Here I Am!

A couple of really nice gals recently emailed me to tell me that they missed reading my blog - how sweet! So I decided I better write a post to do a little catching up. Our move went just fine. We still have a lot of boxes to unpack, but we're getting there and it's starting to feel like home. Here's a picture of the new place taken this afternoon when it was dreary & wet. We hope to get a yard in this summer - hubby is a landscape architect so he has the plans all drawn up already.

Did you notice those two windows above the garage? That's the bonus room which is my studio. I've gotten my quilt fabrics organized and put on shelves - and found the perfect place to display my collection of vintage toy sewing machines. In fact, I think I can use a few more of them!

My very first project is sewing a lap quilt - here it is on my design wall below. My dad died unexpectedly in January and when I was talking to his wife a couple weeks ago she told me how hard the evenings are for her because it's so quiet with no one to talk to. I asked her to send me his cotton shirts and I'd make her a lap quilt out of them - she can wrap herself up in it when she's watching TV or feeling sad. It's been kind of therapeutic for me to handle the fabrics that he wore - funny that there were no stripes in his closet - only plaids, solids, and one Hawaiian print!

Here is the carnage leftover from disassembling the shirts on my family room floor.

I just finished reading a really good book - the author has a new one out so I'll get it from the library soon and read it too. I highly recommend this one.

I attended one of my monthly rug meetings a couple weeks ago and have a little show & tell to share. Myra had this darling apron - the flower pots are sewn from fabric and the flowers are painted on - what talent!

And she was working on this happy rug with the same bright colors.

Nancy had finished this cute rug since our last meeting - it all started with the star flower she had seen in a magazine and grew from there. I love that one of the borders is different.

A few months ago at my quilt group, we learned to make our own wool dryer balls using yarn - mine were pretty tame, but Jayna really took off and made a gazillion of them for Christmas gifts that she embellished with fun designs and colors. They look so nice nestled in her old wooden bowl.

Hopefully tomorrow I can catch up on reading some blogs - it's been weeks since I visited with my internet friends!

End of Year!

It's hard to believe the year is almost over, isn't it? It's been a busy month for me with LOTS of gift making and party/luncheon attending - but SO much fun!  One of the funnest things I made was this cute little Dresden Plate that measures only 2" across!

I call it a fashion accessory for a vintage sewing machine and I sent it to my mom to use on her old Singer 301. Blue is her favorite color. I forgot to put a note in the box explaining to her what it's for, so it'll be interesting to see if she can figure it out before I call her! LOL  I really, really want to make a little quilt with these blocks now, but I need to find a 30* ruler to make cutting the blades easier - anyone know who makes one? You can find the tutorial for making your own HERE and you can see more color combinations and step by step instructions.

I made a few other gifts for my rug groups - a set of quilted zipper bags - - - -

- - - - and some quilted key fobs. (tutorial HERE)

I made myself a different version by paper piecing a long string of flying geese.

One of my groups had a wooly ornament exchange and these were all the wonderful items that were made for that.

Janet's son works for a company that makes high end messenger bags and journals using very dense 1/4" felt that costs $144/yd. He saves all the tiny scraps for her and she made this four-sided ornament using some of them.

My local quilt store has been doing a weekly giveaway on their Facebook page and I was lucky enough to be one of their winners. I received a yard of this lovely Jo Morton fabric - they even mailed it right to my house!

Some of the rugs projects I've seen this month include a couple of finished rugs by Sandy and Coralee.

Sandy started a new Santa rug.

Myra is replicating a photograph to make this wonderful landscape rug as a gift for her aunt. The moose were added from her imagination!

Nancy finished up this cute pillow using mostly leftover worms from her stash.

And she has begun a new floral.

I do a lot of string piecing when I quilt, and I usually just use thread snips to cut apart the sections as they come out of the machine. But when I saw this new gizmo I could see how helpful it would be, so I ordered one for myself.

It works great!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! That's what I plan on doing!

Projects

I've been busy as a bee stitching up several different projects. Today I made this little quilt that measures 9" x 11".  While looking around the house for a good place to photograph it, I discovered how nice it looks with some of my yellowware bowls. The ones with blue stripes have always been my favorite and I have many of them. It was fun to find the perfect striped fabric which I fussy cut for the sashing between the rows.

It worked up quickly since I had the pieced blocks left over from a small quilt I made for Lauren a couple years ago. Only had to make two extra and I had enough. I can never remember if these are hourglass blocks or broken dishes....

Last week I finally gifted DD#2 with a completed quilt. She will use it mostly for TV watching in the evenings when it feels chilly in her basement.

The colors are happy and it was a fun project to make for her, though it took me a lot longer than I thought it would. She was very patient with me and was very appreciative when I gave it to her.

I also stitched up a 'PLUS' quilt and gave it to the gal who does my hair. She's expecting a baby boy in June and told me the nursery colors are navy and gray. I think this will do the trick. She was very surprised when I showed up without an appointment to give it to her.

I quilted it with a simple and easy meandering design. 40" square.

I've finished the border on my hooked rug and I'm ready to tackle the remainder of the inside section.

I recently did a little cleaning in my studio and found six small crazy quilt blocks that I probably made 10+ years ago. I have no idea of what my original plan for them was, so I stitched them up similarly to a quilt I saw on a Facebook page. Not sure if the wool flowers and stems are showing up on such a busy background - any suggestions? Maybe I should unpick the stems and just have the applique in the center section? (please notice the mitered corners on the border - I haven't done that for ages!)

Done - And Getting Done

In my last post I shared a small quilt that I was doing the big stitch on. It's all finished now and I'm so pleased with the way it turned out!

Really fun to make those big stitches using a ball of crochet cotton that I found at the thrift store years ago.

I just use a whip stitch to attach my wool applique pieces after learning from Maggie Banonomi that that's what she does.

And I'm making good progress on hooked rug that I began in a class years ago - why on earth did it take me so long to get back to it?

I forgot to share this delightful little wool woman that I received as a gift last month. It was made from a kit by ArtGirlz and I just love the metal face & crown & hands that embellish this gal.

I have some show & tell to share from a couple of meetings I attended earlier this month. First up is the Polly Minick fish rug that Jeanette is working on - this is the third version I've seen hooked and each one has be just delightful!

She showed us this beautiful penny rug that she had finished.

Her stitches are perfection!

Sharon has a tradition of making very small gift items to send to her grandchildren on their birthdays each year. This is the year of the owl for her and a gift of cash will be included with these cute little guys!

I can't remember who hooked this little Americana piece - was it Sandy? Someone help me out here and I'll post better information. The stars have nice sharp points, which is something I always struggle with!

Angela brought two of her rugs that are in-progress - each one is just beautiful! Her loops are perfectly even and I doubt she ever has to steam a rug when she's done hooking it!

Marliss has made a lot of progress on her Sharon Smith rug since our last meeting. See what happens when you set yourself a goal? I need to take a lesson from her!

At my quilt group, Janet shared a tumbler quilt that she had just completed. She and her sister shared 30's reproduction fabrics to make the exact same pattern and it was cute! I forgot to take a picture of a small quilt and dress that she had made for her grand daughter's American Girl doll. Maybe I'll get to sew fun stuff like that when my little gal gets a bit older and shows interest in that.

Please go over to Tonia's blog and see her beautiful finished rug - she is SUCH a creative person!

HandiQuilter is headquartered here in Utah and this morning I took a little drive to their warehouse to have a look around because I had heard they have lots of quilts on display. A lot of them were art quilts and modern quilts, but I did find a few that appealed to me. Fun to see them hanging in the halls of their office!