CRAFT/QUILT SHOW AND STRING REPORT

Last weekend and this coming weekend, I was (and will be) busy selling things at the Great Oregon Steam-Up at the Powerland Heritage Park in Brooks, Oregon.  Part of our booth is pictured below and it is located in the Pacific Northwest Truck Museum.

The Steam-up event has been going on for 49 years and appeals mostly to men interested in antique steam operated equipment.  There are 14 museums including a John Deere Museum, Car Museum, Caterpillar Museum, Fire Truck Museum, etc.  People come from all over the USA for this.  Several years ago, a quilt show was started to have something that would interest the women who had accompanied their hubbies.  

Here are a couple of the quilts that are in the show.  I really like this house quilt and might add it to my long list of quilts that I would like to make some day!

This one is an antique quilt - about 100 years old.

To get to the museum, which is about 30 miles from home, we have to cross the Willamette River and we cross it by taking a ferry.  Here are a couple pictures of the details of taking the ferry.

Look close to see the prices they charge

For my string report, Here is what I have done so far on the spider quilt.  I didn't get very far this month.

I think I completed a total of 4 blocks, 2 of which are below.

We have had a lovely summer so far.  Hopefully, August will be nice as well.  It is usually the hottest month and we haven't reached 90º yet, which we like.  

MACHINE FIXED!!

Monday I decided to go to the LQS to see if they were finished fixing my sewing machine (because I am aware they they don't always call very soon after they are finished with the repairs).  Yea!!  It was done and it is working great!  

The first thing I knew I needed to do was quilt a couple table runners.  I had seen a quilt at the LQS that had wavy lines sewn close together and decided to try it.    I like the way it looks, but it takes a long time to fill in the whole table runner - about 48" long.

I also quilted this patriotic Ohio Star table runner.

On my design wall is this "Cinderella Pumpkins" designed by Karen Walker at chezstitches.blogspot.com that will be a wall hanging.  I got some work on it when I was using my Featherweight to do piecing while my Janome was in the shop.

 I also made a couple blocks for this quilt "Pineapple Nine Patch" which is in the book Geometric Gems by Cathy Wierzbicki.  It's back in it's box now for a while.

Have a great weekend!

THIS AND THAT!

Some frustrations last week and I had to take my Janome to get worked on.  I hope I get it back soon. Luckily, I have a Featherweight, so I'm able to sew, however, I really need to QUILT!  And I use my Janome 6600 for that.  I have 5 things basted right now - small things, but still.

Here is my Featherweight.  As you can see my sewing table overlooks the back yard and the shed back there.  Last week I was sitting at the sewing machine and heard a noise.

I looked out the window just as a huge branch from the maple tree next door fell down into our yard.  Luckily (again), our neighbor cleaned it up (with some help from DH) since it is his tree.

 After finishing American Crossroads (here), I thought I better see what large project to work on next.  So I got out my Moda Blockheads blocks (from 2017) to see what I have.  I put them all up on my design wall and here they are.  I have 53 of them.  Some of them I skipped (just a few) and others I liked a lot so I decided to make 2 (or 3 or 4) of them (usually because they were easy ones).  And, because I want to make a queen size quilt out of them.

This quilt below, Patchwork Barn, was made by my quilt guild to raffle off with the benefits going to the Yamhill County Heritage Museum.  I donated a few of my blockhead blocks for it.  I do love this quilt -  it was designed by Edyta Sitar.  I am thinking I would like to make this quilt with my blocks.  I might not have enough so I may need to make more.  But I could also make the column spacers wider or add some solid squares in the columns.  I will figure out something.

Lots of people add photos of local wildlife to their blog posts, so here is my most recent photo, taken yesterday on my walk.  This snail was crossing the street, very slowly.  He's about 3" long.  I was going to add a photo of some deer, but I've done that before and couldn't find my most recent photo.

My DS#1 has a new toy - at least it looks like one.  It's a one seat airplane.  Yesterday he flew over our house with it!  Don't worry, he wasn't very low - in fact he was so high I could barely see it.  Also, he is a pilot for FedEx and very experienced.

That's about it for today.  I'm hoping to get my Janome back soon so I can get some quilting done. 

Thanks for visiting! 

AN OLD UFO FINISHED!

While I was finishing American Crossroads for the guild challenge, it dawned on me that I might have time to finish a real old UFO.  I embroidered these blocks over 10 years ago, beginning in March 2009.  The blocks are by Willowberry Designs.

Here it is finished, binding and all including a label.  I think it will go to my DIL who raises chicken and loves to garden.

Are you ready for Independence Day!  I have a few patriotic things and decided to hang my "E Pluribis Unum" wall hanging outside in my entrance way this year.

Happy 4th of July!!

JUNE STRING REPORT

I didn't get a lot done with strings, but here is my report for June on my Spider Web quilt top.  The first picture shows some from last month with the darker tan.  I ran out of that, so now I'm using a lighter beige color (which I will also run out of soon).  I'm following Bonnie Hunter's instructions here for making the blocks and I'm using pages from an old Medicare book for the papers.

After the beige "kite" is stuck onto the triangle with a tiny bit of glue, I start sewing strips to each side.  The following picture shows the back of the triangle with the random strips sticking out around the sides.

Here's what it looks like from the front before trimming.

And here's what it looks like after trimming!  A lot better, huh?

Here are my finished triangles for this month.  Not very many.

Well, actually, I had already sewn a few together and put them next to the "quilt top."  You can tell which ones are from this month by the lighter color.

Now that I have run out of the two solid tan & beige fabrics, I have some light colored brown that I might use.  I'm trying to use up fabric, right?  So I don't want to buy more of the solid.  I'll check (dig around in) my sewing closet to see if I can find any more brownish/tanish solids that would look good with it.  

Happy July!!

UFO FINISHED - AMERICAN CROSSROADS

I saw the American Crossroads quilt about 10 years ago and decided I wanted to make it.  It was published in the Fall/Winter 2005 Quilt Sampler magazine.  I didn't start it until 2016 and finally finished the top in January of this year.

I basted it (as you can see below) earlier this month.

I spent about 11 1/4 hours quilting it on my Janome 6600 sewing machine and  finished it last week.  My clothes line isn't high enough for it not to hang on the ground. The quilt measures about 100" x 90".

Here are some close up pictures showing that most of the fabrics are civil war reproduction fabrics. 

This picture shows the quilting best.  First I stitched in the ditch of all the blocks and then I quilted a flower shape on top of each 4-patch.  In the border I quilted "Swirl Scroll" from Angela Walters "Free Motion Quilting" book.

Today I also started working on another UFO, a small quilt with embroidered blocks - I'll show this one in another post.  It's feeling good to get some of these old UFOs finished!

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?

 It seems like I have been so busy lately, between sewing a lot and just living.  Last week I had to have oral surgery done for the second time on the same tooth root.  I don't think I did much sewing for a couple days.  I had to return to the dentist the next day (in Salem) and was feeling pretty good, so I went to the thrift shop that is right across the street from the dentist's office.

I saw a doll cradle there for just $5.00 and with Wednesday's 25% discount for senior citizens, it only cost me $3.75.  It didn't come with a mattress, pillow or quilt though, so I had to make those.  Apparently, a lady that lives somewhere on the coast decorated this vintage doll bed by pasting fabric flowers onto it.  She made a lot of other items that were decorated the same way and donated to the shop.  (The thrift store supports a cat shelter).

When "shop hopping" a couple weeks ago I saw this John Deere fabric and bought one yard and one yard of the yellow fabric.  In July, I am a vendor at the Great Oregon Steam-Up held at Powerland Heritage Park.  At the park is a John Deere Museum, so I thought I would make at least a table runner pertaining to that.

Also made an apron.

This doll outfit was a panel of fabric.  It fits an 18" doll.

Thanks for visiting!  What's going on with you?  BTW, the weather has been perfect here!  Today it's 68º!!

MAY STRING REPORT

This month I started a new string project since I had finished a string quilt last month and donated it.  I had thought about making a spider quilt for quite a while and this seemed the perfect time to get one started.  I went to Bonnie Hunter's web site and scrolled down the free patterns page to Spider Quilt.  I followed her instructions and got started.  Below is my second batch of 20 triangles.  Each one is half a block and it takes 4 blocks to get a spider web.

Here is what I have done so far.  The first 6 blocks are sewn together on the top left and the 20 triangles are just placed on the design wall to see how it will look.  I have used up the solid brown fabric that I had and will next begin to use some other tans and brown pieces for the "kite" sections.

For Memorial Day, I hung up my E Pluribus Unum wall hanging that I made a couple years ago.  The center block is something that I picked up at a garage sale and I have 2 more of them.  I used bow tie blocks from a block exchange for the setting.  This is one of my favorite wall hangings.  The quilt rack was made by DS#3/DIL as a Christmas gift about 10 years ago and it is perfect for displaying quilts.  I like to have different wall hangings to display for different times of the year.  I want to make a fall quilt to hang on it next - one of these days!  It hangs just inside our front door and there is a vintage chair to the left with a doll quilt (from one of Lori's doll quilt exchanges) hanging on it.  Under the wall hanging you can see a little of some felted wool flowers (another garage sale purchase) sitting on a tea cart.

Thanks to those who made suggestions regarding the problem of my comments not posting.  I am still thinking about what to do about it - if there is anything that I can do.  I may try a couple suggestions to see if they will work.