I Won a Giveaway

I've been slow in getting this post written.  Life just got away from me.  However, I won a giveaway from Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation back in July.  It was a gift certificate to LouLou's Fabric Shop.

When I first looked at LouLou's shop, I was fascinated by her LouLou Bundles.  These are cute fat quarter bundles of 8 coordinating fabrics (usually 2 colors), that are super adorable.  I had my eye on one with yellow and green fat quarters, but it was gone by the time I was ready to order.

However, the news got even better than that!  Last year I bought a fat quarter bundle of Sugarcreek by Corey Yoder.  However, I didn't buy very much yardage, and by the time I chose to do a Yellow Brick Road quilt with the fat quarter bundle, our store was out of the yardage.  However, LouLou's had it!  (I don't see it there anymore).  So, I was able to order something I really needed for my project.  I also got a little extra for a binding.  Plus, I couldn't resist the 2 mini charms of Strawberry Jam (also by Corey Yoder, I just noticed).

So, now I can make that Yellow Brick Road - Queen size - with the cutest fabric!

So, a shout-out to My Quilt Infatuation and LouLou's Fabric Shop for the great giveaway!

And, as a side note, our store just got the Apricot and Ash fabric line in today and I got to fold up the fat quarter bundles for it.  It was all I could do to keep from buying it.  And guess who the designer is...Corey Yoder!  It seems her fabric lines really appeal to me.

Well, back to canning and quilting.  Have a great day!

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!

More Canning done

I wasn't planning on canning today. However, the opportunity to get tomatoes came my way, so canning happened.

I have more to do next week, because they are still ripening.

Interesting thing is that there is a shortage of canning lids. I bought my limit at the store on Wednesday, and that is all I can get. They are gone from store shelves.  I'm really wondering what is going to be next. 

I'll wash them tomorrow and label them, then put them on the shelf.  I like using them in my spaghetti sauce.  I'm not really a fan of spaghetti, but I use the sauce when I make lasagna. It's a great dish to feed the family when we get together.  This year we ran out of the bottles tomatoes. The store tomatoes in the can just don't taste good to me.

I'll try to do a little bit of sewing tomorrow. I still have the blocks to make for the store.

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!

Things I Need or Want to Do

Hi all, 

I have so many things that I need or want to do.  

Need to do:

Pick berries every 3 days

Put up or freeze berries

Pick tomatoes next week

Bottle tomatoes next week

Quilt - lots of quilts for others

2 blocks for the store shop hop by Monday

Want to do:

Blossom blocks for Summer quilt

Ice Dying

Refinish toys for grandkids

Pineapple block for kitchen wall hanging

Strawberry for kitchen wall hanging

Pin cushions for quilt guild board members

5 quilts of my own

    Women of Grace and Charm

    Red and White Quilt

    Easy Four-patch quilt

    Dream Big panel quilt

    Wholecloth quilt on Silk Radience fabric

UFO's on my list:

Fall train table runner

3 soft books for the grandkids

Vase Quilt

Embroidery quilt from 2010

Women of Grace and Charm quilt from 2008

A few other things that aren't ready for planning.

I'm not sure how much I'll get done in the coming week, but I will try to stay focused on the most important things - the Need to do list.

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!

August - A Busy Time

Hi All, 

It's getting close to the end of August.  It's also getting pretty busy around here.  We went away for the weekend to visit family.  It was a nice visit.  I'm especially glad my DH got to visit with his family.  We've stayed away so we don't get anyone sick, but took a chance to go this time.  

It's harvest time starting up.  We've been picking blackberries for about 3 weeks.  The raspberries are starting up, now, as well.  I've made 2 batches of blackberry freezer jam, 3 batches of blackberry syrup, and one batch (pints) of crushed tomatoes.  I'm very blessed that my DD comes to help me.  

They are waiting to be washed and labled, then put on the shelf for the coming year.  I forgot that I had made blackberry syrup last year, so I need to start using it up, and giving some to the kids.

My DH has been experimenting with sourdough (like the rest of the world), only he's just been at it about 6 weeks or so.  Today's sourdough became tonight's dinner - scones, or frybread.  It was delicious!

They were light and fluffly, but had a lot of chew time because it's sourdough.  It just isn't the same texture as regular white bread.  Delicious with peanut butter and blackberry jam!

I also washed some raspberries to have with our dinner.

Delicious with cream and sugar!  Just like grandma used to serve!  I love this time of year!

I am working on a very big customer quilt.  And it is custom, so it takes me a while to get it done.  In the meantime, I keep getting quilts in to be done.  I'm at 25, with 2 coming tomorrow and 1 on Monday.  I need to really buckle down and get some done this weekend.  I'm hoping the custom quilt will be done by tomorrow evening.

Here's as much of the quilt as I could get a picture to work.

Here is the first row, what I have been doing.

Here's a small sample of my quilting.

Usually on custom quilts, I do a mixture of computer designs and free motion.  I'm trying to do everything as I go, but I forgot to quilt on the eagles near the top, so I will be returning to that after I finish to the bottom of the quilt.

I have 2 blocks I am working on for the store.  We are part of a shop hop coming up in September.  We are making one of each of the blocks that are being provided by the participating stores.  I'm only doing two, and I need to have them finished by Monday.  So, no quilting after 9 pm, so I can piece instead.

Over the weekend, I finished binding some small quilts for my sister, so she can give them as Christmas presents.  

Next time I'll share some of the things waiting for me on my sewing table.

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!

To Do Tuesday - Busy Week!

Here it is Tuesday again.  The time is flying by me....I want it to slow down a bit.

Here were last week's goals:

1.  Make more blossom blocks ( I have 6 of 14 finished).  I need to do at least three.

2.  Three more customer quilts.

3.  Put crystals on small quilt.

How did I do?  Not very well.

1.  Make more blossom blocks.  I didn't have time to sew anything on the blossom blocks.  

2.  Three more customer quilts.  Yep, but only three.

3.  Put crystals on small quilt.  Nope.  Nothing like that happened.

I had a house guest last week, then worked Friday, Saturday and Monday.  I am working on bindings of small quilts for my sister.

This week I am not setting any goals.  It's going to be a busy couple of days, then a weekend of visiting family.  I hope to work on one or two quilts before Friday, but I'm not expecting a lot.  

Last week, I spotted this plate at Hobby Lobby.  It would be a great quilting design.  

Then, I have also been reading up on ice dyeing.  I want to try that very soon, and make a mandala-type dying pattern.  Then, use this quilt design as inspiration for quilting the iced dyed fabric.  

So, I may not be doing much in the sewing room right now, but I am dreaming of future projects.  This is enough for now.

Keep on Sewing!

To Do Tuesday - Dyeing Day!

Here we are again to Tuesday.  My goals last week were:

1.  Finish refinishing my daughter's table.

2.  3 customer quilts.  

3.  Prepare for a visitor (clean house)

I finished the table on Friday, and it was delivered on Sunday.  She and her husband were thrilled and wondered if it was the same table that they brought.  They used a really dark stain, and I think it is lovely.

I'm sorry I don't have a before picture, but it was in desperate need of the stain.

Quilt 3 customer quilts.  Yep!  

Prepare for visitor.  Yep!  

My sister, Cherri came to visit this week.  She came on Sunday, and leaves tomorrow evening.  While she is here, we shop, sew, and this week we did fabric dyeing.  

Since today is Sewing Group day, we got together to dye fabric.  My phone is acting up, so I don't have pictures from the day, but I do have pictures of the finished products.

This first picture are fat quarters that Cherri dyed this morning.  Some of my blue fabric bled in the wash, so some blue has been added to the white parts of these first three pictures.

Next is Kim's fabrics on the right, with Melanie on the left top, and the next two were from Pam.  Melanie put stones in the fabric, tied with a rubber band.  Pam folded each piece of fabric and dyed it fully folded.

These are mine from this morning.  It's interesting how the blue background is a little less noticeable in the pictures.

Then, Cherri and I did a few more this afternoon, to use up the last of the dye.  Cherri's are across the bottom, and mine are across the top.  I love how different they all finished up.

In the first batch this morning, I put two color catchers in with the dye.  These are what they looked like after the wash.

The afternoon batch, I washed the pink and orange pieces together.  Then another batch to do the blue, green and purple.  This worked out better.  Lesson learned, I hope.

So, goals for this week?

1.  Make more blossom blocks ( I have 6 of 14 finished).  I need to do at least three.

2.  Three more customer quilts.

3.  Put crystals on small quilt.

Linking up to Home Sewn By Us

Organizing my Longarm Quilting

I like to organize things.  Sometimes I struggle to keep it that way, but my joy is in the organizing.

When I am quilting, I wear an apron.  

Each pocket has something important in it.  My scissors and chapstick are in the first pocket. Then, the small clamps for my Red Snappers.  The next pocket holds my seam ripper and tissue.  The last one is for my phone.  By keeping an item in a certain place, I may find it more easily.  Of course, the scissors don't always go back in my pocket, so I'm hunting for them quite frequently.

Next up, this ceramic bowl I made in a class a few years ago.  I pulled it out of a box about 6 months ago, I had completely forgotten about it.

Now it holds my empty bobbins.  It usually sits next to the bobbin winder, so it's easy to grab an empty and wind it up!

I love my Red Snappers!  They make loading a quilt so much quicker.  There's also the added bonus that I don't bleed when I use them like I do pins.  The clamps are a bit unwieldy to store, so I bought an umbrella stand.

It works so well!  Since it doesn't rain here frequently, I don't have many umbrellas to worry about.  

Last is my thread storage.  I use a china hutch for thread, books, pottery, and sewing notions. Each drawer has a color selection, so I know where to look for a thread.  This is my top drawer...

I love using things I have, or things that are originally for something else, and putting it to a good use in my quilting studio.  If you have something you like to do to keep organized, let me know!

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!

To Do Tuesday

Hi Again!  Another week gone by.  I spend a lot of time thinking about blog entries I could write, but don't seem to get to the computer to make it happen.  To Do Tuesday really helps me get at least this one done.

First, last week's goals:

1.  Quilt as many customer quilts as possible (minimum of 3)

2.  Finish refinishing the table.

3.  Finish family masks.

1.  Quilt as many customer quilts as possible.  I set a minimum of 3 knowing that I had a few things on the calendar, and I was trying to finish the table.  I got 6 done! Yahoo!  I really enjoyed working through these quilts.  Sometimes I feel like I am behind, then I realize that to totally get caught up is a myth.  So, I just keep plugging away doing to best I can.

Here is one I recently quilted for my beautiful daughter.  The I Spy blocks were given to her from our friend Kim who comes to sewing group.  She pieced them together, I quilted it and she got the binding finished.  My granddaughter loves it!

Here's the back - cuddle fabric of course!

The design is Diagonal Plaid.  She didn't want anything to detract from the blocks.  I thought this was a good option.

2.  Finish refinishing the table.  Done!  This is what I started with.  Lots of chips on the old finish.

Here it is somewhere in the middle.

 

And here it is in my kitchen!  I'm really happy with how it finished up.

Now, I am helping my daughter by refinishing her table top.  I'll have pictures of it next week.

3.  Finish family mask.  Done!  I made 2 for each child and each spouse.  I even have a few extra.  However, I still have a few to make for the College Student.  He's going to need one every day.

So the goals for the coming week?  Very similar

1.  Finish refinishing my daughter's table.

2.  3 customer quilts.  

3.  Prepare for a visitor (clean house)

Linking to Home Sewn By Us

Have a great week everybody! And keep on Sewing and Quilting!

To-Do Tuesday

Here it is Tuesday, again!  I am amazed how fast every week flies by.  It especially seems true during the Summer.  Last week, I spent some time on two different days playing with the grandkids at the park.  They love being outside and playing together.  They've been spending more time together recently and becoming friends.

Here is my list from last week:

1.  Work on refinishing kitchen table.

2.  Finish binding stretched star baby quilt.

3.  Quilt 2-3 customer quilts.

How did I do:  Work on refinishing kitchen table.  Yep!  I'm actually only refinishing the table top, as it gets the most work.  I got two different layers of stripper on and cleaned off.  Two layers of mineral spirits on and cleaned off.  I am now in the sanding stage.  

Finish binding stretched star baby quilt.  Nope!  I usually like to do binding on Sunday evenings.  However, I started making masks for my children and their spouses, since more places are requiring them.  It's slow work and I don't enjoy it.  Other than the fact they are for my loved ones.  But, I am not disappointed in not accomplishing this one.  It gives me more to look forward to on Sunday again!

Quilt 2-3 customer quilts.  Yep!  I also quilted 4 small ones for me.  Some weeks are better for accomplishing quilting than others, so 3 customer quilts is a big win for me!

My goals for the week of July 28-August 3:

1.  Quilt as many customer quilts as possible (minimum of 3)

2.  Finish refinishing the table.

3.  Finish family masks

Linking to To Do Tuesday

To Do Thursday?

It's supposed to be To Do Tuesday, right?  Well, being as it was a busy week, I didn't get to this on Tuesday.  It has been a good week, though.

Mondays, I always work at the local quilt shop.  My day tends to vary, from cutting fabric, to making kits, to answering questions about Handi Quilter machines.  I love that it has a wide variety of tasks.  This week, I also worked on putting together a Capri with Insight Table for our store model.  It was fun!

Tuesdays, I have sewing group here at my home.  We have up to 6 people come over to sew, plus my granddaughter.  She keeps me and her mom hopping.  This time her granddad was home to play with her.

Wednesday, I taught a new machine owner how to do edge-to-edge quilting with her Pro-Stitcher.  When I got home, I got a call that my grandchildren needed sand toys at the local park.  So, I went to the park to play with them for a while.  It was so much fun and reminded me of the times I would take my own children to the park during the summer.  It made for a lot of fun for them, and some easier time for me.  I came home feeling so glad I took the time to meet them at the park!

So, here it is Thursday, and I'm finally getting a post done.  Here are last week's goals:

1.  Quilt as many customer quilts as possible.  Yes!  I quilted 6 quilts last week.
2.  Order Swarovski crystals.  Yes!  I even have received them by mail and started attaching them to a quilt.3.  Work on Summer Blossoms quilt.  Yes!  I cut all the pieces for the blossom blocks, organized them and started piecing.  I have 2 blocks done, out of 14.

Sunday evening, this was my work space.  Out on the patio, in the shade.  It was very pleasant to work outside on my binding, until it got too dark for my eyes to see.  Watching a show on my Kindle outside was a little difficult, too much reflection!  I still could listen, though.

And here are my two blossom blocks.

Goals for this week: 

1.  Work on refinishing kitchen table.
2.  Finish binding stretched star baby quilt.
3.  Quilt 2-3 customer quilts.

Linking to To Do Tuesday

Free Motion Inspiration

Do you ever get stuck thinking about what to quilt on the next quilt?  I especially find this to be true, when I am asked to do a custom quilt, and I'm not really wanting to use the computer for it. 

In my job, I teach a long arm quilting guild each month.  Sometimes coming up with another topic and keeping it fresh and interesting can be a challenge.  Last year, I had the idea to have an ongoing class and called it "Free Motion Frenzy".  Each month (except May & December), I shared at least two free motion designs.  The challenge was to make a small sampler, with all the design ideas, to hang on the wall in your quilting space.  Then, when it's time to quilt, you have 20+ designs at your fingertips, ready to inspire you.

This certainly isn't a new idea.  We've had Handi Quilter educators come to teach, and they have shared these samplers.  So, I used one as my example.  I did my framework using the Pro-Stitcher software, and then, I spent the year loading the quilt on the machine each month and doing my 2 or 3 designs.

I chose to do something else, too.  I played with threads.  I used black fabric so it would show the fun thread colors.  So, here it is.

It now hangs on my wall behind my long arm machine.  I now have ideas to help me when it's time to quilt and I'm not using my computer.  Plus, lots of fun with my threads.  Just a note...the spider web design was quilted with glow in the dark thread.  And it really does glow in the dark.  The best glowing is from the spaces that have more than one line of stitching. 

How about you?   How do you find a way to choose designs?

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!

To Do Tuesday

Okay, it's time to check on my To Do list from Last Tuesday.

1.  Order Swarovski crystals.  Nope.
2.  Finish Custom Quilt.  Yep!  (Hooray!)
3.  Three Blog Posts.  Yep!  (If you count Tuesday as #1).

Here is the custom quilt I was working on.

 Each parallelogram is made of two half-square triangles.  Each triangle is 12 inches.  So, I had to set up each triangle individually. 

 I changed  thread with each color of fabric.  The outer triangles have a double echo of the triangle, with pebbles inside.  The next row has continuous curves.  Then, the next row has waves, pearls and curves, with a single echo with lots of swirls on the inside star.

I would have loved to get a straight on shot, but my 6'4" quilt holder couldn't hold it up for me and keep it straight.   It's just too big.

I believe the customer was very happy.

Now for the goals for July 14-20
1.  Quilt as many customer quilts as possible.
2.  Order Swarovski crystals.
3.  Work on Summer Blossoms quilt.

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!

Coronavirus Coping Skills

I have been listening to podcasts and reading blogs.  Many have talked about coping skills while our world has been turned upside down.  I want to share what I have done to keep myself busy during this time.

As soon as I was told not to come to work, (which lasted 3 weeks), I saw it as a gift.  I was always saying I needed more time to quilt and sew.  Well, this gave me that time.  I made the comment that I liked my teflon calendar (nothing sticks).  I also know that I can be a great time-waster.  I also know that I like to make lists.  So, I changed up my list making.

Most of my life, I've made a list of things to get done.  I have liked checking them off.  This time, I changed it around.  I wanted to be able to remember what I was getting done, so I wrote a list at the end of the day of what I got done.  Genius!  It was just what I needed.  I was reporting to myself about my productivity! 

Some days were better than others.  Some days, I was just too tired to stay motivated, so I didn't get much done.  Other days, I was very productive. 

I kept another list, too.  I have a list of my Finishes for the Year.  Since March 16, I've had 26 finishes.  Some was just items needing binding.  Others, I completed the project from cutting to binding.  I also have been kept busy quilting for others.  It's a great thing to do...piecing quilts...when the world shuts down.

I try not to read too much news, but I know that our number of cases in the country is alarming many.  I do my part to wear a mask in public, and at work.  But, mostly I really like staying home, visiting with family, and quilting.  I expect that this winter might be more stay at home time as well, so I'm going to keep this good thing going.  For me, however, most of my life is back to normal.  All except church.  I'm still busy, and wanting more time to sew, of course 😀.

The one thing I liked about this reverse list making, is that sometimes a checklist is too confining.  Especially when it comes to creative endeavors.  However, the excitement of writing something accomplished made it very fun!

How about you?  Have you been able to keep yourself busy enough to be able to enjoy this time?

I'll just keep on sewing and quilting!

Sewing Group

Tuesday morning is Sewing Group.  We met again last Tuesday, June 30, for the first time since February.  This coronavirus turned our world upside down.  However, we decided we will get together again, just making sure that we are healthy and our families are healthy before gathering.

Kim has been working for several years on sewing hexagons together using English Paper Piecing.  Today she brought the finished quilt top!  We were so excited to see her progress!

Next she will quilt it.  I can't wait to see it finished, Kim!

This is what I worked on.  Kim led our Sew Small Quilt Guild in a mini mystery.  This is the finished quilt.  But, I am on an embellishment kick, so I had to glam it up.

Today I added crystals during our sewing group time.  It may not be visible in the photo, but I'm very pleased with the end result.

Keep on Sewing and Quilting!