Design Wall Monday

I received my swapped thimbles back last week! :-) I haven't quite decided how to border/sash them, so they are 'stewing' on the design wall for a bit. It seems lots of the swappers liked red! ;-) LOL I am still thinking about making 2 smaller wall hangings and putting them in my sewing room with the shelf that has my thimble collection underneath. Most of my accessories are black, white & red in my sewing room, but with so many red thimbles, maybe red wouldn't be the best choice for borders... ? They are all fused onto the backgrounds with the window cut out behind the thimble. Would you sew around them? I'm thinking it might spoil them~? And honestly, how often will they get washed? I think I'm talking myself into not stitching around them! :-)) If you like peeking into other sewing rooms/design walls, check out Judy L's list of design wall's. :-)

I'm off to complete my backings. My sewing machine has been humming lately!
Hope you are having a 'sewing' good time too! :-)

Until next time,
Happy Stitchin'!

Borders On!

I always kinda fizzle out when it comes time to add borders. It is so much quilt to struggle with! But I kept my nose to my sewing this week and finally got the borders on~yay! I think that deserves a little celebration, but not yet. No time to celebrate as I need to stick to it and get backings ready too. I am hoping to quilt these two in the near future! ;-))

The first is Judy L's 'Bears in the...' sew along she did a while back. I'm calling mine 'Bears in the Forest'. DS's one request was 'no flowers Mom!' I think he'll be happy. Some of the teeny HST's might contain a muted floral, but nothing that sings out 'I'm a flower! I'm a flower!'. LOL ;-) I'm hoping you can click it for a larger view, but sometimes that doesn't work and I sure don't know why! I am going to piece the backing for this one next week. I have bits and pieces of some of the fabrics left, so they should all coordinate nicely.

On the right we have the ocean wave blocks that I swapped with my friend. Y'all voted and helped me choose the border fabrics~ and I love how it turned out. :-) Thank you! This one is huge! :-o 80 wave blocks will do that. ;-) I think it measures 87 x 105, give or take a half inch, so you can see why I could only photograph half of it! It is going to be a full comforter on my bed when it is finished. I am now in the process of piecing its backing. I am hoping to quilt it with an all over leaf panto. Again, I'm hoping it will be clickable for the larger view... ;-)

Break time is over~ back to my sewing machine with me!
Have a great weekend and until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

Mail!~

Yes, I get excited when the mail shows up~ especially if there are swap blocks coming home. ;-) Today I received the second part to the Summer Block Swap blocks. I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet, but it was an easy block and the variety will certainly make a cheery something! :-) Thanks to Margaret for the fun!

I am still working away at getting borders on quilt tops. Hopefully I will have some photo's for you in the next few days. In the meantime~ how do you like my pressing station? :-)) DD bought a futon for her apt and the height of the box is perfect! DH made the large pressing board for me a few years ago. It worked great in my loft sewing room, but since we've moved, I haven't found a good spot for it. When I saw the futon box in the hallway waiting to go to DD's, a lightbulb went off! LOL :-)) Hmm, I wonder if she'll let me keep her futon for a few weeks? ;-)

Hope y'all are having a good week~
Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

~More Giveaway's!~

Elaine at Faithful Quilter told me about these this morning. :-) They both would be wonderful to win! Good luck!~

Frummie is having a Two 2 Yard Giveaway~ who doesn't love fabric!? :-) She has a really cute blog too.

And Lurline is giving away strips of Regency Dandy repro's from Windham Fabrics!! :-o They are really neat! Go have a peek! :-))

I am busily sewing borders so (unless I get them on today), you won't be hearing anymore from me today! LOL :-))

Happy Stitchin'!

Design Wall Monday~

Today my 'design wall' is my cutting mat! LOL :-) The library got in a copy of Kaffe Fassett's 'Passionate Patchwork' and called me on Saturday. :-)) I had to play, didn't I? I tried a block in each size. A triangle ruler would've been helpful!~ I used my 6 inch and 24 inch rulers with the 45º angles. The blocks came out the right size, so I guess it worked! :-)) I can see that this is going to be a long term project~ it's a little bit fiddly, even though he says to not worry about matching the stripes.

I am going to change gears this week and work on getting borders on quilts! Wish me luck! ;-)

Until next time~
Happy stitchin'!

Do You Love Giveaways?

Faithful Quilter~ Elaine is having a great giveaway! The Civil War Giveaway! I didn't want to tell y'all about this one, but if I don't win, I hope you do! :-)

Also check out little Jonah's birthday cake~ yum! His mama Judi at Green Fairy Quilts is having a great giveaway too. ;-)

~Last Two~

Not because they are the last ones in the cupboard, but because I can't find photo's of the others! :-o I know I took photo's but we've had one too many computer crashes. :-/ I'll have to take new photo's one of these days... anyway~~

This was a really fun quilt! It was another Debbie Caffrey mystery in 'Traditional Quiltworks' magazine (back when they were still a magazine :-( ). This was one of the first FQ quilts for me. The pattern called for a bunch of FQ's and my Mom and I decided to purchase half yard pieces and swap half of each to make up our FQ's. At the time she lived in the midwest and I lived in Georgia, so it was a fun way to stay connected and work on a project 'together'. After I finished piecing it, I mailed it to her & she hand-quilted it for me. :-)) This is my 'summer' quilt, because it is so bright.

The final photo is my DD's quilt. When she was 7 or 8 years old she found a kit of already cut out 9-patch pieces at a yard sale. She was quite the 'bargainer' and talked the lady into her last dollar. :-) She was so proud of the deal she made! She had an old clucker of a sewing machine that we got for her to learn on and she spent many hours sewing together her blocks. They got packed up, we moved. We moved again, and she un-earthed them when she was in her teens. She was so critical of her earlier work and it took some smooth talking on my part to convince her to sew more blocks and make a quilt. We sashed all the blocks with my gingham stash. She did all the sewing. I had just purchased my embroidery machine, so she picked out the colors and I embroidered the butterflies on for her when she was at school.. it was so fun to see her dash up to my sewing room when she got home to see which butterfly I had done that day! :-) We stretched that out for quite a few days~ her picking the threads and where the butterfly would go, me sewing while she was in school. Then we sent it off to our favorite longarm quilter. She quilted swirls and feathers and butterflies! :-) I think it is still DD's favorite quilt and she takes excellent care of it. :-)

Ok, that's all for now~ until next time~~

Happy stitchin'! :-)

More Cupboard Quilts~

Good morning! I thought I'd show y'all these 2 before I close up the cupboard doors. ;-) I am sewing away on 4 patches, but they aren't too exciting. LOL ;-)

Both of these quilts were BOM kits from JoAnn's in 2006 or 2007, I think. I purchased them from the clearance sections and I was missing months, so just went into my stash to make up the missing blocks. At the time, I was thinking they'd make good utility quilts.... my LA quilter changed my mind. ;-) She did such a beautiful job on both of them that the big one now hangs in our living room where I can see it everyday. ;-) The smaller one comes out to the back of the couch in the summer~ it fits with all the patriotic holidays. :-)) I just love the feather quilting!

Now I'll get back to work so I can show you what I'm up to next time! Until then~


Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

~More Quilts from the Past~

Thanks for visiting and commenting on my quilts! :-) I think a few more peeks are in order~~
I made this quilt for DS2 when he 'graduated' to a twin bed. :-) It was a mystery pattern in 'Traditional Quiltworks'. I'm pretty sure the pattern designer was Debbie Caffrey. The border is a forest animals print and the back was another fabric from the same line with animals all over it. This quilt is well loved and this photo was taken before all the lovin'! LOL :-) It was hand quilted by my mom and her friends also.

This is one of my all time favorites and you will find it on my bed in the autumn. :-) It is a Kim Diehl pattern from the book 'Simple Blessings'. It was machine quilted with feathers and other fun stuff. :-)

Have a happy day!~

I'm off to my 'padded room' to work on that challenge! ;-))

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

Happy Weekend!

I have been missing blogging, but can't show you what I am working on! :-/ It's for a challenge. ;-) So I'll show you one of the quilts in my house. :-)

This is one of the first quilts I ever made. I didn't know what I was doing, so I hand stitched all the animals to the squares, then decided to sew around every part with my sewing machine! :-o I thought if my oldest DS was jumping on the bed, those little appliques would not hold. LOL I can hardly believe it, but this quilt is now 20 years young! :-o It suffered the abuse of a preschooler and is still around to tell the tale! ;-) It was hand quilted by my mom and her friends.

This is one of the quilts I made for my DD. It was machine quilted. It's a Debbie Mumm pattern and I think the border print was a Debbie Mumm fabric too. DD was in a purple phase when I made this one. LOL ;-)

Ok, back to work for me! Gee, you may end up seeing all the quilts in my cupboard if I don't get this challenge done soon! ;-)

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

A 'Thrifty' New Project~

Blog-hopping is dangerous. :-) That should be my title. LOL
Since there seems to be little on TV lately, I spent an evening blog-hopping and came across Anita's blog, just look at the quilt she is making! I love the blue/white stripes! So first I raided my DS's closet. ~not to worry, he has grown like a weed this summer and all of his clothes from last fall are way too small for him~ and then last night I had the opportunity to do a bit of thrift shopping. Whoohoo! So you are looking at the beginnings of a new quilt. :-) This will definitely be a long-term project, I still need to find the Kaffe Fassett book, and collect up a few more striped shirts! Next stop~ hubby's closet!! :-))) LOL And then off to the library~
There is just something thrilling about the thought of starting a new project, even if you can't begin as soon as you'd like! ;-)

Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!

Design Wall Monday~

What is on my design table today?? :-) Judy L asks that question every week and today my wall is my dining room table~ and it has had a lot on it!! :-o First~ I sewed some of the My Blue Heaven blocks (Marcia Hohn's QuiltersCache site) that I'm exchanging with Bingo~Bonnie together over the weekend. So, although I never got around to pressing them, I wanted to lay a few out for y'all for today. :-) I am really excited about these blocks! :-) We've exchanged 30 so far, and have made 60 total. We are going to exchange another 30 so we can have big quilts. :-) I don't know why it is flipped on it's side, but the blocks look the same. LOL :-))

Then I cleared off the table~ got a 'few' more tables out and laid out all the blocks for the Jewel Box block swap I am hosting on the HGTV message boards. What you see here is all the blocks before I started swapping. There are 256 blocks from 14 swappers. I need to get back to work, so that is all for today~ enjoy the photo's and until next time~~ Oh! and if you click on the photo's they will enlarge. ;-)

Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

A New Giveaway~

Check out Bluebird's A Hint of Pink Giveaway~ so fun! :-)

Have a happy day!

60 blocks! & Superstitions~

As I was bagging up the 18 My Blue Heaven blocks (from QuiltersCache) I will be sending to Bonnie with her Jewel Box blocks~ I just couldn't help but look thru my little stack of blocks. We have now swapped 30 blocks, which leaves us each with 60 blocks!! :-o My goodness that went fast! I can't believe we've each done 60 already! I guess we will soon need to be figuring out how many we want in our quilts. It is kind of addicting making these blocks LOL! :-) That is what a stack of 60 blocks looks like~ Bonnie, yours will be in your hot little hands soon! :-))

Now for the second part of my title~ I broke my hand mirror this morning! :-( It slipped right out of my fingers onto the tile floor~ splinters galore! ;-) My first thought was 'oh no! I don't need 7 years of bad luck!!' ;-) Have you heard of that superstition? I can't remember ever breaking a mirror before, so I guess this will be my test. ;-) Do you have any superstitious sayings that come to mind when things happen? How about when your ears ring? or your nose itches? or you drop a knife? ..or is that a fork? ;-) LOL Lots of things get dropped in my kitchen, I hope there isn't a saying for every one. :-)

I'm off to play a bit~ 60 blocks are just begging for me to play with them!! :-))

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

Blocks & Stuff

I have been so slow lately! What is up with that!? Maybe a little stimulation is in order? LOL :-)

Faithful Quilter: Elaine is having another stimulus giveaway~ go check it out! ;-)

I finally finished the additional 6 sets of blocks that I am exchanging with Bingo~Bonnie at Nap Time News. (check my sidebar for a link to her blog) I don't know why I was so slow with these! I have a whole bunch of triangulations printed and paired with fabrics for the next blocks~ hopefully I can keep focused for a bit! ;-)

In other news, all the Jewel Box blocks have come in, so I will be swapping as soon as I can get DH and DS to carry in my big tables. ;-) Whoohoo! I really love those blocks~ I'll snap a few photo's when I have them out for y'all.

I guess that's the news from here~

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!! :-))