Sleepless in New England

This bumble bee is busier than I have been the last few days.  Insomnia hit me for three nights, so I've been a zombie during the days.  But I slept last night and feel almost human again.   I think Dr. Jekyl may have been experimenting with something that kept him from sleep and that's what made him into a monster.

I used up some of my scraps from making the QOV blocks to make more blocks. 

I won this Lapel Stick at Glenna's blog, http://www.hollyhockquilts.com It's a new tool for me that works really nicely. Thank you, Glenna.

I made this quilt top to donate.  I visited Happy Cottage Quilter's blog http://www.happycottagequilter.blogspot.com and liked her quilting using Mary Mashuta's walking foot method of quilting.  I have Mary's book,  Foolproof Machine Quilting, and am using her technique on this smaller quilt.

 

I tried out my lapel stick to baste the templates, and it works well.  No pictures of the quilting yet because I need to be fully awake before I work on it. 

Several of you who visited my last post were interested in seeing the entire completed scrap quilt that I mentioned.  Thank you for all of your lovely comments.

Perfectionists will find many flaws, but this quilt was the largest I have quilted so far, and it was a challenge.  Also, I backed it in flannel for cozyness, but that made it heavier.  I only free motion quilted the sashing.  The rest is either straight stitch or a decorative stitch.

 

 It fits my queen size bed well enough. 

I did pick up a crochet project that I abandoned because I missed crocheting.  That was a good craft to do for someone who can crochet in her half-awake state:)

Happy Memorial Day. 

God Bless You.



Happiness is Sometimes the Last Stitch.

I have not been idle since my last post.  I have been working on quilting and binding this scrap quilt.  The top was completed last autumn.  Shame on me for not finishing it sooner, but, for me, that's the hardest part, so I put it off.  What made this one a bigger challenge is its' size, 91" X 76".  Big, unwieldy and difficult to maneuver on my regular size sewing machine.  I think once a quilt has its binding on, it takes on a whole new personality  One reason I believe every quilt top, even those you may think are the ugliest, should be finished.  They just look different.

I have the Christmas Wreath quilt waiting for it's backing, quilting and binding, so I may disappear under a pile of batting again.  If I begin to work on it now it may be done for this year's holidays:)

I've also made nine blocks for Quilts of Valor.  I cut another today and hope to sew it tonight. 

I received the prize from SewCalGal for the Awards' giveaway, and she was very generous to include some extras.

I think I can use the printing fabric to make the label for the scrap quilt I finished today, so that would be neat.  How nice to receive something new to try.  And I love, love my new small bag.  Thank you, Darlene.

That's it.  Life is good. 

God Bless You.

My entry to the Bloggers' Quilt Festival: Regency Quilt

Amy's Creative Side is hosting her Spring 2011 Bloggers' Quilt Festival. 

 http://amyscreativeside.com/2011/05/13/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2011/

Here is my entry.

It's called Regency Quilt.  I was attracted to this pattern because of the fabric.  I love the shades of red and cream in the line.  These are by David Textiles, and I found this at the one WalMart near me that still sells fabric.  The pattern is by David Textiles, too.

It's pretty and I love  the silhouette fabric which makes up the dark blocks in the two columns between the heart vines.  The pattern is amenable to flower vines or family name vines or whatever creative image you can think of. 

Thank you, Amy, for this way to show off my quilt to a wider audience.  I can't wait to see what everyone else has entered. 

God Bless You.  Have fun:)

May Christmas QAL - Two

There are three borders on the Erik Homemade Ezine quilt, and the second one is a stripped border.  I sewed that on way back in February or March.  Under the category "Learning the Hard Way" I file this lesson:  Stripped borders, because their ends are not back stitched, unsew with handling.  And I have been handling this quilt top often, but I didn't realize until today what the border was doing.    I ended up doing a straight stitch all around the perimeter and sewing on the last border at a bit over 3/8 inches.   

Thank you to everyone who gave me their ideas on how to liven up the center of this quilt top.  I thought putting a star in the center would be nice, but am not very happy with the one I made.  I was thinking it would be neat with rays of gold coming from it.  But even with this gold print fabric it's blah.  Now I'm thinking that maybe I could just quilt a design later.  I just don't know, so again, this gets put aside.

I made this month's stars for the Scatty Stars Quilt.  Notice anything?

When I made the second version I didn't look at the project sheet, just cut and sewed.  So, bottom star on the right is going in the wrong direction:)

God Bless You. 

May Christmas QAL - One

I'm joining in today on the Christmas Quilt Along that Sue of Quilt Times and Cathi of Shakerwood Quilts host each month. I've had an unfinished project that I hope to get closer to finishing today, and that is the wreath quilt from Erik's Homemade Ezine's qal.

It has a wide border and I didn't think I had enough fabric so I will have to see what I've got to make it work.  Also, I think the middle is too plain.  I don't know what to do with it but it needs something. 

See you later.

Big Blocks

I've been making blocks for Quilts of Valor.  They make up very quickly, and because they are 12.5 inch blocks the pieces I work with are not tiny.  I think I love big blocks. 

This block I found in Quiltmaker's 100  Blocks Vol. II, last year's issue.

 It's called Tumbler Star and was designed by Benita Skinner.

These blocks were so fast to make that I used one of them to put together a quilt top to donate to the local hospital.  I put the top together yesterday afternoon. Because of their size and because the quilt should be 40 inches I only had to make nine blocks.  I've already made the sandwich and this will be done probably by tomorrow.  And today I received the tumbler die for my AccuQuilt GO and hope to use it to make another quilt top and see how fast it goes. 

Hope you are having a wonderful craft day.

God Bless You.

Let's pretend this is Mt. Washington.

A Wonderful Charity Challenge

Insights From SewCalGal at http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/ has posted about a Charity Quilt Block Challenge which will benefit Quilts of Valor.  QOV donates quilts to wounded military personnel and veterans.    I know I'm blessed to have my sewing/crocheting talent, as well as to live in a free country that allows me to use my talents to do whatever I want with them.  So I'm joining in on this Challenge.  For all of the information, including the giveaway associated with it, please visit Insights From SewCalGal's post at  http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2011/05/charity-quilt-block-challenge-call-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InsightsFromSewcalgal+%28Insights+From+SewCalGal%29 

To illustrate how easy it is to help this cause, I will show you the quilt block I made today which took no time at all to complete.  The block is called Freedom Star:

I found this pattern by doing a search for "patterns for QOV."  I saw this block done up with patriotic prints and it looked great so I'll have to go shopping:)  The only patriotic fabric I have is New England Patriots fabric and that won't fly with a Jets or Vikings fan:)

God Bless You.

Part 3 of America The Beautiful Quilt

For some reason this part was a challenge for me, from choosing the fabric to making the Bounty blocks fit.  Have you ever patched a block?  I did today when my log cabin block fell short of the two adjacent pieces.  And when I was taking pictures I saw that one of the log cabins is oriented the wrong way.  Geesh. 

\

The designer's version has the flag in browns, pinks and creams.  But I was afraid my quilt would look dull if I used soft colors so I went traditional.

I intend to embroider a small cross over the door of the church , and maybe add a button doorknob.

These are the Bounty blocks.

Here are all my blocks so far in approximately the place they will be in when the qult top is sewn together.

Yesterday I received the QuiltAlbum disc I won during SewCalGal's Golden Quilter Award event.

This will be fun to use, I think.  I was hoping I would win this software, so it's another prize I'm very happy with.

God Bless You.

A Finish and A Prize

Not much to post but I did want to show something I won from Quilt magazine. I won this Omnigrid OmniAngle ruler and Simple Quilts and Sewing issue. I was surprized by the size of the package and thrilled when I saw what I received.

The ruler is nifty and I've already gone through the magazine a couple of times and plan to make a few things.  I was very happy with this prize.

I finished my AccuQuilt quilt and am also happy with it. 

Today I will do part three of the America the Beautiful quilt from McCall's Quilting magazine. 

The city is installing new water lines, and today they are doing the line for my house.  Moxie is having a bad day hearing noises and strange people in the cellar and not being able to get away from them.  Poor baby.

Praying that all of our problems are small ones,

God Bless You.