Winter 2016

This winter has been absolutely wonderful!

The weather has been very warm, so we haven't had

very much snow or extreme cold temperatures.

..........

Joe had back surgery earlier this month and 

is doing quite well considering all the work that

was done.

This is the card I made for him. 

I got the idea from CardzTV.com,

she makes some great cards.

..........

I have been quilting during the time I took off

to care for Joe. I made a quilt for my sister-in-law, Maria.

It is a scrappy nine patch with alternate blocks. Very simple!

Joe wanted it to be queen size so it is very large!

I usually make twin or lap size so to do a 

queen was hard for me.

I used off white as my background and so I

have gathered a lot of neutrals, so many I had to

sort them and put them all in a drawer unit I have.

It was embarrassing to see exactly how many I do have!

I do have plans to make an all neutral quilt

after I finish the group I have planned for this year.

I have these planned and must be done before September.

Maria's quilt - queen size

backing ordered

2 black and white quilts - queen size

yellow and grey zig-zag quilt - lap or twin size

hexagon quilt - lap or twin size

I also want to finish up a couple of UFO's that I 

have completed, just need backings

Hand quilting

Emptiness

While working on my "organic" quilting

I hurt my sewing machine!

I guess I somehow bent something by the bobbin case and 

the machine started making strange noises. Also the walking foot

would also lock up the screw holding the needle in and then the 

needle would fall out.

So I took it to my "guy" and he is working on it now.

So what to do while my machine is getting her insides worked on?

I thought and thought. Everytime I would think of something to do,

it would involve sewing on the machine. 

Since the desk is so empty,

I decided to straighten up my boxes of projects that need to be finished and found 

my Halloween doll quilt or wallhanging that needed to be hand quilted.

Yeah! It was already pinned and ready to go.

Simple stitch in the ditch.

After finishing the center I decided to add spiderwebs in each corner.

I hand drew one in the corner and will probably add spiders on the border also.

I don't usually draw lines for my quilting as I can't draw a straight line, 

but how can you mess up a web? Lol!!!

My machine will be ready by Wednesday

and I will no longer have an empty desk.

:)

Skittles favorite spot

This is where Skittles likes to sit

while I'm on the computer. Though at the moment

he is on my shoulder!!!!

:)

Doll quilts and organic quilting

Still working on my half-square triangle doll quilt.

So while it snows outside I'm snug in the house 

stitching away.

I wanted to add a 1 inch border and since I always have 

trouble with that small width I decided to mark the fabric at 

1/4 inch so I have a good 1 inch finished border. My sewing 

foot is not quite 1/4 inch so I need something to guide me.

A 1/4 inch foot is one feature I will want if I ever get another machine.

I added all the borders and it is now hanging with my other 

unfinished doll quilts.

These include the finished Sweet Dreams doll quilt

and an unfinished pink squares doll quilt 

(still thinking of what to do about borders for that one)

and the halloween doll quilt.

I love the "butterscotch" color of this border fabric.

After finishing up this quilt I decided to try "organic" machine quilting

on my blue baby quilt that I had pinned and waiting for hand quilting.

I like the look of this type of machine quilting in the pics I've seen posted at 

several sites.

So I went with it and started stitching.

I hope I don't end up with a ruined baby quilt.

I do see some wrinkling toward the bottom of the row.

It is probably because I am rushing the machine too much.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this works out ok.

:)

Half square triangles

This last week I worked on this doll quilt, using

some of my Year 2000 2 1/2 inch squares.

(I may have these until Year 3000!)

This is what I made.

I did do the windmill trick with the corners on the

back of the quilt top. (Only another quilter

would understand what I'm talking about! :)  )

but they are time consuming

and difficult to do so in this next quilt I'm not going to attempt

doing them.

 I am going to add a border of a gold fabric possibly with a blue

binding. I am following an inspiration quilt and want to make it just like

she did. 

What's on my desk today

:)

I finished the Sweet Dreams doll quilt!

It took me awhile but I finally finished the Sweet Dreams 

doll quilt.

Yeah!

These next photos are sneak peeks at what

I am working on now.

and in my spare time I'm still working on Josh's 

Christmas stocking. 

:)

Pink Sweet Dreams doll quilt

Decided to finish hand quilting this today.

Now I'm putting on the binding and should be done by the 

end of the week.

Work really cuts into my crafting time!

:)

Poinsettia dies

Christmas is still on my mind,

or I am just starting to play with 

my Christmas present that I gave to myself.

I love the poinsettia die I picked up, and

I am looking forward to making some cute cards

for Christmas next year.

One of the advantage of dies is that they 

can cut felt as well as paper. 

I picked up some pressed felt with silver sprinkles embedded

in it to make the poinsettia "flower". It worked

like a dream! It cut perfectly! It even left the 

embossed veins in the felt.

I love it.

I found an inspiration idea and went with that layout.

I decided to make a card rather than a tag, though the

idea of stamping snowflakes in white may also be

used when I do the inside of this card.

I don't have anything to put in place of the stars,

so I will have to leave that blank for now.

I did however add a sentiment at the bottom

of my card, embossed in black. 

Quick and easy and it looks so much better 

than just plain ink.

I used one of mom's old  (or vintage) buttons,

they look so much better than new ones. Added some 

twine and glued it to the flower. I did stitch

the layers together, then used sticky tape to attach it to the 

card. I wasn't sure that just plain Aleene's glue would hold

such a heavy flower.

I'm still trying to think of what I can use at the top of the card,

any ideas?