count down to christmas

Monday, December 31, 2012

Idea

I don't think I have ever put a pic of this on my blog.   It is a way to use a few scraps up. My friend made this for me. It is just so cute and homey..
click to enlarge photo

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Happy Fellow...

Here is my oldest grandson today Dec. 15 with his first squirrel. His Uncle took him out hunting today. My grandson  loves to be in the outdoors as most young boys loves to be.
  I am thankful for all my grandchildren. I have 4 plus one to be arriving in the next few days. Due date is Dec. 19th..  Gonna be a girl.....

   I feel so sorry for the families in Conn. My heart and prayers go out to them.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Quilt cam...

Quilt cam tonight with Bonnie Hunter at 9pm.

My tree is up and decorated..yipee....  Babysitting for the day is almost over :( Those days sure fly by. The evening will be mine to sew and watch quilt cam. 
Nice sunny day here in Ky but the temps are cool. Actually I like it cool. :)
Maybe later tonight I will get some new pics up.. so check back soon.

our grandson fishing

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Mystery quilt

Bonnie Hunter has posted part 1 of  "Easy Street"  mystery quilt. This will be my first mystery quilt ever so I am rather excited.   I have alot of  step 1 complete...

This is the same fabrics in both pics. I guess the difference in colors is the lighting from the flash. A photographer I am not.  Anyway if you would like to know more about the mystery quilt go here to Bonnie Hunter's  site http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/easy-street-mystery.html  and she will tell you all about it... Come on and jump on the mystery wagon.. if you like scrappy quilts you just might like this one....

Something quilty...

Here is some photos of what I have been doing. 

Cutting out 2.5 inch scraps..
                                                            Sewing them into four patches.

Making tri-recs                  
                                        Hoping eventually that they will become a lovely quilt like this one.
                                         Of course with lots more sewing to be done. :)      I think I can, I think I can...
                                         Now I must cut out lots of half-square triangles, so that I can sew them together
                                         tomorrow while Bonnie Hunter is on in the afternoon on quilt cam..
 

Sorry......

I posted a Happy Thanksgiving post but just a bit ago found out it didn't turn out.
So I will say Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone here in blog land. Hope yours was a great one, spent with family and friends.
Now before we know it Christmas will be here and gone as well for it is coming quickly..

Have a great weekend everyone..

Friday, October 19, 2012

Got the last one.....

I  kept lookng at the "Blueberry crumb cake" fabric each time I saw it at a fabric store....but didn't buy it. I kept thinking** later.  I need to figure out a pattern before I buy.... : )   I went to my favorite quilt shop just a few weeks ago and bought it.... mmmmmm so pretty.. It was their last one..  I can see why it went to fast. It is beautiful.. Now what will I make??I'm not sure.....

It is cool and cloudy here. Its good quilt piecing or reading weather. Reading is something that I haven't gotten to do much of lately. I've been babysitting alot. When I get the chance to read I don't like to put the book down when I get started. What are you reading?  Are you reading a great book that you would like to reccomend?  I just love to read. Reading takes me to places that I will never be able to travel too.

Take time to sew today. 
My hubby says I am happiest when I am sitting at my machine. :) 

colorful pics-nothing quilty...







scrappy?


This is a scrappy quilt that I have been working on recently. It is going to be a king size when finished.  That is why that it isn't displayed very good. My hubby's arms wasn't long enough.. 
I don't even have this one finished and I have another idea for one that is similar. I might work on it this winter.  I still have lots of scraps left for another. I am trying to use up some scrap/ugly fabrics. There are plenty of them in this quilt..
Pic below is the start of one of my borders.......

UFO finished..


Here is a quilt I just finished for my youngest grandson that is 2.5 .  He loves "tractors". 
Below is the back of the quilt.  I didn't think it really matched the front but I saw this fabric at Joann's Fabric and just knew it was meant for this quilt for him.  Actually I used a black binding and it looks great.  And guess what I done? Silly me let him have his quilt before I got a picture of it completed. Ohhhh where was my brain. Sometime I think it is on vacation. LOL 





Quilt with border..

Sorry the photo isn't great. Quilt hasn't been quilted so it was hard to hold up. I put a large border on this one so that after it is quilted I can put a scalloped  edge on it. I have never done one before and so I am gonna experiment on one for me.  Also made this twin size extra long so that I can put it under and over the pillow.  Everyone that sees this quilt top says that they like the brown and that they would never have thought to have picked a brown to go with it. 

Saturday, September 15, 2012

cute...



Now ya know its a great quilt shop when ya get a cool shopping bag like this!  Also lets ya know what time of the year is just ahead....Great coooooool weather... :)

Friday, September 14, 2012

Next large quilt..

Here is the next quilt I am gonna make..  It is from American Patchwork and Quilting Dec. 2009. I was digging through some old quilt books and thought this would be a great pattern for  my fabric that I don't want to cut up into some really small pieces. Of course my colors will be totally different as you will see below.

double click to enlarge

Birds will be center of blocks. Brown will go around bird blocks. White will go where gold is on pattern. Green will be first border and last of all red with candy canes will be last border.  
Keep checking back to see how this project is progressing.



 


 






scrap quilt book

I saw this scrap quilt book and it just kept calling my name.....This book seems to have great directions.
I am a scrap quilt lover and all the quilts in this book are ones that I would love to make.. either using scraps or pull some fabrics from our stash. Either or would be great would it not? That is the point to use up our stash so we can go shopping..

Thursday, September 13, 2012

flowers

We had some beautiful flowers this year.
Balloon flowers.....
 clematis.....



Rose of Sharon Bush. It has bloomed forever this year.

blocks are coming together...

Here is my quilt that I posted about a few days back. It is coming together. I just love the blues and browns together. Now I need to add a border.

Friday, August 31, 2012

I added my blog to this blog linky party.
 http://marciascraftysewing.blogspot.com/

Saturday, August 18, 2012

quilters magic number

Ok, what is "quilters magic number" all about?  I was looking online for how to figure my corner triangle and side triangles for my quilt that I am setting up on-point. I came across "Stitch This"
"http://blog.shopmartingale.com/quilting-sewing/how-to-calculate-setting-triangles/  This blog tells step by step with pics and in plain english how to do this.  Now I can get on to cutting up my fabric and get my quilt top completed..
Hope this is as  helpful to you as it was to me.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

latest projects...

I have been getting something accomplished..Although at times it does seem slow.  We had a retreat and here is some photo's of some things I worked on... I have 18 of these blocks finished. Now I must fig. out how I want to set them up... check back and I will post pics when I get this top together..





Quilt number 2 that I am working on...

 Here is how this one is gonna go together..  This is a Elenor Burns quilt called "How Charming" Designed by Anne Dease. Of course this isn't done in the fabrics Elenor would have chose. Hers was what I call organized scraps.. Hers was very pretty but I wanted to use up my snowy fabrics.  This quilt will have a scalloped border(maybe). lol  Time will tell.  So if you are curious as to what this will look like....well just keep checking back.. :)

scrap quilts...

Here are 2 scrap quilts I have made and had quilted.  My youngest son took them beforeI took final pics after I sewed on the binding..

The purple you see here  is another quilt underneath..

sky just after the storm....

Here is some pics of the strange but awsome sky last night after the storm.
front of house


Can you see "what looks like a foot in this photo?" Weird! All three of these photos were take at only seconds apart. Some in the front of my house and some in the back. Look at all those colors.... This was a mean looking storm.. We just got rain.  Thank you Lord.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Embroidery thread

Have you heard of using Sulky 12 wt. thread to do embroidery?  I had not.  My friends saw it at a quilt show being demonstrated. She bought some and said it is wonderful. So I of course had to order some blue because I love to do "blue work".   I have not gotten around to trying mine out yet.  Have you tried Sulky? Whats your opinion?  Here  is their site if you would like to check it out.                                                       http://www.sulky.com/thread/thread_cotton.php

Have you heard of.....

Transfer Eze is for embroidery.  I haven't tried it yet but I am going to. I think it will make embroidering easier. If you have please leave me a comment of how it worked for you.  Here is a blog telling all about it.  http://birdbraindesigns.blogspot.com/2010/07/transfer-eze-embroidery-magic.html    
Check your local cross stitch store or quilt shop they might have it there. I am not sure where else would carry it.
Happy stitching.

Prayers.....

Prayers  go out to the families of those involved in the shootings in Colorado. 

Just checking in.....

Hi everyone hope you are having a great summer.  My family and I seem to be rather busy just doing this and that and nothing important either.  
I have recently attended a Mon-Thurs. quilt retreat at Blue Licks State Park.  Retreat was small in number. Some had previous engagements, but those of us that showed up had a blast.  We all seem to accomplish lots and that was great. Sorry I have no pics because silly me forgot the camera. Actually I forgot to buy some new rechargeable batteries. :(      I promise to do better.....LOL
I worked on a dresden plate quilt and a quilt by Elenor Burns.  A couple of other ladies at the retreat are wanting to make dresden plates also.  Dresden plate bug has bit ... :) Thats what happens ya know,  one quilter makes one and then others want to make one too.  I am that way. So many colorways to make quilts I can never get all that I want to make done in my lifetime. 
Some one brings a new quilt to quilt group and I imediately want to put that on my list to do. Especially if it is a scrappy one. Thats ok though,  seeing those ideas keep us motivated. I just love quilts.
Hope everyone is having a quilty July....

Monday, June 25, 2012

my two oldest grandkids

Do they like their pics made or not? LOL  This little gal is going to be the recipient of the 1930's quilt in the post prior to this one.

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My first 30's quilt

This is my first 1930's quilt that I have ever made. I am  quite happy with it. It is a queen size. This will be for my 1 and only grandaughter. She is 5 going on 20.  She only has a twin bed now. Someday (tomorrow) when she grows up and gets a bigger bed it will be hers. They do grow up so fast ya know. After all her daddy is 30 and seems he was just 16 a few days ago. :(
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ugly quilt

 This quilt is called my ugly quilt. I made the nine patches and took them with me to the quilt shop and was looking for fabric to go with them. Shop owner advised that I needed something with lots of color to blend the nine patches together. Ok, I thought...After all she is the shop owner and does this everyday. So..thinking what do I know....  So I took her advise and bought the fabric and finished the quilt, the whole time not really happy. But, thinking oh this will turn out fine in the end.  Not......This is my most ugliest quilt I have ever made. This is not me at all.  Lesson learned is........go with my gut feeling next time and just say..oh those arent colors I like and find something that suits me not quilt shop owner. I know she was just trying to help but next time I am just gonna go in there like I know what I want and if I don't like the end result that I picked out who will be to blame but ME. :)  
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Saturday, June 2, 2012

keeping my word....

I have been sewing on a project that I have had started. I have one more border to put on and then I will post a pic.  I actually cut the fabric that came in the kit  with the throw  but it was a little short. Thats ok I didn't care for the fabric they had picked out for the border anyway.  Maybe tomorrow I will dig in my stash and see what I have...crossing my fingers that I have red or green to match. I would really like to get this top completed so that I can move on to my next unfinished project.  (Getting anxious to start a new project:)   Do you get that way? Of course it is fun to complete one also.  Which do you like the best?

I am off to bed.    Have a great night and may all your quilty dreams make you smile..
and remember
...........A messy house is the sign of a happy quilter

Monday, May 28, 2012

My latest project...

I have been working on this trying to use up some of my scraps and also some of those fabrics that I wonder why in the world did I buy this...Seems like the more fabric that I cut up, the more ugly fabric there is when I open my cabinet doors. Do you ever feel that way?  I think I need to start on a pineapple quilt. That uses alot of scraps. We will see.... I have a couple of projects that I would love to finish before I start another....I just gotta get busy!!!!

Here's my latest...I have to add border now.

Something Quilty.............


(click to enlarge pic)
Another string quilt...These are just so easy and fun to make. This one has a light purple in the center of the blocks. This has not been quilted yet. It is at the quilters as we speak.

Don't this look yummy?

 Mmm Blackberries........

Isn't this pretty. Delicious too.  I just love to bake.