Testing my new PC

I got a new laptop yesterday and I'm hoping it plays better with my iPhone and blogger than my Toshiba

Marietta's black and whites.

Cushions, Cushions, and More Cushions

My son and daughter-in-law asked me to make cushions for their outdoor furniture. If I had known how much work and how expensive the foam is, I would have given them a Lowe's gift card.
Here's one seat pad. I have 7 more of these and 8 seat backs, and a love seat pad and 2 backs.

Grandma's Kitchen Block 2/25, Sticky Buns

Grandma's Kitchen Block #2 was posted yesterday, but it was a busy day, so I didn't get a chance to work on it until this morning. I'm using all solids in my quilt, leftovers from Amish With a Twist, remember? Well, Pat used a stripe and a check, which she added to her mix of fabrics and suggested everyone do. I'm one to follow directions, ha-ha, so I made two blocks today, one with stripes and one with solids.

Solid Blocks 1/25 and 2/25 together

Grandma's Kitchen Sew Along

I know, I know, I have plenty of UFOs to finish, but I just couldn't resist Pat Sloan's new Sew Along Grandma's Kitchen. When I saw the first post about it, I was thinking of the shoe tote with Amish With A Twist leftovers. I took these fabrics to Butler with me for Crazy Mom's workshop but changed my mind and used the Scrap Bag Challenge fabrics.

My Grandparents lived in Green Bay, WI and we only visited a few times each year, usually holidays. I don't ever remember them coming to Indiana, but they may have. Grandma's house was spotless. "A place for everything and everything in it's place" was her motto. I actually lived with them for a month in the second grade while my mom was in the hospital. My job each week was to dust the baseboards. I don't recall my mother dusting the baseboards weekly, but again, maybe I just don't remember.

Another funny memory was at holiday dinners, all 6 of my girl cousins and I ate in our slips. Our fancy dresses were removed and a napkin was tucked into our slips. I'll have to see if I have any photos of those dinners.

Anyway, back to my block.
Solid fabrics make the neatest, crispest blocks. I'm pretty happy with my first block.

Crazy Mom Quilts Workshop

A week ago Saturday, my friend Annette and I drove up to Butler Indiana to attend a workshop with Amanda Jean from Crazy Mom Quilts.   I used to read her blog faithfully, but I haven't been doing much blog reading lately.  Facebook seems to take my online time.  Maybe I will get back into the
swing of things. Anyway back to the workshop.

 We were required to have the book "No Scrap Left Behind". There are several quilts that I would be interested in making but I couldn't decide which one. I actually took along leftovers from Matt's quilt that are all browns tans and creams, the leftovers from Amish with a twist three,  and I also took a bag of scraps that I got from our local quilts for kids scrap bag challenge. This was a grocery bag with scraps to use to make a quilt.

After seeing Amanda's quilts I decided to go with the Scrap Bag Challenge.  Here are some of my scraps cut into strips.

 And here are some of my blocks that have been trimmed.

Here are the blocks in the pattern layout. We were trying to decide what color to make the big blocks and Terry suggested Spring Green.  The day went by really fast and before long it was time to pack up and go home.

 

That night I was showing my husband the blocks and I was looking for a fabric with polkadots on it for the small squares. In my polkadot drawer and there was this pink and brown fabric and he said that's the one you need to use for the big squares. I found another with bigger circles that I fussy cut for the small squares.

Here's the top:

I quilted it  and then asked for his opinion on the binding. LOL. He's pretty good with picking out colors. Since there's so much pink in this quilt we actually decided on a pink binding.

And I'm handstitching that down now.

Bus trip.

On a bus with 49 other quilters from Common Threads Quilt Guikd in our way to the Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton Missouri. Pictures to come.

Beat the Blues Days 20 & 21

Monday I worked on a quilt for Quiltmaker. Of course I can't show you the whole thing but here's a little peek.

Tuesday I loaded this quilt for a special friend. She doesn't know I'm quilting it so I'm anxious for next week.
Here's a peek of this one.

Beat the Blues Day 19

This morning I finished this quilted wall hanging for Barbara

I  how it turned out and she was happy when she picked it up thus afternoon.

I loaded this 103" x 90" top and am quilting small, medium, large spirals from the bottom to top.

Way more than 20 again today.

Beat the Blues Days 17 & 18

Yesterday I quilted these 3 quilts for Darle. I'll work on the binding next week. I haven't taken full shots of them yet.

Today I went to a guild sewing day for a few hours then visited Camp Tecumseh Quilt Camp. Came home and worked on this quilt of Barbara's. 

Ok, now I'm caught up again. 

Beat the Blues Days 15 & 16

So, on Wednesday and Thursday I quilted these two quilts for Stephanie. They were both large quilts and took a good part of each day.

 Turbulence quilting on this one.

Square Spiral quilting here. 

Wednesday evening was Common Threads guild meeting with a program by Margie Towry, one of the founding members of the guild. She hasn't belonged for years but does beautiful appliqué.

Thursday evening was the Blue Star Mothers meeting.  Always a good time planning how we can help our deployed troops.

Beat the Blues Day 14

This was a busy day, quilting and otherwise. I loaded Mary's Buffalo Bubblegum quilt and started quilting first thing.  This one got custom quilting. Something I don't do very much of. I had a good start on it and took a break to browse a Facebook. There was a post on Jamie Wallens page and in the comments he was talking about doing all the SID first. I was still towards the top of the quilt, so that changed plans and did just that.

I can't wait till tomorrow t take a full photo of this one.

I got a haircut today, got some healthy groceries and even cut some squares out of some more scraps. Oh, and it is Valentines day so we had a nice dinner along with a glass of win for me.

Beat the Blues Days 12 & 13

Yesterday I tackled a scrap bag. I didn't take a picture of it full, but here it is empty.

I cut many strips, 2.5", 2", and 1.5" and have several piles to cut squares. If you do this, at what length do you just cut squares?

Janet bought me this 2.5" strip holder last year. I wonder if they make them for narrower strips?

I loaded Loretta's 110" x 88" Twister quilt and got started on it.

I quilted it with Turbulence pantograph.

Best The Blues Days 10&11

More than 20 minutes each day.

Yesterday I quilted this beautiful bow tie quilt which Carla made. She participated in a bow tie block swap do all the quilters had the same blocks to work with.

Siberian Iris quilting with Maple Omni thread.

I stared at Mary's Buffalo Bubblegum quilt to figure out a quilting plan. I finally gave up and this morning I got Loretta's quilt ready to load.

Today I packed up my sewing machine and spent the day with Quilters United. We make quilts for several different organizations. I put binding on these 4 today. Yes, two are the same. They will likely go to the Peyton Manning Children's hospital in Indy.

Beat the Blues Day 9

I finished the center of the birthday stars and debated whether to add borders.

It is 67 x 90 so I think I'll Quilt it and call it done.

I completed step 1 of a QOV mystery quilt. Loaded a customer quilt and did one row of quilting.

 I also cut about 4" stack of light and dark triangles for hourglass blocks for my leader/ender quilt.

Beat the Blues Day 8

If this doesn't get me back into the habit of blogging, I don't know what will.

Today's 20 minutes plus 2 hours was spent laying out the blocks, sashing and cornerstones in a bigger space. My sewing room is only 10 x 10 so not a lot of floor space.

My original plan was to use assorted black/white prints for the setting triangles. I had them all layed out but not sewn onto the rows when Dan came home from work.

I said, or I can use the same fabric for all of them. After some discussion I decided on this:

I only have 2 more seams but I think I'll finish tomorrow.

I went to Pepe's for dinner tonight with Jim, Julie and the kids. Such a great time!

Beat the Blues Day 7

i may be slow to post but I am sewing/quilting for at least 20 minutes a day.

Today I layed out the birthday stars with sashing and cornerstones. After guild tomorrow I will start sewing them together.

I loaded and quilted this sweet baby quilt Carla made.

I chose Angel Wings panto because of the butterflies in the fabrics.

Beat the Blues day 6

well, yesterday I worked on these. Put some of the birthday stars on the design wall with sashing and cornerstones. I think I'm going to like this!

I finished the 2 quilts of valor and actually took them to guild tonight to hand them off for the binding. They both were quilted with Star and Crescent.

Beat the Blues Day 5

Last evening and this morning I quilted this wall hanging that Elaine made. I guess I worked on it for several hours, yet the actual stitching time was only 25 minutes.

I like to use So Fine thread when I'm stitching in the ditch .

I also quilted almost all of this QOV today.

Beat the Blues - Day 4

Yesterday I went to my granddaughters cheer competition in Indy. It took lots of time away from my sewing/quilting but well worth it. They took 1st place and it amazes me to watch them.

After the awards ceremony we stopped at Quilts Plus. Everything in the store is on sale and I picked up some purple/lavender fat quarters for a new quilt for granddaughter Calise.

Then it was a stop at Panda Express for a late lunch and finally home.

Once home I worked on my sashing and cornerstones some more. Here is what I have done so far.