Carol's Quilting Blog

Fall Dining Room Table

2011-09-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is what's on my table right now, but it will change as the season progresses. If we get the boxes down from the attic, I go all out for fall. There are about 30 pumpkins of all sizes and materials - ceramic, foam that looks real, grape vine, paper covered, even a wrought iron candle holder. in sizes from small to about 12" in diameter. If you scroll down, you can see a better picture of this runner that I made last year.

White Christmas in Alabama!

2010-12-25T08:22:00.000-08:00

Of course, it is north Alabama! This was taken from my front porch about 10 AM! But it looks now, at 10:40, like it's turning to rain, so it won't last long.

This one is from the back door about 8 AM. Those are not paint splotches on the fence and house, but snow coming down!

Fall Quilting for the Home

2010-11-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

On Oct. 30, I dropped by my local quilt shop to see what was going on at the all-day sew-in. One of the shop owners had made up this runner from her stash using a free pattern from Hoffman Fabrics, "Oh Pumpkin, My Pumpkin." Several of the participants wanted to make this, as did I, so we picked out fabrics, and I helped the shop owner cut the fabric for several kits. Click on this picture for a sharper image.

I made the first block, then decided I didn't like how the placement of the oranges would work out in the runner, so I turned that block into a combination wall hanging/pillow sham. Right now it's hanging on the back of my front door, but I may move it to the sofa. Because I'd decided to bind this pillow sham, it occured to me later to just add a hanging sleeve so it could be used either way.

Birthday Presents for Chelsey

2010-11-02T16:11:00.001-07:00

My granddaughter picked out the animal prints for this quilt, but let me pick the additional fabrics, for a total of 20. The pattern is Birthday Presents from "Take Two and Add a Few" by Atkinson Designs. Each fabric is used twice in the quilt top, once as the corners of each block, and again as the squares. The binding is a different fabric, and the backing is yet another.

I decided the Thousand Pyramids puzzle ball would be a perfect companion project because it takes 20 triangles. That pattern is from Patchwork Puzzle Balls by Jinny Beyer. Chelsey will be 16 on Friday, and has seen the fabrics, but not the finished products.

Teaspoon as Quilting Tool

2010-10-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

If you pin-baste your small quilt projects using the bent safety pins, here's an easy way to latch those pins without disturbing your quilt sandwich or killing your fingers. If you hold the spoon as shown, it's easy to push down on the pin to get it latched. This is one of 14 wall hangings I'm making for Christmas presents. 7 are finished, 7 need to be quilted and bound. Another is all cut out, but it's for me, so it can wait awhile.

China Blue Patchwork Puzzle Balls

2010-10-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

I've been having fun making these patchwork puzzle balls. I've made several, but these are just the ones I made with fat quarters of one china blue fabric and one more solid fabric. I've got 2 more of these fat quarters and lots of other blue fabrics, so I'm going to make a few more to put in this bowl on my dining room table. But I'm so tickled with these three, that I just had to share right now! I collect blue and white china, on display in my china cabinet, and the runner at the top of my blog is usually on that table, though I think I'll make a hexagon mat to put under this bowl and put the runner on the sideboard.

Bluebird Pool Party

2010-10-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

I took this little movie about a month ago. I believe the younger of these birds were raised in our houses by the older birds. The group is very possessive of our backyard and will chase off the mockingbirds and the doves, though they tolerate somewhat the house finches and chipping sparrows. There are actually a few more, but it's been hard to count them. There were at least 2 broods, one of which fledged while we were gone this summer. The older fledglings help their parents feed the next brood when they hatch, and they seem to stay together through the winter, splitting up and finding their own mates and homes in the spring. Some days, we'll see as many as 7 or 8 different species of bird coming to the bird bath for a drink and a bath.

Mute the sound. DH was watching Glen Beck, and I hadn't figured out how to keep it from recording.

Meeting Two of my Internet MT Friends

2010-07-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

This is for all our MT friends at Restuvus, who demand pictures when any of us get together during our travels. MTinMT and Montyna live in Montana, and my DH and I came to Montana to visit Glacier National Park and pick cherries in a few more days. I met up with MTinMT and Montyna at a restaurant in their small two, and we had a wonderful and fun visit. If I can get them posted, here be pictures of us. Left to right, it's MTinMT, me, and Montyna. Obviously, I'm holding hands with DH. We call the motorhome "The Old Gray Mare" because she's 23 years old and isn't looking her best, but she does get the job done.

Project report

2009-02-15T21:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I have finished some of the projects. The NICU flip and sews are done, along with "snakes" to match them. The housewarming gift is done and delivered, though I may add some additional items. I did finish 6 place mats and a hexagon table mat. A thank you gift for DD's friend who put them up for 5 days after the car accident until she flew to us is in the process of having binding attached, and should be finished this week. At the Project Linus sewing day, one of the other ladies had a knitted pincushion, and I asked if she had the pattern. She took my e-mail and sent me the instructions, so I promptly started in using up left over yarn, and I've made up 5 of these. If I don't have hand stitching on a quilt to do, I knit while watching TV, and I also knitted on these on the trip to Georgia. I'll include the instructions when I post a picture of them.

We've been so busy otherwise that I've just not had time to get the pictures transferred from the camera to the computer or post. I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, so decided to write a short update. We went to Georgia again on Feb 6, and returned on the 8th. We drove up to the house to find that someone had run down our mailbox and a trash can, and there was trash scattered in the bar ditch for nearly 200 feet. There was a note stuck in the door from the deputy sheriff with a case number and so on. Surprisingly, when we called the trash people, they came out and picked up the trash, but apparently the person was driving the car is a relative of the owner of the company. DD had been there the night before packing up and moving more of her things and apparently this occurred during the night. DH did a makeshift repair job on the mailbox, but it should be replaced, and DD is getting the accident report and so on. This took a good bit of time, but I did manage to shred a lot of old documents, reducing the number of boxes of papers to bring home from 6 to 3, and my daughters and I packed up 3 boxes of dishes and stuff to bring. There's still a lot more, and I don't know when we'll get it. All 3 of my daughters and my granddaughter came over Saturday to help me go through stuff, and take some of their stuff to their homes, so we actually had a pleasant time. We left early Sunday morning so we could get home and get some rest before DH had to be back to work Monday morning.

This last week, we had new ceramic tile floors put in our bathrooms, with radiant heat in the master bath. We were actually without toilets for 3 days, and the one in the master bath still isn't reinstalled. We do have a Porta-Potti for camping, so we used that. The floor in the hall bath was fine to walk on Friday night, so we were able to use the shower in there, though DH didn't get the toilet installed until Saturday night. The floor in the master bath had to cure another day because it's thicker because of the heat mat, and it should have been finished today (Sunday), but we need an extra wax ring for the toilet, so DH will get that put in tomorrow. We did have a tile contractor lay the tile.

Maybe this next week, I can find time to get the pictures posted.

What I've Been Working On Lately

2009-01-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

No pictures today, because I've not got anything finished! I have a lot of UFOs, but of course, keep coming up with new projects. I decidcd I should try to post at least once a week anyway.

My daughter is buying her first house, so I'm working on a house-warming gift. She has the link to this blog, so I'm not going to say anymore about that!

Friday, I went to a Project Linus Sewing Day. The owner of the little quilt shop near me lets them use her classroom. Anyone interested comes to sew or knit or crochet or whatever. It continued on Saturday, but one day is enough for me. The local chairperson brought a huge amount of donated fabric, and some of us picked through it and sewed away. A couple of ladies come just to sew the Project Linus labels onto the blankets. I started two flip and sew from some cute Noah's Ark border print fabric. No panels to go with it, but there were about 3 yards of the border and another 3 yards where it had been cut off. I found another piece to go with it and brought them home to finish. These will be little NICU blankets, about 20 x 24 when finished.

We also shared a number of techniques for making blankets. One lady takes scraps of fleece and pieces them by butting them together and using a multi-step zigzag stitch. She then crochets an edge on most of them. Fleece blankets of various sizes are popular - either with a blanket stitch edge by machine or hand, or with fringe. When you do the fringe, you simply pull the fringes through little slits in the fleece, but to do the corners, you cut out about a 3-inch square. She takes those and other scraps of fleece to make her blankies.

I found my niche for Project Linus. I actually enjoy binding quilts, but many quilters don't care for that part. So, I'm the designated quilt binder. Since the part I find most tedious is machine quilting (although I do do it), I took a couple that I pieced for someone else to quilt, then bring them back to me to bind. I also brought home some really pretty sweatshirt type fabric to do a machine blanket stitch edge on, and a flip and sew that someone else did that day to be bound.

I don't know when I'll get any of these projects finished. Won't get into the sewing room much the rest of this week. My daughter's husband in the Air Force is headed to Korea, so she's moving back to Georgia to stay with his mother and be near her sisters and brother (and us in Alabama). There was an accident a few hours before they were ready to start the trip, and their pickup truck was damaged too much to make the trip. He took off with the rental truck and furniture Sunday morning, and she and the kids are flying here (from Phoenix), arriving Wednesday morning. We were going to go on to Georgia on Friday anyway to see SIL before he leaves for Korea, so she'll go the rest of the way with us. It was considerably less expensive for her to come here than to Atlanta. He'll be going back to Phoenix to be deployed from there, so he'll be there long enough to deal with the "broken" truck before he leaves.

We'll enjoy seeing our grandsons! Leo (4-1/2) calls me regularly, but this will be a chance for Ty (who will be 2 in march) to get to know us better. We haven't been around him very much.

Another NICU Quilt

2008-12-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

I found this remnant of a Silly Safari fabric by Moda at my favorite quilt shop and thought it would make a nice bright NICU quilt. The large patches are quick to cut and piece. I liked it so much, I went online to find more of this discontinued fabric and bought 4 yards. The blue and red dots are from Moda's All About Color line. This quilt will also go to the NICU at Phoenix Children's Hospital. This was machine pieced and quilted. This one measures 36.5" square. The colors in these pictures are not quite right. The reds appear too orange.

Counted Cross Stitch Weathervane Horse

2008-12-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

I stitched this in 1986. It looks very easy, but it wasn't, mostly because there are 18 cross stitches to the inch. The stitching/bare areas are opposite in the base. The second close up view is where I stitched my name and the date in thread that's the same color as the fabric. You can see it if you look, but it doesn't spoil the overall "picture." It's actually a medium federal blue on off-white fabric, but the color didn't come out well. I didn't want to take it out from under the glass to take the pictures.

Knitted Quilt Block Dishcloths

2008-12-17T20:02:00.001-08:00

Quilting is my current passion, but I also love other types of needlework. I designed these two dishcloths myself, in the Nine Patch and Puss in the Corner traditional quilt block designs. I can knit one of these up in 3 or 4 hours, faster than the ones I've made from various leaflets, although I enjoy the more complicated knit and crochet patterns. When I took the beginning quilt class last spring, which was 7 classes over a 4-month period, I knitted up about a dozen of the Nine Patches for my classmates and teacher. I don't like to sew in the car, but I knit or crochet when we travel. If I don't have any hand quilting or binding to stitch, I do other types of needlework while watching television with my husband. If you request it via e-mail, I'd be happy to share the patterns.

Block of the Month

2008-12-03T20:59:00.001-08:00

This block of the month started in June. I won't post the other blocks just yet, because I'm going to actually do each block 3 times. The block on the left is as I get the fabrics from the shop, and the block on the right is my second version. I'm going to do the third version in teal using Blank Quilting Company's Inspirations I, II, and III collections. Blank donates part of the proceeds from these fabrics, all in teal, to ovarian cancer research. My DGD loves the color combination of teal and brown, so the background on this will be a brown fusions fabric. I'm going to make an extra block in the blue and yellow/orange, and then turn those 25 blocks into throws and a pillow for each of my 5 grandsons, each one having a different combination of blocks. The teal and brown quilt for my granddaughter will be twin size. The blocks won't be done until next summer, so these will be for Christmas 2009. I'll post pictures of the 3 versions of each block as I finish the brown and teal blocks. This is block #5. The 12" blocks get put together with a sashing of the blue fabric with setting squares of yellow/orange squares sent on point with the corners of the blue.

Blue and White Table Runner

2008-12-03T20:49:00.001-08:00

This was a class I took last spring. I collect blue and white china, so it's perfect on my dining room table with the 15 different blue and white plates in the china cabinet. This is machine pieced and machine quilted, and measures 13" by 35."

Pillow Panels

2008-12-03T20:32:00.001-08:00

Pillow panels, craft panels, cheater cloth, whatever you want to call them, I enjoy hand quilting these printed panels, then turning them into sofa pillow shams. All during the years I worked, I could manage to to do this handwork when I didn't have time for piecing. I do this sort of thing while watching TV with my husband. The winter birds have very little quilting - just around the border and around the birds. But -- the birds are stuffed from the back making them 3-dimensional. These are 16" pillows. I like to switch out the shams in the living room either with the seasons or at my whim. The shams are also much easier to store and wash than pillows. I have several amongst my many UFOs that are quilted but not yet made into shams.

Sewing Room Warning Sign

2008-12-01T14:03:00.001-08:00

None of my daughters have any inclination to do any sort of needlework, so I'm pleased that my granddaughter wants to try her hand at it. Last year, she came to visit the week after Christmas, and we spent most of that time taking turns at my sewing machine. She made a couple of messenger bags and small bags for herself and a friend while I made pillow shams for them using the Bachelor's Puzzle pattern in black and red because they're big UGA fans. (She was 13 at the time). One afternoon, I headed back to the sewing room and found these sticky notes stuck to the door. She hasn't been to visit since, so she doesn't know that I framed them and hung it over the sewing machine.

A NICU Quilt from 6 Fat Quarters

2008-12-01T08:57:00.000-08:00

I won these 6 fat quarters at my quilt guild meeting in September. The fabric collection is called "Pueblo Traditions." Two of my grandchildren were cared for by the NICU of Phoenix Children's Hospital, so this fabric seemed perfect for a quilt to be donated to them. This quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted. The quilting design shows up better on the back. This quilt measures 34.5 inches square.