I've been sewing a little too and here are some of the things I've been working on....
I'm trying really hard to figure out my machine and it's a slow process but I'm getting there.
I quilted this little lap quilt. This was the first quilt for me on my TinLizzie.  This one is quilted and ready for binding.  Hopefully, I'll get better quickly and will be able to quilt my quilts like I want. I have been watching all kinds of videos on Youtube and reviewing all my quilting books.  That's another thing that's kept me from blogging.  There's just not enough time in the day to do it all! 

Anyway, this one is quilted and I'll be binding it soon.

 

This is a little quilt I made with leftover blocks from another project.  I made my oldest son and DIL a king size quilt out of these fabrics.  It was a Yellow Brick road pattern and I didn't use these blocks. I've had these laying around for about six years.  So, I grabbed these up and put them together. I found the fabric in my stash for the borders and now it's ready for quilting. 

 

This next one is the same way. These were blocks that I've had for a while. I did some demos at my local guild and group on how to do these 3D bow ties. I grabbed these up and put them together and pulled the brown fabric out of my stash for the borders.  Now, it's ready for quilting....

 

This top was given to me to practice on with my quilting machine.  I don't know who made it but she used all kinds of fabrics in this one. She put scraps together to make small pieces for this quilt. Now that it's quilted, I love it...It will be a good snuggle quilt or picnic quilt and be well loved.  It is now ready for binding too. It was fun to quilt this one and not worry if I messed it up.  I played around alot on this one and had a good time. I guess that's another reason I like this quilt.  It's a big quilt and has no border.  It really looks alot better in person....

 

These Christmas blocks are what I worked on this weekend.  Every year, my small group puts together a quilt for the church we meet in as a thank you to the church for allowing us to meet there.  This year it was decided we would be doing a Christmas quilt.  Everyone has been asked to make two blocks and turn in 5 strips of the fabric that we used to make a piano key border. (See the little strips at the top of the block, that's what those are for.)  I made one of these quilts last year and actually I'm still working on it.  I have the quilt all together except for the outside border. I decided to make the border a double row of 2 1/2" blocks...I have been collecting Christmas fabric and have three complete borders done and half of the last border. I'll be showing you the finished top soon....

 

These two dresden plate blocks are for our Christmas drawing.  We have two drawings a year.  One in the summer and one at Christmas.  The more blocks you make, the more chances you have to win.  I hope I win.  I love this block and it was so much fun to make.  I used the EZ Dresden ruler to make these.  

 

I also made these blocks for my scrap quilt.  Leftovers from my other projects and I put together 13 other DP4 blocks but didn't get a pic.  I'll show you those later. 

 

I hope everyone in the storm's path will be safe, please take care.  Until next time, happy sewing.

 

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.

Some little finishes and my grandkids

Hey there, you thought I left, huh?  Well, no, I didn't!  I'm back and I have a few things to show you. Not many, but a few.  I haven't been too busy. I've been watching TV and watching grandkids between working so I just haven't blogged....And, you know when you haven't blogged for a while you just don't know where to start.  It's like a catch 22...What all do you say?  So, I'll just catch you up with the latest, how's that?

I finished a little wall hanging that has been around for awhile.  She is finally finished and up on the wall for so I can look at her. She'll come back out closer to Christmas but I had to put her up for a few days to talk to her and welcome her.

Then, I finished a little dolly for my oldest granddaughter. I  meant to do this one several months ago but time flies when you have plans!  Anyway, this one is now with her new friend, Alayna.  I gave her to her Thursday night. I think she liked her, she told her Mommy she knew she was getting her because she helped me make her.  She did too. She put some of the stuffing in the head and she also sat on my lap and sewed a little bit on the head too.  Her dolly is the middle one.  It's got Tinkerbell fabric on it.  They went to Disney World last year and she had to have something with Disney characters on it...I think she looks happy. :-)

My son and his little family came over Thursday night. Him and his wife watched the last two hours of House that I had recorded. (Their recording didn't work for some reason.) My DH and I played outside with the kids while they had some TV time.  This was the kids last day of school so they could stay longer.  I gave Brandon two movies he wanted for graduating from the second grade.  He had mentioned them several times in the past that he wanted them so I had to search for them. They are older movies and they were cheap.  I ordered one from Walmart and the other from Target.  I gave him Zathura and The Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers.  He was so excited, you would have thought I'd given him a million dollars.  I love kids, they get excited over the little things....

I gave Alanya the dolly I made for her and a new Barbie movie. She was also thrilled. She graduated from first grade. 

I couldn't leave Trent out, he's three and not in school but if the other kids got something, he had to have something too.  I got him a new soccer ball.  We played soccer for awhile with his new ball and then we rode bikes. Well, I didn't ride a bike. I have one but it needs new tires. My DH rode his bike with them and I worked in the garden...We had a great time.  Here's a picture of the bike riders...

Yeah!  School's out for Summer!  Time to play!

Well, I'll post more later. I have three more things to show you but I have to get busy while the baby is taking a nap.  Have a wonderful weekend.  Til next time, happy sewing!

Pictures of some of my latest projects

Ok,I promised you a look at the projects I'm working on. Here's some of them...

This one is the little BOM that I just finished up with. It took all year only because it was a BOM. This could have been done in a few days if you wanted to. The blocks were very easy and fun to do. They are 4 1/2" blocks and covered various techniques...Lots of fun. This one's mine, I might make another one to give away or I have thought about just doing 4 of the blocks and making a really small wallhanging to depict the seasons...we'll see.



Ok, here's the 21 snowball blocks. These are half of the center portion of the Reproduction Quilt I'm doing. It is the exchange quilt I was talking about earlier. 21 more to go....



Ah, here's the full center, all 42 snowballs...Doesn't this look great? Before I started working with reproduction fabrics, my first thought was dull, drab colors, boy, was I wrong? These colors are great and I just love the scrappy look.




Here's a closeup of 4 of the blocks.



Here's one of the tablerunners I just finished putting the finishing touches on the applique...I used to refer to applique as the A word. I've grown a little fonder of it but it's still slow for me...I just love this tablerunner and I'm going to hand quilt this one. I think it will be very pretty when finished completely.





Here's the quick tablerunner I did Monday. I'm going to machine quilt this one and bind it with a Moda Marble Dark Blue. It will be the first one on my kitchen table in January since it reminds me of ice... This is one of the blocks. The middle is fussy cut to show off the compass points...This was very quick and easy to make...






This is the little wallhanging for November showing the cute little pumpkins. I have 12 different small wallhangings from this year. Each month was very traditional and I will be working on these and getting these done quickly...I hope. January is snowmen, February is Hearts, etc...Fun, quick projects make me feel good and feel like I've accomplished something. A quick fix.



Here's my latest block for the BOM I'm working on. This is the Marti Michell quilt I am working on. This is block 9 of 12. Only 3 more to go and the main blocks will be finished. This quilt will be one of the ones on my list to complete in 2010. I want to have this one done so I can see it at least by Christmas....

You can see some of the other blocks and the finished quilt on my other blog...Thomas Quilt