Finally finished.....

A few years back (maybe 3-4?) I took a class at the guild in which I then belonged and we made this piece.  It was done in a sort of "cheating" way....with a thin, interface-weight piece that had lines printed on it and we just had to fold it in a certain way and sew the diamonds we had cut onto that sheet...so it was pretty much guaranteed to be error-free.   It then sat for a long time as I was unsure what to do to quilt it.  Then....to the rescue came my friend, Michelle (click HERE for her blog).  She did a wonderful job of custom-quilting it for me and I love how it looks.

I know the center part of the star looks in the first photo as if the points are missing on some of the diamonds, but it doesn't look that way in person AND you can see in the close-up that no points are missing.  The fabric used in the center is a print and sometimes the dark green didn't fall in the best place. (I'd do the center differently if I did this project again...would probably use a print that reads more of a solid than this one did...although I do love this fabric.)   In the close-up you can also see some of the lovely quilting done by Michelle.  I am really happy with how this looks on the wall in my living room.  THANKS, Michelle, for the nice work you did on this.  It kicked me in the butt enough to get it done....finally!  And thanks, to those of you who helped me choose the binding. This is the one that worked best as it didn't pull the eye away from the star design. (Click on the photos to see them enlarged.)

Thinking SPRING!

I finished hand-sewing the binding on this quilt and washed it to give it that crinkled look I love.  (I don't pre-wash fabrics purposely so I can get this look...and I use Shout Color Catcher sheets so dark colors don't run when the completed quilt is washed.)  You can see in the one photo how wonderful the quilting is....done by my friend, Michelle.   The backing fabric is actually light green but it didn't show up that way in the photo.  This quilt is nice and warm for the cold temps we'll be having (again) but to look at it, I think spring...pretty flowers and new green leaves....and that makes me very happy!!!  (Click on photos to see in greater detail.)

My hairdresser is so nice....

I love the gal that does my hair. She is so nice and goes out of her way to accommodate her customers.  She is also a very good hairdresser.  For Christmas I made her a small zippered bag.  I had no idea if she would like it.  It turns out she liked it so much (and used it so often) and felt she could use one even larger, so...I surprised her at my last appointment with this new, large one...measuring about 9" wide by 8" high...with a nice, glass-bead zipper pull and two inside pockets. She was very thrilled with it.  She said many of her friends have asked where she got the smaller one...and she offered to sell them in her shop if I wanted to make them, but....I'm not too keen on that idea right now.  Maybe I'll reconsider down the road, but for now.....I told her "Thanks, but no thanks!"

For a baby girl....

I wanted to make a gift for a baby girl who will be born in Florida in May....at the time of year where she will be in her car seat in an air conditioned car and in her stroller in air conditioned stores.  I figured a quilt sized just nice to cover her up and protect that tiny little one from the chill in the air would be nice.  I made something uncomplicated, simply quilted, and very soft.  I used the very popular (lately) Swoon block as the center (but cut it all out with my GO! cutter so a lot of time was saved in cutting and assembling).  I was going to add some fancy borders but I didn't want to take the focus away from the center of this one.  I used a fun fabric on the back and used the same one for the binding.  (I think I'll take a picture of the back of it when it comes out of the washer and dryer and post that next time.) I'm not a big fan of the look of machine-stitched binding, but I feel it is sturdier to have it machine-stitched...and sturdy is good for a quilt that will be laundered a lot...like this one will.  I hope the soon-to-be-mommy (and then the new baby) will like it.

Keeping busy.....

I have been keeping busy....doing little odds and ends that need attention around the house (and in the sewing room) and also doing the seemingly never-ending chore of weeding out closets and drawers...donating items to one of the area thrift shops, etc.    Here are two recent projects...one finished and the other one in progress.  First is another runner...also a gift.

  

Well...darn Blogger isn't letting me ADD a second photo, so I'll have to wait and do a new post with the other project...the one that is in progress.  Maybe I'll just wait until that next project is further along to show it.  On days like this, I just HATE Blogger......grrrrrrrrr!!!  *sigh*  (And not sure why there is so much space between the end of this post and where you can comment, either......"Blogger, shape up!!! You are really getting on my nerves!!!")

Table runner for a gift...

I made this table runner as a gift for a friend who, believe it or not, doesn't get online as she has NO computer (so there is no chance she will see this picture).  It was a very easy pattern I saw on someone's blog with the link to it.....of course, I can't recall whose blog nor the link now...but it was very simple to make.  I hope my friend likes it.   I'm happy to report that all 4 of the winners have contacted me with their addresses so I can mail out their Lapel Sticks.  Congratulations to Rhonda, Needled Mom, AndSewOn, and Linda G. 

Thanks!

Thanks to all the kind comments on my previous post!  I'm still awaiting my copy of the magazine and hope it arrives soon.

I did get something nice...and unexpected...in the mail a couple of days back.  It is this absolutely beautiful, handmade fabric postcard with gorgeous threadwork and beads forming fireworks.  It was made for me by Jan from "across the pond" and sent to wish me a happy new year.  She is a very talented gal.  Click HERE to see her blog and some of her creations.  I am lucky enough to now own two of her lovely postcards!  Thanks, Jan!

Now...so you don't think I forgot about doing some sewing, here is Spencer, my little sock monkey friend, showing you a little bag I made.  It's one of those "snappy" bags that you make using pieces of metal carpenter's measuring ruler (to keep the bag closed at the top).  It was fun to make and I think I am going to use it to hold pieces and supplies for a small English paper piecing project I might start soon.  Spencer was thinking, instead, it might make a nice, cozy little place for him to ride if he goes traveling with me sometime!  I'll think about that, Spencer, and get back to you about it!!!  (Both photos should enlarge if you click on them in order to get a better look.)

My best wishes.......

My best wishes to all my friends in Blogland for a very healthy, peace-filled and happy 2012.

This is my last "finish" for 2011.....a quilt that is made from blocks done in a swap I hosted awhile back.....too lazy to go look up the date!!!  LOL   Ebony Love (Love Bug Studios) did a nice job of quilting it for me and I put the binding on today and got it all washed and dried so it would be nice and crinkly....just the way I like it!

I did get a lot of quilts completed in 2011 and hope I do as well in 2012.....but I really need to sift through my UFO's and decide........Finish?........Give away for someone else to finish and keep?........Trash?    I have way too many and some of them no longer appeal to me, I am sad to say.  I may have to offer some on my blog as a giveaway, so keep your eyes open!  Maybe there will be something that appeals to YOU!

Happy New Year! 

Gotta love long-armers!!!

I did an AccuQuilt demo today in my favorite local quilt shop with my quilting partner, Kathy. While there, I got TWO quilts back from two really great long-armer friends....Woo-Hoo!!!  (No...for you who are uninformed, they are not friends with long arms....they are friends who have long-arm quilting machines and each quilted a quilt top for me recently.)  I will show them both here.  Not knowing which order blogger will decide to post them, I will describe them both and you will know which I'm discussing. You should be able to click on the photos twice to enlarge them and see the quilting in a little bit better detail.

One is my "pineapple chunk" quilt made using my GO cutter to cut all the pieces and Gyleen Fitzgerald's Pineapple Ruler to trim the blocks after each round of sewing.   I used only my stash of Christmas fabrics for that and love how it turned out...and it is for ME....Yay for keeping a quilt sometimes instead of giving it away!!!  LOL   Michelle did a great job of using a really nice swirly pantograph on it and it really "fits" the quilt well....although my photography doesn't really do it justice because you can't see the quilting in the blocks.  (Look at the top itself a couple of posts back on my blog.)

The second one is a "girlie-fabric" quilt.  This is a lap quilt that is going to be a Christmas gift for my daughter's landlady.  She likes these colors......would never be my choice, BUT...I have to say after seeing the custom quilting job, I find myself wishing it was staying here with me.  I cut all the pieces for this quilt with my GO! cutter, also....and most of it was made as using the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern (along with several girlie-colored borders).   Jackie quilted this one and did her usual terrific job!  (For some reason, blogger rotated this and I can't get it back the way I wanted it......Darn you, Blogger!!!)

Anyway...believe me that both of these tops are beautiful and I say thanks to my long-arming friends....I love you both!!!

4th of July sewing....

We had no plans for the 4th...and I had no work to do for my part-time job....so I spent the day making a table topper for us that I really like. The two photos here show a little bit of both sides of it.  (I like both sides enough that I will use it as a reversible topper!)  You can probably click (maybe double click) to see the photos enlarged.  I cut this with my GO! cutter...you know how I love that cutter. This might become a printed pattern and/or a class at the local quilt shop.  I'm glad this is now a finished project and not joining my UFO's!!!  I'm calling this one Vitamin C......because of the citrus fruit fabrics (as if you couldn't guess).

Guests on the way.....

We have houseguests arriving on Friday.....folks whose house we've visited in the Atlanta area but they've not been here before.  You know how that goes (and how hard we work when out-of-town folks are coming for the first time).  I did finish the throw for the guest bedroom and that is pictured below (although you can't see the whole thing...bad photo, sorry)......and also the pillow I made to go along with it.  The photos posted in reverse order as I still can't get the hang of photos with the newer version of Blogger, but.....such is life!

In addition to getting ready for this, there has been a pretty much overwhelming situation in the family that has demanded a lot of attention and will also take up a lot of time until, probably, the end of June.  So.....I won't be able to keep up on reading a lot of blogs or posting here.  Don't give up on me, though, and think I've lost interest, because I haven't.

Oh, yes...mixed in with that is working on projects for classes that my quilting partner and I will be teaching as well as working along with a magazine that is interested in us designing a few things for them.

Busy is the word...some "happy" busy and some "stressful and somewhat sad" busy, but......things will all work out well in the end.   For now, here are the two photos I mentioned above.

Moving right along......

Moving right along from the Blogger problem I mentioned in my previous post........We discovered by researching online that we had to set Firefox to Windows 2000 and NOT to Windows XP (which is what I have on here). After we did that, Blogger's new editor seemed to work fine with Firefox. We did also install Chrome and it works with that, too, so...the problem seems to be solved.  Of course, there are still some things I need to learn about the new editor, but.....eventually, I'll learn them.

See this pretty pincushion?  It was made for me by my friend, Michelle (click HERE for her blog).  This pincushion is so darned pretty that it's almost a shame to use it and stick holes in it, but...I'm going to do that anyway. THANKS, Michelle...I love it!

 

Here is a table topper I started at our Lancaster retreat in the fall...finally finished it but I'm not crazy about it.  I love the floral fabric, but I'm not happy with the other two fabrics.  Since it's just for me, I also experimented and did the binding all by machine and don't like that, either. (Ooops...still need to tack down those mitered corners.)  Good thing I wasn't making it for a gift, huh?  LOL

Earl didn't come calling....

Earl really didn't come calling here...and that is fine by me. We had a tiny (stressing the word TINY) bit of rain and not anything I would actually call wind of any greater velocity than we get here on a regular basis (living in the area between the bay and the ocean). So...we were very lucky and I thank all of you for your caring thoughts about our safety and well-being.

Okay...something "quilty" now. I finally got my Eleanor Burns' sampler quilt finished now (started a couple of years ago). I wish I could get a close-up that shows you the beautiful quilting my friend, Jackie, did on her long-arm. She did custom quilting with a different look to each section of the quilt. The first photo is me holding it and the second photo is the quilt on the wall being held in place by the Amish quilt holder I bought in Lancaster, PA. I love that holder!!! I think if you click on the photos, you might be able to see some of the detail. (Don't notice any of the points that are missing, though, as this was done mostly in my beginning days of quilting!)

GO Quickly!!!!

No...I'm not sending you anyplace when I say in my title "GO Quickly". Actually, I want you to stay right here and look at my now-finished quilt top, which I am calling "GO Quickly". Seemed like a good name since I was able to design it very quickly with EQ7 (which I only learned to use last week) and I did all the cutting quickly with my GO cutter.....and then I was able to sew very quickly because there is a ton of time saved on the half-square-triangles when they are cut with the GO! So....here you have it......I present "GO Quickly"!!! I'm very happy with it! (I may make this again soon in red, green, and white for a Christmasy quilt top.) I think it will enlarge if you click on it.And here is a closeup of one section of it. The fabric that appears white actually has small, blue polka dots on a white background....which you can't really see easily here.
I need to stop cutting fabric for a day or two and practice quilting, so I can maybe get these tops turned into actual quilts myself and not have to send them out to be done. I also want to straighten up some things in my sewing space and rearrange things. Hubby built a nook, of sorts, for my GO and the dies...so that was terrific!

Amy's Quilt Festival....

Once again, we have a chance to enter a quilt in a show....a fun, online show with no judging and no "quilt police"...just a chance to have fun by showing a favorite of our own and seeing the favorites of other bloggers. Click HERE to find out how to enter and maybe win some great prizes for participating! Thanks, Amy, for doing this for us again!

Here is my entry. This quilt was a "mystery quilt" done with a small group of neighborhood gals. The surprising twist to this one was....after a few months of us preparing all the various parts of the quilt (9 patches, HST's, etc.), we were then told there was NO set patttern for our quilt layout for us to follow! We had to take what we had sewn together over the months and turn it into whatever pattern we wanted! We were all fairly new quilters and that was a daunting task for us!!! This was what I came up with and I do like it a lot. It was then long-armed by a gal in our quilt guild, Sharon, and she did a very good job with it. (This was the first quilt I sent out to be long-armed.)

Ta-Da......a UFO finish......

I did show this to you when it wasn't finished, but now it's finished and I'm pleased with it. There is nothing tame about it....wild colors (all batiks) and a pattern that certainly doesn't have the usual "traditional" look I seem to favor. BUT...it was a fun quilt to make and I'm glad I have it done now. It was from the Tesselating Stars pattern designed by Gyleen Fitzgerald, whose pineapple ruler I used for another wall-hanging I showed you here recently. I took the tesselating star class from her awhile back and will be able to show her this piece when I see her at our quilt guild on Thursday evening! I put ties (matching the fabrics) in the center of some of the "stars" and put colorful buttons in the center of others. I decided it didn't need anything else done to it, as I am very happy with it just the way it is.

A finish and a friend's quilt top.....

Here is a quilt top made by Sherry (from our neighborhood quilt group). She did this as a surprise gift for a recently-married co-worker of hers. I'd say that co-worker is pretty lucky, wouldn't you? Sherry is an excellent quilt-maker and a very generous gal! Sherry will sandwich this and get it quilted (on her home machine) lickety split, so I probably won't see it before she gives it away.......so I figured I better get a picture now. (I think it will enlarge if you click on it.)This is my green pineapple mini-wall-hanging....all finished now. It is hand-quilted and came out really nice.......good texture to it. I know you can't see the hand-quilting well in the photo....especially in the "busier" parts of the quilt that are around the center pineapple block, so you'll have to trust me when I tell you the quilting turned out very nice. I'm really happy with it and you know I LOVE green fabrics!

Cute & quick......

Sometimes you need a quick project...but it has to be something cute.....that gives you instant gratification. Well....my good blogging buddy, Rachel (click HERE for her blog) showed a tea wallet on her blog recently. I asked her if she could link me to a tutorial and she did. I looked at it last night and....within 45 minutes (including fabric selection time and total cutting and sewing time), I came up with this.
I really like it and will carry it in my purse frequently. It is just the right size for 4 teabags (as you can see below) or, perhaps, 2 teabags and 2 packages of sweetener if you have a special one that you like to use. I think it's really cute...and would make a sweet little gift, too. If you wish to make one, HERE is the tutorial I used.

A "finish"......sort of........

A few times, I've mentioned a cottage block swap I'm in....a year-long project involving 12 of us. We each chose a month and made 12 cottages for that month (using fabric appropriate for that month) and sent them to the others. We began in May. My month was February and yesterday I finished my 12 February cottages. Here is a picture of them:
And here is a picture of a few of them close-up.......the door, sky, roof, and window on each is from the same fabric, but otherwise, I did vary them a bit. Each person will get a tiny red heart-shaped button to use as a doorknob (to be attached after their project has been quilted). They should go in the mail on Monday. They were fun to make!
These are the 10 cottages I have so far......January is the top left one...then February....still need to get March and April....and then the rest continue in order....shell fabric for May...roses in June...patriotic in July.....beachy fabric for August, etc. Pretty cute, huh? It will be fun to turn them into a quilt...I'm thinking a lap/throw-sized quilt will be nice to have.AND......Stephanie from "A Ditchin' Time Quilts" nominated me for the Lemonade Stand blog award.......Thanks, Steph!!! I am honored that you think my blog is good enough for that award. I am to pick 10 others, but....since I keep up with more than 150 blogs now, I cannot possibly choose the 10 "best".......so if you are reading this and IF I am a regular reader/commenter of YOUR blog, considered yourself nominated, okay....because, you know I only read GREAT blogs!!!! :)

We are NOT in storage any longer......

uBefore I start my actual post...let me say that I hope we are all recalling today the very tragic events our country suffered 8 years ago. We lived in an area of NJ that was hit very hard with several deaths...and lived in an area where on a clear day we could go to one part of town and see the NY skyline.....which forever changed that day. My thoughts are with the many families whose lives were altered beyond belief that day.

And, in contrast, this post seems to have very little meaning, but we need to carry on...right? So I will tell you that all our things are now out of the storage pod and back in the house. The restoration firm did a wonderful job of cleaning both rooms from top to bottom and also the furniture and knick knacks, etc. as it all came out of the pod. The rooms look very nice...one piece of trim to be done yet in the bathroom. I am writing this on Thursday night (to post early on Friday morning) and am totally exhausted as I woke up at 3 a.m. when the power went off in the area...and was off until 5 a.m. I passed some of that time by riding around in my car to see if I could find signs of the power company at work. I didn't....just saw a state trooper pulled in a hidden spot looking for speeders (of which there weren't too many in this retirement-laden area at 3 a.m.!!!!!)

So....I'm too tired to do many photos right now...but below is a quick one I just took showing one of the two bedroom windows (bad angle, I know). I made the valance...kind of hard to see clearly unless you click to enlarge it, but it's the same fabric as the throw pillows I made and showed here the other day and...trust me, it looks nice. I also made the little wall-hanging you see in the photo (using some of the fabric from the curtains and throw pillows). The good old Disappearing 9 Patch strikes again....made on my Husqvarna, of course!!! AND...thanks to the 13 of you who already sent me supportive emails about my Janome lemon. If you have the time, go back to yesterday's post and read the amazing story of Tracy's Janome...same model as mine...in a comment she left on yesterday's post for me......it's worth a read, I promise you as she tells me something "amazing". I know a few more said they are sending me emails, too. I hope to have at least 20 by the end of the weekend....and more would be excellent, of course!!!