Memorial Day

Last day of the long weekend! Well, it has been a pretty good weekend. Clarinda and I did some sewing on Saturday and also some shopping. I got some Yellow and Black material on clearance at JoAnn's. I had a coupon for 15% off at Mason Jar and got some pretty brown and pink material there. We also went to Fabric Shack and I picked up a nice charm pack to make a wedding present for a lady at work. On Sunday, I sewed some more 9-patches and David and I went to the movies in the afternoon. Today, I worked on making a little puppy for Melissa's son Jack, I found the pattern at Fabric Shack. He likes the Avengers and Captain America so I got some of that material to make the puppy. I got most of it sewn tonight, just need to put the eyes and spots on to finish it up.

I also bought some material this weekend to make curtains for the kitchen. I've been looking in the stores for some curtains I like but could never find anything. So, I got this material for JoAnn's for half price. I need to get the rods to hang them up and then I will take a picture of them hanging.

Here is the pattern for the little puppy I am making.

Here is the puppy part of the way assembled. I need to put the spots and eyes on still and then stuff and sew it up.

I am going to make Melissa's daughter Clarissa a doggy with this princess material. She likes to were pink and thinks she is a princess so this material is quite fitting.

This is the pretty pink and brown material that I got at Mason Jar. Not sure what I am going to make with it yet but I am sure it won't be long before I do.

Here is a picture of my baby boy on his last day of high school (Friday). The seniors had to dress up for their last day. Beryl and Mark will be here Wednesday and his graduation is on Saturday. Can't believe he is all grown up already. All right, I have to get to bed, got to work tomorrow. I'll be taking half days starting Wednesday so that will be nice.

Friday -- 3 Day Weekend Ahead!!!

I picked up the Japanese quilt tonight and it turned out really good. I am posting pictures of all three of them. Tomorrow Clarinda and I are going to the Mason Jar Quilt Shop to work on our quilts, I am going to trim these down and get the binding ready. Clarinda is going to bring her Take 5 die-cutter so I can cut out that quilt. I will also take the yellow and black quilt to work on. We are doing that until 3 and then we are running down to Fabric Shack and over to the big JoAnn's. Today we went to Springfield to Creative Fires Quilt Shop, picked up the quilt and went to JoAnn's. I didn't buy any fabric!! I did buy a magazine though. So, tonight I just hung up the quilts and took good pictures of them to post here and on Pinterest. I think I will make a couple of 9-patches before bed. :)

Jack's Quilt. Fireworks quilt pattern.

Mark's Quilt. Dragon quilt pattern. Can you see the dragons?

Doris' Quilt. Daisies quilt pattern

Yellow and Black

I started working on the Yellow and Black Disappearing 9-Patch last night. I should really be working on the Take 5 quilt but that requires cutting material and I wasn't feeling up to that. The material for the 9-patch is already cut so it is really going together quickly. So, you will see in the picture that I have sewn the 5" charm patches into 9 patch block. I will have 20 of those those all together. The 9-patch is a classic quilt block, to make the "disappearing" part you will cut the 9-patch up. So, once I have these together I will cut them in half and then turn and cut in half again so you are cutting into 4 blocks, you then move the 4 blocks around and sew them back together and your standard 9-patch will have disappeared! I will take pictures as I go along to give you step by step instructions.

Here is a typical 9-patch block.

These are the blocks I got done last night laid side by side. The yellow and black really looks nice together.

This is a sun dress I got from JoAnns. It comes like material on a bolt and they cut off how much you want and you just sew up the seam. I have had it awhile, finally got yellow thread for the yellow black quilt and finally sewed the seam.

Dave built this small deck outside the back door and between the gate and back door, it turned out really good. Need to get some plants and chairs to put on it.

These are my pretty pink roses blooming out.

These are the pink and white striped climbing roses. Melissa and I went to a cooking class tonight. We made mini-desserts. Brownies, cheesecake, lemon tarts and cookies. Everything turned out pretty good and we even got to bring some home. I'll post some more on the Yellow and Black tomorrow.

Two Down, One To Go!

It has been quite a busy weekend! I was up late Friday getting the quilts ready to go to the quilt lady. Saturday I went to the Mason Jar Quilt Shop to sew with Clarinda. It was nice there because they have a big cutting table so it was easier to cut the backing for both the quilts. I worked a little on the Japanese quilt after I got the backs ready to go. Melissa picked me up and took me to Springfield, OH to the quilt ladies house. Her name is Cynthia and she used to have a quilt shop but is now doing the quilting in the basement of her house. I picked out a fireworks design for Jack's quilt and daisies for Doris' quilt. She said I could drop the Japanese quilt off at 10 this morning, so I worked most of the night to get it ready to go, stayed up until 2 am and got back up around 8 to cut and sew the backing. I got it to her in time and she already had my first two quilted! She said she stayed up late to get them done. I think that is awesome! The Mason Jar has a 3 month backlog of quilting to do so I am glad I didn't take them there. They turned out really good. Now I have to trim them down and do the binding and they will be ready to be given away. The Japanese quilt will be ready by next Saturday which is good because I would like to give it to Mark while he is here. I really need to get me a long arm quilt machine once we move out west, the expense of getting them quilted by someone else will be recouped in now time, especially if I can quilt for others and charge something. Here are some pictures of the quilts!

This is the pieced top and the backing for Jack's quilt. It is ready to go to Cynthia.

This is Jack's quilt after going to Cynthia's. The design is called "Fireworks." I still need to trim the batting and cut binding and then bind. I will probably wash it too to get some of the stiffness out of it.

This is Doris' quilt all ready to go to Cynthia.

Here is the quilt all quilted up. The design is called "Daisies." It also needs to be trimmed, bound and washed. This will get mailed to her in July. Her birthday is July 22nd. I believe she will be 50 this year.

Here is a good shot of the daisies design. It came out really pretty.

Here they are together! I am so happy with them.

Here is the Japanese quilt with the middle panel done. It kind of turned out an odd rectangle but I added borders and I think it ended up being 88" by 60". Jack and Doris' quilts were 80" by 60". The middle panel ended up much bigger on this so as I added the borders the length continued to grow.

Here is a close up detail of the dragon panel. I couldn't remember if I had posted a picture of it before. The design I picked at Cynthia's is an all over dragon design. I am so excited to see it complete.

This is a close up of the borders I added around the middle rectangle.

This is close up design of the outer border (red) and the backing (black).

I almost forgot to post pictures of Beryl's rug. Here it is washed. It turned out pretty good but it is off on one corner making it a bit crooked. I am going to wash it again and see if that helps. Might have to stretch is some.

Here is the close-up of the chenille channels in the rug. So, it has been a busy weekend and feel like I got a lot accomplished. I am in the middle of cleaning up my room. It is a disaster from having all 4 projects going at once. My next project, beyond trimming and binding the quilts, is to start on the Take 5 quilt and maybe work on the Disappearing 9-patch at the same time. This is Jack's last week at school. He has to dress up on Friday. He is so looking forward to it! The rest of school continues until 6 June. I think he is going to have a few friends over for a bonfire sometime after graduation. He said he would give me a weeks notice LOL. Well, I have lingered here long enough, I need to get this room cleaned up. Will post more tomorrow.

Friday Night Cruise In

Every Friday there is a cruise-in just down the street from us. It is held at a now defunct car dealership and very near the grocery store where Jack work's. The grocery store sells burgers and dogs. We went quite a bit last year and they are just starting up again this year. Dave takes his truck and shows off. Tonight he had just finished up his spare tire carrier so he was showing that off. He did a really good job with it and had lots of folks looking at it. I only walked around a little bit and snapped a few pictures. It was really hot and I didn't have my hat so I didn't want to burn. So, here are some pictures of that.

I sewed the binding on the rug for Beryl. It is now in the wash getting chenilled. This is a picture of it before washing. Tomorrow I am going to the Mason Jar Quilt Shop to sew with Clarinda. I am going to work on Mark's Japanese quilt. Melissa is going to pick me up at 2 and we are going to take our quilts to be quilted. I have to get the backings prepped so that is what I am going to work on while the rug gets chenilled. I will post again tomorrow with progress on Japanese quilt. If I get that complete then I need to start working on the Take 5 quilt.

Long Week

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days but I haven't really done anything in the evenings. Tomorrow I think Melissa is taking me to the quilt lady. I'll be taking both of the Couch Quilts to be quilted. I have not had anything quilted by someone else yet so we will see how that goes. I would really like to eventually get a long arm quilting machine so I can do the quilting myself. The cheapest one I have found is about $6K. So, it is quite an investment. Maybe once the boys are done with college I can get one. This weekend I am going to finish up the stained glass chenille and the Japanese quilt. I will have to quilt the Japanese one myself so it won't be anything fancy, just stitch in the ditch. I need to get both of these done since Mark and Beryl will be here 30 May for Jack's graduation. I think we are going to an estate sale on Saturday, maybe see a movie. Dave has been working on his Jeep quite a bit. I will take some pictures soon on all of his hard work. The Friday night cruise in has started again so maybe we will go check that out too. Dave said one of the guys who has a model T he has seen at the cruise in stopped by to say hello when Dave was out working in the garage. He has had quite a few people stop by to see him lately, he has been complaining that he is going to leave the garage door down because people are bugging him and he can't get his projects done. That's about all the news for this week, one day left at work, I hope it goes by quickly!

I have returned...

Well, I have survived my third quilt retreat at Maria Stein, Ohio! I had a great time and it was by far my most productive retreat. We had a very full room this time and things were a little cramped but it was all good.

Here we are in the outback of Ohio! Farmland surrounds the retreat center.

Large cross in front of retreat center with Ohio farm landscape in background.

This is the front of the retreat center. It used to be a convent.

This is a beautiful memorial garden and fountain.

This is the big room! This is the fullest I have seen it. We normally have a lot of space in the front right hand side.

This is my work space. It was nice to have a large table but I was very close to the lady behind me and we kept bumping into each other. The other two tables are Clarinda's and Melissa's. Melissa worked on baby blankets and she also made some pillow covers for her daughter. Clarinda finished a baby blanket and her grandson's camoflauge blanket. I should have took pictures of their projects too but wasn't thinking at the time.

So, what happens when you leave your bobbin cover at home? You McGyver your machine of course!

A very simple fix that worked perfectly! I didn't have any trouble with tension which surprised me. I got through some of my list of projects to complete. I began Friday evening on Jack's quilt and had it finished about 7 hours later. Didn't go to bed until 2 am Saturday morning. Back up and working at 9 am. I completed the sewing and cutting on the chenille rug for Beryl, I just need to bind it and wash it. Saturday evening I made an apron for Jessica. Sunday morning I started working on Mark's Japanese quilt. It went together a lot quicker than I thought and I wish I had started on it Saturday night, I might have finished it if I had.

This is Jack's quilt. The top is completely done. It is going to go to the quilters with the other couch quilt that I did for Doris. Melissa is supposed to take me to meet the quilt lady on Wednesday.

Here is the stain glass rug project for Beryl. I am showing it in progress in the sewing machine and then completely sewn and cut. I still need to square it, sew on binding and then wash it. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

This is the cute apron I made. You take a large dishtowel and cut the top at an angle and trim with material. I used chicken material that I already had to make this for Jessica. She has all of mom's chickens for her future kitchen so thought I would make her an apron to go with it.

Here is Mark's Japanese quilt in pieces. I am hoping to work on it this week and have it done by the weekend.

Clarinda and I stopped at JoAnn's on the way home and I found all this fabulous yellow and black material on clearance. We had been discussing the disappearing 9 patch quilt at the retreat and that is what I am going to make with these 5" charm packs. Hoping to start on that next.

This is the little puppy that Jack got me for mother's day. He is really cute. It is nice to get a gift from your child when you know that they actually picked it out for you. Well, that was the weekend. It was quite long and I was very tired today. Came home early because my back was bothering me so went to chiropractor came home and took a nap. Feeling much better now. I told Rachel I am going to have to start taking leave the Monday after retreat weekend!