A DAY AT LOVE'S

Jennifer and I arrived at Love's promptly around 9:00 AM yesterday morning.  We wanted to be sure we had plenty of time for sewing.  Of course, first we had to have a morning snack.  Love had extra tables set up for us in her sun room.  It's a lovely room with large windows to her back yard which has lots of roses, birds and squirrels to watch.  We ate at the table in the sun room (behind Jennifer).

Jennifer worked on her son's halloween costume first and then proceeded to start a nine-patch baby quilt.  Actually, it was a disappearing nine patch.  A neat pattern!  She finished that top and also put together 2 halloween quilt tops for her kids.

I worked on my "Gone to Texas" quilt.  Of course, I brought my Featherweight machine to sew on.  It is so easy to carry around and sews like a dream.  Love continued to work on lap quilts for the nursing home that her church plans to give for Christmas.  She is a little camera shy, so I don't have a picture of her.

For lunch, Love had homemade soup, salad, cornbread and brownies for dessert.  We also had cookies that Jennifer brought.  I was stuffed!  Oh, and BTW, Love keeps a stock of chocolate at her house too!  I was pretty good about keeping that to a minimum.  

It amazes me that 3 women meeting by blogging, different ages and situations, get along so well.  We talked the whole day.  Quilting is a wonderful hobby!  Thanks, Love!  BTW, I didn't see one dust bunny or spider web while we were there, so I think she went to too much work cleaning for us.  

Below is the assignment from my Jo Morton Class.  I put it up on my design wall to see if I liked the fabrics and I do.  Only the nine little (3") blocks are sewn together.  It will also get a border.

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are having a great weekend.  The weather here is wonderful!  40's at night and 70's during the day.

FINISHED FALL QUILT JUST IN TIME!!

First, last Saturday's civil war block #43 is finished.  It is named the Right Hand of Friendship.

I'm a much happier camper now that I replaced the batting in the fall flannel quilt with Mountain Mist Cream Rose batting.  Also, while trying to decide how to quilt it, I went to Sally Terry's site and found my solution!  Her book "Hooked on Feathers" has been recommended and while I didn't want to do feathers on this quilt, I wanted to see if she had any tutorials on her web site.  I clicked around for a while and came to a downloadable PDF file on "Terry Twist Squares" which proved to be my answer!  It's perfect for 9-patches!  If anyone wants to see the PDF file, when you open her web site, scroll down and click on the hyperlink that says, "Take up extra fabric with stencils video" and when you get to that page, scroll down to where it says, "Click here for downloadable PDF file."  You can see what it looks like in the close up picture of some of the blocks.  It went quite fast and easy!

Saturday, Jennifer and I will be meeting at Love's home for a day of sewing!  We are really looking forward to it and I will post some pictures of our day (if I remember the camera)!  Hope you have a productive sewing weekend also!

A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

It was a lovely day in North Texas yesterday and I spent part of it at a state park with my quilting guild.  We were demonstrating the art of quilting at the Harvest Fest taking place at Penn Farm, which was the home of some of the first settlers in this area.  The historical museum people were there also with their covered wagon.

Our guild and the LQS are helping the historical society by making this quilt, which is a replica of one made around 1857.  The names of the first settlers of Cedar Hill are embroidered around the edge of the quilt.  We had it set up at the farm to demonstrate hand quilting.  It's actually the first time I have every quilted on a frame like that.  It was kind of fun!

Here's a picture of our booth.  We were also selling tickets to a raffle quilt - hanging on the right side.

I also did some hand quilting on a doll quilt I'm making for Abigail.  It's made with leftover fabric from a quilt I made my DS & DIL  I love the delicate polka dot with flowers fabric.

Last June I won a giveaway from Kathleen and I showed you the fabric.    Finally, this week, I decided I better do something with it as it is fall fabric.  I wasn't sure what to do, so I looked through some magazines.  Nothing that would work, except I did see one with large 9-patches, so I decided to do that.  I wasn't sure how big it would turn out, but I just started cutting and making 12" 9-patches.  I had 7 FQs and one yard of fabric to work with.  I was saving the yard for the border, so when I used up all the FQs (except for some leftover strips), I had 8 blocks and I needed one more to make a square lap quilt.  What to do???  Then I got some inspiration and decided to make 4 six inch strip blocks and put them in the middle for the 9th block.  One FQ went for the inner border and the yardage is for the outer border and hopefully enough for the binding.

  Then I went to JoAnn's and got some flannel for the backing.  I had it all sandwiched together and started quilting, but just wasn't happy with the batting at all (it was too thick), so I ripped out the quilting I had done (only about 12" square) and today I will put in some lighter batting that I think will work much better.

Thanks for visiting!  Have a good week!

BUSY, BUT CAN'T SHARE MUCH

I have been very busy, but can't share many pictures.  Last year I made this pumpkin pin cushion and have it sitting on a little shelf in the hall outside my sewing "studio."  

I finished the last two Civil War blocks.  This was a nice easy one.  It's an H for Hospital.  During the civil war the Hospital flag was yellow and green.

I decided to hand piece this star and it went together pretty easily.

First thing in the morning, I have been stitching strip blocks for donation quilts.  The pile on the left is for girls and the pile on the right is for boys.  I decided to concentrate on the boys blocks now, because there are never enough quilts for teen aged boys (for the hospital that we donate to).  So, I'm squeezing some of these in and will try to get one finished next month.

Happy quilting, everyone!

MANSFIELD PARK FINISHED

I never had any desire to make a basket quilt until I saw this one displayed at a booth and I bought the pattern right away.  I don't remember how long ago it was, but it took me a while to start making it.  I am very happy with it.  Monday night I took it to my guild meeting for show and tell and had very positive comments!

Sunday morning we were home and our next door neighbor came over to tell us that the tranformer behind our two houses was on fire!  We had a storm during the night and our electricity had been off for several hours, but came on about 8:30.  Then it went off again about 10:30 and that's when the neighbor came over.  If you look closely, you can see the yellow/orange flame on the top part.

The fire department came out, but they didn't do anything

You can see a little yellow on this picture.

The fire department leaving.  You might be able to see that it had been raining.  We got quite a bit, which was wonderful!  It's raining again this morning.

Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post!  It means a lot to me.

Mansfield Park Almost Finished

I started the Mansfield Park quilt over a year ago and it is almost finished!  Woo Hoo!

I'm finishing up the free motion quilting. I'm not entering it in any show.  This is my first quilt larger than a twin size where I have done the quilting myself.  Luckily, the actual quilting doesn't show up a lot because it sure isn't perfect!

I quilted it in two pieces because it would have been too big to quilt in one piece.  It measures 82" x 96".
Here it is laid out on a larger bed with the two halves lined up.

I sewed the two sections together and then placed it on a table with the top side down so I could prepare to join the back sections.

I trimmed the batting so each side would butt up against each other.

Then I folded the  backing in preparation for hand stitching it together.  I finished that and then quilted the section in the middle where the quilt was joined.  Tomorrow I'm going to bind it and I will post a picture of the whole quilt when I'm finished.  Monday night is my guild meeting, so it will be finished for that.

In my September 4 post, I told about a giveaway of a wool applique pumpkin that I won from JoAnn .  Well, Here it is finished and hanging on my china cabinet.  He's kind of prim!

His wonky smile is funny!  I don't have many fall decorations, so he can join what I do  have.

Thanks for visiting!  Enjoy your weekend.

Civil War Blocks and New Idea

This week's and last week's Civil War Blocks.  I'm all up to date!

Civil War Block #40, Order Number Eleven

Civil War Block #39, Hovering Hawks

 I saw this pincushion on someone's blog, but unfortunately, it got closed before I was able to save it.  I love ticking and have a button collection, was wondering how I could use this triangular button, so this was perfect!  I stuffed it with crushed walnut shells (I bought a bag several months ago and still have a bucket full).

I made a quilt from a panel and quilted it with cinnamon bun swirls.

 This is going to be a table runner

While I was reading blogs, I saw part of a quilt that the blogger was working on (again, I can't remember which blog - my bad) and found out it was in this book, Country Paths, by Jan Patek (which was on sale during September).  I have been looking for quite a while for a quilt with large applique and piecing in the more rustic style.

 This is the quilt that I fell in love with - Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers.  The only draw back is the size of 78" x 78", which isn't large enough for a double bed.  I would probably want to make it at least queen size.

Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers

Before I can start on this, I have at least three quilts (or more) to finish - or at least to the flimsy stage!  In the mean time, I can start looking through my stash to see if I have any fabric that I can use and what I might need to buy.

It was 52 degrees this morning!  Yea!!!

A WITCH, DOLL QUILT and 2 BAGS

While digging around in my fabric closed, I came across a panel for making a witch that I had gotten at a garage sale in the past.  Since it is almost Halloween, I decided to make it.  Here she is sitting on our TV cabinet in the living room.

I'm also making some things to sell at a craft show and I had a bunch of fabric left over from a quilt I had made with lots of HSTs already done, so I made this pinwheel doll quilt.

I quilted feathers in the border which can barely be seen, but this morning when I placed it on my ironing board in the sun, they showed up pretty good.

Today I'm going to a retirement party for two of my very good friends from work.  I decided to make them each a bag as a retirement gift.

The buttons are sewn on in the shape of Texas.  I hope they like their bags!  The pattern is named "The Texas Tote" and is from Serendipity Gifts.

MY GRANDMA'S WEDDING DRESS

When I was at my sister's in Illinois, I decided to bring my grandmother's wedding dress home with me (with my sister's and cousin's approval).  Previously, they had taken the dress to the historic village (Farming of Yesteryear) near Kiester, Minnesota for them to display at the church (Lime Creek Church) where my grandparents got married.  However, they had so many dresses, that it really wasn't going to be displayed and they didn't really want it.  It was then decided to bring it back to the family so we could keep it.  I plan to keep it for a while and will probably give it to my GD when she is able to take it.  She is 20 now and I think she will treasure it as I have.

It's a two piece dress made of satin and the fabric is in really good shape for it's age.  The neckline is somewhat frayed, but that is all.  My grandma was from a family of 13 children.  She was the second child and the oldest daughter.  My great-grandfather owned over 1,000 acres in Freeborn County, MN and also served as a member of the MN House of Representatives.

Trim on Sleeve

Collar

Trim on Shoulder

Albert and Ingeborg Monson, married July 1, 1899 at Lime Creek Church, Freeborn County, MN

Civil War Block #38, Ohio Star

Ten Minute Table Runner

I think the table runner took more than 10 minutes because of adding buttons and decorative stitching along the line under the buttons.  I made this with Moda's Countdown to Christmas fabric that I bought at the quilt shop Beth works at in Arlington Heights, IL.  She helped me pick it out.  I think I'll make some other ones with my stash!