Category: scraps

How Now Brown Cow

The I am Mad Quilt LOL

This was the quilt I worked on when I was mad and frustrated. I found it was easy to machine applique without thinking. While I am not always a fan of Scrappy, I find this quilt interesting. It was from Missouri Star Quilt, but they used two colors throughout, which I clearly did not. There are 80 blocks that measure 9.75 x 10 inches each unfinished. This quilt makes great use of layer cakes!

I am not sure what I will be using for the back of this quilt yet.

I have no idea how I will quilt it. Always looking for suggestions…..

The brown Cow – So, I was returning home from the local high school and there was a whole group of cows convening at one corner of the fence. For some reason, I decided to pull over and talk with the cows. LOL. Sometimes they make more sense than people. Anyway. every time I said something, this brown cow kept sticiking her head up as if she was extremely interested in what I had to say. Cracked me up.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

What’s Going on here?

So, I have been working on this baby quilt. I love the cute whimsical fabric. I have the top finished. I hope to get it on the longarm this weekend. That is the plan anyway. It is set on point and a decent size for a baby quilt.

So, I have been working on a couple of other things. I am dredging up some half-done projects to try and get them completed. I am an ADQ – attention deficit quilter. Meaning I have to go from project to project. Some of them I am not sure why I did not finish them, others I know why. Hated them. There are a couple unfinished tops that I need to finish but refuse because I don’t like the method. Stitch and flip. ARGH. Not sure why this one bothers me so much. I am going to try and make a plan to get one block a month completed on that one. It would be easy to not finish it all, but I set out to make it for someone and I have bought all kinds of special fabric, so I need to get over it and get it done.

I drug one out a couple of days ago that was circs late 1990’s. Not sure why I did not finish it. Maybe it just got lost in the shuffle. Surprisingly, it appears that I had all the pieces. I now have all the blocks done and will get them together and put on the borders. Hoping to knock that out tonight. We’ll see.

I have had the orange nightmare quilt on my design wall for quite some time 1.5 years. Going to take it down, finish some other half-done projects and maybe get back to it. But, I need the design wall. I know I have at least one more where all the blocks are done. They are just sitting in a box.

I was photobombed by Ruger. He is our little tiny (8lb) Jack Russel. I often refer to him as “Tiny Dog”. He rules the roost here. Pushes the other dogs around (even my 80 lb lab). He is the only boy, so all the girls are his, including me and my daughter. He is very needy these days because Haley is away at school. He was my late husband’s dog. Haley is now his person. He feels it necessary to sit on me a lot. He does not take up much space, so not a problem.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Experimentation…sort of

So, I bought this QCR Mini curve ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful” a long time ago. They, of course, had a really cute dog pattern that I liked. That is how you get Lori to buy an expensive ruler. Put it with a dog pattern. Works every time.

So, this was my experimental piece to determine how crappy I could sew curves. I’m gonna go with medium crappiness.

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First, cutting. I hate cutting. You cut out your squares and then use the ruler to line them up and cut the curves. It said to use a 45mm rotary cutter. I found this very difficult. I was actually cutting the template and shaving pieces of plastic off. So I sat for a while with a nail file filing off where I “nicked” the template. Mostly because then it would hang up in the same place. Once my friend Lynn told me to slow down when I cut them things went a little better. Did I tell you I hate cutting?

So, once I had them all cut I began sewing. You leave ears and then square them up. So overall once they were squared up and trimmed they did not look bad. But, I need to try something else before I decide if this ruler is a success. I used some valentines fabric so I could give this to my next-door neighbor. She needed something Valentines for her table. It’s not the worst thing I have ever made, but certainly far from my favorite.

Yep. this is how my dog sleeps. Crazy girl. Right in the middle, paws in the air. Loudly snoring.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

a 3D Quilt? No Way…

How cute is that? Nanette sent me this pattern a while ago to hopefully get me inspired to get quilting. I think it may have worked! If you aren’t familiar with Nanette’s blog, please take a look. I can only aspire/dream to do things as beautiful as she does. She is truly an amazing quilter.

I love this quilt, but I am a crazy dog lady. I had cut it out quite a while ago, so it was just a matter of sewing it together and getting it quilted. I think I may need to do another one in more girly colors. You never know when you might need one for a gift!.

This quilt was so easy to make. The hardest part was making sure that I did not quilt over the ears!

I put this really cute fleece backing on the back so it is super soft. I love putting fleece on the back of baby quilts. It can also be economical because it is usually 60 inches wide.

I quilted this with a plain old meander, but it seemed to be the right thing. It does not take away from the floppy dog ears.

The Recovery – So the surgery recovery is going. There are ups and downs. It is super frustrating for me because I feel it should be over. But that is just me. Good days and bad days. Some days I feel normal other days I feel like a bowl full of jello. SUper frustrating for me. And then there are the headaches. Ugh. I will get there, eventually.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Happy Holidays!

I am still alive, recovering from my spinal surgery. I did manage to sew a few small things until I could barely move my shoulders. Not sure why, But I ended up getting multiple steroid shots in each shoulder. They are better now, not perfect but leaps and bounds better.

Gnomie GNomes – I did finish this, but neighbor Carol needed something holiday for her table, so she went home with it. I think she liked the back better than my gnomes. The back had snowman fabric on it. I failed to get a photo of it. Pretty sure I had it for like 20 years. Lol. She was happy and that is all that matters. It was a super easy pattern that went together quickly.

My daughter is home from college for the holidays. Makes me so happy. She has been baking and wrapping for me. My desire to do either is at an all-time low.

I made a few of these towels as gifts. I wanted to make more but only managed to do a few. Our guild does “Tiny Tutorials” and this was the one from October, I think. Basically used scraps of fabric and batting. I purchased bar mop towels from Amazon which were about $14/per dozen.

I have made a few other things, but not many. I failed to get photos. Not thinking like usual. I will get there. My surgery takes 1+ years to recover from, but I am of course hoping that time is shorter. I feel like I have not been myself for 2 years now. The positive is releasing the pressure on my spinal cord has resolved a few other issues I have had. I have quickly learned that your spinal cord controls everything, literally everything.

My plans are to get back in my sewing room quickly. I also have some organizational goals for 2023. My sewing area is a hot mess.

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday season.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Yep, I look like Frankenstein

So, I had the chance last month to donate some dog beds to one of my favorite Dog Charities, Hospets. They make having a pet as a Senior much easier. I think I may have had 11 this time. All are totally washable and have zippered covers. I also sent some bandana collar covers. I hope they can sell them for some additional funds.

Why do I look like Frankenstein? Well, on October 10th I had to have neck (spinal) surgery again. It was sort of a sudden thing. At the end of September, I received date of late October, and then then they decided to do it sooner rather than later. I had some fairly severe spinal compression and it appeared that I may be losing spinal fluid (turns out I wasn’t, phew). Good thing I did not have much time to think about it. I might have chickened out. I spent a few days at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Good times. I am home recovering. So far so good. It seems that a few things (problems) may have been resolved. Fingers crossed. Tomorrow I go to have my staples removed. This has been the longest I have been out of work since the birth f my daughter. It feels weird. So they shaved some of my hair off and I have a line of staples down the back f my neck. Hair grows back. I am itchy now, so looking forward to the removal of those staples.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Boo!

I really like Halloween things. However, you can only use them a few weeks of the years. That, however, does not stop me.

I made this table runner almost a year ago at a mini-retreat with my quilting partner in crime, Lynn. I thought it was cute. However, this involved a lot of stitch and flip which I find annoying and wasteful. But I finished it. I had the blocks done last November, but finally sewed them together and put the finishing touches on. I feel like the only thing I make lately are table runners. It is sort of true. Made tons of them after my neck surgery. Smaller projects were easier to focus on.

I decided to quilt this on my long arm. Was initially disastrous. Somehow, not paying attention, I loaded it incorrectly and managed to sew it together. Had to take the pole off to get it off and take out the stitching. Don’t even bother to try and imagine what dumb a$$ thing I did. I am not sure myself. Almost threw it in the trash and then I remembered how much I hated stitch and flip so thought better of it. All that to quilt a lazy meander.

I am adjusting to life with my daughter away at college. It is quite different for me. I call her most nights before I go to bed and she usually calls and texts randomly throughout the day. It helps. Family weekend is at the end of the month, so I will likely go visit then and take her some college necessities.

Now that she is not here, it makes me feel old. I try not to feel that way, but I do. Such is life,

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Déjà vu

Yep, you’ve seen these before. LOL. Apparently, I had some sort of pack with these fabrics. These 2 make three and I am pretty sure there is still an unquilted one in my sewing room. Not sure what I was thinking or what I will do with these.

I am on a mission to finish things up. There are several more table runners. Yikes. So many and a couple of quilts that need quilting. Who am I kidding? There are a lot of quilts that need quilted, but there is an order in my head. I need to get on that.

My daughter was home last weekend from school for Labor Day. Makes my heart happy to see her. She seems to be adjusting well to college away from MOM.

And here is the other one…..

Looks familiar doesn’t it?

I am working on some Non-SouthwesternI fabric things. LOL

I am working on my Halloween Table Runner. I actually plan on using it!. How about that.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

It’s Spooky time!

Last weekend I got crazy and used my AccuCut to cut some pumpkins and bats! It turned out pretty cute! I have a giant AccuCut. I had it long before it was popular. Maybe 20 years? So, I have a friend that is a teacher and she brought it home from school one time and I decided I needed to give it a whirl with fabric. She was cutting out shapes for her bulletin board at school. I loved it and bought my own! She would borrow dies for me because the dies were expensive. Over time I collected some of my own. Honestly, I haven’t used it in forever.

I am pleased with the outcome. I was too lazy to put fusible backing on, so I just used a glue stick to hold them down. It worked pretty well, although I prefer fusible. I used a blanket stitch to go around the edges. The spider web fabric I have had forever, likely years. Still cute though.

So I did straight line quilting, which I did not think I was going to like after a couple of lines, but it turned out OK. I don’t mind it.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

What a week!

I completed this table runner last weekend, but not get to photograph it until today. One f the many table runners that I made while recovering from my neck surgery. The Getting them quilted as time allows. Pretty simple design, but the fabrics don’t look too bad together. e prints were all part of

The prints were all part of the same line of fabrics from many moons ago. Simple straight-line quilting and a black cotton back.

Well, this is the week that my daughter left for school. Dropped her off yesterday. My feelings are very odd. I was so sad to see her go, yet happy for her to have this experience. I had a wonderful time in college and want her to have the time of her life.

At the moment she is having a difficult time adjusting. It is new. She is nervous. Doing my best to alleviate her feelings, while still having my own.

Last weekend we went to Niagra Falls for a long weekend. We had a blast. I am so glad we went.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting