Author: Lori Brewer-Quiltingneeds.com

What the ???

So I needed to baste a couple of quilts.  For me, spray baste has always worked best.  I have tried all types, even the homemade.  June Taylor basting spray always worked the best for me and had little or no smell.  It was easy to lift off and re position.

Not anymore.

I noticed the last time that the lid had changed and oddly it now had a ball inside the can (like spray paint).  I thought that was weird.  Then I went to spray it n something small and Good God, the smell was over powering and awful.   So, that means we are relocating to the garage. OK.  I can manage that.

So I am spraying away…..a pretty butterfly flies into the garage….and promptly drops dead.

OMG…. How toxic is this stuff?  I am done now.  Need to figure out a plan B and stop freaking out.

July 3rd was the anniversary of my late Husband Derrick’s death.  It is a day that is stuck in my head.  It is not really a day that I want to remember, yet I do.  Six years have passed and this year for some reason it hit me hard.  Some of it was because I got frustrated looking for a picture of him on my phone.    They never change.  They never will.  We were together for five years, married for two of those.  I am grateful for the time I had with him even though it was nowhere near enough.  He truly was that once in a lifetime love.  Haley and I used to always go to the scene of the accident, which I decided was a little too dark.  Pretty sure it is the last place he would be if he could be.  If he could be anywhere, it was right beside us.  So we honored him at home this time, where we wish he was.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure Your Loved Ones.

Some awesome Quilting news…

The Uncle Donald Quilt goes to the Ohio History Museum, along with my grandmother’s.

What?  Holy Cow. 

Several weeks ago, a lady form the Ohio History Museum spoke at our guild meeting.  She talked about quilts up to about 1950.  I was not looking forward to this speaker, but it turned out that she was very knowledgeable about quilting and historical quilts.  In her presentation, she showed many lovely old quilts.  She explained that most of their quilts were donated and cam with the history attached to them.

When it was question time, I asked if they had any early quilts that were made by men.  She told me no they had never came across anything like that.  Once she was done speaking I showed her a photo of Uncle Donald’s quilt.  Right away she asked me if I would consider donating it. I would.  SO, she asked me to send her an email with any information I had.

That was easy.  I knew Uncle Donald, and he was one of my favorite people.  After he died I continued to visit Aunt Helen a couple for times a year.  We would go to lunch and talk about all sorts of things.  I often took her something I made when I visited.  Once time when I was there she gave me the “Uncle Donald Quilt”.   

I had no idea if he was illiterate.  My dad thought he was a pretty smart man, and I image her was, even if he was not educated.  I know my grandmother was, she was actually a school teacher at one point in her life, but boys became valuable farm hands and were often not educated past the 8th grade.

My Grandmother’s (Monnie) quilt

Uncle Donald had 8 sisters (one of them being my grandmother).  Since he was the youngest, he wound up joining in on the quilting.  He made his own quilt.  Aunt Helen thought I should have it, since he was my family. 

So I had all the provenance and sent her the information I knew.  She emailed me back information about my family after she researched them.  I had guessed the quilt was from about 1920, but was unsure.  I knew when my grandmother was born, but did not know that until Donald was born in 1907.  She thought that 1920 was pretty close because the 1920 census had listed him as an illiterate farmer.  He would have been 13 then and become a valuable farm worker and likely not had time for quilting after that.

So, my Uncle Donald Quilt will be part of the Ohio History Museum’s quilt collection, along with one of my grandmother’s.  Uncle Donald’s quilt will be the only one made by a man in the collection.

It feels very good to know that items from my family will be forever saved as part of a historical collection.

It takes about a year for things to be officially added to the collection along with filling out paperwork, but I am thrilled it will be forever saved.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

What did I do this weekend?

I know you are all dying to know.  LOL. I made this baby quilt top.  I have some fat quarter packs that I have received as gifts and was trying to find a good way to use them.  I still have a few things to work out, but overall came out kind of cute.  I guess I find anything with dog fabric kind of cute though.  Good way to use five fat quarters.  I made a few mistakes in piece sizes because I forgot to properly account for seam allowance, but I think I have it figured out now.

I made the mistake of not putting all the pieces on the design board, so I have some fabrics together that I don’t like, but I will not make that mistake next time.

So, the Connecting Threads warehouse was this past weekend, in Columbus, Ohio.  SO I went, almost didn’t but then on my way home from something else, decided to check it out.  Glad I did and also glad I went in the afternoon.  Apparently there was a 2 hour wait to get in the building when they opened.  I am not patient and would not have waited for 2 hours to get in the building which was a warehouse with no air conditioning.  I don’t black Friday shop either.  I want/need nothing that bad.

There was still plenty of stuff for me.  I bought 18 yards of fabric @ $2.50/yd.  Pretty good.  I did have to stand in line for abut 30 minutes though.  I was a hot mess.  Next time, I make Haley go stand line immediately while I shop.  She tried to get me to go to the car and she would wait in line, but I toughed it out.

First picture is what I bought.  Second picture is the warehouse.  The fabric is on rolls, and there are rolls and rolls.  The third picture is the line which wrapped around the aisle of the warehouse and up another.  They also sold yarn there, lots of yarn.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

My Table Setting and my Quilting Godmother

So, everyone needs a Quilting Godmother.  Seriously, mine listens to my problems (personal and quilt related), leads me down the path of good quilting and then ever so often a box of awesomeness arrives at my home.

I never thought when I created my blog that I would make real friends here, let alone find a quilting Godmother.  Who would have thought?  I have found so many awesome like minded people through my blog.  I am ever so grateful for the friendships and comradeship.  I really do love you all (Nanette…you have a special place in my heart).

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Look at all this wonderful stuff I got from my Quilting Godmother (LOL)  There are such beautiful things in this box, I can’t even tell you.

I love creating like this.  I will take these things and then like a puzzle put them together.  So besides the quilting challenge, I also have the figure out how to put it all together challenge.

About my table setting…Looks great from distance.  Don’t look to close.  For whatever reason, a preschooler with safety scissors must have cut these out.  The place mats did not go together well, mostly due to the cutting.  Cutting accurately is so important.  Learned that lesson again…..dang it.

Since these are for my table, I will tolerate their mediocrity.  I actually created these so I WaterMark_2019-06-04-15-16-00could practice quilting spirals.  I have a quilt that I want to do the spiral pattern on and wanted more practice.

It did not turn out too bad.   The practice was good.  I will feel better when I set out to quilt the big quilt with spirals.

20190601_193652This is my Snibble and all the reason my things frequently come complete with dog hair.  I had these laying on the back of the couch as I completed the binding.  She decided that she needed to watch me as I worked and plopped herself on top of them.

So, my mother was from Germany.  It turns out that growing up, there were some made up words in my family (by my mother).  Snibbles was one of them.  I grew up thinking that Snibbles were little bits of paper or fabric (scraps) because that is what my mother referred to them as (along with her best friend who was also from Germany).  I was frequently told to clean up my Snibbles.  I learned while I was in college that it was not really a word.  It was rush week (yes, I was a sorority girl)  and we were doing something that involved cutting paper.  I said “we are going to have to clean up all these snibbles”, as if that was a word everyone knew.  They all looked at me like I was crazy, so I repeated myself.  Then came the laughter and the realization that this was not really a word, but something my mother and Betty (Mom’s best friend, also from Germany..I see a pattern here)  made up.  My whole life up til then, I thought Snibbles were  a real thing.

Snibble is now a real thing.  My late Husband named her that because she was a “scrap” of a dog (he was very familiar with the Snibble story).  He was working for a farmer changing oil on tractors and their dog had 13 puppies.  Only one was a girl and the boys were being mean to her and not letting her eat.  He rescued her for me.  She was all bit up when she came, but is a wonderful happy girl now.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family and your Quilting Godmother!

Happy Memorial Day and a finish

Happy Memorial Day and to all that serve(d), Thank you.  My father was in the Army Air Corp and my late husband Derrick was in the Army.  I miss them both dearly.  The army Air corp is what brought my parents together.  My father was stationed in Germany when he met my mother.  They are all awesome people to remember on this day.

I made this quilt for a lady I work with.  She is having a baby in July.  I love babies so anytime I can have an excuse to make something for a baby, I am going to do it.  I also think a lot of this person.  There has been only a couple of times I have met a young person and thought to myself, WOW, they have their act together.  This lady is one of them.  Super smart, knows what she wants personally and professionally and is not going to let anyone stand in her way.  She is having a boy and the nursery will be Ohio State (another reason to like her, LOL).

I needed to experiment with batting and minky after the last quilt I made without WaterMark_2019-05-22-12-53-07batting.  I like it much better with the batting.  This one has minky on the back.  It does not seem overly heavy, so I think I prefer it to have batting.

About Minky….  For me, there are good things and bad things about using this on the back.  You can see none of the quilting on the back.  In this case it is good, because I quilted the babies name into the quilt.  If you could see it on the back, it would be backwards.  Love how soft it is for the baby.

Something I did not like…For whatever reason, I found this very difficult to move while quilting.  My shoulders hurt for three days after I finished.  I thought it would move more easy.  Nope.  I have my slider that I put down and it works perfectly for every thing else I quilt, but this was crazy.  Maybe between the slider and Minky it was too slippery and did not move at all?  I have no idea.

I really like this patter (see previous post for link).  IT is quick and easy.  I think it is also a great way to practice new quilting designs.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

OMG…A blog post

Yes, I know it has been a while.  Just when I think I have my act together.  The S**t keeps rolling downhill and I am in the path.

Life goes on and I will survive.  I wont’ t bore you with all the details.  Just life crap I was in no mood to deal with.  It did not however, totally stop me from quilting/sewing, or you would have read about me in the paper LOL.

I hope you all had a lovely mothers day.  I did.  Spent the day making pillow cases for the guild charity.  Went to dinner with the family and they surprised me with a Ninja Foodie, which I have used every day since…..  I had an electric pressure cooker, which I loved, but this thing is the bomb – pressure cooker, air fryer and slow cooker all in one.

This quilt was an experiment.  I liked this pattern, Baby Bento Box, which can be located at Ronda’s creations.   Super cute and fast.

Anyway, I wanted to make this top with just fleece or Minky on the back without batting.  I ended up using fleece, because it was an experiment and less expensive.  Honestly, I WaterMark_2019-04-24-20-35-08don’t think I like the no batting part.  What I love is how the quilting looks on the back.  It looks good even when I am not.  It seems that fleece will hide a lot.  Honestly, it looks even better in person.

I am working on another one, which I will use with batting and Minky (already have it put together) to see if I like it any better.  It is the lightweight feel that gets me.  This would defiantly be a summer quilt.

Positive notes – New job is going well (or at least I think so), and I will have some exciting quilt news soon.  Hard to keep in, actually.

I have missed you all.

Happy Sewing

Happy quilting

Treasure your Family

 

The Hand Quilt Along and the Paint Chip Challenge

I Have nothing……ugh……

Way too many things going on for me. Last week I started the “new” job.  My mind was not on quilting.  It was on getting up at 6:00am and getting where I belonged.  Then there was the total exhausting from trying to learn how things worked there.  Came home, ate dinner , went bed, repeat.

So I apologize to all the ladies of the quilt along, I will get my act together.and hope to have something soon.  Please visit all these wonderful ladies;

Kathy, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

The Paint Chip Challenge.

This is an event that my guild is putting on.  I paid $5.00 to draw a bag that contained a paint chip.  You must use the colors on the card you draw, all of them.  You can add a fourth color not on the card if you choose.  The project is due at the Christmas meeting where the top three divide all the money collected.  So, I had to get to work right away, because I have issues with deadlines, or at least quilting deadlines.  My colors aren’t bad, 20190328_132013but I struggled with what to do.  I felt I needed to do something simple in order to get it completed in time.  So, I chose this simple pattern from “Block” magazine.

Well, it is simple.  In my head, I thought I ould make it look good.  I uses my 4th color (the one I got to choose) as a print.

The print is paired with the royal blue, and light blue is the green columns.  I plan to use the tan as the binding.watermark_2019-03-28-13-18-50.jpg

I hate it!
The only thing that might save it is if I manage to do some amazing quilting.  Hahaha.  That is funny.  I will finish it, but I have little hope that I will tolerate it.
Happy Sewing
Happy Quilting
Treasure your Family

April One Monthly Goal

So, my quilt guild is having a paint chip challenge.  You draw a bag and in it is a paint hip with three colors.  You need to use those exact colors and one additional of your choosing.  I have completed my top, but don’t really like it (No, it is not the pineapples.  I like those).  I am hoping some quilting and a different color binding will make me like it more.

That brings me to the pineapples.  I want to do some free motion quilting that I have not watermark_2019-04-03-14-44-47.jpgdone before, so I am making some loud happy placements for my dining room.  I will use them to practice the quilting for my paint chip challenge quilt.

So for my One Monthly Goal, for April, I plan on having four completed placemats.  Hopefully by then I will feel comfortable quilting my paint chip challenge quilt.

I am using some fat quarters.  I love these.  They are so bright WaterMark_2019-04-03-14-45-11and happy.  It makes me smile.  I love the flamingos and pineapples.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

 

One Monthly Goal for March…..No way…….yes way……

Even though I have not started my new job, my mind is certainly in a different state.  I have until April 8th.  I finally feel ike I am on vacation.  Not only did I finish my One Monthly Goal for March, but it is packaged and in the mail for my Star Wars loving nephew.  Even made a couple of star wars pillow cases (forgot the photo of these).

Originally I bought this fabric on clearance to make something to practice on.  It was odd.  A very square desigN.  The only way not to cut up all the design was to fussy cut each square, which I did.  It is an odd-looking quilt, but it is Star Wars.  For some odd reason, I put borders on the left and right, but not on the top and bottom.  Not sure what I was thinking there, or not thinking at all.

20190320_191727So, I did practice my quilting and I was very happy with how the quilting came out, so I figured it was at least worthy to give away, even though it is odd.  I used my “star” ruler and then made angle lines.  There is a lot of quilting in it, but I enjoyed using it and it looks pretty good.

I did have to wash this quilt prior to sending, it hung on the back of the couch with the binding half on for a couple of weeks, which means the dogs assumed it was for them.  Kept yelling at them, but I guess the rule is?  “If there is a blanket or anything that looks like a blanket it is ours to cuddle up in.”  So, I needed to de-dog it.  I thought I would not like it as much once washed, but I actually liked it more.  Interesting.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

Ohhh Happy Day…and the Hand Quilt Along

I got annoyed with the scales on the fish on my last block and had to set it down.  The Octopus was much more fun anyway.  This is part of the someday under the sea quilt I have planned…..in my head…..

Please visit all the lovely ladies of the Hand Quilt along and see what they have been up to.  They never disappoint.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

So, why happy day?…well, I got a job.  It has been 5 long months of me feeling sorry for myself, which does you help you get a job.  And…I got a job I wanted.

You would have thought that I would have spent 5 months off sewing up a storm, but I did not.  I did sew, but I did not get much accomplished, and I mostly ignored my blog.  Now I look back and feel stupid.  Kevin (AKA man friend),  never wavered.  He said I he always knew I would get another job.  He only wanted me to have one I liked, not one I took to pay the bills, like last time, and then I was miserable.  It is a good distance from home, but that is OK.

I am up to a 25 lb. weight loss, but am currently celebrating, so I don’t plan on losing anything this week.  Hopefully the weight loss plan will get back in swing with the new job.  Having a routine will make it easier for me.

It is birthday week at our house.  My oldest daughter had her birthday this past Thursday and my youngest (and my late husband Derrick) is on Tuesday.  We had a lovely birthday dinner , champagne chicken and red velvet cake.

I hope I am on my way back to myself.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family