THE MERCY AND SOME SEWING

 The Mercy by Beverly Lewis

‘Tis a gift to be simple.  The Amish people have always fascinated me and I loved this book, which is book 3 of The Rose Trilogy.  Unfortunately, I hadn’t read the first two books, but that didn’t really matter as this book stands on it’s own and enough information was given about past events to be able to understand what is going on with the characters.  Rose is the main character, a devout Amish young woman, who feels she might end up never marrying.  The Amish usually marry in their late teens and she must be around 20 to 21.  She is happy living on the family farm with her parents and grandparents and she handles a lot of the household chores as her mother is paralyzed from the waist down due to a buggy accident.  Eventually, her brother and sister-in-law introduce her to a nice eligible Amish man who lives five miles from her and they start going out on buggy rides.  She wants to stay true to her Amish beliefs and is unhappy when she finds out that her boyfriend is enjoying some worldly pleasures such as owning a car.  Rose and her family go through many trials and tribulations during the course of this book.  The simple life can become as complicated as the life of the English people.    The story comes together nicely and I don’t want to give it away, so I will just recommend this book to you.   I received this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for writing a review.  

Sunday morning we discovered that someone had smashed out the driver's side window of our truck and stolen a tool box and our camera.  What a bum deal!  At first we didn't realize that our camera had been in the truck also, but it dawned on us the next day.  So, I scanned these pictures.  

We have been busy looking for a 5th wheel camper and Monday we found one!  Yesterday, we picked it up.  In the mean time, I decided it was about time I used this camping fabric (which I bought in California in June) and I made new pillowcases for our new (to us) 5th wheel.  

I had found a piece of some other camping fabric, so I am making a table topper with the camping fabric in the center.  I scanned it below so you can see what the fabric, corners and borders look like.

You can see 2/3 of this little item.  It is a toilet tank topper!  I made one of these for my bathroom earlier this year and now I made this one for the guest bathroom, which is decorated in a patriotic theme.

I also made several other sawtooth stars - they and the ones above measure 4" from point to point.  I love these stars.

Today will be another busy day.  We're going to take a bunch of stuff out to our new camper and try to figure out what other things we might need.  I plan to make new curtains for the bedroom.  The colors in the camper are grey and beige, so I need to look at my stash to see what I can come up with for curtains.  Maybe something with a little color to it!  We want to give it a test run next week for a few days.  I can't wait to see Jonah's reaction when we take it to his house!

BOOK REVIEW AND A WIN

This book is the second in a series about homicide detective Roland March and takes place in Houston, Texas.  It begins with the murder of a young woman who was stabbed  to death and then grotesquely stabbed after death.  The murder scene is similar to another murder that Roland March solved and he feels that it might be a copy cat murder.  He believes the murderer might have read the book written about the first murder.  Roland March has problems of his own to deal with as well:  getting along with his co-workers and adjusting to his wife’s conversion to Christianity.  His integrity is being questioned as well as his methods in solving the first murder.   This was a book that was hard to put down and I will look forward to other books in this series.  I enjoy mysteries and if you read books written by John Lescroart, I’m sure you will like this one also.  I received this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for writing a review.

I won these lady bug buttons from Barb.  The buttons are made in South Africa and you can learn more about them at Button Mad.  The making of the buttons helps to employ women in that country.  Thanks, to the people at Button Mad and Barb!

This is the latest Civil War Block, number 44, Union.  We're getting near the end!  Then what will I do with these 52 blocks!  I'll have to figure out a setting, which isn't my favorite job, but I will want it to be at least queen size.  Barbara Brackman suggests making 4 extra blocks for a total of 56 and lay them out 8 by 7.  With sashing and border that might come out to large enough.

Happy quilting!

A DAY AT LOVE'S

Jennifer and I arrived at Love's promptly around 9:00 AM yesterday morning.  We wanted to be sure we had plenty of time for sewing.  Of course, first we had to have a morning snack.  Love had extra tables set up for us in her sun room.  It's a lovely room with large windows to her back yard which has lots of roses, birds and squirrels to watch.  We ate at the table in the sun room (behind Jennifer).

Jennifer worked on her son's halloween costume first and then proceeded to start a nine-patch baby quilt.  Actually, it was a disappearing nine patch.  A neat pattern!  She finished that top and also put together 2 halloween quilt tops for her kids.

I worked on my "Gone to Texas" quilt.  Of course, I brought my Featherweight machine to sew on.  It is so easy to carry around and sews like a dream.  Love continued to work on lap quilts for the nursing home that her church plans to give for Christmas.  She is a little camera shy, so I don't have a picture of her.

For lunch, Love had homemade soup, salad, cornbread and brownies for dessert.  We also had cookies that Jennifer brought.  I was stuffed!  Oh, and BTW, Love keeps a stock of chocolate at her house too!  I was pretty good about keeping that to a minimum.  

It amazes me that 3 women meeting by blogging, different ages and situations, get along so well.  We talked the whole day.  Quilting is a wonderful hobby!  Thanks, Love!  BTW, I didn't see one dust bunny or spider web while we were there, so I think she went to too much work cleaning for us.  

Below is the assignment from my Jo Morton Class.  I put it up on my design wall to see if I liked the fabrics and I do.  Only the nine little (3") blocks are sewn together.  It will also get a border.

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are having a great weekend.  The weather here is wonderful!  40's at night and 70's during the day.

FINISHED FALL QUILT JUST IN TIME!!

First, last Saturday's civil war block #43 is finished.  It is named the Right Hand of Friendship.

I'm a much happier camper now that I replaced the batting in the fall flannel quilt with Mountain Mist Cream Rose batting.  Also, while trying to decide how to quilt it, I went to Sally Terry's site and found my solution!  Her book "Hooked on Feathers" has been recommended and while I didn't want to do feathers on this quilt, I wanted to see if she had any tutorials on her web site.  I clicked around for a while and came to a downloadable PDF file on "Terry Twist Squares" which proved to be my answer!  It's perfect for 9-patches!  If anyone wants to see the PDF file, when you open her web site, scroll down and click on the hyperlink that says, "Take up extra fabric with stencils video" and when you get to that page, scroll down to where it says, "Click here for downloadable PDF file."  You can see what it looks like in the close up picture of some of the blocks.  It went quite fast and easy!

Saturday, Jennifer and I will be meeting at Love's home for a day of sewing!  We are really looking forward to it and I will post some pictures of our day (if I remember the camera)!  Hope you have a productive sewing weekend also!

A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

It was a lovely day in North Texas yesterday and I spent part of it at a state park with my quilting guild.  We were demonstrating the art of quilting at the Harvest Fest taking place at Penn Farm, which was the home of some of the first settlers in this area.  The historical museum people were there also with their covered wagon.

Our guild and the LQS are helping the historical society by making this quilt, which is a replica of one made around 1857.  The names of the first settlers of Cedar Hill are embroidered around the edge of the quilt.  We had it set up at the farm to demonstrate hand quilting.  It's actually the first time I have every quilted on a frame like that.  It was kind of fun!

Here's a picture of our booth.  We were also selling tickets to a raffle quilt - hanging on the right side.

I also did some hand quilting on a doll quilt I'm making for Abigail.  It's made with leftover fabric from a quilt I made my DS & DIL  I love the delicate polka dot with flowers fabric.

Last June I won a giveaway from Kathleen and I showed you the fabric.    Finally, this week, I decided I better do something with it as it is fall fabric.  I wasn't sure what to do, so I looked through some magazines.  Nothing that would work, except I did see one with large 9-patches, so I decided to do that.  I wasn't sure how big it would turn out, but I just started cutting and making 12" 9-patches.  I had 7 FQs and one yard of fabric to work with.  I was saving the yard for the border, so when I used up all the FQs (except for some leftover strips), I had 8 blocks and I needed one more to make a square lap quilt.  What to do???  Then I got some inspiration and decided to make 4 six inch strip blocks and put them in the middle for the 9th block.  One FQ went for the inner border and the yardage is for the outer border and hopefully enough for the binding.

  Then I went to JoAnn's and got some flannel for the backing.  I had it all sandwiched together and started quilting, but just wasn't happy with the batting at all (it was too thick), so I ripped out the quilting I had done (only about 12" square) and today I will put in some lighter batting that I think will work much better.

Thanks for visiting!  Have a good week!

BUSY, BUT CAN'T SHARE MUCH

I have been very busy, but can't share many pictures.  Last year I made this pumpkin pin cushion and have it sitting on a little shelf in the hall outside my sewing "studio."  

I finished the last two Civil War blocks.  This was a nice easy one.  It's an H for Hospital.  During the civil war the Hospital flag was yellow and green.

I decided to hand piece this star and it went together pretty easily.

First thing in the morning, I have been stitching strip blocks for donation quilts.  The pile on the left is for girls and the pile on the right is for boys.  I decided to concentrate on the boys blocks now, because there are never enough quilts for teen aged boys (for the hospital that we donate to).  So, I'm squeezing some of these in and will try to get one finished next month.

Happy quilting, everyone!

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.

Mansfield Park Almost Finished

I started the Mansfield Park quilt over a year ago and it is almost finished!  Woo Hoo!

I'm finishing up the free motion quilting. I'm not entering it in any show.  This is my first quilt larger than a twin size where I have done the quilting myself.  Luckily, the actual quilting doesn't show up a lot because it sure isn't perfect!

I quilted it in two pieces because it would have been too big to quilt in one piece.  It measures 82" x 96".
Here it is laid out on a larger bed with the two halves lined up.

I sewed the two sections together and then placed it on a table with the top side down so I could prepare to join the back sections.

I trimmed the batting so each side would butt up against each other.

Then I folded the  backing in preparation for hand stitching it together.  I finished that and then quilted the section in the middle where the quilt was joined.  Tomorrow I'm going to bind it and I will post a picture of the whole quilt when I'm finished.  Monday night is my guild meeting, so it will be finished for that.

In my September 4 post, I told about a giveaway of a wool applique pumpkin that I won from JoAnn .  Well, Here it is finished and hanging on my china cabinet.  He's kind of prim!

His wonky smile is funny!  I don't have many fall decorations, so he can join what I do  have.

Thanks for visiting!  Enjoy your weekend.

Civil War Blocks and New Idea

This week's and last week's Civil War Blocks.  I'm all up to date!

Civil War Block #40, Order Number Eleven

Civil War Block #39, Hovering Hawks

 I saw this pincushion on someone's blog, but unfortunately, it got closed before I was able to save it.  I love ticking and have a button collection, was wondering how I could use this triangular button, so this was perfect!  I stuffed it with crushed walnut shells (I bought a bag several months ago and still have a bucket full).

I made a quilt from a panel and quilted it with cinnamon bun swirls.

 This is going to be a table runner

While I was reading blogs, I saw part of a quilt that the blogger was working on (again, I can't remember which blog - my bad) and found out it was in this book, Country Paths, by Jan Patek (which was on sale during September).  I have been looking for quite a while for a quilt with large applique and piecing in the more rustic style.

 This is the quilt that I fell in love with - Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers.  The only draw back is the size of 78" x 78", which isn't large enough for a double bed.  I would probably want to make it at least queen size.

Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers

Before I can start on this, I have at least three quilts (or more) to finish - or at least to the flimsy stage!  In the mean time, I can start looking through my stash to see if I have any fabric that I can use and what I might need to buy.

It was 52 degrees this morning!  Yea!!!