Garland

Karen and Nancy came over yesterday to sew. Lots of fun as always. While they were here I didn't get too much done...playing hostess instead of sewing, but I did get a small walling hanging of Karen's quilted. Oops, forgot to take a picture of it.

Nancy worked on her Raspberry Pop quilt.

Can't tell from the picture, but the colors are rich warm batiks. She was adding green sashing yesterday and as I'm typing this has probably already finished the quilt top. Nancy is a very productive and prolific quilter.

Karen is participating in a block of the month at a quilt shop near her. Her fabrics are bright batiks. Below are two of her blocks. The one with the borders finished too small so she decided to make a small wall hanging out of it. She added the borders at my house, and I gave her a mini stitch in the ditch quilt lesson.

I thought about offering to quilt it for her...but I don't think it would ever make it back to her house if I did... it would look really nice in my bedroom.

After they left, and after I moved everything back into my sewing room, I finally got a little productive.


A garland of four patches decorates my hall tree. This is the ultimate in chain piecing. There are 322 four patch units. For the two quilts I'm making, I need 260. Got any suggestions on how to use the extras?

Triple Darn

Darn, I took a very rare picture of all three cats together and I forgot to put in the memory disk. The picture is stored on the camera but I can't find the cord to link the camera to my laptop.

Saturday I made up more of the strips to make the long 2 patches and got them all cut out. I also cut out most of the smaller 2 patches. I still have a few more strips to cut up. I'm going to have fun turning all of these into 4 patches.


I'm still working on the skirt to match the top I posted last week. Twice I sewed the basting lines to gather the skirt and twice the threads broke. That was a double darn...okay that wasn't the word I used but I'm trying to keep this blog G rated. I'm going to try basting smaller lengths (and use a different thread) to see if that works. Otherwise I may have to hand baste and gather it. Wish I had a gathering foot, or a ruffling foot - my Mom's old Kenmore sewing machine had one (maybe both, I can't remember), sure wish it was still around.

Not Much

So what did I get done for the Friday Night Sew-In...as the title says, not much.

I did get these cut out, I wanted to at least say I did something. Although I didn't get them cut out until almost 10:00 p.m. I did something. Does it count?

Speaking of count, I need 120 of these strips, I count 74...what happened? I could have sworn I triple counted everything when I was cutting all those green strips in March.

I'm Ready

I am so ready for Friday Night Sew-In ... which project should I work on? The list is long.


Okay, maybe I'm just so ready for Friday.

Weekly Post

One of the local sewing and craft stores had an in-store quilt show this weekend. All the quilts were hanging from the ceiling. Kinda put a kink in your neck looking at the quilts. There were lots of interesting quilts, however the only quilt I took a picture of is this one.

I really like the secondary churn dash block the sashing creates...unless the churn dash is the center of the block and the floral is the sashing???

Either way, I really liked the look of this quilt.

I've actually gotten a little bit of sewing and piecing done this week. I've sewn together a ton of green and cream strips, now I need to cut them up into 2.5 inch pieces. That could take while...hmmm, if I was smart and if I was productive, I would cut 2-4 strips per night...then it wouldn't be such a chore. I wonder how smart and productive I am....

And I finished the top for my grand niece. It was fairly easy to make. I hope this fits her.

The matching skirt is about 1/3 done, hopefully I'll finish it this week.

Not much sew'n going on

I was determined to sew something this week. Thursday night Bones is on TV, I watched it and sewed strips of green and cream fabrics together, until I sewed two green strips together. I finally started sewing on the quilts I cut out in March. Didn't get too much done, but at least I can call one a work in progress, they were starting to look like UFOs.

I found the cutest fabric for my grand niece's out fit. Love pink and green together.


The top will be the two pink and green prints, the skirt will be the large print and the pink polka dots. If you look at the pattern drawing the pedals on the skirt overlap around the skirt, but if you look at the store sample I posted last week the pedals are layered - like the top. I think I like the layered look better. I got it about half cut out tonight. I also cut out a tote bag. Lately it seems I'm starting lots of projects and not finishing anything.

Ma, have a Happy Mother's Day!

I wish I could be there

XXOOXXOO

Working away

Not much sewing going on here. I worked a full week last week and survived...I even got a paycheck on Friday - Whoo Hoo! Between work, riding the bus, and trying to get 8 hours of sleep (I don't function very well with less) I've had very little time to do anything in the evenings other than getting ready for the next day. Now that I'm getting a little more acclimated, I'm hoping to work in some sewing time in the evenings.

Yesterday Nancy, Karen and went on a little road trip. Karen won a store prize during the recent Quilt Rush (I was in Idaho), at the quilt store that was the furthest away. Karen sweet talked Nancy and I into going with her back up there. It didn't talk much sweet talking.

We went to five shops - one in Marysville, two in Paradise and two in Chico. First stop was Sew So Shop in Marysville. I'm getting ready to make a new tote and found the perfect coordinating fabric there. Second stop was Morning Star Quilts in Paradise...this shop has two large rooms, it was very difficult to get out of the first room, so many beautiful batiks. This is the shop that Karen won her prize from - it was Moda pre-cut 2.5 inch squares - I think they call them Petit Fours. The third shop was Debbie's Quilt Shop, it was a cute little (very little) shop with lots of 30's reproduction fabrics.

After a quick lunch we headed to Chico and The Rabbit Hole. There was so much fabric, quilt samples, and quilt panels everywhere it was almost hard to see. A little bit of everything.

The last store was Honey Run Quilting. There was a baby shower going on in their class room next door and the only person in the shop was a very nice elderly lady (80's plus) who was a little hard of hearing, or a very good sales person. Nancy asked for a yard of fabric and the lady said "Two and half yards?" Too funny.

Isn't this the cutest little outfit? This was the store's sample. My grandniece will be five on Friday, I'm going to make this for her birthday (not those fabrics). Unfortunately there is no way I'll have it done in time.

We had a great road trip. I don't know if it is good or bad that after visiting five quilt shops this was all I bought.