A Little Quilting going on!

Our Sit-n-Sew group has been working on a project for the one of our founding members.  The quilt will be donated to the local hospice where our quilting friend passed away.  I have scoured the internet and my bible looking for the scripture verse hospice refers to in their practice giving comfort in the form of a quilt during passing.  I found many great verses about covering the body, but am unfamiliar with which verse precisely it is.  Do any of you know?  I didn't want to call hospice.  Help please.

Our whole group has been working on this quilt.  We are now at the quilting stage.  I volunteered to do the quilting.

All of the blocks are done now.  

Each block has the same quilting.  The pattern allows you to move from block to block by stitching in the ditch to the next block.  You can just see on the left how the peach and blue triangles interact.  See the butterfly type design. 

The 2 sides of the applique border are done.  Not much left.  Hopefully it will be finished by Wednesday. 

The 1st week of the month is always busy around here.  Guild meeting is tomorrow.  The 5" Inch square exchange is tomorrow.  Just a little nervous about it all going smoothly.

Next little bit of nervous energy….my first piano lesson is in 2 hours.  "Love" you are my inspiration.  My girls have taken lessons over the years, and I have played around with what they learned.  My typing is better that my playing.  I am hoping that I can get these hands to hit more than one key at a time.

Stop over to Design Wall Monday to see what others are working on.  Judy always hosts a great Linky Party.  Ooops, no Linky party yet.  I will add the link when if it pops up.

Just Another Quilter

An Awesome Win

Recently both Connie from Freemotion by the River and Bea from Beaquilter had a Accuquilt dye cut giveaway.   I have been a follower of Connie's for quite awhile.   Connie also lives by the Mississippi River and we have some things in common.  We have yet to meet. After checking out both sites, I signed up for the giveaway.  Happily, I WON!

Check this out!  The Wedge dye cut is a versatile unit especially when used in a non-traditional way.  An additional mat came with the dye.  One can never have enough dye cut shapes.  Thank you again for Beaquilter.com and to Accuquilt for sponsoring the giveaway.

On another note…MJJR is just finishing up Spring Break.  DH was in Chicago twice last week.  MJJR & I hit the Chicago Premium Outlet Mall.  We also took dinner over to some friends.  It is always nice to see old friends.  Timing is everything.  Bob (friend) left today, he was transferred to Georgia.

The plant in the background of the picture is the Amaryllis that bloomed back in December.

I hope to get another post written up about the current projects.  Lots of stuff going.

Just Another Quilter

A Saturday Update

Things have been running just a little on the crazy side around here again.  Lola is home with Spring Break and goes back on Sunday.  She was also home a couple weeks ago.  That means we have a parking lot in the driveway.  MJJR finished the basketball season with regionals in a town 90 miles away.  We had 2 games in one week over there.  Makes for some late nights.  The team that won went on to come in 2nd in the state.  We had some great effort until half-time.  MJJR now has her driving permit….she is doing pretty well.  You are always be nervous at first.  She also is now on a traveling basketball team.  Practice is 30 minutes away.  DH is traveling quite a bit.  MJJR and I are heading to Chicago with him during her Spring Break.
On the crafting side of life:  A friend and I went to a knitting retreat an hour away.  The cowl shown in the last post…LOST.  Made a pair of socks.
Made a pair of boot liners.
Newest Project: Clapotis is a free pattern of a beautiful dropped stitch wrap.
DH and I have found Leverage on Netflix.  We like to have our own mini marathon.  The knitting is so portable for this.
Finished the Sticks and Bricks quilt.  Just love the simple quilted circles.  Took a page from Amanda Jean and put on the walking foot and just went for it.
Layered up another quilt on Thursday.  Also awaiting a quilt made in honor of Elaine, one of our Sit-N-Sew's founding members.  Sit-n-Sew layered it on Thursday while DH & I were doing our taxes.  Can't wait to get started.


Keep Quilting,
Just Another Quilter

Knitted Project

My knitted projects don't always turn out quite as I expect.  As a beginning knitter and a lifetime crafter, I often take on projects that are beyond my experience.  Last week, I learned my purl stitches were created wrong—oops. Sometimes it doesn't matter, sometimes it does.  Consistently is often more important that right.  This does make a difference for stretch and drape of a project though.
Has it been cold and snowy this year?  YES! I love the snow.  My favorite exercise of all time is snow blowing.  I love working up a good sweat and watching more snow come down.  The fresh snow is a lovely sight.  A few animal tracks through the snow is even better.  Usually that means more snow needs to come down to keep me happy.  Happiness is this winter.  It's snowing again now!  Already hit my driveway today, worked on the neighbors too!
So back to the knitting project—something was needed to keep me warm out in the snow.  The old scarf would get loose sometimes and stopping was necessary to get everything all tucked in.  This Burberry Inspired Cowl is working great.
The project only took 2 days and that's after a doing some ripping.  Some alterations to the pattern were made to decrease the size and work with the bulkier yarn and larger needle size. 
This project has to date been my most successful!  Another pair of socks went on the needles last night. (My other socks are slightly tight, hope these are better.) These small projects are great for the car.  DH drives to most of MJJR's away games.  MJJR has 2 games left in conference play.  One games is a reschedule of the reschedule.  Snow!
Keep those fingers busy,
Just Another Quilter

Project Updates

One of my recent finishes, is the Brown Stars Quilt.  The half square triangle unit in this quilt was a "Leader & Ender" project 2 years ago.  These units came together quickly just before a quilt class.  These units came together in reverse coloring of the quilt I was teaching and made for a great second sample.  The borders were placed in November and it was layered in December. The quilting turned out great and the binding was finished on Monday, February 3rd.

A wavy line was stitched for the border and another run parallel.  This design was used on a previous quilt.  The loop-d-loo's were done to give a little more whimsical feel.  Feathers scare me just a bit—changing direction and figuring out the middle and end parts—this design is a great alternative.  You can see some discussion about quilting the flowers here.

Check in tomorrow for my latest knitting project.  My favorite knitted project so far.
Sew Much Ado is having a linky party today.  Stop over and check out some "We Did It" on Wednesday.
Happy Quilting,
Just Another Quilter

Design Wall Monday 1/20/14

On the wall today, the same blocks as last time.

This project has another block ready to sew together.

These blocks from 5" squares are all together now (old picture)….just waiting for some black to be cut for the spacing.


The Juki TL98E needs a tune up.  Just waiting 10 more minutes until the store opens.  I love this machine.  It has an phenomenal stitch.  Both piecing and free motion quilting is a dream.
The Brother Embroidery machine is dusted off and ready to work.  Did some test samples last night.  If the Juki is slow to return…something will still get done.

Here is what will get done. My goal this month was to finish something.  The half square triangles in this project were a leader and ender project 2 years ago.  The body of the quilt was put together just before a class for a similar quilt.  Borders were added and it was layered in December.

 

I thought that the brown thread would highlight the stars well, then changed my mind--what is your opinion?  I have to rip no matter what.  How does this flowery star come about you ask?  A few years back a quilting buddy wouldn't let me borrow her template.  Now I know why, she wasn't willing to part with it at all.  It is hard to find on line.  Here, the arc center was positioned and traced to the edge, then a nice wiggly line returns the quilt line back to the center.  Repeat.  My motto—look hard not be hard!DH found me my own on the internet.  This template is versatile by allowing you to pick the appropriate curve and make mirror image curves just to name a few.  This is the template used to achieve the Dahlia quilting found here.

Now stop over to Patchwork Times and check out more design boards.

Finish It Up Friday—Bathroom Update

This was the year we updated the master bathroom.  We have been in this house for over 15 years.  Some of the master bath towels…have seen better days.  New towels appeared under the Christmas tree.  The bath deco went from a celery green to dark brown.  The curtains were the last thing.  Our house is located in the sticks, boondocks, end of the road-literally.  We have only 2 families that drive past our house and with a beautiful lake and park like yard, why cover up the view, so coverings are minimal.  Our curtains in the bathroom were made from 2 layers of green sheer crinkle fabric and is edged with sheer green ribbon folded in half held up with shower curtain tension rods.  This worked great.  The ribbon looks like a design element and made finishing the edge of the thin slippery crinkly fabric so easy and the shower rods were thicker than ordinary small ones.  This is a small rod for a very small window.

Since Christmas, any trips to the store include looking for curtains to accent the new towels.  Trips included Penneys, Younkers, Hancock Fabrics and various other stores.  If I could find thin bottom tier drapes in the appropriate color-heaven!  Finally found some fabric that would work.  Took the picture and discussed with DH if he wanted FLOWERS all over his bathroom….yep!  Off with a coupon and ready to commit to making them.  Just after opening at Hancock’s had a discussion w/clerk.
Me:” I need 9 ft. X 2…make that 6 yards of fabric”  as the clerk starts unwinding the fabric.  “Oh…just out of curiosity how much is it?” 

Clerk: $19.99

Me: “Stop, UH, really.”

With coupon, down to $10/yd.  That still is $60 for 2 panels.  Looked all around the store for something else, I had already done that the day I took the pictures.  It was time to move on.  Time to try Hobby Lobby, swap states (cross the Mississippi and you are in a new state)and back to curtains.  Found a panel on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  The panel will no longer fit in the bag…$2.16.  The panel is also available at full price..$11.99. These are way too thin for my purpose but thinking of all the browns in my stash, decided I could work with them. 

Ripping out the rod pocket & cutting the panel in half then just sewed it to the original curtains.  The green shows through and looks great.  They are the proper weight.  The girls like them…DH had to be reminded to look, men.   These 2 windows are out of the $2.16.  Now to cut into the $11.99 panel for the small window.

The Amaryllis is lovely.  There is a second bloom getting ready to open.  Lois, one of the Project Now Ladies gave these to all of her drivers.  Volunteering is great.  On another note, one of the shelter dogs I walked on Monday found a home! 

Time to pull out a project.  Quilting on a UFO!

Just Another Quilter