Grandmother's quilt

I finished my grandmother's quilt today. I was going to wait and bind it later but I decided I wanted to have one completed project for the weekend.

Now that I have this quilt out of the frame I can finish the Hoffman quilt - time's running out.

I worked on the Dresden plates yesterday and I only have 6 more to go before I can start putting it together.

Dresden plates

I put together some more Dresden plates over the weekend. The application I have has 5 different plates and I thought I'd do one of each in one of the 4 colors. So that means I'll need 20 and I have 9 done - another project in the works. Then I'm thinking about putting them together in a honeycomb pattern.

I need to quit playing around and get the Hoffman quilt finished. I've been putting it off and thinking about it so I won't mess it up.

I also did 4 more Dear Jane blocks - I'm in the double digits

Dear Jane blocks

I've been calling these civil war blocks, which they are but they are for my Dear Jane quilts. One will be civil war fabrics and the other is in bright colors.

I have made 3 more blocks and you will notice they are easy ones. I thought I'd try and knock out a bunch of easy ones to get the tally up. I'm really enjoying doing them even tho I have alot of other things started.

The pictures aren't that great - the colors don't show up very well. One day I'll learn how to use my camera

Civil War 4,5,6,7 & 8

I've been trying to work out an easy method of putting these together since the pieces are so small and decided to paper piece them. That did the trick. For me it is much esier than sewing the little pieces together by hand or on the machine -(fat thumbs)
So I did 5 blocks yesterday (actually 10). I'd love to be in there today but the house is screaming at me so I need to give it a little attention.
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

Quiltilated Window Shade

Isn't this a good idea. I had thought (notice I said thought) about this a while back but never did anything about it. I'm glad someone did.
This is the front

This is the back

These are made like roman shades and being quilted they provide more insulation than a regular curtain.
I have thought about hanging one of my show quilts in front of my bedroom window but it wasn't big enough so I just put the idea on hold for awhile. At least if I did that I could show off my quilts around my cracker box of a house.

206 Patchwork Quilt Patterns

'Whether you are a novice or an accomplished, experienced quilter, this wonderful book will give you everything you need to know in order to make over two hundred quilts from the designs of quilts made by actual American pioneer women!'

step-by-step instructions
cutting designs
materials suggestions
yardage estimates

I came across this website for 206 Patchwork Quilt Patterns and thought it was worth a look. You can check it out and while you are there you can sign up for a free ebook 'A Little Book About Quilting' which was compiled from multiple sources written during the early 1900's. It is 57 pages and a pretty good read. It also has a few diagrams and a pattern - did I mention it was free.

Dresden Plate

I managed to make 2 more dresdens

I have had a wonderful thought --- I'm going to teach my husband how to do these. I figured I could put him to work on these and I could get other things done and get these done at the same time. It's taken me about 3 years just to get him to use the computer -- this might be a major undertaking

Easter Dress

I finished my granddaughter's Easter Dress. Now I can mail both of them off tomorrow. Next time I'm going to go with something easier. They are going to love these - they can twirl to their hearts delight.

Busy Day

Yesterday I started by working on my granddaughter's Easter dress - got it to a certain point then moved on to my quilt in the frame. I quilted one row and decided to play with my embrodery machine.

So I pulled up my box of scraps............

and made these

I figured since my 1st Dresden is so old and wore out that I'd make another one. Needless to say it will probably take forever since I have so many UFO's already.

Now for today I need to do laundry, dishes, cook dinner, sweep and mop, and finish the Easter dress so I can mail it off tomorrow. I would like to find time to wash and wax my car.
This is what it is supposed to look like - needless to say it doesn't look like that with all the pollen in the air.

Where does everyone find the time to get everything done. My to-do list is off the wall. I definately need to retire.

Block Swap

This is the block I made for my April partner

I managed to get this done the other day. Now if I can finish My other granddaughter's Easter dress I can get back on my Hoffman quilt. I have finally figured out how I want to do it and can't wait to get going.

Blackberry Bush

Is it called a blackberry bush, patch, vine or is it just an eyesore. Every year the blackberry vines try to overtake my bed and I get my gloves and start pulling. Last year my daughter begged me to let them grow. So I did. Now the Japanese Iris are in bloom with blackberry vines as ground cover.

I did pick a hand full. Of course my grandson ate as much as I saved

As long as I'm showing off something beside my quilting (haven't accomplished much lately - just alterations).here is a picture of my jasmine. I get such a sweet smell every time I go out my back door. Makes me want to stay in the backyard.

CW #3

I had to pick up my grandson this morning from pre-school and I thought I'd work on something simple - right. I cut out and sewed the wrong pieces - I re-cut and sewed them the wrong way and I spray starched them when I finished and the red one blead. No more red pieces. It's been a long time since I tried sewing with a 4 year old sitting next to me asking a thousand questions.

Civil War Block #2

My mother and sister came down from north LA on Wednesday to help me with my spare room. I decided to take out the bed and dressers (and junk) and make a second sewing room. I originall wanted to take the wall down between the present sewing room and the bedroom and have one big room but that was a little more work than I wanted to do.
So we set up new bookcases for the fabric and I brought in my old kitchen table. My sister spent 2 days folding and arranging fabric before they went home. I still have tons left to re-fold. I have been coating the table with polyurethane. Still need a few more coats.

Anyway last night I did another square for my the civil war quilt. I tried a different way of doing the applique on the brown square. It was alot easier but I don't really like the effect. I will probably re do it.

martelli rotary cutter

I know I've already blogged about the martelli rotary cutter but that was before I had one. At that time I didn't know how it would work. Now that I have one I can say that I love it. I have much more control and it fits in my hand perfectly. It was well worth the money.

I have also found a video that talks about the cutter, mats, rulers and the zip bind system. I am such a sucker for new toys, especially if I think they will make my work easier(that's just an excuse - I'm a sucker plain and simple). It also shows about their quilting machine and frame - (I don't even want to know how much that costs) it looks awesome.

Martelli also has a good machine oil that they talk about on the video

I just watched the video on the zip bind and it was so simple - where were all these tools when I was learning how to bind quilts.....I don't mean to bore anyone with this information but I felt if I put it out here then I would know where to find it when I needed it.

April Giveaway's

Sew Fabulous Quilt Shop is having an April Giveaway of a Montego Batiks Fat Quarter Bundle full of rich, tropical prints and colors.

I just love batiks.

STAY STICHES GIVEAWAY

Stay Stitches is giving away a $25.00 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop
.

Go check it out - you might be the next winner


Bryn Alexandra GiveAway

The "grand prize" winner of this giveaway will win 5 stacks of 5 one yard pieces of fabric


AND DON'T FORGET INCH WORM FARBICS

Is giving away a fat quarter of each of the 5 new Riley Blake prints

Pieced on Earth

Is giving away a fabric bundle by Riley Blake. One lucky winner will get five fat quarters of her Love Birds line.