Storybook quilts!

As a community project to commemorate our 20th anniversary in June, my quilt guild is making STORYBOOK QUILTS! 

We are making mini sized quilts (from 12" squares to door sized) that are based on children's pre-school books.  Then the quilts and the books together will be presented to our local public library during National Library Week in April.  They will be used by the Children's Librarian during story times at the library. 

These will be  "hands on props" to be used when the books are read to the children and then hung periodically on the library walls.  It also will give the librarian a chance to explain to the children just what a quilt is, therefore promoting quilting, even though these will be wall quilts instead of the kind used on beds.

We have had good response for signing up to make these and I can't wait to see all the different interpretations of the different books.  I retired from the library and we have several former teachers in our guild and we are all very excited about this project!  They aren't due until March, but here is my first one.  I thought it might be good when they have a program on "manners".

Christmas Pic

Every Christmas I purchase pajamas for my grandkids and have to have a photo of them.  It's so much fun to see how they change from year to year.  They used to be all the same but as of last year, Jake gets his own.  The girls, Lyndey, Kayley and Paige love wearing matching ones!



A quick and FUN gift for machine embroiderers!

Okay, I have seen these before, but never attempted them.  It was on my "TO DO" list SOMEDAY.  Well, I was needing some inexpensive fun gifts and thought of them last night when I couldn't sleep. 

Embroidering on toilet tissue is interesting.  I had no trouble with it tearing at all.  I was careful though.  Using three thicknesses folded under and cut-away stabilizer, it was really quite easy.  I would suggest not using a dense design.  I liked the lightness of the snowmen.

The toilet paper brands I used were Cottonelle and Angel Soft.  I prefer the Cottonelle, a little more durable, but the Angel Soft worked fine too.  I am sure that I need to change my needle too, after sewing through all that paper, it's bound to be a little dull.

They are so easy and depending on what design you choose pretty darn quick!  I made the flowers first and then decided I didn't want to change threads because I needed several rolls and found the SNOWMEN!  I think they're cuter anyway.

So instead of cleaning today, I was in the sewing room.  That dust will still be there tomorrow! Put that off as long as possible. Here's what I ended up with:

I may have gotten a little carried away!  Here are some closeups:

When my husband saw these, he laughed and said, "what will you do next?"  Who knows!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas came early for me this year!

The past six months I have swapped gifts with a new internet friend--Sandy from Ohio in the SANTA SACK SWAP.  Each month we sent two wrapped gifts to each other and they were put in a specially made "sack" and told not to peek!!   We could open them yesterday and this is what I got.

Sandy did a fantastic job of choosing gifts for me!  I absolutely love the mug rug with the coffee cup.  I don't drink coffee, but I love tea AND hot cocoa.  So cute.  And the purse and table topper are just gorgeous!  She sent some charm packs and fat quarters so I can sew up something new, some sewing tools, the cutest ear rings, footies, an assortment of BEST PRESS, a wonderful cookie cookbook, and the neatest framed pin cushion, so clever.

This was definitely a fun swap!  Not often do we mothers/grandmothers get many gifts.  At least I don't.  And we got to open them early so we could actually enjoy them at the time.  Thanks go to Cheryl at Gone Stitchin' for organizing such fun for all of us.  And, Sandy, thank you very much for everything you sent!

Clara's Calling

Today I found out about something that touched my heart!  

Master Sergeant Clara Vargas and her team of American soldiers have a mission to teach 4,000 widowed Afghan women to sew, so they can provide basic necessities for themselves and their children.  These women have nothing.  Clara started this project last year and quilters and lots of sponsors are doing what they can to help.

They are asking for treadle machines and irons that are heated on a fire, like my grandmother used, because there is no electricity available.  When I think of how fortunate I am, I thank God.  Who uses fire to heat irons anymore?  These women do.  I may not be able to donate a treadle machine or an old antique iron, but I have many of these items in my sewing room that I doubt I'd ever miss.  How lucky I am.

Several quilt stores, have jumped on the band wagon and are providing postage to mail these items to Afghanistan. All we have to do is give what we can to help these poor women.

Some of the things they need are:

Fabrics*

Scissors

Rotary Cutters

Bags or Totes

Pins

Lace

Rulers

Bindings

Fabric Markers

Patches

Fasteners

Elastics

Buttons

Embroidery Supplies

Zippers

Needles (Hand & Machine)

Ribbon & Trim

Sew-In Interfacing/Stabilizers

Organizers

Thimbles

Pincushions
And much more!

Please go to clarascalling.com and read about this amazing project.  I'm taking this to my local guild.  I know they will be ready to give generously.  I hope you do your share.

Embroidered Burp Pads!

My sister asked me to embroider some burp pads for a co-worker's daughter so that's what I did this morning.  Pretty simple and quick! 

I got some Carter's cloth diapers at Wal-Mart to use.  They really are super for burp pads.   They have that extra padding in the center which is perfect.

I also made one with the baby's name on it.  Now get this--the baby isn't born yet.  Things change.  I made a quilt once and put the label on it with the baby's supposedly "name" on it.  Yup, you guessed it. They decided on another name.  I told them I'd take the label off and re-do it, but I never got it back.  Who knows if they took it off or not.  Hope so.  Rather have no quilt label, than the wrong name on it for the poor child.

I may have to start selling these for people.  Maybe I could make enough to pay for my thread!!  Anyone need some??

FINALLY--Quilts done started seven years ago!!

CELEBRATION TIME!!!   Seven years ago when my two oldest granddaughters were two, a long time friend made some embroidered doll blocks for them and told them that their Nana could make them a quilt out of them.

Patsy had just gotten a new embroidery sewing machine and she just has grandSONS, so was anxious to try the cute "Sue's Cousins" designs.  Well, then the ball was in my park and I used the excuse for a while of finding the perfect pattern. Then I used the excuse of finding the perfect fabrics.  So I finally decided if I was going to do it while they could still use them, I'd better get in gear.  So this year I finished them.

I then had another problem, because I had another granddaughter born later.  So I decided to make her one too.  Well, I do have a nice embroidery/sewing machine now, but didn't have the designs in the right format, so Patsy made the blocks again for Lyndey and I got busy and made hers too.

Their birthdays are within a month of each other, and the past weekend, we celebrated two of them.  So I decided to give them all at the same time.

Lyndey, the youngest, says "Paige got the prettiest--PINK!"  I knew that might be a problem, they all love pink.  Patsy had chosen the red for Kayley and I knew Paige loved pink, and Lyndey likes purple too, so I went with that.  I wanted them to be the same but different colors. 

My daughter had taken photos of me and each granddaughter at Easter so I used them on my label, so when I'm long gone they won't forget me!!

The girls were much much more excited with the toys they received, but someday I know they will appreciate the quilts and know that their Nana loved them so much!

Journal (Notebook) Cover!

When we were on vacation I spotted a similar journal cover that I really liked.  As usual, it was on display for a class and no pattern was available.   So....... I came home and made my own pattern!  Here it is:

I LOVE JOURNALS.  I can't really say just journals, but notebooks, too.  I jot notes down all the time.  Robert says I "make lists of lists"!  Things to do for the day, things to make (sew or quilt) and then every so often I have to prioritize what I'm going to do FIRST.  Please tell me I'm not the only one out there that does this. 

Anyway, back to the notebook cover.  When you open, it looks like this:

And behind the spiral notebook, there is a panel that holds the notebook in.

Sorry, for some reason I canNOT rotate this picture, but hopefully you get the idea. 

If I make another one, I'll make a change or two.  One being putting the velcro on the front cover before adding the inside cover and binding.  As you can tell, you can see the sewing on the little pencil holder which also made the cover of paper notebook NOT FIT!!  I was already to rip it out when Robert said why don't you just trim the paper cover.  HELLO.....sometimes he is amazing!!  Why didn't I think of that.

Santa Sack Swap!

Today I received my Santa Sack and two wrapped gifts from my Santa partner, Sandy in Ohio!  Love the fabrics and the giant ric rac really sets it off!

This is going to be such fun!  I, too, was tempted to take a little peak but I didn't do it!  For those of you that don't know about this fun swap, Cheryl at

http://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com/  is hosting this!  Each month we send our partner two WRAPPED gifts between now and Christmas.  This first month we included a gift bag to put the gifts in each month and then on Christmas morning we get to open all of them.

  I don't know about you all, but sometimes Moms get the short end of the stick on gifts!  I'm not complaining, as at this stage in my life I have everything I need and most of what I want, but don't we all like to open gifts and these will be from quilting buddies, so they know what we like!!  Thanks, Sandy, can't wait to see what's in those gifts!

 

Lucky Charm Lotto Blocks of the Month

It seems as I forgot to post last month's block.  If you remember I'm providing a block made from 5" charms in an effort to use up our stashes and charm packs for my guilld.  This was what I am calling the "Six Pack".

How easy is this one?  Just choose three light browns and three darker/black charms and make two rows of three for each block.  Of course the winner may put them together the way she chooses, but I'm thinking a frame or sashing of the same fabric and this would turn into a manly looking throw very quickly!

And for this month, I've chosen the "Nickel Brick".

This block uses four 5" squares, different prints.  Cut squares to 3" x 5" rectangles.  (Save the 2" x 5" strips for piano keys border).

One 1 1 /2" x 40" strip of solid black fabric.  Cut eight 1 1/2" x 5" strips.
Sew a black strip to each long side of 3" x 5" prints.


Arange the four blocks together and sew together as above picture.  It is most important that you position the four mini blocks the same way for each block.  Ask me why I tell you this.  Yes, I was sewing along just trying to get the twosies to match colorwise a little bit and was not paying attention.  Sure enough, I had sewed some with the upper left mini block going horizontal and some vertically.  It does make a difference, trust me!

I have several layed out in the following picture to show how it would look in a quilt.

There are several blues that need to be re arranged, but this is just to give you an idea how the blocks will appear to be woven.  A great way to use up those scraps!

Granddaughters making MUD PIES!

My granddaughters love making MUD PIES!  Actually, they make pies, cakes, cookies, puddings and anything else they can think of.  They were over last night, and decided it was time to have another "baking session".  (Actually, it was hot enough to "bake"" them pretty quickly.

As you can see they had a ball.  They added "chips" (rocks), coconut (grass), cinnamon (sand) and just about anything they could find.  They found some roly poly's and wanted to add them, but I said no live animals.  :)  Mostly they love making "batter" and playing IN IT.



Kayley loves to "mold"cookies!

Lyndey with the PECAN PIE

They even decorated the swing set!

They had a ball!  They wanted their cousin, Paige to be there and she will be in a couple of weeks.  She gets to come along with her brother to spend a week at Nana's and Papa's.  When that happens the cousins are together most of the time.  I love that.

Easiest lint brush YOU can make in a flash!

Today I made the "neatest" (that's not an in word, I know), "coolest", (okay, I'm still not there) LINT BRUSH, but suffice to say it is pretty darn "nifty"!

It is a lint brush to clean the bobbin area on your sewing machine!  Okay, I know I have one that came with my machine and I also have a "big"fuzzy one I use quite frequently.  But this one is made with things you probably have in your home if you're a grandma or mother and you make it in SECONDS.  AND, you can make multiple ones at a time and if they get lost--no big deal.

All you need is a pipe cleaner and a straw.


Fold the straw in half and poke both ends into the straw.

You are done.  How great is that!!!

BEFORE

AFTER



I always clean the area when I change bobbins. But with this handy, I'll be doing it a lot more often! The straw is long enough you can manipulate it very easily. I forgot to tell you that the straw I used was a thin one and it worked perfectly. I expect if you had a bigger holed straw you could just double again and it should work.

Now I CANNOT take credit for this. Cheryl over at naptimequilter.blogspot.com

had posted this on her blog. She gave me permission to tell you about it. Hop on over and check her site out. Thanks for sharing, Cheryl!