Not Quilting but Cute

I've actually been quilting a lot this week.  YEA!  But what I have to share are two cute snowmen Diana and I made.  She had already made one and I really wanted one too.  I spent the morning with her yesterday and we each made one.  Here's mine.

And, here's Diana's. It will look really nice with her original snowman which is made on a Pringles can. 

And here they are together.  I used a Pringles can and Diana had an old Slim Jim container.  I think we may need to find something else to do together as we had a great time.  We bought the same kit for making berry baskets while on vacation (separate vacations, go figure!) so that may be our next effort.  We  decided to wait until the cooler days of fall to work on them.

Next up two cute snowmen! 

I'm hoping to post again tomorrow with a finished quilt!  Now, back to quilting. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Something New and Quilt Show Trip

I got an early birthday present last week!  Yee HAW!  I have a new sewing machine with an embroidery unit... (wait, I wasn't going to get into embroidery -- except Pat said, go ahead and get it.)  So I have the 635 -- I'll get a photo of it sometime soon -- the one I took when we were setting up is blurred.  


I've been fighting with Ruthie still... I think the thread may be the issue but I'm not sure.  This afternoon I got the last 18"done.  But I ran out of bobbin with about 2" to go... guess what will be hand quilted at the end?   I am so ready to have this quilt done.  Tomorrow or Monday I'll make and apply the binding.  


I spent yesterday at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show with Diana and Jennie.  Great fun but boy we were tired when we left and then there was a huge rain storm on the way home.  Yuck.  Weird weather -- it was in the low 80's!  Less than a week ago we had 4 to 5" of snow.... go figure! 

I was in awe of the quilting on this particular quilt.  It was amazing.  Heck, a lot of the quilts were amazing.  


There must have been as many vendors as there were quilts.  We spent a lot of time checking out all the new gadgets, fabrics and the like.  I thought I was pretty conservative.  I only bought 2 fat quarters, a roll of wool felt and 1 pattern. (well, and a few pieces of jewelry... )  And, I did get some thread for Ruthie.  


I feel like it will take several days to recuperate from walking on cement for that many hours.  Some year I'd like to actually stay overnight there and spend more time with vendors and the quilts. 







Wouldn't Sophia look darling in a little dress like this?  It was on display at the Bernina booth.  I had to have a picture to remember it ... the flowers are embroidered. There is a line of decorative stitches where the green meets the pink.  Too cute.






I got a call on the way home saying my embroidery unit had arrived.  I'll pick it up Wednesday when I go up for my owners class.  YEAH!  Then I have to learn how to use it! 








Jennie was really taken with this quilt and bought the special ruler to make the rhomboid units.  It was a really cool ruler so I think I'm going to borrow it.


There were a lot of X Rulers being shown and patterns.  WHERE is my X ruler?  I have a plan for it and I can't find the darn thing!  


Happy Quilting All! 

Gem Show

The Gal Pals went to a gem show in northern Virginia on Friday.  We were nearing the end of the day before I started taking pictures.  Why didn't I think about this earlier? 

Rows and rows of beads to do it yourself.

Supplies to string your own beads.

Diana and Jennie deciding on cord to string some beads. 

We watched someone stringing some lovely beads and got a quick lesson.  Now I'm waiting to see Jennie's beads finished as a necklace.  

Honestly, I didn't think I would enjoy the gem show as much as just the fun time the three of us would have.  But I'm all ready for next year's trip and plan to buy some beads to string.  

I bought a couple of items but two of them I carefully put away in a purse... problem is it was Diana's purse. We have the exact same purse except hers is navy and mine is black.  By the time we were half way home it was getting dark and I carefully put away my cell phone and purchases.  Except, it was dark enough that I didn't realize I'd  put everything away in her purse.  When we got home I couldn't find my phone but finally checked her purse and retrieved my phone.  I just didn't think to check for my purchases.  Yep, had to call her to have her check her purse -- she had the pieces.  Sigh.  I'll try to post pictures of my new jewelry after I retrieve it from her! 

No quilting got done but I had a great time!

Happy Quilting All!

T-Day & Black Friday All Over

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with your neighbors at Jennie & Del's house.  I didn't get photos of the food before the feast but I did get a picture of the desserts.  Yum!

 From left to right Chocolate Gingerbread cake, pumpkin pie and apple pie.  Look below to see how beautiful that apple pie was. All those little leaves.  I mean, honestly it was too beautiful to eat.  NOT! And the ones I had tasted fabulously.

 We even went outside to play this crazy game.  Let's just say I didn't win.  You can't tell from here but the bean bags were in Virginia Tech colors.  Someone is a big Tech fan.

We briefly talked about doing some Black Friday shopping but really, going out at midnight to try to buy stuff?  Not me.  Pat and I were ready for bed by about 10.  Well stuffed and tired. 

I spent Friday in the studio working on the FCQ Equilter's donation quilt.  I am making blocks to go around the applique piece.  I was tickled to use my V Block Trimmer by Deb Tucker when making a block. I really like Debbie's rulers.  I get really accurate blocks using them. Here's the section I was making. 

 I used the ruler to cut the correct pieces.  Then I trimmed it down to the correct size.

 And, with very little effort I had my pieces sewn and trimmed.  I like that the pointy parts are trimmed while cutting the pieces.

Here is the block that I made.

Which way do you like best?

Does it even matter?

Check back tomorrow to see some of the blocks I've already finished.


Did you support the buy local Saturday?  I did!  I grabbed Diana and went off to our local quilt store.  Jennie met us there because she wanted to buy some fabric for a winter quilt.  I bought some blue fabric to use for a baby quilt and two pieces of red.  Yes, I know I'm adding to my stash but I've blown my acquisitions out of the water so why not buy what you nee  um, want to get?  They were also having a great sale buy two of anything and get the third free.  So I bought 2 half yard pieces and got the third one free.  And, I never have many reds around cause I use them so much.

I've been bad about blogging.  So I'm hopeful I can get about 3 blogs a week written for the rest of the year.  I always do Design Wall Mondays but I need to add a couple of more postings.  Sounds like a great new year's resolution. But let's see how well I do for December.

Happy Quilting All.  

Design Wall Monday 11-7-11

Eureka!  I finally figured out what was driving me crazy about this quilt that I am working on. 

See those bright turquoise and navy print strips.  YUCH! I've been steadily working on this quilt and have lots more done but I still wasn't thrilled. Saturday night I ripped all of those pieces out and Sunday I added a few more pieces.  Ah yes, so much better.  Although, honestly the whole thing looks awful in this picture.  The design wall isn't big enough, the cork behind the flannel is red, I have to pin the bottom pieces... honestly, the quilt looks much better than this shows! But it does show that I need to move some pieces around. 

This quilt is headed to Alycia Quilts for Quilts of Valor.  Did you read her post last Monday? Her cabinet is bare.  She needs quilts for the folks on her waiting list.  This seems a perfect quilt to send her -- masculine colors, a subtle cowboy theme (in the main fabric which I haven't used much on the front) and it will be easy to get it to the right size.  And, I'm using up some of my stash! No, it isn't done yet but it is my primary quilt until it is done. 


Do you ever sew something, leave it in your machine as an ender and the next time you come back you have NO IDEA what it is for?  Yep, that happened to me. Here's my mystery piece.  Yesterday I had no idea why I sewed these two pieces together.  This morning I remembered. I want to try Elaine's rebuilt log cabin so I am making a few log cabin blocks to try it out.  Duh.  Check out Elaine's tutorial on her blog. 

Goals for Week of 10/31/11

Finish binding on Quilt for Kids √

Wash√, package up and send Quilts for Kids quilts

Keep plugging away on beige and turquoise√

Sew rows together on 16 patch quilt

Load red, white and blue twin size quilt on Ruthie√ & it’s quilted!

Make lavender wreath√ 

Not too bad as I actually finished quilting the red, white and blue. Below is what I'm going to work on getting finished this week. We'll see how successful I am. 

Goals for Week of 11/7/11

Package up and send Quilts for Kids

Trim and bind red, white and blue twin

Finish beige and turquoise top

Piece backing for beige and turquoise top

Quilt two baby quilts

Finish counted cross stitch ghost ornament

Add two sections to the pink floral quilt.  Add triangles to square it up 

Yes, I started to do a little counted cross stitch.  I have a halloween tree with a few ornaments on it.  Not very attractive ornaments at that.  So I borrowed some patterns from Diana, a cross stitch queen if I've ever met one.  I gathered the supplies and started ... er, in early October.  For a while all I could do was one or two 18" strings a night. But, surprisingly, last night I got fired up.  I have the head and outline stitching left to do.  Yippee.  It will be done in time for next year.  I have a little candy corn I want to do also.  But the big motivating factor is I want to do a cross stitch Santa on a sweatshirt.  I've had the sweatshirt for years.  I had at least half of the floss.  So while shopping the big sale at JoAnns yesterday I bought the rest of the floss and another piece of waste canvas.  I'm ready to start after I finish the ghost.  I sure hope I am motivated to get it done before Christmas but don't hold your breath.  I tend to flit from project to project.  But, I might get really serious about this after I get my quilting projects done this month... I'll keep you posted. 

Do you like to see what is on other design walls?  Go over to Patchwork Times to  link to other's design walls. I'm going to finish this up and add my link.  Happy quilting all! 

                                     

Two Little Quilt Tops

I've wanted to do a twister quilt for some time.  Now I've tried two...

I was going to try to make the twister block into a pumpkin, hence all of the oranges.  It was a good idea but didn't come out right in the planning stages (see block below...) 


I actually like this orange version.  


Here's how it looked while I was working on it. 

And here is the practice plan for the pumpkin.  I flipped the ruler over to cut the two blocks on the right side thinking I could get the cute little indent at the top which I felt a pumpkin needed.  Which actually gave me a completely different look for the center of the quilt.  I don't know what I'm going to do with this knowledge but it didn't scream pumpkin shape to me so I made up the orange blocks in the regular style.  Any ideas on either making a pumpkin with a twister ruler or what we can do with the upside down ruler blocks?? 

Jennie, Diana and I went down to Williamsburg outlets for some heavy duty shopping.  I was looking for a different dress for the wedding and some pre and post wedding clothes.  Not much luck for any of that but we all got some things. 


Jennie loves caramel apples so we went into old Williamsburg so she could get some apples. 

Look at that Jennie -- she always knows when I have the camera on her!

We had a great time even if I wasn't thrilled with the clothing I saw.  Sigh.  Guess I'll have to go again sometime!

Happy Quilting All!

Life Is Good . . .

RUTHIE'S BACK

and

she's better than ever! 

Bill, our very mechanically inclined neighbor and Diana's husband, replaced one guide and the whole hook assembly.  I also got a new bobbin case.  Pat worked hard on it too but didn't have enough time to spend, well he does have to go to work.  Thanks bunches Bill.  Now, how are you on iPods?  

The first quilt up is this baby quilt Jenny did and boy howdy -- it is definitely fun to quilt!

 I'm stitching in the ditch on each of the squares and then stippling around the applique. 

Yesterday was a preview party for Quilter's Corner. Tiffany Sherman is the new owner.  She closed the store for a couple of days and reopened with a big hoopla. What better place to go with folks who are interested in quilting?  So I dragged invited Diana and Jennie to come with me.  After an early dinner we descended on the store. (Along with a nice crowd of interested folks.) We stayed for several hours enjoying the sights.  Diana even won one of the door prizes.  Needless to say I was terribly jealous when I realized the prize was a bunch of batiks.  I think she said they were 10 x 10" pieces.  Hey, I could definitely find something to do with those!  We all got a goody bag that included a fat quarter, a pen and chocolate.  I don't know why I have no pictures of Diana but here's Jennie checking out a quilt she likes and some fabric. 

If I didn't mention before we live on 2 acres in a small subdivision.  And, we have some serious gardeners living nearby.  I have been the grateful recipient of quite a lot of veggies and fruits.  Here's some of what we've recently received.  I call it Vegetable Still Life.  No zucchinis but lots of cucumbers. 

Half of tomorrow will be spent on Ruthie trying to finish Jenny's quilt.  The other half I plan to put together the baby quilt I've been working on.  Hopefully I'll post a picture of the top on Monday.  

Happy Quilting All!