Crumb quilt FINISHED!!!

Today is the second reveal of the Crumb Along that Jo hosted over at Jo's Country Junction. I wrote about my finished crumb quilt here and you can also see it in my header.
Emily loves her quilt and it now lives on her bed. I just need to make a label and attach it. Go on over to Jo's and see how the other crumb quilts turned out. The first reveal can be seen here.

I did the alphabet around the three sides and then put Emily at the bottom of the quilt. It was a lot of fun to do and who knows... there may be another crumb quilt in my future.

Tiny Tuesday - a Midget Block!

#25 - Guiding Star. This is another paper pieced block.



Here are all 25 of my blocks so far. I am learning a lot from these little midget blocks - paper piecing, applique and am working on hand quilting on my little quilt squares this year. I hope to be able to eventually hand quilt this one once it is finished.... but that will be quite a few years into the future!

January Log Cabin

The sewing machine is home, all cleaned and working so smoothly. I don't know why I waited so long to take it in for cleaning. While the sewing machine was away... I did some hand work and got this little square quilt all finished. I did two lines on each log except the outermost ones and finished it with a coordinating purple fabric from the bundle of fabric I'm using for these little quilts this year. I love how it came out... and thank goodness it is the end of the month or I just might have made another one to hand quilt a sampler quilt with the quilt as you go method. I still might..... but I'll wait and see how the next month goes with our pool store opening this week first.

Go on over to Jo's Country Junction, grab a cup of liquid of your choice and see what everyone did for their Log Cabin block this month. It is just amazing how different this can look in so many colorways. Thanks Jo for hosting this. I look forward to seeing which block we do for February!

Come back tomorrow for another linky party with Jo - the final reveal of the crumb along quilts from last fall. I get to join in as mine is finished and on Emily's bed. You can see it in the header. I can't wait for tomorrow....

Last Scrappy Red Saturday...

This last Red saturday I decided to cut up a bunch of 2 inch red squares. The thought process is to cut some of the 2 inch squares each month of every color and come December I'll have lots of squares to start a Leader/Ender project for next year of a scrappy single irish chain quilt or two.

So far this month I made a couple of scrappy pinwheels.


Some birds in the air blocks. I really love these and can't wait to see how a bunch of colors will look together.



Some heart placemats.



2 inch squares for next years scrappy irish chain quilt.


Go on over to SoScrappy and see what everyone else is up to in their sewing rooms. I can't wait to see what next month's color will be. I hope to be able to keep up with the challenge this year but with my oldest leaving nap stage (When will I be able to sew now?) and long days with the store opening next weekend we will have to wait and see.

Now... just waiting for a phone call telling me I can go pick up my sewing machine from it's cleaning. It has been gone since Wednesday and I'm getting antsy to SEW something!
Happy Stitching.

Tiny Tuesday....

This is #23 - Valentine and went together much better than the last one.

I did find something helpful that I want to pass along. I don't have a 'window box' or 'light box' but do have this little neck light and a clear sewing table. I combined the two and came up with my own 'light box' to trace the pattern onto the background fabric so I could applique this block. Just put the light below the sewing table, put the pattern and then the fabric on top and turn on the light. You can easily see where to trace the design and know where to put your applique.

One placemat done....

I was able to get two of them quilted in the ditch and binding made and put on before they woke up from naps..... I also got one binding completed last night before the snuggling of runny nose kids got in the way of Mommy doing hand work. Yup, the little one has a head cold. A 2 year old with a head cold means lots of 'no, use a Kleenex to wipe your nose not (fill in the blank here with - your shirt, arm, mommy's shirt, the pillow, the quilt, the sofa, your brother, etc.)'. I also forgot to put the humidifier into her room before bedtime and then forgot to put the vics onto her chest until around 11. As you can imagine..... it was a sleepless night until around 2 when everyone finally settled down. We did put off her 'reward' dinner on Saturday night since she did not wake up well from her nap. We will try and do her rib dinner tomorrow night with Papa for her becoming a big girl and being potty trained! She did go out to lunch today with Grandma, Daddy and her brother today to celebrate (Mommy was not hungry and decided to run errands without the kids in tow). She ate well so hopefully we can go out tomorrow night for her special dinner.

Scrappy Saturday - Red

I am stealing a couple of ideas for this week. Cathy T had made these cute little hearts on her scrappy Saturday and is making a quilt out of them. I confess, I had hearts written down for one week and was thinking of using squares.....but could not picture it in my head on how it would work... until I saw these. The other 'steal' is from Ellen who mentioned she is doing place mats for her challenge and had a great one last week. I am combining these two ideas and came up with these pretty place mat tops.

Sorry it is on it's side.... I'm not sure why blogger keeps doing that to my pictures. These are just 3 red 2.5 inch squares and one white square sewn into a four patch. Then I cut two 3.5 inch squares for each heart and cut them in half on the diagonal and sewed them to the sides so they could be on point. It did take me a while to make these... about 2-3 hours but is was a nice relaxing afternoon without kids on a rainy day.
I hope to get them finished later today. We use place mats every day since I don't want to cover up my beautiful wood table and little kids do tend to make a mess. These will be just the thing and leaving them on the table will be an extra Valentines decoration in the dining room! Thanks ladies for the inspiration and great ideas. Go on over to SoScrappy's blog and see what others are doing on their scrappy Saturday.

Oh - while sewing these on Wednesday afternoon my machine was making some funny noises...... so I took out the bobbin case and this is what I pulled out of it.

Yuck. It is running a little better now but I think it is time to bring it for a cleaning.... it has been a couple of years since the last cleaning and I am not too good on clearing out the fuzz. So, when was the last time you cleaned out your machine, put on a new needle and changed the rotary cutting blade? I've done all three in the last week and boy, does it make a difference!
Happy Sewing everyone.

Midget block - #9 Done!

I'm calling this one done. #9 Cactus Bloom. I finished the hand applique on it last night. It isn't perfect and I will probably go back and redo this at some point to fix those little leaves but for right now... it is done.

This is my first hand applique block ever and I am pretty happy that I actually did it and it is done. That was one of my reasons for doing these midget blocks, to learn new techniques so I can grow as a quilter. Now I really do think I will have the other one done for Tiny Tuesday next week!

Quilt Square - January Challenge.

I joined Jo over at Jo's Country Junction in her Quit Square Challenge. You can read about it here. She chose #1 the Log Cabin for January. I've had this pack of fat quarters for a couple of years now just hanging around.

I bought it at VQF with a book for fat quarter quilts.... and they have been sitting there. When I got the patterns for the year and looked in the closet... these just jumped out at me. I still love these deep colors and think they will look great in my dining room hanging on the wall.
I forgot to take a picture of just the top when I got it done... oops, guess I was so excited I got it done, found batting and backing in the closet and was able to pin and start hand quilting it all before the kiddo's woke up from their naps on Monday. Here it is as of Tuesday morning....


and yes... that really light part is bugging me. Not enough to take it apart but I do see a tea dye in this little projects future. Next time... I won't grab that tiny little scrap hanging out on the cutting board and incorporate it into the project. I just did an outline 1/4 inch in from the triangle parts and two lines 1/4 inch in from each of the logs. Just a single line through the squares. I'll need to clear out the closet of fabric a bit so I can search for some brown prints... they are way in the back behind some storage bins and I can't see that pile right now.

Tiny Tuesday....

This is #24 - Hourglass. I admit... I looked ahead and have always been intimidated with the birds in the air part. That is why I did my red challenge of the birds in the air block last week. I figured working with the bigger ones would make doing this block nice and easy... and it was! The kids were fussing about getting dressed this morning so I took the time and picked out fabrics. Then.... they wanted Daddy to help them.... strange since they usually get completely dressed by themselves. Gave me a few minutes in the sewing room and I was able to get this little block completed. I still have those two applique blocks to do .... but think they'll get worked on a bit this week after I finish up with yesterdays project... the little square quilt got pieced and is in process for hand quilting.... more on that little project tomorrow!
Go on over to Darling Jill's blog and see what others have done on this Tiny Tuesday!
Happy stitching.

Monday recap

Hmmm. Where did that weekend go? Oh yeah.... a bunch of time spent in the car on Saturday heading over to visit relatives on the coast. A great visit and I was able to do a little bit of applique in the car... but decided being in the back, back seat (I had MIL sit in the front and DH was driving) and working on those little tiny 'leaves' from #9 cactus bloom did not mix. Bummer. I have 2 on.... 6 to go. At least it is progress.

I spent some time on Sunday sewing while the little ones napped.... in between making an apple crisp, getting the chuck roast and carrots prepped and into the oven to slowly bake and doing about 4 loads of laundry done, folded and put away.

Mindy's quilt..... This is a star struck pattern by Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.

I am going to have lots of little HST's in black and orange,red,pink and yellow after I get this done.... Hmmm Maybe they will end up in the border somehow?


I also wanted to see some progress....you know how that is. I did 2 more Jacobs Ladder Blocks and now have 22 of them done. Only 8 more to go and that will give me a 5x6 setting. I have not decided exactly how to lay it out yet...




Today..... I have a little quilt planned for nap time sewing. Lets hope the little ones go down good for their nap so Mommy can sew!
Happy sewing.

Busy week..

I've been gone again this week to a trade show in Orlando. The kids stayed home with Grandma again and we got home late on Wednesday night. Just in time to enjoy the TP'd.. I mean decorated house for Daddy's birthday. They had a carrot cake and presents waiting when we got home a bit after 7PM. Lets just say the kids didn't settle down well after being gone for a few days and it was a long night. Thursday the kids and I headed to story time at the library and played outside a bit. I did get a little sewing in on Mindy's quilt but not much else. Friday I was busy playing in the sewing room working on my red for Saturday.... when the door bell rang. My new iPhone arrived. It seems DH ordered one for me and him and we both started playing with the phones a bit. He had an android before but I had really only had a phone. Pretty neat... all my ipod music is synced up and playing. I really like that.
Saturday we are heading over to the coast to visit family so I worked ahead on these blocks today. I have always loved this block... especially since I was reading about it in one of Jennifer Chiaverini's books sometime last year. I decided this will be my second 'rainbow' scrappy quilt this year and will work one week each month on a different color for the scrappy challenge. The pattern is from the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler from Elm Creek Quilts book - Birds in the air.
Here are my 10 blocks in the red theme. I decided to do these scrappy with reds and background colors.



Go check out what others are working on today at Angela's blog.

Tiny Tuesday....

Well, paper piecing and partial seams do not mix in a block that finishes at 4.5 inches and has 4 parts! Lets just say I am very happy to have this one DONE! I think this took me about an hour and a half to do. I ended up hand sewing down the last seam on each of the 4 parts.

#22 Kaleidoscope

Crumb quilt FINISHED!!!

My Wednesday last week was a little different than I expected.... I went with G to take the kids to Grandma's house for the day. Then, we headed over to Lady Lake to do some errands for the store and checked in on the construction progress. Then back home to start some quilting after a quick lunch at Zaxby's. At that point... it was close to 2PM. We tend to leave to pick them up around 4...... so I quickly made the backing - I found 5 yards of this cute print of lavender on cream.

I keep looking at it and love it.... so may have to go find a wee bit more of it as I have another project in mind for it. More on that later...
I can't seem to find my boards that I use to pin the quilts since we moved so back to the floor to pin the quilt. It actually was not too bad but I will be heading to Lowes to get some more 2x4's so I can go back to my preferred method of prepping quilts for quilting. (I use a method Sharon Schamber showed me at a class a few years ago - roll the backing on a board, the top on a board and then roll out a part on a table or counter and pin that section, roll down to expose some more and pin, etc. This works great - no painful back issues from leaning over on the floor and you can do a large quilt in a small space.) After it was all pinned, it was time to quilt it on my little Viking machine. This is the only machine I use and it does all my sewing. Maybe someday I'll get another... but for now I do love my sewing machine. It was one of my 2 'splurges' when I sold my house back in 2005. Since there were so many seams I just did a meander over the quilt. Over the next few days, I was busy sewing the binding down whenever I got a few minutes and the cats and kids were not pulling on it. AT seems to be snuggling under it as much as Em... so I guess I'll have to move his quilt a bit up on the list so he can have a new one this year too.


Thanks so much to Jo over at Jo's Country Junction for hosting the Crumb along last fall. She is having another reveal this month that I will link up to and you can go see the first reveal back in November right here.

Rainbow Scrap Saturday...in Red!

I am joining in the Rainbow scrap challenge again this year and the color for January is RED! I was thinking blue like last year but Angela is mixing things up a bit. Makes sense.... Red in January so we can get all the Valentine Decorations made this month!

I have a plan this year... I really liked how our hostess had scrappy blocks each month and had some really pretty quilt tops at the end of the year. I am going to try and do that too this year and have 3 patterns picked out to work on... one for each weekend with the 4th one left over for whatever inspiration I find out on the web.

This week.... I made some scrappy red pinwheels. Well... one was red and one was maroons.


This is a pattern from Kim Brackett's book and turned into this quilt earlier this year. I have a couple of the blocks left over that I didn't put into that quilt - one is browns, one is blue and one is oranges. I think I'll add one or two in the colors each month and should have a nice rainbow quilt at the end of the year.

Another project I'd like to get done this month is a high school graduation quilt due in June for my niece Mindy. She loves bright colors and chose red, pink, orange and yellow. I found some hand dyed fabrics at VQF in June and finally found the 4 yards of black dot fabric I knew I had (last box I opened of course!) that I will put with them to make a star struck quilt from Quiltville.com. I spent Thursday cutting out all the fabrics - 120 black bricks and squares and 120 bricks and squares in the colors. I might need to add more later to make it a bit bigger....I'd like it close to a twin size so she can take it to her dorm next fall. This is what I have done so far on her quilt...


I'd love to get the top done this month so I can get it quilted next month and send it up north with my parents the end of March. We'll see how that works out with the store opening in about 3-4 weeks.

Go on over to Angela's blog and see what others are working on for their scrappy January.

Purchases.....

Jo over at Jo's Country Junction mentioned a couple of things in December from the store Country Threads. First... was this book 'Back to Charm School' which came with a charm pack free with the order.

I purchased this before Christmas and it came so fast.... within a few days.

Then after Christmas I ordered the three patterns to quilt along with Jo this year - Quilt Squares #1,#4 and #6 by Lori Smith.

Again... in just a few days they travelled from Iowa to Florida. Now I am all set to start with the first pattern for January - the Log Cabin from pattern #1. Go on over to Jo's and read all about her quilt along. There is plenty of time to join in the fun!

Tiny Tuesday

#21 - Snowball flower was actually pretty easy to do. I have to thank Angela for putting links to her completed midget blocks on her sidebar... I've checked hers out before I make mine now since she gives some helpful tips on making the blocks.

I have found that using the big iron is a little cumbersome so I might just have to get one of those little ones sometime this week..... before the next applique block. Grandma is taking the kids tomorrow so I really hope I can get the crumb quilt quilted tomorrow. That means I need to find fabric and make a backing today and then cut some batting off the roll. That should have me all prepped so I am all set to go after I get home tomorrow.
The boy was pointing out the letters on Em's quilt yesterday when I had it on the floor.... and then asked 'When will you make mine Mommy?'.... so I pulled out some star and 9 patch blocks and let him start playing with a layout. Kept him entertained for about 25 minutes.. not bad for an almost 4 year old! I see some quilting in his future!
Have a great quilting day!

A New Year... and a flimsy!

I was able to do a little sewing on Sunday afternoon and this afternoon I was able to put the borders onto the crumb quilt! This is what it is looking like right now.


I also made the binding in the blue so that will be ready to put on later this week. Grandma is taking the kids again on Wednesday... so after I drop them off and come back home ... I plan to pin this baby and start the quilting. I hope to get it all quilted that day and the binding sewn to the top. That will give me the hand sewing part for a little trip next week.