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.

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 !

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.

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.

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!

ONE LAST TOUCH . . .

The all important tag . . .

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

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: