Weekend Fabric Fun

What a fun weekend it was at my house. DD came home and we had such a nice visit and of course I ended up playing in fabric while she was home. We had run to WalMart on Saturday afternoon to get a few things and ended up looking at patterns. She found one that she liked so now I am in the process of making her a purse and a computer bag for her laptop. It's a good thing she lives 4 hours away or I would never get any quilting done! Also she reminded me that I had promised to make a lap quilt for her friends' grandmother who loves butterflies. Soooo I got out the leftovers from my Grandaughters quilt she is making and DD and I proceeded to cut it into strip and I sewed these blocks together.
I love the pastel fabrics and sew it was alot of fun seeing all the different combinations. I have 21 blocks together so far and will make 4 more to set them 5X5 . I will see what kind of fabric I have for a backing and try to get it done and ready to quilt this evening. :D

It was a great weekend and I always hate it when she leaves, so next time hubby and I will go there to visit her in Ohio. Besides, there are alot of quilt shops in her area!
This last pix is one of my favorite quilts that I made in 1998 and finally finished it in 2002. It is an Elanor Burns pattern and I love it just as much today as I did when I made it.

Now, if I could just finish the rest of my UFO's! :D

A Surprise and Some Old Quilts

This afternoon when I got home from work there was a big envelope for me from Quiltin Jeanie and these FQ's were inside. Aren't they awesome! Thank you so much Jeanie, I love them! My daughter is coming home this weekend and I decided to clean and move things around in the guest room. I had to unload the quilt chest to move it and thought I would show you some of my quilts from the late 1990's. This first quilt is a Debbie Mumm pattern. She used to be my favorite designer and I loved her fabrics, the colors so pretty and girly. The quilt below is one of my favorites.

This next quilt is a hexagon quilt made with alot of scrap fabrics. As you can tell I was into the pastel in the late 1990's.
In this picture you can see the writing on the background fabric. Love it!

The last quilt for now is a small basket quilt which called for yo-yos for the flowers. It took me a while to get them to look right but it was worth it. I think I will leave these little darlings out to enjoy for the next few weeks. They remind me of spring which is right around the corner! :D

Love Those Hexagons

Another hexagon done! They really are pretty fast to make, but I think I will start working on some half-hexagons for the edge. There are lots of those to make too and I want to see how they look, have never done those before. One of my favorite shows is on tonight, Criminal Minds, so I will need hand work to do.

Have a great evening and Happy Quilting!

Houses Done!

I have my cute little wonky houses all done! I think they are adorable and am excited to see what houses I will get in return. It is amazing how fast they go together. It was alot of fun!
Now to get them packaged and on their way to their new owners. :D

I had a great "mail" day yesterday! A couple of quilt magazines with alot of fun things to make, some wonderful FQ's from Fig Tree, a sweet quilt kit I have had my eye on for quite some time, and some Judie Rothermel fabric to go with my FQ's I purchases a while back. I am hoping to find some new quilt patterns for the quilting ministry at church. We are having a sewing day on the 28th and I'm looking for cute patterns for beginners to work on. We have had some fabric donated to us and it will be fun to have some easy patterns for the gals to use. If anyone has some recommendations, I would love to hear them! Have a great day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all!
Yesterday, hubby surprised me with a Barbershop Quartet, complete in tuxes, who came to the elevator and sang 2 wonderful songs to me! My hubby arranged this a couple of years ago and so it was great to see these guys again. Along with 2 songs they brought the flower below and also a small box of candy. The guys had a camera so I will post it when I get my copy. Hubby is just the best! Later then we headed off to church where they were having a movie "FIREPROOF", complete with popcorn, candy and drinks. We had a great time and I recommend this movie for any married couple. :D

I have been slowly progressing on my hexagons and I am loving each one. They really don't take that long to do, it is just finding the time to do them. I found more of the background and it arrived yesterday so I am now comfortable that I won't run out.
We had a beautiful snow last night but with the temps that are expected it probably won't last long. Must get around and get ready for the wedding. We have to be at the church to start cooking at 11.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Aprons and Houses

Hubby had a meeting this evening so I had alot of time to get some sewing done. First I finished the aprons we need to wear on Saturday. They really didn't take as long as I expected and I'm happy with how they all turned out. With our pink shirts we were asked to wear, we will be very stylish don't you think? :D

Once the aprons were done I cut out a couple more houses. Like I have said before, they are really fast and so much fun!
By far this is the one I like the best! I think it must be the pink and brown combination.

Tomorrow night I will be able to start quilting again. My machine has some new leaders with brand new zippers so I should be good to go for another 10 years or so. 2 more customer quilts and then I am going to quilt some of my own. I can hardly wait!

Another House Block!

I just love making these house blocks! I cut it out yesterday and put it together before work this morning. I am trying to use up my scraps and this is doing a great job of that. It will be fun to see all the others that I will be swapping with. :D
Tonight I will have to knuckle down and work on the guys aprons. I can't do anything else now until they are complete. They are all cut out and ready to assemble so that is my goal for tonight after work. Then and only then can I make another house block!

Welcome to my new house!

Here is my first house I have made for the "Happy House Swap!" Isn't it cute? It took longer to cut out the pieces than it did to sew them together. I used the Tiddly Winks line of fabric and I love the brightness and happiness of it. :D Only 9 more to do and I will be sending them off to be swapped.
Now I have to tackle the fabric in the basket below and get the aprons done for the wedding hubby and I are serving at. I have put it off long enough. Hubby will be putting on my brand new leaders on my Gammill later today so hopefully no more problems for a while. I have quilts to do!

I had checked a few blogs this morning before church and saw the fires in southern Australia. I have been praying for the people in the area and watch in terror as the fires destroy all that property. May you be safe!

Saturday Sewing

Today was sewing day for Jenna, here are her pattern and all the pieces of fabric for the quilt. Her mom dropped her off and she was really excited to get started!


It didn't take her long to get back into the hang of sewing. The only trouble she had was trying to decide which fabrics to put together, "they were all so pretty", she kept saying. I told her to just close her eyes and pick one, but no, it was a process for her, so she took her time.

I would take the fabrics that she had picked out and pinned them together. They tended to slide apart while sewing so the pins helped. She would stop before the needle reached them and stop, take out the pin and then continue on. Very time consuming but she doesn't care, she just wants her quilt to look nice on her bed.

Jenna sewed for 2 hours and then Hubby and I took her to Monicals for salad and pizza for lunch. Jenna is such the conversationalist, she never runs out of things to talk about, and we had so much fun! After we had eaten almost the whole pizza, we came back home and sewed for another hour or so. Hubby and I took Jenna home, her blocks in a baggie to show her mom and dad, she was so excited to show them what she had done. Another sewing date is being planned, and the next time she will bring her sewing machine that she got for Christmas to my house and so we can both sew together! I can't think of a better sewing buddy than Jenna. :D

By the way, while she was busy sewing, I was ironing the little quilt I started last night. I have all these half square triangles that I just have to do something with since I love the fabric so much. I just started sewing them together and this is how they are turning out. Kinda cute I think!

Final-Final Decision

Yesterday afternoon I had my DIL bring the Grandaughters by after school so Jenna could make a final decision on the quilt she wanted to make. The "Candy Dreams" is her FINAL choice so this morning before work I started cutting up the fabric.
Here are the fabrics, and they are all just so springy and sweet! They are "Daydreams" from Moda and they will make a wonderful quilt. Her room is pink and brown so it will co-ordinate nicely. I have alot of cutting ahead of me when I get home but I love playing in fabrics like these.

Below is a picture of my zippers that are used to hold the fabric on my Gammill. As you can see they decided to come apart and will not stay together. Poor things are over 10 years old and have had many, many quilts attached. It is time to lay them to rest so hubby will be attaching my new set, today I hope, so I can get some quilts quilted that I have stacked up! This has not been a good week for my machine but hopefully, once the zippers have been replaced, things will get back to normal. (Whatever that is!)

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY HOUSE SWAP BLOCKS!

I am so excited! Kathy - Humble Quilter is hosting a Happy House Swap for us girls in the U.S! I fell in love with these houses the first time I saw them, they are just adorable. Come and join the fun. :D

Finally Fixed!

Yippee!! Hubby finally got my Gammill fixed last night and so I finished up the quilt that was loaded this morning before coming to work. I have had my machine now for a little over 10 years and have only had to take it in to be worked on once, a pretty good machine don't you think? I was just lost the last few days without it but hubby perserverd and this morning he is my "hero"! 2 more customer quilts and I am done with those then I can concentrate on the ministry quilts and "MAYBE" get my stack quilted.
During my quilting downtime I picked out the layout for my Hexagons I am piecing.


It will take me a while but I love this layout. Making the hexagons are so relaxing to me and I can use up so many little pieces of scraps, I just can't seem to part with those little Civil War fabrics.
I have decided to cut the pieces for my Grandaughters Quilting Day. I will probably get the "glove" and then we will have a few practice sessions. I know I would feel alot better doing it this way. Thanks to all who sent in the advice, I really appreciated it!
Another 7 degree morning here today but they say it will warm up later in the week. I have heard that one before! LOL May you be warm wherever you are!

Quilty Weekend!

It was a great quilty weekend in one respect, then on Saturday afternoon late I was quilting away and something happened, my machine started breaking needles. I was so upset, hubby worked and worked on it and now it won't pick up the bobbin thread. He will try to fix it tonight but I have a feeling he and my machine will have to make a trip to Wisconsin. :=(
I did get 3 lap quilts quilted Saturday so that wasn't too bad I guess. :D
This coming weekend my grandaughter and I will have a sewing session. She was to make a quilt with this stack of FQ's she picked out a couple of months ago and the pattern in the magazine "Square Deal" is the quilt she will make. I will cut all the strips for her so all she will have to do is sew. I am not comfortable teaching her to use the rotary cutter yet, I would like to hear from you out there how old do you think the girls should be?
Once I got the pattern decided on I was quilting on this piece, wasn't paying close enough attention when I rolled it and ended up quilting over part of the previous row! Not good, soooo I spent some time ripping the bad row out while my machine was being worked on. Do you see a pattern developing here??

I finally decided enough was enough and yesterday after church I just sat at my machine and worked on next year's Christmas Quilt. It is taking forever but that is ok. I am saving all my ends and making a gazillion half square triangles! I want to make a few mini's with these but
will still have zillions leftover.

I have got almost a full tin of them now and I don't have even have the quilt close to being halfway pieced. Sooo, I will probably have a triangle give-away when the quilt is done and

share with a few others that would like to use them in a project.

Happy Monday to one and all!