FAITHFUL IS FINISHED!

How long ago did Lori have the Quilt-A-Long for Faithful?  I searched her blog and found out it was October, 2013.  So, it only took me about 1 1/2 years to get this done.  Woo Hoo!

25" square

I have a reason that it took me so long.  First of all, I used the basket block in the center and it is on point.  You can't really hang a quilt on point, so I had to add corners to Faithful.  I had to think about that for a while.  If I added corners, they had to have something in them.  It wouldn't look very good to put plain fabric there, so I thought it would look nice to have lighter fabrics fanning out.

Then, I thought they needed something else and decided to appliqué something on each corner.  So I had to find things to put in the corners.  I got out magazines and books to try to find something and the first thing I picked was the bird sitting on the star.  I love Kim Diehl's quilts and have 2 of her books, although I have never made any of the quilts in them.  I have used them for appliqué designs before though, so I used some of the flower appliqué designs and the bird from her Simple Blessings book.  I'm not sure where the circle and star came from - I know I saw it somewhere.

Backing toile fabric from Boersma's basement.

The last thing I needed was some flowers for the basket, so I took the easy way out and made yo yos for it.  Thanks, Lori, for the QAL!

I finished my stack of little quilts as well and the last 2 are below.  I am on a roll with stars.  I've got a stack of 31 solid stars (not scrappy, in other words) and 9 scrappy stars.  So, I see more little quilts in my future.

21 1/2" x 17 3/4"

17" s 14"

Happy Wednesday to all of you!

SOME BINDING DONE!

Here is a small pile of 5 little quilts ready to be bound.

This one is a doll quilt or chair hanger.

This is my scrappy star table runner with scrappy strip blocks,

Close up of the quilting.

Three more to bind.

I also made a label for a the basket quilt that I finished last summer.  Lori (and others) are encouraging quilters to label quilts.  It's a chore that gets put off in this house.  I'm going to try to be better.  I usually do it in spurts.  Put it off.  Make a bunch of labels at one time.  It's time to do a bunch now.

I did more hand work this week and my hand feels it.  I can only do a little at a time and then my fingers get numb.  Have a nice weekend, everyone!

WEEKEND AT THE RAINY COAST

This past weekend I went to the coast for a women's retreat from my church.  While we had been having sunny weather for at least a week, it rained the whole weekend!  But I am still amazed when I see the ocean!  We were at Lincoln City, Oregon and the Pacific Ocean was just across the street from where we stayed in this house.  My room was on the second floor and I had access to the porch on the corner from the room!

This is the picture I took from the room when we arrived.  On Saturday, it was even foggier and the rain didn't let up at all.  Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time.  It's good to get away for a couple days to relax, enjoy God's creation and relax with other women of like mind.

Saturday afternoon we had some free time, so I decided to go for a walk.  The rain was coming down, but not really hard, so I put on a rain hat and walked out towards the beach.  When I found the path to the beach, I slipped in some mud and fell partially down.  Here's a picture of my pants.

The ground was soft, so no injury happened.  I walked around more carefully and didn't spend too much time outside, but it did feel good to get outside.

Last week I started quilting on "Faithful" and am finally just about to finish it!

Uh Oh!  When I turned it over, look what I had quilted onto the back!  Too much stuff on my sewing table.  It's off now and yesterday I finished quilting "Faithful!"  Yea!  I'll sew on the binding today.

SCRAPPY STITCHING AND A TOUR

After making the doll quilt with the stars, I decided to get out my box containing some stars already made and fabric cut out to make more.  I found that I had some ready to stitch.  All these stars finish at 4".

Then I was looking through my other pieces and saw that I didn't have enough to make stars of all the same fabric, so I wondered how they would look if I just made some scrappy ones.

I used up the last of some of these fabrics.  I like them!  I think I'll alternate some with scrappy strip blocks.

Guess what!  My "Faithful" quilt is ready to baste!  Finally!!  I just have to sew on the yo yos that are going to be the flowers in the basket first.

I have 3 doll quilts ready for basting as well.

Saturday I went on an architectural tour of some historic buildings in McMinnville, OR with my DIL and DGD.  The first building was the Spanish Restaurant and we got to see the apartment on the second floor.  It was lived in by the owner, but now it's a vacation rental.

Spanish Restaurant building built in about 1894 - I took this picture right before Christmas.

 The following pictures are of the second floor of one of the buildings - it was built around 1911 I believe.  The owners live in the 9,000 sq. ft.  second floor and have restored it to the original design as much as possible.  Included in the apartment is a 1900 sq. ft. ball room as well as a couple large work shops.  Here are some of the items in the apartment.

The following few pictures are of the bathroom.  I love these clawfoot tubs!

A cute frog lives on the edge of the tub.

Dressing table is in the bathroom as well.  

 This Frank Lloyd Wright designed window is in the entry door to the apartment!

 

The Cozine House was built in the late 1800s and is now home to the McMinnville Downtown Association.

As you can see, we had a gorgeous day for the tour!  

A WIN, A PROJECT AND SOME GOOD NEWS!

I recently won a fat quarter and an origami pin from Chantal!  What adorable fabric for a baby quilt!  And the butterfly pin was a surprise.  Isn't it cute?  She said she will post a tutorial on how to make them soon, so be sure to check out her blog.  I love the 30's fabric she used.

The project was a doll quilt, sheets and pillow for an antique bed that someone wanted me to make for them.  I felt honored to do it and sure hope she likes it.  She sent me the fabric to use as she wanted it to look like something made around 1830.

The sheets are folded below the quilt.

At Buttermilk Basin's blog yesterday, she showed some uses for old watering cans and told how much she likes them.  So I decided to show you my old watering can too.  I found this watering can at a garage sale in Prineville, OR a couple years ago and now I'm using it on my front step.  I found an old short step ladder that I'm using to set it on.  Haven't decided yet if I'm going to paint the step ladder or not.  * I'm linking up to Knick of Time for their Vintage Inspiration Party!

The good news is regarding my physical therapy on Monday.  I was very encouraged because of several things:

1.  She said I didn't have a bad case of carpal tunnel
2.  I don't have to stop sewing
3.  I will have therapy for 1 month and then evaluate
4.  She gave me some exercises to do at home and ideas for continuing wellness for many years

So, I feel pretty good about this.  The therapist's mother is a quilter, so she understands and feels that with proper strategies I can do well.  Thanks for all the kind and encouraging words and ideas!  I really didn't know much about it and now I feel a lot better and am glad that I decided not to wait until it got worse before addressing it.