QUILTING!!

 I am busy quilting the future wedding quilt that measures 90" x 104" (see 1/31/2022 post).  I quilted straight lines in the ditch in several places and now I'm quilting each block in the way that I think will work.  I used an off white thread on a lot of places that need that color, then I changed to navy blue and I'm going to try to get all the areas that need that color.  I'm doing that since I'm not using an "over all" design, and that makes it harder because of the various colors and different blocks.  BTW, for those who might be new to reading this, I am quilting on my domestic Janome 6600 sewing machine.  It does have a larger area, but it's still hard to work with.

A quilt this large is difficult to maneuver!

This next picture shows how I quilted this particular block.

I have quilted the white sections of this block and will probably quilt the center and 4 corner sections with brown thread.

Any ideas for quilting the border of sawtooth stars?  I will probably use the white/offwhite thread over the stars and background, but not sure what to do.

I have been reading this book lately and am almost finished.  It's about quilts made while traveling over the Oregon trail or to take on the trip, or after arriving in Oregon.  It has pictures of the quilts and women who made them as well as something about their lives.  I highly recommend it!

Since we moved to Oregon in 2014, I have been fascinated with Oregon trail stories.  I met a quilter who is a descendant of those pioneers and they continue to have a family reunion every year,  I wonder if any of her ancestors are in this book!  Interesting that 12 of the blocks in the above quilt were from Barbara Brackman's Westering Women posts on her blog a few years ago.

Happy quilting!!

BUTTONS!

 I went to a small button show with a couple of my quilting friends.  We went to Lincoln City Cultural Center.  I have loved buttons for years and have a small collection.  I got most of them at garage and estate sales.  This is a picture of most of them.  I have another tiny cabinet with some vintage buttons and a few very pretty buttons.  I have a book on how to make jewelry with buttons, but haven't done that yet.  I'm kind of busy with quilting!

This is most of my button collection.

Here are a few of the buttons that were on display:

Acrylic buttons

Shell buttons

The Cultural Center also had a large display from Washed Ashore (washedashore.org).  Inside there were jelly fish hanging from the ceiling made from the plastics found on beaches.  Outside there were several sculptures of sea life made from the plastic junk that people had thrown into the ocean and has been collected from beaches.  Here's some of them.  I think they are doing very good work.  Check out their web site for more information.

This is about 6 feet tall.

Jelly Fish

Quilting is going on.  I basted another large quilt yesterday and am trying to decide how to quilt it.  Pictures will come at a later post.

A VERY BUSY MONTH

I can't believe I haven't posted since January 8th!  I hadn't done much sewing over the Christmas holiday so I wanted to get started and get something done.  I had this quilt in progress up until the borders needed to be added.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but finally decided to add the sawtooth stars all around.  I think I made 46 stars so that with the border added the final measurement would come to 90" x 104" for a good size queen size quilt.  I have made 5 quilts for future family wedding gifts.

Most of the blocks were started when Barbara Brackman was posting her Westering Women blocks.  I didn't make all of them, but most of the blocks in this quilt are from those, except the large center one and at least the blue and black block on the right side.  Here are a couple close up of blocks.

My next project will be to quilt this one as well as 3 other quilt tops that I finished recently.  I bought backing fabric for this quilt, but now I can't find it.  I cleaned up my sewing room for my sister to sleep in and I don't remember where I put it.  

I hope you have been doing a lot of quilting so far this year! I'm doing the best I can.  

Happy quilting in 2022 and hoping you are all well.

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY BLOGGING FRIENDS

The holidays are over now and things are gradually getting back to normal.  My sister came to visit us from the Chicago area and we had a great time together.  It snowed as we were getting home from picking her up from the airport and we had a few days of a winter wonderland!

We didn't do anything special, just talking, making puzzles, some shopping, playing games, etc.  The time went so fast, and now it's over already.  I did a little sewing while she was here, making cat blocks to turn into lap quilts.  These are such fun to make!  And I continued making them after she left.

In all, I have about 80 of them made, which is almost enough for 2 lap quilts.  

Next, I decided to put together some blocks that I have been working on for a while and I have a quilt top measuring 60" x 84".  I will add a 4" border as soon as I get some appropriate fabric.  I dug through my stash, but didn't have anything that would work.  This will be a donation quilt.  The blocks are scrappy and very easy to make.  These pictures are just sections of the quilt top.  I didn't have any place to hang it up right now.

A friend of mine made this and it looked really nice on her bed.  I hope this one will make someone happy.

And, yes, I have other ideas rolling around in my head that I want to make.  I was just looking over instructions (that I bought ages ago) for making a quilted jacket out of a sweat shirt.  I would really like to have that, but this pattern isn't exactly what I am wanting.

Then, there are some blocks that I got from 2 block exchanges and I need to make something with those.  I think I better make a list.  But at least I made a start in the new year!  

I will check to see if many of you have your lists all made by now.  Many of you are more organized than I am.  Good luck in the new year and I hope you will all have a happy and healthy 2022!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO MY DEAR QUILTING FRIENDS!

 Before I get too busy to even stop and wish my friends a Merry Little Christmas, I thought I would go ahead and do it.  So, Merry Christmas to all of you!  Whoever you are, I hope you will leave a comment!  I know I have been bad at responding to comments lately, partly because I don't get notified any more when one is made and partly because I have been so busy.

Lately, I have been making some kitty presents!  I got the idea and pattern from Katie at katiemaytoo.blogspot.com.  She made one of these super cute fishes for all of her known cat owners. And she sent me the pattern!  (Not the first time she has sent me a pattern).  Thanks, Katie!

I only have 3 cats in my extended family (My sister has 2 and DS#1 has 1), so the 3 smaller fish are for them.  I made a larger fish just to see how it would look.  The large one is 12 1/2' long.  They were a lot of fun to make and the sewing student that I have decided to make one for her cat (I had given her 3 options).  It was fun picking out fabrics to use.  The fish have some catnip in them.

I had mentioned that I was a vendor in various craft shows and that is done for the year now.  Yea!!  Actually, this is the best year that I have had so far.  Here are a few pictures from the last show.  It was held at the Yamhill Valley Heritage Center Museum which is not far from my home.

At times, the booth was filled with people looking at the items for sale!  

There was a band playing and singing Christmas songs which was very festive!  Behind the bench there is a room set up like a time in the 1800s.

I will wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year too!!!  We are thankful that we have been healthy these last couple years.  However, our youngest son and grandson have Covid now.  Our grandson is 11 and has a very mild case.  Our son is sicker, but not having any problem breathing, so please keep him in your prayers.

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!

 I have been very bad lately, but good in other ways because I have been sewing and have had a bunch of craft shows.  The last one is this weekend!  

I just finished a quilt that I had started before we left on our trip in June.  I originally was looking for an easy quilt that would use up fabrics and that I could then donate.  We went to Kansas to visit one of our sons and then on to Florida to visit another one.  My granddaughter saw me working on it as I had taken my featherweight machine along and I had taught her to make a few things.  She was 12 and will turn 13 right after Christmas.  Anyway, with her help, all the blocks were finished in Florida and when we put them down on the floor to admire, she said she would like to have the quilt when it's finished, so she will be getting it for Christmas.  Here are a few pictures of it.

It measures 70" x 90".  I took pictures of it in the house and couldn't get a good shot with the whole quilt, but you can see how it turned out.

I quilted it with fans and you can see the quilting pretty good in this picture of the backing.

I participated in a Quilt-a-Long with Lori of humblequilts.blogspot.com.  It is a small quilt based on a larger one.

I've been so busy making things to sell that I haven't done as much sewing that I want to do.  But after Christmas I plan to finish a quilt that has been in the works for quite a while.  

I now belong to two quilt guilds as a new one started up in Dayton, Oregon led by a local quilt teacher and designer, Peggy Gelbrich.  I have been a member of another guild for about 3 years and will be serving as the secretary next year.  This guild has suffered a lot during Covid and many members have dropped out.  We tried meeting via Zoom, but that didn't work out very well.  Then when weather permitted, we met in a park, but not many people came.  We hope that now that we are meeting inside, people will start returning.

The next couple weeks will be consumed with some Christmas activities, gift wrapping, cookie baking, etc.  My sister will be coming here for a week and I need to plan meals for the coming holiday.  I'm sure you all will be doing the same, so I will wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS now and hope you get all your gifts finished on time!!

FALLING LEAVES AND HALLOWEEN

 Before I get to the falling leaves and Halloween, I want you to know that I have been quilting.  In my June 30 blog of this year, I had a picture of some quilt blocks laying out on the floor.  We were in Florida at the time and my DGD (12 yo) helped me sew these blocks together.  I finally got around to adding borders and am now in the process of getting it quilted.  It will be going back to Florida for either her Christmas gift or birthday gift (Dec. 27) as she said she wanted it.  The quilt was originally a project made to use up some fabric, with large and easy blocks and would probably be a donation quilt.  I am quilting baptist fans on it and had to make a trip to the LQS to get a new pedal for my sewing machine and a marking pencil for tracing the pattern.  The pen that I had just wasn't working well enough.

Here is a picture of the quilt under the needle and I'm about half way done with the quilting.  While I was at the LQS, I planned to get more of a certain fabric for the binding, but they didn't have any.  I went back today to double check because maybe someone shelved it in a different location, but I had to get something else.

The leaves are falling fast, but the beauty speaks of God's wonderful creation.  Our next door neighbor has a large maple tree, so the we have been blessed with lots of beautiful red leaves.  I think I know what I will be doing today as there are a lot more that have fallen.

Now to the Halloween part:  Our neighbor across the street has this hanging on his garage!

Isn't this a beauty?

Our decor for the season is much less spectacular:

The  weather promises to be pleasant this weekend, so we may have a lot of trick or treaters at the door tomorrow night.  Have a good weekend!

MASKS AND QUILT-A-LONG

It's been a while again.  I have been very busy and it won't be slowing down until the end of the year.  I have several craft shows scheduled from now until a couple weeks before Christmas so a lot of my time gets used up preparing for those.  

This week I noticed that my grandson keeps wearing the same mask that I made him several months ago and when I asked him about it, it said he had lost a few.  So I decided I better make him a few more.  While I was at it, I made some other ones for DH, myself (although I don't really need more) and friends.   I noticed some plaids in the closet and thought that would be good for men.

Top one is the more dressy one and there
was also a red plaid one that he took.

Lining for the men's masks

Ladies and Girls sizes (not all finished)

Lining for the ladies/girls masks

I also got  Lori's quilt-a-long instructions for this week.  So far, I am keeping up with it.  I'm not sure how long it will continue.  Here's what I have so far.

I hope it's not too scrappy!  It's hard to know what arrangement to do when you don't know what it is going to look like when it's finished.

Now, I will be working on a quilt that my granddaughter helped me with when we visited in Florida.  She said she wants it, so I will be sending it to her for her birthday.  I'm getting ready to put the borders on and will post it soon.

Happy Fall!!

 

Some Projects Finished

I promised my grandson that I would make a "jacket" for their dog, Olaf, so here it is.

Luckily, it fits and he doesn't seem to mind having it on.

Lori, from humblequilts.blogspot.com is having a quilt-a-long with a theme of "Land that I love" and I decided to join in!  It has been a few years since I have done it I think.  The assignment for the first week was to make 24 HSTs.

This week, I just need to cut 36 2" squares - I think I can manage that! 

I decided to make another cat lap quilt and the top is basted.   

I also got the scrappy strip quilt finished - I showed you the top in my August 4 post.  This will be a donation quilt.  I had to hang it sideways or it would drag on the ground.

Thanks to all that commented on my last post.   I was having trouble with my email and nothing was coming in.  I thought I had sent some replies, but they didn't show up in "Sent" so I doubt they actually went out.   Luckily, DH figured out how to fix it and I didn't have to call Apple.

Thanks for visiting!