2 FINISHES AND STRING BLOCKS

Two projects finished last week:  The QCR Mini Table Runner is quilted and bound.  I decided to do straight quilting because I really like the way it looks.  I plan to make more of this table runner in other colors.

The Declaration wall hanging is quilted and bound.

And hung above a picture of George Washington praying during the Revolutionary War.

Then I decided I needed a change and I had a few string blocks done a while ago, so I decided to make more so I could sew them into a donation quilt.  What I like to do is have a row of blocks for each color and I need about 8 blocks of each color.  I sew the strips on a piece of paper .

This shows the paper on the bottom of the strips.

Then, I trim them to the size of the paper.

So far, I have 8 blocks of brown, red, blue, yellow, green and 6 orange.  I also am making blocks with a variety of colors.

Mixed colored blocks and blue blocks
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Have a great week!

What a Week!

How has your week been?  Mine has been pretty good even with staying home for a whole week, except to shop for groceries twice.  I have spent most of the week in my sewing room and have gotten quite a bit accomplished.  I finished 2 things.  I started this one before we went on our trip to Hawaii - well actually both of them.  And finished them this week.

Dragonfly Table Runner

I bought this panel at the quilt show in Albany, OR and made it into a wall hanging using the Secret Window Panel Wall Hanging directions from Jordan Fabrics.  You can see the directions on YouTube if you search the name of the panel in Jordan Fabrics.

The rest of the time, I have been making house blocks.  My quilt guild isn't having a "BOM" this year, but just suggested that we make house blocks.  When I saw the house quilt that Barb made, I decided I wanted to make a quilt like hers.  You can see hers here.

Here are the blocks that I have made so far.

All the houses measure 11 1/2" so with sashing and a border I think it will measure about 58" square, which is a decent size.

Are you getting tired of cooking yet?  It doesn't take me long to get tired of it.  I made some soup on Monday and have more of it in the freezer.  It wasn't that good.  We also had some leftovers in the freezer that we had one night - pork chops.  Tonight we will have cabbage and sausage.  Tomorrow I am going to fix stew in the crock pot.  I will give some to DS#1 to take home.  I think we need to keep our space from him since he will be flying home from Texas and could get exposed to the virus without knowing it.

I got some flowers from a neighbor yesterday!  Wasn't that sweet?

DS#2 is a registered nurse and is taking care of corona virus patients.  He has a wife and daughter at home.  

I am thankful that I have such a wonderful hobby that I can keep busy with and even make things which will brighten up other people's lives.

SPECIAL SHOPPING TRIP

I just finished these socks this morning.  I think I've knitted over a dozen pair of socks, mostly for myself, but some were for my DIL and 2 DGSs.  I learned how from a lady at church and it is getting easier with each pair.

My LQS has a couple special ways to keep you coming back.  For one thing, they have a punch card (actually a key ring with a plastic punch card on it).  When it is all punched, you get $25 of free fabric.  I finally finished a punch card.  The reason it took me so long is that sometimes I forgot it and I had to start a new one.  You can't combine them.  Also, you don't get punches for anything on sale, and since I buy mostly from the sale bolts in the basement, it takes a lot longer to get one card all punched.  This is my first one and I have lived here 4 years!

The second thing that they do is give you 25% off the week of your birthday and you can use the $25 card to pay for it.  Since my birthday was Tuesday, I planned my shopping trip for Wednesday morning.  My DS#1 gave me a gift certificate of $1 for each year of my life and combined with the $25, I had a nice round number to spend!

I saw the table runner pattern for Nordic Stars in the November/December 2017 of McCalls Quilting Magazine and used part of my $ to buy fabric for it.  I took 2 pictures and neither one turned out very good, but I'm including both of them so that maybe you can get the idea of what it looks like.  The pattern looks easy, but it was kind of hard to get everything lined up just right.

There are 4 shades of blue and a white background.

Here are some of the other items I bought on my shopping trip.  A new ruler by Creative Grids.  I had read good things about these rulers, so I thought I would try one.  So far, I really like it.

I bought 2 different white on white fabrics that maybe you can see if you enlarge this picture.  I used the bottom one with the snowflakes for the background of the table runner.  I didn't have much good white fabric, so I hope this will last a while.

I also got a couple different red fabrics as you can never have too much.  I should have enough fabric to last a while, but you never know when you will need a particular color for something, as well as fabrics for backings, etc.  Even though I keep sewing all the time using up fabric, it doesn't seem to decrease much.

I entered my Dear Jane quilt in the Yamhill County Fair and got a 3rd place ribbon.  I will also be entering it into the Oregon State Fair soon.

This weekend is the 2nd weekend that I will be a vendor at the Powerland Steam Up Quilt Show.  Powerland is a place of interest mostly to men, but to give the ladies something to do while the hubbies are busy looking at all the antique steam engine tractors, etc., they started a quilt show several years ago.  This is my second year as a vendor there.  If you are near Brooks, OR, this would be a good weekend to attend because the weather is supposed to be very pleasant.  The quilt show is in the air-conditioned Truck Museum.

Hope you have a quilty weekend!

IT'S JUNE ALREADY?!?!

 I have been very lax about posting lately and it's been over a week!  I meant to post this a couple days ago, but I've been busy.  Can't believe it's June already!!!

In my last post, I showed you the "cheater" panel by Kim Diehl, and now it is finished!  It sure goes a lot faster when you don't have to actually do the appliqué!!!  This was a fun project for me.  I decided to make the medallion similarly to the "Faithful" quilt-a-long that Lori had a few years ago.  I do love that and you can see it here.  My finished panel below is a little wonky and I'm thinking about blocking it.

This is the table runner.  I have placed it on my coffee table.

When I was digging through some baskets, I came across some 4-patches already done and decided to make a small quilt (doll quilt) out of them.  Here it is hanging on my clothesline.

Can I brag about my grandson?  He just graduated with honors (Magna Cum Laude) from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.  We are very proud of him and can't wait till he gets back home in Oregon.  He should be arriving this week!

Today I'm going on a shop hop with my quilting buddy!  We plan to hit about 5 or 6 shops in the Salem area!  I hope I can avoid spending much money.

A COUPLE FINISHES

The quilt guild that I belong to has done Round Robins for several years.  This year we made "patriotic" round robins and they were returned to us at our April meeting so that we can finish them by our May meeting on May 14.  They will be donated to veterans after our May meeting.  Below is the one I started with the flag panel in the middle.  These are lap quilts for veterans who are sick.

The flying eagle fabric was on part of the back.

When we were in Galena, Illinois about 3 weeks ago, I bought the poppy fabric and the table runner pattern.  I showed you the poppy fabric a couple posts ago.  I wanted to see how this table runner was made and how it would turn out.  I really like it!  I plan to make it again with some other fabric.

 For the backing I used a toile that I had gotten at a garage sale!

We have been having beautiful weather this past week and I have spent a lot of time in the yard pulling weeds, etc.  Hopefully, that chore will be finished soon.  My body can't take much more!!

Happy spring!

A BIRTHDAY PARTY AND SEWING IN A CONDO

Yesterday we celebrated our granddaughter's 9th birthday with a party at the "Sky Zone."  Abby had 4 guests there along with parents, grandparents (us) and my sister (great aunt).

Making a wish.

Cute, but tired, friends!

I have done some more sewing since we arrived in Pensacola.  First, I finished the table runner and place mats for my DIL in Kansas.

The table runner has 4 sections and on each end there is a part that will hang down on either end of the table with 3 smaller sections.

I made 6 place mats - with no batting in them - that's the way she wanted them.

Then, in my spare time (mostly early in the morning) I continued working on some projects that I had brought with me.

I had decided I wanted to make a table runner with some log cabin blocks that measure 5 1/4", so I started on those.

I also made some more of these 13 1/2" sawtooth star blocks out of scrappy pieces and 5" charm pack left-overs.

Have you ever had a picture taken with a pelican?  I did today! 

Happy New Year everyone!  I probably won't post again until 2018 and then I will try to have a list of my 12 scrappy projects that I will do to try to use up at least some of my scraps.  See confessions of a fabric addict.

SEWING BUS-I-NESS

I have been busy sewing lately (as usual).  I am up to date on the Mode Blockhead Blocks - until Wednesday, that is.  33 accomplished of the 48.  That means 15 more weeks!!!  Now I'm thinking I'll have more than I need for one queen size quilt.  It might help if I figure out exactly how many I will need.  Hee Hee!

Moda #31

Moda #32

Moda #33

I'm also getting ready for a craft sale on Nov. 4.  Some of my recent items are this little wall hanging of a cross stitched cow and pig,  I got the cow and pig cross stitch pictures at a quilt show sale - very reasonably priced.

Another small quilt for a friend.

A Christmas panel with 4 matching place mats.  I quilted around the poinsettias and leaves with the corresponding color.

Here's a close-up.  I don't know if you can see the quilting or not.  The green stripe is the backing fabric,  The border is quilted with gold thread,

I also made another table runner with matching placemats, but I still need to get some binding for it.  More sewing to be accomplished this week.

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS!

Yes, I'm sewing, but I don't have very much that I can show you right now.  Here is one table runner that I made, though.  The poinsettia fabric in the stars has been in my stash for years, but the black background with red birds is new (I got it on a shop hop).   I was up early sewing a Christmas gift and will take a picture of it when it's finished.

The Ho Ho Ho fabric was found in an antique shop for a very good price!  It wasn't even an antique!

Last month DH and I went to Willamina, OR for their annual art tour.

We enjoyed it a lot and turned in our "ballot" at the end.  Recently I received a call from one of the artists telling me that I had won some prizes!  I received a small table topper quilt, a calendar with photographs from around Oregon on each month and 2 bars of hand made (with goat's milk) soap!

As you can see, Mt. Hood is the picture for January.

It's always fun to win something!  

We had snow again this week.  For the first 2 years that we lived  here, it didn't snow, except for some flurries that melted upon hitting the ground.  Since our DS#2 & family moved here, it has snowed twice with school being closed both times!  Abby is in kids' heaven!

Abby with "cowboy" snowman.

Me with Abby in front of their house.

We might get some more snow today and the high temp will be 33º!  Hope you are having a lovely December so far!