Christmas Projects

Today I finished Lorelai's quilt top! It went together super fast.




Two down (David's quilt),three to go. I played with EQ for some ideas for Shayla, who is ten and Bo, who is 3. I wanted the lap quilts to be simple and quick. I know they will get worn out in a couple of years, so I didn't spend too much energy on originality. The pink and black I think Shayla will love.

I pulled a pile of pinks and a black from my stash. The color is a little off in the picture.

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Bo loves bright colors and with the navy background the reds, greens and blues just pop. A variation of this quilt is in EQ7's quick quilt projects tab: Amish Double Nine Patch project file.
I will try to get the four quilts done for Christmas and if I have time I'll make something for baby Lillie.

The weather was windy and rainy all day; a good day for sewing and hot tea.

Design Wall Monday November 29

 

Wow this week went by in a blur. On my wall today is Lorelai's little quilt. She is 16 months old and just became a big sister last Monday. I am sewing the strips together today. The sun is shining on the fourth strip from the left, which is OK because this time of year we don't see a lot of blue sky or sunshine.

I also managed some sock knitting. Thanksgiving day my husband had to work so I said I would ride along and keep him company. Its kind of hard to knit a pattern when you are bouncing along in a tractor trailer, so I started the sock on the right when we left.

I still have to pick quilt designs for two grandchildren, machine quilt all five quilts and bind.... before Christmas. LOL

If you came by way of Judy"s blog, welcome and thanks for stopping by, if you found me by chance click over to Patchwork Times and check out Judy's awesome blog!

Thats all the quilt stuff for today, if you want to see some off topic pics scroll on down.

This is Lorelai and her new baby sister Lilian.

 

Delivering a load of beans to the Bronx. Great view, don't you think? See my sock on the dash to the right? Not bad progress for having started it a few hours earlier.

Getting ready to cross the George Washington bridge in NYC on our way back home.

I thought I could get a picture of NYC skyline from the bridge but instead just a nice pic of husband's handsome mug.

Lilian is here!

Thank you to everyone for all the good wishes yesterday! Baby finally came at 8:30 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 21 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great! Her name is Lilian
Here is a pic of mom, dad, and Lilian.
Grandma better get busy sewing!

Design Wall Monday

I finished all the log cabin blocks for David's quilt and have them sewn into rows
Lorelai's quilt is cut out and ready to sew. But Shayla's quilt just doesn't make me happy. The top was in my UFO box and I thought because it had pink it would work but it just doesn't look like something for a sweet ten year old. Back to the EQ drawing board. Finished another applique block.

My beautiful daughter Caitlin is going to the hospital to be induced today. Hopefully my newest granddaughter will arrive early in the day! As soon as I can I will post a picture.

Progress of a sort

I have been spending a lot of time sewing or machine qulting this week and I have made some progress on my projects. Twenty out of thirty log cabin blocks are done.

I finished quilting all the pink on Shayla's quilt and have started quilting the rest of the blocks. That will involve thread color change so it will take a little longer.
Notice my worn out gloves? There is actually a hole in the thumb and I have been going to buy some Machingers gloves but these are fine for now.

Do you listen to music while you quilt? I have a stereo in my sewing room too but I love listening to music on my Ipod. Usually its classical or new age like Enya or new jazz like Norah Jones. I try to keep my machine quilting music on the calming side so I stay relaxed.

Yesterday I cut out the pieces for a simple strippy quilt for granddaughter Lorelai. I should be able to get that done this weekend unless my daughter goes into labor. Actually, I hope she does because the Doctor wants to induce her on Monday if baby doesn't arrive!

I still have one more grandson who needs a little nap quilt... so some Electric Quilt time will be happening this weekend too.

Tuesday Update

Didn't get too much done today. Some machine quilting and six blocks out of thirty for little log cabin. I may sew some more blocks tonight but I'll probably work on sock knitting. Five or six more rows and I get to start the heel. I just love knitting socks because just about the time you start getting a little bored its time to do something new!

Design Wall Monday

I put my applique blocks on my wall to keep me motivated to finish them. They are from Sue Garman's Bouquets for a New Day pattern. The pattern was a free block of the month for The Quilt Show members. I am still plugging away.
The star blocks are from Kim Diehl's book Simple Traditions. The pattern is Feathered Stars.

Yesterday I cut the pieces for a simple log cabin lap quilt for my grandson. I am sewing that on the featherweight. Granddaughters quilt is being machine quilted on the Singer. I must be feeling real ambitious today!
If you want to see what some other fantastic quilters are doing head over to Judy's blog Patchwork Times ! If you have something interesting on your design wall put your name there too. We all love to see what everyone is working on.

There is also some sock knitting going on in the evening. The pattern is a simple twisted cable. K2,P2 for 3 rows then K2tog don't drop the stitches, K the first stitch then drop both. Just interesting enough without having to pay real close attention.
Now I am off to the dumb tire store to order a tire for my truck. Is there a reason the Mr couldn't have gone himself. Darn him cutting into my sewing time! Just kidding, he works very hard trucking down the road all week.

Pin Basting

The little quilt got pin basted Thursday night and yesterday I was able to stitch in the ditch around the blocks. Hopefully when all my errands are done for today, I can start the freemotion work. My old Singer has been behaving so far!
If you have been following along you might notice I rearranged my studio again. I set up the featherweight so that if I got tired of machine quilting I could slide my chair over and do some sewing.

Thank You To All Our Veterans

Hope everyone took a moment today to think about the sacrifice our Veterans made for our country. I am very proud to be the daughter of a veteran. Thank you dad!

 My dad served during the Korean War and though he told us many stories about his time there I know there were a lot of stories that he never told to anyone. 

 So today, while thinking about our soldiers and my dad, I designed this quilt. If anyone wants the EQ7 file send me an email or leave a comment and I will send you the project file.

Weekend Projects

I finally finished my small autumn wallhanging. I didn't know about Steam A Seam and used something that was really stiff, but I made lemonade out of lemons by using a pigma pen and drawing lines on the pumpkin.
The pattern is Fall Memories by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts

I am also working on a small quilt for my granddaughter Shayla for Christmas. I have one more border to add and then some quick quilting. My grandkids wear out their quilts faster than I can make them.



Getting Organized

Go see this post at Stash Manicure. I'll wait...... OK, how is that for being organized ? My sewing room might be neat. Things are in boxes and on shelves but if I had to find a quilting design I saved from a magazine I would be looking for a little while. I do rip out the pages of designs or projects I like in magazines but I tend to put them in one big folder. Teresa has some great ideas and great pictures of her "quilt cave".

Quilt Whispering

Wow I am just finishing up my QuiltWhisperer Class with Carla Barrett of Feathered Fibers and I am so excited! I have been quilting for 30 plus years but I was still stuck in the hand quilting frame of mind, where you either stitch in the ditch or a quarter inch away and save your fancy stencils for large open spaces and the borders.Well now I am learning how to break the quilt down into different areas and  finding and enhancing the focal point. I am finding designs all around me to use as quilting motifs and I am keeping them in a journal.
I am so glad I took this class. If you get the chance stop by the QW forum or Carla's blog and look at what she does. She really can teach you how to do it too! I won't post my homework yet because I plan to make the quilt but from now on if I post a new EQ design I'll try and show how it would look quilted.

What Shall I Do?

I have some blocks that I made from patterns I drafted out of Jinny Beyer's Patchwork Portfolio. Some of these blocks I made a long, long time ago but I also made a couple more last year from bits and pieces of leftover fabric and some new fabric. I love eight pointed star blocks!
 I'm thinking that nine blocks and some borders will make a nice wall hanging but I could make a beautiful bed quilt if I make a bunch more blocks. My problem is I am pretty sure that I won't have enough fabric to tie in the new blocks. The two blocks I made last year used old and new fabric. If I make the quilt with 30 blocks I could match the value but I would have to use new fabric.
Any suggestions?

I have enough border fabric to do 30 blocks but its all holey from cutting out exact match pieces. There is not enough to use for borders and I can't get any more.

Need a laugh?

I have just spent the weekend caring for a sick hubby and a sick son. Hubby came down with the intestinal flu on Wednesday and was still not feeling at all well over the weekend. My son arrived home for the weekend from college and within 24 hours caught the same intestinal flu. And I dodged the bullet somehow. Monday hubby goes back to work still feeling a little puny. Son decides he'll head back even though he's not quite his normal self. He decides to wait till 7pm. He packs his car, checks the oil and antifreeze levels. No water in the radiator! He pours a gallon of antifreeze in and it runs right back out.
So Mom helps him load his stuff in the truck and we take off for the 1 hour drive to school. Well, we get chatting away and blow right by our exit!. The next exit is fifteen miles away... Meanwhile he is not feeling all that great  and we have to stop at the rest area. Thirty minutes later I drop him off and drive back home. I arrive at 9:45 pm. I may have exceeded the speed limit in case you were doing the math.

I had intended to work on my Quilt Whisperer homework and I ended up just staring at the TV for an hour to unwind.
Today I feel wore out, yet I want to finish my QW homework, start cutting out a couple of small quilts for my grandkids, practice my machine quilting, clean my house and go fabric shopping!
So while I was sitting here at the computer instead of doing any of the above I went to Fatcatpatterns.com to see the new blocks and I clicked on this link. Oh I have not laughed so hard in a long time. If you need a good belly laugh go to Cindy's site and read the family dirt, you won't regret it!
Since this is a quilting blog I will show you a little wallhanging I designed last winter.

Now I am getting off the computer and starting something. LOL