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.