Henry came to visit

Our son had a dental appointment so we got the opportunity to watch our grandson Henry.  He is an adorable ten-month little boy.  He has the best disposition!  I made each of my three sons and their family a q Christmas quilt and then a quilt for each of my two grandchildren.  Henry got his quilt and loved it.  But not as much as we love him!

As you can see from the photo, Grandma has used a lot of thread this year.  The spatula is for chewing when those teeth start coming in.

Forgotten Quilt Top

Here is the quilt top I made from Pat Sloan's pattern Little Wishes.  She issued the pattern as a challenge to use your scraps.  Well, I do have lots of scraps and lots of yardage that needs to be used since it is getting about 25 years old.  I looked around my sewing room and spied several pieces of solids that I used in my grandson's little bears quilt.  However, I loved the black fabric with the white polka dots that Pat used in her examples, so I purchased some almost like hers.  I stitched away and found that I had purchased enough solids to make the border too.  Wow!  I love this quilt!  It is so different from what I usually make, and it feels more modern than I thought I would ever like.  I do like this one!  It is currently at they quilter's and should be ready for binding this month unless my quilter got too busy with Christmas quilts.  For the backing, I used big chunks of what solids I had left.  I plan to bind it with the black polka dot fabric.  Whew!  It used a lot of my scraps, but I still have so much more to use!  That will be the fun this winter!

Catching Up

Our granddaughter had her first stitching lesson about six weeks ago.  She is 2 1/2 years old and I knew she would like to be such a big girl by learning a bit about stitching.  I took a square of a light yellow or cream colored fleece and placed it in an embroider hoop.  I placed several skeins of embroidery floss and a tapestry needle in a bag so that she could have no fear of sticking herself with a needle as she stitched.  The first floss she chose was pink.  I knotted the floss after I threaded it through the needle.  She then stuck the needle wherever she wanted and I drew it out so she could stick the needle wherever she wanted.  When we ran out of floss on the needle, she could choose which floss she wanted to use next.  She chose pink, red, purple and blue flosses.  If you look closely, you will see that she took some very long stitches, so I topped the square with a piece of tulle before adding the inner and outer borders to turn the piece into a pillow.  I think she is so proud of her first stitching.

This next project was made with strips of fabrics and then turned into potholders.  So fun for fall.

How long has it been?

How long has it been since I last wrote on my blog?  I'm sorry it has been so long, and I'll try to do better.

Above, you will see a photo of the quilt I made from the pattern Golden Oldie.  Our stitching group worked on a mystery quilt for about six months.  This pattern was an excellent one to use.  I used greens and blues so that I could use up some of the yardage I had in my stash.  I really like it and use it almost daily as a cover up on the couch.

Also our stitching group had a fun game at our Independence Day party.  Everyone who wanted to participate brought in a yard of fabric.  We made a circle and passed around the pieces of fabric to music just like we would have done with ourselves if we were playing musical chairs.  When the music stopped, each person tore their fabric they had received into halves.  They kept half and then passed the other half on until the music stopped again with each person keeping half and passing the other half after each time the music stopped.  The process continued until we had a piece about four inches wide.  It was a great way to add new fabrics to our stashes.  Our leader, however, challenged us to make a small quilt (she gave us the size she had determined) using at least one piece of each of the fabrics we received.  We could add more if we wanted.  Then the quilts were brought in and then donated to a local nursing home.  My quilt is the Little Quilts pattern for houses, which I called 412 Penny Lane.  It was so much fun to see what each person made.

Sunny day

Here in southwestern Ohio, we had a sunny day today. Yes, it was chilly but not cold; i.e., not as cold as was a few days ago when we were about 20 degrees below zero. Brrr.
I have been working on finishing some projects. You will see the Lozenges quilt block from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. I made the smaller version because I didn't think I would want to make an entire quilt of those blocks. So, I made just enough for a table runner. I really like the impact it made. It looks so modern even though Bonnie had a photo of an antique quilt made from the same blocks or pieces.
Then, I made a Valentine's Day gift for my granddaughter Sarah who will be two in May. After purchasing a small travel size pillow, I made two pillowcases to fit it. They are just the opposite of each other - light print with dark print band and then dark print with light print band. The prints go so well together. A very happy look!
Next, I finished handquilting my St. Patrick's Day bargello wallhanging. Well, it might not end up as a wallhanging. Currently it is on the back of my black Windsor chair our oldest son made for me. It looks so good there with the black chair. There is a lot of handquilting in the piece and it was such fun to work on it while I was watching television at night. Small handquilting projects are great for that reason!
Lastly, I knitted a pair of socks from Deborah Norville's sock yarn. The yarn makes bands as the colors change. The clear pink goes to white then to a dusty lavender and then to a gray. At least, that seems to be the colors in the change. The socks will go to my mother if they fit her. She has a very small foot (size 5 1/2), so they may be too big. If they are too big, then I'll keep the pink socks and make her another pair with a different yarn.
Currently, I am working on a crocheted baby afghan for our almost 4-week old grandson Henry. It is using antique white Baby Softee yarn and in the pattern called V-stitch Baby Afghan. It is also very fun to work on at night when watching tv or whenever I have a few minutes of free time.
Hope you enjoy my finished projects. I'll try to get photos of the projects I worked on last night (or should I say early this morning) at 2:30 am - pillowcases which our stitching group will donate to select orphanages (a project through the church at which we have our meetings). They are a lot of fun to make and fairly quick too. I have been able to use up some fabrics that have been in my stash for a little while. They are so bright and cheerful!

Another Project Finished and Off the UFO List

This little quilt is named "For the Love of Scraps" since it used so many little scraps, especially the little scraps of muslin left over from the back of a quilt I had hand-quilted.  Isn't that what we quilters do - make quilts out of scraps?  That is what I love to do - make quilts with lots of different fabrics or scraps.  So, this photo doesn't really show off the little wall quilt or table mat very well since I don't know how to rotate it in this blog.  It showed the correct orientation on my computer and printer, but when placed on this blog - well, it's not so good.  Anyway, I am glad this project is handquilted and finished.  I hand-quilted this while watching the first and second night of "The Sons of Liberty" on PBS.  Wow!  What a mini-series!  Then yesterday afternoon I sewed the binding on. The sashing is a very dark green print and the border is a bright blue.  The binding is a dark blue; i.e., until I ran out of the dark blue about 12 inches before the end.  Then I used some plain black binding.  Isn't this supposed to be scrappy?!  Well, bindings count as scrappy too.  The hearts are all blanket-stitched by hand with black embroidery floss.  The edges of the hearts were not turned under before the blanket-stitching.  I just love the soft fringe that sometimes happens to the edges of the hearts when the mat is washed.  It will definitely fit in with the rest of my "country" style.  Also, do you all notice that the print in the border is a little whopper-jawed?  Even though I cut the fabric on-grain, the print was not on-grain.  However, I love its little flaws just like they are.  The entire project seems to be something that was made from a well-loved scrap bag.  So what did I work on during last night's (the third night) viewing of "The Sons of Liberty"?  Another scrappy project that I had completed all the stitching on, but had not quilted it yet - a lozenges table runner.  The pattern is a Leader & Ender from Bonnie Hunter's website (www.quiltville.com) - "Lozenges".  I made the smaller version since I wasn't sure I wanted to complete an entire quilt.  The smaller version worked just great for me and I made enough to sew together to make a table runner with a border around it.  So, when it is completed, I will post a photo of it too.  I just love finishing all of these projects.  Now, if I could just get the bindings and labels on the 7 or so quilts I have stored in the trunk of my car after I brought them home from the quilter's.  It is a good place for storing them since my quilter wraps them securely in pastic.  I know that plastic isn't good for long-term storage, but they won't be there that long.  All of the little projects need to be completed first.  So, on with the quilting!

Another Valentine Mug Mat

My mother really liked the crumb heart Valentine mug rug I made for my DH, so I decided to make one for her too.  Since she loves pink, I chose all pink fabrics except the little pieces of white background.  I used the pattern for Crumb Hearts for the inner block (from Bonnie Hunter's website www.quiltville.com ) and the actual pattern for Tannenbaum Mug Rug (from the same site except I substituted the heart for the inner portion of the mug rug).  The pieces of pink were left over from Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt (also see her website for the pattern).  It is perfect for her.  My mother probably won't want to put a mug of coffee on it fearing she will spill her coffee.  Well, it can be washed, after all.  So refreshing and a little bit of spring in this winter blahs.  Enjoy making little bits of sunshine for others!

Small Project

Around Christmas, I made my husband the Tannenbaum Mug Rug from Bonnie Hunter's Free Patterns section on her blog found at www.quiltville.com. He enjoyed using it so much when he was working on his languages "homework" and his free reading of Mark Twain that I felt he needed to put the Christmas trees aside and use something else. What motif to us? Well, Bonnie Hunter has a Cr

umb Hearts block on her free patterns too. I used the same procedure as the original Crumb Hearts block, but changed the size so that the finished mug rug would be the same as the Tannenbaum Mug Rug. So, I cut the pieced crumb sections to 4 1/2" X 2 1/2" and then stitched on the background triangles. Finally adding the borders (same size as the Tannenbaum Mug Rug), and then machine quilting and binding it. I love it! It is such a great early Valentine. I even wrote on the back when it was made, to whom it was given, for the reason it was given, and who made it. Just a short sentiment! Hope the pictures turn out great. My husband was thrilled to have it, and he said it really looked like a Valentine!

Crumb Hearts Wallhanging Finished

Here is the finished Crumb Hearts Wallhanging.  Well, I think I'll use it as a little mat on my coffee table for Valentine's Day.  It is not in the traditional colors for Valentine's Day, but who says we have to stick with traditional!  The hearts definitely are not traditional, so why should the rest of the piece be traditional?  This little Crumb Heart block pattern comes from Bonnie Hunter's blog in her free patterns section.  You can visit her at www.quiltville.com .  This block was so much fun because it used up those little pieces of fabrics I couldn't bear to throw away.  Even though this was a quick piece to make and used so much scrap that I had to hand-quilt it.  Having something to work on by hand in the evenings when I am watching tv really helps keep me calm.  Quilting in the scrappy hearts was fun because I quilted every which way.  They I quilted down the middle of each sashing strip (scrappy too) and the inner border.  Finally on the outer border, I tried to calm the piece down by using a purple.  Does it really calm it down?  Purple?  Well, it seemed to work on this piece, especially next to the citron colored inner border.  I didn't want anything like brown for the outside border.  This had to have some fun to it, so the purple worked.  The fun purple outer border is quilted with a rope design and then a little from the outside binding.  You'll all have to be so proud of my when it comes to using scrap binding.  I couldn't believe it when I checked the scraps in the bottom drawer of my sewing machine - there was binding already cut in the same fabric as the border.  Was there enough there?  If not, I'd just add to it so that I could bind it.  Well, yes, there was about 4 inches to spare.  Those 4 inches went back into the drawer of scrap bindings because it will probably be added to other small scrap bindings for a REALLY scrappy binding someday.  Won't that be fun, especially when the fabrics don't really seem to go with a color scheme!  That will definitely have to be a wild scrappy quilt! 

My husband thinks I am a hoarder, and he is probably right when it comes to fabric.  A funny thing happened the other day.  I had been working on my Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt from Bonnie Hunter and was snipping off the little dog-ears to finally get my blocks pieced together.  Then my husband came and asked me if I needed the little triangle he found on the back porch.  "What triangle?" I thought since I hadn't used the back porch since about September or October.  When he showed me the piece, he asked if I could use it in a block for a quilt.  Of course not because it was one of those dog-ears.  The dog-ear must have adhered to his socks when he went onto the porch, because I certainly had not been there.  He understands that I don't usually throw away fabrics unless they are too small.  Needless to say, the piece really was too small.

Today I'm going to try to finish piecing all of the blocks for Grand Illusion.  Wish me luck!

Using Leftovers

Last year I made a quilt from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville list of free patterns.  The pattern was called Diamond Strings. It was made from strips of scraps that were then sewn to muslin strips on both sides.  Then, triangles were cut with the Companion Angle, thus making squares.  It was very fun to make and used a lot of scraps.  Well, I had these triangles left after cutting the large triangles, and doing as Bonnie does, I didn't waste them.  I just seamed them together to make sqaures and then put a border around it.  Did I want to machine quilt it or hand-quilt it?  Well, hand-quilting would give me something to do while I was watching tv in the evenings, so that is what I did.  I quilted 1/4" inside the muslin triangles and then in the triangles made of strings I just quilted every so often in the strings.  All of that quilting on the inside of the quilt made it necessary for more quilting in the borders.  Thus, the rope design.  I bound it in solid black since that was some scrap bias that I had in a drawer.  It is very small (13" X 16"), and it fits just perfectly under a lamp on an end table in my living room.  So cute!  Now, I can say that I am starting the new year by completing projects that have been around for a few months AND I am using up my scraps! 

Grand Illusion Last Clue

Well, we got our last clue for the Grand Illusion mystery quilt, and I actually have all of the units completed.  However, I haven't gotten all of the blocks put together.  With the sections I have completed, I had to photograph it to share.  I just love how it is turning out!  It definitely has motion!  Thanks, Bonnie Hunter!
Also, you will see a photograph of the quilt I have hand appliqued and hand-quilted.  All I need to do is add the binding.  I hope my new grandchild loves and enjoys it!