Pin Cusions

I have been working really hard on making pin cushions for my Guild's quilt show.  I worked so hard that my middle finger had almost no skin on it from the needle.  Ouch! I really need to learn to use a thimble.  I just need to find one that I can be comfortable with.  Still searching. Anyway, here is my effort.

I made these using just hexagons.  They are stitched all by hand, hence the sore finger.  If anyone would like one you can find them on my etsy shop.

If you live in the Washington DC area, you can see them at the quilt show in the guild's boutique.  True Blue Quilt Show hosted by Quilters Unlimited in Northern VA is at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly VA on May 30 & 31 and June 1.  For more information on the show you can go to their website by clicking on the link above.  This is a great show and I have looked forward to this show every year even before I was associated with the guild.  It is a must see show! 

Silk Ttread

Today I want to talk about silk thread.  I have been working on a lot of hand work lately (my applique class and my hexagons).  I asked my teacher about silk thread and she told me that the stitches would look better but it was more expensive.  I decided to try it and I was sold.  I couldn't believe the difference that the silk thread could make.  If you have not tried it I recommend that you give it a try.

With cotton thread

 

With silk thread

After using the thread for awhile I  noticed other reasons for using silk thread.  For one, I was surprised at how strong the thread was. Secondly, I noticed that I did not have to condition the thread and that I did not get as many knots in the thread. Thirdly, if I did get a knot that I could not get out, I could continue to sew since the thread was so smooth and fine.

I went to Superior Threads and looked at their silk thread.  They have a Thread of the Month club in which they will send you 6 spools of Kimono silk thread for $36.94 a month.  After 14 months you will have the entire collection of Kimono silk thread.  It is a easy way to get the entire collection without forking over a lot of money all at once.

Player of the Year

Spring is finally here! It has been a long and cold winter but Spring has finally made an appearance.  With Spring comes a new golf season.  We just had opening day at our club.  The weather could not have been better (this is usually not the case).  The only thing keeping this day from being perfect, was that a well known and loved golfing lady from our club passed away from cancer  the week before.  God bless her and her family.  We know that Phyllis is in heaven now looking down on us.

These are a few pictures from just before the tournament as we remembered Phyllis.

After a fun round of golf we all had lunch and waited for the results of the tournament.  Before the tournament results were announced, the club announced "Player of the Year".  When my name was called, I was very shocked.  I was not expecting it! Come to find out, I was the only one in my family that did not know.

To make this day even better, our team won first net.

The Quilters Quilt

I went into Suzzie's Quilt shop and found the really neat sewing themed fabric.  The fabric is Sewing Box by Gina Martin. I really liked the fabric so much that I picked up the Yellow Brick Road pattern by Atkinson Designs to make a lap quilt with the Sewing Box fabrics.  The pattern calls for fat quarters (12 for a lap quilt).

Just a small note.  I used bamboo batting (Nature-Fil Batting by Fairfield).  I had the easiest time quilting this quilt than I had with any of my other quilts.  I don't know if it was the batting or not but from now on I am only using  Nature-Fil Batting.

I have named this quilt The Quilters Quilt because both my husband and my son-in-law both called it the quilters quilt when I showed it to them.

After I finished the quilt, I went to Suzzie's quilt shop to show Suzzie the quilt.  She and another worker liked the quilt so much that both of them picked out the same fabrics  to make this quilt for themselves.  Suzzie asked me to bring the quilt back on Wednesday for Quilt Club.  After showing the quilt at Quilt Club two more people were wanting to buy the fabric to make this quilt. Wow, I didn't realize how popular this quilt would be.

Where The Wild Things Are Quilt

I know that it has been awhile but I have not stopped quilting.  I was working on my largest quilt to date. I made a full size quilt for my daughter's friend's son.  She gave me the fabric and asked for a full size quilt made out of large squares.

I cut out 12 1/2 " squares of three fabrics for a total of 35 squares. I cut out 2 1/2" strips out of another fabric for the sashing.  Out of the 2 1/2" strips I cut 28 6 1/2" x 2 1/2". I then pieced the remaining strips together to make 6 60 1/2" x 2 1/2", 2 96 1/2" x 2 1/2", and 2 64 1/2" x 2 1/2".  Then out of the last fabric I cut 6 1/2 " strips for the outer border. I cut 2 at 100 1/2" x 6 1/2" and 2 at 76 1/2" x 6 1/2"

This is not the greatest diagram, but I hope you can understand it.

I sewed 12 1/2 inch pieces of the 2 1/2 inch strips on each side of the squares. I then sewed a long 2 1/2 inch strip in between each row.  I then added the sides of the inner border. After that I added the top and bottom of the inner border. I then repeated the process for the outer border.

Here are pictures of the finished quilt.

In the Hoop Bag

I went to the Embroidery Club at Suzzie's Quilt Shop. Not only was it informative but I also got a free embroidery pattern.  Each month everybody who attends will get a new pattern.  One of the embroidery designers that was featured was Anita Goodesign.  I picked up one of the CDs.

This CD gives you 12 in-the-hoop designs each in three sizes (10.1" x 7.8", 8.8" x 6.7" and            7.6" x 5.8")  The software on the CD also tells you how (with free software) to re-size a design if your machine hoop size isn't big enough to accommodate the sizes on the CD.

This is my first project with this CD.  I have one blocks worth of applique materials in the bag.  This way I can just drop the bag into my purse and have a quilt project with me at all times.

Applique blocks

Somehow I had gotten behind on my applique class.  With no class scheduled for December I was able to get back caught up.  January will be our fifth class and I now am proud to say that I have 4 blocks finished!

 This is my second block. I hope there is some improvement from my first block.

 This is my third block. I added more Batiks to this block.  I really like the batiks.  I think I will use them more in the rest of the blocks.

My fourth block.  I am starting to see my technique getting better.  Don't get me wrong, I know I still have a long way to go before my technique is good.

Update on "Grandmother's Flower Garden" Quilt

I started thinking that I wasn't getting very far by making a few hexagons and then sewing them together.  I figured that I would feel that I was making better progress if made several hundred hexagons before sewing them together.  With that said I have been working hard making the hexagons.

I know that this doesn't look like much but there are 57 print hexagons, 53 white hexagons, and 44 green hexagons.  I think I need to make a lot more before I start putting them together.  This is going to be a slow moving project.

New Embroidery Machine

Last March just before I went on my Disney Cruise, I tried to update my embroidery machine (Janome 350E) and something went wrong and I lost the software that was in the machine.  Suzie said that it was "in a coma".

Since I didn't need the machine, I had not taken it in until fall.  Then I started to look at other machines and thought about an upgrade.  So I started thinking that with the new machines on sale and trading in the old machine and Christmas coming up I might be able to make the upgrade dream come true.  My dad added some money for Christmas and my very wonderful husband added the rest along with the trade-in to get the Janome  MC9900.  I am so excited.

My first project that I made with the machine is In-the-hoop Snowman silverware holders.  I got the design from Embroidery library.  Embroidery Library is my favorite place to get patterns.  Every Wednesday they post 10 to 20 new designs and usually only charge $1 for the first week.  I check every Wednesday to see the new designs.  If I like them I go ahead a buy them because if I wait until the next week they will be 3 to 4 times more expensive.

New Grand baby

As I said before, my youngest daughter was expecting their first baby on January 4th.  Long story short, the baby came via c-section.  Her name is Charlotte, nickname Charlie. She was born on January 9th. She is healthy and weighs 9lb 12 oz and is 21 1/2" long.

 

 

Beautiful baby girl in the hospital.

Her first car ride home from the hospital.

Hectic Times

OK, I really wanted to get back on track with my blog after the holidays.  It seems that just wasn't in the cards.

As you may have remembered that my youngest ( I only have two) daughter was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and wishing she could have the baby before the new year.  That  said,  here is the story of our Christmas.

Juli, her sister and another friend of hers from Columbia wanted to cook us some traditional Colombian food.  Everything was wonderful. It was getting to be after 8:00pm and time for grand kids to be in bed waiting for Santa to arrive.  So my oldest daughter (Elizabeth), her husband, and their three kids headed home. I am so lucky to have them only about 3 blocks away.  Juli, her sister and their friend also headed home.

About 20 minutes later Brian (Elizabeth's husband) called to tell us that Elizabeth had fallen and probably broke her leg.  He told me that he needed to hang up because the ambulance had just arrived.  So, discussion at my house started as to how bad it was and who was going to the ER to see her.  A few minutes later, my phone rang and my youngest daughter answered it.  It was Elizabeth saying that her leg was dislocated.  Missy (my youngest daughter) said that Elizabeth sounded in good spirits and did not seem upset.  After that conversation, we decided that I would wait 20 to 30 min. and then head to the ER.

On my way to the small local ER, my phone rings and it is Brian.  He informed me that Elizabeth was not a the local small ER but at the main county hospital.  I turned the car around and asked him why they had taken her to the hospital. His response was that the local ER could not handle her.

When I arrived, I was not prepared for what had happened.  When Elizabeth fell, she hyper extended her knee and  had destroyed the PCL, LCL, MCL. She had partially torn the ACL.  The doctors were afraid that she would lose her leg.  They called in a specialist because they needed to take her into the OR under general anesthesia to set the leg back in place.  That also meant a 24 hour  stay in the hospital.  I stayed with her until 2:30 in the morning. But with 3 small children expecting Santa to arrive I needed to be home when everyone arrived in the morning for Christmas.  We tried to have as normal a Christmas as we could under the circumstances. We were able to Skype Elizabeth from the hospital so she got to see her kids open up their presents.  She was released in the afternoon and wanted to come over to the house for Christmas afternoon/evening.

To make matters worse, her husband Brian headed to Afghanistan on the 26th of December leaving behind Elizabeth, a nine month old, 21 month old and a 7 year old.

All that said, my crafts and free time have been put on hold.

Holiday projects

I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last post.  I was working frantically to get all my Christmas projects done.

These are a few of the projects I was working on.

 

If this looks a little familiar, it is because it is the same pattern as my 

Dallas Cowboy quilt.  One of my friends is a Steelers fan and she asked me to make this for her.

 After I bought this fabric I wasn't crazy about it but I was in a time crunch to make a thanksgiving table topper, so this is what I came up with.

 This is the quilt I made as a Christmas present for my son-in-laws parents. They recently bought a river house and I made this for them to put in their river house family room.

This was my last quilting project I finished before Christmas.  This went on the kitchen table.

As you can see I was very busy before the Holidays.  so much more has happened since then. Stay tuned and I will try to get everyone updated.  I will work on posting every other day until I am up to date.