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!

A SURPRISE AND A CAMPER!

Yesterday I received a surprise package in the mail from Lisa in Montana. She wrote me a sweet note thanking me for helping her with her blogs and projects. I'm going to show my age here, because I can't for the life of me figure out what she is referring to and worse than that, I don't remember who she is! Please, Lisa, if you see this, let me know where our paths have crossed before! Thank you so much for the charm pack and pattern! I love them and want to make the table runner with 3 of the larger print flowers as the focal point. I'm beginning to wonder if I am going nuts here. Hee Hee! Let me know if I'm the wrong person!

We have been looking for a camper for a long time and debating about what kind to get, etc. We finally settled on a truck camper and we found this one on Craigslist. It had all the features that we wanted and was nearby. DH was sick and we couldn't go look at it when we wanted to and were afraid someone else would snatch it before we had a chance to see it, but we finally were able to go and decided to get it!
It is a 1994 Lance camper with a tiny bathroom. It has a microwave, stove/oven, generator and one of the best features is the Stable-lift system for getting it on and off the truck. The next thing we need to do is find a truck to put it on. I can fit my featherweight sewing machine in it also!!!
Now we need to get it organized so we can fit all our clothes, food & sewing stuff inside! Then, we can hit the road. We probably won't go anywhere for a while because we have lots of other things to do as well, like paint some rooms in our house, have a garage sale to get rid of some junk, etc.

PAPER PIECED WALL HANGING

This is a Judie Rothermel kit that I purchased from another blogger. I think it was Cootie Bug but I'm not sure as it was several months ago that I got it. I rarely buy kits and this was a spur of the moment decision! I'm not very fond of paper piecing, but this was easy because it was all strips and I'm happy with it (and happy to have it done - almost)!

This morning I have sandwiched 2 doll quilts, the above wall hanging and four other smaller wall hangings. I pieced some batting together and pinned all the quilts as they aren't very big.
This is one of the doll quilts that I put together yesterday from some leader/ender scraps.
Some people said they would like to see the mittens that I still have from my grandmother. Here they are. She must have gotten maroon yarn on special, because I seem to remember that all the mittens had some maroon in them (which I didn't like)!
I think I have been averaging at least 6 hours of sewing per day this week - not counting the hand quilting while I watch TV. I have so many projects going on it's ridiculous! We are planning to start doing craft shows again soon, so I need to get some projects ready for that.

VALENTINE'S DAY - MY GRANDMA

My grandmother, Ingeborg Opdahl, was born on Valentine's Day, 1876 in Mansfield township, Minnesota. She married my grandfather, Albert Monson, on July 1, 1899. They moved to Chicago, IL so grandpa could find work as a carpenter

Grandma set the example of a woman who could sew, knit, crochet and tat. She used to knit mittens for all the grandchildren using up all the scraps of yarn. I still have a pair of mittens that she knit. At the time, I didn't really like the mittens very much because she used up all her scraps of yarn and they were striped and didn't necessarily match. Sometimes there would be a stripe of a different color around one thumb . She always crocheted potholders for herself and her daughters. She also tatted and crocheted around hankies. She made pajamas for her grandchildren. I remember watching her make an angel food cake from scratch with a hand whip for beating the egg whites. These are a few of the memories I have of my Grandma.

She had 5 children. Her second child was a daughter, Cora, born in 1903. This valentine is from Cora to my Grandma, as you can see in the 3rd picture. I don't know what year it was given to her, but Cora died from scarlet fever when she was 8 years old, so it could be from the Valentine's day of 1912.


Isn't it sweet? It brings tears to my eyes to think about my Grandma losing her little girl. My Mother was just a year old at the time, so she didn't remember her sister.

I didn't mean for this post to be sad, but I wanted to put in the vintage valentine. I'm so glad I have it.

THIS AND THAT

Everyone has been showing snow pictures, so I decided to put in one of our front yard. This is Texas and in the 27 years that we have been here, this is the most snow we have had. It beat the record for the amount of snow in a 24 hour period. It sure was pretty. It's starting to melt now.

I found this little (14") doll cradle in an antique mall in Florida so I made a mattress, sheet, quilt and pillow (with pillowcase) for it. I think I will paint the cradle. I don't really like the color of the wood.
Crazy Old Ladies are having a really neat give-away on their blog. Click on the link to find out all the details. Double Bubble is one of the 5 new patterns the winner will receive!

There is also a fabulous Valentine's Day give-away at Quilting Can Be Fun so go over there to enter. There will be three winners!

Good Luck!

MAKING PROGRESS

It is so nice being retired!!!!! I'm starting to make a dent in some quilting projects. I'll show you a few. First of all, I'm over half way finished with the hand quilting on my tumbler table runner!

We have a niece who is expecting in July, so I'm putting together an "I Spy" baby quilt. I haven't sewn the blocks together yet because I'm waiting to see if she's having a boy or a girl. Most of the blocks are good for either sex, but some would not work for a boy (no pinks or girly girl stuff). I might come across some more good fabrics in the mean time too, and I have a few more months before I will need to get it finished.

My quilting guild has accepted the American Patchwork & Quilting's challenge of a million pillowcases to donate to charity, so I made a few pillowcases and took them to my guild meeting last night.
I'm had this music fabric for quite a while, so decided it was time to use it.
I love this old-fashioned valentine fabric and have used it to make several pillowcases before, but had enough left for one more. It is so sweet!
Now, back to income tax....Ugh! However, I can only work on paperwork for so long and then I have to get back to sewing!

CHEDDAR CHEESE & CRACKERS QUILT TOP

I finished the doll quilt top!! I have never worked with 1" pieces before and didn't realize how much work would be involved. I'm not going to quilt it right away because I want to hand quilt and I'm busy hand quilting my tumbler table runner right now. Hopefully, I'll get to it soon! I haven't decided on the backing or binding yet, either, but they will be different fabrics from what I used in the top.

Then I will need to get busy piecing the second doll quilt! Yikes!! I cut and did a lot of the piecing while making the first one.
Now that I'm retired, I should have lots of time for quilting, but I find there are so many other things to do too - things that I didn't have time for before (like cleaning)! Tee Hee!

A QUILT ALONG

This is my design wall with the Cheddar Cheese and Crackers doll quilt that I am making (I'm going to make 2 of them - for some crazy reason). This little quilt it taking a while. I have been digging (literally) through my stash looking for reproduction browns, blues and pinks. I also bought some FQs and a bag of scraps from a scrap bin to get more variety.

Lori at Humble Quilts started this quilt along and I didn't get going on it until Tuesday because we were in Florida! It was kind of confusing at first, but I'm getting the hang of it. Lots of little pieces!!!
I think I'll really like it when I get it finished.

GRANDMA'S SCISSORS

We just returned from our 2 1/2 week trip to Florida and it was a wonderful time. It was hard to leave DS, DIL and Abigail! Boo Hoo!! I hope we can go back soon.

We stayed with my cousin, Mary, in Fort Pierce and she showed me a small sewing cabinet that had been our grandmothers. Our grandmother did a lot of sewing, tatting, knitting, etc. She used to make pajamas for us at Christmas. I was in awe over the sewing cabinet, because I remembered it and Mary had left grandma's sewing supplies in the drawers! She said if I wanted anything from the drawers, I could have it. In the bottom, under some stuff, I spotted these buttonhole scissors, which I remember grandma using and I asked Mary if I could have them. She said yes!! These are a treasure for sure!!

I worked on hand quilting my tumbler table runner while riding in the car and since I'm quilting the fan close together, it is going to take me a while to get this quilted. I'm doing it free hand, so it isn't perfectly spaced.
I gave Mary one of these bottle cap trivets and also made some of these during the trip.
AND I visited some quilt shops in Florida!! I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures, but I shopped at the Whippoorwill Station in Belleview, FL, Peggy's Heirlooms of Tomorrow in Ocala, FL and Bernina Connection in Tallahassee, FL. The fabric I bought is pictured below.


While at Mary's we spent an entire afternoon with another cousin, who I haven't seen for decades. Such fun! I also got to see my brother for a brief visit. Mary lives 2 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, so I was able to walk on the beach. Dummy me didn't take a picture to prove it.

Now I have to get my house in order and put my Christmas decorations away!