Friday, December 30, 2011

SUGAR AND SPICE AND . . .

Well the quilts for my husband's new great niece and nephew aren't quite "sugar and spice" and "snakes and snails". 

Instead this is Chocolate Lollipop from one of daughter Anna Maria's early fabric collections


And instead of snakes and snails, the other is  bugs, frogs and fish that I found a couple years ago at one of my favorite quilt shops.

So those gifts are all packed and ready to head with us to Greece tomorrow.


And I just finished  couple new pillow cases that I made to go with a quilt that I have there.  The quilt is not quite big enough for the queen size bed, but I think with the addition of the pillows at the head of the bed, it will be just about right and the quilt's  sashing has a flying geese pattern some of the pillowcase fabric--a pattern from Anna Maria's Bohemian, her first fabric line.)


So now I guess it's time to clean up the sewing room, get the rest of the Christmas decorations put away, finish packing, and make final arrangements with the house sitter.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all.  Hope it's a year filled with lots of stitchin' and knittin'. Oh, yes, I will have my needles and some yarn in the suit case too!

Friday, December 23, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS

WISHING  YOU  AND  YOURS  

A VERY . . .


After my Dad retired, he took up latch hooking.  He made this for me and one for my sister.

May your Christmas memories be as wonderful as mine!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

A COUPLE CHRISTMAS GOODIES . . .

Well, my time at the sewing machine has not included very much quilting lately.  I have finished the grandchildren's PJs for Christmas.  My husband keeps joking with me, asking if I'm still going to be making them pajamas when they are 40!  I have actually cut back a bit:  at my daughter's suggestion a couple years ago, I just make the pants and add coordinating t-shirts for the tops.  That seems to be what they like to wear anyway.  I do still make a nightgown for the "girly-girly" 9 year old!  I also decided this year that it's kind of silly for this mediocre skilled seamstress to be sewing something for a fashion design major, so the oldest will get something different.  (In case you are reading this, Juliana, I'm not saying what!)  

I have used my sewing machine to get back to some embroidery though.  It's always fun and rewarding; I really should do it more often.  These are all boxed up and ready to go to my sister.  I'm sure you realize that the towel on the right is NOT embroidery.  It's a fun border print fabric.


Still doing some knitting with leftover yarn.  This will be a gift for my goddaughter's step daughter.

I've made a few more hats for our church groups collection for area refugees, but forgot to take photos before I donated them.  Two are like this one, but without top fun yarn--one with the red shag yarn and another with white.  They were LOTS of fun to do.

I've also finished a hat for my husband and am working on one for my son.  More on that next time.

Friday, December 2, 2011

STASH BUSTING KNITTING

I've done lots of fabric stash busting to make charity quilts. Now, in the past few weeks I've taken that to a bit of a different level and made hats scarves and mittens for our church's ladies charity group who are collecting warm clothing for a local refugee services organization.




It was lots of fun.  To make it go a bit faster, I used double strand yarn so I could use bigger needles.  In fact, I also did a "triple strand" scarf that I guess I forgot to take a photo of.  It was 2 strands of the baby pink with one strand of the hot pink (the remaining yarn from the hat and scarf in the photo below).



Hope you are all staying nice and cozy as winter approaches.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

A BABY SHOWER and PROJECT LINUS

Well, I've finally finished the quilts that I started a couple months ago.  I had pieced them in September, "sandwiched" them at my quilting retreat in October and finally finished the quilting this week so I could drop them off at my local yarn shop that is the drop off place for Project Linus.  These four are sized for babies.



These three are for larger children; these top two are machine quilted.  


 But I did decide to "tie" this one since the sashing and backing are chenille.

And this last one is for a baby shower gift.  The background fabrics (as well as the backing) are a light weight flannel -- stripe and plaid that I though would be just right for the expected baby boy.


It was lots of fun.  Now it's time go get back to working on the Christmas pajamas for the grandchildren!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I'M HERE; I'M HERE . . .



Yep, I'm here.  I promise I didn't get lost!  It's just been a busy couple weeks.  After we returned from visiting our son and family in NY, I had a couple days at home before I went to Nashville to babysit for my daughter Anna Maria while she was in Houston at quilt market.


While at her home I was able to play in her studio and use her new Janome Horizon 7700.  Wow what a difference a sewing machine with a larger throat makes.  I was able to machine quilt my friend's 63" x 63" inch quilt.  (And I can show it to you since I gave it to her yesterday.








I did very little knitting while I was in Nashville.  By the time the children (5) were in bed, I was ready for bed myself!
However I was able to finish my sweater after I got home and I actually wore it yesterday.











Now I'm getting ready to work on a baby shower quilt and some hats for a charity project that our church women's group is participating in.  That will be a wonderful way to use up some leftover stash yarn.


This is the plan for my quilt.  There will be 9 of these 9 patches to make a 36" quilt.


So the quilting and knitting continues.


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A BUSY WEEK

 It has been a busy week.  I spent the first 4 days of last week with my on-line quilting friends at a lovely retreat center in North Carolina.  This is a view from outside my cabin.  Isn't it lovely?
And in reality the colors were even more vibrant than this.  (The photo was taken on a cloudy morning.)


There were 25 of us this year.  We have grown a bit each year, with only 7 ladies the first year 4 years ago.

These are a few of the "show and tell" quilts that the ladies brought with them to show their handiwork.
This was started by our dear friend Jan Mynatt who passed away in June.  Her work is impeccable!

 These are a few of the other quilts that my friends have made over the past months.  There were many others, but unfortunately I was so busy trying to get my quilt pieced that I didn't take too many photos.




 Their quilts made this one of mine look quite simple by comparison.

I returned home on Thursday afternoon, just in time to unpack and repack for a trip to New York to visit our son and his family.  It was a great time to visit.  His church was putting on a performance of "Annie" which was wonderful.  All the child actors were members of the youth choir and their voices were quite good.  (Even my husband who expected to be totally bored REALLY enjoyed it!

This is our family portion of the cast:  daughter in law and their three oldest children.  A Nani has to brag a bit, right?


So that's what I've been up to.  I also did get a bit of knitting done while I was gone and this morning I started the blocking process for my sweater.  Gotta get that quilt sandwiched and quilted pretty quickly too.



Sunday, October 9, 2011

OH MY !

Oops, I haven't been keeping up very well, have I?

I have done quite a bit of sewing and knitting, but just checked my camera and I haven't taken any photos lately.  So I guess I'll just have to wait a bit to post anything.

But by then I should have lots of fun photos.  You see:  I'm heading out tomorrow morning for my annual quilt retreat with my online friends.  There will be 28 of us this year.  Other than the sweet lady who lives in NC and arranges this for us at a nearby camp, I am the closest.  I guess the farthest this year will be the gal flying in from CA.  We will also have quilting friends from TX, CO, OK, IA, MA, MD, FL, AL, and some points closer.  Looking forward to some really good quality sewing and visiting days.

And as soon as I get home, we'll head out again to visit my son and his family in NY.

Then I'll be home for about a week when I go to Nashville to babysit for daughter Anna Maria while she and her husband are off to Houston Quilt Market.

What a busy month this is.  Hope I can live up to my word and catch back up here soon.


Friday, September 23, 2011

TWO QUILTS, SAME FABRIC PART II

 Oh my, I haven't kept up to date with my blogging in a little while.
I did finish those two quilts from the same fabric.  The blocks in the pinwheel one are 12 inches, so it's a nice size "lap rug" or quilt for an young adolescent girl.














The other has smaller blocks -- about 7 inch blocks so it will be for a baby.



In the meantime, I've also been spending evenings knitting.  I just finished this sweater for my grandson's October birthday.

















And just for fun, I decided to finally try some "tiny" knitting from a pattern book that my daughter sent me.
And my little hot dog is not nearly as tiny as the instructions call for.  I just don't have very many colors of fingering yarn.  So my hot dog is made with size 5 needles instead of size one.  I'm not sure I could have even done it on size ones -- I'm too clumsy!

It's not the kind of knitting I usually do or am "in to" but it is LOTS OF FUN !

Thursday, September 8, 2011

TWO QUILTS, SAME FABRIC

Silly me -- I figured wrong and cut way too many blocks for my pinwheel quilt.


Even sillier me, I was thinking if cut them in half again I'd have the same pattern pieces, just smaller.
 But I was wrong.  (Just where is my brain today?)  Instead I ended up with Half Square Triangles --




Being too lazy to take out the stitching and restitch and recut, I'll just use these blocks for a baby quilt.
Using these "cornerstone" pieces leftover from another quilt, I think it will come out to be just the right size for some wee girl.



I'll keep you posted.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

A NEW CAMERA !

Well, I've got a new camera and have played around with it a bit.
Now I see that there is a new blogging format too.
Oh my, this might just be too much for this electronics challenged grandma to figure out all in one morning!

First of all, I thought I would show  you the chenille with a couple of the the blocks that I was working on when I last posted.  So here they are.


And while I'm at it, I'll show you the other (only one other so far) photo that I've taken with the new camera.
This is a scarf that I finished yesterday, using left over yarn from one of my granddaughter's sweaters. It will be a Christmas present for someone, not sure who yet.



So now I'll just have to play with my camera a bit more and keep on knitting and sewing, of course.



Saturday, August 27, 2011

GRAB BAG QUILTING

A few months ago I sorted through all of my small pieces of leftover fabric, along with all the donated fabric I have for charity quilts. I put together bags of scraps that I thought would work well together in quilts and ended up with about 30 sets. Last week when I didn't have much on the planning board for my quilting, I decided to "grab a bag" from the drawer to see what I could come up with.

These are the fabric pieces that were in the first bag.
I realized that wasn't enough to make a very big quilt top. . .

so I went to the cabinet in my in my sewing/laundry room and got the "purple" box of scraps down.


I managed to get several blocks made and then remembered some lavender chenille I bought on sale several years ago. Yep, there was enough for sashing AND backing. Hooray. (Unfortunately my camera is doing funny things this morning, so I can't show you a photo of the finished blocks with the chenille.)

This is the first of five sets of blocks that I have completed. (I even managed to find backing fabric for all five of them in my stash closet! Hooray.)

Oh, and I am disciplining myself: In true GRAB BAG style, I take whichever bag is in front in the drawer for the next project. I will NOT allow myself to pick and choose.

Hopefully I'll get my camera figured out and can show you some more photos soon.
Hmmmmmm, maybe it just needs new batteries.

Monday update: changed the batteries, still funky striped, pale photos. DRATS!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

ONE LAST TOUCH . . .

The all important tag . . .



and it's ready to go in the mail for next week's birthday!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS . . . . .

. . . especially when it helps me find my mistakes.

I didn't realize until I uploaded this photo of my Ohio Star blocks for our "community gift quilt" that I made a mistake on the top left one. The top quarter triangle is turned the wrong way. Silly me.



The photo has also helped me decide that yes, I will replace the dark center of the star in the bottom middle block with a lighter fabric. I thought maybe I'd like the darker center, but I don't.

So, back to the sewing room I go on this lazy Sunday afternoon.

Ahhh, that's better:



Thursday, August 4, 2011

HERE I AM !

OK, OK, I promise I have not gotten lost . Here I am!

Admittedly I have not been doing much quilting in the past few weeks. I've been using my sewing time to FINALLY get drapes made and hung (with my husband's reluctant help !).

This is my make shift "sewing table" at the dining room window. My mother taught me to let drapes hang a while before hemming them. And I guess I'm just lazy, but once they are up (and I'm happy with the way they lay), I don't take them back down. I just leave them hanging and hem them in place. (The ironing board goes to the window too!)
,

Here are the completed dining room drapes.

And here are the drapes across the "great room". There's a matching set on the other side (but I can't get a photo of all at once without furniture in the way). I need to get the swags back down and work on them a bit to get them to lay more smoothly.

I am still knitting on my granddaughter's sweater (May 22 post) and in the meantime, I've ordered yarn for the next 4 sweaters.
This will be my grandson's for his October (12th) birthday.

And this is for my son's daughters for their birthdays next year.


I guess I've got my work cut out for me.
Oh, and speaking of "cut", I have some fabrics chosen and ready to cut pieces for a "community" gift quilt that I'm making with my on-line quilting friends.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

FOUR MORE FOR LINUS

Finally - - I got a few more quilts dropped off at my local yarn shop that is a pick up site for Project Linus blankets. These are all pretty much lap size quilts.

These first two incorporate some more of the home decorator fabric that a lady at church gave me a couple years ago. I'm about to get through that 25 yard piece of fabric. Phew!




I had shown you this while it was in the making. Most of it is from my own scrap stash, but the car fabric was donated.

The turquoise with the white "leaves" on this was donated fabric; again the rest is from my scrap stash. I had a good size piece of flannel that worked for the backing of this one.


I've made a couple others (from my own stash only) in the past few weeks that I've decided to keep on hand as baby gifts. But oops, haven't taken photos of those yet.

And yes, I am still knitting: working on granddaughter Isabela's sweater. And just got some yarn this week for one of her big brother's sweaters. I guess it's time to speed it up a bit.