Part three-Easy Street

The purple and blue blocks are part three of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street.  I am thinking about making half as many more to either make this quilt larger or make a second, smaller quilt.

 

The above picture is from my quilt club's shop hop yesterday.  We went to some shops in Lancaster county.  This is Burkholder's, where they have a wonderful selection of fabric and rulers.  I was looking for a large 60 degree ruler on the internet and at Joann's without success, so I bought a little one and made due with it.  They had the large one here.  They also had many of the diamond rulers, twister rulers, etc.  I will have to check back here when I need to buy a specialty rule in the future.

One of the shops we visited was Obie's.  I read a comment by a reviewer who said there was so much fabric it was frightening.  This isn't the kind of shop you can browse through and find what you are looking for.  If you ask one of the owner's (I presume the ladies here were owners.) they know where everything is and if they have what you are looking for or not.  I think if they had less to sell, or more room, they would sell more.  Here are a couple of pictures.    The lighting wasn't this good in all the little nooks and crannies.  My camera really made it look like the lighting was good.  What an interesting place to visit.

Making progress

 I just finished my first Christmas tree skirt in time for Christmas!  Yeah!  This is for my daughter.  I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I did make a mistake cutting some of the triangles, but I am hoping when it is under the tree no one will notice.  I don't know if I will say anything or not.  I tend to have a big mouth and point out all the mistakes.  Maybe this time I will be able to keep my mouth shut!  Now I have to figure out a closing for it.  I am thinking of some fabric ties.  Do all skirts have to have some closing mechanism?

And here is step two of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt.  If you are interested in making it, the first two steps weren't too bad and there weren't thousands of pieces, so there is still time to join in.  Click on the Easy Street button on the side of the blog if you are interested.  They are so much fun and always turn out beautiful.

November 2012

 I completed another quilt top like the one in the last post.  I have this one on the frame.  I have been having trouble with this one.  My pressure foot kept falling off so I got a new screw and that seems to be holding that on.  Then I wasn't paying attentions and hit one of my side clamps.  I must have a burr somewhere.  I keep sanding the foot and the plate but my thread keeps shredding.  I am not sure what else to do.  I have two or three quilts on the back of the frame that need to be bound.  I have 4 quilts that I have been working on on the design wall.  I have been busy, just not getting things finished.

 Here is the first step of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street.  This is going to be such a fun quilt with the bright colors she has chosen for it.  Most of my quilt club is doing this one, which will make the process even more fun.

 We have two new additions to the family this month.  Here is Pugsley.  He is my son Kyle's family's puppy.  They adopted him yesterday.  He is 81/2 weeks old.  He is a pug/beagle mix from an Amish/mennonite family in Lancaster.  There were six puppies.  I had hoped that they got to meet the parents, but they didn't.  I hope he isn't from a puppy mill.  They are notorious for them in Lancaster.  He is only about 8 lbs but looks so much larger in his pictures.

And here is Emma.  She was adopted about a week ago from the SPCA.  She is about 8 months old and is a terrier mix of some kind.  She came to visit for Thanksgiving and was very well behaved until the kids went outside to play.  She nipped about half of them and had them in tears.  She was raised at the SPCA since she was tiny and was found abandoned.  I guess she didn't learn that kids aren't other puppies and not to bite!  She is very sweet.  Tiffany is her mom.

Sad news

Lisa, my grandchildren's other grandmother, lost her battle with breast cancer Sunday night.  She maintained her joyful, positive attitude to the end.  The last time I saw her was in August at my grandson's birthday party.  Life is so cruel sometimes.  She leaves behind two children in high school and my grandchildren's mother.  I am so thankful that my grand kids were able to know and love her.  

Getting ready for Christmas

This is a Christmas quilt I made using the Missouri Star Quilt Company Youtube tutorial.    Jenny showed a clever way to make the scrappy four patches with charm squares.  I had an election for which quilt to send to Christopher, and this one lost.  (See previous post.)
I wasn't loving this quilt too much until I finished quilting it.  It looks very different in person.  I wish my picture could capture that.  Good thing I like it now because I am making another one and they are Christmas gifts.  If I hadn't liked them they would probably have gone to the SPCA for the puppies to enjoy.

This is a Christmas table topper I made with a pattern I bought while on vacation.  It didn't turn out quite like I had planned.  I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing while cutting and didn't have enough fabric to cut more.  I wanted the striped fabric to be the large triangle on the outside with the light green dotty print the outside border.  Other than that it was easy and quick to make.  I am hoping to make a few more for presents.  It can be made larger and used for a tree skirt, which is also in the plans.  I didn't have a large 60 degree ruler, and having one of those would have made this even easier.  I quilted it with free hand swirls that went fast also and I like how they turned out.

Christopher's Miracle Journey

I met a young lad on Facebook via links from friends and family.  Christopher is fighting a rare disease that until recently there was no cure for.   Around Christmas this year he will undergo surgery that they hope will cure him.  I was so touched by this young man and his joyful spirit.  He has a brilliant smile on his face even as he endures painful therapy.

They are conducting fund raisers to help raise money to pay the costs of the surgery that are not covered by insurance.  I cannot go to any of the fundraisers since he lives so far from me.  I decided to do what I could. I made him a quilt.  I told them to do whatever they want to do with it-auction it, raffle it or even just keep it. If they use it to raise money I really hope that it brings in a decent amount.

Without further adieu here is the quilt that I made for him.

Finished after two years!

 I started this quilt two years ago for my daughter and her husband as a housewarming present.  It got put aside as other projects came along.  I finally finished it!  I didn't realize how big it was going to be-102 inches square.  I never thought I was going to finish it.  As a side note-we live in a HOA neighborhood.  Of course the problem neighbor of the neighborhood is our next door neighbor.  We had to put up a privacy fence due to them.  They have turned us in to the HOA because of the line on the deck my husband put up for me to hang my quilts so I can photograph them.

 We went to Rehoboth Beach for a mini vacation this month.  I knew I would miss sewing so I took my Featherweight with me.  As luck would have it, we had a rainy day that I took advantage of and pieced a baby quilt I had cut out.

 Here is the view from the balcony.  It was supposed to rain the previous day-so we did lots of indoor things that day-no rain.  This day was supposed to be nice and sunshiny-lots of rain.

 Here is the baby quilt top laid out on the bed.  I just quilted it so it will be bound some time soon.

We rode our bikes to the next town over when we thought it was done raining.  We moved the table and chairs outside to eat and down came the rain again.  We still had fun riding around.  The shore is the greatest place to ride bikes-no hills to deal with.