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!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May everyone have a great Thanksgiving!

:)

Two more quilts quilted!

Two more quilts have been finished and quilted, only needs binding!

So happy to have more finally finished, 

after all these years of making tops it sure is good to have quilts 

to sleep under.

I have more than one of these quilts, I went crazy making purple half-square

triangles that I had enough for at least 3 quilts! 

This is the last. 

Hopefully...

Binding still needs to be done

and of course these are horrible pictures!

I also finished this I Spy Quilt.

Just need to  find someone to give it too!

Plaid Stars Quilt

I went to pick up my plaid stars quilt the other day
from the quilters
and I'm quite pleased with it,

except I wish it was a bit longer!
:)

This is the quilt I mentioned in my May 11th post.

I had seen a photo and fell in love with it.
When Theresa and I went to Berlin, Ohio for
our field trip this year I purchased a few yards of
background fabric and still didn't have enough!
This quilt turned out to measure 60x60.
I want to make another one but will have to
use various off whites for the background. Can't find
enough for a single background anymore!
I do wish for the olden days of fabric buying!

These are horrible photos but it's the best I could do
 with an overcast day.
It was quite an adventure to figure out the dimensions
for the setting squares but I asked Mary from Erie Street Quilts
one day when I saw her at the store. She really helped my figure it out!
Thanks, Mary!
:)

I had to take my sewing machine in to get it cleaned and have the
tension fixed and I hope to bind this quilt soon.

Scrap Bin Quilt

This last week I finished binding 2 I Eye Spy quilts.

I really felt good getting them done.

Then I needed to do some random piecing.... something that I could do

without following a pattern, just stitch away without really thinking about it.

I think that is why I have so many postage stamp quilts or tumbler quilts, 

they allow me to just stitch away without thinking about a pattern or colors.

I found an example of a quilt that tugged at my heart on Pinterest

 by Crazy Mom Quilts. She took pieces from her scrap bin and started

stitching them together, very random. Ta da! Just what I needed!

And I have 2 bins full of bits of fabric!

This is her finished quilt.

Love it so much! 

She quilted it in a spiral pattern! I would love to have that

but I know Quilts and Sew Forth wouldn't be able to do that pattern.

:(

Isn't that just adorable!

This is one of the bins I have from many years of cutting up fabric!

I've made a few blocks about 15" square.

I might be making some of my pieces too small. Will have to experiment 

with that. 

I am aiming for a lap quilt size, something to cuddle up with on the couch!