Merry Christmas!

So it's been awhile since I posted anything here.  Been very busy with school, running the girls to their various and many activities, Christmas shopping, Christmas wrapping and then celebrating Christmas.  Here's a little wall hanging I made for my Secret Santa at work, Mrs. Regina Rose.  He was fun and quick to put together.  Will probably be making him again.

Here's a little table quilt using up what was left of the panel from the Trick or Treat Wall Hanging.

Trick or Treat

Here's a table-runner/wall-hanging I completed over the last couple of weeks.  It's the first time I've tried Prairie Points.  I don't think I did them correctly, but, at least it's finished and hanging up in the downstairs stairway.

Split 9 Patch Caregivers Quilt

I was looking for a quick quilt I could make for my friend and co-worker Gaila.  I had this idea of making a "caregiver" quilt.  Her husband has cancer and our quilt guild and given him a quilt when he was first going through treatments and surgeries.  I got to thinking about that and thought it would be nice to give one to the caregiver as well since I know from personal experience they spend many nights sitting up in a chair keeping watch over our loved ones and wouldn't it be nice to have a quilt that someone loved over and prayed over to keep them warm.

I had  purchased two charm square packs (5 inch squares) from Amazon last summer when I needed to add to my order to get free shipping.   The fabric is from Moda and it's called "Simple Marks".   I loved the bright colors.  I did a search online for quilts using charm squares and found one at Snippets of a quilter.  So here's how it went together.

First you sew the charm squares into 9 patches.

I had enough to make 9 squares.

Next you cut them down the center in both direction to get 36 new blocks.

Now the fun part was trying to decide which way to lay them out.  I tried several different way but finally went with a totally random arrangement of 7 rows of 5 ( I have one square left over).  It was very overwhelming, all those colors mixed up and jumbled.  I left it laying there on the basement floor until Emily came down and suggested little strips of black around each block. It was the perfect way to "calm" the blocks down.

Here it is before I added the borders.  Of course, Maggie couldn't resist laying on it.  

I ordered border and backing fabric from the same fabric line.  Here is the finished project.

I know several other caregivers and will be looking for ideas for quick quilts to make for them as well.

Here Kitty Kitty

I saw this in the Quilter's World Autumn 2013 issue and just had to try it.  It's called Fright Nigh Kitties and was a wall hanging with 5 kitties on it but I just wanted to try the one.  I put this together last night and then put the binding on it tonight while waiting for Elizabeth to get home.  I have to stay busy or at least fall asleep on the couch to make sure I wake up when she comes home, Plus I just haven't been able to sleep the last couple of nights.  Now I have to decide what to do with this little kitty.  Do I hang it up here, or maybe at work but I'm also thinking of sending it to a friend who loves Halloween.

Welcome Wall Hanging

Here's a little Wall Hanging Kit I purchased from Connecting Threads a couple of years ago.  I've been working on it for the past couple of weekends.  The top is all finished, backing and batting ready to go and even the binding is ready to be put on.  Now I just have to wait for my sewing machine to come back from the repair shop because it has my walking foot that I need to quilt. (I used Sarah's machine to put this one together.)

Kindergarten Guessing Bags

Before school ended last fall, Mrs. Cherry, one of our Kindergarten teachers asked if I would make her a couple of denim guessing bags for her classroom.  She even provided the denim.

The Guessing Bag is kind of like show and tell.  The kids pick an item from home then write three clues for their classmates to try and guess what it is.

Autumn Leaves

Here's a project that should have been listed on my summer to do list.  Sarah and I bought some of the materials for this a couple of years ago and its been sitting in a box in the closet since.  I pulled a few more fabrics from my stash to complete them.  Now I can put away the leftover fabrics from that box and fill it with another unfinished project.

Little Bunny Foo Foo

A couple of years ago I bought this kit from Connecting Threads  www.connectingthreads.com .  It's called Hopping Hares but it makes me think of Little Bunny Foo Foo!  I completed it and ended up giving it to Jeff's Mom because she loved it so much.  In fact I think I traded a candle she had bid on and won at our Grade School Carnival.  There was enough left over and had been sitting in a Ziploc bag (it's on my summer to do list!).  The bunny blocks are completed except for the embroidery of the eyes and whiskers. I finished one and another one started while I waited for Jeff to get his latest scans and while we were delivering Elizabeth to LSM.

Emily's Dresser Runner Completed

I completed Emily's Dresser Runner a couple of days a go and it turned out fantastic.  Emily loved it when she returned home from Camp Tomah Shinga.

I love a project that comes completely from my "stash"!

Emily's Dresser Runner

Emily is off at Camp Tomah Shinga all this week.  She recently picked out colors to paint her room so while she's away, Jeff is painting her room.  We started out cleaning and purging it before she left.  Jeff took down the bunk beds per Emily's request and made them into a single twin bed.  The colors Emily chose were blue and green.  When we painted Elizabeth's room last summer while she was away at LSM, I quilted a Dresser Runner for her so I figured I'd do the same for Emily (even though it's not on my summer to do list, so just make this item #17!)  I started with looking at the one I made for Liz and then looking up the pattern I took it from.  I debated using the same pattern since it was so simple but ended up finding a different one.  The hardest part was finding the right shade of blues and greens that would go with her new wall colors.  Emily's inspiration was a music note wall hanging we purchased at Christmas from Senseney Music.

 It took me most of the day but I've got all the rows sewn, tomorrow I'm hoping to get the rows sewn together, quilt it and add a black binding.

Denim Guessing Bag

One of the items on my summer to do list is a denim "Guessing Bag" for Mrs. Cherry, one of our Kindergarten teachers.  Using some of the denim I had already saved I made a sample bag so I would have something to give her an idea of what they were going to look like to get her approval.  I did a lot of looking online at images and tutorials to get an idea of what I was going to make.  Here is how it turned out.

I added some embroidery stitches around the top edge and on the handle.  I was having a hard time deciding how to close the flap.  I took it the ladies helping me cook for VBS and Janene suggesting a button with a loop.  Great Idea! and no button hole!   Elizabeth has claimed this for hers and wants me to add her name in big cursive letters to it.  Mrs Cherry liked it.  I'll be making the strap larger so it can be worn cross-body and add "Kindergarten Guessing Bag".  Mrs. Cherry supplied me with several pairs of jeans so the only thing it is costing me is thread and time!  Bonus.

Summer 2013 Quilting To Do List

After getting my sewing table and area decluttered and organized and everything put away, I made a list of all the quilt projects that need to be worked on.  My goal is to atleast put a dent in this list over my summer vacation.

1. Redo borders and quilt Mystery Quilt
2. Finish Welcome Great Pumpkin Quilt
3. Quilt Snowflake Quilt
4. Quilt  Christmas Block Quilt
5. Finish Sarah's Six Pack Quilt
6. Finish Emily's St. Patty's Quilt
7. Finish Christmas Placemats
8. Finish Sticks and Stones Christmas Scraps Quilt top
9. Make Mrs. Cherry's Denim Guessing Bags
10. Finish Christmas Trees Quilt Top
11. Quilt "E" Quilt
12. Finish Harvest Holiday Table Runner
13. Finish Let It Snow Wall Hangings
14. Finish Cardinal Wall Hanging
15. Finish Easter Bunny Table Runner
16. Finish Pink Lemonade Quilt Top

Wow, I didn't realize there were that many until they were numbered like that.

Welcome Great Pumpkin

I purchased the Welcome Great Pumpkin Quilt kit from Hancocks of Paducah .  Over the weekend I put together the quilt top.  It called for mitering the stripe borders.  I haven't mitered a border in several years and even then I was a little shaky about it.  After looking at a few videos on YouTube  I felt confident enough to try it and they turned out great.

I finished the backing and it's pinned and ready to be quilted.  Hopefully this weekend I'll be done with it.

Okay, so here we go.  I'm currently working on a mystery quilt project our Quilt Guild, the Twilight Stitchers started a couple of weeks ago.  It was the first time I've tried a mystery quilt and it was a lot of fun.  The pattern is called Undercover in Long Beach IV.  Here are the colors I picked out.

After I got all 48 squares completed I laid them all out an the floor in the 8 variations, took a picture of each one so I could compare and see which one I liked best.  They were all nice.  The one I liked best you needed to make 16 more blocks for and I wasn't interested in doing that so I chose my 2nd favorite and sewed them all together.  Emily decided she wanted it for her bed, but wanted it big enough to cover it. so I ended up making 6 additional blocks anyway!

Today I'm hoping to get the borders and backing done.