On to the next project

I started this one the day before yesterday and its going quicker than I thought it would. Too late for the 4th of July but we still have five months left of the 250th year so I'm saying there's still time to enjoy it. First row of untrimmed blocks and without sashing...

There's another block where the pieces are fused and cut out but they havent been fused to the background square yet - that will come tomorrow. and here's the pattern.

Thats it for now. TTYL

Let's catch up

After a period of time where I didnt seem to be getting much of anything done let alone any quilting, I finally got some mojo back. In the past couple of weeks, I have completed a medium sized lap quilt, a wall hanging and the tote bag I promised my oldest great granddaughter...and started another wall hanging.

. I haven't finished my first block of the next project. The pieces are cut and fused onto the background square but I haven't stitched them down yet. It's a patriotic wall hanging that I had hoped to have done in time for the 4th of July but I couldn't start it until I had finished the other projects so I'd have more elbow room to work on it. That's OK, I'm sure we'll be celebrating all year long. Well, it wasn't much to report/share but it proof that I'm still in the quilting world. Now, I have to go empty and reload the dishwasher...sigh. I'll try and have some more pics to share next week. Until then, take care, stay safe and quilt away with abandon. TTYL

Quick update

 I finished this quilt yesterday. That makes three quilts for the month of May. May!

I have a new backing loaded onto Mo'e but that's as far as I've gotten with it.  I need to get back to working on another UFO quilt top (Twitter) that I started back to working on last week. Lots of piecing along with a row of applique - it's going to be a little while.

OK, off to clean the inside of my fridge...Happy Quilting!

What to work on next

 I finished the two gift quilts - and both have been delivered to a parent of the little girl recipient. I have the requested photo from one but not from the other. Oops! It looks like the photo didn't get transferred from my phone to my tablet - I'll have to go look for it. Found it but it won't show here for some reason. ..and neither will the photo of the placemats and bowl cozies.

It's done!

I finished the quilt that I plan on delivering on Friday night.

 Every fabric is pink - even the background that looks white and every fabric was from my stash. 

The backing is something I've never tried but I wanted to do something simple that would use up more of the pink and it worked - I used up several pieces. 

I also attached the label before quilting by stitching it down on one of the middle blocks. My thinking was that I wanted to break up the two identical blocks that ended up one over the other. If you zoom in on the second photo you should be able to see it.

  It's a little more wrinkled than I like but I didn't want to over-quilt it and it needed to be washed and dried before I presented it. If it bothers me too much on Friday, I'll give it a quick press before I package it up.

That's it for right now...Two quilts finished in the last week...something I haven't been able to say in awhile.

Next up is making four placemats and possibly mug rugs to match for a wedding at the end of the month.

Update coming

 I'll  leave you with this little teaser

Hip hip hooray

The ballerina quilt top is done along with the label and the binding..all I have left to do on the backing is stich 90 some 5 1 /2" blocks into rows, load it all onto Moe and quilt it...I have until the 14 th to finish it do that I can present it to the little girl's dad.

This block was my 'test' block to see how it would look if I added chenille. On my first attempt, I only used one layer of the bias tape - nope, needed another layer. The tape has been sewn to the other 11 blocks but I wont brush them until after I'm done with the quilting.

 Here's the completed top. 

I'm using any pink fabric I can get 5 1/2" squares out of. I had to be a little careful because I'm pretty sure there are a couple of pieces that aren't 100% cotton and some are all cotton but thin enough to make it scarey to try especially on a quilt for a three year old little girl. As per usual, as much fabric as I used, you can't tell it by the bin -it still looks extremely full.

And....before I can quilt this one, I still need to finish the baby quilt with the ducks along the bottom....almost done but I've been putting it off because of a stiff neck and lower back pain. I just have to bite the bullet and get it done.

 I'm going to do something much simpler when I get the ballerina quilt on the frame.

That's all my news for now...I'll have to come back later and tell you about the bags I made ...and a third one that I have the fabrics for but haven't started yet. I have placemats to make before bag #3. I was hoping to make a quilt for a charity auction but I'll have to see how I feel after I make the placemats (wedding gift for a cousin).

OK, bedtime for the B's.

TTFN

Yes and No

 Yes, I did some quilting. No, I didn't finish it.

But I did make a second beautician's tote bag 

Back

Front

and I did do some stitching on Moe ( my mid arm for those who haven't heard him called by name before). I'm adding chenille stripes to the borders of the duck baby quilt. The chenille stripes  will only go on three borders and I'm thinking of using it to stitch around the ducks bodies. I don't want to deal with stops and starts around the ducks.

I also recently found some blocks that I bought the first year I went on quilt retreat up to Roscommon. There are twelve blocks with teddy bears printed on them. I embroidered on them and for some reason, put them away. 

Now that they've resurfaced, I'm determined to put them into a quilt top. Each teddy bear has some sort of accessory with it - a bow around its neck or a horn it's blowing, etc and I've decided to use my intense pencils to color in the bears and their accessories. I have the bow around the neck, the bears nose and the little butterfly who sits on bears nose colored in...I like it so far...think it's going to turn out cute. 

I'm thinking that I should put something between each block...but not dark brown which I was going to use for sashing...and I still might use it between the rows, I haven't decided yet. I just know that I'm going to audition some bright colored fabrics to see how they would work as alternate blocks.

Anyway, that's it for this week..... 

oh wait! I forgot to tell you my great granddaughter who's 19 said that she'd love for me to make her a cosmetology bag, too...and is willing to wait a couple of months while I get the baby quilt and a couple of other things done.

OK, that's it for sure this time...although I got a message from granddaughter in Georgia saying that her soon to be 7 yr old son told her that he misses his Grandma Carol and that he loves her/ me. It's been about a year and a half since we've seen each other...such a sweet boy. 

Ok... ENOUGH

goodbye for this week 

Goodnight Irene!

 

Its complete! Well, the top is anyway. Since it's a scrappy quilt, I'm going to grab some of my odds and ends of fabrics that are less than half a yard but more than a fat quarter and piece them together for the backing before I take it all down to my neighbor quilter. I want a Baptist Fan quilting design on it but I don't want to do it myself. But before I do that, I want to get the tote bag finished...

This is the front side. I'm working on the side pieces and bottom next before moving on to the back and then the lining and handles.

  I also want to work more on the baby quilt in the hopes that I can get it quilted this week. I was so busy this week that I wasn't able to work on it at all and now, I'm going to have to mark it again.

My dear friend, Barb's, funeral was yesterday. I'm doing better mentally than I thought I would, but it's still hard. I keep wanting to call her and say " let's do lunch". I did leave a message on her fb messenger...just to say that I miss her. I'm really hoping that Katie is right and Barb has found her quilting friends in Heaven and they're having a good time catching up.

And on that note I'm going to call it a night. I have a couple things to do real quick before I forget - again. 

Take care and stay warm.

Oops! Baby quilt

 Yeah... oops! After having the duck baby quilt hanging on my design wall for a couple of weeks and finally getting it loaded onto my mid arm (Mo'e), it wasn't until after I marked the border and then started stitching chenille strips to the top border ---only then did I notice that two blocks were sewn in wrong --- as in somehow I twisted each block so that they are out of order. Arghhhh! It was suggested that I applique new blocks over them but that would require fabric that I don't have - I used it up. So, I'm going to leave it as it is and try to come up with an idea using some more of the chenille strips to make it look more like a creative decision and less like a "D@#@! I've screwed up again." 

In the meantime, I'm still plugging away at the Goodnight Irene quilt top... all the blocks are sewn into rows and some rows are even sewn together. I'm hoping to have it finished by Tuesday since this is a busy week for me and Tuesday is the only day I don't have something going on outside the house. I need to get it done, though, so that I can work on the tote bag for my hairdressers coworker - I said I'd have it done by the end of the month. It won't take long; I just want to get G.I. done first. The baby quilt doesn't need to be done until the end of March so I can work on it as I feel up to it. No fancy quilting, just adding chenille strips in the borders and, I think, simple straight line stitching in the center.

That's all for this week. 

Take care and stay warm 

Successful week

 Monday - I worked a little slower due to overdoing it on Sunday but I did make the final 10 16 patch blocks for the Goodnight Irene quilt top.

Tuesday - No sewing..had to take Buddy to the groomer and run a couple of errands.

Wednesday - more cutting and piecing for the Goodnight Irene quilt. AND, wait for it - oh yeah, never mind, you've already been waiting. Here it is! 

Vintage Tin finished 

And here's the back.... route 66 themed print

OH! And I surprised the gal who does my hair with this bag I made her.

She showed it to the other stylist who was there  - she loved it, too and wanted to know if I made any to sell. I told her no, but if she was willing to pay and if I could find more of the fabrics, I'd make her one.  Hers will be the only one at the price I quoted her, though, because it barely covers the fabric and the foam stabilizer...no way it covers thread and labor. I did find the same fabrics, although I used a different white background panel because I don't like to make two exactly alike.

Thursday  - I did wait until the next day to add the label and binding on Vintage Tin...

and finished that with time left to quilt and finish (label & binding) this small lap quilt.

Wait until you see the backing I used... gorgeous!!!

Here's the backing

Well, it's more gorgeous in person. I think I've forgotten how to edit photos on this page.

After this/that, I  worked some more on the Goodnight Irene quilt top.

Friday - I tried to clear workspace while looking for my chenille it strips and brush. I finally found them in my stash room - in one of the two bins of panels waiting to be used. I had decided that I wanted to use chenille strips on the baby quilt that I loaded onto Mo'e after removing the newly quilted one but I didn't know what I had - other than black - and what I needed until I was able to find them. Once found, I knew that 36" of pink wasn't going to be enough and, while I had white, I wasnt sure it was enough - might as well order it at the same time to be sure.

Then, I realized that I didn't have the threads in the colors I wanted - unless I wanted to use cotton thread and wind my own bobbins - no thank you. I went over to Quilted Joy and found a cone of pale pink on sale and then ordered yellow prewound bobbins that I wanted. 

Hopefully, I'm set for awhile. I lucked out and found my box of crib batting while looking for the chenille strips...I was going to use leftover batting pieced together, but I'd rather not  - at least on this project.

Saturday - my quilting friend, Joyce, and I decided that we'd go to a local (1/2 hr away)  indoor craft show and to lunch...and she wanted to stop at the quilt shop, too. First, it was lunch, longer trip than it should have been because my GPS didn't verbally tell me to take the next exit (my fault, of course). Then it was off to the quilt shop and, sheerly by chance, we ran into another former quilt guild member and her two daughter in laws. It was good to see her in person, it's been almost a year since we'd seen her.

I behaved myself in the quiltshop and only spent $16+tax to purchase some black and white print fabric for a bird quilt I want to do.

Then it was on to the indoor craft show which wasn't much... four or five vendors. I spent another $3.00 buying the sweetest little rag doll.

I couldn't believe they were only asking $3 for her but the husband said that it had been in storage for several years and it needed to go to a new home...and she did! She fits perfectly in the little doll writing desk that I've had for years. 

We finished looking at the other vendor's tables and then at the gift shop that was attached to where the vendors were. I finally had to call it quits because my back/hip area was really starting to feel like it was on fire.

That brings us to today where I didnt do a whole lot beyond rest up from all that I did this week (didn't tell everything cuz it's pretty boring). I did play around with the hair stylist's panel (yes, it came already) and some of Ricky Tim's Dazzle thread. It came out well enough that I ordered a spool of gold to also use on the panel...give it a little sparkle.

After I got home yesterday, my 93 year old neighbor sent me a text message asking if she could come over - just to visit. I told her "Of course!". She seems to be having a rougher time than usual this winter..my son tries to keep her driveway cleared for her because we know she likes to get out but he doesn't come til around noon most days and she likes to do errands in the morning. She's also dealing with memory loss and it's really upsetting her...and I understand.

Anyway, she saw my partially finished Goodnight Irene quilt up on the design wall and she commented that she loved it... I think I'll give it to her for her birthday this year. She mentioned that she sleeps under the one that I made her about 12 years ago every night..it's probably time for a new one.

Ok,  it's after nine and I want to get a couple rows of knitting done tonight if my left hand will allow it. It's cramping up on me and giving me shooting pains.

Til next week....take care and stay warm.

Still waiting?

 Well, things didn't go exactly as planned...but I did finally finish the Vintage Tin quilt that was on my quilt frame for most of last year. It's not trimmed or bound yet - that's been part of my delay - trying to either find the binding already cut along with a label made up or fabric enough left over from the quilt top to make binding along with making a quilt label. No pic yet either. I've made a new label and found enough fabric to make the binding, I hope.

I'm still in the process of straightening up my work table in the hopes that I'll find the already made up binding but hope is growing dim.

In the meantime, I made this quilt top for the young(er) woman who lives across the street from me.

I didn't have anything that I thought would work for a baby quilt so went online and ordered a cute print of ducks on a yellow background. It just arrived yesterday so I haven't had time/energy to take a photo. It's been a busy weekend. I hope to get this quilt on the frame for quilting sometime this week- it won't be done this week, though.

Almost forgot that I decided that I'd take the 2 1/2" leftover squares from the baby quilt and mix them in with other blocks of the same size and work on another quilt top. Years ago, when I was still a member of the quilt guild, at one of our Saturday sewing ins, a group of us made Goodnight Irene quilt tops and then made quilts with them. While trying to organize my 'stuff', I found the pattern again and decided to use those 2 1/2" squares to make a smaller version. 

Well, it didn't go as quickly as I had thought it would. The main blocks are done but are not sewn together --and I still have to make 26 border blocks...sigh. Anyway, here's what I have so far. 

Ok, so I think I've caught up on the past two weeks in my quilting world. Other than to tell about the Art Quilt that quilting friend, Joyce and I went to yesterday afternoon. It wasn't a huge show but there was plenty to look at and a couple of artists there to tell you about their work. One was a woman who created quilted sculptures and had two on display. Because it was very crowded and an art galley, I didn't try to take photos...and most would be hard to describe.

 Carol Bryer Fallert-Gentry had an entry...Wow! Never thought I'd see one in person. I asked the young woman at the desk how they happened to have one of her quilts. She said that they put out a world wide notice asking for art quilts for their show and she contacted them! This was in WILLIAMSTON - what was a farming community when I  (and my four younger siblings) attended school there is now a community with antique shops and condos...another 'bedroom' community to East Lansing and MSU.

If you look up Loewen Art Gallery in Williamston, Mi., you can see a bit of what we saw.

Ok, time to let the B's out to potty so they can have their bedtime treat - and quit buggin' me for it lol. 

Wait for it!

 I haven't  forgotten to post...I was busy working on a baby quilt top along with other stuff - like trying to clear some workspace.

I'll be back to post hopefully tomorrow...with something I'm excited to show.

Ok, testing this out....

 Man, it's been over a year since I've posted anything so I'm going to try again. I just checked and the photos I've taken recently with my phone are also showing up on my tablet so I can share. (that's part of the reason I quit trying to blog - I had to type out the text on one device and then try to add the photos with another device - it just got too frustrating for me.)

So, I haven't done much quilt wise since before Thanksgiving...I just didn't feel like it. That has changed a bit - I think at least partly because I quit taking all my medications, both OTC and scripts. I'm still having a bit of a problem sleeping at night but it's getting better (I am still taking Tylenol pm most nights - the only way I can get to sleep some nights).

OK, on to the subject of quilting. I found a panel about hair stylists somewhere/ sometime last year and decided I'd make a wall hanging with it as a Christmas gift to my neighbor who's been doing my hair for the past year. It didn't get done before Christmas so I gave her an Amaryllis instead. Now, since I'm getting some energy back, I decided to finish it so I could give it to her.

Looking at it again, I realized that it was too big to hang by her station so I thought, well, I'll just make it a lap quilt instead. The day before yesterday I looked at it again and thought... " I'll make it into a tote bag!" and I did.

I spent the afternoon stitching and doing math...then finished it up yesterday. Wanna see it?

The last photo is the inside of the bag and each side has a pocket cut from the same panel as the sides and back of the exterior. 

Oh yeah, and the red heart is something I thought of and appliqued it on after I quilted the panel.

I'll be taking it to her at my next appointment this coming Wednesday and calling it a belated birthday gift - six weeks late :) .

Now, speaking of birthdays, my cousin who has a computerized long arm told me again last summer to pick out one of my tops and bring it, batting and backing over and she'd  quilt it for me as a birthday gift to me. She and her husband were gone a lot this fall so I didn't get it to her right away but I told her that I wasn't in a rush.

She got it back to me just before Christmas but I didn't do anything with it until today because of my lack of energy. All it needed was trimming and the binding & label made and sewn to the quilt but it was just too much work for me.

I got it done today! I LOVE IT!!!!

BQ4 by Maple Island Quilts

But before I could work on my birthday quilt, I had to finish a job one of my neighbors hired me to do.

One of her nieces apparently went down to Shipshewana and saw this quilt (bottom pic) and bought it for her aunt. My neighbor brought it to me and when I first saw it, I was gobsmacked - it is gorgeous. It looks pieced, but it isn't..it's a whole cloth print - but still gorgeous! Anyway, she wanted to hire me to make and install a sleeve on the back so that she could hang it in her home. It was going to require handstitching to attach the sleeve and I really don't like that much hand stitching ( I get bored and start taking bigger stitches) 56" x 2 sides plus the ends. But she's a sweet gal and didn't even blink twice when I said $25 for fabric and labor...yes, I might have gotten more but she's on a fixed income, too and I figured for her that was plenty. It didn't take me as long as I thought it might but I still have a very sore finger from the needle and I had to take a break overnight because my left hand kept cramping up ( all it was doing was holding the quilt, but " arthur" said "stop or else!".

So, that's it for this week. Hopefully, my tablet and phone continue to be cooperative with each other - and me so that I can get back to blogging. I've already started a baby quilt for the young gal who lives across the street from me...she's expecting a girl in April. Good time for me to check my project bins and find a cute quilt pattern with fabric, which I did! I'll have to show you later though...

Great to be back! 

Have a great - and safe - weekend.