Thursday, April 29, 2010

My carriage awaits......

Little House Needleworks
Dream
stitched on 28 count Jobelan Dusty Green using Belle Soie threads

The pattern calls for an inner white border, but I have opted not to stitch it. Because I made some major mistakes and had to remove quite a bit of my stitching, I almost ran out of thread. There are 10 stitches of DMC thread somewhere on this piece, but it is my secret.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Mittens all made

All the mitten blocks are made for my mitten quilt. Next is the sashing between each row and a plain border. There is enough flannel left in my stash to make about 20 more of these quilts. I swear my stash reproduces when I'm not looking.....

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Sewing fun

Trading services is a great idea. I am going to do binding for friend Moe who does not like to bind in exchange for some machine quilting which I don't like to do. Here are some small quilts she gave me to bind.
This is the back of the first one I did - a Halloween woolie. Isn't the backing fabric cute?
I won't show the quilt front because that is for Moe to do, but I will give a sneak peak at her wonderful stitching of this adorable spider.
Besides the binding, I am working on this mitten quilt (Country Threads pattern) and got seven more mittens done today.
The time goes by so fast when I am having sewing fun, and the laundry that was on my To Do list today did not get done. Oh well.........

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Binding

One thing I pride myself on doing well is binding. Today I sewed the intersections on this binding - all nine intersections - and went to iron them only to discover that I had done them all backwards! I guess I must have left my brain upstairs.

Besides my sewing machine, this is my most valuable and used tool.
Rip-it, rip-it, rip-it.
Sigh

Saturday, April 3, 2010

New Project

This flannel fabric has been patiently waiting for me to make the Country Threads mitten quilt. I saw the quilt years and years ago when my sister and I visited Country Threads in Iowa. Then several years later I spotted this fabric at the local quilt shop and purchased enough for the backing to my anticipated mitten quilt.Now, in the Spring of 2010, when the bin of flannels is embarrassingly full, I picked out a stack of colors that pleased me and began cutting.
Here are a few blocks that I made. The pattern is so old that the directions require using templates, so I figured out an easier rotary cutting method that I wanted to test out.


In the meantime, the visiting cat found a cozy spot - the recycle basket I keep on the porch. The temperature was warm yesterday and the sun was shining, and he looks very content in this airy, yet confined space.

Yesterday was warm and sunny. Today it is cooler and rainy. Perhaps I will make time today to cut and sew more mitten blocks. Seems silly to be doing this Winter quilt in the Spring, but I'm determined to use up stash and the flannel bin was the fullest.

Friday, April 2, 2010

And now for something completely different.....

This blog is about my quilting, my counted cross-stitch, and a few other things that happen in my life like a cat visiting me for a while. Since I struggle with food/weight issues, I decided to start an additional blog which will journal my struggle with these issues.
Please come visit this new blog bonnieweighsin.blogspot.com. Thank you.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Fair weather friend

I got up for one minute to grab a tissue and when I returned to my porch chair, Mr. Visiting Cat had taken over the whole cushion. I'm sure I heard him murmur, "April Fool".