Tinkerbell and other projects!

Good evening,

I don't normally have time to post on my blog on the weekends, but find myself piddling on the computer tonight and decided I might as well make a post! (grin) Thank you all for the birthday wishes for our daughter. Cath, glad you got to have a meal without needing a bath afterwards. LOL I am sure you and Jeremy had a wonderful time!

I have been really busy this month. I have pieced together 3 wall quilts and a table runner. Yesterday, I took 2 of my redwork projects and added borders around them. I made them about 20" or so. They can be wall quilts also. Today I got all of the quilting lines drawn on these. I hope to get them sandwiched tomorrow after my Bible study. Whew! I am almost dizzy! LOL I will share pictures in the next few posts. I forgot to take pictures of the redwork quilts. Now they have the quilt markings on them, so I will wait till they are done to share. I am going full steam ahead, working on Christmas projects.

This little quilt is called Snow Treats. I just love it. I am usually only really 'in' to fall quilts, but this little winter quilt just won my heart. I machine appliqued the snowmen, then hand embroidered the faces, buttons down the front, and twig arms. I love how all the colors come together on this. It measures about 21" square. After I get it quilted, I will try to get a closeup of one of the snowmen. I can't figure out how to make my pictures so that you can click on them and make them bigger. Anyone have a simple (really simple) explanation on how to do this?

Our granddaughter, Ava Beth, wanted a Tinkerbell costume. Her mama couldn't find a costume that Ava liked, so she called and asked me if I would make Ava a costume. Well, of course, I will make my grandbaby anything she wants. LOL So Cath got everything and sent it to me. My first thought when I opened the mailer was, 'What have I gotten myself into?' LOL All of this for one costume! So I drug out the pattern instructions and started reading. Ok, not as bad as feared. I have never worked with satin. Oh goodness! That is the hardest fabric that I have ever tried to press, pin, cut out, and/or sew. It ravels and runs. It tries to slide all over the sewing machine. The iron must be set 'just right' or it either doesn't iron or 'well, I think you can figure out what happens when it is too hot.' Let's just say I am really glad I tested things on scraps first. LOL Anyway, I got the pattern pieces cut from the huge sheets of tissue paper. Folded it all up and put the unused pieces back in the envelope. Wouldn't you know, I missed one piece. (eye roll here) So I drug the tissue paper back out, found the missing piece and got it cut out. Then I heavily pinned the pattern to the fabric and carefully cut it out. Sewing it wasn't too bad. I think it turned out pretty good. It is supposed to have a sheer skirt under the pedals, but Cathryn didn't want it, so I made bloomers and figured out how to do away with the skirt. I changed a few things to make it work for me. This comes from years of sewing clothes for our kids. I will say, that if I had been new to sewing, the pattern directions would have lost me. Sometimes whole steps were left out. Here is the back. Here is a closeup of the belt. It has grommets added. This the first time I have ever put those in anything, but I figured it out pretty quick. This project took most of Thursday to complete, but it was so worth it. I emailed these pictures to Cathryn. She showed Ava. A few minutes later my phone rang. I answered it to hear Ava say, "Tinkerbell! Thank you grandma. I love you. Bye!" LOL That made all of my frustrations disappear in a blink. (grin) You grandmas out there know just what I am talking about. Ava is happy with her costume. That is all that matters! Before I go, I will share the next two blocks of the Quilter's Garden. I haven't worked any more on it for a couple of weeks. This is block # 7 called Windflower.
Block #8 is called Zinnia. Well that is it for this evening. I hope to be back next week for some more posts, but no promises. Sometimes life is just too busy to be on the computer. Everyone have a great weekend. Thank you for visiting.

Happy Birthday Cathryn!

Today is our daughter, Cathryn's birthday. She is our second child. I had a hard time finding pictures of her. She is always on the move. I found very few pictures of her that did not include a child, either hers or her niece and nephew. (smile) She has always been drawn to children and they to her. She has such a love for children and they sense it.This is Cath and her daughter, Ava in May 2007. Cath and Ava again in late 2007.
Cathryn and her nephew, Noah in Jan. 2008.
Cath and her son, Ashton Jan. 2008.

See, I told you it is hard to find a picture of her without children around. Here she is scuffling with Ashton. Cathryn with Ashton and Noah, Easter 2008.

Cathryn holding her niece, Izabella, a few weeks ago.
And finally, this was taken a couple of weeks ago. Ashton really loves his mama.
I think you can tell by this post how proud I am of Cath. She has grown into a lovely woman and an awesome mama. So Cath, if you are reading this, your dad and I hope you had a great day. We love you.

Well, life got in the way and I won't be making my goal of 15 blog posts this month. I do have lots of projects to share, but they may have to wait till next week. Everyone have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting.

Three Posts in a Row!

Good afternoon,

I figured I'd better post today since tomorrow is grocery day, and I don't usually have time to post on the weekends. We have a 3-day weekend coming up, too. Woohoo! I know Kevin will be happy to have another 3-day weekend. He said something about grilling some burgers, hotdogs, and ring bologna. He loves ring bologna. It is a big treat for him. (grin)

I decided to try Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender method of piecing. So I cut a bunch of light and also dark 2 1/2 inch squares. I keep them to the right of my sewing machine and use them to begin and end each row of chain piecing that I do. I am getting a nice stash of little 2-patch blocks. I also have been sewing the cut off triangles from blocks together instead of tossing them. These make good half square triangle blocks. So, soon I will make a scrap quilt completely out of my leftovers. That makes me feel good.

I have really been enjoying hand quilting of the Noah's Ark quilt. I love doing feathers on blocks where they show up so nice. I almost have the 2nd feather block done, then only 4 more.

I have one of the star blocks quilted and hope to get another one done tonight while watching tv. I said I would share more of the Quilter's Garden. This is block #5 called Lollipop Lily. This is block #6 called Painted Daisy. I have all twelve blocks done, but haven't taken pictures of the rest of them. Now I am trying to decide what fabric to use for the alternate blocks. The blocks are set on point, so I will need 6 alternate blocks and also the setting triangles. Not sure if I want the alternate and setting blocks all the same fabric or 2 different ones. I am thinking a green fabric with branches on it for the alternate blocks and a beige for the setting triangles, but haven't made a decision yet.

I know this is short, but I want to get back to the Noah's Ark. Also Judge Judy is on. I like to watch her and see who she will chew out today. LOL Everyone have a good day. Thanks for visiting.

One Day Vacation!

Good afternoon,

I am here 2 days in a row. I'm starting the month out good. LOL I spent the morning with my mom. She bought a new cage for her cockatiel, BJ. I told her I would do everything to set the cage up, but move the bird. He is a biter. I got the cage all set up. Mom got these big, heavy, leather winter gloves on and tried to pick BJ up. He freaked out, grabbed her glove and wouldn't let go. He ended up pulling the glove off, then he got hold of her finger. I tell you, he is a biter! It didn't take all day for mom to get him into his new cage and let the little critter loose. LOL He brought blood on mom's finger. Did I say that he is a biter? She has only had him for about a month. Her bird, Jessie, that she had had for years died, so my brother brought her BJ. He is a young bird, so I am hoping he will tame down and get nicer. Anyway, he seems to like his new and bigger cage. I told mom to be very careful and not let him out. I don't know how we would ever catch him. I think we would need welding gloves on to protect ourselves. LOL I helped mom with some household chores and just got back home a little while ago.

I promised to tell about our one day vacation. I have wanted to go to Jamesport all summer, but we have been really busy. Jamesport is home to Missouri's largest Amish community. I love it there. Kevin took a vacation day last Friday and off to Jamesport we went. It is about 90 miles away. He set his GPS for the shortest distance to get there. Hmm, we went on numbered highways, lettered blacktops, gravel roads, and it even had us going down what looked like a dirt road, but we went around it. It had just rained. No way we wanted to get stuck that far from home. In fact, coming home, Kevin avoided the gravel roads too. My main reason for wanting to go was the Fabric Barn. It is an Amish fabric shop. It isn't huge, but I had so much fun. I didn't take any pictures inside the building because there were Amish ladies shopping. I figured it would be rude to have flashes going off. I did ask if I could take a picture of the outside of the building and they said it would be ok.

Isn't this a neat looking building for a fabric shop. I even love their sign.

All of the fabric that I looked at was under $7 per yard. This is good quality fabric. I even bought some Thimbleberries fabric. They have a wonderful assortment of quilting stencils and hand quilting needles. I am loving my Piecemakers needles that I bought. I also got some John James and Richard Hemming needles. I know most quilters use a very small needle. I have tried the smaller needles, but I am most comfortable with a size #9, so that is what I use. I may eventually use a #10, but probably won't go any smaller. If my hand quilting is stressful for me, no point in doing it, right? They had fat quarters for $1.50 each. I picked out 10. Aren't they pretty?I think I bought about 10 1/2 yards of fabric from the bolt. I know I had the young woman cutting it, working hard. (grin) As you can see, I love fall colors. Their quilting stencils were $1-$4. I didn't think that was bad at all. I love this cable stencil. I have one just like it, only an inch wide. I have used it many times. This one is 3 inches wide. I can see it being used lots.
They had a lovely treadle sewing machine. I talked to the young woman working in there quite a bit. She was really friendly. She said that they sew all of their quilts on the treadle sewing machine, but hand quilt them. It was more modern looking than pictures I have seen of treadle machines. It had some fancy stitches. She said that you can still buy them, but they are very expensive. I wish I had taken some pictures of it, but didn't think about it till I had left the shop. Maybe next time. Yes, we are planning another trip, probably some time next summer.

I got tickled at Kevin. We had planned to spend the whole day together. So when we got to the Fabric Barn, he got out of the car and came in with me. LOL He didn't last 2 minutes till he said he would wait in the car for me. He brought some stuff to read, so told me to take my time. Two hours later, I came out with a bulging sack and almost broke. He kept teasing me and said I blew my whole stash of money in our first stop, but this is where I wanted to go. (grin) We also stopped at a few of the Amish variety and bulk food stores. We stocked up on some dry beans, brown rice, barley, steel cut oats, dried banana chips, carmel corn, and a few other things. I bought this homemade lye soap. It smells so good. I love homemade lye soap. It makes my skin really soft. When we came out of the store, I saw this horse and buggy and just couldn't resist a picture.

We had pretty much done everything that we wanted to do by noon. Hmm, where to eat. Kevin looked at me. Out of probably 20 or more places to eat, where do you think we decided to go? Yep, back to St. Joe and Ryan's. LOL Oh well, it is where I love to eat and he asked me where I wanted to go. He pieced on carmel corn and cheese on the drive back, but I waited. I wanted to be hungry and I was. LOL I held onto my fabric all the way back to St. Joe, so I could pet it. You quilters know what I mean. (grin) We were home by late afternoon and just relaxed the rest of the day. It was a good mini-vacation. I'll post more Quilter's Garden blocks tomorrow. Everyone have a good day. Thank you for visiting.

August Goal Results!

I did not reach my entire goal, but I am satisfied with what I got accomplished. I am still working on the Double Delight. I am going to finish that quilt if it kills me. LOL It is those rolling star blocks. I love the way they look, but really don't enjoy making them. I know quilting is all about having fun, but I just can't give up on this one. I have seen several of them finished and they are beautiful! I hope to spend at least a couple of hours a week working on it. I am almost ready to start sewing the blocks together.

I did finish the 2 hand quilting projects that I had started. Here is Harbor Town. I really like it. Here is the center of it.

I just love the way the lighthouse turned out.

Here is the back, although you can't really see the quilting.I also finished the D9P (Disappearing Nine Patch). This is just a lap size quilt, so it shouldn't have taken so long to quilt, but I kept putting it on the back burner for other projects. It is completely done now, though, even washed. (grin)Here is a closeup of one of the corners. Please excuse my pictures. I am not a good photographer, even though I love to take pictures.
I used a green cotton sheet for the backing. It really helps the quilting to stand out. I have used flat sheets for the backing on most of my bedsize quilts. I have never had any problems. I already shared pictures of the Green Star Quilt Along and Froggy Went a Courtin', so I won't post them again. I also have most of the applique done on the Birds and Blooms, but haven't taken a picture of it lately. So as you can see, I really was busy this past month. Now I am working on quilting Noah's Ark Quilt. I also want to start some new projects. I have several pictures to share, but will divide them up over the next few days. I think I would blog more often if it didn't take so long to upload pictures. I guess I should start bringing my handwork over to the computer to work on while the pictures are uploading. Hmm, never thought of doing that before. LOL

I now have all 12 of the Quilter's Garden blocks done. I'm ready to start putting it together. Here is block #3 called Bleeding Heart. Here is block # 4 called Cactus Flower. Well, that is it for tonight. It is September 1st. Dare I set another goal? Why not? (grin) This time my goal will be to make at least 15 posts on my blog this month. If I make the posts shorter with less pictures, I think I can do it. Tomorrow, I plan to tell you about our one day vacation. Kevin took me to Jamesport (Missouri's largest Amish community) last Friday. I had lots of fun, but I'll share that tomorrow. Everyone have a good night. Thanks for visiting.