OMG Success!

It's done!  One small quilt: extra blocks made, top assembled, quilted and bound.  The only thing I haven't added yet is the label.  It will be done in the next few weeks.  There are previous posts about it here and here. 

I started the blocks for this quilt in 2010.  I was a member of the Small Quilt Yahoo Chat Group.  Every month there is a challenge quilt offered for members to make.  So, I made the little star blocks. And then something else took my fancy and they languished.  A couple of months ago I made one more star block.  

Once I decided this would be my first OMG quilt I figured out how I wanted to finish it.  I started in on it.  Next thing I know it was a top. I spray basted the batting and the top and backing. I had to add extra pins to make sure the layers didn't come apart.  I decided to hand quilt it using the big stitch concept.  I used two strands of regular DMC embroidery floss. (If I had a small enough pearl cotton I might have used  it but didn't have any and I wasn't going to buy any.)  I outlined the 5 stars and called it quilts. Next up time to bind it.  I don't always hand stitch the binding after applying the first side by hand. But I sat down and finished it off by hand.  It's the first finish for 2016 and it was a UFO.  And all of the fabrics came from the stash! Yippee!  I've added it to the hallway gallery.

Now to decide what to work on for February.  I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts OMG Finish Party for January.  Come see what folks succeed at this month.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Stamping and Shopping

I used to do a lot of cards with rubber stamps.  I have a large collection of wood mounted stamps and several groups of cling stamps.  But I really haven't done all that much with them for months or maybe years.  Last month I found out one of my quilting friends goes to a card club every month and I invited myself along.  

It was great fun although I found my skills were a bit rusty.  Can you say, really rusty?  There were 4 designs and we had supplies to make 3 of each card.  Needless to say, I didn't finish all of the copies of each design but I did get the main designs done.  Um, er, I forgot there were four cards so only pictured 3 of the cards. Hum, the colors are really light in the center card.  There are some flowers with leaves on the right side of the center card.  I will finish the extras of them and start using them.  (Some of them I left the sentiments off since I probably won't need a bunch of Best Wishes cards.  I left off another little saying on that card too.)

My daytime activity was a shopping trip to a quilt store I don't get to very often.  I met up with a bunch of quilters and headed to Stitch by Stitch. They do have a web page but it hasn't been updated since last year. (http://stitchbystitchquiltshop.net)  It's a nice shop with a fairly good variety of fabrics.  (Hum, I don't remember seeing any batiks but I wasn't looking for them either.)  They have a nice selection of classes being offered.  I was shopping for a dog quilt I will be making. 

Here's the pattern I am going to be making.  I love Atkinson Designs.  Terry's patterns are well written and easy to follow.  This particular quilt will be donated to Mid-Atlantic English Springer Spaniel Rescue to raise money for the group.  I may not have mentioned it but I volunteer with the group.   Some of the larger squares will have photos of our rescue dogs on them. 

And, I found these fabrics at  Stitch by Stitch: 

The dog sayings aren't exactly the right size for the pattern but I can make a few of them work.  Now, I need to get a few more photos of springers so I can have them printed on fabric.  And, I need to get going on this! I'm hoping to have it done by mid April so they can start selling raffle tickets.  I understand that it takes a really long time to sew all those little squares together.  I know it is going to turn out great! 

That's it for me today.  I'm off for a sewing day with friends. (Hum, maybe I did feel a little cabin fever from last week's snow storm.)  I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? and Needle and Thread Thursday. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Monday Meandering 1 - 25 - 2016

For those of you who wondered:  Yes we did get hit with a lot of snow.  Let's just say that Raggs is shorter than the snow! So much for the local sheriff living in the neighborhood getting our streets plowed early. (Heck, he probably stayed at his office since Friday morning when all this started.) We still haven't seen (or heard) a plow. Pat finally got the cars out of the garage and drove mine up and down our 250' driveway.  So, if we need to we can get out.  

Notice the bottom rail of the fence is covered. 

While all the snow and sleet came down I worked in the studio.  YEA for power for the whole snow storm!  Here are two quilts I finished on Ruthie this weekend.  First is Jane R's quilt -- she used the quatrefoil design from Missouri Star's video.  I used Superior Threads' So Fine, the pattern is Ginger Snap--one of my go-to patterns.  

Next up was this cute Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle quilt.  Superior Threads' So Fine using Mermaid Fingers. (Can I have more than one go-to quilt design?) Unfortunately I didn't recharge the computer that drives Ruthie so I had to wait for it to recharge this morning before I could finish it. 

Goals for this week and how I did last week. 

January 18, 2015

Finish January OMG quilt top√

Make backing for Bricks quilt(from challenge fabrics)√

Cut out & start sewing second challenge quilt Started√

Finish sewing one or more little antique 9 patch quilts√

Make more Sea Hawks blocks for FCQEQuilter not much done on this

January 25, 2016

Quilt Two Customer Quilts

Finish quilting patriotic table runner

Finish 2^nd little antique 9 patch quilt

Finish patriotic table runner (bind)

Finish quilting and binding OMG top

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Main Crush Monday. Check out all the postings. 

We may get a dusting of snow on Wednesday but next week the temps will be in the 50's.  This snow will only be a memory in just a week or so.  I'm leaving you with a picture of Ellie standing on their driveway.  Kevin says part of the snow is what he blew off the driveway.  Don't drop that girl in the middle of a snow drift, we'd lose her! 

Happy Quilting All!