It's the never ending quilt top

This was a free block of the month project that was so much fun to do that I kept up with it faithfully every month and got them done in a timely manner for a change.  I even kept on task and pieced it all together soon after the blocks were done.  Then came the border.  I used a dark blue and just wasn't super happy with it. You can check it out here. So it sat around.  I moved it from one place to another telling myself I need to get it quilted. I finally decided that after going to all that work with the embroidery I needed to be really happy with it so I cut the wide dark blue border off and make it 3/4 inch wide (yes I know that's weird but that's how I roll).  Then I added a lighter border and I like it much better now.

You haven't seen the end of the never ending quilt top, I'll show it again when it is quilted, bound and hanging on my wall.

Happy 4th of July

In the midst of doing some summer cleaning, I've been trying to restock my Etsy shop. Here are a couple of things that I listed this morning.

Aren't these funky?  They are little tooth fairy pillows. I was trying to come up with something that I haven't seen before and these are it. I don't know if they will sell but I think they are as cute as a bugs ear, if I do say so myself.

This is a little brooch/pin.  I listed one earlier and it sold the next day so I thought I should throw another one it just for fun.
Hope you have a fun and safe holiday weekend.

I'm so excited.....

I found something I've been looking for months and months, perhaps even a year or more.

I have been looking everywhere for these little guys, tearing my sewing room apart and looking in very nook and cranny in my family room.

I was so thrilled to find my isty bisty teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini oh I mean blue yo yo maker, as well.

They were shoved in the back of this little drawer right in my family room the whole time.

 Eventually they will be going on this little number right here. It's called Blooming Trails by Chickadee Designs. Now I am going to have to get crackin' at this and not let it out of my sight until it's finished, before I lose the borders and binding.

Random Stuff

I have been patiently awaiting the arrival of the hummingbirds and last year I came across this cool map that shows exactly where the ruby red-throated are.

 Here is the link if you are interested. Where are they now?

Always match your dog to your carpet. 

At last but not least, I finished a project.

This is a kit I bought and the pattern it's from the book Bits and Pieces 18 small quilts from fat quarters and scraps by Karen Costello Soltys.  Then keeping in the oriental theme I made some cute little origami book marks.

It's been a long time

It's been a long time since I finished something and this particular project was a kit I picked up at the Quilt Show up in Fargo 5 years ago.

I had my friend Susan quilt it for me and she did a fabulous job.

This is the back side.

Prairie Women's Mini

I finished the Seneca Falls quilt for the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle group. 

After having problems from the get-go, making mine smaller, putting on three borders instead of one, I then sewed buttons on, tea dyed it and tossed it in the dryer for an aged look.

Make Mine a Mini

The saga continues with my Prairie Woman's Circle wall hanging. First of all,  the quilts are supposed to be make-do quilts so we are asked to bring a 6 inch square of a certain color of fabric to swap with another person, then use that in our quilts.  Well, duffus here brought the wrong color so didn't swap it with anyone. Then when I was cutting out my fabric I was working on three projects at once two of which called for 1 1/2 strips of black fabric. Now what do you think the chances of me getting my black fabric mixed up and sewing them into the wrong projects?  I'll tell you, it's 100 percent.
  Then as they say stupid is as stupid does, I did this.



 When I should have done this.

I don't how why I did something so stupid, there were no drugs or alcohol involved.  So with all this trouble I decided to just make mine a mini.

The quilt in the pattern is 25 x 31  with one border.  Mine is 21 by 25  with three borders. And I found a use for four of my four patch mistakes and put them into the corners.  Now I just need to quilt it.

Little doll dresses

These little doll dress quilt blocks were from a swap we did with the 30's group I'm in.  I have 9 more but decided to make a little wall hanging with three of them. I love the cute little dresses but thought it was getting a little to puffy when I was hand quilting it, so I just stopped working on it.

Just for Fun

This one I thought would be really fun to make and my plan is to machine buttonhole around everything while quilting at the same time.

#9

This one I liked the saying, but just lost interest when it came to finishing.

be thankful

I really liked this when I saw it in the quilt shop, but after I got started I didn't like it all that much so I just lost interest and quilt working on it.

Love this one

This wall hanging is a kit I bought and have since either misplaced the binding or used it for something else. It's by Lynette Jensen.

I really like it, I put a lot of work into it,  I don't know why I don't finish it.

Look at that, it still has the needle in it just where I left off.  How crazy it that! It's #5.

# 4

This little number I found scrunched up in the corner on my cutting board.

I don't like it, period, there is nothing more to say about it.

Flower Baskets Wall Hanging

This wall hanging is called Flower Baskets by Wooden Spool Design.  I bought the pattern and kit up in Fargo with my friend Mona about 5 or 6 years ago.  It's made with wool and homespun fabric and was really fun to make. I really like it so it's on the top of my list to get quilted.

Quilt #2

This one is from the Prairie Woman's Sewing Circle and is the first one from that series that I made. It's the same one that I posted about the no waste prairie points during my marathon black Friday craziness.

I realized that I never took a picture of the second one from that series.  I guess I was just so excited about everyone elses I forgot about my own so here is a picture of mine in it's completed state, I might add.

Now that I see a picture of it I think I may need bigger buttons in the corners. They kind of got lost in all the busyness.

Quilt Tops

I like to start projects, I don't like to finish them. I don't know why, I can't explain it, that's just how I roll. I often talk about my many quilt tops that need to be finished, so just for fun I thought I would post a picture a day just to see how many days it will take before I get tired of showing them and perhaps I will finish one in the process.

I'll start with this one as it's my most recent one.  It was really fun and was a free block of the month project from Laura's blog over at Quilt Happy Quilt Often.  Actually she came out with two each month and you can find the pattern here.
If anyone wants to take a gander and guess how many I'll be posting, please do and I'll be giving away a little something to the person that comes the closest. I don't even know myself how many there will be as I will be including quilt tops, wall hangings and table runners.
I'm adding a couple of rules to the give away.  First,  you have until midnight Friday the 14th to make you guess and secondly you guess must be in the comments on this post.

Prairie Women's Sewing Circle

Our local quilt shop has a group going that is inspired by the women and their quilts from the mid 1800's.  It's so much fun and educational as well.  We sit in a circle, well sort of, around tables and our lovely host Darcie reads a short story about their trials and tribulations while we sit and make yo yo's.


Each month we have an assignment, we are supposed to finish them and bring them the next month for show and tell. The first month of course I didn't finish mine, it's still waiting to be quilted. Here are a few pictures from the group.

This is Sharon's, isn't she clever with the way she integrated the ribbon into the lace? She has a great blog that you can check out here.

This is Betty's.  Sorry it's blurry, she must have been swinging it though the air.  I'll blame her anyway, and not the camera operator.

This is Cindy's, don't you love the wide lace?

This is Judy's from last month, I think she's proud as punch.

This is Phyllis.  She made her's very vintage, I love that look. I'm not so sure what she is finding so intriguing, I must have missed out on something great.
This pattern is called At Mama's Knee.  You can find more on this designer at HeartspunQuilts.com.

Love is ...... making progress

This is the progress I'm making with my Love is .... wall hanging from Paula's blog over at Quilt Happy Quilt Often.   I started sewing the blue borders on the word blocks and was kind of at a loss as what to do next. I thought if I did them all in blue it would just be a little too much.  But with a little help from my friends Kathy, who let me dip into her stash so I wouldn't have to buy more fabric and my friend Susan who suggested that I just sew blue on every other block, my problems are solved.

Every month two more blocks come out and I am managing to keep up so by the end of the year I should have a nice wall hanging finished.

Crazy Quilt Pumpkins

I love fall, it's my favorite season and with that comes decorating.  I meant to have this quilt done by last fall but that didn't happen.  I love making the tops and I like putting on the binding but it's just that dreaded getting the top, batting and backing together that I just don't enjoy.  But lucky me, I have a couple of friends that do a wonderful job and are willing to help me out.

This was quilted by my friend Susan.

 It's made with all flannels so I'm sure it was quite challenging to quilt.

Each pumpkin is a different color and has four different crazy quilt stitches in each one.

 

When I brought it to Susan I told her I loved everything that I have seen of hers and she could do what ever she wanted.  She didn't disappoint me and did an amazing job.
I thought perhaps I could use it as a table cloth but after I tossed it over my couch to take pictures I think it looks kind of nice there.

Wool Garden Crazy

This is just one of the many projects I am currently working on.  I bought the pattern at the MN Quilt Show in St. Cloud.

 The pattern is called  Wool Garden Crazy by "A Piece of Work" and calls for wool but in my quest to use what I have I used flannel for the background and wool felt for all the applique pieces.

This has been a really fun project since it combines my love of crazy quilt stitches, primitives and working with wool felt.