Scrappy Green Saturday

I was able to do a little bit of sewing this morning and got these 2 green pinwheel blocks put together.


This is the bunch of blocks I have so far... the 2 reds from last month and the 3 that I had left over from the guild blocks I won a couple of years ago. I am thinking this may become 2 different quilts ... but I'll decide later this year on that one.

I did finish the last 4 Jacobs ladder blocks and now it looks like this with the blocks laid out on the floor. Looking at it.... I am thinking I want at least 2 more rows... maybe 3.... so back to the sewing room to cut more of these I think. I need to measure things out and rethink this one. I may just call it done at this point and add a border...... Hmmm. Something to think about today.


Next week..... I'm planning to work on the birds in the air blocks. I hope things will settle down a bit into a routine now that we officially opened our store on Monday.... my son's 4th birthday! Now that is a date we will not forget.

Go on over to SoScrappy's blog and see what everyone else is working on this green Saturday.
Happy Sewing.

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.

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.

Scrap Happy Saturday....

I've been trying to finish some things up this month from the scrap happy challenge. I finally picked up the needle and started hand quilting this little pumpkin wall hanging from back in October. It is completely free hand - no pre drawn lines for me.


the hand quilting.


I need to add the green leaf to this still and figure out how I want to hand quilt the two borders.... this is one of my first attempts at hand quilting. The stitches are long and uneven... but without practice you'll never get to where you want to be. I do need to pick a better needle than what I was using.... I think I was using a millners needle so will dig and find the smaller hand quilting ones today.

I also want to get this pink quilt finished... which will involve pinning and machine quilting and getting that binding put on. The goal is before the end of the year on this one....for at least getting it quilted.


Go on over to Angela's blog and see what everyone else is working on this Saturday for the scrappy challenge. A big Thanks to Angela for hosting this challenge this year. I had a great time playing with colors and making some pretty quilts. Anyone up for doing this again next year? Count me in.... I still have lots of colors to play with in my closet.

Scrappy orange.......

This month Angela over at Scraphappy said Orange is the color. Very appropriate for fall and the Halloween season I think. I was looking around blogland and found PS I Quilt and she had this little tutorial for a quick pumpkin wall hanging. I knew I had some orange and purple and brown... so I cut it out and came up with this little wall hanging. It really needs some dimension on the pumpkin and I plan to hand quilt some curves in there this week.


I also read my comments on the last post and was thinking it is all squares - 9 patches are square.... and today I reread and figured out they meant a square quilt. Silly me. I think I am going to go with my original thought and put QST's in two colors - green and cream in between each of the 9 patches. I'll carry the 'frame' into the border I think... if I can figure it out. Not sure if I'll wait another week or two for my big cutting mat and rulers to arrive...and I have a feeling I get to fly up and drive it down.

I have done a little knitting and made this dish cloth.

It is a simple pattern that I found years ago but I don't remember where. Cast on 4, knit two, YO and knit to the end. Turn and continue knitting these rows until you get about 50 stitches on the needle. Then you decrease - knit one, K2T, YO, K2T and then knit the rest of the row. Continue decreasing one stitch per row until you get about 4 on the needle - then cast them off. Very easy pattern that requires no thinking. I need to get back to the sweater for Emily... but think that will be worked on while I am away for a month of training in a few weeks. Without kids underfoot I should be able to make some progress in the evenings.

Other news.... I twisted wrong yesterday and pulled something in my back. It was ok until I got up this morning and could feel it. Then, I made the mistake of attempting to pick up Em...... Ouch! Between - Aleve, Tylenol the heating pad this morning and now the icy hot I am starting to feel better if I don't overdo. That will be the hard part... with 2 kids and all the bending and tending it is going to be difficult to not overdo. DH did this a few months ago and it took a week to get better..... Lets hope mine is quicker healing.

Thank you cards....

I was in need of a few thank you cards to send out and I found some boxes with my stamps and card making supplies. I came up with 4 of these (sorry, the others are sealed in their cards and ready to mail). I was looking for the black stamp for the leaves and of course found it about two hours after I finished making the cards. Oh well, I think they came out nice. I'll need to make a few more when I get a chance to have on hand.

October is orange month over at Scraphappy's blog. I know I have some orange fabrics I purchased at one time to make a pumpkin wall hanging. I think I remember packing some a couple of months ago so when I find it I might actually make that this month.
Go on over and check out what everyone is making with their orange scraps this month here.

Something quilted and almost done!!!

Sunday, while everyone napped I decided to try quilting this yellow/blue log cabin quilt again... after picking out a bunch that I had already quilted. I was getting frustrated with thread breaks with the King Tut and the Bottom Line thread combo. I had picked up a Superior Thread for the top last weekend (which is a combo that always works for me) and decided to give it a try. With the limited time I just did a meander on this quilt and then applied the blue binding to the front while Daddy got one kid up from his nap. The other woke up once the binding was finished... yup, my girl has good timing. It finally cooled down at night so I will work a bit more on finishing up the binding in the evenings after the kiddo's are put to bed. I hope to have it done with a label on by Wednesday night so I can drop it off to the library on Thursday for Story time. I am donating this one to the 'Friends of the Milton Library' for their fall raffle in November and December. It is a beautiful library that was just enlarged and remodeled and has a great kids section and story time. The librarians are all wonderful and have been great to talk to over the last 3 years. They also didn't mind me taking a baby or two there so I could have some adult conversation during the day in the freezing winter months while they cuddled a baby. I hope it raises a few dollars for them to use on the library and their programs.

I also finally finished this mug rug a few weeks ago.

This is a close up of the quilting.....

I really need to practice on feathers since that was my attempt here. Need to grab the practice piece and play a bit before attempting the pink string quilt. I've been putting my ice water on it in the afternoon's while I sew and it is great at wicking up that water from the outside of the bottle. Just one more to go and those challenge ones will be done... just a few months late.

Progress...

I got the 2 blocks redone this week and trimmed the 4 down to match the other connector blocks. I was able to sew them together during nap time today. I thought it needed 'something' so I added a 2.5 inch white inner border.



Now, I need to figure out what it is wanting for the outer border. I was thinking something plain.... now the debate of the red fabric with the stars in it or the blue. Just checked and I don't have enough of the red fabric with the stars used in the quilt. I did find a red fabric with white stars printed on it that might work.



What do you think?

Red white and blue.....scraps.

I picked through the bucket and found a little bit of red and some maroon but I put that back.

For the scrap happy month of July, the patriotic colors were chosen. I am thinking of making some blocks with red, white and blue and putting them together with some leftover stars from January and maybe making a QOV quilt. We'll see if I have enough red to pull this off. I may have to go get a couple of fat quarters..... or move things around in the closet so I can 'find' the rest of my red fabrics hiding in with the pinks and maroon.

This is what I have come up with so far.....



Still haven't pinned the quilts for quilting. I really must get one pinned today.... lets hope the kids nap today... as they were wide awake before 5AM this morning for some reason.

I have been the treasurer for our local programmers group here in Vermont for at least the last 7 or 8 years. I have decided to step down this year as I have not worked in the field for the last 3 years while I have been concentrating on being a SAHM. My brother has decided to step up and take over for me (thanks David!.... now I don't need to write all the instructions up as well right?, cause you can just call me with questions??) A couple of weeks ago I received a nice card in the mail signed by all the officers of VTMUG and some from our NH group which we do a joint meeting with every year in June. I also got this nice e-mail with a gift certificate to Mad River Quilting in Waitsfield, VT. I am looking forward to the drive down there to pick out some fabrics for a special quilt for me with this nice gift. I'd like to offer a big thank you to everyone I have worked with in the group. I have enjoyed my time with all of you and wish you the best of luck with the future of the group and the fall conferences. Lets hope our conference numbers are up and the conference runs smoothly again this year.

Time to pack up the kids into the car and head to the gym for my morning reading... I mean workout. They love the day care there and I love the 1.5 hours of 'me' time to read from my kindle and get a bit of a workout. I think a Costco trip is in the picture for after.... something about being out of milk and the milk loving girl will not be happy with that if she finds out.
Have a great quilty day everyone.

Scrappy Saturday recap for June - yellow

This is the scrappy log cabin I made using the scrappy log cabin technique found over at maryquilts.com. I decided to use some blue with my yellow scraps and I hate to say that I still have tons of blue scraps in the bin. Oh well, we'll see what I can come up with in July with some red and whites mixed in to use up some more.
This is just the top, but the backing is pieced and it is on the boards and ready to pin for quilting. I still need to make the binding... I think there are some leftover blue's from previous bindings that I will be putting together for the binding of this one.
I haven't decided on a quilting 'pattern' yet but probably a meander with loops and maybe some flowers thrown for that happy yellow color. I just need to make 2 more backings and I hope to get the blue and purple nine patch top pinned for machine quilting... I'm thinking simple utility lines with the walking foot for this one and I'm thinking of hand basting the pink scrappy one and trying some hand quilting...... the non-marked technique of the fans that Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.com uses. That one is 48x48 and I think a manageable size for my first all hand quilted project. No time frame on this one but I'm sure I'll be working on it into next year.
Enjoy the holiday weekend.

Scrap Happy Saturday..... finishing pink!

I know it is June and that is the month for yellow..... but being a little bit behind I am posting my nearly finished pink scrappy top from May. I just need to finish the borders and then piece a backing and get this pinned for quilting.

Finishes and something pink scrappy...

I managed to finish hand quilting my little cat quilt and finished putting the binding on the day after my guild meeting last week. This is the finished quilt with the close up of some hand quilting. Not the greatest, I just did freehand x's in the sashing.


I also made more of the 9 patches and have put them all together into this quilt top. I just need to find some backing fabric in the stash and get this pinned for quilting next week. This will be a charity quilt for my quilt guild.


Since yesterday was Saturday.... and Pink is the color for the month of may... I pulled out my basket of pinks and decided to play. We did tips at our guild meeting and Bonnie E brought some from the Fons and Porter magazine and one was making string blocks using muslin as the foundation. Well, I checked out Bonnie Hunters site and saw these String X blocks and decided to play around with that. I almost decided to go completely scrappy... which I think I would have liked better... but I'll stick with the pink X... or maybe O's and make a quilt top with these.

I've made 8 so far and it has not made a dent in my little basket of pink scraps so I should have plenty to make a little lap quilt. They are easy to make and fun to do. What have you been working on this week?

Scrappy Saturday

I think the cold the kids gave me is turning into a sinus infection so no motivation to do much of anything today. G is out picking up my prescription at the drug store. I broke down and went to see my doctor yesterday... with the 2 kids in tow. They actually did pretty well at both story time before and the hour I was at the doctors office.

I have been looking and counting those blue/white 2.5 inch triangles left over from my parents quilt I made last year. I have 55 sets of 4...... and over 100 - 2 7/8 inch blue squares. I think they will turn into a bunch of these.....


This might turn into a leader/ender project as I work on other things. I really need to start on Emily's twin bed quilt so it will get finished in time for when she needs it. We will probably be buying her a big girl bed in the next couple of months since her big brother got his shortly after his second birthday and she'll turn 2 in April. Wow, where has the time gone. Next Sunday... the big boy turns 3! It really doesn't feel like 3 years since I have earned a paycheck but I have loved being home with my kids and would not change a thing.

Maybe a bit of leftover Wonton soup for a late lunch and then make a few more of these blocks.
Have a happy Saturday.

Scrappy Saturday!

Soscrappy is having a scrappy Saturday this year and selecting colors to use up by month. January is blue... and I have lots of blue scraps that needed to find their way into something. I decided to sew up this quick quilt top the last few days. It finishes at 56x56 and will be donated to the charity quilts for my guild the Franklin County Quilter Guild once it is completed.
Head on over and check out what others have done with their blue scraps!

Scrap Happy Saturday... a day early!

It's been a long week. Kids had high temps Tuesday night until yesterday morning. One is pretty much better and the other has a bad cough now. The joys of Mommyhood!
I missed my guild meeting but was lucky my co-chair for the quilt show stepped up and updated the membership with the document I had created of our status. This was the BOM block I had done and will get to whomever won the blocks this month. This is from Quiltercache and is titled Double Windmill 2.



Yesterday there were lots of people in my house. The boiler started making noise Wednesday night - a squealing sound when it was on... and being in the single digits it was a loud night in the house. Called the gas company who sent someone and after an hour he diagnosed it but said a plumber was needed. Called a plumber and had a crew of 2 come in and turned out the boiler just needed some oil and it was all better. Had them fix a leaky valve and a few other things while they were here and everything was nice and quiet again. Did a load of laundry this morning in the basement. Went down to swap loads and my feet were all wet.... looked up and saw the opening of a hose pointing at me from behind the washer/dryer. Called the plumber... 'Yup, must have forgot to hook that back up. Sorry.' Arrrggghhh. I tried to clean it up but it's all under the washer and dryer so will wait for DH to get home to move them. Instead, I took the monsters... I mean kids outside and shoveled the driveway that had not been done since Tuesday. A little snow every day adds up and the kids needed the fresh air before we plummet into the below zero numbers for the next few days.

I needed some sewing therapy while the service men were here and kids were napping (how lucky was I for that to happen?) and grabbed the leftover bin of blue and white/cream scraps from my parents anniversary quilt last year and came up with this:

I had a bunch of 3.5 squares cut out already so those are being sewn into a border. Right now it measures 48x48. I think this will be a little baby/lap quilt that I'll donate to the guild charity quilts. It might get another border on the outside to make it a wee bit bigger.
After reading Bonnie Hunters blog, book and checking out the directions for her sisters choice quilt.. I grabbed a strip of blue/yellow out of the scrap bin and made this as I was piecing the above. Maybe there is a sisters quilt in my future?


I still have this to work with from the leftovers of that blue and white quilt. A few ideas... but you'll have to come back and see what it turns into!

2 Tops... finished and into the 'to quilt' pile!

Scrappy Pinwheel blocks that I added a bunch to from my BOM winnings in November turned into this lovely quilt! I looked up the pattern by Kim Brackett and decided instead of a plain border fabric I wanted some 'mountains' to make the pinwheels stand out.

A close up of one of the corners.

Over the weekend I finally got the Vermont cut out and onto the center of this quilt so that I can show the top at my guild meeting this Wednesday. This is 66x66 and I'm not sure how I will do the quilting on this one. Probably block by block decision and I'll just play with it.

Typical me... at least 4 tops need to be quilted in the next few months and I pulled my extra blue's out of the bin from my parents anniversary quilt and have one set of the big 8 inch triangles all laid out for a small baby or lap quilt. More on that project coming on soscrappy Saturday!