UFO FINISHED!

First of all, I finished binding the Focal Point table runner designed by Joanne Kerton, and I have enough of the same fabric to make another one using aqua in place of the yellow.  I won't get to this for a while, though, because I just started making a T-shirt quilt for my grand niece.  

Focal Point table runner finished.

Test block for the T-shirt quilt.

Thank goodness for my trusty 1950 Singer Featherweight sewing machine!  My Janome was giving me problems, so I had to take it to the doctor.  

Here's my quite old UFO finish!  The pillow!  I finished the cross stitched sampler a couple years ago - or more - and I had it sitting on a shelf with the ticking fabric for quite a while.  Suddenly, I just said to myself - why not get that finished!  And it took me all of about an hour to get it done.  Why do I put these things off????

I still have a pile of T-shirts to iron interfacing on.  What fun that is!!  Better get to it.  Have a great day!

SOME PROGRESS MADE

I am happy to report that I finished Row K of my Dear Jane quilt early!  I have even gotten a start on the last 2 rows by making copies and getting the paper ready for paper piecing.  I'll see if I can get another row done and maybe finish the next 2 rows before the end of May.  I'm sorry that my picture isn't very good - the lighting in my sewing room isn't very bright and the flash won't work because it's not dark enough for that.  BTW, block K-5 is supposed to be appliqué, but I paper pieced it instead and it went so fast (its the 1st block in the second row with the 4 diamond shapes).

I got the Focal Point table runner all pieced.  I'm amazed with the design!  I can't imagine how Joanne was able to figure out how to intersect the circles and get all the pieces in the right place.  I had to rip out my piecing several times - and with the stitch set smaller, it isn't easy!  However, I persevered and got it done!  I was amazed at how good it looked.  Hee Hee!

 This morning I started quilting it and first stitched in the ditch around the white and into all the white diamond shapes.  Then I quilted feathers all around in the white space.  I'm not sure what I will do next.  I made the border more narrow than called for in case the bride and groom get the cabinet on their gift registry - so maybe this can go on top of it.

I really have to hand it to Joanne for this design!

Here's my block for the Civil War  Westering Women's sampler quilt for March.  I still need to appliqué the stem down - but don't have any brown thread!  Wow!  I better get some soon.



Have a great week and thanks for visiting!

STARTING FOCAL POINT TABLE RUNNER

Recently I posted about the Focal Point Table Runner designed by Joanne Kerton and published in the June 2016 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  Well, since then, I was checking out the wedding registry of my nephew for his wedding coming up in June and found that they are using grey as a basic color in their color scheme.  

Additionally, I found out (sadly) that The Quilted Hill Quilt Shop in Yamhill, OR is going out of business.  Since I have been there several times, I knew what fabric I wanted to buy in order to make the table runner for a wedding gift.

On my visit to the shop, I snapped a couple pictures.

Shop mascot

Darling sock monkey with quilted skirt

I thought this fabric would be perfect for the table runner.  It's "Burlap" by Dover Hill for Benartex and it comes in several colors.  As you can see, I selected the grey and yellow pattern to use and bought fabric to make 2 table runners.  One will be the wedding gift.  I'm not sure yet which one I will give them - the one with the yellow accent or the aqua accent.

This morning I was up early, so I decided to cut the pieces needed (except for the border and binding).  Yesterday I printed out the paper pieces, so I'm all ready to start!

I've been doing a lot of paper piecing with the Dear Jane quilt, so I hope this will be somewhat easy for me to follow, although the during the piecing of the blocks I will need to be very careful that I put the colors in the correct place.  Wish me luck!

DOLL QUILT EXCHANGE

 Lori of Humble Quilts is having a doll quilt exchange and I am participating this year.  As soon as I get the label on this quilt, I will be mailing it off.   It measures 16 1/4" square and is made with all civil war reproduction fabrics.  Every border is a different fabric, as are the stars.

This backing toile was a small piece of fabric that I found at an estate sale recently.

A blogging friend of mine, Joanne Kerton, has a table runner pattern published in the June, 2016 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.  Congratulations, Joanne!!  The table runner is amazing and is paper pieced.  Now that I have had a lot more practice with PPing, I think I'll give this a try, since I love to have different table runners on hand for each season.

It shows three table runners made exactly the same way, but using different color fabrics for very different looks.  I hope they aren't too hard.  Joanne has been designing quilt patterns for a while now and she has hit the big time with this one in a magazine!

Here's what the cover of the magazine looks like in case you are interested in buying it.

Another bonus for me is the article about T-shirt quilts.  I just agreed to make one for my niece - and I've never done it before.

TWO FINISHES!

This first one is a baby "play" quilt for my great nephew who was born in February.  I had the fabric on hand, so I didn't need to buy anything to get this finished.

Here's a close-up of the truck stop.  Eventually, this baby will be able to drive his toy cars on the quilt.

This next one is a UFO and I started it a few years ago when Barrister's Block had a sew-along.   I had about half of the blocks made, so it wasn't too hard to finish it.  As you can see, this is a raw edge quilt that ravels when washing.  I put it through the wash cycle 2 times,  I've never made one of these quilts before.

Here's a close-up of my quilting and the raw edges.  First, I stitched in the ditch and then added a circle around the bullseyes with a leaf shape in each corner.

I decided to quilt feathers in the borders.  After a while of just feathers, I decided to put a few fancier squiggles and it was pretty easy to do.

Thanks for visiting!

DEAR JANE REPORT FOR MARCH

I finished Row J of my Dear Jane quilt plus 2 triangles.  So, I am on track for finishing the inner blocks by the end of June.  Woo Hoo!!

Most of these blocks were pretty easy and then came J-10 with 16 appliqué leaf shapes.  Last week I watched a free program from "The Quilt Show" and in it Kim Diehl was demonstrating her method of machine appliqué.  I kept looking at the 16 leaf shapes to appliqué and I decided to machine sew them with invisible thread (like Kim does).  I figured that if she can do it, so can I.  I hope I won't be arrested by the quilt police, but all that hand needlework is hard on my hand.  

Here's J-10 in all it's machine appliqué glory!  Actually, this is the second time I did machine appliqué on a block, but the other one was only 4 tiny triangles.  Actually, paper piecing wasn't done in 1863 either, so I guess I guess it doesn't hurt to use modern techniques on appliqué.  As someone told me before, if Jane could have, she probably would have done it too!

J-10 Machine Applique

 I think J-13 is my favorite block from this row.  I really like how it looks and I love the black fabric.  My photos aren't the best because my sewing room isn't really very light even during the day.

J-13

Onward to Row K for April.  Actually, I already have the fabrics picked out and most of the blocks are paper piecing.  I'm actually getting to like PPing!!

UFO FINISHED!

I am so happy to have this UFO finished!  This was my travel project when I retired in 2009 and I started it in December on our first trip after I retired when we traveled by car to Florida.  I had my new (to me) Featherweight along and worked on these blocks in the motel at night.  The name of it is "Scrappity Do Dah" and it was a free pattern that came in a quilting magazine promotion.  It measures 88" x 98" to be a generous queen size.  

Scrappily Do Dah

Here are some close ups of different areas of the quilt so you can see some of the fabrics and the quilting.

Backing fabric has tiny buttons on it.

Another UFO is almost finished.  I started this one a few years ago when Barristers Block had a sew-a-long.  I didn't finish it then, but this year she had another SAL, so I got it out and now I'm quilting it.  It's a Bullseye quilt with raw edges that will fray after I wash it, which I will do after I'm done quilting and binding it.  I'm about half way finished with the quilting.  First I stitched in the ditches and now I'm quilting around the circle (bulls eye) and adding a leaf shape in the corners.  I think that will be enough quilting.  I might quilt feathers in the border.

I'm almost finished with this table runner that I'm making for my Etsy shop.  I just need to sew the binding to the back.  

I bought the backing fabric a toile with birds on it while on a shop hop a few weeks ago in Grandma's Quilt Shop located in Dallas, Oregon.  It's a small town about 20 miles from where I live now.

A week ago I got lucky at an estate sale where there was literally tons of fabric, quilt kits, cross stitch kits and yarn for sale.  I purchased a bunch of fabric for $1/yard as well as kits that I am listing in my Etsy shop.  I'm still not finished listing items from this sale.

Happy quilting!

ISSUES AND TAXES

I'll get the frustrations out of the way first.  I've had issues with my IMac for several months and have talked to Apple support quite a few times.  They have reconfigured my computer, but not everything was fixed and I kept putting off calling them again because it always takes forever.  Well, yesterday I finally forced myself to call them and it looks like things are just about fixed.  It wasn't that I couldn't use the computer, but one of my most important genealogy files was missing (its found now!) and some photos are still missing.  So tomorrow one of the senior agents is going to call me back and hopefully get that fixed.

The other frustration was just getting all my income tax stuff put together and that is almost finished, so I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  Yea!

Here's the civil war Westering Women's block from Barbara Brackman's Civil war blog for February. It was a very easy block.  I'm planning to make all the blocks red, white and blue.

I found this doll bed at an antique shop and couldn't resist it.  DH is going to fix it up and either refinish or paint it.  I came across the green stripe at a quilt show vendor's booth and thought it would be perfect to cover the mattress.  I plan to make a quilt for it and a pillow and will sell it, hopefully, next December.

Now that my "issues" are almost resolved, I think I'll work on my Dear Jane blocks for March!

Spring is almost here!

RETREAT ON THE COAST

Last Friday I went on a retreat with my church to Lincoln City, Oregon on the Pacific Coast.  On the way there, we stopped for lunch at the Otis Cafe, in Otis, OR.  It's a tiny "hole in the wall" place that has become quite famous for their delicious and generous meals.  We stuffed ourselves with yummy food and continued on to the retreat.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty nice day and we were able to get out to walk on the beach for a little while.  The ocean waves are so amazing to me - a girl who grew up in the mid-west.  During our song fest times we could look out the window at the ocean and the words of one of the songs we sang were very meaningful:

Filled with wonder,

Awestruck wonder,

At the mention of Your Name.

Jesus, Your Name is power.

Clothed in rainbows of living color,

Flashes of lightning,

Rolls of thunder.

Me on the beach

This is the house I stayed in and there was another one just like it, plus a small house.  I think there were 60 women all together, some coming just for Saturday.  We live about an hour from the coast.

I've been busy since I came home.  One thing I've been doing is making a cape for my grandson, who is in 2nd grade.  He needs to dress up like the Pronoun super hero.  My part is to make the orange cape.  It's almost finished, so I can get it in the mail later today.  They didn't have any "fun" methods to teach grammar when I was in school.  Here's the link to the grammar site if you are interested.

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Have a great weekend.

TWO FINISHES!

I had a little spare time, so I put together a small donation quilt with some squares that were available at my quilters' guild.  I decided not to put batting inside it because I used flannel for the backing and thought this would be a good summer quilt.

I also took the easy way out and turned it instead of binding it.  Then I quilted with Xs across the blocks and used a fancy stitch for the edges.  It didn't take too long and I hope someone will like it.

Here's my finished brown/pink basket wall hanging measuring at 38" wide x 48" long.

Close up of some blocks so you can see the quilting better.

The sashing was quilted with a very easy stitch which you can see in the pink between the brown triangles.

I'm going to hang this at a memory care facility that has asked our guild to loan quilts to help decorate the walls in their new facility.  We will go their after our next meeting and take some wall hangings for them, which we will leave for as long or as short a time as we wish.

Friday I'm going on a weekend retreat for the ladies at my church.  We're going to Lincoln City, OR on the beautiful Pacific coast.  It will probably rain a lot, but hopefully we can get out to walk on the beach a little.  I'll take a few pictures to post.  

E PLURIBUS UNUM

E PLURIBUS UNUM  is quilted, bound and labeled.  It measures 28" x 35" and I made it to fit on my hanging quilt rack.

I also finished Row I of Dear Jane for February!  I think setting the goal is really helping me get this going.  Some of the blocks were super easy and others had around 40 tiny pieces and they were paper pieced of course.  Actually, every block was paper pieced except 5, 6 and 11.  Number 7 was paper pieced and then had a teeny tiny triangle on each side.  I cheated by using fusible web and machine appliquéd those because I had read comments by other women that just couldn't get them straight.  

I'm on a roll!  Thanks for visiting!

SHOP HOP AND FABRIC SHOPPING THOUGHTS

I just finished quilting this UFO, which has been hanging in my closet for several years.  Today I sewed on the binding and moved it into the living room so I can hand sew it to the back while watching TV.

I'm so glad to have this almost finished.  A friend of mine bought me the pattern after she saw me admiring the made up sample in a quilt shop.

I stitched in the ditch first, then quilted feathers in the brown setting triangles.  Once it is totally done I'll take a better picture of the quilting so you can see how I quilted each section.

A friend and I went to 8 shops on the "Snowflakes and Stitches Shop Hop" - 6 of them on Monday.  Below you can see my purchases.  I bought more than I had been planning on buying - surprise, surprise!  I have some projects in mind.

When shopping, I always look for the "scrap bin" that some quilt shops have to see if I can get some scraps that I can use.  I didn't take a picture of them, but Grandma's Attic in Dallas, OR had one and you can fill a plastic bag with as much fabric as you can squeeze in for $4.99.   I debated doing it, but decided to see if there was enough fabric I liked to make it worth while.   I starting wondering how much fabric you actually got for that amount of money.  One of the other shops in the shop hop is our local quilt shop, Boersma's Sewing Center and they have a little chest of drawers with scraps in them - those scraps cost 50⍧ per ounce.  I wondered if that was a better deal than a baggie for $4.99.

So when I got home, I decided to weigh some fabric to see how much one yard weighs.  I weighed 4 fat quarters and they weighed 4 1/4 oz.  One yard of a different fabric weighed 6 oz.  So, I kind of averaged it out and figured that 5 oz. is about what one yard of cotton fabric weighs.  So, I weighed the baggie from Grandma's Attic and it weighed 11 oz.  That means that I got approximately 2 yards of fabric for $4.99.  If I bought $5 worth of scraps from Boersmas, which would be 10 oz, I would get approximately 2 yards.   So, I think that price is pretty good.

Am I the only nutty quilter who loves to dig through the scrap bins?  Please don't tell me that I am!

And, oh, BTW, my friend and I both agreed that the best shops we went to were Boersma's Sewing Center, Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, Grandma's Attic, and The Quilted Hill.