Monday, November 8, 2010

I'm finally sewing again

I've been way too busy with the cattle to do very much sewing all summer long, but finally with the shows over until January and two mornings a week with no kids at home, I can sew. I haven't been able to follow any of my quilting friends blogs recently, but will have to get caught up. Last night I started I Spy quilts for the boys. I had participated in two I spy swaps but just didn't have time to do anything with the blocks. I am going to make 9 patches and then sash them with a yet to be determined fabric. I'm excited to be able to sew and be a little creative again.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Zig Zag Mini Quilt

Yesterday I received my April STUD (Swap til you drop) Mini Swap Quilt. It was made for me by QuiltyBee. I just LOVE it!
I joined a few of these swaps on flickr and am having a blast with them! I'm trying to figure out where/how I want to display these adorable little quilts. I can't quite decide if I want to put them all on one wall or sprinkle them throughout the house. I couldn't contain myself this month and signed up to make 4 of them. The good thing is they really don't take long to do since they have to be under 15X15 inches. I also know that May is probably the last month until school starts again that I can really spend the time doing them.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Little pincushions

A while ago I had found a tutorial about making little tiny pincushions from plastic lids. I can't find it right now, but will update the post with a link when I can. Here are two that I made. They are so simple, probably took about 5 minutes to make the pair. I need to save lids so I can make a bunch more. I think they would make great little gifts.





Mini Coin Quilt Swap

I miss my camera. Please please repair it quickly. My phone just isn't cutting it.

I participated in a mini Chinese coin quilt swap online. Here is the cure little mini I received from my partner. I just love it! She used blue and green, my favorite colors!


I mailed mine to her yesterday. It took me a little while to do because the first one I made I hated the quilting I did on it. I didn't know how to fix it, so I started over and made a new one with better quilting. It's not great, but better then the first one. I can't wait for my machine quilting class!


Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Lucky day continued

I also won a Jelly roll over at Patches And Pieces. I am very excited, and can't wait to think of a project to use it for. Thank you so much!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Lucky day!

March 29th was my lucky day! I came across a blog that mentioned some Easter giveaways. Like I usually do I entered just about everyone of them, but unlike normal I actually won!! I won't say how many I won until the items arrive because I don't want to spoil the fun.

Today the first one arrived! I was so excited to win this one at Red Geranium Cottage. This little quilt is absolutely adorable in real life. The quilting is so cute with little loops that turn into hearts every so often. I absolutely love it! Now I just need to find a nice place to display it. My boys were very excited by the candy and bunny. It all came packaged in a cute basket. Thank you so much for all these lovely goodies. Now I have another blog to read, because there are a lot of neat things to see over at Red Geranium Cottage, especially her sewing room!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Quilt Show weekend

So we didn't go to the Lancaster Quilt show, but we did shop. I found so many pretty fabrics, tried to be good, but bought this whole pile anyway.

And we made a little bunny tabletopper/wall hanging for Easter at my Aunt's house.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Quilt Retreat

My local quilt guild had our Spring retreat. My sister and I went, and I am just so glad we did. It was a blast to get to be away with no distractions and just SEW! There were some fun little activities scattered throughout. The theme was Back at the Barnyard. We had a hat contest, the only requirement was to use the flowers provided. I won most creative with my upside down planter/chick hatching hat. I won a cute little jar lantern. There were some really creative ideas. We also played barn yard games, an egg toss, hot potato, and a cow chip tossing contest. I won the cow chip tossing contest, and won some brown (manure) colored fat quarters. I worked on a pinwheel quilt (they are doing pinwheel quilts on ORBC flickr group), and actually got the top all put together. Now I'm trying to decide if I want a border on it or not. I also made my guild name tag. After those two things were done I started a circle quilt. We actually got to know the ladies in our guild. It's a challenge to get to know people at the meetings, but this was great. There are so many wonderful ladies in our guild. (I have more pictures but am having an awful time uploading, will try to add more tomorrow) I joined a flickr online quilting bee, called The Stitchin Bee. We just started, and Kelly is up first. Kelly is making a quilt to use at the beach so she wanted it really colorful. The only requirements were to make a 12 inch block with the fabrics sent, and include the little comic piece of fabric. The only way I could think of was a string block. So now, I just need to mail it back to Kelly.

I finished my potholders for The Potholder Pass 2 swap, so I just need to mail them off to my partner. The only thing I had to go on here was a list of colors my gal likes.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

In progress

I've only been able to sit down and use my new sewing machine a couple times so far. It's a bernina 230 Patchwork Edition. I've learned so far that I absolutely love it. It doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles that the 440 had but I can always trade it in later on. It sews such beautiful stitches, and it sews straight without even touching the fabric. I absolutely love the bright light it has! Unlike the Sears model Janome that I had, this machine can start at the edge of the fabric and doesn't jam up. I love the needle up/down function. The machine has a lot of stitch options, but I haven't had time to play around with them yet.

I'm trying to get started on a sewing area. My house is not the biggest house, and it has no sewing space. I usually sew in the kitchen but cleaning everything up at mealtime is not that enjoyable. I plan to finish half of the attic in order to have a sewing room. Last week we went to pick up some old kitchen cabinets from one of my father-in-law's properties. I plan to paint them white and use them as the base for a sewing table. While I was in the attic cleaning I found many more UFO's. The little blocks are a thangles project that I bought at the Lancaster quilt show at least 4 years ago. They are cute, and need some attention. Hopefully I can work on them this weekend because it sounds like a good sewing weekend with all the rain that is in the forecast.


I joined a potholder swap a few days ago. I thought I had the heat safe batting at home for in them, but I must have used it all in some Christmas presents last year. I need to run to Joann's and get some this weekend. I did get them started last night. I like how the tops turned out. I just swapped the fabrics for the second one. I'm trying to decide if I want to put loops to hang them with on or not. I hope my swap partner will like them.

Monday was the start of week two for the Pinwheel Quilt along. I made block A-2, which went together pretty quickly. I can't wait for next monday to make the third block.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Pinwheel quilt along & a new toy

I made the Pinwheel Party block A-1 hosted by twiddletails. Looking forward to block A-2 on Monday!
And I got a new sewing machine. My sister and I went machine shopping on Friday.I need to go get it set up and see if I can figure it all out. It's a bernina. I bought the 230 Patchwork edition. This machine appears to have everything I need for now, there were some really neat upgrades on some of the higher end models, but I can always trade it in down the road if I decide I want something else. Right now I'm just glad to have a machine that makes such lovely stitches. I never realized how unimpressive my current machine is, until I got to try a really nice machine.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Birthday

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. Because we still have chocolate cake with peanut-butter icing here I thought I should make him something different for a birthday treat. He loves fastnachts(A Pennsylvania Dutch treat). I thought that would be a perfect idea. I've never eaten one so I really don't know how they are to taste. I'm not exactly sure why I never ate one, but I haven't. I followed a recipe that was in the Lancaster Farming a couple weeks ago. They weren't too hard to make although quite time consuming. I was told they were pretty good.




I have been having fun making dolls the last couple days. Since the dolls I made are for my nieces birthdays this summer, and I am having trouble keeping them until that time, I decided to make them some tiny dolls for their Easter baskets. They aren't finished but just wanted to share a little "in progress" picture. These two little dolls are about 2/3 the size of a pair of scissors, maybe 6 inches tall. They were a real challange to turn, especially the arms and legs. I imagine I won't be making too many of these tiny ones.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

This and That

I've been in a sewing mood lately. I finished two doll quilts this week. One was a scrap quilt from Sew Mama Sew. I just stitched scraps onto a fabric sandwich and put a binding on it. The other is for a friend's daughter. The quilt is made up of fabrics left over from a larger quilt I made her. I added smaller versions of the flowers that are the same as what is on the larger quilt.

A while ago I came across Black Apple Dolls. I'm not even sure how I stumbled across them, probably browsing from blog to blog. After some more research I found that the creator Emily was on Martha Stewart and that you can get a free pattern to make the dolls for your own personal use. Since I have no little girls I figured they would make great gifts for my nieces. I dug out the scraps and got to work. First I picked fabrics that I thought would be cute for the dolls and laid them out. I decided they needed pigtails so I had to tweak the pattern a little.

I put one of the dolls together to see how it would look. I think she is cute. She's not quite complete because she needs a face. I'm also thinking of trying to make some little clothes so they can change them. They are really fairly easy to make.
I need to finish stuffing the one with the pink dress yet. I have a feeling I'll be making a few more of these. I would like to make the arms and legs a little more substantial in my next version. I feel like they are a little too skinny for my taste.



Hopefully I'll be able to get the second one complete later on. Well complete minus the face. That part scares me a little because I'm not artistic in that way.

Now I need to get out to the kitchen and make one of my husbands favorite meals. We will be having pork from the pigs we raised, and homemade saurkraut. So thankful that my Aunt Jean told me how to make the saurkraut. It's so easy, and absolutely delicious. I've used just about all I made so I really need to try to get cabbage and make another crock full before it gets warm out.







Sunday, February 21, 2010

Baby Quilt Top

Last night I finished a baby quilt top. I used a Moda Love U Charm Pack for this quilt. Yesterday my sister, mom, and I went to Sauders fabric shopping. I found the pink heart print to use as a border. Then my sister found the pink stripe, and it was a perfect choice. I tried mitered corners for the first time, and they came out pretty good, not perfect, but it was a first attempt. I have a pretty yellow piece with flowers for the back. Now I just need to send it off to be quilted.


I also picked fabrics for the Pin Wheel Quilt Along that Twiddletails is hosting. The only one I'm not sure about is the background fabric. My favorite piece is the blue print on top. Now that I have the fabric I can't wait to get started. I've always loved pin wheels but haven't gotten around to doing anything with them.



Friday, February 19, 2010

No Sew Block Swap

I participated in a No Sew Quilt Block Swap hosted by Kathleen. My group did a red/white/blue theme. The blocks came in the mail this week and I dove right in to working on them, not because I didn't have lots of other things I should have been working on. Now I have to figure out what borders I'd like to add. I'm thinking about adding a few more blocks of some type to make it a bit larger. I'd ideally like it to be at least big enough to cover up with on the couch. Here are the blocks all completed:


Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get to the fabric shop. I'm in need of fabric. A baby quilt I made needs a pink border so that's on the shopping list. Also on the list is fabric for the Pin Wheel Party Quilt Along. Not to mention I need backing fabric for a quilt I'd like to send to Kathleen to be quilted.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Another Finish

Thanks to the snow we got this weekend I had time to sit down and finish the binding on one of the quilts I just got back from Kathleen.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Swaps

Recently I signed up for two swaps . The first was a new sew block exchange hosted by Kathleen. My choice was Star of Virginia for the red, white, and blue group. I finally got my fabric cut today, well almost. I decided to sew my block together to see how it looked.
I had a whole bunch of white squares left, the fabric that I ran short on. I was so mad at myself for messing up the cutting. I looked at the pattern again and realized I should have followed the directions and not just gone on memory. After a lot of time with my seam ripper I found it's actually to look like this:
So yes, I still need a little of the white fabric, but I'll hopefully have the block kits in the mail by the end of the week.
The other swap is an I Spy swap. Now that I signed up and explained it to my boys they both want an I Spy quilt so I guess I'm going to have to find another one to sign up for so I can get more blocks to work with. Here are the fabrics I purchased for this swap.
Hopefully I'll get to the post office by this weekend because I have a lot of things I need to mail out.