Catching Up

Last summer when hubby & I were vacationing in Montana, I found this set of sewing machine drawers at an antique store in a small town - I think I paid $25 for them. There was no top, because they used to be attached to a sewing cabinet, so I knew I would have to do something about that.

I could have added a piece of wood  to cover the opening- cut to size and stained to match.

But I decided to hook a little rug for the top. The hooking has been done for months, and my mom helped me put it all together while she was here last week. Those two extra hands were very helpful.

The wood was a little worn, so I sanded it lightly and brushed fresh stain on it - very pleased with the way it turned out.

I made another heart quilt for Valentine's Day, but didn't get it finished till today. So now it'll be ready for NEXT year! It's kind stiff cuz it's heavily quilted. I'd like to soften it up by washing it, but I'm kinda nervous about the red bleeding.  Not sure what to do.

My grandson's birthday quilt is all finished. We'll be taking it to him next Saturday.

The back is kind of fun with his name appliqued on there - and I embroidered my name and a message on the letter 'O'.

I was very lucky that a friend let me use her longarm machine to quilt this on. It was a lot of fun and only took me about three hours from start to finish.

I received a Quick Curve Ruler for Christmas, and although I won't be able to make a quilt with it for quite awhile, I wanted to stitch up one block just for fun so I could see what it's like. The gal who designed this is here in Utah and most of the quilts made using her method are Modern Quilts,  but I think it's going to work just fine in my dark & dirty scrappy style. Her company is Sew Kind of Wonderful.

Three Projects

Well, I've worked a bit on the background of the bee skep hooked rug that I shared in a previous post. But I'm not loving it, so I think I will be pulling it all out and trying something different - just not enough oomph .

Last week I found a pile of hourglass blocks on my cutting table that were leftover from a previous project and decided I might try stitching up a quick little quilt. I decided to make it red, white & blue.

So I pulled out my strips of red & cream fabric - - -

and made up a bunch of scrappy 9-patches - - -

Then auditioned different settings that combined the two blocks - - -

Decided on this one then tried out some fabrics for the borders and binding - - -

Got it all sewn together, quilted (not very well), and washed, so now it's all done. Finished size is about 16"x20". Funny thing is that I made WAY more 9-patches than I needed, so now I have lots of THOSE leftover to make another project with - sheesh!

I've also been making some hexies and sewing them together like Kristie at Quilting Cowgirl - it's such a great project to work on in the evenings while I'm vegging in front of the TV - thanks for the inspiration Kristie!

Now I need to get myself in gear and make a twin-sized quilt for my grandson's 8th birthday on Feb 14th. He chose the colors and a design that he liked. Then I 'had' to go shopping for the fabrics since these colors aren't in my stash (poor me)...

and I have a start on it.

Oh, and just as a side note, I tallied up my book list from 2014 and discovered that I read (or listened to) 59 books last year - yay me!

Sharon Smith Workshop

I sure enjoyed my workshop last weekend with Sharon Smith from Off The Hook Wool Rugs - she drove to Utah from California hauling a trailer FULL of supplies behind her vehicle - LOTS of eye candy and shopping opportunities! A lot of her rugs reflect the places she has traveled - she definitely has her own style. Amazingly, she has only been hooking for five years - and has hooked over 70 rugs - can you believe it?

I was one of just a handful of students who didn't work on one of her designs - but still learned a lot and definitely enjoyed spending three days in the company of good friends. This is the geometric/mosaic that I drew for the class - it's pretty big and will take me awhile to get it finished. It will be totally scrappy, with no two blocks having the same color combinations - I'm still trying to decide what to put in the center of the diamonds...

Each day we received a special treat from the class organizers. First was a kit with all the fixins to make this darling sunflower pincushion on a rusty bed spring.

Then we got birds - with instructions to fly - filled with candy.

And on the last day a fun paper mache box with inspiring words and treats inside.

You can see class projects on the Guild's blog HERE. I sat near the four gals who were hooking the poppy rugs and it was so fun to watch them each develop their own style - with their own slightly different colorway!

Sharon told us how she dyes some of her splotchy wool, so when I got home I pulled out some pastel yellow fat quarters that I won as a door prize years and years ago - b.o.r.i.n.g.!

This is what I ended up with after spending an afternoon in the dye pots - not exactly like hers - but definitely more usable than they were before I started.

I have started another new rug - it will be a table runner. Lots of antique blacks for the backgrounds - and various golds for the stars.

My sister's birthday is next week so I made a postcard quilt with a bouquet of flowers to send to her - lots more fun that a card from the store, huh? (Jeanette - this is some of the crocheted trim that I bought at the yard sale with you)

Heading out for a weekend of camping with hubby - so if you leave a comment and don't hear back from me, I'm not ignoring you - LOL!

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.

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.

Busy Little Four Patch

                                            *GIVEAWAY CLOSED*


I got the itch to stitch the other day and made this cute little 4-patch quilt. The blocks measure 1-1/2" square and are made of red & ivory & black fabrics. The finished size is 11" x 14-1/2".

I quilted it on a diagonal grid with straight lines. It puckered up quite a bit when I washed it and got a little bit wavy, but I think it'll flatten out eventually.

My birthday is on January 1st and I'd like to give this little quilt away as a way of celebrating my 59th. Please leave a comment telling me you'd like to win it and I'll draw a name Wednesday night.

Gifts, Rugs & Quilts

My Mom's birthday is next week, so on Saturday I stitched up a really small quilt to send to her using the smallest Twister template - the finished quilt measures just under 9" square. I figured with a quilt this small she could find a place to display it without too much trouble. 

I've had fun with wrapping gifts a little differently lately - here is the quilt wrapped in brown paper with a doily to embellish it - along with a necklace I bought her at an antique show over the weekend that I wrapped in some old book pages. Makes receiving it more fun I think!

My son gave his girlfriend a gift certificate for Valentine's Day, so I made a spiffy envelope for him to put it in - it's all about the presentation when you're dating! LOL

Last Thursday I attended my monthly rug hooking meeting in SLC and these are some of the rugs that I saw there. Kathryn had just finished this darling Edyth O'Neill design with two hearts - I absolutely LOVE the way she added interest to the background by hooking in some small heart shapes using slightly different colored wool.

Nancy has made a LOT of progress on this rug she's making - next month I'll try to remember to snap a picture of the cross stitch design that inspired it. It seems she often adds a little saying or verse to her rugs and I think it makes them very special.

Yvonne started the last border on this beautiful floral rug - it's a big one and the colors are so rich and yummy!

Here is another peek at my row rug.

I finally got all my scrappy Trip Around the World blocks made - now I have to decide how to set them. Remember, these are half size blocks so they each measure 6" square.

I hemmed two pair of jeans for my son-in-law - not my favorite kind of sewing - but it was the very least I could do after he worked on my rug hooking frame last week!

So that's a little bit of what I've been up to lately!