Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy's Creative Side is holding her 4th quilt festival for all of us to enjoy.  This is my first time to join.  (I was a few days early and my previous post would not work so I deleted it.)  Go to her site and enjoy all the bloggers' quilts!

The quilt I have chosen to show is a quilt made from men's ties.




"Tapestry"

In 2008 I took a class from a good friend who has made numerous projects using ties, including vests and quilts.  I had saved ties for several months, getting them from family, friends and also the good will stores. They all had to be washed and taken apart.  The ones that bled were thrown away.   I also saved all the labels on the ties, afterwards deciding to use them on the face of the quilt.  Several were from local stores not in business anymore, which is always fun to hear the comments from people remembering them.

The pattern was very easy and no seams were suppose to match because different widths of ties were used, using a specific number of strips in each block.
The pink fabric was from a dress of mine that I had worn twice several years before and still hanging in the closet.  (Tell me some of you save those old outfits too!)  The quilting was done by a longarmer (also a friend) who did a fantastic job.
After making this, I made the decision that I prefer working with cotton fabric and not the ties.  BUT, I enjoy trying new things--you just never know what you WILL like!

Easy Peasy Checkbook Cover

Today I made the easiest checkbook cover ever!!

While I was surfing the net and enjoying lots of other blogs I can across this tutorial at Crazy Moms Quilts.  This is the quickest thing I've ever done and it's so cute.

I'll leave the detailed instructions at Crazy Mom's site, (she has three different styles) but here are my photos to show the easy steps.  And yes, I did do the easiest style.  I have other projects on my plate as usual!!





Two fabrics!




Everything fits perfectly!





Two pockets as needed

I love this because it just has interfacing on the fabric, so it is very lightweight!  I'm thinking you could use this for lots of things--coupon carrier, small wallet size photo carrier--what else can you think of???

Paige turns EIGHT!

My granddaughter, Paige, who lives in Texas, celebrated her birthday with a party at a Pumpkin Patch.  The girls wore their Halloween costumes and they all had a ball, despite the dust.  This pumpkin patch had bouncy houses, rides, and a sling shot for gourds/pumpkins, among other things.

 

Aunt Stacey and cousins, Kayley and Lyndey, went with Papa and I for the weekend.  Jake turned 10 the week before and we didn't get to go to his party.  I don't think he minded too much, as he was having a "boy party". 

I love this picture--you can see the joy in his funny little face!

 

 

I'm a winner!!

Kelly Jackson, from I Have A Notion just notified me that I was her winner on the giveaway she had in the "Bloggers Giveaway for Fall".

Woohoo, I'm getting a great little jelly roll!  And right now I'm really enthused about using those rolls of fabric.  Whoever thought up of cutting jelly rolls, charm packs, layer cakes, etc. should be making a mint!  To have all the coordinating fabrics together for a project is wonderful.  I love them.

Be sure to check out Kelly's blog!

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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!