Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Patriotic Pillowcases ..........

.....in early May I was blog hopping,
(something I haven't been doing much of... till this week)
and I came across a blog that caught my attention.  
You can read the blog HERE
I knew I wanted to help and mentioned it
to our Wednesday night quilting group a few weeks ago.  
I offered to gave the ladies a quick pillow case lesson at our June 22nd meeting.
They came on June 22
prepared to make pillowcases with red, white, and blue fabrics.
Yes they all wanted to make pillowcases in support of Carol and especially her friend
.....and I was thrilled they wanted to help too......
...so far I have 10 pillowcases and more are coming tonight. 
 I'm hoping to mail them to Carol the first week in August....
My goal is 25 pillow cases.......
A big THANK YOU to Ann, Barb, Grace, and Pam.

Pillowcases


A great pillowcase tutorial is HERE.

happy hugs and a zillion thank you's






Monday, July 4, 2011

Hello everyone....where did May and June go ......

The month of May flew by like a blur...and it seems like only yesterday 
I was stitching quilt tops for
the Bunny Hill Designs booth and the Moda booth for Spring Market
and was actually in Utah experiencing Spring Market...
totally overwhelming and exhausting but would do it again in a minute.

I bound 2 monster king size quilts...one for my friend Liz
and one for a friend of Mama Spark's....and yes....
bound 2 more quilts for Mama Spark....one for a wedding and one for a graduation.
We traveled to Canada ...
...had family visiting from Canada...
...went to see my Granddaughter's dance Competition May 21
...planted my veggie garden and a boat load of flowers
...now it's time to keep the weeds out.
I'm still going to the gym 3 times a week
....trying to keep up with the registrations
and my responsibilities for the GAAQG 3 day Quilting Unlimited (QU) retreat...
yep, stepped way out of my box and volunteered to be the registrar...
***There are still openings in some of the classes***

June was a blur too
I did major cleaning before it was time to 
entertain 10 house guests...June 16 - 19 for our annual NASCAR weekend
...another weekend trip to Canada to see the grandgirls dance recital...
they brought happy tears to my eyes and are growing up way too fast...(:
I'm going over to Cori's most afternoons to help her with her online shop.
I'm stitching some store samples for Bird Brain Designs and
have stitched 18 more blocks from Helen Stubbings Truly Aussie pattern.
I'm keeping my LMS Birdie BOM stitchery up to date.
I'm trying to keep on top of the laundry, cleaning, shopping etc...
I'm sewing favors for the tables for the Friday and Saturday dinners for QU...
and I'm even sewing on my Gammil
oh yes I AM!!!!!
I had procrastinated long enough.......
I have had my Gammil Classic Plus for almost a year now.......
it has been set up and ready for action for over 9 months.....
my friend Liz has been over at least 3 times to show me the basics.....and
each time she would leave
I would park the machine and there it would sit month after month....
....not a stitch...nope not a one... 
A few weeks ago she said she would come over after work and give me a hand again
.....if I made her my chicken salad......absolutely I would
.......it was 95 degrees when she arrived
.....we headed to the basement....and worked for a few hours......
Cori came over and Mama Spark too.....Mama Spark wanted some chicken salad
and Cori wanted to see the machine in action...  
We stopped for dinner and after dinner Liz headed home to do chores at the farm and 
Cori, Mama Spark and I went back to the basement...
they wanted to make sure I didn't park the machine and call it quits!!!
Around 9 o'clock I run out of bobbin thread...
Mama Spark had already left and Cori decided it was time to head home.
I thought about parking the machine at that point but
decided to give it one try to wind a bobbin....
....it took me about 30 minutes to figure it out
I gave myself a pat on the back
but now I had to figure out how to re thread the machine...
since I had only the one cone of the white thread and had to use it to wind my bobbin...
I did as Liz said earlier in the evening...."tie the new thread to the old thread
and pull it to the needle instead of re threading the whole machine
......much like threading a serger"
I tied my threads together and....yes...you guessed it.....
the threads separated.
I thought about heading upstairs to bed at this point but again I decided
I'll give it one try to re thread the machine.....
another 30 minutes later I was ready to start quilting again.
I hoped I had it threaded correctly and the machine would not jam...
....took a deep breath and finished the quilt.
It was now 12:30 and I was exhausted....and (o:

Hullaballo front 1st on Gammill Hullaballo front 1st on Gammill closeup

Hullaballo back 1st on Gammill

How did I do??
Can you see the butterfly and the sun????
I'm really happy how the quilt turned out and am anxious
to load my second quilt...hopefully today....wish me luck....I'm will need it.

hugs to all



Friday, May 20, 2011

Ironing Board............

......a few days ago I was reading a few blogs
and trust me I'm way behind in reading and writing.......
 Madam Samm at Sew I Quilt was posting about making an ironing board
.......well I just have to share a few pictures of mine.......I luv it.  
I bought it in a small town in Ontario many years ago.....

Ironing board down Ironing board up Ironing board closed

....it is great for pressing quilt blocks....do you like it???????

I went to Quilt Market in Salt Lake City and brought back lots for Cori to look at. She will be adding lots of patterns in her shop and also adding lots of new fabrics.....check out her Coming Soon section at Crazy Quilt Girl Shop. She has some Free Spirit fabrics coming and she is also adding a number of fabric lines from yet another fabric manufacturer.

My pictures from Quilt Market are not good but I'm hoping to post about it next week........I've got family,  visiting from Canada till Monday.....the grandpeeps do keep me busy......DGD1 has a dance competition here in Michigan.......3 dances and I can't wait to see her dance tomorrow morning and again on Sunday.

......and next weekend DSister and DBIL are coming for a visit......planning on doing some overdue sewing.  Have a great weekend everyone and I'm hoping to get to posting a little more regular soon.  


hugs




Friday, May 6, 2011

He's the best.....

....yes he is....and 45 years later he still surprises me.......
makes me feel special.....happy and loved....
....look what was waiting for me when I came home from quilting last night.....

Mother's day flowers

he is a keeper.....

and now a little something quilt related....

a quilting friend is moving to Colorado in September and 
our quilt group is making her a 30's signature quilt....here are my 2 blocks

Pandora's 30's pink block Pandora's 30's green block

I also stitched 5 star blocks for the 'Just One Star' program....
Moda was asking for 1800 quilters to stitch just one star block and
they would make 100 quilts for the 'Quilts of Valor' program....
I hope they got a lot of blocks.
I was focusing on getting them in the mail and I forgot to take pictures.
My friend Cori has the 'Quilts of Valor' quilt kit in stock in her shop.
Click HERE if you would like to order a kit. 
The star blocks were easy fast to make.

Cori still has some Sherbet Pips yardage and a few charm packs left.....
....and lots of new pre cuts for Christmas are in stock or will be listed soon...
.....go over for a visit and check out her shop.


I'm off to bed. Nightie Night

hugs