Unfinished, Almost Finished, & Finished!

 

I just couldn't gift the soon to be here granddaughter the previous pink princess quilt for several reasons - too thin, too small (in my opinion), and something was just not making me happy. I started over from the leftover scraps and a few extra pieces of fabric. Working with scraps limits you and frees you at the same time! This heart is what I came up with. I still need to bind the quilt but I don't have enough pastel pink fabric so it will mean a trip to the quilt store.

The colors are much better in real life. One of the fabrics I used is Fairy Frost which is glittery. Hope my daughter is still speaking to me when she notices some of the glitter comes off. I certainly am finding it in the house from prewashing and stitching. The quilt is still not what I would have liked but it is princess and ties in with the granddaughter's birth month of February. The backing is pink minky which makes this quilt very cuddly and warm.

My husband's T-shirt quilt is bound, labeled, and even has a sleeve sewn on! It will be hung in his office as soon as we get a curtain rod for it. I can't decide if I want to get out in the rainy weather (Saturday in Kansas) to go to Walmart.

For some reason, I'm at a stand still on the "Antique Rug" (Aardvark pattern). I only need two more blocks to make it a throw size. How hard can it be to finish two of these blocks?!?

 

I finished going through my quilt books! I still have to decide what to do with them and also what to do about the Quiltmania magazines on the lower shelf before I display some of my quilts in the cabinet. I plan to line the lower shelf walls with muslin to protect my quilts from the wood.

I didn't make the vintage quilt hanging behind the cabinet. It was purchased at a local antique mall and needs to be repaired. Star quilts are some of my favorite!

February's RSC21 color is "bright shiny yellow". Yellow is not a color I use often. In fact, I store the yellow, gold, orange, and rust color fabrics all in one container and its not a big container! I'm definitely going to have to put some thought into what I could possibly make with "bright shiny yellow". 

Until next time, Mayleen

I Spy a Princess T-shirt Antique Rug Cat

First finish of the week - I bound and labeled my grandson's "I Spy" quilt! It will be delivered to him in February if not sooner. It makes me sad but some of my grandchildren prefer fleece blankets to quilts so he may or may not use it. I won't give up though and will continue to make quilts for the grandchildren.

My husband's T-shirt quilt, the one I made with his T-shirts without asking him first, lol. He'd actually forgotten about it and is looking forward to hanging the quilt in his home office. Anyway, it went to the machine quilter on Tuesday and I picked it up on Saturday. A quick turn around but now it needs binding so you can guess what I'll be doing this coming week. I'll show a photo of the full quilt when its finished.

My granddaughter's Princess baby quilt - I couldn't bring myself to cut the fabric apart to piece so I made a simple block quilt. My daughter asked for a smaller size quilt than a crib quilt so this quilt was finished and off the machine quilter at the same time as the T-shirt quilt. Truthfully, this baby quilt looks plain so I plan to scallop the border to try to dress up the quilt. Won't be any fun to bind but I'll deal with it.

 So rummaging around in the UFO box, I found this project with four blocks finished. I've added 12 blocks (picture is not the final layout) and it would have been 14 blocks finished but I discovered I'd sewn one of the fabric strips in upside down. That means a date with Jack the ripper and I just couldn't do it. I'll tackle it on Monday. I plan to make this lap quilt larger so I'll need what, 11 blocks more? I think I have plenty of reds but need more browns and I hope I have enough of the fabric to make that many more.

 This is the pattern, "Antique Rug", by Aardvark Quilts. The fabrics I'm using are brushed cottons, flannels, and lightweight upholstery fabrics. What I don't use for this project will be used for the backing. I haven't decided if I will keep and quilt it or donate the quilt top.

"If I fits, I sits."

 Jesse provides us with many photo ops and entertainment.

Today I'm working on a stalled out project, sorting through our photos. I've gone through boxes and boxes of photos and sorted them by approximate time frame and subject. Some photos were even put in a special box marked "Shred"! In my defense, there are only so and so many photo albums our kids will want when we're gone. The boxes are all lined up on our dining room table and have been there since the beginning of January. The cats have accepted this as normal, so normal that Jesse is currently taking a nap in one of the boxes.

I occasionally still add a quilt book to the Donate or Sell stacks. Progress has definitely slowed down. To successfully declutter, I have to be in a bad mood or stressed out which apparently hasn't been happening enough lately. That is a good thing but just maybe I need to put myself in the Git-R-Done mode!

Until next time, Mayleen

Not scrappy but its pink!

 

This is fabric for my granddaughter's baby quilt which is my next project. Since I don't know what pattern I'll be using, I probably bought enough fabric for two baby quilts. More scrappy pink projects coming up.

 I've already learned that the pink Fairy Frost fabric loses its glitter in the dryer. Fun cleaning up (sarcasm) and now I'm finding little pieces of glitter on my clothes, ugh. Not sure that I'll be including that fabric in the quilt.

Unless I change my mind, the princess and castle fabrics will be blocks in the center and the rest of the fabric will be borders. I never thought I would make anything princess themed and am having a difficult time thinking of a pattern.

 

These photos, above and below, are my finished pink charity quilts for the RSC21 challenge.

 

 

Another project I finished this week was stitching on my grandson's "I Spy" quilt binding. In the store, I thought the blue fabric went OK with the border but now, not so much. It looks better than in the photo. I'm doing a fair job of machine stitching both sides of the binding to the quilt. Still needing some improvement but I'm doing this to save my hands. My hand, wrist, and shoulder can't take doing a lot of handwork anymore.

 

I'm doing fairly well at going through my quilting books! My goal is to empty that lower shelf. I think what's left are all Quiltmania magazines to go through. The middle shelf looks fairly empty but I have a few books which may go back in there. I spend an hour or two every day looking through books trying to decide if I really need to keep them. Some of them I'm keeping for inspiration and others I'm keeping because I "may" still make a project in them.

 

Yesterday, I pulled out my box of UFO's and found this T-shirt quilt top which I'd made for my husband years ago. I made this without his knowledge (not recommended for marital harmony) using the T-shirts he'd received for free at work. I figured he wasn't wearing them so ...! Anyway, the top was finished and even the backing was there. It (blue fabric in background) just needed to pieced. When I did that, it turned out to be about 3" too short so I'm going to piece a strip of green into the blue backing. Then off to the machine quilter it will go because I want this project finished and out of the UFO box.

Until next time, Mayleen

In the Pink

This week I'm happy I could have sewing machine therapy!

One of my quilting goals this year is to use up more of my fabric. That's nothing new but this year I have a plan and I hope I can stick to it. 

I've decided to make one quilt top a month to donate to my quilt guild's charity committee. The color of fabric I use each month will be set by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. If you click on the RSC21 button at the top right, it will take you to a link which explains what it is.

 

January's color was pink so I dug out any fabric I called pink and neutrals I could use with them. I have a serious lack of neutrals in my fabric stash but I found enough to make the above baby quilt top. I'd still like to add a border but not sure what yet.

 

These were the fabrics I initially pulled but I see several in the photo I didn't use. I made another search through my tubs and found others to replace the fabrics I said "not this time" to.

 

I'm also learning how to stitch with a new Janome Accufeed Flex Foot. I've been piecing and quilting with my walking foot and this new foot has taken some getting used to. I'm not sure I like it.

 I actually made two tops this month. This is the second baby quilt top partially pieced.

 

I should go finish piecing that quilt top but instead I think I'll sort through my quilt books. I have a stack of quilt books from the last time I sorted which I don't know what to do with. Donate? Sell? Put them in a box and ignore? I haven't purchased many recently but my weakness is quilt books, patterns, and magazines. Out of all these books, only a few are consulted now and then.

 If I am able to clear out at least one shelf of books, I'd like to fold some quilts to display there. Even though I rotate hanging some of my quilts, I have too many stored away. Time to enjoy them even if they're folded in a cabinet!

Until next time, Mayleen

From Christmas to New Year's Day

 I'm such a sucker for star quilts!

I found this quilt in an antique mall on sale for less than $50. It needs repair and even though I've never attempted to repair a vintage / antique quilt, I decided to take it on. Some of the fabric in the lower stars have disintegrated and will need total replacement. Also, the lower border has been cut off so I will need to add a border and hand quilt it. I will not be using this has a bed quilt, it will be for display only. For now, I'm just admiring the stars and contemplating how to go about the repair.

 

Besides quilting, I love to bake and this was one of my Christmas presents! Some of the recipes sound delicious and I plan to try a few this year. When I was growing up, one of the things I was responsible for was baking a cake or pie every Saturday. I still like to bake cakes and pies!

 

Someone else got everything (maybe) he wanted for Christmas!

 

One of the fun things I do for our Christmas family get together is fold napkins in a fun holiday design. This year I tucked a few pieces of candy into napkins I'd folded into elf booties. With grandchildren ranging from 2 to 7 years old, the table and menu is casual. Someone usually spills their drink, accidentally drops their food on the floor, or refuses to eat. This year there weren't any mishaps! Instead of a traditional meal, we served waffles with vanilla sauce or other toppings, breakfast casserole, bacon, and fruit. Since it went so well, we may do it again next Christmas!

 

Besides the traditional peppernuts from my Mennonite background, I also made cream cookies which is a recipe I'd been wanting to perfect for a long time. When that went well, I thought of New Year's Cookies which are also known as portzelky, similar to the Dutch oliebollen. They are kind of like a fried raisin fritter and are usually only made on New Year's Eve or Day. The one on the right is the traditional raisin and is rolled in sugar and the one on the left has chocolate chips and is glazed. Being fried, they are definitely not healthy.

 

Also, my Thanksgiving Cactus has finally decided to bloom! I think if you look closely you can see a few red blossoms.

In the early hours of New Year's Day, it began to snow and didn't stop until we had received almost 5"! It has been several years since we've received that much snow at one time. The snow was wet and has already started to melt. So grateful for any moisture because most of Kansas is already in some degree of drought.

After I finished the Grandmama Llama quilt before Christmas, I took my sewing machine to be cleaned and checked over. I know it must have really needed it because it had been several years since its last check up. I'd been doing the routine cleaning but I hope no one gasped when they opened the machine and gazed into its inner workings!

Anyway, my sewing machine is once again home and I look forward to my next sewing project!

Until next time, Mayleen