Left Overs

I had lots of left over pieces and parts from last week's table topper, so I made this little table topper.

All the fabrics came from a grab bag I bought at a quilt show a while back.

I loaded a quilt on the frame this afternoon, did some test quilting...boogers, major tension issues and broken threads. ;o( What did Scarlett say: "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."

This and That

Sherri K Falls has a blog titled Little Bits of This & That, she also designs This & That Patterns. Recently on her blog she has been having Mystery Monday. The first mystery project was a cute little table topper.

So simple! Sew fast! It took me less than two hours to make this (probably would have taken less but I was gabbing on the phone the whole time). I see a lot more of these little table toppers in my future cause it was also Sew Fun!

Pillowcases

I think I like to make pillowcases as much as quilts. When I teach sewing skills to someone who has never sewn before I have them make a pillowcase, it gives them the basic skills, lets them get familiar with the sewing machine, and they make something simple they can show off afterwards. Fun project.

When I first started quilting I bought lots of novelty fabrics. I have no idea what I was thinking at the time other than they were cute. A lot of years ago I needed a bunch of kid gifts for Christmas, so I made pillowcases from those novelty fabrics. They were a hit.

The far right panel are a few of the pillowcases I made and kept that year.


Sometimes if I have leftover fabric from a quilt and I know I won't use it for any thing else I'll make a pillowcase with it (near right). Friends have made me pillowcases (bottom near left). And sometime I find a novelty fabric that I just HAVE to have; I know I'll never make a quilt from it but it calls my name...like the ugly turtle pillowcase (top near left) and the fishing pillowcase (far left)...

And the cowgirl pillowcase above...who could resist, not me.

Or this dragon pillowcase...

Aren't these dragons just wonderfully evil looking? Sigh. I don't want to give this one away.

But I will, because these are not all of my pillowcases. I haven't shown the ones on my bed, the spare bedroom bed, covering cat pillows, or protecting chair cushions from cat hair....

Hello, my name is Joy, and I am a pillowcase addict.

Odds and Ends

Day 4 of last weekend was spent with visiting relatives. I have been trying to get my second cousin Connie to visit for a lot of years. While she was visiting my grandmother about 7 years ago I showed her the quilt I was working on at that time - a garden trellis. She loved it. I told her then that if she ever visited my house the quilt was hers. She finally got the quilt.

Day 5 was spent curled up with a book. I figured since the plan was already shot I might as well relax and be really lazy. Big comfy chair, suspenseful book, warm quilt and three cats trying to sit in my lap at the same - what could be better.

This past week I added binding to three quilts and finished the pillowcases I made from the left over turtle fabrics.

This is the last you will see of these...they are headed for the washing machine then out the door.

Isn't he handsome?


I'm not biased.

My next door neighbor's house was broken into last week. She doesn't live there full time, normally gone during the week and with the holidays she hasn't been home for a few weeks. It didn't look like they stole anything, luckily she doesn't keep her jewelry at the house or have any fancy electronic equipment, and the person who broke in was dumb enough to not recognize some of the old things around the house were some very valuable antiques. Even if they didn't take anything whoever it was did a lot of damage...they threw a very large rock through her double paned sliding glass door. There were so many glass fragments that the clean up crew her insurance company sent out had to remove half of her living room carpet also.

I trimmed my roses back at Thanksgiving this year but I guess I missed one branch.

Beautiful.