Hospital English Paper Piecing

So, since quilting is my stress reliever. and I am spending a lot of time at the hospital with my daughter since her accident, I decided to try English Paper piecing.  I haven’t got much accomplished, since I still can’t think straight.  Miranda is doing better, which I am grateful for.  We still have a long way to go.

I don’t really have a plan for my “Dog Bones” (I hope that is what they look like), but it could turn into a table topper for dresser.  I guess that would make it a dresser scarf or something.  Not really sure.  Depends on how difficult it turns out to be.  So far, not to hard and it doesn’t take up to much space to work on, so that makes it easy at the hospital.

Thanks to all for the kind words during our difficult time.  They have been much appreciated.  To Follow Miranda’s Progress, please click on Miranda’s Journey Page.

Happy Quilting

Happy Sewing

Treasure your Family

A Pre Y2K UFO…Yikes!

The only reason I know when this top was started is because I remember which house I was living in when I started.  This top was started before my daughter was born.  She is only twelve.

I think I started this quilt because I like the Asian inspired fabrics.  When I began to again work on this quilt I was concerned that it would not match up well, since way back then I was a fairly new quilter.  Not a new sewer, but a newer quilter.  I was pleasantly surprised that it was not to bad.

I had even purchased the fabric for the back long ago.  It sort of looks like bamboo leaves.  I still remember when I saw it and knew right away it would be perfect.  So, I am going to attempt to quilt a bamboo pattern on part of it.  I practiced for a while today and watched Leah Days video on this pattern, Bamboo Forest.

I have begin a page devoted to Uncle Donald Quilts.  I hope you visit it and make your own.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

An Experiment Gone…….Sort of OK

So, I watched a video of Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company make a self-binding baby blanket.  It looked very cute.  The fabric that she was using was very expensive, and I wanted to try it, but not with anything that can cost a bunch of money in case it turned out horrible.  So, I looked at a bunch of scraps that I had from my great nephew’s dog blanket and decided that I would piece a quick top and then use a piece of fleece for the back.  I gave my daughter all the pieces and told her to lay them out and number them for me (She totally wanted credit for the design).

So, doing the self-binding part was not difficult.  It was actually pretty easy.  The only part I found difficult was quilting this. Fleece has a fair amount of stretch to it, so I had to be careful not to stretch as I quilted.  20160814_185736Her instructions said you could do as little as sew a square in the middle to keep the front and back from coming apart.  I did a bit more than that.  I am not sure if it was good or bad.  I think if I had started at it for a while, I might have come up with a better plan.  I will try it again to see if I can do something I like a bit more.

On a positive note, this was an inexpensive quilt to make.  The front was scraps and the back was a $6 piece of fleece.  There is no batting and it is a very nice weight for a quilt.

Last night I cut out a bunch of squares for my Uncle Donald Quilt.  WooHoo.  I will have a page devoted to Uncle Donald Quilts soon….

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Ahhhh….What I learned this time…

Quilting is always an adventure.

So I finished the piece that I pebbled.  While I was pretty happy with the quilting on this one (odd for me), I learned a couple of lessons, again.

20160813_210935First, I read a lot of stuff.  There were quite a few people that recommended using quilting gloves.  I could not figure out how that would help me.  So, after considerable time, I ordered a pair.  They actually sat on the kitchen counter until I was half way through this piece (I have no idea why).   I happen to pass by the kitchen counter and grabbed them and holy cow did it make a difference. It was so much easier to move the piece around.  I bought Machingers and they worked awesome.  It was a great $10 investment towards my quilting sanity (I need to stop being so cheap).

20160813_210942Second thing I learned is to pay attention to everything.  I used some scraps from a dog quilt I made some time ago.  I hung onto them because I am the crazy dog lady.  I usually use scrap pieces of batting on these small pieces.  I have a giant bag of them in my sewing room.  So, I grabbed one that was big enough without a lot of thought.  Started he quilting and noticed that it stuck to everything.  I had pieces of this batting on everything.  Looking at it after it was too late, I discovered that it was some sort of odd polyester.  Thinking about it, I found it odd that I would have ever made a quilt with it.  I think it might have been a piece of snow from my Christmas village that someone  accidentally stuck in my batting bag.  So, I don’t like how this piece feels.  It is so lightweight.  But, it has my cute dog fabric, so I will have to use it.  Lesson learned.  Pay attention to everything.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

 

OMG- I Pebbled Something!

So, last night as I was practicing my quilting, I decided to get crazy and try pebbling.  I was pleasantly surprised that this did not look too bad.  It seemed to be very forgiving.  I am usually so chicken to venture outside the box (The box of meandering) that everything looks the same to me.

A couple things that I realized.  First, I practiced drawing these pebbles on paper.  You should see my notebook at work.  Oh, wait, you can.  Duh. 20160812_083523 While I am sitting in meetings, I am often drawing (practicing) my quilting designs, sometimes I am doing it on my Surface computer.  Funny thing, I feel my drawing often looks better than my quilting (Someone actually asked me if they could have my swirls doodle once).  But it helps get the flow down for me.

I think I need to watch more Leah Day videos and get crazy with another design.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting