Assorted

I've been working on several different projects that I can share pictures of. First up - I got my anvil quilt totally finished. The blocks are 3" and the finished size is 16" x 31". 

I have it displayed on a hanging rack beneath a giant shelf unit attached to the wall at the top of my stairs.

I quilted it on my sewing machine with an all over Baptist Fan pattern. It's far from perfect, but I kinda like the curved quilting with the angular piecing.

This is little pincushion I made from a strip of wool rolled up into a coil and embellished with little flowers. It's topped with a pin I made to go with it. I took a corsage pin and smashed the head of it off with a hammer. Then, using Sculpey clay I shaped the flower & leaf to match the stitched version and attached them to the pin and baked them in the oven according to package instructions. This was a gift for a dear friend and I think she liked it! I want to make some more.

I've been making lots of hexies and have sewn some into the traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden setting.  Each flower is getting stitched onto it's own square of fabric and we'll see what happens after that. Also wanted to show you my new quilty mug. I'm a big water drinker. Have had a giant mug of ice water constantly by my side for years and years. When I saw this version in a newspaper ad last week I had to go check it out. It's stainless steel and insulated. So far it works great, but it is quite a bit smaller than my old one so I have to fill it several times throughout the day.

Have started making some scrappy basket blocks - I believe this version is called cake stand. Quite a lot of work for a 4" block but I like it.

And I've also been doing a bit of rug hooking. Have one rug ready to finish the edge on so I bought some red wool yarn at JoAnn Fabrics to whip it with but it was way too bright. Threw it in my electric fry pan and toned it down a bit with some brown dye and now it's just the right color, though I'm not sure you can really see the difference in this picture.  Hope to get it all done over the weekend.

I finally decided on the last border of my family rug and will be using circles and stripes. This rug is very scrappy - just like the quilts I like to make.

So that's what I've been up to the last few days.

Romance & Robbery

Over a year ago I won a pattern giveaway from Cathy who blogs at Hooked on Primitives. I loved the heart with the little circles and hooked it up quickly, but I could never find the right kind of old bobbin to mount it on for display like she did. I liked the shape so much that I made a second one with a different hooked design of wavy lines. 

Last week I finally just sewed the openings closed and made them into tiny little pillows. I grabbed an old tool box and gathered all my other little hooked pieces to display together inside of it - hence my new header picture.

I pulled out another UFO the other day that has been hanging around for probably ten years - a quilt block named Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. This had been my on-the-go hand applique project and once the 8" blocks were all made they just sat in a bag because I couldn't decide how to sew them together. 

Here are the two different blocks - - -

- - - and the borders.

I finally figured out a good way to set them when I saw this beautiful quilt that Barbara had shared on her blog My Joyful Journey. Her's is scrappy - which I totally love - and putting the blocks on point with a different color for the side setting blocks really grabbed me.

Sure feels good to have this quilt top finished and ready to be quilted.

One Last Time

Lori has a posted a Linky Party so people can share photos of their Midwinter Blues quilts. I have mine quilted and bound now so I thought I'd share pictures one last time. I even ran it through the wash to get that crinkled look from shrunken batting that I love so much.

A lot of people commented on the sashing fabric I used between the blocks so here you can see what it looked like before fussy cutting the strips - the selvage reads Connecting Threads.

I pieced the back to make it a little more interesting - the blue fabric is from a nice 100% cotton thrift store shirt I found.

Right now I have this hanging on the inside of my front door. Somewhere in blogland I found this idea for displaying quilts by using a magnetic curtain rod. I found it at Walmart for around $7 and it works great on my metal door. It can accommodate different size quilts because it extends and retracts in the middle.

I use curtain rings to hang the quilt on it. I have another one of these rods that I intend to use on the door of the upright freezer downstairs in my laundry room some day to add a bit of color down there.

And since I'm in a 'blue' mood I thought I'd share this picture with you of a quilt block that I recently found at a thrift store for $1.25. It's all hand stitched and I assume it was made by a Hmong quilter. (You can read more about them here)  I thought I'd use it as the center block in a small quilt and add other blocks and borders around it - might be interesting. The workmanship is incredible. I've pulled a few fabrics that I thought might work with it but most of them seem too yellow - think I'll have to go shopping at the store instead of my stash to find just the right colors.

Conversation Hearts

I met with the SLC rug group on Tuesday and Myra showed us this darling little rug she made for Valentine's Day - I thought it would be appropriate to share today. Her grandchildren helped choose the sayings on each of them. The colors she used captured the real candy colors of this favorite childhood treat.

Nancy made this rug for a new grandson ten months ago.

Now that baby has a little brother who will share his room, so she's making another rug for the newborn that is the same design, but different - notice the borders. The two horses will be facing each other when they're on the floor - so cute! 

And Nancy also showed us this rug that she finished since our last meeting - her version of an antique rug shown in one of her old books. The white flowers make me think of cotton bolls.

I haven't shared a picture of my family rug for quite awhile - I really haven't hooked much on it lately, but I'd sure like to get it done one of these days.

Whew!

I've had a busy few days, but yesterday I was finally able to complete the top of my Midwinter Blues quilt that Lori has so generously shared with the blogging community as a sew along project. It's been really fun to see all the different versions of this and I'm sure she'll have a link party eventually so we won't miss any of them.

For the last two weeks I've been making a denim quilt for my son-in-law and now it's finished just in time for his birthday on Feb. 14th. My daughter had all the denim and about ten different flannel prints for the back of the squares, but she had never gotten around to making it. Since she's so busy with the new baby I offered to provide the labor and sew it up. I spent an hour at the laundromat this morning getting it washed so the raw edges would fray and here it is. I've made quite a few of these through the years, but I forgot how heavy all that denim gets while running it through the machine - luckily I didn't break a single needle! Yay!

Yesterday I took a few minutes and made a simple little postcard quilt to send to my mom for Valentine's Day - these are so fun and easy to make - and I know she'll enjoy getting it in the mail.

I've been making 3/4" hexies in the evenings while I watch TV - not sure yet of exactly what I'm going to do with them - but I'll be prepared when the inspiration hits me! LOL

Here are the latest stars I've made for the Temecula sew along. I've got quite a stack of these now and am so curious about how we're going to be putting them together!

I had a very fun outing with my two daughters on Saturday when we went for Afternoon Tea at the Grand America in SLC - have been wanting to do this for quite awhile.

Blues & Books

I made the four side blocks for Lori's Midwinter Blues sewalong quilt. Haven't trimmed them down to the right size yet, but will do that later - I have a feeling that some of my points are going to be cut off - but Lori prefers humble quilts so it's okay with me too.

Yesterday I received a new rug hooking book in the mail that I had been anticipating. Just as I love to make scrappy quilts, I also love to make scrappy rugs - so this one sounded really good to me.  What I didn't realize that Bea Brock is the author and all the rugs are her designs. She uses colors that are clear and bright - rather than the darker and dirtier shades that I seem to prefer - but I still think this will be a valuable addition to my library. I got to meet Bea in person a few years ago when I attended Gene Shepherd's rug camp at Cambria Pines - she had accompanied her friend Susan Quicksall who was my teacher - nice lady!

I've shared pictures before of my family rug that's been a work in progress for at least five years. I recently learned about a book that I think would help me figure out what I want to do with it and get it finished, but I'm having a hard time finding a copy. If anyone has this book and would be willing to sell it to me, I'd love to buy it from you. The title is The Pictorial Rug by Jane Halliwell. Please leave a comment, or send me an email if you can help me out.

And one more book related blurb - I seem to have lost my library card for the first time in my life. I slipped the card into my back pocket the last time I used it instead of putting it back in my wallet. It must have fallen out cuz I can't find it anywhere. Guess I'll have to go get a replacement - wonder if I'll be charged a fee? It'll be worth it though - I probably make a trip to the library every couple of weeks - LOVE it there!