JULY FREE MOTION QUILTING CHALLENGE

The FMQ challenge is hosted by sewcalgal.  Angela Walters of Liberty, MO is the FMQ expert for July.  Her design called "Tiles" is a good way to fill a large space or border of a quilt.  Here is my sample piece for July. 

RAFFLE QUILT, SOME PROJECTS AND A WIN

I'm supposed to be selling tickets for the raffle quilt for the Cedar Hill Quilters Guild, so I decided to post it on my blog.  The drawing will be November 12, 2012 for this original quilt designed and made by members of my guild.  (I didn't make any blocks).  The large center block is painted on fabric.  Tickets are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00.  If anyone is interested, please email me - no pressure at all.   Just if you are interested.

Quilt Valley Farm

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from Janet at Rogue Quilter.  Look at all the loot I received!  A charm pack, mini quilt, 3 bars of handcrafted soap, and a pincushion.  Thank you so much, Janet!

The mini quilt/mug rug is 7" square!! and hand quilted!

I love the charm pack fabrics, so...

I decided to sew them together right away.  I have made this block before, sometime last year.  It's called the 10 minute block (you can google 10 minute block to see how to do it).  I didn't even have to cut any fabric and I had enough for 8 blocks!  The top is done - I don't know when I'll get it quilted.  The sides of the squares in the middle of each block will be turned in like the cathedral window quilt.  This will be a lovely new Christmas table runner for my table.  The table runner I have been using is quite old, so I think it's time for a new one.

I made a flag placemat for a friends birthday.

These are some cross stitch projects I just finished.  This one will be made into a pillow.

and this one will be the center of a crazy quilt block that I need to make for a guild quilt.

Hope you have a good week!

"THE MESSENGER" BOOK REVIEW

At first glance, The Messenger  didn’t seem like the type of book I would be interested in even though as historical fiction it was among my favorite genres, however, as I read, it really grabbed my interest.  Hannah Sunderland was brought up as a Quaker but during the revolutionary war in Philadelphia, situations arose that made her question some of the teachings of her faith.  Since her twin brother’s defection of the faith’s pacifistic beliefs by joining the colonist fighting against the crown and his subsequent imprisonment, she can’t help but try to help her twin.  She faces serious dilemmas concerning truth and obedience to her parents and her faith.

After becoming involved in helping a Colonial spy, things go from bad to worse, when her Quaker teachings conflict with what she feels is the right thing to do.  This book by Siri Mitchell is a terrific read and I do recommend it to you.  I received this book free of charge in exchange for writing a review to publish on my blog.  If you are interested in doing this, go to www.bethanyhouse.com.

ELLIS COUNTY QUILT SHOW

Friday and Saturday I went to the Ellis County Quilt Show.  Friday a friend of mine (non-quilter) and I went out to lunch and then to the show.  Saturday I went back to volunteer at a boutique booth and then pick up my quilts.  

Here are a very few of the quilts that were in the show.  There were a lot more that I really liked, but I didn't take a lot of pictures.

Granny's Garden by Rhonda Hughes Montee ( a member of my guild) designed by Lori Holt, I believe 

Cedar Hill Quilt Guild's raffle quilt for 2012, "Quilt Valley Farm" (my guild)

Kate's Wedding Quilt by Libby McDuffie 

Don's "Jane" by Don Locke & family

 Don hand quilted the Jane quilt by himself and made most of the blocks.  His wife did all the appliqué and his daughter and granddaughter made a few blocks.  I was happy that he was there when we (Love and I) looked at his quilt.  It kind of makes me want to think about making it someday.  I've thought about it before, so I can think about it again without making a commitment.

"Mine" by Drena Cromaz

"Memories" by Katie Redd

Black and Tan by Sue Whisennand

Love had two quilts entered in the show:  "Wise words of our Founding Fathers" and "America - Founded as a Christian Nation."  We met on Saturday afternoon and had a good time visiting and looking at quilts.  I hope she posts her quilts on her blog.

I entered three quilts in the show.  My Kaleidoscope quilt:

Colonial Glory that I got honorable mention for.

Tumbler Charm Tablerunner that I got a blue ribbon and a hand quilting award ribbon.

I got lucky!  

50th ANNIVERSARY QUILT FINISHED

Tuesday morning, I finished my"50th Anniversary Quilt" and put it on the bed!  Yes that is the name as of now, unless I think of something I like better.   last thing I had to do was quilt in the outer black border.  I waited until I had sewn on the binding so the quilting wouldn't get covered up at all.  I still have to make a label.  Since our anniversary is next month, I thought it was OK.  This picture shows how I quilted the black borders.  It doesn't show up in most pictures.

Here it is on our bed.  The bedroom light isn't very good because we only have 2 small windows, but I think you can see it well enough.  I am sooo glad to have it finished!

I made a potholder for my guild's salad supper and potholder exchange.

I am now planning to get busy with a couple projects that I have been planning for quite a while.  One is a secret project and the other I will probably show as I work on it.  Nothing to show yet, though.  Hope you have a great week!

AN OLD DOLL AND CHRISTENING DRESS

Last week, when I needed a break from quilting, I decided to wash and iron the doll dress for this doll as well as the christening dress that I have.  I think this was my Mom's doll, although it may have belonged to her sister.  It's only 10" long and has a porcelain head, but the body is something else - maybe paper macho.  I have shown it before in a little doll bed. 

This is the slip she wears.

The back of the slip with hand sewn buttonholes.

A better look at one of the buttonholes.

My grandmother must have sewn the clothes.

It's possible that this doll belonged to my Mom's sister,  Cora, who died on June 16, 1912 from scarlet fever.  I didn't realize that it was 100 years ago this year.  My Mom was one year old at that time.  Mom said that she loved to play with dolls and did so until she was about 13.

This christening dress was found in my Mom's stuff and we can only assume it was worn by her and possibly all her brothers and sisters.  I finally got it washed and ironed.

I got this vintage hangar last year at a flea market.

I'm going to finish my king size quilt today.  All that is left is a 2" outer border that needs quilting.  I finished the binding last night !!  Yea!!  I'll take a picture and post it tomorrow.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

July 4th is a special day and is a good day to re-read the Declaration of Independence!  I love to fly our flag!

This is one of my favorite wall hangings.  It depicts the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  I have made several of these, given some away and sold some.  Now I need to make one for us.  I think I have enough of the fabric left.  When I saw the fabric I bought several yards and have used most of it.

I'm still quilting on my king size quilt and I'm working on the second to last border.  Yea!!!!!  I plan to use a scrappy binding of the fabrics that I used in the blocks.

Hope your holiday is good!

QUILTING AND MORE QUILTING

Monday morning I decided to baste my king size quilt (as yet unnamed) on the floor of the dining room. First I washed the floor and then taped about 2/3 of the backing down.  I couldn't quite spread it out all the way.  I used some knee pads that DH had in the garage or my knees would have been toast.  Spreading the batting and the top was no problem.  Then I started pinning.  I was getting hot and tired - it was not a pretty site.  I pinned so good that I used up all my pins and went throughout the house looking for more.  At that point, I decided to do straight stitching on the black squares so I could then take out some pins to use on the remaining 1/3 of the quilt.  So I did that and then it went back on the floor to finish pinning.  

The reason I basted it on the floor instead of on my tables is that I wanted to get the backing stretched out better than would be possible on the tables, which wouldn't have been as big as the floor.  The last time I basted a queen size quilt on the table, I spray basted it and I had some problems getting the top placed properly.  Actually, I think I like the pinning method best.  I'll use the spray basting method on smaller quilts that are easier to handle.

Using the dual feed foot to do straight stitching on the black.

Quilt is spread out on my sewing table & ironing board.

Feathers in part of the border.

FMQ on a block.

I have to give Joanne from Thread Head all the credit for the QAL (quilt-a-long) for this quilt.  I am also borrowing her borders that she used to enlarge her quilt to king size.  Also, I am using her idea for the  quilting in the triangle section of the border.  Thanks to her, I am a lot more comfortable quilting feathers. I can't claim to be very original at all.  The quilting motif for the pieced blocks is the same one I used on my last quilt.  It is easy to do and fit the size of the blocks - that's why I'm using it.  I'm afraid that once I get to this stage, I just want to get it finished!!

One night I woke up about 1:00 AM and started thinking about what I could name the quilt and I thought up what was a pretty good name.   The problem is, I can't remember what it was!  Thanks for the suggestions that came in.  I'll have to think about it some more.

This is the new sign that was just put up at the pond that I walk around in the mornings.  The sun was just barely coming up when I took the picture and it was behind the plaque - that's why the lighting isn't very good.

I better get back to quilting.

TOP FINISHED!!!

This morning I finished putting the borders on my king size quilt!  Yea!!!  I hope to get it basted this week and begin the quilting.  It is 110" square, so it will take a while to quilt.  This will be the test to see if I can quilt something this large on my sewing machine.  

Please give me any ideas for a name for this quilt.   I would appreciate it!

Last night we heard a noise sometime between 8 and 9 PM.  I looked around the hall, but didn't see anything.  This morning, DH said that our window had been broken and it looks like a gun shot.  See it in the picture below.  The bullet didn't go through both panes of glass, just the screen and the outside pane.  We called the police and they came out and looked at it, but there's nothing that can be done other than to watch out for other similar cases.  What is wrong with people today?

It is the window in our guest bedroom (actually, it's more like a sewing fabric and UFO overflow room) and you can see the alley below the window.

Kind of a good and bad post, but we will look on the bright side.  Hope your Sunday is good and you can get some sewing accomplished!

JUNE FMQ CHALLENGE

The June FMQ challenge tutorial is from Cindy Needham.   Her tutorial was extremely helpful and I do want to thank her for participating.  First, I want to thank her for  handout on beginning and ending quilting lines.  When I read her method, I was so relieved because I had just spent a lot of time burying my threads in a quilt and I did not like that method at all.  I also liked what she had to say about imperfection!  She said, "My quilts are full of beautiful texture and movement and they are imperfect...and I love them."  And her advice on quilting circles really works.  Go to SewCalGal, click on the June FMQ challenge on the right side, and you can read Cindy's tutorial for all the details. 

My submission below was really fun to do.  I used some of her ideas and actually came up with an idea or two of my own!  I hope to be able to incorporate these ideas in some of my quilts.

I finished this twin size quilt and while it's not my favorite, I do like it a lot and am glad I got it finished.  It was started at least 4 (maybe more) years ago when I took a class at the local quilt shop, which has sadly gone out of business.

Some of the gals from my quilt guild are now knitting baby hats for the Children's Hospital and I have started as well.  We get together on Saturday mornings at a coffee shop to knit and talk.  I hope to go for a little while tomorrow as it is fun and the raspberry mocha coffee is yummy!  The baby hats can easily be knitted while riding in the car or truck too.

CURRENT PROJECTS AND OLD LINENS

Last week was very busy for us.  We went to the Apple store 3 times to get our desktop upgraded and it's still not totally done.  I don't know why.  We may have to go back again.  With all our driving around and sitting and waiting I worked on knitting baby caps and cross stitching a new project.  (forgot to take pictures of those things).

Now, I am quilting this little quilt  - Prairie Huswyfe - that I won from a blog.

My couch project now is sewing the binding onto the back of this quilt.

Saturday was a good day!  I needed some fabric for the binding of the above quilt and I got an email from Golden D'Or, a fabric outlet in Dallas.  Since we were at the Apple store anyway, I told DH that I wanted to swing by the fabric outlet to see if I could get some blue and brown fabric - I'm low on both.  I had received a 30% off coupon (which I thought was just for one regular priced item, but it turned out it was on my total purchase of regular priced items)!!  Unfortunately, they don't have many reproduction fabrics and that is what I was looking for, but I did find these that I liked, so I bought 3 yards of each.  The "regular" price was $4.50 to $4.99 per yard, so I got all 9 yards at less than $4 per yard!!!  I will definitely be going back there more often!

I just read Lori's blog and she asked if any of us collected vintage linens and do we display them.  So I took a few pictures.

Doily on my Grandma's old book stand.

Tea towel (bought at garage sale) hanging over old rocker (also bought at garage sale).

Little tablecloth that my Mom embroidered topped with old buttons in a dish and some of my doll dishes.

Little bag that I found at a garage sale with my MIL's initials on it - H on one side and J on the other side.

I am always drawn to old linens at garage sales and thrift shops.  I want to make something out of some of them, but haven't figured out what yet.  I display some of them as you can see.  I especially look for anything with tatting on it.  Last weekend I got a hankie with exquisite tatting on it for $1.00!!  I have quite a collection of hankies now, some with crocheted edgings and some with tatting.  Any ideas?

Have a great week!

THANKFUL FOR THE MEN IN MY LIFE

Happy Fathers' Day to all the Dads out there!  I am so thankful for the men in my life.  

My Dad:  Sverre Jarl Andersen (my grandparents were from Norway and Sverre is a popular name there) was a wonderful Father and we were very blessed that he lived to 89 years.

My DH, who has always supported me in whatever I did - and now is my daily companion in life.  He puts up with all the sewing, knitting and embroidery that I do, drives our camper thousands of miles and is a wonderful Father to our sons and Grandfather to our five grandchildren.  Plus he makes the bed every day, does the laundry and is a general fix-it man.

DS#1 is a pilot for FedEx in Oregon and the father of Angela (below) and Jakob.

DS#2 lives in Florida and is the father of Abigail (he just graduated from nurses training).

DS#3, lives in Arkansas, is a pilot in the Air Force and the father of Jonah and Eli.

I'm so proud of the wonderful Fathers that my 3 sons have become!  Have a great Fathers' Day!