Thursday, April 21, 2011

MAKING A BIG CHANGE.............

PLEASE NOTE - I WILL NOT BE POSTING TO THIS BLOG ANY MORE.

FROM NOW ON I WILL BE POSTING TO:



All the posts from this blog have been moved.


The reason for this change is complicated, but something I have wanted to do for a long time.


I will continue to post pictures of my quilting, knitting and stitching on the above referenced blog, and I will also be adding some personal thoughts now and then.  

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Stitching on The Book Store

Moving right along on my stitching of The Book Store by Country Cottage Needleworks.  It has been cold and rainy and grey where I live, so sitting in my cozy home and stitching has been delightful.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

A little of this, a little of that........

While listening to Car Talk and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on public radio this morning I did a little red work.  This afternoon I spent some time on my Book Store counted cross-stitch.  It doesn't look like I made much progress but you didn't see all the stitching I did on the tree to the left of the house and then discovered I had missed a whole section so had to take my stitching out.  Three steps forward, two back.  Then tonight I worked on my knitting.  It was a day of making little bits of progress on three projects.  

It was a good Saturday.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Book Store

Are you the type of person who works on one project until it's done?  Oh how I wish I could stay that focused.  Not only do I not finish projects that I start, I don't even stick to the same craft.  Right now I am working on four zillion quilts, several knitting pieces, some red work, some yo-yo's and I have picked up one of my many counted cross-stitch projects again.  Eventually I finish most of the projects, but because I go back and forth between projects and crafts, it seems like I seldom finish anything.  All this does not take into account the reading I do and the writing, and did I mention I like to sleep?


Here is the counted cross-stitch project I picked up the other day.  I'm really enjoying getting back to some stitching.  This little Book Store piece will fit nicely in my home.  Everyone who knows me knows that my favorite retail therapy is going to a book store!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Quilt top done

Finished this colorful quilt top today. 
 (Pattern name - Hometown Parade, designer Avis Shirer, in AllPeopleQuilt.com, June 2008 issue.)

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Also started working on Yo-Yo's for another quilt I plan to make.  I decided that I want to use white for the background.  This will be a hand project for the most part - a good project for taking on my vacation this year.

When I go on vacation I always take three or four books, a few hand sewing projects, some counted cross-stitch and at least one knitting project.  Now ask me how much I get done!  I'm ALWAYS optimistic.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

What's going on here.......

Yesterday I posted pictures of checkerboard houses and log cabin blocks.  The idea and instructions came from a June 2008 magazine article by designer Avis Shirer of Joined At The Hip.  I cut it out of the magazine so I'm not sure what magazine except that the name in the lower corner is "allpeoplequilt.com".


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I saw this magazine cover and fell in low with the quilt - made with hundreds of Yo-Yos.  

The Yo-Yo's can be easily made using Clover's Yo-Yo maker.

I have an overflowing container of 5 inch scrappy squares that are perfect for Yo-Yo's.  

This is a great take-along project and a project to pick up at odd times when I have a few minutes.  I can make a Yo-Yo in less than five minutes - and that's at my slow leisurely pace!


Monday, April 4, 2011

Checkerboard houses

Today I finished cutting strips for some log cabin blocks.

Sewing the blocks together didn't take as long as I thought they would.

And here are the checkerboard houses I made previously.

Here are the blocks up on my design board.

The pattern is from a magazine.  I am upstairs and the magazine is downstairs, so I will have to give the credit tomorrow to the designer and the magazine.  There is a pieced border yet to be made.  Stay tuned.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Binding done

Finished the binding on Moe's flannel quilt.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Binding day

Today I worked on binding a quilt for my friend Moe.  It was cold in my basement Quilt Studio, but draping this flannel quilt over my lap while I sewed kept me nice and warm.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Charity quilts

Our Guild has many charity projects including making these simple large-strip comfort quilts for hospice patients.  One of the gals in my Bee group received some donated fabric so she washed it and cut it all into kits for making comfort quilts.  I made the above two and finished up the bindings tonight.


Life has been busy in my little world and my crafting/sewing has mostly been put on the back burner.  I noticed that I have not posted anything since March 9th.  What I haven't posted is my machine quilting practice pieces, my Artist's Trading Card creations, some house blocks I made for a quilt-in-progress, several rows of knitting, and the writing I did for a newly formed Writing Club.  (I have not been sitting around twiddling my thumbs.)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Mini Table Runner or Candle Mat

This little mat was made from a kit purchased from Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop in Fox River Grove, IL and was designed by Debbie Lazarski.  The kit included the embroidered center square and all the fabrics.  The finished size is 7-1/2 X 17 inches.  Using the quilt-as-you-go method,  the whole project went together easily and quickly.  It will be a gift for a friend.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Organized and ready to proceed

Yes, I finished organizing my fabric room.  I feel great about knowing exactly what I have and where it is located.  I still have many, many UFOs, but they are labeled and listed.  Don't know why that makes me feel better, but it does.



Labeled containers make me happy.

Even the little area where I make an occasional greeting card got cleaned up.  This table was stacked high with stuff that needed a home.  Now I have a nice work area for creating some cards.


I can make cards in between finishing those 22 UFO projects and the 13 project kits that haven't even been started.  I won't mention the 200 books with endless ideas and my three ring binders with hundreds of quilt ideas ripped out of magazines. 


It is all worth it though when you get a phone call like I got tonight.  My Texas cousin called to let me know she received the quilt that I made for her, and she was very happy with the quilt.  It was so good to hear her voice and catch up on family news.  I love making quilts for people who truly appreciate them.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Organize and play

The other day I was at the dollar store and saw jigsaw puzzles - 500 piece jigsaw puzzles.  I was very pleasantly surprised that the puzzle I purchased for $1.00 was well made and enjoyable to put together.  All the pieces interlocked and although the pieces were small, they were just the right size to have them all within reach.

But, I was feeling guilty that I was not working on any of my many, many projects.  So I made labels and sewed them on some recently completed quilts.

A burst of energy hit me yesterday and today so I started a much needed project - re-organizing and folding all my fabric neatly.  Here are the reds, greens, blues and purples.

Today I worked on the beiges, golds, browns, patriotic, flowers, black & white, novelty, whites, flannels, and stripes.

When I took breaks, I worked on an expensive puzzle that I purchased at a book store.
This puzzle was hard to do and I did not like it anywhere near as much as the little puzzle from the dollar store.  These pieces interlocked, but if I breathed wrong they would come apart.  There is a lot of detail and therefore looked like it would be easy, but the details were so small that the pieces were hard to locate on the picture.  Guess who is going back to the Dollar store! ! ! 

This morning I had an "aha" moment while I was doing some journaling.  I worry about all the projects I have to do and about all the fabric, counted cross-stitch, yarn, and crafting supplies I purchased during my working years.  I have felt like I need to use it all up and had set a goal for myself (a few years back) of being done in five years.  Well, I realized this morning that my goal is impossible. There is no way I could possibly finish all the cross-stitch projects, use all the fabric, knit all the yarn, or make use of all the craft supplies.  Nor can I read all the books I have at home.  Nor can I get the house as clean as I think it should be or as organized as I envision in my day-dreams.  My "aha" moment came when it hit me that this is a very good thing!  If I weren't working on my projects and crafts, and if I weren't doing jigsaw puzzles or reading, it would mean that I was too old, too infirm, or disabled. 

 So today I am extremely grateful for the long, long list of things To Do.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Nine-Patch finished.....

All done - this nine-patch with flowers quilt - made for a cousin on the occasion of her milestone birthday.  I will be sewing on the label tonight so that I can ship it out tomorrow.

Detail.

The back.

Pillow case to match.

Another quilt finished in 2011.  This makes my 5th finish for 2011.  If I can keep up this average for the rest of the year I will be one very happy quilter.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Quilt Smart

Our guild, Northwest Suburban Quilter's Guild, had Mattie Rhoades from Quilt Smart as our speaker last Thursday and I took the Friday workshop (applique) with Mattie.  It was a great class and I really enjoyed learning from Mattie.


I made 100 Bow tie blocks, and here they are haphazardly placed on my design wall.

All in one direction.

Boxed.

Wavy.

Now I am beginning the long process of sewing all the 100 bocks together.  I started tonight after I decided to do the top layout - all one direction.  After sewing several blocks together, I had to unsew them because they did not lock as neatly as I wanted.  I changed the foot on the machine to a walking foot and it made all the difference.  Only one row done, but at least it is a start.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Yet another -

Yes, another quilt bound today.  This one presented a problem as the quilt came with the binding already machine sewn to the BACK of the quilt.  The quilt owner intended to then pull the binding to the front and machine sew it down.  The problem then was for me to do as she intended, or decide to hand stitch it to the front.  Also, everyone does things differently, and the corners were not as I would have sewn them.  I tried the machine sewing method, but it looked sloppy and so I did some unsewing.  Instead I opted to hand sew it to the front of the quilt and struggled with the corners.  It is OK, but I'm not as proud of the end result as I would like to be.

No more quilts to bind.  Guess I will have to create some of my own quilts!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Moving right along.....

Two more quilts all bound.


Bonnie's Bindings is moving right along.............