Just Me

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Sunday, January 19, 2020

January 2020

It has been an icy, snowy, rainy weekend. This is the first time in over 15 years that my little quilt club had to cancel due to the weather. We were to bring our mystery anniversary quilts with us. I was very sick for a couple of months last year and got way behind on mine. I ended up just putting random blocks into my quilt to to get it finished.
I am not crazy about it. We each chose a crayon out of a paper bag and that was to be our dominant color. Then we were told to make certain size blocks, clover leaf blocks, Christmas blocks, the flower block, etc. I should have stuck with one shade of green I think, and not introduced the red. It was a mystery, so I got what I got.

I played around with free motion quilting. I had to remove another quilt I was working on and remove all the quilting I had already done on it because my tension was all out of whack. This quilt was for me, so I didn't care as much about the tension issues. Til the end of this quilt I pretty much got that straightened out. It ended up being a bad bobbin.

This is the quilt that I initially had on the frame and had to remove all the quilting on. I made this quilt right after my mother died. It was so very therapeutic for me. I still had a few issues with tension. My major problem was my stitch length regulator. I saw where someone posted pictures of their stitching with the same machine I had. Their stitches were perfect. Mine were never perfect. I thought I would try to tweak the SLR. What I ended up doing was to make the stitches worse. I worked on the SLR for hours upon hours. I even had my mechanical husband help me. It is to the point that I can quilt with it, but with the irregular stitches I had a lot of thread breakage. I wish I didn't need the SLR, but I do. I think I am going to be in the market for a new quilting system this Spring. I hope I can find a good one used.

This quilt is Antique Lace that I made for my mother's sister. I want to get this in the mail to her asap.

One good result of the wintry weather weekend is that my grandson got to spend the entire weekend with me. His family was in Disney two weeks ago, then they all came home sick, so this is the first I got to see any of them for two weeks! I was going through withdrawal. We watched movies, played a Star Wars card game and Bey Blades. Elijah is such a fun kid to have around.

Sunday, December 15, 2019

November quilts finished

These are my November finishes.

I tried to teach my granddaughter Kamille how to make a quilt. She made two blocks for this quilt. She selected the colors. Orange is her favorite color. This quilt does look more orange in person. Kamille lost interest in sewing after the two blocks. I keep hoping one of my grands will become a quilting buddy.

And I made a baby quilt for my nephew's baby Bennett.

A sad Christmas

It has been three weeks that I have lost my mother. She was so loved by my children and me. She lived with me for about the last six to seven years. She had been pretty healthy except for some dementia. She did have some chronic diseases, but I think the medicine she was on for those affected her more than the diseases did. She had a massive stroke because she had to be taken off her blood thinners. She died three days later. I would not have been able to survive while I was a single mom without her help. We were always there for each other. RIP mom until we meet again. She was 90 years old.

One thing that has helped me work through my grief is my quilting. I had just started a quilt for my mother's sister. I worked on this and had peace while doing so. My mother loved all the quilts I made. She even kept one that I was going to throw away because I thought it was so ugly.

Mom was a skilled knitter. I only have one thing that she made. It is a beautiful baby bunting she knit for my first born. She was an avid reader and enjoyed reading up to the end. She also enjoyed playing cards and doing jig saw puzzles while she lived at my house. She loved to see the flowers in my yard.

The one thing that she loved the most was her family.

I am so grateful that I was able to have her live with me. She never wanted to go into a nursing home and she never did.

I think she was blessed by having a pretty peaceful death. She loved Christ and I am sure we will meet again.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

October finishes

A long time ago I made a quilt for a raffle for a little boy who was suffering from a rare medical condition. One of the ladies who helped with that raffle approached me about making quilts for her Wounded Warrior program she started. Her son was killed in Iraq and she started this program as a memorial to him. I agreed to help her and this is my first quilt for the Wounded Warriors. She will present this locally. Two other ladies from my quilt club will be helping me make these quilts.

This is Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt from 2018-Good Fortune. I started making it for my brother and sister in law. Her favorite color is lime green. Since it was a mystery, I didn't know where the green would end up in the quilt, or even how much of it would show up. I think if I had know the color placement I probably would have reversed the green and the aqua just for her preference. I am very happy with how the colors turned out.

I think this is the third BH mystery quilt where I strayed from her colors. I don't know if you can go wrong with one of her quilts no matter what colors you use.

The backing has a lot of green in it. I think my SIL will like the quilt no matter what.

I was thinking of changing my colors for this year's mystery quilt-Frolic. It has the lime green, aqua and dark blue in it like this quilt does. I didn't know if I would have enough varieties of these colors, have enough quantity or if I wanted to use such similar colors. I love the colors in Frolic though, so I am going to try it and hope I don't have to buy much more fabric. I think I am going to make Frolic for my 86 year old aunt.

I am working on Kamille's Pineapple Blossom quilt. I am hoping to finish that before the mystery begins. I also have my quilt club's mystery quilt to finish. I am not liking that so much, so it is difficult to get motivated. And I have Kelly and Seth's baby quilt to make. I have finally chosen a pattern and am looking forward to making that.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

not organized

I happened upon a picture that linked to my blog, so I looked through some older posts. I wish I had kept up with the blog. The blog brought back some memories, both good and bad.

One problem I have is that I am not organized at all. I need to organize my projects on my computer so I can find them. I need to remember to take pictures. Then I need to put them in the blog.

I would like to include my grandkids more too. I have 13. They range in age from 17 to almost one. They are the joy of my life.

This post is going to focus on some of the quilts that I have made over the last year. There is one that is older and I don't remember when I made it or if I have it on the blog or not.

So in no particular order....

Scaredy Cat table runner. I made seven of these. I gave some away as gifts for people who helped me out, some to my kids and grand daughter and one to a local charity to raffle off at their pumpkin fest. (When I went to the PF, this was rolled up in a bag not even out for display. I said something so they quickly threw it on a table. It wasn't displayed at all and I was pretty disappointed. I put a ticket in the jar for it and thought I would get it back. Someone else must have put a ticket in for it too, because I didn't get it! LOL)

This was made with Halloween fabric for the Halloween grandson born last year.

The backing was minky and I loved the way the quilting showed up on it.

I was making the latest Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt for my brother and sister-in law. The top is together and waiting for me to make it a backing and quilt it. I got really sick in February (sarcoidosis flare) and was not up to doing anything for a couple of months. I have just recently started feeling like sewing again. I want to get this finished before Bonnie's next mystery quilt next month.

I made my grandson a Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I had this quilt for a long time and never had the right kid to make it for. I made a secret pocket for a caterpillar I bought to go with it.

This is a Bonnie Hunter quilt I made out of batiks for my daughter's friend. This may already be on the blog. I think this is a few years old.

My quilt club did a Round Robin quilt where we each made two quilt blocks out of the colors in a box for each person and then passed the box along each month. That was a fun project. I picked out the purple fabrics for Charlotte.

Here is the caterpillar quilt finished. Micah loved it!

This is a fancy forest quilt I made for my daughter's college graduation quilt. She fell in love with the gray baby quilt version on this.

Monday, January 28, 2019

Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts I have made

These are the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilts I have made so far. Orange Crush and Old Tobacco Road are her first two, I think. Someday I hope to make them also.

Unfortunately, Bonnie Hunter has decided that anyone who supports our president is unworthy of her. I will no longer be buying her books or other products. It is so sad that people can't have differing political views anymore. January 2021