Trip Around the world process

I always feel good when I am in the middle of a process that is going well.  I only have one more set of this Trip quilt to make and then I will make them into tubes for the quadrants.  I just had to share a good moment cause I surely can share the crabby ones:)  Ruth gave me the directions.on paper, but now Ruth is on a plane on the way to Scotland to start her masters degree.  I found a similar site here at  Ludlow Quilt and Sew and at Quiltville

 Then I found this backing which is perfect for the boy cuddle quilt.  It was a child's bed sheet from IKEA..3 yards for under $8 and I have quite enough.  If you keep a fabric long enough, you will find the piece it is destined for !!

Happy Day!!  This morning when the phone rang, I expected the worst...but, it was the greatest beginning to a happy day.  It was my daughter, Emily on the phone.  I couldn't believe it..she sounded like she was calling from next door, but she was calling from her vacation in Barcelona, Spain.  She sounded soooo happy.  And as we all know, a happy child makes a happy mother...even when they are grown up.

Scrap Cuddle Quilt for Boys

I am using here a scrap quilt I found Moda Bake Shop.  I didn't use pre-cuts, but cut from my stash.  I assume that a hospital quilt does not have to be an artistic prize winner????  I am going to wiggle stitch this with no border and turn it in at Guild.  It did serve its purpose.  My mind is back on track, despite the stressors.  Even if they do not go away, I am no longer obsessing...I am quilting..And, as Ms. Abyquilt says..a healthy dose of Vitamin Q!!  I do feel better with that:)  This quilt went together in 2 hours.

Sewing therapy

With a day to sew, my crazy mind keeps going to places of stress....crazy mind!  So, sewing therapy is in order.  I decided to just "Do it", the Nike way...and sew the "Trip Around the World" strips the way I had them set...no more obsessing.  And, as my mother always said....when you are stressed, just do something for someone else.  Thus, on the sewing machine are the 5" strips for a cuddle quilt for a boy in the hospital.  I find myself making girl things when boys like quilts too.  So I just cut up some fabric in 5" strips and started sewing.

3 P's. Purse, Pigs and Potty Training

The first P is the purse insert that I spent all night working on and is not really the designer brilliant item that I envisioned. My new Marshall's purse needed a place for my cell phone so I would not have to spend valuable sewing time looking for it in the bottom of the purse.  I decided to make it.  I took my oilcloth scraps and made this pouch adding strong Velcro to both the pouch and sewing the Velcro directly onto the purse itself.

 I thought that the one strong wide piece of Velcro down the middle would be enough, but  no, so I had to add a strip on top too.  Annoying because it had to be put on the purse as well.

Good idea maybe, a bit sloppy on the execution...time will tell whether or not it works.

Next P...Pigs

 Today we took a trip to Windy Hill Orchard in York, South Carolina.  We got Gala apples that were picked yesterday and checked out the pigs.  Grown up pigs are let loose at the end of the season to eat all the leftovers...nice Christmas holiday for them.

 These baby piglets were a great success with their tails wagging and their squeals.  Even I was surprised that the pigs didn't have curly tails like in the books.  Baby and grownups alike, had straight, hairy tails!!  And too, I was surprised to see black pigs and not pink ones...still cute, cute, cute!

Next P is potty training...Oh, the joys of this I had so quickly forgotten!!!!

Such an exciting weekend so far....tomorrow a day of rest at my sewing machine:)

Tooth fairy not quilting

The tooth fairy came to the bravest of them all:)  me!  But, I think that the tooth fairy here is an international one...On a budget says the tooth fairy...who brought me $10.43 AND 42 pence AND .60 Euros:)  How cool is that.  Thank you tooth fairy.  And how did you know that I would find it on my sewing machine..hugs

Not quilting news

This morning I went to the oral surgeon for a "consultation". In 30 minutes, I was missing tooth number 5.  WOW....all that worry and fret....The difference was in the beautiful young girl who emerged before I went in.  She came out with a smile and missing her 4 wisdom teeth.  If she could do it at 17 with four teeth, then...hello...this 63 year old could do it with one tooth...maybe???  With a lot of encouragement from the awesome surgeon and his wonderful helper, I did it...although I really wanted that young girl to hold my hand.  And, then to top it all, they made me PAY for it.  Now, me and my friend, Hydrocodone are waiting for the tooth fairy!!  So brave I am.  Thank you for listening my friends.

PS...in even better news, yesterday my mother had a chest x-ray....Both lungs are completely clear of pneumonia...My cup runneth over!

Trip around the world process

I am in a bad mood...again.  I do not know what it is...I have spent the past two hours trying to get a group of  9 fabrics for a trip around the world.  First I wanted dark, then I wanted bright, then I wanted green, maybe purple, then subtle, then contrasting.  If I could have decided on the palate I liked, I would not have had all this problem.  This is what I have come up with so far.  The beauty of putting it on the blog, is that I can see it in perspective and change it if I want to tomorrow.

Thank you Ruth for encouraging me to make this chart below before I start a trip quilt.

Maybe I am crabby because I have to see the oral surgeon tomorrow about pulling my tooth...grrrr  I am a total baby.

Homemade Pasta in Pink and Grey

This is finally finished.  I love to name my quilts..helps me remember them, for now that is:)  Since this quilt is also referred to as a lasagne quilt as well as jelly roll race quilt, I decided to name it Homemade Pasta in Pink and Grey.  How fun is that.  I do still think it is funky even for me, but it is growing on me.  I am wondering if it would be better with low contrast.  That is why I couldn't decide whether to post the picture with the flash or without...the contrast shows differently.  This is such a quick quilt, that even though it is not my favorite, I might try it in low contrast for a donation quilt.  Anyway, here it is.  Done!

There was very little thinking here.  I did add some muslin pieces here and there for contrast.  And, I added strips from my stash as this was a partial jelly roll from Michael's craft store.  In making this quilt, I could see how very many shades of grey there could be, just like many shades of white.

Shot cottons and shot wife

Letter to my Dearest Husband...reminding you of how 32 years ago...for better or for worse!  I know we are on an O'budget, but if you could have heard my heart beat today at the warehouse sale when I saw Kaffe's shot cottons for $3.92 a yard.  Of course you know I never ever pay full price, so when they said that in order to get that price, I had to buy the bolt, I knew you would understand.  Then too I know how health conscious you are...so I got them in eggplant, lime, blueberry, tomato and chocolate (that one is for you, I mean me...us?).  Is it helpful that most of my friends spent more money than I did?

 As you can see, the lime favorite I am sharing already.

 I know we need bread, etc..but as you can see the essentials are here and you always said that Diane's kitchen was your favorite restaurant.  Wait till you see how many yummy meals I can make from one carton of eggs:)

 A toast to the good life!!  I know that you do not drink, so I will have one for you too!

I am sooo excited, I just cannot calm down.

xxoo  I love you Honey...

Jelly roll process and bewitching hour...Again???

I had to put away my Christmas angels because in order to do them justice, I would have had to get out all my Christmas fabric and it is only August and I have soooo much...so I decided now at 11 ish to quilt on this..I hate to go to bed when it is 3/4 quilted, but we know what happens if I stay up...It is now 11:35...

I am so grateful for my Janome 6600 with the wider throat space and for my sewing room and for..good Lord how maudlin...good night:)

Chrismas Angel quilt process/tutorial

Took a nap today...so lazy.  Now I am on to this angel quilt for my granddaughter.  Small little tutorial here for making a wonky block.  I took the old blocks and cut 1 and a half inch blue border..put it on to frame the white angel block.  Then I cut a 3 inch second border of the polka dots.  I wanted it to be big enough to cut in a wonky way without too much waste.  At first I thought my 12 and a half inch ruler would work, but ended up using my 10 and a half inch one.

 Here I am putting the 10.5 inch ruler in a wonky way on the block.

A cut around this ruler leaves a block in the cut I like.  Moving the ruler to the right or left will move the block that way.  As you can see in the picture below, the blocks are wonked to the right, left and straight to get the desired look.  My next step will be to take a 2 or 2.5 inch block of blue/red or both and sew it on some of the corners like I do to make a snowball quilt.  That will make an easy center square of sorts.  Maybe lattice or maybe not.  I just love the process.

You can also see that I ran out of the polka dot and had to substitute the white speckles.  It doesn't matter that the polka dot fabric is one year old and the white and red speckles are 25 years old and thus are different tones of red..It is all value and adds more character to the quilt.

Muldoon mottos to help me thru.....

Now you know me, all my secrets are out!!

 These are the angels from the past..I know that they are pre-printed but I think that they are adorable.  Anyway, they grabbed my heart last night and by the morning I already knew how I was going to set them.  Even in my old age, the brain still works all night while I am sleeping...TBTG...better than worrying:)  And I had better now turn off the quilting room lights cause I could just stay up all night and make this...but work in the morning calls me!!

Quilting obsession

It is 11 o'clock at night.  This is an unusual sight...a clean sewing table.  I was ready to go to bed when.....

I start sniffing around my quilting room and find these 25 year old Christmas patches and wonder how cute it would be for my 2 year old granddaughter Lynsey.  I tell you this table was clean for 3 minutes max...hello?????  

It was never ever meant to be clean.  My grandmother was right when she made this for me forever ago:

The new change purse and continuing saga

Well, on the way to the pool this afternoon, I decided to drop by Marshalls to see if there was a purse that I liked since mine was getting oh, so ratty.  I was just looking around when a clerk came to me to see if I was carrying a drink...eg Coke..  Of course I was!  Always I am...Me and my diet Coke are best friends.  This time again...the bottle was leaking in my purse all over the store leaving a trail, not to mention what it was doing to my ratty purse.  I was so embarrassed when I saw the girl coming with one of those big mop and bucket items to clean up after this eccentric.  Sigh!  The good news is that I found a new purse for $20.  I got home and emptied the wet contents of the ratty purse...I will spare you the details..As it all was drying, I realized that I was not a silk purse kind of woman.  I am a oilcloth woman!! Yup...me, diet Coke and an oilcloth purse for leakage!

 The next blunder was sewing the zipper on the wrong end..the black was supposed to be on top.

 Here I am using my trusty new teflon foot for slippery things as I attach the scraps I had purchased from Oilcloth Addict when they had their postage free holiday.

And here I am making the big zipper the right size by sewing back and forth a few times.  Below I use clips instead of pins so the oilcloth will not mark.

The purse tutorial comes from Momtastic.  Sigh...too bad I am not a silk purse kind of woman!

Block of month "rosebud"

Guild obligations for the month are done now.  This is the block of the month of August for the breast cancer quilts.

I think that my mind must be somewhere else because when I started to applique, I had both blocks together and I had to pick stitches out.  When the phone rang, I thought it was about my mother and my heart jumped...so I guess there is still stress there.  Anyway, I am glad to have done these.  I am off to the pool to exercise my body and my mind.

Quilts of Valor blocks

Mindfulness but mindless, as in easy....to bring back my sweet angel disposition:).  Appliqued star quilt blocks to donate to our Guild for Quilts of Valor.

Silk purse....or/ fool that I am....

The crabby tale:  Last year I bought a bag of hand dyed silks for $10  from a vendor at the Asheville quilt show.  At the time I had the crazy idea that I would try something new.  Last night I took them out to have a try at using some of them.  The piecing part went smoothly enough, although the silk did shift a bit.  I decided then to add some iron on interfacing to stabilize it.  The purse idea came so I sized the pieces and quilted with some yellow silk thread I found in my mess. and went to bed.  This morning I was eager to see what I could do.  *%$#  First of all the zipper didnt catch all the way and I didn't notice till the purse was done and I had to go back by hand and repair it.  Then I forgot to put the machine on Mode 3 and got a stitch I didnt want. Then I forgot to change my quarter inch foot and broke a needle.  Then the lining was put in wrong and I had to take it out and it is still not right.  There was so much of the *&%* business, that my husband came in to the sewing room to find out exactly how much FUN I was having!!

The two sides of my silk purse...I am putting it away for now because I am annoyed.  I will take it out on Wed for my group to critique...so I maybe can save myself some aggravation next time I get a loose goose  idea.

Andrea's blog

You just have to check out this creative blog...I have said it before and I'll say it again....how does the rest of that saying go??  Anyway.....check it out ...Andrea's blog

As for me...well, I got a reprieve on my tooth pulling for a few weeks.  My mother has her favorite quilt, cat and view from her own room and is recuperating at her place..TBTG..  And my adorable grandchildren came to visit this weekend...Last night I got my energy back and sewed till 1 am making the backing for the jelly roll quilt..I hope to get that basted Wed nte.

Dog Screen Bag

The man at the pool who gave me the animal food bags gave me this one.  I really loved the image, but when I went to make the bag, I saw that it was made with paper instead of plastic.  In another post here and here, I showed the process of covering the picture with vinyl.( there are several steps to this process around those other posts.   Finally tonight, I finished making the bag!!  So delighted with my favorite word.....UFO....DONE!!!  Yeah for the picture, the vinyl and the leftover screen from my screened in porch. This time, I washed it first:)

Butter Churn mystery quilt finished

I have so much to be happy about.  My friends who insisted that I take this mystery quilt workshop that I was refusing to do.  Then there is my friend, Terri Feehan who quilted this beautifully on her long arm...Thank you Terri. My sister who just happened to have the yellow big enough for my backing in her stash and gave it to me.  And then my own insistence on buying nothing in order to shop my own stash.  Thank you to Sherry who  found the name of the block.  And, now....presenting my Butter Churn mystery quilt all done!!

I found the cutest red and white batik sort of dots for the binding:)