Giveaway

Daisy over at Daisy dayz is having a giveaway of a gorgeous clutch purse. I normally am not a girly girl when it comes to stuff like that, but this one is so wonderful. Go check it out!

Mish Mosh

Been a bit of a messy weekend. It snowed/sleeted all day Saturday and that put a halt to going to get the border material/backing/batting for the shaded 9 patch and the batting for the Jacob's ladder.

So... I just worked on the flower garden. I really made a lot of progress. I sewed on 2 more flowers this weekend and all the white blocks around them. That makes 4 flowers sewn on since I started posting. I had made the flowers during last year so it was just a matter of attaching them.

Now things will slow down considerably because I have to make the flowers before attaching them. My goal is to make and attach at least 1 flower per week. I have 31 flowers left, so I should be done piecing the top in 31 weeks.

Here's a pic of Sunshine peeking at me whilst I sew.

Cats and Quilting

Bernina is the cat's meow!
(Sunshine using my sewing machine as a perch)

I have 3 naughty kitties; Jake, Max, and Sunshine. I also have a Lab named Maggie. My DH and I have always wondered about what attracts cats to quilts. I can't get any of my quilts out without one of the 3 firmly planting themselves on top of it. We think it is the pattern of the quilts that attracts them.

Jake helping me sew.
Max checking out the first quilt I made.

Max on my "trip around the world".

Max and Sunshine test driving the "Bowtie" quilt.

WIP #3

Good morning! Yesterday was quite productive. Did some house cleaning, laundry, etc... and still was able to sew on another flower plus about 10 of the white hexagons on my Grandmother's flower garden. I also called my quilter, whom I hadn't talked to in a year, and found out he is still working. I put my name on his waiting list, which is about a month long, for the Jacob's Ladder that I showed yesterday.

I had planned on going to JoAnn's today to get batting, since I have a couple 50% off coupons, but alas I am stuck waiting at the house. One of our heat pumps has gone out and the repairman is coming "sometime" today..... So I guess I will get cracking on sewing whilst I wait.

My 3rd WIP is a recent start. I have been slowly over the years making quilts for all the members of my family. I did a "trip around the world" for my mom, a "bowtie" for my in-laws, (it is the one in the header with my precious Sunshine laying on), and a log cabin for one of my nieces (the one in my profile picture). My son, whenever he comes to visit, loves to watch TV on the couch covered up in one of my quilts. I wanted to make him a quilt that he can take with him.

I wanted only masculine fabrics. I also wanted to incorbarate some material from his childhood. I had saved some of his shirts and pants and chopped those up. Also there was some other special fabric I wanted to include. So I picked a scrappy, "shaded 9 patch" to make him. For the last year I have been collecting masculine style fat quarters. Every time my local quilt shop, Loving Stitches, threw a sale I would go buy a few.

I cut all the 2 1/2 inch squares in 2 days and sewed it in 3 days

My DH and I were planning on going to the quilt shop tomorrow to pick out the border fabric, but a winter storm is headed our way. I hope it doesn't hit us as I would really love to get this WIP done.

I did learn quite a bit making it. If I make another one, I think I will make the contrast between light and dark a bit more prominent. I really wanted to incorporate all the "special" pieces in this one, so I had to blend it more and the contrast is not as bold as I wanted.

Ok off to sew!

WIP #2

Good morning! Was a quiet day yesterday. Spent most of it updating the blog and sewing on my flower garden. I was able to get a complete flower section sewed on. It felt good to make progress.

Today I want to show my next quilt that I am almost done with. All that is left is borders, batting, and backing. Then I can send it off to be quilted.

It is a "Jacob's Ladder" pattern made with Moda Chocolat fabrics. I finished piecing the top right before I took my year break. We started our remodel of the office/spare rooms that soon came grinding to a halt. I plan on finishing this during the next week to send off to my quilter. Here are a few more pics.

The first WIP I want to show you is my "Grandmother's Flower Garden" It is going to be a queen size quilt, (if I ever get it finished). I started this quilt about 3 years ago. I call it my "traveling quilt" because I mostly work on it when we are taking trips in our RV. I have also taken it to Scotland, Wales, England and Canada. I have worked on it in ME, NY, PA, VA, NC, GA, FL, MS, AL, LA, and TX so far. It is a great portable quilt.

I have been using a product called Quilt Patis, by Pati Shambaugh.




I keep most of the cut out hexagons, templates, threads, etc. in this plastic bin. It is great to grab when I know I have to go somewhere and need to pass the time.

I have 2 rows complete and have started row 3. I have several shots of the rows.

I chose 1930 reproduction material in honor of my grandmother. She was a quilter and I inherited my love of quilts from her. I plan on making some serious headway on this quilt this year!

Works in Progress.... aka WIP's!

Every quilter has them. I have three (ok really 4, but I don't count it as I barely started it)! I took a year break from quilting, well machine quilting. I did dabble with hand sewing during that time. The other two WIP's just taunted me during that year.

The reason I took a year break was I thought I would get my own sewing room. I didn't want to drag everything out and then put it all back away every day. Our son had left home and took all his things out of his room. I had big plans for that space but my "Dear Hubby" had other plans. It soon filled up with all his packrat boxes of things. I held out thinking I would get my room back. We had plans to build another garage for him to store all the boxes in. Then a year passed and it looked like the garage and my room would still be another year away. I decided to get back to sewing even though it meant dragging all my stuff out every day.

So I plan on finishing these WIP's over the next few months, (well all but one) and journal about them here. I hope you enjoy!

Welcome to my blog!

Well I decided to start blogging! I hope that anyone who finds this will enjoy my antics and experiments with quilting and life.