Another Dresden plate complete

I was busy yesterday and didn't get any time to do quilting. Today I decided to start with quilting time, before I had to do all the running around.  In order to do some quilting though I had to start off by clearing off my sewing table.  That meant cutting the remainder of the scraps and putting the Go away.

I have a quilt that was given to me on Thursday, that has a deadline of two weeks.  Not sure if I am going to make it with everything going on, but I will try.  A friend from the quilting bee asked my to quilt her anniversary quilt for her son and his wife.  I will show pictures when it is done.

I started the quilting and pretty much know what I will be quilt on it.  It won't be hard.  The only hard part will be to find the time to do it.

Later after doing all the running around I just needed to sit and rest for a while.  So, as I only had about a quarter left of this Dresden plate to do, i thought I would do it while I took a break from quilting.  It was going so well that I started the next Dresden plate.  This next one is a cheerful yellow.  So far I put the purple centre on and completed two petals.

It's getting late though and my eyes are getting tired. I still haven't had dinner.  As I write, I am waiting for the food to cook.  After dinner I think I will catch up on reading some quilting posts.

Hope everyone had a great day.

Did some more Midnight Flight leader/enders.

I have been busy with a lot of things around here.  All of them distracting me from spending time in my quilting room.  The latest is training at work and still doing a lot of reading to get a handle on the proper/best foods to eat.  I am trying to figure out what to make, so I don't get into the rut of eating the same things over and over again.  Though some comfort foods would be nice too.

In the meantime, I am day dreaming of stuff I can do once I get the time.  Right now though once I get home from work, I feel my brain is toast.  This should only be short lived, once training is done.

I did manager to get some Midnight Flight sub blocks done.  I have nine more sub blocks completed.

Today I plan to make a new recipe for breakfast called Apple-Flax Jacks a Paleo form of pancakes.  The kids are willing to try, which is great.  Off to the farmer's market.  My sister wants help dismantling a jungle gym, my daughter wants to go to IKEA to get her two dresser drawers, likely she'll probably want help assembling them, but after all this time will be mine. LOL, if there is any left in the day.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I've just got to hang in there.

Beach Ball quilt

I while back, back at the end of last year, I received a bag full of scraps from my cousin to use as I wish.  They were from her mother, my aunt, who has passed away.  I sorted out the bag and took out all the cotton pieces to incorporate into my stash and scraps. What was left over were some polyester blends. I don't mix my cotton fabrics with any other fabrics, but I have no problem making a quilt using all the polyester blends together on there own.

I finally decided what I wanted to make with these particular fabrics.  The idea came to me while I was going through some magazines a friend from my quilting bee group gave me.  I am thinking of making a quilt using the beach ball block. That is what the magazine calls it, but I am sure it is also known as something else.

The block by itself does not look like much, but it is really nice when you get a bunch of them together, as it makes the circle at each block corner and the bow tie looking shapes make a swirly grid across the quilt.  You will have to trust me for now, until I can make more blocks and show you.

So this is my container of all the scraps. A lot of the scraps are white base with pictorials of little animals or cartoon characters.  Most of the pieces were too small to do much with other than a true scrappy quilt.  I am going to enjoy making these blocks.  They are to me a mindless form of sewing.  You just pick up a piece and sew it and repeat as many times as required to fill the shape.

This panel was a surprise as I was sorting out the polyester blend pieces. This was folded up small between all the pieces. The second surprise came when I realized that the panel was folded up with the matching backing. The last border, the blue one, is the pattern of the backing.  Isn't that great!

I can now quilt this panel up and I will have a baby crib quilt to give away, probably to Project Linus.  I just need to buy some batting and make a matching binding.

My aunt would be pleased to know that her fabric is being used to make quilts to go to less fortunate children due to sickness or finance.  She was herself always a loving, giving person.  I miss her.  She was a true good spirit. 

Texas Braid quilt

I spoke of the Texas Braid quilt in an earlier post last week.  I mentioned that my mom is now making one.  Well I started cutting one out a while ago, as I was cleaning up my scraps.  This is what I had done.

This weekend I was sick on Sunday and Monday on this long weekend, but I was fighting it and refusing to let it wipe me out.  I succeeded on Sunday with only having to take two small naps, but Monday was many naps.  I did not want to be sick, but who does.  Anyways, between my naps I did some cutting.  I started with my already cut 2" strips drawer.  

I didn't do much to the dark piles but I did empty my lights.  Once my lights were empty I went to my scrap basket and cut all that I could from there. That still was not enough for variety, so I took out some of my yardage.

While cutting up some of my yardage I was able to replenish my lights in my drawer.  A bit anyways.

Now I have all the pieces cut for the Texas Braid quilt. All the pieces are nice and neat in my plastic container.  There it will sit until I am ready to start sewing it.  Having everything cut and ready, makes these quilts easy to start.  Not that I am ready for it, but now I also need to wait until my mom is done with my book that has the pattern in it.

Carol's appliqué heart

I want to share with you a project from one of my Quilting Bee friends.  Carol came to the bee meeting a few weeks ago with this pretty block.  I saved the picture for now so that I could also add in all the information regarding the block.

The block comes from Baltimore Beauties and Beyond, Vol. Two, by Elly Sienkiewicz.  Carol was fortunate to have taken a class in '94 called Variation on Rosebud Wreath.  The block was done for quite some time and now Carol has decided that the block needs to be completed.

Carol is now done the block and will make it into a wall hanging.  The quilting was simple but effective.  The wreath was echo stitched and there were lines about half inch apart that were done on the corners, all going in the same direction.  There were two small sections that were left blank, running along the upper left and the bottom right of the wreath..

I took these next two pictures so that I could see how she framed the block.  Carol's husband made this frame.  I thought it was great, as it kept the work taught.  Carol was nice enough to write down the instructions on how to make one and she even gave me a set of the screws, washers and wing nuts.  I will have to pick up some wood to make one.

This is a close up picture to make sure I can see the details, when I attempt to make one.  I do have a Q-snap frame that I can use for hand work, but I don't like that it always needs to be tightened.  I like this frame better.

Thank you Carol for sharing your work with us and for sharing the frame details.

Mom's basket weave quilt

This is the last of my mom's quilts for now.  She is working on another one now from one of Bonnie Hunter's books called Texas braid.  It's one that I have half the fabric cut out to make my own, but I won't start it until I get a bit more of what I have already started done.  When mom has hers done I will show it to you. When I do mine I will show you that one too.

Even though we are going to make the same quilt, in the end they will still be different.  Mom and I have different taste in fabrics.  We collect what each of us likes and sometimes we swap fabric to add to the variety.  Even though we swap and will use some of the same fabrics, you will see that they will still have an individual look to them.

This one here is mom's basket weave quilt on a diagonal.  I made one of these, but again it is completely different than hers.  These quilts are so easy to make.  They can be time consuming depending on how big the strips are.  This is a great quilt for using up all your scraps.  You can do it completely scrappy like mom and I did, or you can do it in a specific colour way.  Either way you can't go wrong with a basket weave.

They are more of a utilitarian type quilt, for use everyday.  They are not intended to be a show piece.

This is a close up.  Mom used the pumpkin orange for her half square triangle border because it was the colour that brought out some of the colours in her scraps.  Mom had this last border left over from a backing she made.  It also has the orange in it.

This quilt fits her double bed and has plenty of quilt hanging down the sides.  I don't think she used it yet though.  I think she is keeping it to possibly down the road give it away.

I didn't get anything of my own quilty wise done yesterday.  I went to the farmer's market, fixed up all the food to store it, to make it last the whole week without going bad.  I made lunch and after that headed out to do the groceries.  When I got back I had to again organize the food for proper storage.  I also make a pot of chicken broth in the slow cooker that is today finally finished.  After all of this, I had to clean up the kitchen.  That took me to almost seven, when I had to start dinner.  Salmon and green beans on the barbeque with a salad on the side.  We had a late dinner, cleaned up again and before I knew it my day was done.  I was pooped. On my feet all day.

Today I really want/need some "me time" in my quilt room.  I just want to zone out for a while.

Enjoy your day everyone!  Don't forget to take some time out for yourself.  It's important. Your health and peace of mind helps you deal with everything that comes your way better.

More pinks and purples in my garden

Warning!  Non-quilty post.  Posting a couple of things that are of interest to me.

I was out in my garden again admiring the flowers.  I do have a lot of pinks and purples. The first two pictures are of phlox.  The flowers in the top picture are in the back of the yard where it doesn't get a lot of sun so they are just starting to bloom.  The ones in the second picture are at the side of the house where it is sunny and warm from the bricks of the house.  They are almost done with blooming

We have the bee balm. They are actually deeper wine/purple colour.  They are also on the sunny side of the house and are also just finishing off blooming.

 

Just beside the bee balm I have these spikes that are just started to bloom and will continue to bloom all the way down the stem.  I forget what these are called.  They're pretty, aren't they?

Lastly, I'd like to share with you the breed that we have decided to adopt.  It's a Vizsla.  We put a deposit down and hope to have a new puppy join our family, sometime in the winter.  The breeder hopes to breed the dogs on September.  

A bit of trivia for you.  Did you know how long a dog is pregnant?  

A dog is pregnant for only 63 days and they have many at one time.  Isn't that amazing!  Not like us humans who are pregnant for over nine months, and for the most part only have one.

We are all so excited!!! We want one now.  It is going to be difficult waiting.  I think this little puppy is so adorable.  I just want to hug him/her.

As it is a long weekend, I am sure to get some quilt related stuff accomplished.  Stay tuned for an update.