TWO FINISHES!

I had a little spare time, so I put together a small donation quilt with some squares that were available at my quilters' guild.  I decided not to put batting inside it because I used flannel for the backing and thought this would be a good summer quilt.

I also took the easy way out and turned it instead of binding it.  Then I quilted with Xs across the blocks and used a fancy stitch for the edges.  It didn't take too long and I hope someone will like it.

Here's my finished brown/pink basket wall hanging measuring at 38" wide x 48" long.

Close up of some blocks so you can see the quilting better.

The sashing was quilted with a very easy stitch which you can see in the pink between the brown triangles.

I'm going to hang this at a memory care facility that has asked our guild to loan quilts to help decorate the walls in their new facility.  We will go their after our next meeting and take some wall hangings for them, which we will leave for as long or as short a time as we wish.

Friday I'm going on a weekend retreat for the ladies at my church.  We're going to Lincoln City, OR on the beautiful Pacific coast.  It will probably rain a lot, but hopefully we can get out to walk on the beach a little.  I'll take a few pictures to post.  

KEEPING ON SEWING

I'm keeping on sewing in the camper.  Actually, while living in a camper, you don't have a lot of cleaning to do, no yard work, etc.  so there is more time to sew!  I have made a few little quilts that I plan to use on the back of our dining room chairs (6 of them).  I made this top using the left-over black fabric from my basket quilt and various shirtings.  I used only 2 squares from each shirting and a different one for the inner border.  I really love the black and wanted to use it in something else.  The squares finish at 1".

Here's another one that I showed you before and now it is quilted, but not bound.

I quilted a one sided feather in the border.  I love the hooked feathers and used them for this.  I used a dark grey thread that I am using for my basket quilt.

I'm quilting free motion hooked feathers for the basket quilt border without marking any lines.  First I go up on the right side, then sew a line back down to the bottom and then do the feathers going up on the left side.  I'm doing each side like that and I'm on the second side now.  I'm too lazy I guess to mark anything and since the scallops make it easy to make the feather spine curve, it works for me.

The dark grey thread doesn't really show up very well

Quilting from the back

I like to throw in a curly que feather every once in a while, or a fern looking one.  Sorry the pictures are kind of dark - It was early when I took them.

Soon I will be deciding on the name for my basket quilt.  I have received several good suggestions, so I'll pick one of them and let you know when I do.

Happy sewing this week!

THIS AND THAT

I drove past our "new home" yesterday and took a picture of the sign of the housing development.  I took it with my cell phone while sitting in the truck across the street from the sign, so the picture isn't very clear.   Kind of a nice name for the area.

My work area in our 5th wheel camper isn't too big and I took a picture of my messy sewing table.  Stuff seems to get piled on the end of the table.  You can see my water bottle, some fabric, a pencil holder with some quilting tools in it, a hair band, bobbin and a vintage Tupperware sugar bowl.  I have 2 of the sugar bowls; one for our house and one for the camper.  But there isn't any sugar in this one.  As I was quilting my basket quilt and taking the pins out, I couldn't find a jar to put the pins in.  I spotted the empty sugar bowl and decided to use it instead.  The pins just fit through the opening.  And if it falls on the floor, they won't all spill out!

Here's a close-up of the sugar bowl.  Maybe you can see a few pins in it.

I'm getting the binding sewn on my basket quilt!  Then I need to quilt the border, put on a label and I'm done!!!!!

BTW, thanks for all the suggestions for a name for my basket quilt!  I think I'll use one of the names suggested, but haven't decided which one yet.  

MAKING PROGRESS

I'm almost finished with the quilting on my basket quilt.  I need to think up a name for the quilt - any suggestions?

I did echo quilting in the medallion, quilted around each basket and did stippling in between the baskets and in the space that the handles surround.  I haven't decided yet how I will quilt the border, but I decided to do the binding next and I need to make it first.  It has to be bias binding because the edge will be scalloped.

Some close-up pictures….

Barb, at Fun with Barb, asked if anyone wanted to join in on a 9-patch swap and she had lots of response.  So, I am making 100 9-patches, 2 for everyone in the reproduction swap (which is closed, BTW).  I have over half of them made so far - they go pretty fast, especially with the new method.

She had a tutorial here on a new way to make 9-patches and I'm using that method to make them.  I really like it!  You can check it out and try it for yourself.

Have a great week and thanks for visiting!

MANSFIELD PARK FINISHED

I never had any desire to make a basket quilt until I saw this one displayed at a booth and I bought the pattern right away.  I don't remember how long ago it was, but it took me a while to start making it.  I am very happy with it.  Monday night I took it to my guild meeting for show and tell and had very positive comments!

Sunday morning we were home and our next door neighbor came over to tell us that the tranformer behind our two houses was on fire!  We had a storm during the night and our electricity had been off for several hours, but came on about 8:30.  Then it went off again about 10:30 and that's when the neighbor came over.  If you look closely, you can see the yellow/orange flame on the top part.

The fire department came out, but they didn't do anything

You can see a little yellow on this picture.

The fire department leaving.  You might be able to see that it had been raining.  We got quite a bit, which was wonderful!  It's raining again this morning.

Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post!  It means a lot to me.

VINTAGE POTHOLDERS AND A FINISH

Last year Karen from Log Cabin Quilter sent me some vintage potholders.  I posted a couple pictures, but am finally getting around to a couple more.  I found this small wood rake at a garage sale for 10 cents and took all the lace and ribbon off of it, DH painted it black and I hung it on the side of my china cabinet.  

This is the side view of my china cabinet.

This is the view from the front.  These are some of the cutest little potholder dresses that I have ever seen.

It seems that after Christmas, when the mad rush is over, I like to work on some Christmas items.  A couple years ago I bought the Art to Heart book "I Believe" by Nancy Halvorsen, and I hadn't made anything from it.  I was looking through it one day and decided to make some tree ornaments for the grandchildren.  They don't read my blog (or if the older ones ever do, they haven't told me), so I'm posting the pictures.

The Santa ornament is for Jonah.

The singing cats are for our 15 year old grandson - he is musically inclined.

The girls (2 of them) will each get an angel.

And the baby Jesus is for Eli.  It feels good to have these done for next Christmas.

A week ago or so I spray basted this basket quilt in two sections and I've been thinking about how to quilt it.  I didn't want to do an over-all pattern.  Today I decided to get with the program and get started.  I did a vine with leaves in the sashing, but that picture didn't download for some reason.  I'll post it next time.

I'm using Aurifil thread and really like it.  It's the first spool I have ever tried and I'll definitely get more!