Some Christmas quilting done

 It's been a while again!   But I've been busy sewing Christmas items.  Even though I haven't been vending much this year, I decided to participate in a craft show over last weekend, however, when we went to set up our booth, we found out that it had been cancelled, so we went back home (to our advantage, it was only about 2 miles from our homes).  Since that was cancelled, we decided to join in on a Christmas Faire in Dayton, OR that we did last year.  It will take place the second weekend in November.

Here are a few of the items that I have made:

Christmas lap quilt

Table Runner

Table Runner

These deer are in front of the house next door to our house.

This poor deer was all alone (except for the neighborhood kitty on our neighbors car).  The deer didn't look very healthy and wasn't with a

 group of friends or family.  I felt sorry for him (or her?).

We have been having lovely weather here, cool at night and pleasant during the day.  The leaves are changing and it will probably start raining soon.  Hope you are enjoying your changing weather too.

Basting: Not my favorite job!

I've been super busy lately.  One of the things keeping me busy is basting my Trail Mix quilt.  I had a few smaller items to baste first and then I had to force myself to baste Trail Mix.  Yes, force!  Here is a picture of one section of it on the table I use to do the basting.   I'm not sure when it will get quilted.

I place the backing, batting and top so that the center lines up with the pins taped on the table.  I have large safety pins (closed) taped on each end of the table and one in the middle so I can feel them through the fabrics to make sure the quilt layers are right in the center.  I learned this method from Cindy Needham on Craftsy.  Once the section on the table is all pinned, I pull the quilt one way and continue pinning, then pull it again making sure that the batting and backing are nice and flat, then pin that section, until I'm finished.  I works quite well, even though I don't enjoy it.

My quilt guild has a "circle" for scrappy quilts and one month we were supposed to bring orphan blocks so they could put them together for a donation quilt.  The left-overs were distributed so we could make a smaller quilt at home and bring it to the september meeting for donation.  I came home with a bunch of small blocks and added some when needed.  This is what I came up with.  It's a small quilt for a child.

I'm also continuing to work on Christmas projects.  I plan to try to take more time to continue working on my Dad's life story.  I have most of it typed up, but need to integrate more stories from some different tapes that he made.  He had lots to tell and it has been fun to listen to him telling about his life growing up in Chicago.

I had a garage sale with my 2 walking buddies (neighbors) yesterday and today.  I got rid of some stuff to make more room in the garage and shed.  It's a relief!  It was real hot yesterday and from now on the weather will be cooling off day by day.  I saw something about the Harvest Sun is supposed to appear much larger than usual this month,  I think around Sept 18?  (not sure of the exact date).  I do enjoy the fall season.

Thanks for visiting!

 

Quilt Top Finished

 This quilt top was worked on all last year, mostly at craft shows.  I decided it would save time to take a sewing machine (my Featherweight) and get some sewing done during breaks in selling to customers.  And there were a lot of breaks.  People would show interest in the sewing machine, but I don't really think it helped me sell more items.  Anyway, the pattern is "Trail Mix" designed by Mabeth Oxenreider.  I was always drawn to scrappy quilts, especially ones that had the "lines" like this one has.  

The pattern is in  "Scrap-Lovers' Quilts" published by Better Homes and Gardens.  I've had the book for a long time and finally got around to making it.  As you can see, there is a lot of sewing involved!  It measures approximately 77" x 115".  I need to get the quilting done in time for a guild meeting in September because we are having a UFO challenge and it was picked from my list.  I just finished putting the borders on.  It is too big for my design wall, so it is folded in half.

I plan to get it basted next week along with a couple small donation quilts.  Basting large ones like this is not my favorite activity! 

Thanks for visiting and happy quilting!

County Fair Ribbons

 The Yamhill County Fair was last week and I entered some quilts and won 3 blue ribbons.  Two of them were for baby quilts, Half and Half designed by our blogging friend, Joanne Kerton (Canuck Quilter) and a Peter Rabbit quilt from a book about Beatrix Potter.

 One ribbon was for this doll, Mary Pickford Hill Colonial Doll, pattern from Etsy.  The reason I could enter 2 baby quilts is that the Peter Rabbit quilt has hand embroidery, and therefore is in a different category.

I live in Yamhill County and this fair is the oldest one in the state of Oregon.  In the mean time, I have been working on some Christmas table runners and lap quilts that have finished tops.  And I am working on the Double Duty quilt (pattern from the American Patchwork & Quilting, October 2017 magazine).  I'm not sure how big I will make it, but it is fun to piece.  I have tons of 2 1/2" squares cut to make this.

My pictures aren't very big because I couldn't get the pictures to load the regular way, so I had to drag them onto the blog and couldn't make them any bigger.

I had a birthday and went shopping at my favorite quilt shop, Boersma's, which is only a mile from my house!  They give 25% off any regular priced items for your birthday, so I spent some $$ there.  It is always fun.  It doesn't look like a lot though.  Remember when fabric was $1.00 per yard?  If not, you are too young.  I am OLD!!

Soon the weather will be changing and that usually happens around September 1 here and the rains start.  We don't get much rain in the summer (if any).  We are tired of the heat and looking forward to fall.  Where does the time go?  It goes too fast now it seems.

Happy quilting!

Happy Independence Day!

 This is a special day for us because one of our sons was born on the 4th of July - quite a few years ago - not telling you how many!  We wish we could see him today, but he lives in Florida and we live in Oregon.  We hope to be able to go there soon.

I have a few patriotic quilts hanging and took pictures to show you.

I've also been doing a lot of sewing lately.  I finally finished this baby quilt - the pattern is in a book about Beatrix Potter. I think I showed it before, but it wasn't finished then.  I just finished doing some more quilting in each hexagon this morning and I'm happy that it is finished.

Another project was for a wedding gift for a relative and I made these table runners from a set of fat quarters.  The one on the left was mailed for the wedding and the one on the right might be entered in the county fair at the end of the month.  I also have almost enough blocks for a donation quilt (only 5 more to go), am almost finished with a "Trail Mix" quilt which is very scrappy and big and at least 2 other quilts started.  How come there is only 24 hours in a day?

I used to do a lot of cross stitching and when I got involved in quilting, I didn't do much, but I recently got the urge and I made these 2 small designs.  I might order 2 more from this designer.

The last cross stitching project that I had been working on before getting side tracked in quilting is below.  I didn't finish it and when I decided to do more stitching, I looked for it - everywhere I could think of.  I finally found it with the pattern and all the floss just waiting for me to work on it again.  I haven't done anything with it yet, but would like to finish it.  It is the second one by the same designer that I did and both of them have quilts in them.  At that time, before I started actually making quilts, I was already obsessed with them.

This is what it will look like when finished.

Last Sunday the Hubby and I went out to eat on the roof top of a local hotel.  It was such a beautiful day and the scenery was gorgeous.  We live about 1 1/2 Miles from the hotel.

We had to wear our sunglasses even though it was cloudy.

I just had to take a picture of the horse and carriage.  I asked the owner how much he charged for a ride and he said he will take a donation!  I was pretty surprised and would like to have a ride in it some day.  

I hope your summer isn't too hot.  We are supposed to get into the upper 90's this weekend.  I'm not too happy with that.  Thanks for visiting!

FINISHED MYSTERY QUILT

 I finally got around to quilting the mystery quilt.  As usual, deciding how I'm going to quilt it is not easy.  So I did what I usually do, I started by doing some stitch in the ditch around the main middle portion.  Then, by the time I finished that, and since the blocks are rather unique, I eventually got an idea and decided to just go for it.  I started by sewing a curvy line down the seam that divides the block from one corner to the opposing corner and I continued without stopping to make some loops along the edges and making swirls inside the squares.  I put 3 curvy lines in the inner border and in the outer border I quilted my favorite border filler, from Angela Walters "Free-Motion Quilting" book, called the Swirl Scroll.  I have used this design in lots of quilts and it is a lot easier than it looks.  

Here is how the back looks.

Here is a close up on one block so you can see how I quilted it.  I always have trouble when I have square blocks in a quilt because I usually don't want to do an "over all" design and then I end up doing each block by itself. 

How do other quilters figure out what to do?  

I love the way the professional quilters can do gorgeous, perfect designs and would love to be able to quilt that good, but it just isn't possible and I am happy that I can do my own quilting and not have to pay for someone else to do it.

One of the quilting guilds that I belong to is doing a block of the month from Minick & Simpson, called Blue Pear Block of the Month.  At first I wasn't planning to participate, but when I saw some of the blocks at the last meeting, I changed my mind and I made the first 2 blocks.  If you are familiar with that quilt, don't be too critical regarding the way I put my blocks together.  I did them the way I liked them, or regarding the block on the left, I ran out of the fabric and had to substitute the with a different navy.

What are you working on?

Mystery Quilt Display

 I just finished the top of the Mystery Quilt.  Here is a picture of it.  Since I was on a trip (more details below) I didn't really complete each step as it was given and until I saw the final picture, I just couldn't imagine what it was going to look like.  It really was a mystery!

The next step, of course, will be to find a backing fabric and then quilt and bind it.

I recently took a trip to visit my sister near Chicago and from there I went to Kansas City, KS to visit our youngest son and his family.  My husband joined me there and we had a wonderful time with our 2 grandsons, ages 13 and 15.  They are such sweet and loving boys!  The dog, Olaf, thinks I'm his grandmother too!

One night we were all watching a movie in our PJs and Olaf squeezed into my chair with me.   

Of course he had to be able to watch the movie too!  The family is so busy and one day I ran a errand for them.  As I was just ready to go home, I caught the word "quilts" out of the corner of my eye and thinking quickly, I turned into the shopping center to look for a quilt shop.  I found it and saw they were having a "going out of business" sale!!!  All fabrics were 40 - 45% off!!  This is what I purchased.  Some of the pieces are large enough to use for backings, but I don't yet know how I will use them.  See them below.

I didn't get the Christmas fabric there, but saw it in another town and decided to get it because I had never seen it before and I really liked it!

When we returned to McMinnville, this beautiful sight greeted us!

Happy quilting this spring!

iPad Cover

I recently purchased an iPad and realized that I would need a case to keep it in when carrying it out and about.  I looked on Etsy for a pattern to use and found one at the Napkitten Pattern Etsy site.  I was rather intimidated when I saw that there were 27 pages of instructions!  I dug out some fabric from my stash and had enough fabric and elastic.  The only thing I had to purchase was one yard of heavy duty iron on interfacing.  I followed the directions carefully and after 1 1/2 days it was finished.

I was finally able to use this piece of vintage upholstery fabric that I had purchased at a garage sale years ago.  I also had the red fabric and gold fabric that I used.

It can stand up for watching a program on it or following a recipe in the kitchen.

 I was pretty proud of myself after getting this finished!   

My quilt guild has a UFO challenge and we had to make a list of 5 items that need finishing.  Then at the meeting, there was a drawing and number 3 was picked, meaning that we have until our May meeting to finish it.  The one that was #3 is a baby quilt that I am almost finished with, so I won't have any problem finishing it on time.  If you look at my March 3 post and scroll down to see what is on my design wall, the baby quilt is hanging on the right side.  It looks like it is finished, but the hexes need to be all sewn together by hand.  Most of them are sewn together already and there are five or six left.

We have had a few gorgeous days here in Oregon and have really enjoyed it.  The trees are blooming and the daffodils have been out for a few weeks.

Happy Spring!

Two Beautiful Quilts from the Quilt Show and More

It has taken me a while to finish getting all the pictures of quilts added to my blog.  This one is one of the best quilts in the show.

Another beauty!

I'm sorry it took so long for me to get these quilt pictures added.  Next I took a picture of my design wall which is behind my chair. 

 On the left is a quilt top that I put together from a panel that I bought at the quilt show.  The sashing and borders are from my stash - valentine fabrics that I have had for years and was thinking of giving away, but glad that I didn't.  To the right of that top is a baby quilt that I have had in the works for a few years and have neglected it a lot.  It is on my UFO list and I decided to work on it and now it is almost finished!

Canuck Quilter is having a Two Color Mystery Quilt-Along and I signed up for it.  Then I kind of forgot about it, so I am a little bit behind.  Yesterday I went to my local quilt shop, Boersma's, to get fabric for the baby quilt size.  I decided to sign up for this because I have been a "blogger friend" of Canuck Quilter for a long time.  When I first started a blog, it was on the American Patchwork and Quilting blog that they advertised in the magazine back in November of 2007.  There were other quilters that started then and Canuck Quilter was one.  I'm not sure exactly when she started, but after a while the magazine decided to close their blog and a bunch of us transferred to Blogspot.  Later, in 2010, there were 12 people in the "APQ Blogging Buddies" group.  We followed and commented on each others posts and even made a "friendship" quilt together!  I have met some of the other members of the group in person.

Anyway, if you go to her blog site, I believe you can still sign up for it.  She has become a quilt designer and has patterns for sale in a lot of shops, including Boersma's!!  Right before Christmas they had one of her patterns hanging next to the Christmas fabric!  The quilt-along pattern is free for people who sign up before April 11.  She sends out notices on Thursdays, so I am looking forward to seeing that one in a couple days.  I started cutting the fabric yesterday and I think the next notice will tell us to start sewing pieces together!  

While at Boersma's, we (my next door neighbor and I) saw this new quilt hanging and thought you might like to see it too.

We loved it and I took a couple of pictures (not the best) that will give you an idea.  My friend's hand is pointing out the binding.  Boersma's shop is wonderful and is only about a mile from my house!  Very convenient, right?  Well, thanks for visiting again.  I better get eat breakfast and get ready for walking with 2 neighbors.  One owns the hand in the picture and we have walked together for about 10 years now.  

More Quilts from the Oregon Quilt Festival

 Before I add the pictures I want to tell you that I am now trying to help quilters in my guild who want to learn how to quilt their own quilts.  I learned how to do the quilting from some other bloggers and I am forever grateful to them.  One of the first quilters that I contacted was Elaine Adair Elaine Adair Pieces in Nebraska.  She was kind enough to give me some advice and I was very encouraged to continue.  Then, sometime in 2011, Joann from Thread Head started a year long, monthly challenge with actual experts in quilting giving us training and then an assignment to complete.  This really got me going and was a great boost to my quilting.  Since then, I have quilted all my own quilts and have even won a lot of ribbons for them.  

Two friends came over today and I shared some of my ideas on quilting and they practiced a little on my sewing machine.  I hope I will be able to help the quilters that are interested in quilting their own quilts and give them the encouragement to practice and keep working on it.

Now on to more quilts from the quilt show!  I tried to get pictures of the description as well, but didn't get all of them.

This will be it for today.  I will add a few more next time when I get more organized.  Thanks for visiting!