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Monday, December 17, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: The Final Episode

This quilt  is fitting for the season with the ugly sweater party but instead the ugly quilt party. This quilt top was made a few years ago and put away and just now made it to the top of the pile to be quilted.




I liked it in the beginning because of the bright yellow and greens. Now that I see it again, the big brown in the center does nothing for the bright green, blue, and yellow. That's why I'm calling it the ugly one.


The good thing about this one is the size. It is a nice 72"x90" and a nice weight. Not too light weight and not heavy at all. It would be nice if the brown wasn't there, I think. 



Its completed and one day it'll have a home.



This is the last of the Quilting Mini Series. There have been about 12 quilts I've made in the last 8 or 9 months that included:
     Country cow quilt
     Flower center panel quilt
     Carousel horse quilt
     Peacock quilt
     Sailboat quilt
     Personal photo dirtbike quilt
     Carpenter's star pinktastic quilt
     Cat quilt
     Fall quilt along
     Lazy Goose quilt
     Ugly quilt




 There is Christmas stuff to do now, so I should lay off the quilting for now, unless I can throw in a Christmas quilt or two or three. I do have many quilts on the drawing board to make and a few waiting in the wings to be quilted. I'll show them now and then as they are completed.


Wednesday, December 12, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Lazy Goose

NOTE: You may can see the pictures now. Don't know what the problem was earlier.

The pattern is called “lazy goose” and I purchased the pattern and the fabrics for the top in a quilt kit from a lady’s Facebook site called SewTrendyMN. I’m addicted to her. She has an awesome quilt/fabric studio and has a live show every Friday nite with sales on fabrics, patterns, and things she sees. The kit had just enough fabric to make the top with the blues and the white and the pattern was on a post-card size cardstock. How easy and quick can that be?



And it was super easy, super quick. There is a common block called “flying geese” and this seems to be just a bigger version and called “lazy goose”. The colors in the kit are so pretty and bold and look great.



I love, love, love this look. It’s a modern look with pretty blues. I have a yellow and gray matching fabric bundle from her also and I’m thinking of making this again in those colored.



The backing is a blue print and kind of matches the blues ont the top. The quilting lines are straight across and then connecting v shapes in the blue triangles. This is s great go to pattern for a quick quilt.



I may just keep this one for awhile!

A Quilting Mini Series: A Personal Touch


A cute, cute quilt for my little guy. Do you know you can print a cell photo on fabric? Yes you can, either at home on your own printer or an online fabric site. I wanted a bigger piece of printed fabric than my home printer would print. If you’ve learned anything about me in my Mini Quilting Series, you should know I go big or go home. So I uploaded this photo to Spoonflower fabrics online.


She worked with it to get it to a 24”x36” fabric print. I was more than excited!! And I couldn’t wait to see the final result of the quilt.



The black/white gives it the checkered flag race look and I framed the picture fabric panel with fabrics on hand. Th backing is soft cuddly navy minky fabric.



It meets my expectations and I love it. So did Cohen. He and his parents just moved into a new house and now he has two new quilts just for his new room. Look a few post back at the sailboat quilt. That was just made for him last month in the colors his mom had picked for his new room - gray, teal blue, and a touch of orange. And they love boating.


The quilts have been presented to him and already in use.


 



Sunday, November 25, 2018

Thanksgiving Re-cap


Thanksgiving 2018 included a Thanksgiving kindergarten program with Pilgrim girls and Indian boys.





Cute songs about why we have Thanksgiving.






And sister got a quick peek in the wig-wam on our way out.




Then the next week was traditional turkey food and all the trimmings with family and friends. But no pictures. Can’t believe I’m slacking on that. Hope your thanksgiving was a blessing to you.





Monday, October 29, 2018

Switch-a-roo

UPDATE:  We have a winner!! She’ll receive her gift shortly. Thank you to all 28 people who read the post, though.

 There are still quilts to show and tell on my Quilting Mini Series, but I'm switching to a new venture for a week or so. I just can't be unoccupied. I have to have my hands and and mind going constantly. My new venture is pennant banners. Just out of the blue I had this thought to see how I could make one. So I made a few and put them in my booth at the vendors gallery.  Well, they're not there any more. They sold.

So more are in progress to get ready for the Christmas Open House at the gallery. There's Christmas and non-Christmas ones ready. Mostly all are burlap with one or two exceptions.


Or maybe for the kitchen or breakfast nook.



They are cute to hang around and they can speak for you.



I like them so much that I'm going to GIVE ONE AWAY to one special person. Just comment one word that can speak for you and I'll draw a WINNER ON OCTOBER 31ST.
.. it can be any word of your choosing, not just the ones I've shown. Shipping to USA Only.

Happy Halloween.......

Monday, October 22, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Cat Nap

Would you sleep under a cover of cats?

There are many cat quilt patterns online. This one was a free pattern and looked like I might could figure it out. I've come to believe there is nothing super easy out there, but I managed to figure it out and then it went pretty fast.

With the flowery cat blocks of mostly pinks and blues sewn together and a pink border added all around, it waited its turn to be quilted.



The back was a flower design, also. That's enough of flowers for awhile.



 It's different that's for sure. Seems you can sew up any design you can dream of.

Meow, till next time.

Friday, October 19, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Finishing the quilt a long

The quilt along for the fall quilt is now finished. Parts 1 and 2 were completed a few weeks ago. And Parts 3 and 4 are now complete. You can read about the beginning of it in this post here..



Part 3 was to add a border of stars around each side. Working with small pieces makes for a slow process. But I like the results. It's out of my comfort zone but well worth the learning process that makes me want to do more. Here's my look for part 3. I'm still using from fabric remnants I have on hand.



I do like the star blocks. I had to make 24. That was a neverending tasks, at least it seemed like it. They're not perfect. They're not on point. Uh-oh.



Part 4 is the outside board and the quilting. The outside border is yellow being I'm using fabric remnants on hand and wanting to stick with the color scheme going on. I Actually like the bright golden sunny fall look.

y


Here's a comparison of the pattern look vs. my look.
Put on your sunshades for mine.


 Finished pattern size is just over a 52" square.  But I wanted at least a twin bed or day bed size. So I added two six-inch borders to mine. It's now a lot more usuable quilt. I have to put my tweaks on it.



It's not my style. But it came out ok. I won't get any awards for it I'm sure.





It's now called the golden fall quilt. I don't know what will become of it, but it's ready.


Thursday, October 18, 2018

Halloween Early

With an invite from Jennifer and her crew to meet at a nearby RVCampground for a Halloween weekend, we packed and readied for a trick or treat weekend. We encountered a full campground of Halloween partiers and roaming wildlife.

Deer and pigs were very friendly. This one was the grandest of all.



Saturday was the busy day with decorating your site, pumpkin carving contest, costume contest, trick or treating, a haunted house, and a hayride. Our decoration was the skeleton campfire. Our trick or treaters were a cat and a unicorn.


There were clowns, dinosaurs, skeletons trick or treating and we found Dr. Suess and had to pose with him for a picture.





The sores were extra good this camping trip for some reason. And the campfire fit in better since the nights were not 90 degrees.  Hanging out in be night under the stars and the moon is always relaxing.




This guy was always camera ready.



It was late nights and early mornings with a perfect weather weekend with all the candy you could eat.



We may do another Halloween on the 31st. Wishing you a fun and good trick or treating.





Friday, October 12, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Pinktastic


This one is certainly pink. Somewhere between bubble gum pink, cotton candy pink, baby pink, definitely pink. Since it is October and breast cancer awareness month it makes for a great match.




I needed a quick and easy pattern to use up some pink fabrics already on hand. And I still have a load of white given to me from my sister who was given it from our aunt. The carpenters star pattern I’ve had downloaded in my phone files for a few months now is the lucky winner for this project.
Can you see the star?




And it was very quick and easy. I added the yellow small border for 2 reasons:
#1 - to bring out the small amount of yellow in the
daisy print fabric, the yellow in the heart fabric,
and the yellow in the back fabric.
#2 - I was short on pink fabric and I needed to make
the size of the quilt larger than the pattern size.




The finished size is 76” x 76”. It’s a little smaller in size than I usually make. It’s square in size per the pattern so I didn’t want to distort it’s real image by making it too much bigger than the pattern called for at 56”x56”. Though I did add about 20” all around, but kept it square. If all that makes sense.




The back is pinky, white, yellow swirly circles. Still the pink for pink October.




This one will be donated as a door prize to an October cancer awareness event and it will find its happy home.







Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Now She’s Six


Birthday party for the other six year old grand.




It was a mixed day for sure. Hot and sunny then a rain shower. A garage sale at my sissy’s to start the morning off.
Then the first half of a soccer game. Then the birthday party in the middle of the downtown antique festival. Another sissy there.

The birthday was at a painting boutique in the downtown antique district that gives painting canvas/art lessons, host group canvas painting parties, and hosts birthday parties.


All the birthday guests and parents let the artist come out in themselves. The mermaid was the theme for the day.




Surprisingly, this was not the first for most of the kids. It’s kind of a popular thing right now and some of the quests have been to other painting parties. That’s why they’re such up and coming artists I guess.




Here’s her mom tending to the party guests. She said it was so easy to just book the place, bring a cake and sandwiches and chips and let the birthday party start. They have always done the birthdays at their house, but the kids now know what’s out there as far as parties go.




Of course the food, cake and presents were just as much enjoyed.




All the artist and their paintings.




Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!