Category: Quilts

I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along Block #5 Snowman

I am not sure why this block gave me fits, but it certainly did.  I still don’t like how the scarf looks, but I am going to have to live with it.  I have never been interested in making a holiday quilt before.  Not sure why since I was collecting snowflake fabric, but I didn’t have much else.  A few scraps of this and that that I am not even sure where they came from.  I do like these blocks.  I think it will make a cute quilt.  All the tiny pieces certainly did test my patience though.  I had to go back and cut things multipe times becase I lost track  of the pieces.  I now know for sure that one of the quilts I have planned will make me crazy for sure becasue it has a bunch of tiny pieces.  Dredding it already.  Haley gave her seal of approval on the snowman block.  That is a surprise becasue she has something to say about everything.  It does look sort of cute.

Starting to imagine what the other blocks will look like.  I have a couple ideas of things I think we will see.20170916_214220_resized

This past week has not been very production for me from a sewing persepctive.  Lot’s going on in my personal life and then I thought I was catching a cold, which is a no-no when you take biologic drugs for rheumatoid arthiritis.  I think I managed to kill it with Zi-cam, which tastes awful by the way, but it seemed to do the trick.  Hope to get some things done tomorrow.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

I wish You a Merry Quilt Along

 

In Honor of I wish you a Merry Quilt Along

So, Long term, I have been figuring out how I am going to put together this quilt at the end.  I need to keep with my snowflake themed fabric, so I am putting these snowflakes in all the corners of my sashing.  I think all my sashing will be this dark red.  I have done 20170910_144145_resized-e1505246987713.jpgreverse applique on these.  Interesting way to do things.  I think it lets me see more of the snowflake.  I like it.  We will see as I go along.  I think I figured that I will need 20 of these.  They are 5.5 inches square.  better get busy.  Not to mention Block #5, which came out today.    Super cute snowman.  If you need to download the instructions, they are here.  Block #5 was designed by Sherri Shish of Powered by Quilting.  Stay tuned for my Block #5.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Quilting Like A Crazy Woman

I certainly have gotten brave in a fairly short time with my quilting.  Not only did I put pebbles in the sand, but I did some thread painting on the palm trees.  I am thinking that my alternate personality must be taking over again.  She seems to be better and braver with quilting than I am.  I should name her.  I will have to think about that one.

I am finding that this quilt with all the quilting is quite time consuming.  I don’t mind, especially since this is for my one day grandchild.  I think about that while I am quilting it.  My daughter, who is only 13, thinks I am totally crazy.  But being an “Old” Mom, I worry about not being around when she has children.  If she waits as long as I did, it could happen.  I need to make sure that those grandkids have quilts from me whether I am here or not.  While she thinks I am crazy now, I hope she apprecaites it some day, whether I am here or not.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Stay Safe Florida

A question for Quilters…

I don’t know how many of you use an accu-quilt product.  I have had one for a long time, before they were really popular.  Maybe 15 years or more.  One of my girlfriend’s is a teacher and brought one home from the school to work on something.  I ran and got some fabric and it cut so well that I ended up buying one.  Of course I have the “school” model, not the fancy ones aimed at quilters.  When I got it, it was initially for shapes, pumpkins and planes and dogs etc…  At some point my late husband Jerry got me a big set of quilt blocks.  It cost several hundred dollars.  I had never used them until this past weekend.

So I cut out All the pieces for the quilt pictured using my accu-cut.  Here is what I found, 20170905_203052_resized.jpgthat there seemed to be a lot of cutting before you die cut and then there was a lot of waste.  I had a fairly large half square triangle that was just that a half square triangle on the die, instead of a square cut on the the diagonal.

I understand the concept behind die cutting.  Each piece is perfectly cut and exactly the same.  It is supposed to make piecing more accurate and easy.  I don’t know if it does or doesn’t.  I just felt like it took twice as long because I had to cut before die cutting and then the waste.  Don’t get me wrong, I love it for cute shapes, I am just not sure about block cutting.  I am hoping someone can share their thoughts with me because it just seems weird to me.

Normally, when I am cutting my pieces, I do have an Alto Quilt Cut, which I love, so I feel I am pretty accurate.  What am I missing?  Thanks for your help.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Bahaha. Two of these things are not like the other one, not like the other one

Sorry, brought back a funny memory.  The first time I got married, I had my three sisters and one girlfriend in my wedding.  Since my sisters lived elsewhere, I picked a dress out of the Penny’s catalog so they could each order it.  Pretty simple.  So, on the day I was getting married, I am sitting in the waiting room with everyone except my sister Karen.  She walks in and my little sister starts singing “One of these things is not like the other one, not like the other one, not like the other one…”  Well, Karen’s dress was way darker than everyone else’s (totally different dye lot).  She was so upset, mostly because she thought I would be upset.  I just laughed.  Seriously, what are you going to do 15 minutes before hand?  Laugh it off.  And then there was Kellie singing.  It was pretty funny.

So, in my fit of sewing, or what I would call depression sewing or sewing without thinking, whatever you want to call it, over the weekend, I of course performed one of my ever so present mistakes, which I only noticed when looking at the photo. The top left corner and the bottom right corner each have a block the wrong direction.  Classic Lori.  The only thing is I didn’t put it together and quilt it before I found it.  So, I have the opportunity to correct it.  That is a change.

I made this from a stack of scraps from a dog quilt I made from my great nephew.  The pile was taking up valuable real estate, so I just started sewing.  It will make an OK baby quilt.  Haley said she liked this one.  She is my very critical daughter who could not sew a button back on her blouse.  Love her.  I can always count on her for an honest opinion.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Block#4- I wish You a Merry Quilt Along

I finally found a reason to use all my metallic threads.  I have been hanging on to them for quite some time.  My late husband and I owned a commercial embroidery busisness manny moond ago and I am thinking that this is why I have a bunch of metallic thread.  Came out not so bad.  When I put my blocks all together, I do like it.  I am designing my 20170901_204923_resizedsashing, which will involve some snowflakes, somehow.  Must keep with my theme.   Looking forward to the next block.

So, I have been doing a lot of sewing these last couple of days.  I find when I have a lot on my mind, or something bothers me, that I find it soothing an/or comforting to just sit and sew.  The kind of sewing that does not require a lot of thinking.  I have a quilt that I am making that has 72 appliqued blocks.  It is farly simple applique, so I found myslef sitting at the machine for quite some time working on the blocks, trying to group by colors since it is scrappy, and rethreading the machine the least amount of times is best for my eyes.

Haapy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Houston Strong

 

We wish you a Merry Quilt Along Block #3

There are two blocks this time.  This is the easy one.  I obviously have not trimmed mine up.  Looks a little wonky.  I thought this was a really cute block. (Click here for tutorial) I had to keep with my snowflake themed fabric, since that was the path I started to head down.   When I look at them all together, I can start to see something good coming together overall.  Sometimes, my vision is a bit off.  It is totally evident with my crazy pinwheel yellow quilt that I am still deciding what to do with.

I look at the three blocks and try to figure out my sashing.  I have something in mind, 20170829_204023_resizedsort of but I would need to find the correct Fabric to make it work.   But who knows, I could change my mind 10 times before then.

I have cut out my pieces for Block #4, using mostly snowflake fabric, but have yet to do any sewing on that one.  Hopefully this weekend. #Iwishyouamerryqal

So, I also need a monthly goal for The One Monthly Goal. Since my daughter knows I am 20170731_194741_resizedmaking her a library quilt, she has wanting me to make it my one monthly goal.  I need 30 blocks for this quilt and I have 3.  So, I will make it my one monthly goal to get to the half way point and make 12 more blocks for her quilt.  It is a pretty tall order, but I have been a bit of a slacker lately (according to Haley).  I guess this will get me half way there.

My sister and my nephew both live in the Houston area.  She was on a cruise in the Baltic Sea during Harvey (not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing).  I did hear from him and they were pretty close to having water in the house but did not get any.  He checked on his mother’s house and all was dry.  This is good news.  I saw this morning that his wife was getting people together to wash clothes for those that had water and wet things.  While it does not seem like much, I am sure it means a lot to flood victims who have everything wet.  What an awesome idea. It is also something the whole family can help with.  Lots of people coming up with great ideas on ways to help that make a difference.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Houston Strong

I Sometimes wonder how I manage to Tie my own shoes

So, last night, I wanted to work on yet another project.  It had some detailed applique.  I was finding it very frustrating, as I had my head about three inches from the machine needle so I could see what I was doing.  I was getting frustrated because some of it was just hard to see (bifocals not helping).

So I suddenly had a thought.  Last week, when I was cleaning out the drawers of my cabinet I came across a few small Bernina Boxes.  I remembered where they came from.  My late husband liked to say I am sorry with “stuff”.  Since “stuff” was not what I wanted from him at the time, I tucked them away in a drawer.

Well, it turns out that one of these little boxes was magnifying glasses.  WooHoo, jackpot.  Maybe I can see what I am doing.  So, I get out the instructions, which is odd for me.  I usually shy away from instructions.  I follow along with what to do.  Open up the head and install this little bar so that you can hook the magnifying glasses to it.  OK, seems simple enough.  But, why does my machine not look like the one in the picture?  Well, after about 20 minutes of staring blankly at it, insisting that I was going to find a way to make it work even though it did not look like it should, I suddenly realized that yes, I have 2 Bernina machines and Holy Cow I bet these were for that “other” machine.  Darn it.  I wanted to use this one.  Then after another 20 minutes of being disappointed I looked at the front of the machine and it already had this bar for magnifying glasses installed.  OMG, could I be any dumber?  40 minutes into this and I should just slap myself.

 

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

RIP Pretty Batik and Black quilt

So, I wrote a post a while back about one of my UFO’s with issues.  Some of the blocks that had been stored in a zip-loc bag for an extended period of time (years) had sort of degraded.  It only seemed to affect the black fabric and it was only those that were stored in closed zipper bags.

I had lots of great suggestions on how to solve the problem.  I thought I could put it together and then just hang it up as a wall quilt.  This was to be my plan, which unfortunately fell apart (along with the quilt).  Dang it.  I put a couple of rows together without issue, however, when I went to sew the two rows together, my plan fell apart, literally.

So, when the first seam of a pinwheel came apart, I got this brilliant idea that I would 20170824_180903_resizedjust top stitch all the pinwheels down.  Nope, that did not work either.  Seem pulled apart anywhere there was stitching.  I knew it would never survive being quilted in any way even if I managed to get it all together.

So sadly, I had to say goodbye to this quilt.  There is no saving it. 20170824_181327_resized RIP.  There is a reasonable amount of the rainbow batik left.  Maybe I will make a small wall hanging version.  Who knows?

I know the big eclipse was last week, but I kept forgetting to post my 20170821_142659eclipse photo.  It was only when I put the eclipse glasses over my camera lens did I actually get photo that you could tell was an eclipse.

 

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting.

Stay Safe my Texas Friends

Oma’s Treasure finished for my One Monthly Goal

I actually really like this piece.  I had lots of advice from people on what to do and I thank all of you for your help.  I so very often finish pieces and am unimpressed.  This is already hanging in my dining room by all the other beautiful thinks that once belonged to Oma, Mom and now me.

Despite the fact that my Oma could not speak English, she always knew what to send me that would make me happy.  Something to make or do.  I believe the center embroidered piece is around 40 years old.  Surprisingly, I did not do such a bad job as a kid.

The embroidered piece is made from linen, so I did add some interfacing to the back to20170806_131034_resized add a bit of stability.  I also sewed glass beads in the centers of some flowers to keep the batting from shifting.  I went totally outside my box and did quilting outside my comfort zone and I am totally happy with it.  How crazy is that?  So, now, when I sit down to dinner, I can imagine Oma smiling down at me.  Getting sentimental, I should stop now.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Join One Monthly Goal, great way to get things done