MORE BASKETS!! I THOUGHT I WAS DONE…..

I planned to get my basket quilt put together yesterday, so I cleared off the bed in the guest bedroom AKA quilting overflow room.  All the blocks just barely fit on the double bed (I don't have a design wall, just a "design door" and another small piece of wall space).  Uh Oh!  something is wrong here.  There doesn't seem to be enough baskets!  I must be placing them wrong.  I decided it was a good idea to look at the pattern and it was as I thought it should be.  I counted the baskets in the picture - 128!!  Oh no!!  I "only" made 120!  I thought I was finished when the medallion fabric came.  120 seemed like a good number!

This morning I bit the bullet and prepped 8 more blocks.  It didn't kill me and they are ready to appliqué down.

Another chore that I seem to put off is labeling quilts.  I have to get a couple labeled - one for a quilt show and one to give away - so I got out my iron-on label books and since I was doing it anyway, I looked around the house to see if  there were other quilts needing labels.  Big surprise!  I found 5 more needing labels, so I picked out some labels and ironed them onto muslin.

I will use my special pens to trace the lines and write the information needed on them.

These are the label books I use.

Happy quilting!

FEBRUARY'S HANDMADE CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

I found something on the Moda Bake Shop that I thought might make a good gift for some people I know that drink wine.  Of course you don't have to be drinking wine, but you do have to use a goblet type glass in order to use these.  These are honeycomb wine coasters and you can find the recipe here.  

This is a great site to go to for ideas!  All the directions are there to make these wine coasters.  I made a set of six and each one is different so people (hopefully) can remember which glass is theirs.  If identification isn't a problem, they could all be made the same to match the tablecloth or decor.  It didn't take long to make them - it would have been faster if I didn't have to unsew some of them.

black and white

blues go well with my crystal

The other four coasters

See the top left one?  It shows the iron-on vinyl that is on the bottom of each

Actually, I don't really think you would need the iron-on vinyl.

Last night I finished one more block for my Dear Jane quilt.  I hand pieced this one to see if I could manage the tiny pieces.  I'm kind of amazed that it came out as good as it did.   I haven't decided yet if I will hand piece many more of them, but wanted to see how it went.  I rather enjoyed doing it while watching TV.  The block is 5" square unfinished.

A-3

 Here's another one that I'm prepping to hand piece.  It is A-5.  Maybe if I get my process perfected I will do more this way.  I'm sure I will use the paper piecing method as well.  It is probably faster, so I may well opt for that method as I think most people do.

A-5

Here's what A-5 looks like.  I had my book spiral bound so it would be easier to make copies of the diagrams.

I made this block for my guild.  There are 12 people to a group and we make one block per month.  At the end of the year, there will be 12 sets of 12 blocks and each person who participated will get a set.  Each month it is a different block and color.  It's easy to do and I will receive 12 blocks in December to put together!

I plan to finish the 9-patch pinwheel blocks for the anniversary quilt today and next will be the sashing and trying to figure out how to put it all together.  I still will need more pinwheels too.

It's another beautiful day here in Texas!  I hope you enjoy your weekend.

A TRIP TO COLD COUNTRY - BRRRR!!

Last week I flew up to Chicago to visit my sister who lives in one of the suburbs.  Actually, she lives in the house that we grew up in - that my Dad, Grandpa and Uncles built in 1948.  It's always good to go home for a visit.  I should have taken a few pictures of the house, but didn't have my good camera with me.  It was very cold and there was lots of snow on the ground.  It snowed a few more times while I was there.

This is a picture of my sister's sewing machine, a Singer Spartan, that I used while there to make lots of HSTs.  As you may or may not know, I get up real early in the morning and like to get a little sewing done then.  Since my sis is a night person, it works out fine.  I stayed in the master bedroom (we didn't call it that at the time), and there is a tiny sewing room off the back.  This is the room where I learned to sew.  All you can see in the picture is part of the wall.  There is a window looking out into the back yard.  In this room, I sewed my finger while using Mom's Kenmore sewing machine.  I never liked that machine, but never sewed my finger again!  I started making my own clothes while in junior high and spent many hours sewing clothes for myself so I could have more clothes for less money!

Singer Spartan - I had a sewing machine just like this when I first got married.  I bought it for $30 at Marshall Field's in Oakbrook Center west of Chicago.

I finished this DJ block while there also.

B-7

I decided to leave on Sunday because Monday had a bad weather forecast.  Since I fly stand-by thanks to DS#1's employer, I didn't have reservations.  I flew Southwest both ways and had really good luck by being able to get on the flights I was aiming for.


When I got home to Texas (70 degrees) I couldn't wait to get some of my HSTs put into the pinwheels I needed.  I want to get this top finished soon - it's for DS/DIL's 25th anniversary in July.

Thanks so much for the many kind comments on my last post.  I didn't have much computer access and didn't reply to many of the comments, plus we were really busy.  But I do appreciate all the visitors!

SEASONS IN A ROW - FINISHED!

Seasons in a Row, designed by Quilt Country in Lewisville, TX, was selected by my quilters guild to be a project for the year of 2002.  At the time I was working full time - that's my excuse - and I completed 5 rows and then it went on the shelf.

It is finally finished!  What a relief!

Seasons in a Row

Here are some close-up pictures of the rows, beginning with January and February.

January and February

March and April

May and June

July and August

September and October

November and December

Border

This was my oldest UFO, so I am doing a happy dance today!

A VALENTINE'S DAY OUTFIT - for a doll

I have been busy continuing to quilt on the old UFO and am finally almost finished with the quilting.  I thought it would never end!!!  

I had to do something else from time to time, so I made a couple more DJ blocks.  I am following instructions from That Quilt blog and they haven't been too hard.  So far, that is!  There are lots of really hard looking ones in the quilt.

A-3

 Of course, this one was very easy.

A-6

It seems like Jane Stickle used a lot of brown fabrics in her quilt, and while I was thinking about trying to use the same colors that she did, I may change my mind since I have so many other colors and might find it hard to get enough browns.  I'll have to think about that.  If you made one, what did you do about the colors?  Or, if you ever thought about making one, what do you think you would do?  Of course, I'm going to use all CW reproduction fabrics.

Then, I wanted to make something for Abby for Valentine's Day, so I made this Valentine's Day outfit for one of her dolls.   I had some "heart" fabric pieces that worked out and a little white heart shaped button for the vest.

If I had more time, I would make more special doll clothes, but I think that will have to wait.

It was 21 degrees here in TX this morning and has been snowing for about 3 hours now.  Our first snowfall of the season!

STARTED "DEAR JANE"

I received the Dear Jane book for Christmas and have made the first two blocks!  The green one was pieced the regular way and the cheddar one was made by paper piecing.  I will probably do a lot of paper piecing on these blocks even though I'm not too fond of PP.  At least the piecing comes out looking good with PP.  I had to use my seam ripper several times.

A-1 and A-2

The next block will need to be hand appliquéd.