Round Robin quilt arrives home!

After 15 months of traveling everywhere from Israel to England to all over the US, my little quiltlet has arrived safe and sound.  I think all the gals did such a wonderful job! Thanks to the RR bloggers who participated.

Round one was started by me, it's the diagonal scrappy stripe block in the upper left hand corner. It set the stage of what I wanted on my quilt.  I want bright, fun colors and my theme was "Fun in the Sun".  Every round was to be a specific size and then when the quiltlet was done, we had to embroider on them, add appliques, write on it and add embellishments and quilt it.

I loved the little flip flops that someone embroidered....

then someone added a bunch of bright squares and others appliqued some 'beachy' type things on there as well.

I'm thinking it will be perfect in my home in SC!  Thanks again to the RR bloggers for their great work!

File Cabinet Redo

I'm being overcome by paper...patterns, magazines, articles from the internet and there are piles everywhere in my studio!  When a good friend was having a garage sale and said that at the end of the day everything goes to Goodwill, I did my best to support her and relieve her of having to haul so much to Goodwill. Hey, that's what friends are for, right?  LOL  One of the things I took off her hands was a legal size file cabinet, in pretty good condition, but quite frankly...ho hum, boring, bland. Never mind that I had a matching one, but I paid full price for it and hate to ruin it by painting it. But this free one....I felt fully comfortable letting my imagination run wild! Enter my favorite color...at the moment...

I didn't take a before picture, but I am fairly confident you can imagine what a plain, beige 4 drawer file cabinet looks like, right?  I then taped off all the metal...dumb!  I had to later remove it to get the paper on the drawer fronts and then decided to paint the hardware anyway. 

But oh well.  It took 2 cans (after priming it) to fully cover it.  I thought it was a lot, but since this is a fairly new thing for me, it could be right. 

After it was all dry, I then removed all the hardware.  A lot of the access to the handles, etc. was hidden behind a plastic insert on the inside drawer front, which I removed. 

Picking out the wildest scrapbook paper I could find, I soon realized this was a LEGAL size file cabinet and one 12" x 12" scrapbook paper wasn't going to fit! 

 The outside drawer dimension was 

11 1/4" x 16 1/2". So I cut a second sheet of paper and cut it about 2" less wide than I needed, and then filled it with a contrasting band of color. 

In order to play around with my design, without committing to it, I used this Spray Adhesive, which allows you to reposition your paper, without ruining it.

After I was satisfied with my paper placement...

I used Mod Podge to glue the papers on the drawers and then put a thin coating on top of it, making sure I sealed the edges well so they wouldn't peel.  I don't have ONE picture of this step..do you know how hard it is to do Mod Podge AND take a photo at the same time?  When you are by yourself, it's hard to do!  But you can read more about it at Mod Podge Rocks blog. (great fun blog, btw!)

I decided that my hardware kind of blended in with this wild paper, so decided to spray paint the hardware black. 

and here she is...in all her wild glory!

Wow--now that I look at this picture, it looks like a wedge!  Obviously the angle that I had to take it!  

Now I'm off to gather the patterns, papers, etc. that are stashed ALL over the place and get them into ONE place.  

My husband thinks I'm crazy...but it makes me smile.  And that, my friends, is what it's about. Bringing some JOY in my life. 

You Can Quilt That Out

Inspired by PINK!

I love this time of year, about a month after planting flowers, they are getting filled out and not getting that bedraggled look they get after a long hot summer. Here's a few from my yard...

Yeah! I got my hydrangeas to bloom, I just love them

Impatiens starting to fill in

Astilbe --such a soft looking flower

gerbera daisy--JoAnn's finest!  hahaha  these are in a metal pitcher in a place that is hard to get a hose, but yet I wanted color, so I cheated! It looks great from the road. I might have to re-think my planting next year and totally wipe out all that watering time. 

Inspired by the colors in my yard....I grabbed all my pinks, oranges, yellows and a bit of green here and there to make....

60 degree scrappy diamonds.  And then turned 40 of those into this.....

A baby quilt for some sweet little girl.  Next, I'm going to gather blues/greens for a boy quilt.  And my scrap pile is still as large as it's ever been! How on earth does that happen?

by the way, thanks to those who commented on giving me advice with my new Mac.  I'm loving it..I wish I could have unlimited time to sit and play with it. I've been spending a lot of time on it, but there is just so many hours in a day and too much to do. But I am making headway and learning something new each day and even teaching hubby a thing or two....

Switching over to the other side

Got your attention, didn't I? LOL I'm switching to the iMac. There, I said it, so therefore I'm committed.

It was a Christmas present. Yep, I said Christmas and I am just getting it out of the box. Let's just say I've been a bit reluctant to do the big switch! Don't get me wrong, I've heard wonderful things about them, but when you've been a PC user since the Commodore 64 (egads--did I just date myself or what??), I was just hesitant. But, but, but...what about my website? Still in a quandry about that. iWeb (Mac's built in website builder) seems a bit weak, but I'm not ready for the big guns, like DreamWeaver either. So...I wander around the web, hoping an answer will pop up. and what about.......

EQ7--so not compatible with Mac. :( I was bummed about that, but am NOT about to give it up, so it goes on my notebook.

3D Embroidery--not compatible either. And I need it for my embroidery machine. Load it on an older lap top to use exclusively for the sewing machine. And now they just came out with 5D--amazing how quick our programs become!

Cook'N- a recipe/cookbook software program where I get a free cookbook download each month. Where to put it? Notebook? Old laptop?






Quicken--got the Mac version, but in order for it to port over, I need to change the file name size to a certain size.....geez, it's easier to start new.
Microsoft Office Suite--I got the Mac version, but since it's a newer version than I had before, it's all new to me anyway. Do I just switch to a Mac version?

It's all so much to learn and not just one thing, but A LOT!! I feel like I'm drowning a bit and no one to throw me a life jacket!! LOL I did get the One to One membership where I get free training for a year, but they were really frowning when I brought my sleeping bag.

So--anyone out there been through this? Any helpful hints? tips?

Joy, joy, joy

I’ve got the Joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart…..down in my heart……oh wait, I mean I’ve got Joy on my mind.  Joy was my Secret Sister in my sorority this past year and as usual, I make my Secret Sister a quilt for the final revealing day.  Not only is she my Secret Sister, but she’s a close long time friend, who has gotten into quilting in the last couple of years, making her even a closer friend!    I made Nana’s Garden (a Quilt in a Day quilt!)  It started out as a sample for a class, but I loved it so much, I am giving this one to her and making one for me as well!  I used up almost all my scraps to make this one and I STILL have florals out the wazoo!  (yeah I know—the spell check doesn’t like that word!) 

I used a stencil and a blue wash away marker to mark the feather wreaths and the little side triangles thingys, and it took several days of spraying those marks to get them out. I don’t get it…when you want them to leave, they resist going. But boy, if you need them, they disappear overnight! 

I just bought this latest round of embroidery designs (from the Embroidery Library) and I just love them.  This one is from Flowers of Faith (Set #1—there are 2 sets).     I made the label with this flower on it, figuring it was perfect since it was a floral quilt and that’s her name!

 

 

here’s another good one, from Flowers of Creativity from the same company…

Wouldn’t it be cute on a pocket of a tote bag?  on a shirt?  in a blank block on a quilt?  possibilities are endless!

 

 

 

Nana’s Garden for Joy

Enjoy—Joy!

Welcome Leia Noelle

Bad, bad Nana—my newest little granddaughter is now one month old (born April 13—on my grandmother’s 107th birthday, or would have been).  I’m just NOW getting the pictures up and how she has changed already!  She was a big one (9 lbs, 4 oz) and struggled a little bit coming into the world, but all is good and what a happy, content baby she is.

Mom saying her first hello…

 

Proud big sister

Big brother (who walked in and asked where the baby was, peeked at her and then asked for the Ipad!—boys!)

and finally, curious sister (who checked her COMPLETELY out and is fascinated by her)

Welcome precious little one….God is so amazing in bringing us fresh miracles each day and there is no bigger miracle than a little baby.  I love you Leia. (pronounce lay-ah)

More finishes

As I was updating my Excel spreadsheet on the status of all my quilt projects (yes, I have THAT many to warrant a spreadsheet!) and I realized that I have finished 17 projects so far this year!  As in FINISHED—quilted, binding on AND label! I won’t allow myself to call it finished and put in the DONE column until it has a label. I’ve seen too many quilts without labels because they think they’ll get to it later and then later never happens, or worse, they can’t remember when they made it!  Okay—I admit, I once was guilty of that, but no more. Actually, I’ve done that for years, just for my own memory’s sake. 

Now I feel better about being absent from my blog, I’ve been sewing! and sewing…and sewing!  A little cooking, laundry, treadmill work and minimal cleaning thrown in, but mostly sewing.

Here’s more that I have finished this year:

Disappearing 9 Patch

I loved how simple this quilt was, yet so striking. I wasn’t liking the D9P (as it’s also called) being totally scrappy, so opted for a bit more planned version. Fits perfect on my kitchen table.

Circle Game

This was done using Lollipop’s Bindings, which are GREAT.  Her bindings come in lots of fun colors and she also sells kits to use them in as well.   My granddaughter chose this as her new quilt at Nana’s. All the kids have quilts that are just theirs when they come stay here. They noticed a few months ago that they have kind of outgrown their original baby quilts. And since the oldest granddaughter got to pick out a new quilt (that was on my design wall at the time), they wanted to as well. So I showed them all the quilt tops in line waiting to be quilted if they wanted one soon. ;)  I had the most adorable quilt picked out for the Divine Miss M, but she kept saying, ‘or you could keep it’.  LOL  I finally got the hint and let her choose her own and this was it.

Salt Water Taffy

a class I taught about 1 1/2 years ago and my grandson decided he would like that to be his new quilt at Nana’s.  Good incentive to get it quilted!

that’s it for today…more coming.

I have a blog?

Oh yeah!  I have written DOZENS of posts……too bad they were all in my head!  Oh well, I keep saying, there just ain’t enough hours in the day I tell ya. Little mini dramas going on with Sheleah (our adult daughter w/Down’s) and am not liking where it’s headed, but God gave her to us for a reason and we’ll just keep hanging in there trying to figure her out!  If anything, she keeps us on our toes.

Since I’m a bit behind, I’ll just start showing  pictures of what I’ve been working on, and they might be out of order of being done, but hey, what can I say?  :)

Saw these type of quilts all over the Internet, so taught a class and shared the ‘tags’ with the students, everything from fuzzy minkee, bumpy fabric (for the bottoms of slippers), ribbons from satin to grosgrain, chenille.  I made this little Tagalong for the newest grandbaby that is to be born next Tuesday, April 13!!  The blocks were leftover from a quilt I made for Alia, 2 1/2 years ago. Sad to say she doesn’t carry that one around, but a ragged old fleece Tinkerbell blanket. :(  This Nana isn’t happy, but what can you say?  I’m hoping that making a smaller quilt with lots of textures and softness, the new baby might be more inclined (as well as Mom & Dad) to carry this one around. I made another Tag Quilt for a couple at church, but it got wrapped and out the door before I remembered to take a picture, but then, I think you get the idea. :)

Liam turned 4 in March and I came across this panel (I added the last two borders) that I bought a few years ago (probably when he was born) and never made it. I thought I better get it done before he outgrows it!  He already is done with Thomas the Tank, Cars, and now is into dinosaurs and Super Heros.  So, Thomas the Tank got put on the back. He picked the fabric out one time while wandering through Wal Mart, he put the whole bolt in my cart!  So, I better use it up while I can.  The panel was a little village with streets and lots of different buildings. So,  I wrote the names of his city on the Post Office building, the name of the hospital where he was born and added in the names of his siblings and cousins as well. They all loved searching for their name. I guess they start young liking to see their name in print. I like adding words into the quilting on a quilt when it’s for someone special, makes it all their own.   I still had some fabric leftover, so decided to make a pillowcase. Well, when your cutting table is overflowing and you need to start measuring to cut at the 10” mark instead of the 0” mark, you need to ADD 10” to the other end. Hmmmm, wonder why my pillowcase ended up short and then had to add to it!! Dumb, dumb!! He won’t know.  Guess I better clean up my work room a bit.