January 2013

Warm Blessings.  A friend wanted me to make her a quilt.  When I got the email with this quilt pictured in it, I thought of her.  These are her colors.  She fell in love with it, so I ordered the magazine and as soon as I got my Christmas projects finished, I began this quilt.  The directions were great, but wrong.  The designer posted on her blog that they had the layout wrong, so I thought that was it.  After I had all the blocks made and started laying it out, I noticed that the blocks were totally wrong.  The magazine had an addendum about this mistake, but of course I didn't get that.  I know that magazines can have mistakes in them, but this was two major mistakes. I bought the magazine so I could easily make this, save time and money by getting the right amount of    fabric.  It did none of that for me.  I was pretty disappointed with the magazine, but delighted with the quilt.  It is beautiful!

 Here are a couple of more finishes for January.  One was an old quilt that was languishing in my WIP's basket.  The other (on the left) is a baby quilt I made with the extra's from Missouri Quilt Co's Serendipity Quilt.

This is the zig zag quilt that I started at the shore last year.  I finally finished it.  I followed a pattern for the layout, but looking at it all finished, I think I would have laid it out a little bit differently.  It is a little bit off to me.

Now to go work on some more quilts!

ipad bag and progress on Easy Street

My husband gave me an Ipad for Christmas.  I wanted a bag to carry it upstairs with me, along with my mp3 player and my phone.  I didn't have enough hands to carry them all separately.  I didn't make this exactly how I wanted to, I wanted a flap to cover the top and the front pockets, but I messed up a bit, so I just left those off.  I didn't have  a large enough piece of fabric for the zippered pocket, so I just pieced some together.  

 The two different sized pockets are for my phone and my mp3 player.  The bag is functional and good enough for me.  It serves the purpose for which it was made.  I can put my readers in the bag, my cords and my ear buds.  I may still add a closure somewhere along the line if I decide to use the bag outside of the house.

Here is my progress so far on Easy Street.  I had some family matters to attend to today so I didn't get a chance to work on it.  I am thinking of adding a pieced border.

Here is the design I came up with.  I am still on the fence about whether or not I am going to use this.  

Easy Street part 5 and Christmas finishes

 Easy Street step 5 was the easiest one so far.  It was nice to be able to finish that step, some table toppers and bind a quilt in one day.  The table toppers are gifts for the family.  The quilt is because I cut up too many 5 inch squares of Christmas fabric for the other Christmas quilts I made this year.  I decided to make a D9P with them.  The flowers are from a neighbor who arranged them herself.  She is so talented.  They look pretty in the center of the table, when it isn't being used to display my handiwork.

Easy Street - step 4

I am keeping up pretty well with the steps for Easy Street.  I have trouble getting those flying geese to be perfect.  I am also having problems with that green.  I got the paint chips to match the color up.  Sometimes my fabrics look like they match and other times they look way off.  I am not going to worry about it.  I am sure they will look fine in the quilt no matter what.  I am looking forward to the next step.  I can't figure out how things are going to go yet and don't have the time to play around.

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.