Happy June 30th!

Today is my oldest baby's birthday! Mark is 22 today, I just can't believe it, I am feeling older and older each day! LOL. He is in LA enjoying the Anime Expo. He goes there every year since he moved to California. He usually goes with a group of friends. Okay so where am I? Seems like I am only getting to work on projects on the weekends any more. I just get really tired during the week and don't feel like doing anything when I get home from work. So, last night I worked on Doris' quilt. I am doing the binding differently on this one. I sewed the binding to the front and I am folding it over and hand stitching to the back. It is taking me quite awhile to do the hand sewing, I got one long edge done last night. I am going to work on it again after I finish posting here. Today, I went to the Mason Jar and helped the daughter of the lady who sells the Miche purses learn how to sew. She had never sewn before so it was a lesson in reading patterns and picking out material and then laying and cutting out the pattern. We did a little sewing today but not as much as we could have. The pattern she picked out was a little more complicated than I had foreseen so it took a little while to figure out and then I had to sew some of the more complicated curves. She did really well though and picked things up quickly. She is going to buy her own machine and she bought some more material and another pattern after she left for the day. She had wanted to see if she would like sewing so I guess she did! We are going to meet again Tuesday morning to hopefully finish the dress up so she can take it on a holiday trip with her on Wednesday. When Beryl was here visiting, I asked her if she would do the embroidery on a sampler I had bought. I had hoped to do it myself but realized I was probably not going to get around to doing it so she took it with her and I got it in the mail this week all done. It turned out really good. My plan is to put it in the middle of a quilt. I think it will look nice. I will probably do some applique around it too, I have an idea in my head for it, I just need to write it all down and buy the material. Dave and I are going to Mansfield, OH tomorrow. Decided to get away for a couple days. I booked us a bed and breakfast and I've found a couple old houses to look at and then Monday we are going to the old Mansfield Reformatory, it is where they made Shawshank Redemption, one of my favorite movies. Ghosthunters has also been there to investigate so it should be fun, I think, except for it is probably going to be really hot and there is a lot of walking. Hopefully I will make it through okay! Okay, I am going to work on the hand sewing now. I will post some pictures of our trip on Monday.

The above pictures are me hand sewing the binding to the back of Doris' quilt. Dave took this not so flattering picture of me sewing on my couch. This is my usual spot in the evenings!

This is the sampler that Beryl did for me. I wasn't totally thrilled with the material color that the pattern was printed on but hopefully I can find a complimentary fabric to go with it.

This is the material and the front half of the dress that we worked on today. The material is really pretty shade of green, this picture doesn't show it to advantage.

This was the temperature when I got off work Thursday. Last night we had a very nasty storm roll through. Some folks are still without power and that isn't good with all the heat we have had. There was quite a bit of damage done and some cities are still cleaning up.

Jack's Quilt Complete

Well it has been a little while since I have posted. I really did not feel well at all last week, finally went to the After Hours clinic and I had a sinus infection and ear infection. Got put on antibiotics and slowly started feeling better. I think today is the first day my head has been really clear all day. Needless to say I did not work on much through the week. Yesterday I went to the Mason Jar with Clarinda and we worked on our projects until 4:00. I was able to get Jack's quilt squared up and the binding sewn on the back. Last night I finished sewing it on the front and washed and dried it this morning and now it is all done! I am really happy with it and am now ready to work on Doris' quilt and hopefully get it done early this week. Today Clarinda and I went to Waynesville to the Fabric Shack and also the big JoAnn's. I got some material and placemat forms to make Beryl her red placemats. I also got some material to make a dress and some red & black material to make another Dragon quilt for my friend. At JoAnn's I bought the Dragon material, another black & white material to go with it. I also got some clearance material. One pretty one with flowers to hopefully make a wrap skirt. They had their rotary cutters on sale for 60% off so I got a larger one than the one I have now. Jack brought me this little rose bush Thursday night and since Friday was mom's birthday I stopped on the way home and got these pink and red carnations. I also went out with my friend for Mexican in her honor. Had carnitas and a strawberry daquari, I know she would have enjoyed it. > > > > > > Here is the finished binding on Jack's quilt. I used the back material as the binding and you can see it being sewn on the back in the first photo. I used a blanket stitch to sew it to the front using blue thread. I really like how it turned out. > > > > > These pictures shows my upcoming projects. One is the placemats for Beryl. I got a charm pack and these placemat forms from Fabric Shack, I already had the red polka dot print and I got the rick rack from JoAnn's. The next picture is some material I got online to make a dress, I saw the dress tutorial online and I ordered the fabric from the source. Then you can see the Dragon material like I used for Mark's Japanese quilt. My friend liked it so much so I am going to make her one but use floral prints and make it using the same pattern I have used for Jack and Doris' quilt. Last picture is the material I got to make a dress and a skirt. The material at the top is for the skirt and the other is for a dress. > > > These are some shots from inside Fabric Shack. The lady in the first picture is my friend Clarinda. I like this blue quilt they have hanging on the wall. > That's it for tonight. I am going to cut the binding for Doris' quilt.

Japanese Quilt Binding

It was a long week! I was under the weather on Wednesday. The compressor on our air conditioner in the house went out so we slept with the window open and a fan blowing on us to stay cool. I woke up Wednesday with a scratchy throat and stuffy nose. My allergies have been bothering me ever since then. Since I missed work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were just go-go-go at work. I had a big accomplishment at work on Friday. I finally got my testing room up and running and successfully proctored my first test! It is a really big accomplishment for us as an organization so I am really proud that I established it. I'll be giving the test every Friday for a couple of months, I need to get all of my Airmen tested so they can be upgraded to their 5-skill level. Today, David and I went on a covered bridge run with the Jeep club. The day started out fine but my the time we stopped for lunch it was really hot and humid. Now that we have the half doors there is not air conditioning in the Jeep so it was not that comfortable. Plus I have my allergies flared up and riding around in the open air just did a number on me. Dave brought me home and I felt bad he had to leave early because I think he was looking forward to going all the way to the end, they were going to have a cookout and do some raffles. I told him he could drop me off and go but I guess it would have been too far to drive back. I've been trying to lay down and rest or nap but my head plugs up and I get to coughing. I am going to sleep here in the craft room tonight so I can prop myself up and not disturb Dave. This week I cut the binding for Mark's Japanese quilt. I decided to use the black material with the white Japanese words. I ended up sewing strips together that measured about 12 yards. In the picture you see it in the raw form on the ironing board and then rolled up and ready to be sewn on the quilt. I did the sew it to the back-flip to the front technique to bind it, I guess I would call that my normal technique. One day I may sew it to the front and hand sew it to the back but it will have to be a small quilt for me to do that! I used a red varigated thread on the front and plain black on the back. I used a new stitch this time for my decorative stitch. It think it goes well with the rest of the quilt although if I had to do it again I would probably do both sides in black, using the red shows every little flaw, mostly a wavy stitch line. But I think it looks pretty cool and I am sure Mark will be happy to finally get it. Next I will be cutting the binding for Jack's quilt and sewing it on tomorrow. I was going to try to get all three done this weekend but not sure if I am going to get to Doris'. May get the binding cut tomorrow. Here it is all done!! Just have to pack it and have Dave mail it on Monday. Have to get it there before his birthday...he'll be 22 this year!! I'll post some pictures of the covered bridges tomorrow, I have to transfer them from the camera.

Take 5 Rows

I worked on the Take 5 last night but didn't get a chance to post because it was late when I decided I was done for the night (once again work gets in the way of quilting!) I started sewing the rows together last night and I finished tonight. The next step is to sew the two outer borders on and then get the backing pieced together. I probably won't do that until this weekend. I am going to set this aside and get the bindings done on my three other quilts. I need to get Mark's in the mail, Jack is waiting for his and Doris' birthday is next month. Below are some photos of different steps on putting the rows together. This is row 1 and 2 ready to be put together. This is showing how to put the seams together. If you remember in my last post I talked about pressing the seams in opposite directions. This shows the seams pointing in the opposite directions. You snug those seams up to each other and put a pin to keep it together until you sew. This shows the seam that was just pinned. You can see how the seam matches up on the right side of the fabric. This is showing all the seams pinned together. Here I am sewing the rows together. I like to leave the pin in the seam until I have a few stitches in the actually seam area to ensure the seams don't move. Sometimes I sew right over the pin as long as I can see that my needle is not going to hit the pin. Don't need a broken needle flying into my eye!! Here are the two rows sewn together. See how the seams line up? Here are all the rows sewn together. Like I said it still needs the two borders put on before the top will be done. This is a large twin size quilt. That's all for tonight. Tomorrow will be binding work.

Take 5 Quilt

Hello! Sorry it has been awhile since I posted. I was busy with our company and once they left Wednesday, I had a busy time at work and then my Miche purse party yesterday. Today has been a relaxation day...mostly, I am doing the laundry because Dave cleaned up my kitchen mess from my party. I had a really great purse party, the ladies bought about $1000 worth of merchandise so I got $140 to spend plus 4 1/2 price purse shells and 35% off any additional merchandise. I have my list all made up of what I want but I still have a few friends that are going to buy something so just waiting for the final total in case I get any more perks. Today, I have been working on the Take 5 Quilt. I went through and squared up all of the blocks. There are 6 rows of 5 blocks so 30 blocks total. The blocks squared up to 12". This will be a twin size quilt. Here are some pictures of my progress on this quilt: Here is one of the squares before I squared it up. Here it is squared up. There is only a slight difference but will be noticeable of it isn't done before piecing. These are the 5 different blocks all squared up. The 5 blocks are different the 5 different materials but in different variations. That is why it is called the Take 5 quilt. This is the chart that shows the block placement for each of the six rows. I had initially named each of the materials by color or pattern so P = plaid, B/W was the blue and white checked pattern, B/B was the blue-black pattern, G is the gray block and GB is the gray - blue pattern. So, I followed this chart in building each row using the block system I had made for each color/pattern. These are all the blocks stacked per row. The paper in the corner has the row number. Here is a close up of the row number. I have also place an arrow on each that is pointing left or right, this is to tell me which way to press the seams once I have the blocks sewn together in the row. You do this alternating left and right per row. This is so you can match up the seams easier and also allows the seams to lay flatter, otherwise you will have seams stacked on top of each other and end up with a lumpy quilt and seam joints. This is material I bought when Beryl and I went out to Fabric Shack last Monday. I chose this for making the wedding quilt for my friend at work. I had intended to use a material that I posted on here previously but I found that I liked this better and I like the name of the material line which is "Good Fortune" so that is a good start for a marriage quilt. That's all for tonight, I am going to start sewing the rows together and I will post my progress on that tomorrow night.

Jack's Graduation

Beryl and Mark came in Wednesday afternoon for Jack's graduation. We have been having a good visit. Beryl and I went to some of the craft stores and Mark has gone to all the game and book stores. Yesterday we went to Jack's graduation. It started at 9 am and was over by about 11. It was held at the Nutter Center at Wright State University. It is a large sports complex and is where the university plays basketball and hockey, plus they host conventions and sporting events. There was about 700 graduates so they split the list in half and started with the A's on one side and the L's on the other so it went very quickly. We got to see Jack cross the stage on the big TV hanging over the arena. Otherwise we couldn't really see him. We then went to graduation lunch at Texas Roadhouse and came home to take pictures before he ran off to all of his friends graduation parties. He says he is going to have a party with his friends here at the house sometime in the coming weeks. He wants to have a bonfire in the back yard.

I finally cut my Take 5 quilt! Since Mark is occupying my craft room, I brought my cutting mat down here to the living room and cut it out while watching TV with Dave and Beryl. I have it all ready to be sewn, contemplating moving my sewing machine down here so I can start sewing. I still have about 5 blocks of the yellow and black to sew.

I also finally hung my up my curtains in the kitchen. I had to go get the correct rods to hang them up. I think they look pretty good but maybe even a little long on top. The kitchen seems to be pretty much done now. We put new countertops on and put in a stainless steel sink. We put this new light in over the sink, Dave had to move the original place for the light it was not directly over the sink and it was really hard to see the dishes in the sink so Dave has a little patching and painting left on the ceiling. We are overall really pleased with the kitchen now.