Flowers and Blocks

This is a good year for beautiful irises, it seems to me.  Maybe they like brutal winters.

This is the second group of my mother's bearded irises that are blooming.  The first were a very translucent white that I think were another color that blanched over the years.  I saw some yellow blooming elsewhere that were gorgeous.  I'm hoping that the deep purple and beige ones bloom, but there are only a couple of them.  Anyway, they smell lovely and look lovely, so they bring their own brand of joy.  

I'm up to 21 completed blocks in my Scraps and Shirttails II quilt, Smith Mountain Morning.  Since I began this quilt I have found that I love working with patchwork blocks with lots of pieces.  I hope I find the time to make more quilts from Bonnie Hunter's book because they really are fun to make.  

I am linking up to Sharon's Let's Book It post.

I'm going to be crocheting some granny squares and such, just because I feel like getting my hands on my yarn again.  I keep filling my Pinterest boards with stuff I want to make.  What I really need is time and energy to do it all.

Enjoy your beautiful weekend.

God Bless!

Memorial Day 2014

Thank you to all Veterans.   In my family, these served:

AEP

MEP

EJP

AL

JO

TO

JP

AO

God Bless them.

Just Sewing Away

I have some progress with my quilt from Bonnie Hunter's book, Scraps and Shirttails II.

  And two more, one finished and one still in the making.

Still many more blocks to go, but we have a long weekend here and I have free time so I'm looking forward to lots of sewing time.  

The May blocks for Denise Russart's From Head to Toe - A Knitter's Gifts qal are these socks.  

I thought we were supposed to make four, so I have an extra sock block.  It may show up on the backing; or somewhere else.

The block layout so far. Our Christmas projects are getting to the halfway mark.

That's it for now.  

If you are having a long weekend too, I hope you enjoy it. 

God Bless.

May Sew Kitschy - Mixer

 Sew Kitschy Mixer from Quiet Play.

As I was making the May block for the Sew Kitschy qal, the Mixer, I was thinking that I had done something wrong somewhere.  I couldn't see the parts coming together to fit.  But then I just put the A piece to the B piece, then added the C piece, then the D, and so on, and it all worked.  Whew.

It's just too cute.

The quilt blocks so far.

Enjoy your weekend.  

God Bless You.

One Block and Other Things I Do

I haven't done much sewing for the past week or so, but I finally got to make one of my qal blocks, the easy one:)  This is Quilt Doodle Doodle's May block, the Fir Tree.

So that's done, but the I have a challenging paper piecing block to make for the Sew Kitschy qal and I plan to tackle that tomorrow.

What I spent today making is not a quilting project but does fall into the craft category.  The Sodality I belong to at my parish gives Miraculous Medals to the children making their First Communion.  This is how I make them.

The medals come from the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal.  We get them like the one on the left.  The first thing I do is add a split jump ring.  For me, that's the hardest part.  I use a pinch nose plier to make it easier.  

I cut 3" strips of satin ribbon using pinking shears and thread it through the split ring.

Today I needed 24 medals.

I take these to the sewing machine and sew the ends together, right sides facing.

All of my medals sewn up.

Then I turn the ribbon right side out.

Now I glue the ribbons to pin backs, using a good glue.  The only tricky part is keeping the front ribbon free of glue.

Once all of the pin backs are glued and dried, the next step is to attach them to a card, insert them into a plastic envelope and that's it.  

I print on cardstock, cut them up and then punch holes in the card to hold the pin.

It's a nice gift for the students.

Definitely worth the work.

More parish work tomorrow morning but hopefully sewing in the afternoon. 

God Bless!