STOCKING/LAUNDRY BAG

Several months ago my sister sent me a bag that was my mother's, but now my sister used it to put her dirty stockings in. I was in horrible shape (I don't even want to show it to you) and she wanted me to make her a new one. So I decided to fashion it after a vintage laundry bag that I had seen - only this is smaller. I made a couple extra ones (as long as I was making one, I might as well make three, right?) and here is one of the extra ones.

The red one is the one I sent to my sis for her birthday and now I can put in on my blog! She was happy with it! She's a piano teacher, so I thought she would like the music fabric.
On Saturday I met a blogger (Quilting Memories) from North Carolina and we went to the three quilt shops that I go to most. She treated me to lunch at a tea room and we had a lovely time. I forgot my camera, but she is going to send me some pictures from her camera. I still can't get over how amazing quilting bloggers are!!

I'm exhausted. I just finished washing my kitchen floor on my hands and knees (the only way, according to my mother, that you can get your floor clean). I think she's right, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it every time. I came across a lot of dirt down there in the corners and crevices. Yuk! I don't know what got into me!! Hee Hee!

WALL HANGING FINISHED!

I just finished my hand pieced and hand quilted wall hanging. It isn't exactly hanging, though because it is too long to hang above the fireplace, so I just draped over the picture that had been displayed there. I really like the way it looks.

This is the whole wall hanging.

These are a couple sample blocks of the Mansfield Park quilt that I am going to make for my guest bed. It is designed by Karen Montgomery and I bought the pattern about a year ago at a quilt show. I'm using reproduction fabrics for the baskets (so what else is new?).
In between the quilting, we're getting our camper ready. We have had to get some adjustments made to our truck and it all takes time. I'm hoping to hang my new curtains in it tomorrow!

TUMBLER TABLE RUNNER FINISHED

Last night I finished my tumbler table runner. It measures 18" x 31" and now lives on my coffee table. I tried to upload a picture of it on the table, but it wouldn't work. Maybe next time it will. I'm almost finished with the matching wall hanging. Both of these were all hand pieced, hand quilted and hand bound. (Except, when it was time to sew the binding onto the wall hanging I used the machine to sew the binding on, but then sewed it to the back by hand). I wanted to make a quilt the old fashioned way! It remains to be seen if I will do a bed sized one that way. Hee Hee!

The backing is some reproduction fabric that was on sale for $2 per yard (probably because it wasn't very pretty). It makes a good backing.
Yesterday we went to Fair Park in Dallas to a huge garage sale and a separate vintage/antique sale. Below are a few treasures I found. I try to grab up anything with tatting on it.
Notice the doily with the embroidered girl on it with the tatted edge and also a tea towel with a fancier tatted edge. And an old card of vintage buttons! I got two sets of the Beatrix Potter books - one for Jonah and one for Abigail (only 50 cents per book)! The little bag with the "J" embroidered on it has an "H" on the other side - my MIL's initials. It's stained, but I thought it was a good find.
I'll show you the wall hanging on my next post - maybe tomorrow!

We woke up to snow this morning. That is unheard of this late in the season here!

GRANDMOTHER'S FLOWER GARDEN

My Grandmother's flower garden lap quilt has been buried for over a year. There isn't much of the piecing left to do and I was looking for some hand sewing that I could pick up. I worked on it a little the last couple nights. This morning I was reading blogs and Joan at Keeping you in Stitches was showing how she was hand sewing her apple core quilt to the border. It was just what I needed because that is what I will be doing soon to finish this lap quilt.

I don't consider myself a real experienced quilter, but wanted to show how I pieced this together. At one of the first quilt shows I ever went to, I saw someone selling these paper pieces and I bought a package. I don't know if this was the same company or not, but she was sitting in her booth piecing these together and she showed me the easy way to do it.

She said to cut squares of fabric just a little bigger than the piece.
Then fold the edge of the fabric over the paper (it is similar in thickness to a 3x5 index card) and stitch the fabric at the fold. Do NOT stitch through the paper. I think some of the instructions I have seen tell you to stitch through the paper, but it isn't necessary.
See how the fabric is folded around the paper?
To sew them together, just take tiny stitches along the edge catching both sides and being sure you don't catch the paper (if you catch a little paper along the edge, that is OK).
When you have them all sewn together you can take the paper pieces out and re-use them. I will keep all the paper pieces around the edges in until ready to sew onto the border.
Also, I cut the excess points that are there because I was folding a square of fabric instead of carefully cutting out hexagons.
I'm sure there are other ways to do these, but this is the way I do it and it seems to work for me. Be sure to visit Joan's blog to see her gorgeous quilts!

BTW, APQ bloggers, I mailed my blocks today.

CAMPER CURTAINS

The curtains in our camper were horrible (see below), so I decided I better take them out and make new ones. I took them out and brought them home to see if I could find some fabric that would go with the upholstery in the camper.

This is a tie back from the camper, so I needed to get something that would go with it.
Some of the curtains had these plastic strips with little things sticking out that go into grooves to hold the curtain up or down as the case may be. I couldn't find them at JoAnn's, so I took them off, washed them and sewed them on the new curtains.

I have had this fabric for a while - I think I bought it when it was on sale for $2 per yard. Wow! It's a perfect match! These will go in the "bedroom" area. The other curtains by the table in the "dining" area will be of a different fabric because I didn't have enough of the green.
I saw this egg beater at a flea market and decided to get it in case we aren't hooked up to electricity and don't want to run our generator. I think I used to have one of these when I first got married (way back when)!
Today after church DH & I went to the Dallas Quilt Show. I had planned to drive back into Dallas after going home, because DH never has indicated any desire to go to a quilt show before, but on the way to church he said he thought we could go together!!! That was fine with me! I think he enjoyed it! We saw some quilts that we both liked & some that we didn't like. Also got some ideas for future quilts I want to make (no big surprise there).

2 FINISHES FOR MARCH

Here are 2 finishes for March! Obviously, they were started before March - both in February. I'm happy with this patriotic wall hanging (Judie Rothermel) and it is hanging in our entryway.

This is one of the 2 baby quilts that I started and it is finished and delivered!

I love the dogs on the backing of the baby quilt!

In addition to these finishes, I completed the hand quilting on my tumbler table runner. I'm hoping to get both the table runner and the wall hanging bound soon. I'm also going to start hand quilting my cheddar cheese & crackers doll quilt. Never a dull moment!!

We have been busy trying to get our camper ready and looking for a truck (which we just purchased today). We have been so busy that last night I forgot to go to my quilters guild meeting!!! Can you believe that?

DO YOU "PUT OFF" BASTING?

Here are the 4 APQ friendship swap blocks for March. I didn't intend to, but I actually made 8 blocks, so I will save some for another month. I really like this block - it's easy to make and it will be great as a scrap quilt!

After I got them finished, my next chore was to baste 2 baby quilts. I do my own quilting up to this size usually - if it's a lot bigger, I send it out. However, basting is just not what I enjoy doing. Part of the problem is that I have to clear everything off of my sewing table to make room to do the basting - and there is always lots to clear off.

I thought I would tell you about the way I baste quilts that are about the size of a baby quilt. Over a year ago, another blogger had this on her blog and when I checked it out, I thought I would try it. It is a system that you can see in this video: Sharon Schamber's system.

It seems kind of strange, but you use 2 boards and you wrap the fabric around them. First, I wrapped the backing around a board.

Then I wrapped the quilt top around another board.
Then you smooth the batting between the top and the backing...
and you start basting with thread, or like me, you use safety pins. I have used thread, but most of the time I find it easier to use pins.
As you get a section pinned, you unroll some more of the top and backing and continue to pin. Do you like the pig fabric? And the 3 blind mice?

It actually, doesn't take very long and is quite easy - much easier than doing it on the floor!! I basted 2 of these I Spy quilts and hope to get them quilted soon. I feel so good now that they are ready to go! For smaller quilts, like doll quilts & wall hangings, I tape the backing down and spread the batting and top over it, then pin. Do you have any tips for basting? Maybe some day I will get braver and baste bigger quilts and quilt them myself on my DSM.

Thanks for visiting! Come back again.

TOO BUSY TO BLOG!

Last week was busy with a lot of sewing and also looking for a truck for our new camper. I got the flag quilt quilted and ready to bind. I love patriotic quilts!

I went to the LQS to get the February BOM and amazed myself when I got home by getting caught up on the ones I hadn't done yet. There is only one month to go, so I now have 11 finished. I am doing both the pastel and bright, so I'll have two quilts when finished. My GD has dibs on the bright one! She saw some of the blocks when she was here for Christmas.



I also finished two baby quilt tops and will be layering them this week so I can get them quilted soon.

Tomorrow I will be posting my blocks for the APQ bloggers swap. When I started blogging over 2 years ago, it was on the web site for American Patchwork and Quilting magazine (allpeoplequilt.com). When that blog ended, many of the bloggers decided to do a friendship quilt swap. We got to know each other on the blog and wanted to keep in touch!