Monday, May 25, 2009

Quilting on Memorial Day....

Finished off this baby quilt this morning as I have been under a time crunch. Actually, that was self-induced.....but then I work well under pressure. The shower is this coming Saturday and I had the center made up a few weeks ago from the charm pack that I won for the AQS online contest. I just ordered border, backing and binding fabric to match to finish it off. I marked it, layered it, quilted it and put the binding on yesterday and finished handstitching it down this morning. The fabric line is called Sweetpea and I think it looks quite retro.



After getting the last stitch in this morning and in the washer, we left for a Memorial Day parade with my daugher, her husband and the two grandkids. Here they are watching the parade.


All of a sudden my oldest grandson yelled, "the pirates are coming!!!".



Actually, it was just the fife players. LOL!

Also, thought I would share a picture of another quilt that came out of the washer this morning. It is the laptop quilt that I had made for my father-in-law before he passed away. Just this weekend we cleaned out the house, as my mother-in-law is now in an assisted living, and I took this quilt back. He was my biggest fan when it came to my quilts and I loved him dearly. So, to have this quilt back is very special to me and hopefully one day, one of my kids will love it the way I do. It's just a scrappy quilt, but he was so thrilled to think that I would make him something.



Well, I hope you all had a great Memorial Day. Thanks to all our veteran's who have done or are doing so much for us, too.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

# 2 of 4 is complete


Just finished putting the binding on the second quilt that came back from the quilter's the other day.







This was a shop hop quilt where you get a quilt block or two at each of the quilt shops that you visit. I actually sat on these blocks a little too long and by the time I got around to them, I was having more than a few problems assembling the blocks AND the setting triangles. There were a couple blocks that I miscut and ended up having to use a different fabric (some from left overs from other blocks and others scrounging at the quilt shop) to complete the block. Then when it came time to do the setting triangles both a friend of mine and I reported to the shop that came up with this layout that they shorted us fabric. We each got the extra strips that we needed of all the fabrics. Well, I don't think we were shorted, but the problem was that they had given us the strips cut at 2 1/2 (or something like that) and we were making the corners with those strip BUT we were supposed to cut them down to something like 2 or 2 1/4 which would have made a huge difference. Also, with some of the problems I was having and by the time I had gotten around to making my quilt, I was very fortunate that the shop owner had a box of scrap fabrics from her shop hops and she found all that I needed to complete the top. Lesson learned, when doing shop hops or buying quilt kits, don't wait too long to get at them in case there are problems. You might not be able to find the fabric at a later date.

Anyways, I nearly gave up on this quilt with all the frustrations and was sure I wasn't going to like it; but, all-in-all, this is probably one of my favorites. I love the red and I always like the use of black in a quilt.

This quilt measures out to be approximately 66 x 83. The batting in my quilts is almost always 100% cotton Quilter's Dream. I wanted to name this quilt, but haven't come up with a good one yet.

The next two quilts that were quilted by the machine quilter need to have the bindings put on; and I will probably try fitting in a baby quilt somewhere inbetween as the shower is coming up very quickly. So I need to keep up my momentum if I want to get these done in a timely manner. It sure does feel good to get things done and out of the way though.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Strawberry Margarita....




Finally got something totally done to show. This quilt was made with the fabric line called "Strawberries and Lemonade"and reminds me of Summer fun and a cool and refreshing Summer drink, thus the name, Strawberry Margarita.





The back was made with two color ways of the strawberries and I used what looks like a "zipper method" to put the two colors together. Also, to avoid having to do a binding on a zig zaggy edge, I added a straight border of the pink and red dots. I used the same fabric for the binding.


This quilt came about when I won a tower of fat quarters while at a retreat in St. Louis, MO in June of 2008. I will be attending this same retreat next month and wanted to have this tower made up in a quilt to show off at our next show-n-tell. The pattern is called "Merry-go-Round" and it is an American Jane pattern measuring approximately 65 x 85". I used up almost every square inch of this tower. What few scraps were left over, I hope to get a small baby quilt made.



Speaking of this quilt retreat, I have to mention that it is made up of a great bunch of gals that all came together on a chat at Alex Anderson's website. A few years ago, some of the gals starting meeting for a retreat in the "middle" of the United States. Thus the name RIM (retreat in the middle). I did not attend the first get together, but I have been to all the other ones since and have made some great friends from Maine to California. I believe I have been to four of these retreats and hope to go to many, many more.

Anyways, my "Strawberry Margarita" is the first of the four quilts that I just got back from the quilter, so you will be seeing some more quilts very soon.
Thanks for looking in! Oh....by the way Gail...did this one first for you!!! :D

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Serenaded all day long....

This was the first time in a long time that I have spent the "whole" day in my sewing room. I so needed this. It certainly put me in a happy mood, too. I have either been too busy or have been procrastinating for whatever reason or whatever my excuse is, but once I got in there and knew I had the whole day to myself, I really accomplished a lot. There won't be any pictures until I can show you a completed project, but I did get a baby quilt to the point of quilting it (it has to be done in a couple weeks for the shower), two large quilts got their bindings sewn on and are ready to have them hand stitched down, I mended the lining of a leather purse for my daughter (but I didn't think that was worthy of a picture) and I cut out a pair of "monkey" pants (lounge pants, pajama bottoms.... I have not idea where the name monkey pants came from!)

But back to the explanation of the title of this post. All day long.....and I mean ALL DAY LONG, there was what sounded like a flock of baby birds calling their mom and dad to "feed me!!!". They barely stopped to swallow whatever little goodies that were brought to them before they started calling them again. They were some hungry little guys. Anyways, I have these two birdhouses right outside my sewing room window and with all the noise that was being made, you would have thought that either my window was open or they were in the room with me. So....I had to go out and finally look to see what all the commotion was about and I wasn't sure which birdhouse all the noise was coming from. It was either of these two birdhouses.




But what do I see in the lilac tree that is right next to my window, but this little guy. He was the only baby bird out there and he was the one making all the noise. He was a cutie!


Actually, I looked at it all as being serenaded the whole time I was sewing. I didn't even turn on the TV because it was so interesting listening to him call his parents. Now mind you.... if I were that mother bird, I think he would have been driving me crazy, but all-in-all it was a good day. It's Spring, the birds are singing and I got to sew ALL DAY LONG!!!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day. I know I did. All my kids were here this morning to make me breakfast.


Oldest dear daughter made a (don't know the official name of it ) puff pastry topped with scrambled eggs and then on top of that was smoked salmon and asparagus and then topped with some kind of cheese. Mmmm...it was yummy. There was a fruit salad, too. Dear son made homemade cinnamon rolls and youngest dear daughter brought the bacon.


The kitchen was even cleaned up after all the cooking, too.


Best thing though was the strawberry that my 4 1/2 year old grandson saw and told his mom that that particular strawberry was for Mimi. He presented the most beautiful strawberry to me and was so proud to see how pleased I was to receive it. It was the shape of a heart.



A precious gift from a precious little boy.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

A day of good things.....

Yesterday I came home from work with a FedEx note on my door that they tried to make a delivery that I had to sign for, so I had to go and pick up my package at their office, since it was too late last night, I went and picked it up tonight; and this is what I had waiting for me .....






Also, got a gift for Mother's Day (just a tad early) that was a real surprise. Going to have to do a lot of setting up for this one as the laptop is a satellite (something very new to me) and has to be set up for the wireless remote AND and has a picture recognition (think I need to go fix my hair or face or both). The printer is wireless which I have been wanting for awhile.

Well, I think I will be playing for a little while, but then I have to get busy on some of those quilts that are waiting for me over there <<<<<<<

Michigan quilters, take note

  Come see us at our first Quilter's to Quilter's sale.   Don't know what that is?  Well, it will be 28 quilters/vendors selling...