Double Trouble

That's the name of this wallhanging that I made for my daughter and son in law, Jess and Greg. The pattern is by Gail Stalley. I modified the cats to look like their cats and they just LOVED it! With the pre holiday preparations, that is really the only thing that I worked on the past month. Finding any sewing time was hard to do! I am now off until New Year's Day, and have grand plans on getting some things finished. Yesterday I finished all the machine applique on my Starry Nights in Winter top and got the backing pieced and it is all sandwiched and ready to quilt.

In this pic, the applique is just pinned and fused down. Hoping to get it quilted and done tomorrow. Not sure what is next on my list. I have 3 or 4 quilts all ready for backings to be pieced and to be sandwiched. I have LOTS more tops in various stages to be worked on. I always have the urge at this time of year to get more finishes on my list before the New Year, do you feel that, too??? Today is a sewing date with Shellie and Judy and I have no idea what I am going to work on. I am going to try to be good and NOT start anything new, but hey...ya never know!!!! Hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season and I will post pics of the sew date later!!!

Table Runner is Finished

The Cobbled Court Quilt Circle just had a table runner swap. I posted a pic of the wonderful table runner I got from Sandra S. and finally am posting the table runner I made for Connie. She said she liked Mary Englebrecht style. I hope I got this right!

It is straighter than the edges appear...the grass was a little clumpy underneath it. I've been doing a lot of handsewing, also, but nothing to show there. Have some running around to do today and then hope to get into the sewing room. Just not sure what I am going to be working on. I have resisted the urge to start the new Bonnie Hunter mystery so far. I think I am going to wait until the reveal as I wasn't too crazy about the last one. I might do some more sewing on the Rectangle Wrangle..or maybe piece some backings together to get some more quilts finished up. Ah...endless choices!!!! Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!!

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine vol. 5 quilt

Oh, I forgot! About a month ago, I received back my quilt that I made for Quiltmaker's 100 blocks magazine, vol 5. This quilt was made from one of the patterns in the magazine and was featured along with others in that magazine. It then hung in the office at the magazine until September and then made it's way back home.

You can tell I took this picture last February before I mailed it in! LOL...no snow yet this year!! This quilt will make it's way to House of Mercy to be loved there.

Table Runner Swap

This is the beautiful table runner I received from Sandra S. in the Cobbled Court Quilt Circle swap. She really knows me and this is just PERFECT for my house!!! She also sent me a candle topper but I still have to get a pic of that. Thanks so very much, Sandra!!!!! This is my finished Christmas Quiltalong quilt:

The colors are more true in the close up pic. Sigh..that is what I hate about it getting dark out so much earlier...bad lighting to take pics! lol I love how this one turned out and it will be a great addition to my donations to House of Mercy. Thanks, Sue, for a great pattern!!! Soon I will be able to post a pic of the table runner I made for the swap...my recipient hasn't gotten it yet...and another finish, hopefully!!!

Be Still My Heart!!

Look at the gorgeous quilt I just received:

I will try to take a pic when the light is better outside, but this will do for now. This was made for me by my Cobbled Court Quilt Circle sisters for my recovery from my heart attack!!! I don't know HOW they pulled this over on me...I heard some were working on their blocks at the retreat we were at together!!! For once I was speechless..and had tears in my eyes. I don't know if these ladies know how much they mean to me..and what this gift means. Words can't express my thanks fully. But thanks...to each and every one of you angels!!!

I'm a winner and it's the Thursday Night Quilt League!

I won this wonderful pin cushion from Elizabeth over at Sand and Sunshine!!

Thanks so much!!! I just LOVE it!!! Tonight is the first night of the Thursday Night Quilt League. That would be me sewing lol. I figure my hub gets every Tuesday to go off golfing, so Thursday is my night where I am here...but NOT here! I made a lot of progress on things this past weekend, so I will be working on these same projects tonight. I made the base of a table topper for a CCQC swap...the applique will be tonight:

I also made 35 blocks for my Rectangle Wrangle...53 more to go..will be working on these also tonight:

I got a lot of tiny 9 patches made while making those blocks as my leaders and enders:

I got them added to my leaders and enders quilt:

So, that's the progress up to today and hopefully will make some good progress tonight. Stay warm!!

Step by step

I thought I would be further along (read that as DONE) with this quilt by now, but I didn't get any sew time until tonight. I have the borders on and the applique all set to machine stitch. I am hoping to make a start of that tonight after Patrick goes to bed. In the meantime, cutting down more scraps! I have to keep reminding myself NOT to get upset with projects taking a little longer than I expected..just take it step by step and it WILL get done!! Here's the progress so far:

At Home With Country Quilts

That's the name of the book that has the newest pattern I am working on. It is by Cheryl Wall and if you like warm looking, country quilts, this is the book for you! These patterns work wonderfully with plaids and stripes, shirtings, etc. I'm sure they would look just as great in bright colors, they just wouldn't look country! Here is the center of the quilt I am working on, Starry Nights in Winter:

Now I am off to add the borders and start the finishing touches on it. I can't wait to see it when it's done..and can't wait to pick my next quilt from this book!! (Okay, okay....AFTER I get some of my UFO's finished!!!)

Update

Well, after working all day on going through the scraps, here is what I got done:

Sure doesn't look like it should have taken me all day, but it did! Lots of ironing so I could cut those little bits up. There is a big tote full of projects in varying stages I was gifted and miscellaneous blocks, a tote full of Christmas fabric, lots and lots of strings in totes that are not shown, and the wonderful yardage and fat quarters that I gleaned. I still have 2 and a half bags to go through! lol That's it for today, though. Last month, Bonnie Hunter had a challenge of doing an hour a day of hand sewing. I am going to challenge myself for the next month to cut scraps daily. Not only do I have these scraps to cut down and organize, I also have a HUGE moving box full of my own scraps. I am going to shoot for an hour, but will take any time at all. These new meds I am on for my heart are kicking my tush. I sleep 10 hours a night, nap when I get home from work and am zombie like the rest of my awake time. Even sewing is wearing me out, so I am hoping that sitting and cutting the fabrics up will at least make me feel like I am still useful. Not sure I am going to get to work on my Christmas quilt tonight, but I haven't ruled it out yet. Off to see what everyone else did today!

Christmas Quiltalong and the generosity of quilters

Yay!!! Today is the Christmas Quiltalong!!! Elizabeth is our hostess this month over at Sand and Sunshine. Today I am hanging with my Patrick, so I am unable to get upstairs to my sewing room. For those of you that don't know, Patrick is 20 and has cerebral palsy. I'm not able to carry him up stairs, so we will be working downstairs today. For the Christmas quiltalong, I am digging this quilt top back out:

This was made from swap blocks from the Cobble Court Quilt Circle. I am going to get the backing pieced and start quilting it. The machine I quilt with is upstairs, though, so that will have to wait until Patrick is asleep tonight. Quilters are amazingly generous people. Right before my retreat, Judy had done some sorting through her stash and gifted me with these 2 bags of scraps:

Then, at the retreat, Patrice gifted me this bag of scraps:

During the retreat, everyone saved their scraps for me:

Then, after the retreat, when we went to drop Kathy off, she gifted me with these bags of scraps:

It's great to be a scrap quilter!!! The generosity of these wonderful ladies in passing their scraps to me is going to ensure lots more quilts for those in need at the House of Mercy!!!! What a blessing these ladies are!!!! So, while I wait until tonight to get to work on my Christmasy project, I am going to sort through and cut up these scraps today. Looking at this pile of bags makes me realize Patrick and I are going to have our jobs cut out for us today!! Wooot wooot!! I feel like it is Christmas and these bags are my gifts and I canNOT wait another minute more to start diving into them! Catch up with you later!!!!

Back from our Retreat

I spent the most amazing weekend with 20 FABULOUS ladies! What fun we had...sewing, laughing, eating, laughing, drinking, laughing, sharing, laughing...you get the picture. We had quilters from California, Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Louisiana..EVERYWHERE! And all just to spend a weekend together. These ladies have gotten me through some rough times and I hope they know how special they all are to me! There is tons to share with you from the retreat, so I am going to do it in bits and pieces. Today I am going to share a few pics of the hikers as we took a wonderful walk through the great colors of a Connecticut autumn:

A nice hike was just what we needed to stretch and get those kinks out after sitting and sewing so long!!! Here is what I worked on:

It is Bonnie Hunter's Nifty Thrifty pattern. I know it's crazy with color, but I made it with strips that we swapped at last year's retreat. We all brought fabrics that represented ourselves, so, of course we had lots of color!! I had all but the last row and borders done this weekend, so this top finished up pretty quickly when I got home. Even better, I am now super motivated to get moving on some other projects! Well, off to start unpacking...yes...3 days later and my sewing stuff is still packed up. Will share more tomorrow!!

7 down....9 to go

Well, my hour of handsewing a day is more like 15 minutes a day, but I'll take it!! I hand stitched the binding down on my Path to Cobbled Court quilt and have been working on the next round of petals in my Giant New York Sunflower. I have 7 petals down and 9 to go in this round!!

Those clamshells in those 7 petals is more than I have gotten done on this in a year, so YAY for me!! I started another quilt (of course) and also have been working on the 84 blocks for Bonnie's Rectangle Wrangle. I will show pics of them tomorrow. Now it's off to work from 9-7 today and hopefully my 1 hour of hand stitching tonight! Don't forget to hop over to Bonnie's blog to check out the progress of others who are trying to hand stitch an hour a day. Also, don't forget to check out the complete blog of these quilters..not just the linking blogpost. These are some amazingly talented ladies and you are sure to be inspired!!!

Prepping

In 3 and 1/2 weeks I am going to Litchfield, Ct with my fellow Cobbled Court Quilt Circle sisters for our annual retreat. We all met through the website of author, Marie Bostwick. We have become such a sisterhood during our past 3 years together!!! I really can't wait to see these ladies!!! So, I have been prepping for my retreat. I have made 2 pillowcases so far (we donate these to the Susan B Anthony home for abused women there)

When I went to purchase this fabric at Cafe Sewciety, Judy, the owner, generously donated enough fabric to make 2 of these when she heard what it was going for!! We also have a block raffle and I have made 2 so far, but they work up so fast, I think I am going to make more to increase my odds of winning these lovelies!!

Here is the link for those blocks: http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltblocklotto/ss/maple_leaf.htm Last but not least, I have been kitting up the fabric for my Rectangle Wrangle quilt.

This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern and is in her Scraps and Shirttails 2 book. I did make 11 blocks so far, but didn't take a pic yet. I will share those later. I've been good and doing some hand quilting every night..sometimes an hour, sometimes 15 minutes. I figure anything is good!!!

Path to Cobble Court

That's the name of this quilt. It was designed by author Marie Bostwick and was in the last Quiltmaker magazine. I made the crib sized and will be donating it to the Susan B Anthony house for abused women, which is a charity that is dear to Marie.

Here is a close up of the fun Debbie Mumm fabric. I don't even know where or when I got this!

I have a quilt retreat the first weekend of October, so now I will be spending time getting things kitted up and ready to go for that. This Saturday is the Christmas quilt along and I was supposed to be the hostess. Since my heart attack, I don't have very much "staying power" and poop out fast. Wonderful Hazel has agreed to hostess for me this month. Thanks, Hazel, you are just the best!!

When Pigs fly....

Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville, has decided to do some type of hand work for an hour each day she is home. I swear she and I are on the same wavelength! I have had my Giant New York Sunflower (really a Giant Dahlia, but hey..I made mine to look like a sunflower!lol) waiting for more hand quilting FOREVER. I usually only hand quilt when I travel, and I don't travel often, so not much has gotten done. The full pic of the sunflower is in my header. I quilted in the ditch around each of the brown sections in the middle and have completed this little design in one round of yellow petals:

I am now working on making little clam shells in another round of yellow petals:

Bonnie asked us to show where we work, so here goes. My quilt is kept in a wicker laundry basket under the end table next to my big, oversized chair in my living room. Remember Lily Tomlin when she was the little girl sitting in the big rocker with her feet hanging down? That's how I feel in this chair. I am tall and yet I can just pull up my legs and get all comfy in here! Notice in the basket is a green zippered bag that Shellie made for me. In there I keep the thread, snips, etc that I need for the quilting. Also notice that I do not use a hoop when I hand quilt. I just can't get comfy. I just let the quilt lie in my lap and work that way. Sigh..I am sure it's wrong, but it's my quilt, so oh, well! lol.

Last but not least for today is my flying pig. I picked him up in Connecticut on a quilting retreat and he reminds me of my wonderful Cobbled Court Quilt Circle sisters. I used to think that this quilt would get done when pigs fly but now this little guy shows me that pigs DO have wings and with this 1 hr a day commitment, it WILL get done!!!

Bonnie has a Mr. Linky for everyone who wants to join along in trying to hand quilt/sew for an hour a day. So, I hope you click on her link above and join in! I know that not only does my Sunflower need this, but I do, too. There is something so soothing and relaxing about hand quilting that you just can't get from machine quilting. I am a novice at hand quilting, but I just love how the stitches improve over time.

Mill Girls

Well, I finished the top for Cafe Sewciety. I just LOVE this quilt!!! It made me go outside my normal limits and I love that! I have never done mitred corners before or fussy cut a fabric for a border. Both were fun and a whole lot easier than I thought!! It's a big quilt, too....98" x 98". If you are interested in this BOM, just contact Judy at the link above. She will be more than happy to help you out!!!

And btw..the center is all pieced. I had a few people ask me if that was a panel, but it's not. I am really going to try to be good and finish something else up before I start something new. Let's see how long that lasts!!! lol Today we are having a low key picnic for the holiday, so I doubt any sewing will be going on. That's okay....family, friends, good food and drinks are more than a wonderful substitute!!

Quilt entries and other goodies

I entered my Geese Crossing quilt in an online quilt competition and would appreciate it if you would go there and vote for it if you feel it is worthy! The address is : Quilting Gallery There are some GORGEOUS scrappy quilts on display there. Love that eye candy!! Geese Crossing is also entered in a small local quilt show this weekend. I don't expect it to win anything, but it's fun to see something of yours hanging! I finished my floor mat made from the upholstery fabrics. Here it is in its rightful place..under the table! lol

I am definitely going to add some more appliques, but I'm pretty pleased with it. This week I have been working on a display quilt for a local quilt shop, Cafe Sewciety. Just love this shop..and the owner, Judy! I called her and asked if she had anything she would like me to work on for the shop since I have all this sitting around time and I just didn't want to work on the same old same old. She called me right back with this project. It is a big quilt, 98 x 98, and is a BOM called The Mill Girls 1830-1850. I am just about done with the blocks and will be putting it together soon so will show you then. I just love this pattern and bet you will, too! You will be able to order it soon as the BOM starts in September! In the meantime, here is a few pics of some projects I have worked on the past few weeks. A new little herb garden made from a chair from the side of the road and some free boxes at a garage sale:

8 quarts of southwest soup and 14 pints of pickled beets are canned:

There is a lot more getting ready to come out of the garden to put up, so hopefully will have more to show you! Okay, that's it for now. Off to the sewing machine and then will have more sewing pics to share!!

Quiltalong update

Well, didn't end up working on Christmas things yet today, but here is what I have gotten done so far: First up, a pair of fingerless gloves made from my favorite sweater that is all worn out. I am going to hand stitch the hem on the top part of the gloves tonight while watching tv:

My father's wife works in a furniture store and saves me all the fabric samples. I had boxes and boxes of these, so finally pulled some out to make this floor mat for my living room. Where the big brown squares are is where my coffee table will sit. I am hand blanket stitching the word "family" across the bottom and will also be adding some other appliques around it..just not sure what yet. I am flying by the seat of my pants on this one. The other 3 sides are narrow as the couches and arm chair are close to the table. Not sure I like the applique on it so far....will wait and see once I finish it if I will keep it like this or not. What do you think?

I think that might be it other than the handstitching. Hub did take me out to the farmers market this morning (with lots and lots of stops for me to rest)and I am worn out now. Can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to today! Thanks for all your warm wishes and kind words..you guys are great!!

Broken Hearted and Christmas Quiltalong

Well, I am going to start with the "broken hearted" part of my title because that explains my absence from here for 2 months. Back in June, I started having chest pains. Just here and there, sometimes barely there, sometimes very painful, lasting 2-3 minutes usually. My mom died from heart disease at 51 (I am 48), so believe me, I was right off to the ER and my regular doctor. Stress test and EKG's all came back fine so heart was ruled out. On to a spasming esophagus maybe? Endoscopy came back fine. Meanwhile, the episodes of pain are happening multiple times daily now and are SEVERELY painful. Pain is now also in my arms, back, neck, etc. Classic signs of heart issues, but newer ekg's still are normal. Finally, a little over a week ago, Aug 2, I got an answer to my problem...it WAS my heart and it showed itself by me having a heart attack. An angiogram showed that my right coronary artery was 95% blocked. So, they did an angioplasty and put a stent in and I am now as good as new!! I really cannot tell you how good it feels to not be in pain. I couldn't take care of my disabled son, had to leave work often because of these attacks, couldn't garden, couldn't sew...Now, I still am not allowed to do those things (except the sewing) until I see my cardiologist next week, but at least I know there is an end in sight!! So, I don't have much to show you for the past 2 months since I didn't do much sewing, but I do have a few things to share. Here is my Christmas quiltalong mystery quilt:

The top is all done and I just need to quilt it up. Not sure I have the energy to do that quite yet, though. I love how it turned out!!! Thanks sooooo much, Sue, for this great pattern!!!! I did manage to finish up a graduation quilt for Hannah's best friend, Sophia. Here that is:

This one was called Summer Breeze and she just loved it! Yay!! I have one other project that I might finish off today but I think I am going to start on a Christmas project in honor of the quiltalong. So glad I am alive to join my fabulous quiltalong buddies today. Please, go hug your friends and families today, take a minute to be glad you're alive and for whatever blessings are in your life, and just slow down and smell the fabric!!

Christmas Quiltalong progress

Before I get into the Christmas quiltalong, I wanted to share a few pics of my youngest, Hannah, from her senior ball last night: Hannah and Anthony looked great, didn't they?? The bottom picture is Hannah and her best friend, my "extra" daughter, Sophia. Very bittersweet for me. I am 48, my oldest child of my 6 will be 31 this year and Hannah is my baby at 18. This will be my very last prom. I don't mind my age, but I HATE my kids growing up!!!! Now for the quiltalong. The next part in the mystery has been revealed and I have 6 of the blocks made. Now, back to stitching to finish up the other 18 blocks!!