Monday March 21, 2011

I finally have made some progress on getting the blocks all sewn together.  Will probably have all the rows together by next week.  So at least one more week on the design wall or surface.  Seems like laying out a scrap quilt always gets the best of me.  No matter how hard I try to spread out the colors I always get like colors too close to each other.  But I guess that is one of the good things too.  It just really doesn't matter.
I am planning to write out the measurements I used for my blocks.  Hopefully, I will get that done by next Monday.

The bag below is a "schlep" bag I made for my mother's birthday.  Not new. I just forgot to post a picture when I was making it.  It also is from my scraps. 

Enjoy the rest of your Monday. And be sure to check out all of the great design walls at Patchwork Times.

Peaceful Thoughts

I just needed a minute where I could have one or two peaceful thoughts today.  Yep, been one of those days. So I started going through old pictures on my computer and got what I was looking for. Nice, serene pictures and good memories.

The pictures above and just below were taken at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. They are both of Chihuly glass sculptures that we saw when we went to St. Louis on vacation a few years ago.  Daughter Jennifer studied glass blowing in college (yes, there is a degree for that).  So when we heard there was to be a Chihuly show we loaded up and headed East.  It was not disappointing.  The best part was the trip with the family.  So this qualifies as a peaceful thought.

And the little fellow below, Jennifer and I saw on a trip out West. He entertained us at Bryce Canyon in Utah.  These were all around while I was growing up in Arizona. But we don't have them in Kansas. At least not in our part of Kansas.  Chipmunks always bring a smile to my face. Unless the are singing in a cartoon voice.

Time to go back to work. 

Monday March 7, 2011

Well, I have some more blocks done.  And have been working on a sashing.  And I think that has been my hold up.  Wanted something different for the sashing - just don't know if this works or not.  Maybe should just go with the standard dark/light/dark strips and leave it at that. 

These blocks have not been laid out in any order. This will probably be 5 x 6 blocks. 

Birthday Postcard

Here is this years postcard for Grace.  No I still don't do applique very well, and no I have not read any posts about how to make these.  But for some reason for her 1st birthday I made her a fabric postcard and here she is already three.  And so far I have made three.  Guess I'll have to see when she is 15 if she is still getting postcards from her grandma.  And what to do when there are more grandkids? 

 

These postcards are like the Christmas stockings - everytime there is a new addition to the family I have to make a new stocking.  The first stockings were made by Jesse and Jennifer's great granny.  And for some silly reason I thought everyone should get one.  Maybe it is time for the tradition to pass to the next generation.  Jennifer or Victoria are you ready to learn about making granny's stockings?  Hopefully it won't have to pass a generation like it did with me.  If so, I figure there is only 7 or 8 years until Grace is ready to pick up the needle and thread and stitch one up.

A year from now I will be trying to figure out what picture to sew on Grace's postcard. Trying to come up with something clever to say on the back.  And thinking about the first three postcards and the ones yet to come.

 

                                                            HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE.

February 14, 2011

Not much new since last week.  Just a few more of the plaid shirt blocks and lots of time to think about setting ideas.  But I believe I have a good excuse for not getting much done.  During our last snow storm on Tuesday I took a terrible tumble off a slick step.   After a few x-rays it was decided that nothing was actually broke.  Thank Goodness!  But, my right hand is still in a splint and the bruises just keep getting darker and darker.  Trust me - I would much rather be sewing.  Hopefully next week I will be able to get back at it.

Have a great week. And be sure to visit Patchwork Times to see all the Design Wall posts.

Monday February 7, 2011

These are the blocks I have been working on with my shirt plaids.  I have quite a few of the dark plaids but have figured out that I need quite a few more of the lights.  So another trip to the Salvation Army is in my future.  You can go to my last post to see more information about the shirts that are in these blocks.  I haven't decided yet how they are going to go together or how big this project will be.  We'll see.

I am also quilting on my RRCB.  It would be going so much faster if I could just see where I have already been quilting.  My thread blends in so well on all those strip blocks.  Makes for slow going.  I decided to just go with meandering on it.  So far it looks good.  It's just not very far along.  Patience, Patience.

Visit Patchwork Times to see all the great projects that are posted.

Plaids

I started with this.  These are shirts I have been buying at Salvation Army.  All plaid and all 100% cotton.   Jennifer and I have been having fun going to look for them.  So far there are 15 different shirts/materials.

This is what I have ended up with.  Lots and lots of usable material.  At this point I am not planning to mix this with my quilt shop cottons.  I'm just hoping to get something made with these plaids.  The shirts were a Bonnie Hunter idea from her blog Quiltville quips and snips.  The plaids may be too busy to use on their own.  I'll just have to see what it looks like.  Whatever "it" may be.

                                      

And this is what I have been playing around with.  No it's not an original idea. But I don't have a pattern for this so I sat down and figured it out.  The small one is only 4" and not quite as big as I wanted.  So on to the 5" block.  Much better.  The large one is 10" and has the 5" block for a center. 
I have wanted a quilt with a Churn Dash block in block for years.  Between the Churn Dash and a Star pattern I wouldn't be able to say which was my favorite.  I carry around a bag that I made from a Georgia Bonesteel churn dash pattern that was done in red/white and blue.   It was a difficult pattern to follow and I knew I could do better, so I did.  Yipee!  Hopefully, I will have lots to share in the near future. 

Monday January 31, 2011

This is a post I have been waiting impaitently to write for several months.  I am thrilled to be finished with my Roll Roll Cotton Bowl top.  Yep, top.  It does still need to be quilted.  But with this quilt that is the easy part.  And I'm quite sure I have never said that before. What a great project this turned out to be.  It was so much fun to work so hard each week trying to be ready for the next weeks mystery post. I have always enjoyed string quilts and have bought several pattern books using string quilts.  After the making the sixty blocks in this quilt I may be broke of the desire to ever make another one with strings.   But there was certainly a great sense of accomplishment when they were done.    I did decide to make my quilt square.  Therefore, I have blocks left over for pillow shams or a small quilt.  But they will certainly NOT go on the back of a quilt.  At least not the back of this one.  Thanks so much to Bonnie Hunter for such a great pattern.  It was a lucky day indeed when I found Quiltvilles Quips and Snips.  She has plenty of inspiration to share with a little bit of humor thrown in to boot. 

Be sure to go to Patchwork times for a great place to see  projects on Judy's Design Wall Monday.  And check out her great patterns while your there. 

And the next time someone says mystery quilt, I'm sure you will see me and my posts tagging along for the ride.

Design Wall Monday January 3, 2011

Here is my version of Bonnie Hunter's "Roll Roll Cotton Boll".  However, I will need to name mine "One of These is Different" as one of my purple blocks was put together wrong and should be taken apart and redone but......  hopefully it will be the only one.  I still have 16 of the purple blocks to do and the 1/2 blocks that go around the outside.  I also decided to do mine in purple and yellow instead of pink and red.  I think it is looking great.  I am glad I decided to do it in this color scheme.

Here is a close up.

A huge thank you to Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville for the terrific pattern and fun mystery.  And to Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times for a great place to post the updates and pictures. 

I love the yellow quilt Judy has planned to do.  May have to follow her lead on that one.  Check it out at Patchwork Times.

Christmas Presents

Finally done!   It seemed like I was never going to finish this one.  It is a Judy Laquidara pattern from her book Weekend Quilts.  It ended up being 84" square.  Absolutely nothing against Judy's pattern but I obviously do not sew as fast as her.  My quilt is larger than the pattern in the book and I changed the border and made the background scrappy.  That may be some of the reasons it took me several weeks to get this done.  But done it is.  Yippee!  I used a large meander to quilt it which worked out well for the quilt and me.  This was a gift and needed to be done by the 24th and it just barely made it under the tree. I love the finished quilt and kept it at my house so I can take it to quilt guild in Burlingame and Holton in January.  I wonder if my son and his wife will notice if I don't give it back to them?

I also got this tree skirt done for my daughter Jennifer and her husband Zach. You may notice that the center of the skirt hasn't been cut yet and the binding is not on here.  Silly me, I do not YET have a picture of the finished tree skirt.  I forgot to take one.  I did the binding in strips of the different reds that are in the skirt.  These block patterns were from a block of the month we did at Quilting on the Square in Holton last year.  I thought the log cabin worked well in the reds and greens and stands out nicely under the tree.  And hopefully someday I will put together the blocks that I did last year.  They are in browns.

And these lovely fabrics are a gift from my daughter Jennifer.  A girl that takes after her mother.  Wow, I just couldn't believe it when I opened my Christmas present and these fabrics were in there.  She bought all of these on one of our Kansas shop hops this last summer.  I drooled over all of it then and can't wait to get something done with them now.  Might have to work with those moths and bumble bees first?  I know she is secretly hoping to end up with the results of my labor and who knows she just might.  Only time will tell.

This  pillow is a gift from Mother to me.  My sisters also got one. (Hope I didn't spoil Cathy's surprise.)  Each a different pattern.  Behind mom is a lap quilt she gave me last year.  So as you can see I get my quilting genes directly from her.  Thanks mom the pillows turned out great!

To top off this wonderful list of gifts son Jesse and family gave me a 19" monitor for my computer.  It is wonderful to be able to clearly see all the posts at Patchwork Times.

What a great Christmas.  Jesus is the reason for the season.  God Bless.

Design Wall Monday November 29, 2010

It was a great weekend to wrap up the piecing on a couple of projects.  The tree quilt is my version of a Judy Laquidara pattern from her book Weekend Quilts.  I changed it up by making my backgrounds scrappy which changed the way it had to be pieced together.  Much more work to lay it out.  I also added two more rows of blocks and a different border.  I wanted to end up with a queen size quilt.  Needless to say, this did not get done in a weekend.  But now it is ready to be quilted.  My least favorite part.  I just can't decide how.  Any ideas?  I do all of my own quilting on my sewing machine so I don't do anything fancy.

Last week I also started Bonnie Hunters Roll Roll Cotton Bowl mystery quilt.  I chose to use purples instead of pinks to go with my greens and browns.  I'm not sure the purples and browns will work out quite as well but I have one unfinished pink and brown project so didn't want to start another one.  I haven't decided on the other fabric yet.  When she gives us the directions for it I will go to my stash and pick something out.  Maybe a burgandy paisley that I have.  You can find Bonnie's mystery quilt on her blog at Quiltville's Quips & Snips.

Wow, that was a great holiday weekend.  I am so sad that it is over.  It was so nice not to have to go to work I was able to get a lot of sewing done.  Which was exactly how I wanted to spend the Thankgiving holiday.  Dinner was great with all the family here.  But no one ate enough.  There were too many leftovers. 

Check out everyone else's holiday sewing at Patchwork Times.

First Quilt Show

After hemming and hawing forever about it, I decided to put a quilt in the Maple Leaf Festival Quilt Show in Baldwin City, KS.  It was not a show that handed out prizes to the best or worst so just the place for my fragile quilting ego to start out. 

The drama was finding a parking place so Mom, Jennifer and I could go view my quilt and the other quilts of course.  Ended up that Jennifer and I ran into the the show.  Looked at all 122 quilts (I was told that amount by Sharon at Quilter's Paradise).  And left to go back to Mom who was sitting in the car three blocks away.  It was a let down that Mom couldn't see the show and that we couldn't take our time.  Baldwin City definitely needs a larger venue and more parking for their quilt show.  But I do thank them for the opportunity to let me show one of my quilts for the first time.

Busy Week

Thursday October 7, 2010

               Jennifer at the quilt show.

This week has been full of events. Jennifer and I went to the AQS quilt show in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday.  We had a great day.  Long  day but a good one.  We got there at 10:00 and stayed until they closed at 5:00.  I'm sure we could have filled another day there.  We both spent too much money and yet I'm not sure that I ended up with anything but more fabric to go in my stash. 

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Friday October 8, 2010

View of one cell.  The arched area is the toilet hole. I'm sure not a comfortable place to read a magazine.

  A view from outside the cells looking up.  There are three cell levels.

On Friday before leaving from Council Bluffs we went to the Squirrel Cage County Jail.  Very interesting place.  Scarry to think people had to spend any time in there at all.  Its claim to fame is the shape.  The cells are built in the round and each of the different cells is pie shaped with the toilet area against the back section of the cell.  The three different levels rotated by being cranked with a handle.  The jailer would turn the crank until the cell door lined up with the exterior opening so the inmated could exit the cell.  I cannot give a very good description of the jail so I would highly recommend that you google more information on it.   And if ever in downtown Council Bluffs that you pay your $7.00 and see how horrible of a place it really is. 
I tried to post a link but it ended up taking you to advertising.  Just google Squirrel Cage Jail and it takes you to an information page.

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For and ending to our trip we stopped at a quilt shop in Nebraska City, Nebraska on the way home and both bought yet more stuff.  Fabric and books.  Just can't get enough of the stuff.

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Saturday October 9, 2010.

Grace getting her face painted.

A balloon kitty for Grace.

Saturday I spent a few hours with Jesse, Victoria and Grace.  We went to an open house at P.T.M.W. which is where Victoria works.  They recently purchased the old Payless Shoes distribution center and refurbished it for their manufacturing plant.  It is a huge set of buildings.  Just never would have imagined such a large operation.  P.T.M.W. provided a meal and entertainment for the kids...face painting, balloon animals, and jumping tents.  Grace never did get bored. There were too many people to watch and too much to do.

Thanks to my family for helping me enjoy my few days off.

Design Wall September 20, 2010

I made some progress on this baby quilt.  Blocks are done I just need to put a border around it  and get it quilted.  Have had a busy week so I'll use that as an excuse for not getting done with it.  On Saturday I ended up at the Topeka Quilt Guild show with my Mom, sister Cathy, nephew Jeremy and daughter Jennifer.  It was a good show with lots of quilts to enjoy.  Jeremy was very patient with us and even had a few good comments to make.  Thanks for the outing everyone. It was nice.
Be sure to check out all the other design walls at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall September 13, 2010

I started another new project on Friday.  At this time I'm thinking this will be a baby quilt for my great-neice.  She is due to arrive in November.  Her name is Iris Lee so I wanted to put a flower pattern in her quilt. I haven't yet figured out what pattern to use as a border.  Will just have to see what it looks like when all these blocks are done.

Enjoy your Monday and check out Patchwork Times.

Nothing much new today.

I now have a design wall.  I put up a 4' x 8' piece of 2" insulation and covered it with one of my mom's old flannel sheets.  The sheet doesn't fit all the way across but in time I will get it all covered.  For now I'm just happy to have a larger area IN my sewing room to look at my progress.  On the left side are some yellow and white blocks I am trying to work out.  It is an old pattern but couldn't find one the block size I wanted so I am working on getting that figured out.  And below them are the current block of the month blocks from Quilting on the Square in Holton.  Not my favorite colors choices this year but the shop is great and the people who own the shop and the ones who work there make it worth the 50 minute car ride to get the block.

I still have way too many 4" blocks to make on my flower quilt.  But I'll just keep plugging away at it.

I just noticed that there is way too much mess shown in this picture.  A messy quilting area is a busy quilting area.  Sounds good to me.

It sure has started out a productive day.  Guess since I've been up since 5:00 it has given me more time to SEW.  So far I've made 34 blocks today.  Taking into consideration they are only 4" and that I need 360 of the little buggers I need to work harder and faster. lol  I did take time out to farm and cook.  On facebook of course.  Less time on there would sure free up more time in the sewing room.  I refuse to let myself count how many blocks I've made all together until tomorrow night.  I've been working on them for about two weeks for an hour here and there.  But do plan to spend most of this weekend putting together as many as I can.  Guess I'll see how far I have to go when I count and then post on my Design Wall Monday.  It sure gives me incentive to get something done.  That and there is absolutely NOTHING on TV.

Color combos for today include these but I'm not done quite yet.  There is still alot of today left.

And here are some blocks from last night.

Design Wall Monday August 16, 2010

This week I was able to get the panels framed to the size I wanted. Ok, I don't do math so that took me more than one try. I've made about 1/3 of the blocks needed. Best guess to date is that it will take 360 blocks. Give or take a row or two. There are several more color combinations for the 4" blocks yet to be done. But it is coming together and I can see what I was hoping for.

Be sure to see all the great design walls at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday August 9, 2010

Sorry, I've done it again. Not posted correctly on Judy's site. I WILL FIGURE THIS OUT! What a way to start a Monday.

Well another Monday is here and I'm exicted to share my latest project. Last Monday I had planned to sandwich and begin quilting on one of my already finished quilt tops. However, a panel I had seen at my local quilt shop turned my attention toward a new project altogether. I bought two of the four panels that were available. Trimmed up they each measure 20"x22". Nothing is set in stone yet but I plan to frame them to measure 24"x28" and then surround them with 4" broken dishes blocks. I am not following a pattern so the final quilt should be a surprise to all of us.

Be sure to see all of the other design walls at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday August 2, 2010

Some of you may have seen this as I posted early this morning. Evidently, there was a problem and it was deleted from the list. So I will try again. Happy quilting!

Well, I was able to get the bear paw top finished. Turned out the way I wanted. Very colorful. I am going to set it aside for a while to think about how I want to quilt it. You might have noticed that I used the same method to sash both quilts.
So now I am going to start quilting on another top. It has been done for over a year. This week I am working on the back and getting it pinned. Hate that job. But the only way to reach the end.

Be sure to see other the other Monday Design Wall posts at Patchwork Times. What a great way to get motivated.