VOTE FOR QUINTUPLET MOM

I have shown you a picture of me with the quintuplets that I was helping with and there is a "Mom" contest on the James Avery web site.  If you have a facebook account, would you go to vote for her?  You can vote once a day until the end of the month, I believe.

Here's the link, which will take you right to the picture (although you have to "like" James Avery Craftsman first if you haven't already):

   A mother's love is multiplied, never divided. 

Thank you SO much!

The photo of Carrie with the babies is adorable.  Maybe you can vote without having an account, I'm not sure.   Here's the picture that is on Facebook to vote for her.  Aren't they adorable?

Grace, Will, Seth, David, Marcie with their Mom, Carrie

APQ BLOCK SWAP QUILT AND MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

DH and I are on our way to Oregon and decided to stop at Mesa Verde National Park.  However, before we went there we stopped in Albuquerque, NM to visit Marsha of Grandma's quilts and an APQ block swapper with me and about 10 or 11 others.  Below we are holding the quilts that we made from the swap in 2010.  This was the first time that Marsha and I have met and she brought some other quilts to show me.  I also showed her the quilts that I have in the camper as well as a few projects that I brought with me to work on.  It was wonderful to meet Marsha after all this time.

Me and Marsha

 At Mesa Verde National Park we took a tour which included Cliff Palace as seen below.  We took this picture from across the canyon.  You can see the railing of the observation deck in the lower right hand of the picture.  To get down to the cliff palace, there are metal and rock steps that lead down from the top of the mesa on the left side of the buildings.

After the Park Ranger gave us a tour of the palace area, explaining how they constructed it and the information that they know about it, we had to climb up some stone steps and some ladders to get back to the top of the mesa.

DH ready to ascend the steps (our bus tour guide is sitting on the left side of the steps)

Here I am climbing the ladder to the very top.  It wasn't as bad as we thought it might be!

Here's another view of the crevice that the steps and ladders are in.

Mesa Verde is an amazing national park and we would definitely recommend it.  It preserves a spectacular reminder of the ancient culture of the Anasazi people, which is from a Navajo word sometimes translated as "the ancient foreigners."  They are now called Ancestral Puebloans.  They lived here for about 700 years until the late 1200s.  

DOLL QUILT

In my March 31 post I showed this doll bed that a friend gave to me (actually, she forced me to take it). Have you seen the foam mattress pads that have the bumps all over them?  I think it is supposed to make an uncomfortable bed comfortable.  We had an old one - it came with our first camper and we never used it.  Well, that's what I used to make the doll bed mattress.  I just cut it to size and then cut off the bumps the best that I could.  The smooth side will be up, but the uneven underside doesn't look or feel bad once the mattress cover is on.  I still haven't covered the mattress or made the sheet for it, so I thought I would show you what it looks like.

Today, I finished the quilt top that I will be using for the doll bed, so I put it on the doll bed to show you what it will look like.  I guess I forgot to take a picture of the whole quilt top - you can't see the border at all in these pictures.  I am going to hand quilt it.

Here it is with the doll on top of it.

I think I saw this idea on someone else's blog, but I am going to use this tea towel as the "top" sheet.  I really like the way it looks.

Oh, BTW, I have added a few things to my secret blog.  

MEMORABILIA AND A DONATION QUILT

I finished my display case with my maternal Grandma and Grandpa's memorabilia in it.  There is a picture of them on their wedding day, July 1, 1899, and another picture of them on their 50th wedding anniversary.  Inside the case is their wedding invitation, Grandma's buttonhole scissors, Grandpa's bank book and three items that Grandma made, including crocheted lace that had been on a pillowcase, an appliquéd butterfly quilt block and a pair of mittens.  The printed paper is the text that appeared in the Villa Park Argus in Villa Park, IL (where I grew up) regarding their 50th anniversary.  

My Grandma always was working on something, be it knitting (mittens), crocheting (potholders), tatting (around hankies) or sewing on her treadle sewing machine.  She made mittens and pajamas for her grandchildren, pillowcases trimmed with lace for wedding gifts and hankies - I suppose she gave those to ladies in and outside of the family.  I remember her making an angel food cake from scratch and beating the egg whites with a hand beater made for that purpose.

Grandpa was a carpenter and Grandma was the oldest girl of 13 children.  Both were raised on farms in Minnesota, but Grandpa didn't like farming, so they moved to Chicago where he could get work as a carpenter.  That's how my Mom and Dad met.  Both sets of my grandparents went to the same church.  My Grandpa helped my Dad build our house and then G&G lived with us while Grandpa built his own house near ours.  While he didn't like farming, he did like to have a large garden and I remember him showing me his row of "pop" corn.  I was very surprised that pop corn grew like regular corn.

I volunteered to quilt a donation quilt that someone else had pieced and I got it finished and bound in time to take it to my guild meeting on Monday.  This will be for a teenager and will be donated to Children's hospital.

I quilted it with a loop the loop and put in some dragonflies and flowers from time to time.

Have a nice weekend!

SOME PROGRESS MADE

I finished my April appliqué baskets on May 1 and expect to receive the May fabric this coming week - so, just in time!

More pictures of my "Seasons in a Row" very old UFO quilt.  I got the binding sewn on this morning and took some close up pictures.  Some of the embellishments are just placed on top to give you an idea of what it might look like.  I have some eyes for the snowmen as well as carrot noses on order.  The small black beads will be sewn on for the mouth.

January, February and March

April (bunny tales need to be sewn on) and May (buttons need to be sewn on also)

June, July, August & September - all finished

November & December - Santa's eyes need to be sewn on

Picture of the whole quilt top.  December's row doesn't show up very well,  but it will be staying that way.

This afternoon, I'm going to baste a donation quilt.  I didn't make it, but will quilt and bind it before our guild meeting on the 13th.  Last night I attended and joined the Dallas Quilter's Guild for the first time.  I decided to join so that I would be able to attend a workshop by Bonnie Hunter in September.

Working on my Oldest UFO

I have been really busy, but don't have a lot to show for it.  I spent most of last week working on my secret project.  It was very tedious, so I have taken a few days off from that.  

My oldest UFO is a pattern called "Seasons in a row."  It was a guild project more than 10 years ago and I had completed through September.  Today I worked on that project and finished the October and November rows.  I started on the December row of Santas, but then it was time to fix supper.  I want to get the top finished, but don't know when I will have time to quilt it.

Pumpkins for October and Turkeys & Corn for November

I got my Pheasant Hill table runners quilted and posted them on my Etsy site.  

16 1/2" x 38"

7 1/2" x 14"

Thanks for visiting!

PHEASANT HILL BY MODA

About a month ago I won a giveaway by Kansas Troubles quilters and I received a 5" charm pack of "Pheasant Hill" fabrics and a 2 1/2" charm pack of the same.

After searching for something to make with the charm pack, I came across this table runner pattern in my file and decided to use it for the 5" pack.  Then, what to make with a 2 1/2" charm pack.  I never had one of those before, and since I didn't use it on the table runner, I thought, what if I make a mini table runner with it?  So I did!  

Here are both of the table runners.

Large one is 38" x 17"

Mini is 15" x 7 1/2"

I have posted something in my secret blog, so if you have access you can check it out.  If you want to see what I have in my secret blog, send me an email and I will give you access.

SOME PROJECTS

I can't believe it's been 10 days since I posted!  I have been quite busy with having a garage sale last Friday & Saturday, getting the leftovers ready for the Salvation Army, etc.  It seems like every day this week I've been running around and not doing as much sewing as I want to do, but I am working on things.  

First of all, I want to thank you all for the many sweet comments that I received on my last post.  

I recently showed a new doll bed that I received from a friend.  Below are the blocks I'm making to put on the bed.  The pattern is from Kathleen Tracy's Remembering Adelia book.  I reduced the orange peel shape because I didn't want my quilt as big as hers.  I am appliquéing them onto a variety of shirtings.  The ones in the picture have not been sewn together except the lower left four.  I used the spray starch method to prepare the shapes for sewing.

I made another table runner similar to one that I sold in my Etsy shop and it is ready to be quilted (as soon as I get my sewing machine back from being serviced).

Another table runner made with Jo Morton's fabric.

I have started prepping my applique baskets for April and thanks to Joanne's suggestion, I sewed a basting stitch around the curved base on each side of the basket and it worked great to get a good smooth fold over of that part.   I also bought the template plastic that you can iron on and it is much better.

That's about it for this week.  I hope you all have a great weekend!

PS:  I have posted something on my secret blog (for those of you have access).  

CIVIL WAR QUILT FINISHED

I finished my Civil War Block of the Week Quilt from 2011 featured on Barbara Brackman's Blog.   I enjoyed making the blocks and looked forward to Saturday mornings when they would appear on Barbara's blog.  The setting I used was one that she offered as a suggested setting here.  It is the second one shown in this post and I just love it!  It took me over a year to get it finished (not counting the year to make the blocks, but here it is!

A big thank you to Barbara for her wonderful blog and for the blocks of the week and all the history included.  I really need to take my time and study it more extensively.

Center Block - Railroad Crossing

the backing

The quilt measures 95" square and it is the second very large quilt that I have quilted this year.  I'm going to be working on smaller quilts for quite a while - I hope!  Thanks for all the encouraging words!

BLOGLOVIN

I'm going to start using Bloglovin and hopefully it will transfer all the blogs I follow.  Google Reader is going away soon and I have lots of blogs on my list.  I am not happy with them as they already have changed Google Reader and it's not working like it used to.

href

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If any of you have signed up with Bloglovin, let me know how it is working for you.

I'm almost finished with my Civil War quilt.  I just have the border to quilt and the binding to put on.  I'll have it finished by Monday night's quilters guild meeting!

My quilting pattern for the pieced blocks comes from this block.

Order Number 11,  Civil War Block #40

I used this template that DH made for me to mark each block, which had to be done with a  marker for dark fabric and another marker for light fabric.  I find it very hard to quilt following a line, so my quilting has some zigs and zags in it.  

This one has a zig in it.  They probably all do, so if I stopped to rip out every one, I would never get finished.  I'm hoping that the over all effect of the quilting will draw the eyes to the good parts!  There are 52 pieced blocks in the quilt as this QAL lasted a full year and there was a block every week.

Finishing this quilt is my priority for the next few days.  Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a quilty weekend!

2 Qs: QUILTING AND QUINTUPLETS

Back here I told you about the quintuplets that I am helping with once a week.  Thursday morning when they were all up at once, I asked to have my picture taken with all five.  What a group!  Aren't they adorable?  They have grown so much since my first post about them and are so much fun.  Today, they will be going to church for the first time.  Check out the family blog for more information.

Seth, Marcie, Will, David and Gracie

This week I have been quilting my Civil War quilt and I think I'm a little over half way with it.  I decided to do feathers in the setting squares and I'm doing it without a template.  Here is how I do it using the "hooked on feathers" method from Sally Terry's book of that name.

First I use the magnifying glass to trace around for the center circle.

I quilt feathers on the inside of the circle first, which is my least favorite part.

Finished center of circle.

Finished block.

Believe it or not, doing the feathers this way is pretty easy.  I didn't believe it until I actually started doing them.  Luckily, I got lots of good tips from other bloggers with more experience.

Last week a friend of mine gave me a doll bed.  I almost didn't take it, because I had decided not to take any more, but then she said she was going to throw it away!  That got me!  So I took it, DH fixed it up - it had cracked wood and now it looks great!  Next step is to make a mattress, sheets and quilt!  I already have a doll pillow I can use with it.

Today is Easter, the day we celebrate Jesus' defeat over death and sin.  His free gift of eternal life goes to all who put their belief and trust in Him.  Happy Easter!

BTW, I posted something on Country Log Cabin Secrets.

SOME PROJECTS

I am finally getting back to quilting my Civil War quilt.  This morning I was up at 5:00 AM and got in at least an hour and a half of quilting.  Then I had to do some yard work and now I'm blogging.

DH & I went to a couple garage sales on Saturday and I saw a display case which I bought.  I had been wanting to get one to display some items from my Grandma & Grandpa.  I put a few things in it, but it isn't fixed up the way I want it yet.  The items I put in are:  butterfly block Grandma made (I have one more of these - there were only two), mittens Grandma made (I never liked the mittens because they weren't "cute" like my friends had), Grandma's buttonhole scissors, Grandpa's bank book, and the article about their 50th wedding anniversary celebration in 1949.  I want to get a copy of their wedding picture to put in as well as a better copy of their 50th anniversary picture - which my sister is going to send me.  I also have some lace that Grandma crouched and put on a pillowcase.  I plan to remove it from the pillowcase and put some of it in the display case.  

I bought one of those tiny 2 1/2" charm packs at the quilt show and sewed them together.  It's not very big, so I'm adding the embroidery on each end.  One is finished and I have the other one to do.  The two ends will be rounded.

I made this GFG lap quilt (top only) several years ago and it is on my UFO list.  I decided to make it bigger because my original idea of just adding a border didn't look right to me.  So I'm enlarging it and the border will be more hexagons made into smaller flowers.

Like these.  They will all be made with red fabric - except the one black one (I just love that fabric and don't have any more left).

Hope you are getting some sewing/quilting done this week!

THE WEEK FLEW BY

This has been a strange week for me.  First of all, I started having problems with my quilt puckering in one corner, so I started removing some of the stitches and I think I have all the stitches out that need to come out and my next step will be to rebaste that section of the quilt.  I know, Liri, if I would have basted it according to your method, I probably wouldn't be having this problem.  This is the reason I didn't.  I'm taking a quilting class on Craftsy and decided to follow the method for basting that the teacher (Cindy Needhan) recommended.  Actually, it is similar to Liri's method, except you don't baste the batting to the backing first and then baste the top to the batting/backing, you use safety pins.  I used it for the applique quilt and it was fine.  The applique quilt is larger than my civil war quilt, so I'm not sure what went wrong.  Hopefully, I can fix it and get it quilted soon!

Last Sunday I prepped the March baskets and I got them all finished by Tuesday!  It is really easy when they are prepped with spray starch!

I forgot to show this bundle of FQ shirtings that I got at the Dallas Quilt Show 2 weeks ago.  My friend, Karen, convinced me to go ahead and get it and I'm glad I did.

The rest of the week was taken up with a couple small projects that I really can't show the pictures of right now, plus working on a table runner for my Etsy shop.  Then, one day was taken up getting the carpet cleaned.  I've also been trying to get a little yard work done in the mornings.  So, that was my week.  I'm hoping for more to be accomplished this week.  Have a nice Palm Sunday!