AHH...Friday

I love Fridays. The end of the work week (for some) and the beginning of the weekend (for some). I don't have anything on the agenda today except ripping out some quilting stitches. On Monday I was machine quilting on the frame and the freemotion foot broke. I didn't realize til later that is was acting up for a couple of rows back. I have a new foot but I can't continue until I rip out a row or two. It is hard work standing up. The stitches are too loose. The tension was off because of the foot (at least I hope it was because of the foot). If I rip out and start to quilt again and the stitches are still not right I will have to start trouble shooting. ARGH!

How about some pictures of some quillows that I made for my niece and nephews a few years back. They are so quick and easy. I tried to match the fabric with what they were interested in.

This one was for my niece. She was into Clifford the dog so I found the fabric and this is it. She uses it a lot.


This one is for my godchild. He likes to fish and I thought he would like this fabric. He uses it on his bed and to lay around on the floor.

This one is for another nephew. He is very much into cars and trucks (at least at the time, now he is into dirt bikes). I'm not sure where he keeps his but I know he uses it.

I love making things for people. I enjoy the moment when they open it or receive it. The look of surprise on their faces and then the satisfaction I get when I know they like it is like nothing else. That is why I give away so many of my quilts (that and the fact that I would have had to move out to make room for all the quilts I've made if I would have kept them). Another reason why I love Christmas so much is all the gift giving. There is no other time of year when people are so giving. I just absolutely love it.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Yesterday was a long day. Our mini group met with the Christmas committee in our guild to organize all the things that were donated to our Christmas auction/party which is next week. There was a lot of stuff to sort through. Lots of boxes to load and unload out of our cars. I was so tired when I got home at 2:00pm. Then last night we were putting up the tree with our kids. I had to arrange it on a day when my son would be here and he was here washing his clothes. We had supper and we put the tree up but we had so much trouble with the lights that didn't have time to put the ornaments on. We will schedule another day for that. After every one left I fell asleep on my chair while trying to watch a movie with my husband. Oh well, can't watch 'em all. HA. This is our Christmas tree with just lights (there are lights on it but I used my flash and they don't show) The picture below is without a flash and you can see my husband and daughter working on the lights.

I really enjoy the holiday season and I love having a tree. This tree was given to our family by my husband's aunt. She bought it and realized it was too big for her house so she gave it to us about 14 years ago. (Wow, I had not realized it was that long ago) I sheds just like a real tree and to me it looks real. It fools people all the time. The only problem is because it is large I have to move furniture around to make room for it. This is the first year I have it in this area. It will take some getting used to.

I have a doctor's appointment this morning so it is time to go.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Today is guild day. I go to the morning and night meeting so it is a long day. Today we will have someone from a local quilt shop come to show us the new things she/he found at the Quilt Market and Festival in Houston. We will also have some of our members that went do a show and tell of things they bought. It ought to be interesting.

The quilt below is a quilt I made in 2001. The year I learned to quilt. While I was taking quilting classes I wanted another project so I started this one. It is from a book by Melissa Rae Hawley called "Fat Quarter Quilts". I just used some fabrics I had here at home (some are probably not even all 100% cotton--OH, for shame). I call it my ugly quilt because of the bright pink and green together, that is the first thing I thought when I finished it. Now it is the most used quilt in the house. We cover with it in the evenings. I need to think about changing the name. I don't even have a label on it (shame, shame, shame).

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Help finding...

There is a series of movies I am looking for. I have found two of them at a reasonable price. "The house without a Christmas Tree and Easter Promise. But the one called "Holiday Treasure" is too expensive for me to consider purchasing.

I have searched online everywhere and I find it for the same price. They are all available on Amazon.com. The Holiday Treasure is based on a book called "The Thanksgiving Treasure" Me and my children have read this book the week before Thanksgiving every year since they were little. We don't read it anymore, now that they are grown but my daughter still borrows it every year to read. Here is what I'm asking. Does anyone have this movie that I could purchase or borrow it to watch? I know that is asking a lot, if you do have it, it is a keeper. I just thought that maybe someone has it and would be willing to share. Thanks, Terry

Today I must get some machine quilting done. I have to quilt a log cabin quilt that I made for my sister in law for Christmas. The top has been finished for a while and I got it loaded in the frame last Friday. Why I procrastinate these things I don't know. But no longer. Today is the day. I received a call last night from a friend that needed a small quilt quilted and normally I don't take outside quilts in during the holidays but she said it was a small one and to do something simple and she was in no hurry. So I said yes, why did I do it? I have so much to do already. Ah well, to help out a friend of course. There will be time for everything, right? Anyway, are you sick of looking at my older quilts?I hope not because I have more to show you today.

These quilts are ones I have made for Project Linus. In the past our guild would make quilts to donate for this project and I participated. This one above was made with a lot of bright fabric with cats on them. I tied it instead of quilting it. It is courthouse steps design. I have always wanted to make a large and scrappy version of this quilt but after doing this small one I decided it would be too much.

This is a quilt design by Kay Wood for fast easy quilts to make for children. I think it is called the 6 hour quilt. It is reversible and it did go together quick. This is the two sides of the quilt. It takes 6-inch wide strips (which are easy to cut because most rulers are 6 inches wide). I enjoyed making it.

The one above on top is a fleece blanket with tied edges. It was very fast but I didn't particularly enjoy tying all the knots and it was small, 36 inches square maybe. It has trains on it. The one on the bottom is a panel. I thought it was lovely and enjoyed quilting it. That all I have today. I need to get up and get busy.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Table Runners

When my daughter got married in 2004, I had some really good friends help me out with the food and serving the food at the reception. I wanted to repay them for their kindness and hard work so I thought about making them a quilt but, I didn't have the time (after all my daughter was getting married) so the next best thing is table runners. This first one is flowers and a chicken. The friend loves chickens. She has them in her kitchen. The appliqués are made of wool and the rest is cotton. I thought it came out really cute. She liked it.

This one is wool appliqué's of fruit. This friend has her kitchen decorated with fruit. The colors are colors she likes and I thought it would fit her well. She was so surprised when she received it and she seemed to be happy with it.

This one is fused appliquéd dolphins. This friend loves the beach and oceans. The background is a batik that I used on the wrong side because the right side had streaks of gold color and wrong side of the fabric looked more like water.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I quilted seashells. All different kinds. I hope you can see them in the picture.

The bottom picture is the beaded tassel that I made for it. I had bought a lot of bead stuff to make the bridesmaids some earrings and bracelets as gifts for the wedding. I decided I had more than I need for that so I made the tassels. I like the way it came out. I think she loved it and still uses it.

Hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures.
I am enjoying the walk down memory lane.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

I'm back...

I took a much needed break. My surgery went well. The recoup time is still ongoing but not bad at all. There is still some swelling and I need to use saline solution religiously. The ear is still stopped up which concerns me. The doc says the swelling needs to go down more before it drains, I hope he is right. I have my doubts only because I have been stopped up since August. I don't know what it would feel like to have it clear. If it doesn't work, I'm not sure what the next step is. Oh well, cross that bridge when I get there.

I hope I have not lost some of the readers from my absence. I have not felt well enough to post. I really did not feel like posting anything as of late. This morning I decided I missed it all and thought I would post some more pictures of past quilts.

This is a quilt I started working on for an auction that was being held for a person that needed help paying for her medical bills. She was very sick. It was someone my brother in law knew and asked me to make it. I started work on it and my Mom was very sick with lung cancer. She died while I was working on this and while finishing it I was grieving. I could not let it go. It is dedicated to her. So I started another one for the auction. The picture below it the one I gave away. It went together very easy. It is a Crossroads to Jericho pattern.

This is a quilt I made early on in my quilt life. It is made using bandannas. You place a piece of batting on top of the bandanna and then start laying your pieces of fabric on top (kind of like crazy patch) raw edges overlapping. Then you sew the fabric edges down using decorative stitches on your machine. I used red thread mostly and some jean and blue fabrics with red highlights. It is heavy and we use it for outside on the ground, picnics and such. Its not a real good picture of it but you can see some of the colors and if you click on it, it will become larger.

I also bought me a new sewing machine (well I bought it used but it is still new to me). It is a Janome 6500P Memory Craft. I wanted a sewing machine for quilting and piecing. So far, I like it. I bought it from a lady in our quilt guild. She wanted a smaller machine to bring around to classes. This one is heavy. If anyone has this machine I would like to hear from you. I can always use feed back. Do you like it? How do you use it? Have you ever had trouble with it?

That's it for today. I will try to post more tomorrow.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Pictures of quilts...

Here are pictures of quilts I made for my three children when I first started quilting. They are from 2002. This one I made for my daughter. She is the oldest. She loves bright colors and many fabrics. This was the first paper pieced project I ever did. It took me 1 hour to make 2 blocks. The blocks measure 6 inches. I put a prairie braid border all around using scraps. I got the pattern for the prairie braid on Bonnie's site. I thought it looked real good with the snails trail blocks. My daughter loves it and keeps it on her sofa to use every day.

This quilt I made for my oldest son. It is a rag quilt made out of blue jeans (heavy as all heck). I put all of his cub scout badges and scarves and other patches he had from his younger days. It stays on his bed or balled up on the floor when his bed is not made but he never covers with it because he is very hot natured and never covers up. I made this in 2002 also.

This last one I made for my youngest son in 2002 also. I let him pick out the focus fabric and he chose lizards. It was a very colorful print so I picked out colors for the rest of the quilt using that fabric. I like the way it came out. There is a lot of movement and your eye moves around looking at all the lizards. He keeps it on his bed and covers with it every night. He doesn't use a cover sheet (he says he doesn't like the way it gets twisted up at night) so he covers with only this.

Tomorrow I will have my sinus surgery. I have a deviated septum and a tube will be put in my right ear to drain the fluid that has been in there and bothering me since August. It has never been able to be cleared up. Even after 2 rounds of antibiotics and cortisone and antihistamines and nasal sprays. I'm ready to have it better and be on the road to recovery. I may not be posting for a few days while I recuperate. I am hoping to feel better to do some sewing this weekend.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

First two Christmas quilt gifts...

I thought you might like to see the rest of the gift quilts. This is the first one I made in 2001. I was a little ambitious that year and made two of them. (I won't do that again). This one is for the name I picked, my husbands first cousin. The pattern was in a magazine (boy aren't you tired of reading that, I guess I use a lot of patterns from my magazines, I guess it is a good thing, I am getting my money's worth from them). The picture doesn't do it justice. The background is a beautiful shimmering gold fabric. The center of the stars were fussy cut from a fabric with angels. I is not big but she keeps it on her sofa at Christmas time. Everyone that saw this one wanted one but I told them even if I make it again it would not look the same because the fabrics would be different.

This is the other one in 2001. I was the name my husband picked. He picked our sister in law. It is a Hawaiian appliquéd quilt. I did the appliqués by hand then it was machine quilted echo stitch like the traditional Hawaiian quilts. It has a lot of quilting on it. My husband even helped my finish the quilting on it so he could say it was from him. This one was hard to give away. I really liked it. I recently got it back from her to put a sleeve on it so she could hang it. It is a wall hanging size. Not very big about 40x40. The border and corners were a challenge but I like the end result. This pattern is not from a magazine (aren't you glad?). It is from "Quilter's Complete Guide" by Fons and Porter, published by Oxmoor House.

That is all the quilt gifts for Christmas I have made so far. I am making a log cabin for my sister in law this year and as soon as I find a backing fabric I will get it quilted and take pictures. There are many other quilts I have made and given as birthday, graduation, wedding and get well occasions. I can maybe post some pictures of those later on.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Opps!

Sorry couldn't wait for a picture. The ones in the large pan have pecans and raisins rolled in. The small pan is just cinnamon and sugar. And there was another pan just like that was already eaten. Boy were they good! (Sorry I can't help myself) There was also another loaf of bread but it is all wrapped up to bring to my Dad later is afternoon. I still have the 18 hour dough rising. It will be good tomorrow. Totally different taste than the loaf of bread in the picture. The long rest time develops the tangy flavor. It's a good thing I don't do this more often. The scale would not be my friend (not that we are on friendly terms anyway).
Wish we had taste O' computer. I would love to share. I'll put on the tea this afternoon, c'mon over (or if you prefer coffee I have that too).
Time to get to sewing.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Ummm homemade bread...

This is what I am up to this morning, sourdough bread. I has been a long time since I baked some up and the cooler weather has me feeling like baking. It does it every year (I also feel like cooking casseroles and other types of winter food). The large bowl to the right will be 2 large loaves of white sourdough. The bowl in the back left is a white wheat sourdough that takes 18 hours to rise and will have a very tangy sourdough flavor, we will have this tomorrow. The front left will be cinnamon rolls for later this morning (I use the same sourdough starter as the rest but add some yeast in it so it will not take as long to rise).

I am also going to get some sewing done today. I machine appliqued 24 hearts of the 1930's prints yesterday and will try to do at least that today. I also need to load my quilt frame with a Home of the Brave quilt to be quilted for my friend, who is in charge for the state of Louisiana.

If I remember and before the family tears into all the bread, I will try to get a picture to post for later. Hope everyone has a blessed day.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

More Christmas quilt gifts...

This is the quilt I made for my Sister in law in 2002. The pattern again from a magazine. An old one. I loved the look of it. Very festive. It had a large appliquéd border but I opted out on that. She uses it often. It stays year round on their sofa. I'm afraid I will have to make her another one because this one will wear out.


This is 2003 gift. I made it for my Mother in law. The picture is horrible. It was taken on a very old digital camera and printed out on an old printer. The colors look washed out. It is a pretty olive green with lavender and pinks. She has it on her bed and uses it all the time.

This is 2004 gift. I made it for my Brother in law. I thought it looked like a masculine type of quilt and again the pattern was in a magazine from that year. Very easy to make. The trees were pieced together scraps raw edge then appliquéd down raw edge. The border is all the leftover scraps. I really liked this one. It was hard to give away but, I get to visit it when I go over to there home. I lives on their sofa year round.

I am hoping to get started on the 1930's heart appliques for the other quilt I am working on. I have to cut out the background fabric which is Vintage white Kona cotton. Love that Kona cotton. It is a good weight and feel. Easy to work with.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Yesterday I finished appliquéing all of the jewel tone hearts to their backgrounds. I need to ripe the paper stabilizers from the back then I can cut out and start piecing the alternate friendship star blocks.I have my preop doctor visit this afternoon so I am going to try to do some of the paper ripping this morning.

I thought I would show you some pictures of past Christmas presents. Every year we pick names on my husbands side of the family and in 2001 I took quilting classes and became obsessed with it. I started that year giving the person a quilt (actually that year I made two, one for the name I had picked and one for the name my husband had picked- won't do that again HA!) Any way I do this every year, so I thought I would show you some pics. This one I made for one of my brother-in-laws. Sorry I can't remember right now exactly where the pattern was from. I do know it was a magazine from last year (Christmas issue). It was a fast quilt to put together because of the squares and strips. I liked the overall effect and I love Christmas fabric and have a large (understatement) stash of it. I don't know why I don't use it more often, oh well another day another story.

Here is a close up of the 2006 Christmas quilt gift. You can see I did a holly berry and leaves freehand quilting. I thought it was appropriate. It went fast. (Sometimes that is good at the holidays, don't know why I don't start and make these quilts earlier in the year, but I don't. Always last minute) They are not all the same but I think it just adds to the charm, right?

Here is the quilt I made in 2005 for my husband's aunt and godmother. It is logcabin courthouse step block with an alternate Ohio star block. Again it was a quilt from a Christmas issue magazine from that year. (It looks like I'm not very creative when it comes to patterns. It is easier when the work is already done for me and there are so many wonderful quilts planned out there already). Love the red and green and gold on this one. She absolutely loved it. The only thing is, she wants another one. One she can put out and keep out all year long instead of just at Christmas. Maybe a long time later down the road (did I mention my husband has a large family, I'm trying to get each one a quilt, eventually).

Here is a close-up of the quilt. I freehand quilted stars and loops on this one. An allover design. Again very fast and I think it came out good.

Well that's all for today. I will try to find pictures of some of the others I made and post them.

Quilt til your arm falls off...