Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

 

Life is great this Easter Sunday as we celebrate another beginning.  My Daughters are here along with my Son in Law doing things around our home that are much appreciated.  Fortunately the weather has held out to get a few outdoor chores accomplished too.  My Son and Daughter in Law called from Florida earlier today.  My Granddaughter and Great Grandson called from Virginia.  Finally, because the time difference, I spoke with my Son in Law in California.  A spiral ham, mac and cheese, potatoes, brussell sprouts, corn, and butter cressants for our dinner will get started shortly.  We will follow that up with bananna bread in one of the two flavors that my younger Daughter created.  It will definitely be a great day with family.  As you can read, it has been a very busy day!

My older Daughter has been visiting this week doing this and that.  Younger Daughter has spent most of the week here too.  There have been jigsaw puzzles on the table and fabric running under the needle during this time.  And let me say many late nights laughing as board games are played.  Hubby and I are very happy when family visit.

I have been working on a paper pieced ice cream cone quilt for a neighbor who is to have a baby in June.  I made this same design years earlier for a Project Linus charity quilt and thought it would be a good choice for the neighbor's baby whose gender is not yet known.  What you see is the auditioning of borders.  Which would you choose?

Fear not I have made the decision in going with the darker border without the inner border.  A pale blue solid will be the back and a bright orange/white dot will be used for the binding.  There should be plenty of time to get this done before the baby arrives.

Other projects slowly find their way into the sewing queue.  I am recovering from a cold that had me down for way to long.  I am back to the things I love to do...  Hope you have a wonderful Easter.  Until next time be safe and blessed.

Sunday, September 3, 2023

 

Hello Friends!  It has been a few months since I last shared my sewing projects.  I am further into using up my stash with charity pillow case projects.  Perhaps I have not mentioned before that these go to the Childrens Hospital located in Washington, D.C.  What you see are just the last group finished.  

At this point I have made 31 pillow cases and love doing them.  I can practically do them with my eyes closed :).  

While Sandra was here we shopped for a few fabrics during Hobby Lobby's 40% off fabric week.  There are new ones yet to be made.  I am sure by the next time you read about my sewing there will be more to share.

Taking a break from pillow case making is this charity quilt project from a panel.  Sandra put the layout together with some very cryptic instructions.  The post-it notes started to come off and I was quite lost.  She put it up on the design wall and now I am ready to tackle it.  There were three panels and this one is the one with the green borders around the flowers.  I have already made the blue borders panel project and have a red one yet to tackle.

My last post showed this block in progress.  More units are cut to make several more that will go to the local Quilts of Valor organization.  Got to love the Patriotic symbolism and celebrate the heros that are our veterans.

DH and I have had a spectular time these last few weeks with first, Mike and Barbara visiting for nearly a week.  Arriving the same day a big surprise came Karen, Tiffany, Matt, and Greyson with a visit for the day.  We all had a fun filled afternoon in the pool making lots of memories that we will cherish.  Karen brought Sandra down a week later just missing Mike and Barbara.  Sandra stayed a week and Karen bless her has spent at least a day or more with us each of the last three weeks.  Karen and Sandra leave tomorrow and Sandra leaves for her trip home the next day.  All this surrounds DH and my Birthdays along with our 70th anniversary.

So I close for now until the next time Sandra visits and has me around to navigate Blogger!  Take care my friends and have a blessed day.

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Sandra is back and surprise of all surprise...she has me with a new blog post chronicling all the recent projects I have accomplished from kits she put together for me during her last visit.  Yes, I did have my sewing room in order!  This project is my most recent finish called Scattered Leaves.  I started with cut strips for the log cabin part of the block as Sandra had made the leaves needed for the block.  I am using up all my stash and the border came from it.  I have the back using this same fabric along with the binding.  Here it comes Sherry.

This Orphan Block quilt brought back memories as it was stitched together.  Sandra put the setting pieces together for the project.  To perfect the quilts I stitch, a practice block is made first.  This is how I end up with a stash of orphans.  The horse in this project is probably the oldest.  The two Sunbonnet Sue blocks come next and the butterfly along with the others.  We did have a place left so the pink block was made to fill in the spot.  How do you like the border?  Karen calls it as an Easter fabric.  It works and all from my stash.  Another to Sherry once a back and batting is ready.  I also have the binding to prepare.  Dale there may be one ready for you in the coming days.

This is the Quilters By The Bay BOM that will be turned in at the May meeting.  I was going for the "boys" in the fabric choice.

This one gave me fits!  It was from Quilters By The Bay February BOM.  I finally have it together with a bit of help from Sandra.  I will get it into the winners hand at the next meeting.

Sandra set these up for me from a childs cloth story book.  I just got it back from Dale who did the binding and before that Sherry who did the quilting.  It is so darn cute.  Hard to imagine the blocks came from a story book.

Here is another just back from Dale and Sherry.  These girls sure help me complete all the scrappy charity quilts that come from my stash.  Check out the cute cat border.

These are my favorites to sew.  Joan wonders why I am not taking on any of her kits that she passes out at the Quilters By The Bay meetings since she knows how much I took them before Sandra started cutting up my stash.  The hardest part is finding kid themed fabrics 24" in length and WOF in my stash.  Sandra keeps my pillow case kits coming and coming.  I still have lots more to sew in my bottomless project drawer.

I am anxious to get all these projects to the various charities they will go to.  It is great having my two daughers visit.  Karen came last weekend with Sandra.  Work needed Karen during the week so she only stayed over the weekend.  Sandra stayed a week and of course there was quilting involved along with time spent with her Dad doing various things.  Karen is back this weekend that she has extended by two days.  We will be doing puzzles, bingo, and perhaps a new game called Spinner.  As I have said many times life is good when family visits.  Hope all is well with everyone and my prayers to those struggling with issues.  Get some time for yourself and do what you love.

Saturday, October 29, 2022

 

My most recent finish.  The first four of several pillow case quilts pulled from my "kit drawer".  I am not sure which one I like best.  Is there a favorite of yours?  Note the one on the left has a common theme with another project I have been working on.

Warm Wishes is the second of several quilt projects I have pulled from the "kit drawer" to work on.  This pattern is a favorite of mine.  It makes up quick and uses stash that is a big goal of mine.  I sent the measurements off to Sandra who sewed all the remaining scraps from both the pillow case and quilt projects into a back.  She finished it this week and it will be headed to me shortly.  She also found fabric in a light gray and prepared binding for it once quilted.  Some young child will love the quilt and matching pillow case.

This kit is headed my way too for adding to the "kit drawer".  It is called Scattered Leaves made with a combination of my scraps and Sandra's.  The leaves were a bit tiny finishing at 1 1/2" each unit or a 6" leaf block.  Sandra knows me well enough that making them might be too much a challenge so she made the 20 leaf blocks that the size quilt I plan to make will be made and not become a UFO!  The project will get a border, but that will get figured out once the 20 finished blocks (as you can see from the sample Sandra made for me) are done.  She sure is keeping me in the sewing room and away from puzzle making LOL!  Well almost!

This was the first quilt project that I took on.  It is called Broken Courthouse Steps.  I had all but three blocks done before Sandra left in early September.  I finished those three blocks right after and then put the rows together.  This one is great as there are no seams to match except the union of the blocks.  I have another "kit" using this pattern in my favorite Patriotic colors.  It will use a different unit and block arrangement than this one.  More on it in a future post.  The back is ready for this one.  Another piece of yardage from my stash.

You might remember the table runner Sandra finished for me while visiting.  I had three options for a back and this one was the winner.  It feels so good to use my stash!

Both Sandra and I couldn't find anything appropriate in our stashes for the back of the story book quilt project.  Fortunately Hobby Lobby did!  I have binding prepared for when this one comes back from quilting.

I can't finish off this post without sharing Greyson's Halloween costume for this year.  He just loves heavy equipment...how appropriate is this?

Until next time, have a wonderful Halloween.

September 26, 2022

 

Sandra wants to work on the making of this back next.  So I will be working on the rail fence design cut out into one of the kits ready for me.

This is the kit along with a sketch of what it needs to end up looking like.  Once I have this sewn Sandra will know how big the back needs to be.  All coming from my stash!  I hope to get to this one after I finish the Broken Courthouse Steps project I started with from her cutting fest!  (Photos to follow later.)  I have all the blocks done for this scrappy quilt and am sewing the rows together right now.

This is another kit all cut out.  All the parts are ready for me, but this one will probably take some time before it will be started.  I had so much of the fabric that will be used for the backing (top) that Sandra took some home for a project she will be making for her nephew and family.  Her nephew, Andy, is the Line Backer Coach for the University of Illinois.  She's planning on two quilts for their downstairs game room in the University's colors, blue and orange.  You will need to check out her blog in the coming days to see when she gets this one going.  

Another project pulled from my stash is this cute one that Sandra continued from her home, is a fabric story book panel squared up with the red/white print.  She saw a friend cutting out a similar book that was made into a small quilt.  

The cloud fabric was also mine shared with Sandra a while ago.  It hadn't been used until now.  How about a bedtime story?  It is all done, just needs a back.

These projects will all come back to me too!

After some sort of design for the flower panels is decided, cut, and kitted up.  

These are orphan blocks.  I always test a block out before I start a project.  These will be made into a sampler quilt.  Why let something go if secondary project can be made with them.  Just takes math to make them all work together; fortunately for me I have Sandra :)

Finally, for now that is, is this fun project that will use up all these fabrics hopefully.  She may need some more from my stash, there is USPS Flat Rate Shipping to get them to her for cutting.  I think more blues, browns, greens, and reds will be heading to San Diego, CA.

If you happen to be wanting a craft show this weekend, my daughter Karen has a booth.  It is her first ever craft show.  You all know how awesome she does with creating crafts.  Wish her the best outcome!  So wish I could help her out, but it is just too much to fight the busy traffic getting there.

So let me close with my great grandson Greyson at the barber.  He's just so darn cute, of course I'm not partial at all!

September 16, 2022

 

Wow it has been a year since I last updated my blog.  "Sew" let's bring it up-to-date!  This is my sewing room.  All neat and tidy...sure hope that I can continue to keep it this way.  Sandra was just here visiting for nearly two weeks.  She spent much of her time sorting through my stash and preparing kits for me to work on.  What you see on my design wall is a kit of nothing but scraps in 2 1/2" by 4 1/2" pieces of darks and lights.  The pattern is Broken Courthouse Steps.  There are 20 12 1/2" blocks total; half considered dark and half light.  The darks are all done and just a few of the lights so far.

Closeup of two blocks.  There are no seams to match until the rows are sewn together.  This is the first of two kits in this pattern.  The second kit is in red/white/blue, but I get ahead of myself...  There will be sharing of it when the time comes that I will work on it.  The girls at Quilters by the Bay and a few of my followers know how much I love patriotic projects!

This is a tablerunner that I started last year in a Quilters by the Bay workshop.  Sandra helped me finish it off.  It is ready for quilting.  Wait until you see the back I selected.  Sandra sure knows how to move through my stash!

This is my "kit" drawer.  There are three quilt projects and 27 pillow cases in this drawer.  Each one is cut and ready to sew.  Old "Mr. A" has made it difficult to cut.  Sandra has me ready to take precut kits and sew until there is no tomorrow on my trusty Berninia.

A new pair of scissors that will work around "Mr. A" was ordered and delivered from an Etsy Seller.  The larger holes make it "sew" much easier with my fingers.  I am still getting used to them, 4" is the size of these.  The Etsy Seller has other sizes too...we shall see if another pair comes in the future.

DH turned 93 a couple of weeks ago.  He was really surprised when this cake showed up at the golf course with all his golf buddies singing Happy Birthday to him.  Frankly, I was surprised by the singing :).  No cake came home!  The golf cart got pushed into the icing by the lid that was on the cake.  The guys commented that it was stuck in the sand which brought a chuckle to them.  DH has the cart next to his chair in the living room as a reminder of the event.  

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to share of a surprise birthday cake that I got just a few days earlier at a Pitch Game that I attend on Mondays.  Mine looked a bit like this one, but it said Happy Birthday Betty (and my age).  What a surprise...everyone sang and no cake came home.

Sandra and I drove to see my favorite Great Grandson one day while she was visiting.  This guy is so darn cute!  Tiffany, Greyson's mom is really doing a great job with him.  He is so smart at two years old this past June.  So now I will close with a treat for you as Greyson enjoys his!  Until next time be safe and wonderful everyday.

September 1, 2021

 

Sandra and I were so thrilled to be able to visit this young man!  Of course we enjoyed visiting with my niece and her husband, but this was only my second time to be with my Great Grandson.  I'm still working on what I should be referred to when he starts talking :)  We practiced a lot of "up and down" moves on the slide.  (Sandra was standing right behind him so no falling would be possible.)

Well, I'm sorry to cut this short...Sandra is here and DH wants dinner.  I hope to start posting again regularly, for now though at least I brought my blog up-to-date.  Its been since 2019 since I last posted!

Take care my friends!