THE SHORT LIST

Carolyn at Lakeside quilting posted a short list about projects she needs to finish in the next month or so and somehow I got hooked into making a short list also!  I don't know how that happened.

1.  Doll clothes for Abigail.  Here is the dress I made yesterday.  I also made some flannel pajamas, but they aren't quite finished yet.  Plan to make (maybe) 2 more dresses.

2.  Gail Pan's Christmas Wish BOM from 2009.  Yes, the embroidery has been finished for 3 years, so I guess it's about time to put this together.  Here are 6 of the 9 blocks auditioning the sashing fabric.  I think I can get this finished soon.  

3.  Christmas ornaments.  I finished one for Abigail and am working on Jonah's (they both get a cross stitched penguin).  Eli will get a cross stitched Santa.  The rest will be little quilt blocks in red and white.  Not sure how many I will make yet.

4.  Quilt 2 donation quilts to take to December guild meeting.

5.  Batik fish for Eli and Jonah (stuffed).

6.  Finish appliqué (machine) top for DIL.

7.  Quilt lap quilt made out of Australian fabric.

If I think up any more things to make for gifts, this list will need to be revised.

I showed parts of this doll in a previous post and now she is finished except for adding yarn hair and finishing her green apron and bonnet (I'm looking for the right color green ribbon).  Here's a picture of her before I sewed on her head.

I got her from Keepsake Quilting.  There were 3 printed panels.

I bought this chair for 75 cents at a garage sale and needed a doll to sit in it.

Miss Malinda Dalton, Born 1835 in Virginia - she works as a maid for a landowner.

Sitting by the fireplace in her Sunday dress with the moose and rocking horse.

Do you have a short list?

APQ BLOCK SWAP QUILT FINISHED!

I finally finished my APQ Block Swap quilt!  The blocks were swapped in 2010.  I'm really glad this is finished.  I only need to put the label on - I hope I can find it.  I'm sure it is here somewhere, but it's probably underneath something else!  

I quilted it on my domestic sewing machine.  The hardest part of doing the quilting myself is figuring out how I want to do the quilting.  Of course, it is done by free motion (FMQ).  At first, I was thinking about an "all over" pattern, but I didn't want to use a light colored thread in the black setting triangles and didn't want to use black thread on the rest of the quilt.  So finally, I decided on what to do in the blocks which was a kind of swirl around the seams.

Next, what to do in the sashings?  Luckily, I recently won the Free Motion Quilting book by Angela Walters.  On page 44, she has a "Swirl Scroll" that I had already used in a couple borders and it was a lot easier than it looks, so I decided to use that in the sashing.

The black setting triangles weren't a problem because I already knew I would quilt hooked feathers in it.  I think you can see them better in this blog post from a few days ago.

The inner 1" border got circle swirls, so that was easy.  Then came the HST border, and I wasn't sure what to do there, but then I just got an idea, partly from DH and partly from some of the FMQ challenge lessons that I have done this year, so I just did squiggly lines going opposite ways on the light and dark parts.

The lessons I have completed from the FMQ challenge that sewcalgal is hosting have helped me immensely, not only in the actual quilting process, but in my attitude about the quilting.  I'm glad that these experts have made me feel more free about trying things and about not being a "perfect" quilter.  I'm doing this because I love it and enjoy it and if I was a perfectionist, I don't think I would enjoy it nearly as much.  And luckily, the quilting itself isn't always really that visible and the mistakes aren't always that noticeable.  And what if someone does notice an irregular line?  Well, life is too short to worry about that.  It is a lot of work, but I'm glad that I'm doing the quilting on my own quilts.  The quilting part isn't for everyone, though and I understand that.  Your quilts will be more professional looking than mine!

What a lovely way to spend a beautiful fall day!  Driving 45 minutes away to spend a day with 2 blogger friends, that is.  Jennifer and "Love" are blogger friends that I met online originally at least 5 years ago when we were all beginning bloggers on the APQ web site.  We met for our 2nd "sew-in day" at Love's home.  She has a beautiful large sewing/sun room that is perfect for setting up 3 sewing machines to work on our projects.  I didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few:

Christmas wall hanging made by Love from a panel.

Santa Clause wall hanging made by Love, also from a panel.

Patriotic quilt top made by Love.

Patriotic quilt top made by Love.

 In case you haven't caught on yet, Love is obsessed with Christmas and Patriotic quilts!  That is an understatement!  Hee Hee!  Sorry, Love, but it's true - I'm sure you will admit it.  I can't believe how many quilts and wall hangings she has made this year.  She is something else.  Thanks so much for having us in your home!  BTW, regarding the Christmas obsession, she leaves her gorgeous Christmas Village set up in a special cabinet all year and on top of the cabinet are crystal christmas trees and crystal reindeer.  She might have put a picture of them on her blog last year or the year before.

Jennifer is a busy Mom of two and has a full time career, so I am amazed at how much she gets accomplished as well.  On our sew-in day, she was working on a customer's project for her Etsy shop.  What a cute idea!

Hand Print Tree pillow by Jennifer - in process.

I worked on a border for a donation quilt that will be for a teen aged girl in children's hospital.  Here are a few pictures of what it looks like after finishing the top.

I used all different sizes of HSTs to make pinwheels.

The pinwheels are made of HSTs left over from other projects.

Very scrappy!

Thanks for visiting!  I have been thinking about those in the northeast who have endured 2 weeks with no power.  One blogger I follow just got power yesterday.  Let's hope things improve up there soon.

AUTUMN FINALLY ARRIVES IN TEXAS

These 2 pictures were taken on my walk this morning!  Not all trees are turning colors, but these are 2 of the prettiest.  Lots of trees are still green and lots are turning yellow.

It's been about a week since I last posted, but I've been busy.  I am trying to finish quilting this quilt.  I have half of the black setting triangles left as well as the border.  I'm hoping to get it finished by the weekend.

I saw this cute penguin on Pinterest and thought it would be so cute as an ornament for Abigail, so I got started right away.  I am all finished with the stitching, except for the snowflake on the right.  I ran out of white thread!  I thought sure that I had more, but no.  Now, I need to figure out what ornaments to make for the other GKs.  I could make another penguin with boy colors for Eli or Jonah - I'll think about that.

Saturday I have a special outing that I'll tell you about next week.  

ENTERING THE BLOGGER'S QUILT FESTIVAL

I decided to enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival on the last day!  This is my Kaleidoscope quilt, a pattern by Becky Goldsmith and was originally named "Everyday Best."

A blogger friend from a block swap posted the quilt made by her mother on her blog and I commented that I really liked it.  I didn't ask her for the pattern or anything.  A week or so later, the pattern arrived in the mail.  I took one look at it and put it in a drawer - saying to myself that I would never make it!  As time went by, I would occasionally see it and really liked it, but it would go back in the drawer.

As I was getting ready to retire, we bought a camper so we could do some traveling.  I bought a Featherweight to take in the camper so I could sew in the evenings or other times when we were camping.  Getting projects to take in the camper, I realized that this quilt would be something that I could do easily with a bag of scraps and wouldn't take up a lot of space, so I started paper piecing the circles while camping.  It took a few trips to get the circles finished.  I used fabric from my stash for the whole quilt and I'm really glad I made it!

Quilted by me on my domestic sewing machine.  It measures 71" square.

There are hundreds of amazing quilts entered in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Click on the Festival box below to see them:

A NEW PURSE!

It was time to  change from my summer purse to a winter purse, but I was tired of the one I had been using for a few years.  I decided to make one and I had received a pattern a couple years ago from Barbara in a drawing.  I looked it over and decided it might make a good purse for me.

I had the pattern and I wanted to use fabric from my stash, so I started trying to find some fabric.  I picked out a piece of upholstery fabric that I either got at a garage sale or from someone in my guild - I didn't remember which.  Then I picked out some fabric that I liked - and that went with it - for the lining, pockets and handles.

Here is the outside of the bag done.  The only thing I purchased to make it was the magnetic  closure for $1.00.

Here I'm making pockets for the inside lining.

One side has a huge zippered pocket that is equal to the whole side.

Here it is finished.

View of the inside with stuff in it.

One inside section with pockets along the side. 

The two zippered sections, one is a divider for the middle.

When I got to the handles, I didn't think I would have enough of my cotton fabric to make them, but luckily I just barely had enough!  I will use one of the outer pockets for my keys and one for my cell phone.

As I was literally digging around looking for purse fabric in my sewing closet, I also found some other upholstery pieces and decided to make a couple of these little bags.  I like this for keeping just some money and a cell phone for when you don't want to carry the larger purse around.  They make nice little gifts, too.

I like these little zipper pulls that I purchased several years ago to use on little pouches.

This is the pattern I used for the little bags.

I think I'm going to really like my new purse.  It sure has plenty of pockets for different things.  I doubt I will even need all of them!  Do you make your purses?

OCTOBER FMQ CHALLENGE AND MOUNTAIN TRAIL

SewCalGal has been hosting a Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) challenge all year, so I am submitting October's entries.  Teri Lucas is the quilting expert for this month and she gave a lesson with lots of ideas.  You can find out more about Teri and the challenge by clicking on the SewCalGal link.

My first practice piece was done on muslin with wool batting.  I used a few different threads:  the dark red was Essential Pro Turkey Red 70/3 that I got from Connecting Threads;  the yellow is Isacord 40; the variegated orange/green/yellow is Signature size 40 cotton; and variegated blue is Gutermann 100% cotton 50.  I used Essential Pro in the bobbin.

For my second and final piece, I used some shiny grey fabric (don't know what it is - some kind of satin?) and the yellow Isacord thread.  I like the way the yellow shows up on the grey and I really enjoyed quilting the nautilus shells and the pebbles - it was fun!  Thanks for all the pointers, Teri!

Next, I just finished my QAL from Lori:  Mountain Trail reproduction quilt.  At first, I was thinking about hand quilting it (very briefly), but then I thought that I would like to have feathers in the rows and hand quilting them would take a lot of time (which I don't have), so I machine quilted it yesterday with feathers in the rows and in the 2 borders, I quilted a Swirl Scroll from Angela Walters book, Free -Motion Quilting.  I also used that border in a table runner that I made and found that it is quite easy.

close-up of quilted feathers

close-up of swirl scroll border

View of fabric and quilting on back.  The fabric is Jo Morton fabric that I had left from my Jo's Little Women class last year.

It's hanging in my front hall above my desk.

Do any of you have this pattern or know where to get it?  Barb is looking for it and can't find it anywhere.  If you know where to get it, please contact Barb through her blog.

Some of my storage shelves came down in my guest room, so that bed is piled with linens, fabrics, items I have bought for gifts, etc. etc.  What a mess!  Hopefully, DH can get it fixed soon.  He is at the hardware store right now.  

NEW IRONING BOARD COVER AND PINWHEELS

In my last post I told you I got some fabric to make a new ironing board cover but I didn't tell you how much I paid for it.  The fabric price was $5.99 a yard - not too bad.  With 60% off, it came to $4.19 for the piece I got and I can get 2 covers, so for one, the price is $2.10!  

A couple years ago I saw this idea on the internet, I suppose on someone's blog, but I don't remember where it was.  It gave these instructions.

1.  Cut off the casing with the string running through it to reuse on the new ironing board cover (IBC), with enough extra fabric so you can sew the new fabric onto it.

2.  Lay the old IBC on top of the new fabric and cut around it.

3.  I cut about 1/2" to 3/4" out from the edge of the old IBC.

4.  Pin the new IBC onto the extra fabric that is attached to the casing for the drawstring.

5.  Sew the new IBC onto the casing.  I used my serger, but a regular straight stitch will work just fine.

 6.  View of it after I sewed it on.

7.  Put on the ironing board.  I added two layers of batting.

Doesn't that look better?  It didn't take very long at all.

I love my old fashioned wood ironing board!

Before we went on our trip, I started gathering up extra HSTs and made pinwheels out of them.  There were all different sizes, so I sewed extra fabric on the smaller ones so they would all be the same size for a donation quilt that I'm going to make.

Oh no!  I just found some more!  They keep appearing out of nowhere!

After squaring up the HST's I put them in plastic baggies so I could use them as needed.

I'm not sure if I have enough for the donation quilt yet, but I'll try to keep working on them as I find them and hopefully can get the quilt put together before December.  My guild is planning a workshop in January where we will donate a big stack of quilts to the children's hospital in memory of our member who died this year - she was a doctor at the hospital until she got sick and she got us started making quilts for them.

Have a good week!