Happy New Year to all!

Where did the year go? I had to look back to see what I accomplished. Then I had to think back because I didn't post very often.  I started the blog so the kids could see what was going on at home and I sure haven't showed them much.

The first project I worked on was the Bonnie Hunter 2014 mystery--Grand Illusion. This flimsy is still waiting to be quilted.

This was an applique quilt, Pink Petals. It is from Teri Christopherson's The Best of Black Mountain Quilts book.  Love the quilts in that book and have made 4 quilts and a table runner from it.  

I machine quilted this quilt and for some reason the border came out a little wavy. I may add a little more quilting in the border and see if it will lay flatter.

The next quilt I completed was this yellow and blue applique, Tulips and Lace, from the same book as the one above.

I hand quilted this one. It is sitting waiting for me to finish hand sewing the binding on. I think I did one side and then let it sit. That will be a good project to finish while I am sitting with my dad on Monday evenings.

I started on "Over the River and Through the Woods." I didn't get very far. Just part of the first embroidered section is completed. Another one I need to get out to finish at my dads.

I finally finished this quilt. 

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I don't have a picture of this quilt finished either. I am not keep up too well.

This is the 2nd "Autumn Ridge" quilt that I made from the same book. I made Craig one 7 or 8 years ago and said I would never make another.  Then I decided I liked it so well I wanted one. After I got it together, I decided I really like the reds and purples but am not totally satisfied with the neutral yellows and greens. I think I am going to give it to my son-in-law and scour around to find some fabric to make another one. Hopefully, I can find the perfect fabric.

I made this quilt for my sweet grandson, Paxton. The colors are not as bright as this picture shows.

I also made Kelsey's friend, Renda, a quilt for her new baby, Willow.

This is a quilt pattern from Moda Bake Shop.  It is called Dancing in the Stars and was designed by Cindy Sharp whose blog is Tops to Treasures. I finished it and am planning to use it for a winter quilt.  Which reminds me I need to take the Christmas quilts off of my beds and add the winter ones.

This is a quilt top I made from all scrap fabric. I just wanted a brown and pink quilt so looked at the free patterns by Bonnie Hunter on Quiltville and chose this one. It is Playing with Jacks under the free pattern link. I still need to quilt this one. 

It is terrible to say that I don't remember if I made or finished any other quilts this year.  As you can see, I was awful at remembering to photograph my quilts or blog about my progress.

I do have a few Christmas items I made that I will try to show you tomorrow.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year full of joy, happiness, and riches. 

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

A beautiful sunny Sunday!

I started bright and early and cleaned my sewing room. Then I sewed and left it a little messy again. I really need to go pick up before I go to bed.

The baby quilt is almost finished finally. I just haven't even wanted to sew. I've been reading and watching netflix quite a bit. So now all I need is to quilt the borders and then bind and it can be delivered.

It was the most beautiful day here. It started off rainy and I didn't think it was ever going to get light. Then about 10 o'clock the sun broke through and the rest of the day was fabulous.

I was even able to sit outside and read for a bit. But it was very windy. I walked a mile on the treadmill. And it felt good. I really need to get back in the habit of walking everyday. We used to have a Ladies Fitness Center kind of like Curves but it closed. We do have a fitness center but it is shared with men so I'm not thrilled with that so I never signed up.

Not sure what I am going to work on after I finish the baby quilt. Nothing interests me right now. I really need to get out one of my unfinished projects and get going. Before I know, it will be spring and I will want to be outside.

How was your weekend?

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Design Wall Monday

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I posted. Time flies during the summer.

On my design wall is a baby quilt for a friend.

I really slipped up on this one. I made her this quilt for her first child.

And I really planned to make one for her second child. I have just put it off. I received a text from her this weekend offering to pay me to make one. I told her I would be happy to make one as a gift. So I spent time on Saturday looking for and resizing a quilt.

This is the inspiration quilt. I just had to decide what size I wanted to make it and resize everything. I just love the Moda Bakshop Recipes. There has to be something for everyone.

Don't forget to check out Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Happy snipping, stittcing, and quilting!

It's Been Awhile . . .

since I have posted.  But I have been busy.

I spent almost every evening last week hand quilting this quilt.

I figure that sooner or later I need to finish it. I know I pieced the top before we moved into our current house. We've been here for at least 7 years.

Larry met me at school on Friday and we drove to Searcy. I had a teacher workshop on Saturday. We stopped in Conway on the way home to see "Hunger Games".  It was around 9 p.m. when we made it home.

On Sunday, I finished piecing and appliqueing the baby quilt. It is pin basted, marked with crosshatching, and ready to quilt.

Then I spent a couple of hours hand quilting again.

That is a short version of my week.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Design Wall Monday

Well, I didn't get the baby quilt finished because I ran out of the blue thread I was using to applique the letters. I still need the baby's last name appliqued.

Hopefully, when I go to Fort Smith to see "Hunger Games" this week, I will be able to find some to match.

The other quilt on the design wall is the Fat Quarter Star Quilt a Long.

I am all caught up and have decided (I think) that I am going to use a wide sashing and border and that's it. I saw one that was finished with a 2 or 3 inch white sashing and then just a narrow border. It looks so fresh and that is the look I am wanting.

Only I need it a little bigger, thus the wider sashing. I want to use it over my comforter on my king size bed. So, it just needs to be large enough to cover the top of my bed.

Be sure to stop by Judy's for Design Wall Monday.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Hard at Work

You would think since it is Spring Break I would have plenty of time to post. But, here it is Thursday already and I feel like I haven't accomplished anything.

Monday was spent in Little Rock at the doctor's office. We left the house early enough to do some window shopping. We stopped by Pottery Barn. I love the stuff in there but it hurts to look at it -- if you know what I mean.

Then we wondered around the Williams Sonoma store and dreamed. Of course, not being much of a cook, I didn't even know what some of the gadgets were used for. But we saw a few things that we said, "One of these days".

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I got most of the quilting on Tiger Lily completed. I started to do some small stippling in the tiger lily blocks. I decided that it made the quilt too stiff and I was getting some puckering of the fabric. I think because of all of the spray starch used when I appliqued. (I may have to rethink using the spray starch method to applique.) So now I am taking the quilting out of that spot. I am glad it was only a partial block. The stitches are very small and I am having a hard time getting them out.

I have started what I hope to be the last baby quilt for awhile. I am using a Moda Bake Shop pattern called Baby Life by V and Co. Of course, I am personalizing it with the baby's name and stats.

My goal is to get both of these quilts completed before I go back to school next Monday. Then, I don't have any more deadline quilts. That I know of. lol

Well, the sun is shining this morning--after two days of nothing but rain. So, I hope to spend a little time enjoying the sunshine--whether reading a good book or working in the yard.

Edited to add:  The sunshine only lasted an hour or so and then rain again. Here it is Friday evening and I wrote this post on Thursday morning. But . . . I forgot to publish it. lol 

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Cause and effect . . .

I;m linking with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Well, after I laid the baby quilt out on the sewing table, I decided that it was big enough without adding the three borders I planned. So I decided I was going to leave it as is and just add a black binding.

So I got started on the backing and then realized I was going to have to piece it.  I figured out that I do not have enough black fabric to add to the outside of the focus fabric to make it large enough.

(You know you have too many projects going at once when you can't find a spot to lay the backing to get a good picture.)

Too funny. I have been teaching my students "cause and effect" this week. Maybe you are familiar with the children's book "If you give a Mouse a Cookie".

Hmmm. That happens to us when quilting all of the time!!!!

If the backing isn't large enough, then you'll have to piece it.  If you don't have enough fabric, than you'll have to get more. If you need to get more fabric, you'll need to look on-line. If you look on-line, something else will catch your eyes.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Back in the Groove

I had a fairly productive Sunday, yet it was relaxing and not busy, busy, busy.

I worked some more on one of the baby quilts. You will notice this one was born in September. See I told you I was behind.

Now, I only need the three borders and it will be ready to sandwich and quilt.

I also cut out the rest of the squares for this square patch Christmas quilt.

It will have about a 15 inch white strip of applique where the break is in the blocks. I got the idea from a quilt I have seen a lot of on the web. Of course, now that I need it, I cannot find it. But, I'm not totally sure what I will put in the white strip. The original one has stockings and Christmas trees. So I may just do that also.

Be sure to visit Judy for Design Wall Monday.

Guilty Quilting????

Do you ever sew away on a project because that is what you want to be working on but feeling guilty because you know you should be working on something else?

Well, that is what I did last night. I know I should be working on the baby quilts but I just wanted to do some mindless applique. So I worked on the Tiger Lily quilt instead.

And . . .

That may be what I do this evening also.

And . . .

It was for the first part of the evening. I appliqued the rest of the blocks I had prepared. Then I resorted to cutting out the first of the baby quilts. Then as I cut the final pieces I realized that I hadn't used the focus fabric that I had purchased.  So I figured out what I needed to recut and will start doing that tomorrow evening.

Then as I sat down to type this, I realized that the reason I had more red fabric than I needed was because I purchased a yard of both the red fabric and the focus fabric. I probably don't even need 1 yeard total. But now I don't have to worry about backing fabric. I think I have enough. I'll just piece it.

I did get the center block pieced and ready to embroidery. I usually embroidery before I piece, but since I am embroidering in a triangle instead of square or rectangle,  I decided that having it already pieced will be easier to center and place where I want it.

This big square will be on point (not how I have it laid out here.) The full name will be in the center and other information will be in the triangles. More later.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Another Baby Quilt Finished!

It is 10 p.m. on Saturday night and I just sat down from finishing the baby quilt. Binding and all.

I kept the quilting very simple. Stitch in the ditch and wide apart cross hatching.

Tomorrow is a wedding shower for Craig and Becca at our church. I hope afterwards I am able to sit down and work on the Double Wedding Ring quilt applique. I am getting so close I can feel it. Yippee.

Geez! The wedding is only a few weeks away. And then it will be over in a blink of the eye. But we should have lots of great photos for memories.

It just dawned on me that I have two more baby quilts to make in the next few months.  I need to go ahead and get them planned now. Oh, wait a minute, I did that on this last one and then changed it completely. So maybe I'll just wait.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

A New Camera . . .

. . . well, to me, that is.

My niece asked Craig to take pictures for her wedding next April. He told her his camera was not good enough so she said she would pay him x amount so he could get a new camera. So he purchased a new camera and gave me his old one, which is a step or two or ten up from mine. Now I can take my old camera to school and leave it there and have this one for home. The only problem is I don't really know how to do anything but point and shoot. I'm thinking about taking an on-line class when things settle down here a bit.

I am coming right along with my baby quilt.

I actually added a 3 inch white border all the way around it. But when I started looking for backing fabric, I decided to use the Arkansas Razorback fabric that was left. It wasn't large enough to have the border so I took it off.  It always amazed me how long it takes to rip things out.

The quilt is actually laid out on my floor right now waiting for me to pin baste it. I realized after 9 o'clock that my pins were in another quilt and I would need to purchase some more. Even though our Walmart stays open until 10, I didn't want to get out.

And I have started working on the last applique border for the wedding quilt. I have the applique laid out on half of it. If I sit down to work each nigh this week, I will probably get the baby quilt top finished and the applique for the wedding ring finished by Sunday. Yippee.

If I blog about it beforehand, it has to happen, right?

Update Thursday evening -- I have the horizontal stitch in the ditch completed. It is almost 10 o'clock and time to call it quits for the night.  Now, I have to decide how to do the vertical stitching. Any ideas?

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

WIP on Wednesday

I'm linking to Ester's WOW = WIP's on Wednesday and Lee at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday Be sure to stop by her blog.

It feels really good to be back in the sewing groove. I keep thinking about everything I could have accomplished this summer if I would have been sewing. But, alas, I didn't.

I am moving right along on the baby quilt.

I had hoped to spend a little time on the Double wedding ring applique yesterday evening also. But, it didn't happen. It took over two hours to sew the final 10 strips and add a border to the baby quilt. So, it was 9 o'clock before I knew it. The computer and blogs were calling me.

Anyway the baby quilt is ready to snip threads, and sandwich. I am going to keep quilting really simple. Stitch in the ditch and then probably add some straight vertical stitching. Or I may do some crosshatching on the diagonal. What do you think?

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Friday Night Sew-In

I actually forgot that it was Friday Night Sew-In this week. But, like most Friday nights, I was sewing anyway. My goal for last night was to finish the adorable baby quilt I was working on. I needed to finish completing the quilting on the borders. I also cut out the binding and added it but did not complete it until this morning.

I think the quilt turned out so cute. I smiled the whole time I was making it. I think it was the fun polka dots and plaids.

I kept the quilting very simple.

A lot of straight lines using the walking foot. I added gently flowing squiggly lines to the corner blocks.

Cross-hatching in the large center block.

 Wavy lines in the narrow inside borders and straight stitch in the three inch outer border.

Simple arches in the plaid.

Many times I struggle with how I want to quilt but this one just came to me. I wish they were all that simple.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

It's A Finish

. . . except for the label.

 Putting labels on quilts is a habit I have not developed. In fact, of all the quilts I have made and given away, I have only put labels on two of them. The one I gave to Kelsey for Christmas a couple of years ago and the one I gave to Becca (Craig's girlfriend). I only put one on Becca's because she brought it back to me and demanded it.

Anyway, the latest baby quilt is complete. I left it very simple. And the label is machine embroidered and only needs sewed on. (I think I like machine embroidering them.) I guess because I can play as I design them.

Thanks to all of you who wished me well on my surgery. It's always nice to know there are people who care. 

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Sometimes . . .

things just don't work out as planned. I planned to have the green and blue baby quilt finished on Friday. Didn't happen. Then I planned to have it completed by Saturday night. Didn't happen. It's close though.

Just some straight line quilting on the whole thing. Easy and simple.

Hopefully, I'll finish it today. But I'm not promising.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

So I Thought

. . . I would be finished with this flimsy by now.

But it has been slow going. Why? I don't really know. Maybe keeping a neat sewing area would help. Nope, probably not. Maybe staying off of the internet and not looking at blogs. But, then I wouldn't know what everyone else out there is doing.

No, really I could have finished it. The borders were cut and pieced. They only needed stitched together. But, low and behold, for some reason I was short 4 blocks for the border. Hmmm. I thought I counted them twice. Apparently not. But then again, one night when I was sewing, I just knew a couple of pieces fell off of my sewing table, but I couldn't find them anywhere. So I cut new pieces and a week later I found the pieces. They had fallen off the back of my sewing cabinet and onto a shelf. Do you think I might find the missing border pieces when I clean up my mess. Now, that is totally possible.

All of the embroidery is complete and at this time I feel that the 10 inch blue blocks need some applique. The quilt is for a baby boy. Any suggestion of something I could applique inside the blue blocks? I'm thinking of simple applique -- a different one for each block.

I will persevere and complete the flimsy tomorrow night. And I will complete the whole thing by Sunday evening. We'll see!!!!

Hapy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Latest Discovery

I always say I learn something new with every quilt I make. If you have been following my blog at all you know that we've had 4 babies born on my husband's side of the family in the past year. So I have been making personalized baby quilts all summer.

I'm fairly new to machine embroidery and know very little about it. So when the embroidery on my last few quilts seemed to pinch up around the monogram, I emailed CJ of Created by CJ to ask for her opinion as to why this was happening. She suggested that maybe I was not stabilizing enough. So tonight, when I set up to embroidery the first block for the latest baby quilt, I made sure to use extra layers of stabilizer. And guess what? It worked.

The fabric is laying flat all around the embroidery. Thanks CJ. Can't wait to see what else I learn while making this quilt.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Productive -- But Not Sewing

I started to say I had a very non-productive weekend. But, that is not true. I just had a non-sewing weekend. I got into the cleaning mode and totally cleaned my kitchen. I mean took all of the pots and pans and odds and ends from my cabinets and cleaned and rearranged. The only thing I did not get around to was the refrigerator. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow evening. Better yet, maybe Larry will read this post and he will clean it tomorrow when he is off.

I'm working to design a very simple baby quilt for another one of Larry's nephew's wife. She had the baby in September so I had better get busy.  I'm keeping it very simple. Maybe I'll do the personalized embroidery tonight.

Then I have a baby quilt to make for a friend. I always wait until after the baby arrives because I personalize them. This one is for a little girl. I saw a picture of a darling applique quilt that I am thinking about making for her to personalize for a keepsake and then making a very simple nine patch or something for the baby to carry around and thoroughly love.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

It's a Good Feeling

Today I attended a wedding shower for my husband's niece. I walked into the shower carrying three bags--none of them for the bride-to be. Actually, her gift was delivered by the store where she had registered.

These bags were the baby quilts for Larry's other nieces--all of whom were at the shower. It was a good feeling to deliver the three quilts and have the parents be so appreciative.

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the finished pink quilt. Oh well, too late.

Now, I have one more niece that is pregnant and due in September. So, it's back to EQ6 to design another quilt to personalize. Maybe that will be the last baby for a little while.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Slow Progress

Well, I have finally made some progress.

I text Larry today and said, "Alleluia, I have just finished my last science and social studies units." Rough drafts that will need adjusted as I teach, but that will be pretty simple as the year goes by. What a relief. Now, I can forget about school stuff until next Monday. Nope--workshop on Friday.

I finished my 7th "Tree" block so I am all caught up.

I have both of my chair covers made. The second one is royal blue. I took a picture but it looks like a slate blue. Not sure what happened to the color in the picture so I didn't post it. Too late at night to even think about going to take another picture.

I also finished the "Kollyn" quilt. I added a little more quilting since I took this picture.

Now, I have three baby quilts to deliver. I haven't seen the oldest since March so I know he's grown. I haven't been introduced to the other two, yet. So, I think Larry and I will just call the parents and schedule a short visit at each house so we can get our "baby fix".

Larry spray painted the rocking chair white so I'll need to post a picture of it. Doctor's appointment in Little Rock tomorrow. That trip will take up the whole day. Workshop on Friday at school. Busy, busy, busy.

Goals for this weekend are to add some quilting to a Christmas quilt I made last fall.  Sandwich my "Ohio Stars and Rail Quilt" and start quilting it. Oh, I still have to piece a backing for it.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.