Snow Days

We had 10" of snow here last Sunday and then on Monday and Tuesday the temperatures were way below zero. Purdue University and The National Group was closed for business, so that meant snow days for us.

 I still considered myself and Mabel on vacation, so I didn't do any customer quilting, although I could have gotten a lot done. Instead, I rearranged my sewing room so that I could see my new flat screen TV (Christmas gift from Dan. Thanks honey!)

While rearranging and sorting through things, I came across a bunch of little projects that I thought I could whip out really quick.

This I-Spy quilt just needed the small yellow borders attached. They were all cut and ready to go. I wonder why I didn't do that before?

These pillowcases were ready to stitch together too, so I got out the serger and they were finished just like that and they are ready to donate.

On Facebook, one of my friends shared this idea.

What is it you might ask? It's a room heater, made with tea light candles, a meatloaf pan and clay pots. My sewing room doesn't have a furnace vent and it gets really cold in there. After having this going for several hours, the temperature was 2 degrees warmer than the living room. Pretty amazing! Here's how to make one.

I also spent quite a bit of time playing Candy Crush, that dreaded time-sucker that I love! I posted on Facebook asking my friends how many levels they passed during the snow days. My friend Peggy said she was assembling her row-by-row quilt. Oops, I forgot about that quilt, which is to be shown at this month's guild meeting on January 15th. Yikes!!! I had barely even looked at my rows since we finished passing them months ago.

I decided on the sashing fabric and was auditioning the borders here. I'll show you the whole thing after the meeting next Wednesday.

 For those of you that might not know what a row-by-row is…
There were 7 quilters in our group and we each supplied our own fabrics, made the first row and put them into a tote. Each person selected a block to use to make their rows. So, I made the same row of blocks, just used a different quilters fabrics each month.
Here are some of the rows I made:

Threads of Time Retreat

Janet, Dottie and I drove over to Danville, IL to the Threads and Beds Retreat Center and I got some holiday sewing done. I think I accomplished quite a bit in the short time we were there.

First up was my JudyL mystery quilt that still needed some borders. It always amazes me how much time it takes to pin on and sew borders. I finished this up a little before midnight on Friday. Dottie finished a charity quilt that she was making for our guild.



Got 6+ hours of sleep and the first thing on my agenda was to use up the extra nine patches. I'm not sure what will become of them, but as of now it's just 12" x 12"



Then I made a bag for Elizabeth to hold her tea set (that she's getting for Christmas) and I used the same fabric to make her an apron and one for her dolly, too. Dottie made a really cute apron, but I didn't get a picture of it.



A hooded towel for her dolly was my next project.



Then I added ribbing to these tea towels to make bibs.



Janet wanted to learn how to make pillowcases, so I made 5 of them and I think she ended up making 6, or maybe even more. I took along my serger for the bibs and pillowcases, which made both projects much easier. (I think Janet wants a Serger now!)



Finally, it was time to get out the Go Cutter. I had taken some leftovers from a bag project last year at Christmas and used the tumbler die. It probably took me about 20 minutes to cut them out and the top was finished by about 11:30pm.



I figured I could start something else before turning in so I cut out two of these fabric napkins, just to see if they looked OK. Janet wasn't quite ready for bed, so I stayed up with her until 12:15 and then finally said good night! (Thanks for the great tutorial Lynn!)



Another good nights sleep and I cut out the rest of the napkins and stitched them up.

I pulled another project out of my bag and started sewing a UFO together. It's still in rows and is now on my design wall, waiting for tomorrow's post.

We looked and looked for a Blockbuster to get a cup of coffee!

Pillowcases

I bought some fabric at Cheryl's on Saturday to make pillowcases to go with the quilt on our bed.

I love how they turned out. The green is really not that shade of green!


However,

They do not go with the quilt at all.



I may have to make another quilt to match them.

Last night I packaged up the first 12 stockings in flat rate boxes.....just 108 more to go. We are filling the remaining stockings on Saturday afternoon.

Quilt Camp Summary

What a great time we had at quilt camp. Rossville Quilts sponsored this one and it was held at camp Tecumseh, which is a wonderful place for quilt camp. A great big THANK YOU to Marcia, Kyla, Martha, and Charlotte from Rossville Quilts and Christine from Camp Tecumseh, who all worked hard to make this a successful event.

Bibs
My first project wasn’t really a quilting project, but one that I wanted to get finished. I put ribbing on these cute tea towels to make bibs for Andrew and Elizabeth.....cute, don’t you think. If you have babies, be sure to pick up tea towels when they go on clearance to make some really cute bibs. I only took one color of ribbing, so they all got the same one.




Pillow Cases
This was my next project and I’m only a couple months late in getting these finished. They were made to go with Jeff and Dané’s wedding quilt. Another quick, easy project, and I taught Christine from Camp Tecumseh how to make them and she made one for her brother, who is in the US Navy.



Marlene’s Memory Blocks
Next up was finishing the swap blocks for memory quilts. I completed the last 20 blocks for this, but somehow didn’t get a picture of them.....Later, I promise.

One Block Wonder
This one took FOREVER! I can’t believe how small it is, and how long it took me to assemble it. I couldn’t decide on borders, so this is how it sits for now. I have fabric to do another one, but the blocks will be MUCH LARGER for the next one.




Fall Leaves and Birds Table Runner
This was a kit that I won at a retreat several years ago. I believe the name of this pattern is 1st grade, but I could be wrong. I love how the center fabric looks three-dimensional. I hope it still has that effect after it is quilted. I am thinking of adding prarie points on the outside edge also. The inside ones took quite a bit of time, but I really lik how they turned out.




Bistro Table Runner
I had 4 blocks made for this quilterscache.com table runner called Christmas Star and decided to only use 3 of them and make it a bit smaller than the original one. I plan to use a border print from the Bistro line for the backing and then it will be a gift for a co-worker. I can make something for myself with the leftover block.




I feel good about the projects I finished and look forward to quilting some of them

Quiltathon - Day 2 Morning

I seem to have gotten stuck making pillowcases.
I replied to a Freecycle ad last week from someone wanting frog fabric and she is coming to pick it up later. I thought it would be good to have it out and ready for her so when my granddaughters walked over Friday evening from a friends house I had them look through my novelty drawer for frog fabric. Of course, they found lots that they liked also. Jessi found "Josie" fabric and wanted it for her friend Josie. I suggested making her a pillowcase with it and then Sarah found Pooh fabric and said that her mom would love to have a Pooh pillowcase. Courtney decided on chocolate fabric and watermelon fabric.



This morning I cut their fabric so when they come over all they have to do is sew. I got to thinking that they were making them for others and they should have ones of their own. So, I pulled out some Bratz flannel and sewed one for each of them. I think they will be excited.



I added the binding to the Colorful block baby quilt this morning also.

It's time to get busy with those half-square traingles for the pumpkins now.

Quiltathon - Day 1 Evening

After a trip to Culvers for a Flavor-Of-The-Day cone with Janet & Randy, I came home and worked on these. Can you guess what they are?

If you guessed Pillowcases, you're right!
Here they are all finished, and look there are 7 of them. I only meant to make 6, but that's OK. These will be going to a hospital in memory of Aaron Eilerts, one of the boy scouts killed in the tornados in Iowa. This 14 year old boy had been making pillowcases for children in hospitals and you can read about him here. A local guild member, Gwen, suggested that we make some to send in his memory and these will be my contribution.