The Scrap Bin quilt continues

I'm still working on the Scrap Bin quilt.

I did add a few fabrics from the stash to get a little more 

variation in the prints. 

Shh! Don't tell anyone!

I pulled in some birthday cake fabric and some Dory fabric.

I also dug down deep in one of the bins and found some more of

these prints. I love the robot print and the happy caterpillars!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas with lots

of good food and lots of presents!

:)

....................................................................

Today I took a couple of photos of the snow, we've lost quite a bit since

the major snowstorm from a few weeks ago. In some places you can

even see green grass! Yippee!

Joe is a fanatic about his snow removal, we are one of a few that has

their sidewalk completely free of snow!

He is amazing!

I do hate the look of the dirty snow though, wish it could be white and 

pretty as a fresh snowfall all the time!

I also went in the back to see how much snow has melted. By

the back porch I made one of our neighbors quite upset by going back there!

:)

You should have seen the dirty looks he was giving me! And

his tail was wagging and shaking a lot! I guess he was letting

me know just how irritated he was with me! LOL!!!

So I left him alone and went back to where I belonged, in the house!

I'm still working on the Scrap Bin quilt, I want it to be twin size, so I

figure it should be 70" x 90".  

Maybe I'll be able to work on it tomorrow.

End of the year ramblings...

I have finished  up several quilts this year and wanted to take some better

photos of them , so I started to pile them up on my couch.

Wow! A big pile! :)

So to go through each one:

This is the Grand Illusion made from Bonnie Hunter's 

free mystery quilt from about two years ago.

I was not of fan of the chaos so I didn't finish it with the

border she designed. It is not my colors and not a pattern I would have

chosen to do. But the more I live with it, the more I like it.

Like I said it was way "out of the box" for me in both colors and 

design.

I kinda think of it as a happy quilt now.

This is a purple waterfall quilt. I had lots of purples from the 

Half-square Triangle quilts I had been making so I decided to use them up.

I think this pattern was on Missouri Quilt Co. website.

This is one of the Half-Square Triangle quilts I made.

I cut so many blocks that I made two two of these, with more blocks 

waiting to be made into a quilt.

But I'm getting a little tired of purple!!!!

:)

This is a baby quilt I made after seeing one like it somewhere, probably Pinterest.

It was made using leftover dresses from a little girl. Since I don't have 

any of Nancy's dresses any more I improvised, I bought a few dresses from Goodwill and used those.

Then just used some fabric that I had for the rest of the hearts.

This quilt I made several years ago, but just got it quilted this year. I'm really 

starting to like it!

The bright green really makes this quilt.

This photo shows the backing I used. I fell in love 

with this green stripe.

I never buy quilt kits, but this one spoke to me.

I love it! The colors and the prints were great! 

I just didn't add the rick-rack as I don't like the 

way it looks after it's washed. I plan on making 

another one in different colors sometime.

I love I-Spy quilts, and I will be making more of them.

This is a filmstrip quilt that I made on a field trip with my 

sister this last summer. She used white as her background.

I was able to find enough 2 1/2 inch squares to make a charm

filmstrip quilt sometime soon. Maybe this summer....

This is a quilt my sister made for me for Christmas.

We spent our vacation time in Lancaster, Pa. two years ago.

We visited lots of quilt stores and bought lots of fabric!

We helped the local economy a lot that year! 

:)

This is a half-square triangle quilt made with 30's fabrics.

Love that block!

One of my favorite quilts, the plaid star quilt. Definitely will

be making another one, bigger though.

A postage stamp quilt, lots of 2 1/2 inch squares, some from the early 

2000's when I participated in the millennium swaps. I had a lot of "uglies"

were used, but since there are so many squares they won't be noticed much.

:)

About 3 or 4 years ago I made this Halloween quilt and had it quilted.

I threw it up on my pile of quilts that needed binding and it sat there

for a few years. This fall around Halloween I pulled it down and decided to finally 

bind it. While I was stitching away I found some missed stitches that the quilter did.

Since it was so long ago I really can't do anything about it now, but it has spoiled this 

quilt for me. Check out the picture below this one. There are several places where the 

stitching is bad.

That's all I have for now, I can show more in another post. Maybe after the holidays.

Working on my Scrap Bin quilt

Still working on the scrap bin quilt, made from bits and pieces that I 

have been throwing in a huge tub for the last few years. Whenever I cut fabric and I have

small pieces that I can't use I just toss those pieces in my blue scrap bin. I have one for 

my cotton fabrics and one for scraps from the plaid shirts that I cut up. I'll probably make a scrap 

bin quilt in the plaids also. Gotta use up everything, no waste with these fabrics, too expensive to waste.

This is a horrible picture of the progress that I have made so far. But it is growing!

I haven't decided how big it will be, lap size or twin bed size. I will probably add a border also so the

small pieces aren't on the edges. I'm thinking red borders at the moment. I will decide later.

Some of the scraps Ive been using.

One of the panels I finished yesterday. This is folded in half so I could take a 

better photo of it.

Below is the other half.

We are supposed to get more snow tomorrow and the next day. Wish I could get snow days!!!

Then I could stay home and sew the day away!

:)

Fabric Box, Snow and a Mug Rug

I found a tutorial on making a fabric box at

http://seaside-stitches.blogspot.com/2013/03/fabric-box-tutorial.html

and decided to give it a try.

I pulled out some of my sewing themed fabrics for a box for Theresa.

I had some leftover batting from trimming the quilts that I had quilted at

Quilts and Sew Forth recently.

I had some big pieces so I cut my batting out at about 14 inches sq.

I then cut my fabric square at 13.5. Stitched around then birthed 

the unit, trimming the batting very close to the stitching. Then I just used the 

walking foot as the measurement of my stitching lines.

And I started stitching, and stitching...

It seemed to take a long time at first but got easier as I went along.

I really love the idea of "extra storage" in the flaps.

Scissors, a thimble, or a spool of thread will fit inside.

All I need now is to get 4 buttons for the flap.

I'm not sure what color I'll get, Yellow or orange?

With all the buttons I have in my collection, I 

didn't have any that worked for this project.

I'll have to take the project with me to help me see

what color to get!

I may even make one for Catherine's baby, due to be born

in April, using the same fabric I used for her bibs.

.................

And I did!

Of course I need buttons for the flaps, but we had

a two day major snow storm so I haven't been able to 

get to the store for the buttons.

Friday evening it took Joe an hour and a half to 

get home, normally a seven minute drive.

When he got home he couldn't get in the driveway!

It took him two hours to clear the driveway, even using 

the snow blower!

By morning it was worse.

I had to be at work at six so I woke him at 4:30 am to start to clear the driveway.

We had gotten even more snow than the day before!

It was really wet snow and the snow blower kept getting clogged up, 

making it totally useless. He worked for hours and then came in for

breakfast and then back out for more.

Of course, I didn't go to work and the same for Joe. He had 

to call his boss and told him that he can't get out of the driveway.

His boss said don't worry about the recycling collection, he wanted Joe

to come to work to help out with snow removal! I guess he didn't hear the part

where Joe told him we couldn't get out of the driveway!

I helped with what little I could, my hands really hurt and I'm a weakling!

They say that Kirtland got 32.5 inches and I bet that's what we got too!

We finally got the driveway clear by 11:30 am. Just in time for

more tomorrow! :(

..........

So this afternoon I worked at making a mug rug and working on 

my scrap bin quilt.

A Busy Day

I am on vacation this week and enjoying being away

from my job. 

Today it was 60 degrees outside and I decided to do lots of shopping.

I really don't care for shopping anymore but I really, really wanted

a few things. I went to Target to return a blanket, so expensive anymore!

Then to Kohl's to buy me another silver necklace. My annual gift to myself!

:)

I picked up a couple of things for Joe and a necklace for Liz.

Then I went to the Hallmark store to see if they had any more ornaments.

I always wait to get them and then I'm disappointed when they run out of the one's I want.

Next year I promise to do better!

I picked other items for Christmas presents though.

Then off to JoAnn's, I was going to go to Hobby Lobby but I was already

getting a little tired of shopping.

I found some backings for a few quilts I had finished years ago.

Pumpkins and black crows

Another pink baby quilt with filmstrip border this time.

I love pink baby quilts!

This is a quilt that I made and then when I dug it out I undid

the setting and ended up with two quilts. The other one has a

teal background,  more on this in a future post.

I didn't find anything at JoAnn's for this quilt so I decided to stop 

at Mara's to see what they had.

I settled for this since I really want to finish this up.

I may make some star blocks for the back.

And I got a backing for my Cherry Basket quilt. I just got 

a neutral fabric with squiggles.

It is a nice background and may order some more.

After visiting Mara's quilt shop I decided to finish up the day at

Sweetberry's  market to get some fruit. 

Then home to unload all my stuff!

Later I worked on the binding for the I Spy quilt.

I really really love the polka dot fabric on the back of this!

I would love to have a whole bolt of this!

All in all a very busy day!

Tomorrow I'm going nowhere!

:)

This is my last vacation week for the year,

and I'm not going anywhere except down in the basement.

To sew, sew, sew.

Finish up projects is my main goal for this week.

I went in the quilt room upstairs and pulled out another

box to go through for unfinished projects and found about 

5 that need backings. I would make these quilts but never

saved fabrics for the backings! This is a habit I need to stop!

It's impossible to find backing for quilts that were made 5-10 years ago.

I'll have to make do with fabrics as close as I can or go with a muslin backing.

Sunday was my first day of vacation and I was able to bind two quilts.

This is Anthony's Christmas quilt, I used a backing that

reminded me of bicycle gears.

Daniel's quilt, that I finished months ago was a queen size quilt,

but this one for Anthony is a lap size, I figured he wouldn't want it

for their bed. He can use it on the couch.

This quilt was started years ago. I found the lime green fabric

in the fat quarter bin at JoAnn's, they only had about 4 or 5 of them.

I used every last bit of it in the quilt. I sure wanted to have about 2- 3 more.

I love the look of black quilts but don't like the quilting. I would have been

much happier with having white quilting in the white/green areas and then black quilting

in the borders.

But was not to be.

It is done, ready to be used and as 

Jenny Doan says 

finished is better!

:)

I am working on the purple half square triangle quilt

I showed you in the Nov. 22 post.

I have 2 more sides to go and then it is in the finished pile.

I also put the Christmas tree up this year. Last year we decided not to

as Joe was scheduled to have surgery in January and I didn't want him climbing 

up and down to get the boxes of stuff.

Thank goodness he is doing so much better!

I am sitting here in the living room with the lights off so I can enjoy the tree.

So this isn't a great picture of it.

but it will do for now.

Tomorrow I have a list of places I want to go Target, Kohl's, JoAnns, Pat Catans and 

maybe see a movie!

After dinner back to the basement to finish up the binding on the purple quilt!