Finish it February!

I had a major finish so far this month!  Well, two major finishes to be precise.  The quilts pictured below were finished and delivered to two little girls in NH.  Three days after Christmas 2017 their house burned taking everything they had and three pets.  I had the tops in my quilt armoire waiting for someone to inspire me to finish them.  I decided to finish them and donate them to the little girls.  Quilts are meant to warm and comfort, not sit in storage for 10 yrs like these two did.  And I think it’s important for small ones to know that there are people out there who care even if they don’t know who those people are.

Resurrecting this blog

Since I am sewing again, and knitting and doing cross stitch, I decided to resurrect this blog.  I’ll be posting about my sewing experiences with quilts and purses and whatnot, as well as some of my knitting exploits and cross stitch projects.

Xs and Os Quilt

Recently, I discovered quilt tutorials on You Tube done by Missouri Star Quilt Company.   What I really like about them is they involve easy ways to cut and sew quilt patterns that usually take FOREVER to put together.  I've gotten over my snobbishness about what "real quilting" is and have embraced all the time saving techniques I can.  

Even more recently, I bought a series of videos from Craftsy.com, which has been taking so much fabric money from me it's ridiculous.  The videos are made by Missouri Star Quilt Company, too.  They are fabulous!  One of the quilts Jenny teaches is the Xs and Os quilt.  I decided to try it with some fruit fabric I've been hoarding...er....COLLECTING...and came up with this wall quilt.  

I want to hang it in the kitchen, but I don't know if I can figure out a way to attach it to the cinder block wall.  Whatever, I'll figure out some place for it once it is quilted.

Husbands as Props for Quilt Photography and other Cool Stories

Without going into the various deficiencies of the dwelling we have in Hawaii, let me just say, it's not a quilter's house.  There is no place to hang a design wall where one could pin up a quilt to take a picture.   So, after trying various venues for photographing my Rose Garden quilt top, I had a workable idea.  

Bob decided to take a siesta in his living room chair yesterday afternoon.  I have often cautioned him that should he fall asleep in an accessible area and I am experimenting with a new hobby or technique, he could wake up dyed, painted, quilted, beaded, etc.  The only thing I vowed not to do is cut him into little pieces to make a Bob Quilt.  He always thought I was joking...well...maybe not....

Still puzzling about how to spread out my quilt to best advantage, I glanced at Bob's sleeping form.  Bob is a little over 6 ft tall and was all stretched out in his chair with his feet on a footstool. PERFECT, I thought.  I can spread the quilt over Bob and it would be high enough and even enough to get a passable photograph.

Bob woke up as I spread the quilt over him and was happy to assist.  He probably figured that functioning as a photography prop was preferable to many of the other things I could do in pursuit of my various hobbies.

I have a confession to make: I am a total convert to quilting pre-cut fabric.   I have resisted jelly rolls, layer cakes, turnovers, honeybuns and other dessert-named fabric shortcuts.  And charm packs held no charm for me.  

I have bought yards and yards and yards and yards, etc. of fabric over the years.  I've cut it into all sorts of shapes and had scraps and bigger pieces leftover.  This is what REAL quilters did.  They didn't buy pre-cut 10", 5" or 2 1/2" pieces that make  piecing faster and easier. 

 Well, shame-faced, I have to say...I have bought my first charm packs and layer cakes.   I like them because as fabric gets more expensive and I get older, I realized that buying yardage is costly and I have more fabric than I can possibly use in two lifetimes, let alone just the one I have.  And I've found it easier and faster to cut these into useful shapes.   AND they contain entire fabric collections, so they always go together.  Here are a couple of examples of some cute pre-cuts

 Mind you, back in the late '80s I didn't think machine quilting was "quilting" at all, but I have been machine quilting since the mid-90's.  So I guess this old gal can learn new tricks.

Rose garden quilt

Geez...first I don't blog forever and now you can't shut me up!  Two posts in one weekend!  Gotta blog when the spirit moves me!  I'm going to try to cut back my hours at work to no more than 9...not 9.5, not 10 and DEFINITELY not 12.  I get so exhausted that by the time the weekend rolls around...I don't get much housework done...all I want to do is play.   So, I did this weekend :)

Here's a quilt I've been working on.  I call it Rose Garden.  I love the fabrics.  They came out around Valentine's Day and I bought a yard of a few designs.  Then I thought of making this quilt, so I ordered a whole big bunch more.  Good thing, because I can't find it anymore.  

I'm using setting squares for the sashing, something I haven't done in a long time.  I always sucked at measuring and getting the squares right.  But, this time it's going quite well.  The blocks are about 14" square with 3" sashing, so  few blocks will go a long way.  Funny thing is I made a BUNCH of blocks, so I have a whole lot leftover.  

I'm not done with this yet.  I'm adding at least one more row horizontally.  Then I think I'll put a 2" border of the sashing fabric and then either the red rose fabric or the striped fabric for a 4" border.  

Stay tuned!

I'm back!

Although I haven't been blogging on this blog, I have been working on quilts and fabric in general.  While looking through my extensive stash of fabric, I found some that made me wonder what I was thinking when I bought it.  Like this piece:

It is probably the ugliest piece of fabric I've owned..EVER...and  I've been quilting since 1987.  
When I first found it, I thought it was inside out....but, nope, it is right side out the way you see it.  The stuff I would never put in a quilt is going into a pile to be made into cotton crocheted rugs like this one I made:

 
 I had yards and yards of drapery weight fabric my mom had gotten in a community yard sale years ago.  The fabric was leftovers from the funeral parlor across the street from my mom's house when they made new drapes....kinda funny :)


This rug is almost 4ft across and it is gracing my foyer.  We have beige carpeting in this house and it never stays clean...so I'm covering it up.  Here are some others I made:

 I think I am obsessed...there are a few more rugs in my future as I clean out my stash....
 

Retirement Quilt

I'm planning myself a retirement quilt.  I know, I'm starting early, but it takes me time to make a quilt. For my first spring in New Hampshire after I retire I want to snuggle under a new quilt made by me!

I love log cabin quilts.  So, I decided to make myself a log cabin quilt in purple and rose and yellow polka dots.  I've made two blocks so far.  And you'll note that I have a black cat-shaped spot on my two blocks. And this spot is apparently washing his feet....on MY quilt blocks.