UFO FINISHED - AMERICAN CROSSROADS

I saw the American Crossroads quilt about 10 years ago and decided I wanted to make it.  It was published in the Fall/Winter 2005 Quilt Sampler magazine.  I didn't start it until 2016 and finally finished the top in January of this year.

I basted it (as you can see below) earlier this month.

I spent about 11 1/4 hours quilting it on my Janome 6600 sewing machine and  finished it last week.  My clothes line isn't high enough for it not to hang on the ground. The quilt measures about 100" x 90".

Here are some close up pictures showing that most of the fabrics are civil war reproduction fabrics. 

This picture shows the quilting best.  First I stitched in the ditch of all the blocks and then I quilted a flower shape on top of each 4-patch.  In the border I quilted "Swirl Scroll" from Angela Walters "Free Motion Quilting" book.

Today I also started working on another UFO, a small quilt with embroidered blocks - I'll show this one in another post.  It's feeling good to get some of these old UFOs finished!

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?

 It seems like I have been so busy lately, between sewing a lot and just living.  Last week I had to have oral surgery done for the second time on the same tooth root.  I don't think I did much sewing for a couple days.  I had to return to the dentist the next day (in Salem) and was feeling pretty good, so I went to the thrift shop that is right across the street from the dentist's office.

I saw a doll cradle there for just $5.00 and with Wednesday's 25% discount for senior citizens, it only cost me $3.75.  It didn't come with a mattress, pillow or quilt though, so I had to make those.  Apparently, a lady that lives somewhere on the coast decorated this vintage doll bed by pasting fabric flowers onto it.  She made a lot of other items that were decorated the same way and donated to the shop.  (The thrift store supports a cat shelter).

When "shop hopping" a couple weeks ago I saw this John Deere fabric and bought one yard and one yard of the yellow fabric.  In July, I am a vendor at the Great Oregon Steam-Up held at Powerland Heritage Park.  At the park is a John Deere Museum, so I thought I would make at least a table runner pertaining to that.

Also made an apron.

This doll outfit was a panel of fabric.  It fits an 18" doll.

Thanks for visiting!  What's going on with you?  BTW, the weather has been perfect here!  Today it's 68º!!

MAY STRING REPORT

This month I started a new string project since I had finished a string quilt last month and donated it.  I had thought about making a spider quilt for quite a while and this seemed the perfect time to get one started.  I went to Bonnie Hunter's web site and scrolled down the free patterns page to Spider Quilt.  I followed her instructions and got started.  Below is my second batch of 20 triangles.  Each one is half a block and it takes 4 blocks to get a spider web.

Here is what I have done so far.  The first 6 blocks are sewn together on the top left and the 20 triangles are just placed on the design wall to see how it will look.  I have used up the solid brown fabric that I had and will next begin to use some other tans and brown pieces for the "kite" sections.

For Memorial Day, I hung up my E Pluribus Unum wall hanging that I made a couple years ago.  The center block is something that I picked up at a garage sale and I have 2 more of them.  I used bow tie blocks from a block exchange for the setting.  This is one of my favorite wall hangings.  The quilt rack was made by DS#3/DIL as a Christmas gift about 10 years ago and it is perfect for displaying quilts.  I like to have different wall hangings to display for different times of the year.  I want to make a fall quilt to hang on it next - one of these days!  It hangs just inside our front door and there is a vintage chair to the left with a doll quilt (from one of Lori's doll quilt exchanges) hanging on it.  Under the wall hanging you can see a little of some felted wool flowers (another garage sale purchase) sitting on a tea cart.

Thanks to those who made suggestions regarding the problem of my comments not posting.  I am still thinking about what to do about it - if there is anything that I can do.  I may try a couple suggestions to see if they will work.  

MEMORIAL DAY

We aren't doing anything special today except having DS#1 over for dinner.  He has a flight to catch this afternoon, so we're eating early.

I decided to do a post and let you know about the problems I'm having with Blogger.  I have been reading blogs and commenting, but the comments don't seem to go through.  I usually see a "sign in" notice at the top of any blog I am visiting, including my own, and when I click on it, it takes me directly to the page we go to when we want to start a new post or change something on our blog page, etc.  Even when I'm on someone else's blog!  And I don't have to sign in, I am already signed in.

But, when I want to comment on someone else's blog, and I type something in the comment field, it doesn't recognize me with my name in the bottom of the field - and that's when I don't think my comments are working.  Last week, there was one time when my name did appear in the comment field, but now I can't remember which blog it was, so if you did get a comment from me, please let me know.

I'm sorry that you haven't been receiving my comments and I don't know how to fix it.  Any advice will be appreciated.  I did leave some feedback to google, but I don't know if it will get to anyone,

Well, enough of that!  On so a few pictures.

This is a wall hanging that DH liked a lot.  I like it too.  I had made one to sell and decided to make another one for us.

A long time ago I shows pictures of some blocks that my Mom gave me.  The blocks were made by my Grandma sometime in the 30's, 40's or 50's.  I had planned to make them into a bed quilt, but I got to thinking about it and in talking to my sister, I decided to make a wall hanging or 2 out of them and offer to give the blocks, either as they are, or made into wall hangings, to any of my cousins who might want them.  I just finished one wall hanging using 2 of the blocks.  I plan to keep this one for myself.  It measures 22" x 40".  The next one I make will be a blue tulip and I'll put blue fabric on the corners to make a smaller wall hanging.

 
I recently realized that I don't have a patriotic, red-white-blue table runner of my own!  I have several other table runners, but I need one for the summer holidays.  So I started making some 6" sawtooth stars in civil war fabrics and I will probably alternate them with blue squares.  I might even make a r/w/b table topper for my dining table.  This is what I have so far and I plan to make some more red stars, but haven't decided how many.

Today is a day to remember the sacrifices made by so many so that we can have the life we have.  I am very thankful for our wonderful country and the many men and women who keep our country free (including my son and DIL).

AMISH DOLLS and A HAT

I finished the Amish doll family and was able to load the photo onto the computer.  I don't know why they quit going to the computer automatically.  

My DIL wanted a hat to wear to DGS's baseball games, so I told her I would make her one.  She had been looking for one when we were visiting them last month.  I got it done today and tried it on.  I'm wearing it outside on my patio and the sun is too bright for you to see the yellow side.  Here's a photo of both fabrics before I sewed them together.  Blue and yellow are her favorite colors.

It's reversible and I think the blue side will be the "main" side.  Both are batik fabrics.  It's such a beautiful day, so I sat outside on the patio drinking tea and reading a book on my tablet.

I hope your weekend is lovely too.  If it isn't, maybe you can stay inside and sew!

KEEPIN' BUSY

I've been keeping busy making items to sell such as the snowball and sunflower table runners below.

I couldn't resist taking  this picture by my clamatis plant.  The sunflower table runner has 4 squares of sunflowers and is about 48" long.

Last year my sister asked me to sell some items for her on Ebay.  Two of the items are crocheted tablecloths that one of my Mom's friends crocheted for her and my sister didn't have any need for them,  I don't have a need for them either.  I procrastinated for about a year before I decided I better get busy and wash them as they each had a few stains.

My friend "Love" from ijustlovequilts.blogspot.com has blogged about soaking vintage linens in her bath tub, so I got some advice from her (it's also on her blog I think) and put them in the tub to soak with BIZ (I didn't have the other kind).  I really was amazed at how much dirt came out of them and the stains really don't show any more.  You can see some staining in the one below, but after it hung in the sun most of the day I really couldn't see it any more.  Thanks, Love!

I'm also making a family of Amish dolls.  I had bought the panels for them years ago at a garage sale and thought I might have given them to a thrift shop, but lo and behold, I came across the panels while looking for some other fabrics!  So I decided I would try to get them made up and I am almost finished. The directions printed on the panel aren't the greatest, but I think they will be cute.

I'm having trouble getting pictures of the dolls to load on my computer, so I can't show them now.

I have a bag under my sewing table where I toss triangles from various projects.  Every once in a while I will take some time to match them up and square up into HSTs.

Bag full of triangles

These are the ones that I made last week with triangles from the bag.  These then go into bags marked with the various sizes.  If I ever need some HSTs, I always check the baggies of the size needed.  I used some of these for the quirky little quilt that I made and posted about here.

Yesterday we had a lovely rainy day - the first one since before Easter.

String Quilt Report, Etc.

My string quilt is all put together and quilted.  I'm stitching the binding to the back this morning.  This will be a donation quilt.  I have made a few quilts like this and from now on I am going to do something different.  I'm tired of this design.  The last row in the first picture is one of each color because I needed another row and didn't have enough of one color to finish it.

The other half hanging on the the shady side of the clothesline.  We have been having beautiful weather lately!

My quilting was mostly swirls and echo stitching around swirls randomly done all over.

Another finish is a patriotic round robin donation quilt.  This will be donated to a veteran in a hospital.  It's a project in my quilt guild for the season and last month we got the quilt we started back and I quilted it.  I'm always amazed at how good the round robins turn out.  I started it with the center panel - that part was easy!  I did a lot of straight line stitching around some of the borders, cross-hatched the flag block and quilted curvy lines and stars in the white outer border.

I pieced the backing as you can see.

My quirky little quilt is finished with the striped binding.  I stitched in the ditch for each pieced block and quilted the rest with navy blue thread, so it is hard to see.

The backing is a blue print.  It feels good to be getting some projects!

I'll end this post with some beautiful flower pictures.  The lilacs are blooming here and this is a bush that we walk past on our morning walk.  We had to stop for a sniff - just love lilacs!

The dogwood tree is right next door and is beautiful now.  Too bad it doesn't keep the flowers longer.

My clematis has it's first bloom - with lots of buds to follow!

I still need to get more done in the yard.  Yesterday I planted 4 rows of onions (short rows).  My neighbor had extra and gave them to me.  I have never grown onions before.  I still need to get a tomato plant.  Do you plant a garden?

MY HANDSOME MEN, ETC.

After our Easter dinner, DS Dan said he wanted a picture of the 3 generations of men since 2 of them had suits on.  DH put on a jacket and we took pictures in the front yard.  BTW, Dan played the piano at our church service and Jakob played the organ at the First Baptist Church in town.  We had a beautiful day!!  Of course, we missed the other men and women in the family that live far away.

DH Rich, DS#1 Dan and DGS#1 Jakob

I forgot to add this to my trip post.  When I saw this on the kitchen wall from a distance at our DS#3's home, it looked like a quilt.  Closer up I could see that it was lizards colored and glued onto construction paper.

Here's a closer look at it.  They all fit together without any spaces between them my 10 year old grandson made it.  I wonder if this would be hard to make as a quilt?

Yay!  I found the unicorn pattern!  I plan to make the one with the rainbow mane.

I got the new AQS magazine and love this bird wall hanging.  I'm thinking about making it, but having 2nd thoughts.  After "Skill Level" it says "Easy!"  After reading through the instructions, it doesn't look easy to me.  Plus it will take many trips to various shops (this is the good part) to find the
pieces of fabrics for it - 6" to 12" squares of 16 to 18 cuttable fabrics for the bird!!! as an example.

What do you think?  Do you think it would be fun or a chore?

I'm quilting a patriotic round robin which will be donated at the May guild meeting.  I'm about half way done.

I'm also quilting the Quirky little quilt from the Temecula quilt-along.  This was a fun little project.

Thanks for visiting!

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?

We were out of town for about 10 days and I have gotten behind in my blog posting and reading.  But now we're back and we have recuperated from the long drive.  DH used to be a truck driver and he loves to drive, so we drove to Kansas City, Kansas area and back.  3 days each way.  It's about 1800 miles.  On the way, we drove through Sister, Oregon (and on the way back)  so I stopped to see if they had the Unicorn pattern that I had seen there last year.  I want to make the pillow for my DGD.

They did have it, and I bought it, but right now I don't know what I did with it!  I'm sure it must be here someplace and I will find it when I'm not looking for it.  As many of you know, it is the Stitchin' Post that started the outdoors quilt show in Sisters many years ago.  

I also bought some unicorn fabric by Tula Pink.

We went to Kansas to visit DS#3 and his family.  There are 2 boys, ages 8 and 10.  They are both on baseball teams and we saw 4 games that the 10 year old played in.  The picture below has him in it, but you can't really see what he looks like.  Out of the 4 games, they won one game.  But, they also won a game after we left and DGS pitched for part of it.

This is the decoration on my son & DIL's front door.

Three days there and three days home, we saw lots of mountains and in fact most of the trip we either could see mountains or we were traveling in them.  Some beautiful scenery such as the photo below, which was taken from the car with my cell phone.  You can't see it very clearly, but there are snow capped mountains in the distance.  We saw lots of snow capped peaks on the trip.

DH told me that I could fly if I wanted to, but I didn't see the point of spending more money to fly when he was driving.  I didn't mind most of the trip except the day that he drove over 1,000 miles (because we left late on the first day and we wanted to get there in time for a baseball game on the 3rd day).  We did make it in time, by the way.

Here are the 3 blocks for the Quirky Little Quilt Along.  I went to my HST collection, which I have divided into baggies for each different size and found some that I could use so all I had to do is sew them together.

Happy Easter!