Christmas present

I finished Emma's sparkly shirt in time for Christmas!  Her cousin got one too. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas past

I made this table runner the year Mom went into the nursing home, 2007, completed in 2008, the year she passed away.  It's draped over my chair at work now.  Some of the fabric came from old projects, some picked up on a shopping trip with my BFF, and some picked up while on vacation and quilt shop hopping.  Lots of memories there!

Happy thanksgiving

No sewing today, just cooking and cleaning and getting ready for tomorrow.  Roasted veggies for pre-Thanksgiving dinner, best way to eat veggies in my opinion!

First mini quilt quilted by me! Finished it on Monday.

Free Motion Quilting

I took a class yesterday, look what I did!  I can "free motion" quilt my projects now!  I couldn't get my machine to do this on my own.  I have an old machine with no manual, luckily one of the instructors of the class has the same type of machine and knew just what to do.  I am so excited!  Just like getting a new toy..

Quilts matter

one of my fellow online quilters shared this link about a documentary that will air soon on PBS:

http://www.whyquiltsmatter.org/welcome/

I shared it with my guild, now I'm sharing with you:)

what we do, matters!

BIG things come in small packages guild retreat in 2012

PUPs Quilt Guild is having a Retreat in 2012


The theme is BIG Things in small Packages

to be held at St. Columba, Memphis, TN

October 5-6-7, 2012

Feature Teacher is: Gail Garber  http://gailgarber.com/

talk about amazing, go check out her quilts, even if I don't get to stay for the whole retreat, it would be awesome to attend one of her classes

Davies Manor Plantation this weekend

My guild is having an event at Davies Manor Plantation outside of Memphis, TN, a quilt show at the beautiful historic manor plantation.  If you are in the area stop by and look at some gorgeous quilts and tour the house and grounds.  The weather is cooperating, very pleasant and sunny.

I have been working on the cornerstones for Town Square, may have to add another border after this one, DH says it needs to be just a little bit longer. 

Not much sewing going on around here

one seam on Town Square yesterday, one the day before that.  I try to at least sit at the machine once a day after work, dinner and playing with the kids.  Town Square now has two borders, hope to get another one on today and one tomorrow, then the wider border around that, and sandwiched by the weekend.  Wish me luck!

are you ready for Halloween?

my front stoop is decorated, candy is purchased, kids' costumes are ready and chicken salad is made for work party tomorrow.

we  cut out this this mask together

I love this time of year!

blocks from my partner

these are just beautiful, from Tiffany at Pinks Sweet Treats.  Thank you Tiffany!  All the colors I asked for are here, blue and brown, pink and green. 

Mill Girls block is done

one block, too much yellow and too small, but it is done and I love it.  Back to Town Square!

Layton's quilt

ok this is what its all about.  All that work, it's worth it, they love it, they sent me a picture of Layton with the quilt I made for him! 

Charlene, if you are reading this, I picked up this fabric the day we met at Klassy Katz, do you remember?  that was fun

love my swap blocks

The lovely and talented Quanita sent me these!  aren't they beautiful!  I just love them, she did a geat job, I knew she would.  They are proudly displayed now in my sewing room.  Thanks Q!

One Flower Wednesday

This one looks like fall to me.  Seems appropriate with the weather changing.  To see other lovely flowers, visit Karen's blog at http://journeyofaquilter.blogspot.com/

first Mill Girls quilt block

my first block is taking shape.  I really like making these squares!

Quilting guild websites

I will be researching quilt guild websites, so if you know of any great ones I should look at, please send me a link.  Why, you ask?  My guild has asked me to be webmaster!  I am so pleased and honored to do this for them.  In addition to just updating the website, they may be interested in changing the layout.  Useful features that we don't have now will be taken into consideration. Thanks in advance for the help!

Mill Girls Quilt block

for some reason, the button from the Mill Girls yahoo group won't display on my blog.  No matter, I will make a sample block and display that.  Might take a couple of days, but will be fun to try out some colors. 

Mill Girls Quilt Along

I have wanted to make a Mll Girls' quilt forever.  I grew up in a mill town, and though I didn't work in the mill, I had family who did, so I am a Mill Girl.  I feel a connection to this pattern. With lots of scraps and different colors to use up, it should be a beautiful quilt when finished.  If you want to quilt along, sign up here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SBS-and-OtherElmCreekQuilts.  You will need  Jennifer Chiaverini book More Elm Creek Quilts, and scheduled start date is mid-October.

Happy Monday

made time for some hexagons today

I also finished a ghost story this weekend, "Her Fearful Symmetry," played with the kids, cleaned out a closet, it's been a great weekend.  Now back to Town Square.

4 patches and September BOM

what I'm working on today

One Flower Wednesday

I made another red and white one, my son picked out this yellow center

here's the front



here's the back

I opened up one of the flaps so you can see how it is folded, no templates.  I started out with a

five and a half inch square for each hexie.   I drew around a cereal bowl with a sharpie and cut out my six circles from the  red and white fabric, starched and ironed each circle.  I iron up a batch, then I'm ready to take a stack and sew them together while I'm relaxing in front of the TV.  Happy Wednesday everyone.  To see more hexie flowers go to http://www.journeyofaquilter.blogspot.com/

DH's Town Square

Here is what I will be working on for a while, until it is finished.  My long-neglected Town Square.  I decided to maike it bigger so DH will have his own blankie.  I will keep adding to it until he says it is big enough.  It needs at least eight more blocks, four in each row.  Maybe eight more blocks then it might be long enough once borders are added.  I completed two blocks tonight.  Let's see how far I get by next Saturday.

Swap blocks finished

Just finished blocks for my August partner, will be off to mail them tomorrow.  I can't post pictures yet, but there is a sneak peek on Block Swap Advernture's site.  See sidebar for link.  It's so much fun getting a glimpse, and then seeing the actual block arrive in the mail.  I've really enjoyed this swap and hope my partners have too.

three blocks done

two BOMs for my guild

one for me, practice for a swap partner, when they don't turn out as perfect as I'd like, I keep and make another, its more fun than doing over

have a great day

Friday night sew in is tonight!

On my list:

block for my advernture partner
BOM for my guild

come back tomorrow to see my finishes!

One flower wednesday

Hi there, I'm up to 16 flowers, I did have 18, but am using one as a coaster/mousepad and another I gave a way to a friend.  Karen has more lovely flowers to show you at http://www.journeyofaquilter.com/

Hexagon quilt a long

I found another group of quilters making hexagons!  so glad to find others with same addictions as I have.  Hop over to Lily's Quilts, she and Gayle are hosting the HAL together, for more info and great pics. 

http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/07/hexalong-starts-here.html

http://gaylebrindley.wordpress.com/

Both blogs are beautiful and fresh with colorful ideas, I just love reading their posts.  Have a great day.

Hexagons

not much sewing going on here, getting ready for school to start, and learning new things for my guild.  I volunteered to help update our website, and was accepted! I am so happy I can contribute in that way.  I have been making a few hexagons as well.

What I've been up to

This week I finished two Blocks of the Month for my guild

Just in time for my MIL's birthday, I made her an asymmetrical charm quilt with embroidered tracings of my children's (her grandchildren's) hands

Here's one set of hands (my son's)

If I get any time tonight, I will work on sewing the binding down on Triple Rail Fence.

Happy Sewing!

Triple Rail Fence is tied now

I love the look of this quilt.  My sis came over with her young uns and helped me tie it.  Friday night we worked on it and again on Saturday, while the kids played and competed for our attention.

after the tying was done, I tried the tutorial I found at Flourishing Palms blog (see post right before this one).  I even used the school glue for basting, and let me tell you it worked great.  My DH gave me a hobby table cover for Christmas, one that you can iron on, and it was a great help with the heat setting of the glue.  There's not enough space on the ironing board to stretch out a whole quilt, I really needed table space but didn't want to use our dining room table for ironing..  With the heat proof padded table cover, I could use a utility table I usually use for cutting for ironing surface.  After glue basting, I sewed on two strips of binding so I could try the folding and marking, and here's how that looks:

I sewed on the markings, turned it right side out, and there you go, perfect mitered corner.  I can't tell you how happy I was to find this!  I have struggled and struggled with bindings, it is heartbreaking to take all the time to do a qult and then have a binding that is not up to standard.  I finally feel proud of a binding I've done.

Isn't that beautiful!

when the whole thing is done, I will proudly post a finished picture.  Wouldn't you know I have run short on the pink fabric I'm using for the binding.  A green was chosen originally, but it just didn't look right after I had it all cut out.  Back to the LQS! 

Binding tutorial by Flourishing palms

I ran across this binding tutorial at http://flourishingpalms.blogspot.com/, a wonderful blog called Flourishing Palms.  I am going to try this today and will post pics later!  Yesterday I started tying a quilt with the help of my sister, our daughters played around us, we had "say yes to the dress" on the TV, hubby and our sons were doing various things, life is so good. 

One flower wednesday

the center of this one looks kind of like an egg yolk, doesn't it, except egg yolks aren't green at all.  I decided to make all my centers yellow, and my connector hexes green, but I don't know which green yet.

 View more beautiful flowers at Karen's blog http://www.journeyofaquilter.blogspot.com/

one flower wednesday

I can't believe it is Wednesday already!  where does the time go

Two more lovelies for my garden.  View more beautiful flowers at Karen's blog http://www.journeyofaquilter.blogspot.com/

Results of Friday night sew in

My confidence level is growing, I've come a long way in two years, this star was made without a pattern!

this one was paperpieced, you better believe I had a pattern for this one!

this one is for my guild, needed a pattern for that also

I love Friday night Sew In!

Time for the Friday night sew in!

I have a swap block to finish, a star block to whip up and maybe time to cut some more pieces for a quilt gift. So glad it is Friday! 

One Flower Wednesday

I know it's not Wednesday, I hope it's ok to post today!  I made this flower out of fabric I know I bought over 9 years ago.  It was intended for curtains for my little boy's room.  Before I could get started on the curtains, my mother in law found some in a magazine that almost perfectly matched the couch we had for that room, and it was a perfect match for the plaid crib set.  That never happens!  I kept the fabric, and have made good use of it, but still have some left. 

The hexie in the two pictures are the same, one taken inside and one outside.  To see more beautiful hexies, visit Karen at http://www.journeyofaquilter.com/.

my favorite brownie recipe

I have found some wonderful recipes out in blogland, time to share one of mine. 

I have a brownie recipe I love, I make it a lot because it is great, easy and

my son asks for it. He is 9 years old, and picky and doesn't eat a great

variety of things, so for him to ask for it is a big deal. I put a

piece in his school lunch one day, and he said "everyone he shared it

with" loved it. He must have passed out crumbs because I

didn't pack a very big piece!

Here are the ingredients

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoonful vanilla extract

6 tablespoons cocoa

1/3 cup self rising flour

The original recipe I adapted called for two eggs and 1/2 cup flour, but

that made the brownies too cakey, and we like fudgy. I don't use

imitation vanilla, it is not as good. You have to use the kind that has

the alcohol in it. Don't drink it, save it for your brownies. Use the

real butter, the salted kind. These ingredients make a big difference.

Soften the butter with the sugar 20 seconds in microwave, makes it

easier to blend with the sugar. While that is happening, take the

butter wrapper and grease your 9x9 cake pan with it, I got that tip from

Martha Stewart a long time ago. I bake these in a 350 toaster oven, no

need to preheat. Mix the softened butter and sugar well with a big

spoon, add egg, mix well, add vanilla, mix some more, then the cocoa,

mix that in well, then the flour, mix in but don't over beat after you

put the self rising flour in. Spread the batter in the 9x9 pan that you

buttered, bake until it passes the fork-in-the-middle test. Bake at

least 10 mins and no more than 20, keep an eye on the brownies so they

don't burn. My husband can't stand to see me eat raw egg so I don't let

him know I scrape and eat every bit of that batter out of the bowl and

off the spoon, it is so good.

thank you

thanks for all the nice comments about my hexies.  I really appreciate the encouragement!  To make the size qult I want will take 90 to 110 hexies, if I want some to hang over the bed on each side.  So I have made 11 altogether, only 99 to go.  Seems like a lot, but they are so much fun to make, so not a chore at all. 

two flower wednesday

I'm playing catchup today, so here are two hexies.  This pink fabric I have had for a long time and had no plan for it.  Now it will have a home in my flower garden!

This fabric has been in my stash only a couple of years and is relatively new.  Does anyone know what it is called or who the designer is?  I've seen it on other blogs in other hexies.  It's cool to recognize a fabric, there are so many out there.  Check out more beautiful flowers on Karen's blog.  Happy Wednesday!

perfect circles

ok, this is one of those finds that change your whole life

http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/2007/02/super-circles.html

I haven't tried it yet,  no circles in my immediate future.  When I do make some, this is the method I will use. 

relaxing with my baby

not much sewing going on this week, I did get the chance to relax on the sofa with Emma while she took a nap Wednesday evening.  I held her little feet in my hands, they are so precious. 

Skillbuilders sampler

I didn't really want to start another sampler, but I am interested in skill building, so I joined up with Sewn.  She is starting soon, so jump over to her blog and get signed up. 

http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/05/we-can-do-it-skill-builder-sampler.html?showComment=1306587241047#c7360683303811021081

sneak peek for Jorie

Jorie might have it by now, I mailed it on Monday



Happy Wednesday!

I call this one "jungle stripe"

This print has been in my stash for some time, I remember purchasing it at a local chain store for a guild project for tornado victims in a nearby city at least 3 or 4 years ago

My best good friend from work was with me and helped me choose 8 different bright cheerful fabrics

I still love it

go see other pretty hexies at

http://www.journeyofaquilter.blogspot.com/

Happy Wednesday!