Tuesday, December 31, 2013

New Years Eve.....New Project.....

Delivered the wedding quilt today and just couldn't resist starting a new baby quilt for my son's friend who just had a little girl named Ella.
 
Her mom said the baby's room was going to be purple, so here are the fabrics that I chose.
 
 
My plan was to do something simple and preserve the cute "life saver fabric" as much as possible, so I chose this pattern that my friend, Sharon,  had made. You can see her quilt top in my December 22nd post.   It is a quick and easy chevron....not made with half square triangles, but more like a split rail.  Here is the pattern.
 
 
 I cut the strips.
 
 
Sewed them in pairs.
 
 
Sub-cut them here.
 
 
Started laying them out here.
 
 
There's not waste here, but that really wasn't the pattern or the look that I was going for.
 
So laid them out correctly here.
 
 
There will be some waste on the outside edges, but this gives you that true chevron look.
 
Here's a close up.
 
 
To sew this together, the rows will have to be sewn diagonally.  I think I will be doing that on New Years Day, but hey....this is a pretty good start for the new year. 
 
I will be using the  little purple and white daisy fabric for the backing and I have a panto all picked out to get this all stitched up and ready to be shipped off to little Ella and her family.
 
It is exciting to get started on something new for 2014.  I am looking forward to a great year.
 
Happy New Year everyone!
 


Monday, December 30, 2013

Strings and Threads

 
That's the name I am giving the wedding quilt for my son and his wife.   Why? .....it is made up of strings and threads only (not counting the batting....lol)
 
 
It's been a long time coming.  What with issues with my long arm (shame on me for not getting to fixing that quicker), work, illnesses, broken arm, work,  baby shower and baby born to our family, wedding shower, baby,  wedding, baby......(sigh), makes me tired thinking of it all, but I sure have enjoyed that baby and the wedding was great, too.    Next year is going to be a better year for sure..  No babies being born and no more weddings in the family 
 
Anyways, you can read more about the planning of this quilt here
 
  
Here is a picture of the backing. 
 
 
Love this fabric. 
 
Here's a close up of the front and back. 
 
 
 
I did a wavy line for the quilting and I think it softens up the hard lines on the front and for the backing I think it gives a wood grain look to the trees. 
 
We will be delivering the quilt tomorrow.  So glad I could finish this off, even though it is after the wedding, I still got it done before the end of the year. 
 
Now I can start out 2014 with my pile of quilts that "aren't deadline motivated".  
 
Looking forward to the New Year! 

Sunday, December 29, 2013

96 inches to a finish



I can almost taste it. 
 
If my fingers hold out, this 97 x 96 wedding quilt will be done before the new year.  

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Prepping for the holidays.....

It's sure been busy here at our house.  Just last weekend we celebrated Jude's christening.  Yes....I got his gown down in time (three days to spare). 
 
In the meantime, I had my Christmas get together with my mini group, Nancy and Sharon.
 
Here's a look at their show-n-tell.
 
 
Nancy has been working on her yellow and brown basket quilt for some time (it's a work in progress), but she made sure she had some of them together for us so that we could really enjoy them.
 
 
She, also, brought this great green and red quilt that she just had quilted recently.  Love the quilting on this one.
 
 
Love  her whirligig quilt that she just had quilted, too.  Hope you can see the quilting on this one. It's perfect for this quilt. 
 
As for Sharon's quilts, she has this great "shirts" quilt made with men's striped shirts. Love it!! and love the quilting on it, too. 
 

 
She did this fun zig zag quilt in her gray and yellows that I didn't think she would ever cut up.
 
 
 
....and now she is working on another "shirts" quilt that will be made into some form of either a trips around the world or another zig zag quilt. We will have to wait and see how that all turns out. 
 
 
We had a great time getting together for our show-n-tell.  We exchanged some great gifts, too, and one was a promise to get together again up at the farm (Sharon's place ) to sew for a day or two.   Can't wait. 
 
I did want to share with you that I experimented on them for our luncheon and I think it was a big hit. 
 
Taco Soup. 
 
Here is the recipe I used.  It was a quick and easy crock pot meal.
 
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained.
1 can corn
1 can Great Northern Beans (white)
1 can black beans
1 can red beans
1  can diced tomatoes
1 hidden Valley Ranch packet
1 Taco seasoning packet
2 cups water
Tortilla chips
Sour cream
Shredded Cheese.
 
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in crock pot except tortilla chips and shredded cheese and sour cream.
 
**** do not drain any of the cans. Stir and cover with lid.  Cook on low 6 -8 hours. Service with tortilla chips (crumbled on soup), a dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheese.  YUM..
 
Give it a try.  I think you might like it.  You can make it as spicy or not spicy as you like.  All depends on the temperature of the taco seasoning that you use.  ]
 
Well, I need to get my final Christmas lists completed.  Hope you are ready for the big day.
Have an enjoyable day!
 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

What's been keeping me from quilting?........

I allowed my daughter to commit me to making knitting  a christening gown for my new grandson.
 
I nearly committed myself with all the problems I was having with this knitted project. 
 
I did finish it on time though.... with three days to spare
 
Front....
 
 
Back....
 
 
I lost count of how many times I ripped this project out and would have just chucked it if it wasn't for that commitment to this little guy.
 
 
and his parents.
 
Thought it was the pattern, but finally had to admit it was me.  Still don't know what I was doing wrong all those times.  I am going to blame it on all those darn yarn overs.  '
 
All-in-all though, the project turned out just fine and the day was great other than all the snow that decided to visit us last night and today. 
 
 
Now, it's back to quilting.  Hope to be posting something new soon.
 
 


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...