Bloglovin and More

I guess I am joining the throngs of bloggers moving over to Bloglovin, so I am hereby claiming my blog!!! Not sure what that means, but since they tell us to do it, I'm doing it. This is the second time I have had to move my blog list to another program. Each time I am disappointed and maybe a little less involved than before. Guess we shall see what this one does for us. I have to say that I am surprised that Google eliminated their program, but oh well. 

I have all these little quilty things around that I need to finish. This one is a doll quilt for my granddaughter, Ellie. Maybe you remember her baby quilt that was published in McCalls a while back? They called it Teaberry Stars, and included it as a free online pattern in a bed size quilt. 
I added the border to this doll quilt today and now I need to get it quilted for her and maybe find a dolly too. 

 Here I am making progress on my wool sampler. I am excited to see this coming to life!

I just saw that Lisa Bongean (of Primitive Gatherings) has a new fabric line out of little flowers and also pastels. Blow me over! Last time I spoke to her she told me "I like dark quilts", which we can believe because she is Primitive Gatherings! The new line is darling and I can't wait to see what Lisa does with it! Follow the link and check it out!

Happy summer friends! 

 

I am a Scrapper!

I have been cleaning up and putting away in my sewing room. When I get serious about it I also clean up all the scraps laying around on the cutting table, floor, etc. I trim them into useable sizes and put them in appropriate boxes. It is menial labor, but relaxing to me as I listen to audible books. I feel like I am getting sooo much done! In fact, I still have a big box of scraps that are just a little too big to trim up. Ah, but I am a scrapper! I love this stuff! Making scrap quilts is always more labor intensive than a regular quilt because you have to do a lot of digging for a variety of fabric and then trim it to size. No worries, I revel it it! And using pre-trimmed pieces during quilt construction makes easy work in scrap quilt creation. So whatever I accomplish now will reward me later. 

During this process I have uncovered remnants of past quilts. I always make extra blocks and have a stash of them. I decided to put a few of these little blocks into little quilts.

These are such simple little things, but simple is always my favorite! Like many of you, I am trying to build up a nice selection of little quilts for a wall display. But I always find myself placing them under table displays or lamps, etc. 

 This one I made for my grandson's dresser. Simple and masculine I think. 

On another note, let me direct you to Lori's blog, Humble Quilts. Lori has decided to sell some of her quilts, and you know what beautiful work she does! Follow the link and see for yourself!

And Another Thing...

Please allow me to share with you the adorable little quilt that Karen Mowery, Sew Primitive, made for me! I can't tell you how much this woman's talent continues to amaze me! I about fainted dead away when I saw the darling sketch she created for the center of this quilt. She drew it on antique muslin, so it is spotty looking in places and looks so old.

I hung this little treasure in my bedroom right below my sampler, so they can look old together. I am going to name the quilt "Mary" after my granddaughter who, at three years old was a flower girl in her aunt's wedding.  When she told people the story of her aunt's wedding she always told them that she was the "flower peddler". I love that!

Karen has a line of delightfully unique patterns. She sent me her two newest. Check out her blog and find the link for her website and I am sure you will find better pictures than these! Plus, you have to see her sketch of her family: Her son the Marine, Karen, and two felines. Darn cute!

Here it Comes Again!

Would somebody jab me with a candy cane! Here is is the season of Joy and Goodwill, and I am not in the mood. Let's just say that I am having trouble finding the Christmas Spirit. What does this say about me, as a person? Now the guilt comes for not wanting to dive into all the frolicking. Sigh.

Here is the thing: I just want to stay in my sewing room all day and make quilts. Big quilts, little quilts, I don't care. The truth is I am full of Joy and Goodwill all year long! I love my family, I love my friends, and I love doing for others. What I don't love is shopping at any time of year. My husband will tell you that he has to beg me to go to the grocery store! Currently we only have two grandchildren small enough that we can buy them presents. The rest are teenagers (and Becky), and my holiday spirit goes like this, "Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas, here is your check!" I do love them all tho, and I think the check makes them happier than me trying to buy them clothes or just the right music CD. Perish the thought!

 Probably what this says about me is that I get excited about different things than I did in the past. For example, I made a little doll quilt and I love it so much that I want to fly through hoops in the sky! Does that sound a little extreme? Well, quilters, and other people who love their work, know just what I am feeling. Call it a "break-through", call it a "runner's high", call it the "Christmas Spirit"! Haha! We all know that different people enjoy different things.  This thing is definitely me!

Meet my newest doll quilt, Lil' Smokey. I take a bit of pride in the fact that I have never named a quilt after food. It is a challenge sometimes, but I have resisted! So no, this quilt is not named after little sausages! Rather, I tried to incorporate smokey colors. Of course some sparks had to be added as well. I like the contrast. I hope you do too! Something that I really enjoy about making scrap quilts is mixing new fabric with old, and combining fabric from different designers and manufactures. It is like cross pollinating! I love the result! Wouldn't it look fitting lying on a humble manger.

So Christmas comes and Christmas goes. It seems like it always comes sooner than I want it to, but once Christmas actually rolls around, and the REAL Spirit of Christmas engulfs our home, I hate to see it leave. We all know that the Grinch was right when he finally admitted that "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store". So maybe there is still time for Patchville to be touched by the magic of it all!

Bursting with Blessings

I have been sewing! Yes, it is true! One thing I made recently is this little doll quilt. I love it just the way it is, but kind friends have told me that I should actually have a little stitched sampler in the center. Well, OK, so now I need to work that up after Thanksgiving. But in the meantime, here is a peek at my little doll quilt--not yet quilted, as you can see.

 On other news, my pregnant granddaughter, who I pictured in a post recently, is having twins! Twin boys, in fact! We have never had twins in our family, so we are all aflutter over this. Let's just say that Becky is bursting at the seams with this exciting news! 

I have been sewing like a mad woman this past week and have a terrific quilt as a result. I am not sure how soon I can show it off, but I am very excited! For one thing, it is totally scrappy. Does that sound like anyone you know? Above is a block from the quilt. I made a ton of these! More later on that!

Thanksgiving is once again upon us, so today, like most women in America, I am cooking! I am presently working on cinnamon rolls. They are rising on the counter in the kitchen. I think I can manage the rest of the meal tomorrow, but it is nice to get a start on the rolls. Two of my kids have already called for recipes, so food is on their mind as well. If they lived closer recipes wouldn't be crossing their minds, they would just come here. But alas, they are spread across the county, as I have lamented in the past. Nevertheless, blessings abound, and I am grateful to have a big wonderful family, even tho they are not nearby. The internet certainly contributes to keeping us close. Last Sunday I watched one year old Isaac climb all over the furniture as we visited on Skype. Every so often he would stop and wave to me. What a joy! 

Good wishes go out to you as well, where ever you may be. Enjoy the season and count your blessings. They are everywhere!

SEW MUCH TO SHARE

This has been a month of fiddling with many projects. I began this little cutie last month while in Arizona so I would have some handwork with me. You may remember when I talked about it HERE. I love showing off all the cute little fabrics in both the appliqued segments and the background pieces. A perfect little project for a fabric junkie. You can handle and fondle to your heart's content. This project is from Remembering Adelia, one of Kathleen Tracy's doll quilt books. Check out her cute books on her website! Kathleen doesn't know it, but we are kindred spirits.
I am doing a different border fabric than she used, as I rarely copy anyone's design exactly. More on that later when it is completed.

Also this week I was delighted to get this quilt back from my quilter. I showed the details of this quilt in an earlier blog HERE. I added a border (Kansas Troubles fabric) to this to make it big enough for a queen bed for my newly married son and his wife. The quilting is very nice! I hope they love it! And I am saying "YAY! Another quilt finished!"

Now finally, I was determined to spend some time cleaning my sewing room yesterday, and as I cleared things from my over flowing cutting table, I found this quilt that I made months ago. I even had it spray basted and ready to quilt. It needed a little smoothing and pinning after waiting so long, but I quilted it up in a jiffy. As you can see, I am a straight line quilter. If only I was a straight line worker! Instead I seem to take so many side trips down a windy little Quilter's Lane! :)

STRING DOLL QUILTS

I had to jump on the band wagon with these little string doll quilts. Lucy's method is on my sidebar with her tutorial. I didn't realize quite how small hers really is. Mine is probably twice the size of Lucy's and Dawn's. Of course, now I want to make a smaller one! Love that cheddar!

Dawn made the two little quilts pictured below. I swiped her photo. I tried to find it on her blog and link to it, but I couldn't find her blog entry for it. She is off to Quilt Camp, so she will never find out. (Cause blogs are so private-Ha!) Dawn used cheddar in hers, as did Lucy. Suddenly my CW fabrics are starting to look a little blah. I am in trouble if that happens because that is all I ever buy. But just look at how that cheddar color perks up a quilt! When I first started quilting I only bought mauve and blue. I guess we do change, thankfully!

Addendum: Because I never found Dawn's post on this, I forgot that Lucy actually made the little 4-patch quilt and she and Dawn traded! Guess they were the original doll quilt traders!

I added a new tutorial to my sidebar list. Wendy did a really nice one on applique using starch. It is a great method! I have actually used it myself with great results. Check out her blog, Snippets of a Quilter!

If you have read about my family on my blog you remember that I mentioned that we are a nutty group. Not just one of us, but pretty much all of us. I was talking to my Dad the other day and he mentioned going out to eat with my aunt and uncle. He said they were talking about his funeral again. My Dad is never shy about bringing it up. He has made it very clear to all of us that he wants to be cremated and then have his ashes buried with my Mom. My aunt was questioning him about what would become of his ashes. She didn't know the plan. Her husband said that they put the ashes in trays. She was still puzzled by this, and my uncle said, "you've heard of ash trays?"

And with that, I will wrap it up for today!