Candle Mat

I joined the "Candle Mat Swap" at the Quilting Gallery and it is so addictive.  So far, I've made three tops.  I needed one for the swap and then thought I'd make myself one.  Then I thought I need some quick little gifts for Christmas and this pattern is perfect!

 The neat thing about this little mat is the size.  It's only 14" square, but has 56 pieces in it.  That sounds pretty daunting, but it adds such excitement.   You can make two mats (tops) with a charm pack and have some left over.

I took a few photos when I made the brown one:

In the first picture you can see I just had the two fabrics in the piano keys.  The second picture I added another green--didn't like it as much.

Then I auditioned a square in the middle of the center.  I liked it, it tied in the corners, but in the end I decided it wouldn't show when the candle was put on it.  So I left it off.  Maybe I'll try that on another mat.

What I love about this pattern is the many different ways you can change the look of it by just changing the fabrics in different places--the corners, center, border  around the center, piano keys.  And that doesn't even count the embellishments you could add, which I haven't ventured into YET!

Happy Spooky Halloween!

Today I put the binding and label on my Halloween quilt.  It's called "Happy Spooky Halloween".

The pattern and fabric were purchased last year on sale after Halloween.  The blocks were on a panel and I just fell in love with the images.  So cute.  The pattern looks like it would take a while, but the sashing is strip pieced and went together so easily.

I am so lucky that I decided to go through by basket of "WIPs".   No, that isn't right, because in that basket are all projects that haven't even been started! One more done, now, though!

I think this quilt will stay in my possession, at least for a while!

Pink Ribbon Quilt

A friend that I've known since our daughters were in first grade and we were Blue Bird leaders together has recently found out she has breast cancer.  I wanted to do something for her in this very trying time in her life.  A mutual friend that does beautiful embroidery, embroidered some pink ribbon blocks for me.  I found some fun polka dot fabric and came up with this.

It was a quick pattern, which is what I wanted so I could get it done as soon as possible.







The quilting is meandering and I used pink minky as the backing.  It is sooooo soft.  I love that stuff!  It should be so nice to curl up with, at least that's what I'm hoping for!

I'm giving it to her tomorrow, I hope she likes it!

Paige becomes a Brownie!

My granddaughter, Paige, became a Brownie last weekend and we were fortunate enough to be there.

On Saturday, she was in the Western Heritage Parade as a Daisy:

(Please forgive the photos!!!  Blogger is having problems and not letting me rotate these pictures.  So frustrating, but that photo of Paige is just too cute even if you have to look sideways!)

Then on  Sunday afternoon they had their "Bridging Ceremony" to become a Brownie.  My daughter, Julie, is her leader and does a fantastic job.  She comes by that naturally, as I was her BlueBird/Campfire leader!!  LOL  All kidding aside, she is much better than I was, as she has a FULLTIME job also and manages to squeeze planning and meetings on the weekends.

It was a fun weekend even with the rain that threatened the parade and cancelled two soccer games.  We will have to watch Jake another time.


Afterwards, they had pizza and BROWNIES, of course!  The girls had a fantastic time, especially with silly string fights.  And being a good Brownie, they picked up all their string afterwards.  They left the park, just as clean as when they arrived.  I was so impressed!

Block of the Month Carrier

Today I finished the BOTM carrier.

Since I didn't have a pattern, I had to figure things out as I went.  I wanted to make the cover stiff, so I had to put the insert in before I quilted which also meant I needed to quilt just the cover and batting, not the backing.

Then I wasn't sure how to quilt it.  I finally decided to do some echoing.  It was the first time I've done this and it was pretty easy.  It's not perfect but not bad for the first time.  I was considering using Timtex for stiffness, but it wasn't quite as thick as I wanted, so just used some cardboard.  So I put two pieces in and left one end open to do so.  I was able to machine sew it shut adding a little enclosure tab.  The pages are fleece which I tried to add with the machine and quickly found out there wasn't room to do so.  So I added the brown spine to the pages and then hand sewed it to the book.  Then I found the perfect button to sew on the front cover.

Now I have no excuse for not finding my blocks of the month!  I think I will also use this when I am doing applique projects.  The fleece will hold all those tiny pieces.  Some of which I have had to re-do as I had lost them.  No more!!

Quilted Book

Today I worked on my Bernina project for the month. Nancy, our instructor, demonstrated a wonderful sweet wall hanging and cute Halloween bags.  I decided to do something a little different but using the techniques we learned.

I need something for keeping my blocks of the month I'm working on, so thought I'd make myself a carrier to keep them.  I did a little research online and ended up designing my own.  I started with the front cover.  Here's a pic of it in the beginning.

We all have these wonderful sewing machine feet and very seldom take full advantage of them.  Nancy encourages us to use them and finds us lots of different ways to do so.  I was switching feet like crazy today.  I used the #37, 1/4" foot which I love in my quilting.  The #1C I sewed the rick rack down with, 10C is my new favorite, just love that one!!  I used #12 for zigging the beaded thread down and  #23 applique and piping foot. I also used some decorative stitches on the wide stem.

She also demo'd "Piping Hot Binding".  There is a book and"ruler" (not really a ruler but...) for this which I've had for over a year but never used.


Today I had success.  I used it as an accent, not in a binding, but it worked out very well.  And I really like that little pop of color.

Three of the flowers are 3-D.  I topped then with a tiny button which I tried to use with my #18 foot but had no success. The holes were just too small.   Dang, I had to hand sew them!

I have the cover done as of this afternoon and ready to put my BSR to use.  I'm dreading that.  I haven't used it much.  We'll see how that turns out next week.

Grandkids!

My Texas kids were here for the weekend to celebrate their cousins' birthdays and did we have a good time!

Lyndey turned five on August 31 and Kayley turned 8 on September 5, so they had a combined birthday swimming party on Saturday.  They had a blast!  Fifteen kids, that's pretty hectic.  Then the family had pizza and Paige got to spend the night with her cousins.  Jake got to spend the night with Austin, my niece's son, that was staying with my sister. They played the Wii for hours.  The next day we all got together for swimming, trampoline, croquet and visiting.  Had sloppy joes and lots of goodies to go with it.  Then the adults played a new dice game called "Dicescapades".  It's a lot of fun.  It has about a dozen different kinds of dice and you have to do different things with them.  Jake and Austin loved it too.  It was late when we left my daughter's house, but I had promised Kayley and Lyndey they could have a sleepover at our house with Jake and Paige so we woke them up (they had fallen asleep) and brought them over.

We were all worn out this morning.  It was slow moving and I was going to fix pancakes for breakfast but quickly got out voted.  The grandkids all love "monkey bread".  You know where you use canned biscuits, butter and cinnamon sugar!  So Papa made a quick trip to the grocery store with the three girls and we started our assembly line.  Lyndey loves cutting them up with the kitchen scissors and Paige and Lyndey love to roll them in that cinnamon sugar! 



Jake being almost ten now has outgrown the fun of making them and prefers to enjoy eating them.  (He'd rather be playing Wii!)  I had given him a "Hex Bug" and he was checking it out.

Before they all left today, I gave the girls their new fabric "paper dolls".  They played a little with them, but with all the new birthday toys, it wasn't on the top of their play list!  I do understand.  But I know they will play with them some because I kept a set for myself!!

So, Bo, aren't they cute? : )

New Fabric Paper Dolls

When I saw these I had to get them, so cute!  Two of my friends have grand daughters and they are doing them too.  We kind of inspire each other to get things done.  Maybe we just use the kids as a reason, but we really like them for ourselves.

The fabric of course, had the neat little tabs that we all used way back when they were made out of paper and  used to keep the clothes on the dolls.  I hated to cut them off but, they were unnecessary because I used flannel on the backs of the clothing.  I backed the dolls with poster board.  The clothing clings very well.

There are actually two different fabric lines.  One is "Aunt Lindy's Paper Dolls" by Sibling Arts Studio and the Christmas line is Paper Doll Christmas Pattern No 30861 by Windham Fabrics.  I got a half yard of the clothing of each and as you can tell there are several repeats which is fine.  The girls can have the same dresses as long as their doll is facing the correct direction.

My three granddaughters will be here this weekend, so I'm going to let them choose what they want and of course, the extras will stay at Nana's!

Can't wait until they see them.  We are going to have such a fun time!

Car Trash Bag

Yesterday I made a trash bag for the car.  I can't stand trash in the floor of my vehicles, so I'm constantly putting trash in the side compartments of the doors.  Needless to say, that fills up pretty quickly and hard to clean.  

I have this wonderful book, "One-Yard Wonders", that I've had for several months.  It has 101 sewing projects that can be made in a flash.  This bag was one of them.  

It was suppose to have a buckle on the straps, but of course, our small Wal-Mart didn't have any, so I just used some velcro and it worked very well.

I love the second pocket also.  The big pocket will be for trash and the side pocket will be for tissues.  And I can just throw it in the wash when it needs to be cleaned.  Now if I had thought about it, I would have embroidered something really cute on it, but didn't, so next time....

Flowers Blooming!

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Check out my "Naked Ladies!"


The day after my granddaughters, Kayley and Lyndey, added the frog house and shells, these flowers popped up.  As you gardeners know, these grow very rapidly and in less than a week this is what we have!


When I told the girls we had naked ladies in our garden, they couldn't wait to get outside to see them.  I had to explain the name to the girls and their mom told them to be sure and tell their friends just exactly what kind of "naked ladies" we had in our back yard when they were discussing our garden.  lol

A friend of mine gave us the sea shells and the wonderful little teapot and cup on the table in the middle of the photo.  She loves fairies too and had come over to check the garden out.  A few days later she brought over the items.  Thanks, Carrol! 



The "Ladies" real name is Amaryllis belladonna and you can learn more about them here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5264061_plant-naked-lady.html

I think the fairies are loving our garden!!

Embroidered Tea Towels

Today I made these two hand towels for a relative that's having a surprise birthday party tomorrow night.  Don't know if they'll match her kitchen, but I hope so.

They "whipped" up (is that a Oklahoma term or what?) very quickly.  I couldn't think of any cute sayings this afternoon, and this was all I could come up at the time.  Afterwards I emailed one of my sisters and she came up with these:

Move over, Martha!

Your opinion wasn't on the recipe.

If you want fast food, let's eat out!

 

I also thought of, Kiss the Cook!  

 

Can any of you think of something really cute?  Let me know.  These make great little gifts and I want to be prepared next time! 

On Point Table Runner

This table runner had a lot of "firsts" in it for me!  To begin with, 5" charms were laid out on a fusible webbing of 1" squares that were on point.  Strips of 7/8" were put in between the charms.  You fuse them down and fold over and begin sewing 1/4" seams.  The pattern is called Point Setta.  "SEW" easy!

The bias stems were added with a machine blindstitch.  I  appliqued the flowers down and then applied the tendrils with my new  #43, free motion couching foot.  Now that was an experience.  I practiced and practiced and then tried some on the runner and ripped it out several times.  Finally, I settled for what you see.  It's pretty cool and works great, I just don't know how tendrils wind around naturally!

Three-D leaves were supposed to be added along the vines and it definitely needs them.  Either that or I should have made the vines shorter.  I used my great embroidery attachment to do the quilting.  You can't see it but there are feathers quilted on it.  As soon as I can learn to hoop the sandwich easier, I will be so much happier, because I love the end result!!

This is not my favorite piece, but I did learn how to do some new things and I do love doing new things!