Slow Stitching Sunday

 I'm still hand quilting my Grandma's Sewing Room quilt. I hand quilted in the ditch around the spools and jars. Now I'm using perle #8 and a laced running stitch all over in kind of a free motion hand quilting  to look like a loose thread. I thought you would be better able to tell from the picture that I only have 2 and a half rows left.  I didn't have the patience to take more pictures outside today. It's cold and windy.

 Maybe I will be finished with the loose thread (aka laced running stitch, hand quilting) by next week if I work on it a little each night after work this week.  I want to get done with it because I have other stitching I want to do - crazy quilting.

This is the back of the quilt and you can kind of see where the running stitches are.  I like how this looks and feels.

To see what others are slow stitching this week visit Kathy's Quilts Slow Stitching Sunday. 

XOXOXO, VALENTINE !

I've made more X, O and Heart blocks - 18 total and no design wall to display them. I can't decide if I want to keep them separate in rows by block type or mix it up. Since I've got many more blocks to make and more valentine fabrics to cut I guess I've got a while to decide.

Hugs and Kisses, Love!

I've finished several UFOs so far this year so I gave myself permission to start a new quilt. I love valentine fabrics. I love vintage valentines. And that's about as romantic as I get.

Sweet! (Last Quilt of 2012) ?

I finished the final lap quilt I'm giving as a Christmas gift. This one is for my youngest son (John III, single, aged 28).  I think he eats a lot of junk food as a steady diet so I chose some of my candy fabrics to use as centers for happy blocks. This is similar to the happy block quilt I made for oldest son and his girlfriend. 

Happy back. 

Swirly quilting (with a few bumps in the road).

And I added an embarrassing label (no pic)-

Sweets for my Sweetie, Junk Food Johnny

Love Mom

Christmas 2012. 

Since I've finished it up and it's Friday I'm linking to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.   And, since everyone wants a Whoop, Whoop! I'm linking up to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

Telltale Hearts

I believe pieces...

...unite to make a whole...with a heart. I believe this is a quilt before the final stitch has been taken and a label attached.

Who are these women who want the right to silence the beating heart?  And after the silence do they hear the beating of the telltale heart?

Oh My Stars!

Every quarter I take part in a 3 inch 9 patch swap over on Block_swappers Yahoo group. I just sent this quarter's blocks in and figured I better get back to turning my 9 patches into Sister's Choice stars before I get the next patch batch back.  (Say that 3 times fast). I've made a dent in the pile. 

Working on It

Handquilted in variegated brown perle #8. This is my first time hand quilting and I rather enjoy the process even tho' this old farmhouse has no a/c and it's been over 100 degrees on some of the days I've worked on this. (Call me driven? Call me crazy?) I love this embroidery frame (or whatever it's called). On the other hand, I've tried to use several different types of thimbles and liked none of them. The callous on the end of my finger will have to do.  I may add binding tomorrow and be finished with it. Then I'll wash it and hope none of my thread knots come loose since this is the first time I've done the hidden knots and I've done a lot of them.

I love chocolate! 

Roses are Red, Skies are Gray

A few months ago I saw an hourglass quilt I really loved on the cover of a quilting mag while browsing at a store.  I thought that would be a good block to use for my collection   hoard of roses fabric. I didn't want white as the neutral color so chose some grays from my stash. I have lots more rose fabrics but may have to pick up more grays. 

This will be a lap quilt. Another one for my favorites collection. (I love Cherries/ Hi-Ho Cherrio was the first fav). 

And here I would insert a photo of some of the roses blooming in my garden, but it has been raining off and on all day. 

Roses are red, skies are gray. 

(Actually, some roses are yellow and some white).

Linking up at "Quilting by the River" linky party and "Quilt Story" Fabric Tuesday

Fine and Dandy Garden Blocks

A few weeks ago I was looking for a little more fabric for a quilt backing and ended up making some Dandy blocks. I then liked them too much to use for a quilt backing so decided to make enough for a lap quilt from what I had in my stash and ended up with 20 blocks - 12 inch finished. 

Dark picture, I know. It was raining outside so dark inside. But this is how they look on my design floor.  

I'm trying to decide on a border. Suggestions welcome. 

Linking up at Quilt Story and Quilting by the River

Autumn with a Twist

Blocks for a swap on Mailblocks Yahoo Group called "Autumn with a Twist".  For every participant I need to send 1 - 12 inch block, 2- 6 inch blocks and 4 - 3 inch blocks in fall colors. There are 8 participants and we had to sign up for different block patterns. After the swap, August 1, I think I will have enough for a great quilt. My choice of blocks: 12 inch= Sister's Choice, 6 inch= Posy, 3 inch=Bow Tie.

I Love Cherries (or Hi-Ho Cherrio!)

I didn't know if I should call the quilt "I Love Cherries" or if I should name it "Hi-Ho Cherrio" after one of the first board games I played as a little girl...

...at any rate...here it is...a lap quilt which measures about 72x79. I've been collecting cherry themed fabrics for a couple of years. I'm not sure where I first saw the Japanese X and + block. I think I saw a picture on some link from a blog from a blog from a blog...but I eventually searched and found a tutorial at a blog named badskirt. 

72 blocks make up the quilt. 

How can you be in a bad mood when you are surrounded by so much color? 

This is the backing...little kids and cherries. Sweet. I quilted it on my sewing machine with a concentric circle pattern in variegated blue thread on the back and cream colored on the front.  Those aren't knots in the picture...they are little pieces of thread that got caught in the quilting.  I had thread snippets everywhere. In the middle of quilting my thread seemed to break after every couple of circles. I cleaned the machine, I changed bobbins, I re-threaded, changed needles, re-threaded again, cussed quite a bit and then finally changed the brand of quilting thread I was using as top thread and then all went well. 

I have other collections of fabrics of my fav things. This is the first of many quilts to use up some of that fabric. I thought it would be a nice lap quilt to take to the nursing home should I ever see that day. But by then there will probably be "death panels" that will deem me unfit to even see another day. 

Hmmm... Didn't I just say "How can you be in a bad mood when you are surrounded by so much color? "

Linking up at Quilting by the River and Quilt Story

Happy Summer

Last year we swapped summer themed 5.5 inch squares over on the I Spy Yahoo Group. I used the swapped fabrics for the centers for a happy block...

 ... and now I have them all sewn and quilted into a quilt for the camper called "Happy Summer". I'm sure the DGKs will love to sit on it under a tree and play games with their cousins at the campground.

I don't have (and probably never will) a longarm quilter but I got a little adventurous and tried a free motion quilting beginner design from Leah Day's website called "spiral knots". Backing shows as white on my monitor but it is actually a light green. 

And now I'm linking up to Pigtales and Quilts  because she is having a linky party - I Love a Good Swap Party because I do! 

There will be more to come because I have lots of blocks in drawers and wips because I have participated in swaps for years on all the lists I'm on.  Next up will probably be my Buckeye Beauty quilt that just needs a border, quilting, and binding. 

If I Saw This in a Quilting Book or Magazine I Probably Wouldn't Make It!

Remember these 350 HSTs I made for part 3 of the Quiltville Orca Bay Mystery? 

Well, for part 5 of the Quiltville mystery we needed to add "wings" to the HSTs so I cut 700+ 2 inch triangles and then sew them to either side of the HSTs. I added some blacks with color this time - bats, cherries, flowers, hot peppers, shamrocks, pumpkins, lady bugs, polka dots. 

If I saw directions for a quilt that included sewing together so many small pieces I don't think I would make it. I would think it too large a task I would probably start and never complete. But, I do love a good mystery, viewing the variety of fabrics everyone is  using and sewing along with a lot of ladies from all parts of the world to create the same quilt - a virtual quilting bee. And, all the ladies are linked up at Quiltville if you want to take a look. 

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

Answer: The Orca Bay Mystery quilt so far, of course!

Clue 4 to the mystery my very well be a red herring!

I have finished my 68 5.5 string squares in red. But, alas, I have only cut a few in half and re-trimmed accordingly. Now, if only I didn't have to work for a living, well...I could...

Anyway, if you want to see the bits and pieces of the mystery (er, I mean clues) so far go visit Quiltville and the Orca Bay Mystery.

The Case of the Floating Jar

I've finished my last Christmas gift quilt for this year. It's for my youngest son. It's a bookcase quilt full of jars of sand (he collects them from places he and others go on vacation), candy (his daily diet), aquariums, books, money and all sorts of other goodies. It wasn't until I took this picture that I noticed I left one jar floating above the shelf. How it does that is a mystery to me! And so I've labeled this one "The Case of the Floating Jar". Get it? (My husband didn't).

Bound for Turkey

Bound: I finished sewing on the binding on 3 baby quilts last night. They are made of scraps - novelty fabric fronts, batting scraps from other quilt projects, flannel scraps pieced together for the back. Nothing fancy but they should keep a few babies warm.

Bound: I mailed them this morning. They are now bound for Turkey- victims of the earthquake sleeping in tents in wintery conditions. I hope they have a safe and speedy trip and warm some children's hearts and hands.

Out of Scraps Comes a New Beginning

Yesterday a lady who lives in Turkey sent out a message to the CQI (Crazy Quilting International) Yahoo Group requesting quilts for the kids who are victims of the Istanbul earthquake. They are living in tents in cold winter conditions. I dug out my bin of kid scraps - leftovers from I Spy quilts, ends from quilt swaps and baby quilts - and started cutting and sewing together scraps for a new beginning as quilts for kids. 

I have 3 tops made and tomorrow after work I hope to get my batting scraps sewn together as well as fabrics (possibly flannel) for backings. Hopefully I will have them quilted, bound and ready to mail this weekend. Three quilts seem so meager in the grand scheme of things but I hope they get good use. They are nothing fancy but will be warm. And I hope the families in Istanbul can also rise up from the rubble and start new beginnings soon.

And once again I thought I was caught up on Christmas presents and could work on something for myself yesterday. Soon, I hope, I will be able to finish what I have started...

But then again...it's not all about me.

Postage Stamp Quilt

I've finished another Christmas quilt and am that much closer now to be able to get back to making things for myself.

The center part is the old "postage stamp" pattern. My "stamps" are 2.5 inches. Most fabrics are my own scraps but some are from postage stamp strip swaps or postage stamp "build a block". They have been in a bin for awhile so I dug them out for this queen-sized quilt for my daughter and son-in-law for Christmas.

The border is made of 10 inch Sister's Choice blocks. 

As usual, I quilted on my plain old sewing machine. For the center I quilted diagonal lines. On the border I fre form quilted on the black sections but not on the star. The backing is gray 108 inch cotton. No, I didn't have a sheet that felt right to back the quilt.

I had some trouble quilting the loops on the border but you can't tell on the front. There are a few "eyelashes" on the back. I left them. My DD and her DH won't even know they aren't supposed to be there. Kind of reminds me of my DD anyway...when she would be giving me trouble all she had to do was bat her eyelashes at her dad (my DH, the softie) and out of trouble she would magically be.

Feeling Crumby

I had (and still have) a lot of novelty fabric "crumbs" - pieces I refuse to throw away - ends from cutting for I spy swaps, pieces left from other quilts.

Grandma taught me about quilting and about "waste not, want not". So, I decided a box of crumbs had to move out of my sewing room and into "I Spy" crumb quilts to give as Christmas gifts ...

...for some grandparents like my brother and wife who live in TN and have three grandkids under the age of four...

...and for my sister and husband who have 4 grandchildren (or is it more now?) and I think 2 are under the age of 4...

...and one is for my grandson, Jacob, who is 2 1/2 and loves challenges. We will start with find a "watermelon" and advance to "find a fruit", "find something to eat", find something you would use in a game", find something that rhymes with fat"...

With these quilts I really have wasted not so I should not be wanting for quite a while. Front was made of crumbs, I sewed together pieces of batting (also hogging up room) to fit the quilts and used thrift store flannel sheets for the backing. Binding was also old fabric and so I guess the only thing new was the thread.

I spy some fun and games between generations coming soon!

Fruit Basket Upset

It started with a 4 patch swap - white tone on tone with fruity colors like grape, blueberry, cherry, tangerine...

...then I added some HSTs, also in fruity colors and then I found a fruity border fabric...

...and I decided on the Jacob's Ladder pattern for sewing them all together...

...then I quilted it on my sewing machine because I don't have a longarm (sigh)...

It's queen-sized, a Christmas gift for someone and I call it "Fruit Basket Upset". I used to love to play that game during recess at grade school. I just had to Google it to remember how it was played.

Excuse me, I think I hear the quilt police knocking...I used a soft (softer than my current bed sheets) pink thrift store bed sheet plus a little of the border fabric for the backing.