Just posting

I have been busy cleaning and organizing. I decided to take a break and thought I would just do a little post for the day. Here is a picture of the necklaces from my Mother-In-Law. We decided to throw the necklaces in a vase while going through her jewelry and so far this what we have collected. There is more but I haven't got to it yet Here is a picture of some gray fabric I bought last week-end at the Milwaukie Quilt show. It is a local show, no judging, just enjoying the work of quilters. I entered three quilts into the show. I went with to friends to look at all the beautiful quilts and I found this fabric. I know I said no fabric this year but this is from the 70's and will work perfect for what I have planned.

I plan to use it as a screen in a screen door applique quilt I have designed in my head. Let's just hope the actual design will be what my minds eye sees. As you can see from the picture the quilt start will have to wait until quilting on other projects is completed. I am working on quilting the latest HAD from Judy. I certainly hope she plans to continue these projects. As I read her blog today she is becoming very busy with outside activities. It is funny how life changes things. I will find other things to make but I did enjoy her hour a day projects.

Trying out new camera

My daughter wanted a new camera for Christmas. We bought her one and I inherited her old digital camera. I have clung to my other digital that I got from my son until last week-end when my dear husband decided he finally wanted his hand me down from me. We have never purchase a digital camera, we just keep handing down the hand -me- downs. Now I get to learn how to use a newer more sophisticated camera. I finally got it to down load my pictures I took, little did I know I was going to get over 100 pictures my daughter had left on it. Oh well, I will be doing a lot of deleting and some of the pictures I actually want. They are Christmas pictures from two years ago that I didn't have. Above is a picture of the ever growing paper piecing. I have quite a ways to go before completed but I am slowly making progress. I just completed a quilting job for a women who did a beautiful applique quilt. She said it took her two years to complete the quilt. I have a feeling I won't be to far behind her with the quilt.

Here is what I am currently working on with my sewing machine. It is one of Bonnie's quilts patterns. The pattern is Bricks and Stepping Stones. What a great pattern. It is taking a bit longer as I am making it queen size to fit my bed. I am about half way done. I will put a black border, probably 3.5 inches, that is the width of my long ruler so very easy to cut that width. I should have the top completed by next week-end.

Not much else to write about, I just wanted to try out the camera, post a few pictures and see how things worked. It did take me awhile to figure out how to down load, I don't know if I remember what I did but we will see what happens next time. My plans for the week are completed the top above and start quilting on my February HAD. Have a great week everyone, I probably won't post again until the end of the week.

Bargains

I stopped at Abertson's tonight on my way home from work to buy groceries. When I entered the store they had a display of books on sale at a discounted price. I found these two quilting books in the bin. I paid 3.99 for the vintage quilting and 2.99 for the winter book. I thought this was a pretty good bargain.

The patterns are pretty basic, I probably already have the basic patterns in other books, but seeing them laid out in a format gives me ideas, and for the price I felt like these books were very affordable.

I blew it today. I had put myself on a fabric diet for the year. I made a decision not to purchase any fabric this year unless I needed fabric for a special quilt (a gift with a purpose) or one fabric backing. Well, I stopped at the fabric store today to purchase some thread and ended up buying three remnants. I spent about 9.00 in total, which wasn't to bad, but I must say I felt a bit anxious while standing at the check-out stand. This is my first fabric purchase of the year. I will go back on my plan tomorrow. I will just have to be stronger next time I stop in to buy thread.

Back to sewing, have a great evening one and all.

Completed

Here is the completed brown/pink quilt. This quilt will go to a very special person in my life. I certainly hope she likes it.

I like the completed quilt. I think this is a really neat pattern and I thank Bonnie over at Quiltville for making it available to us at no charge. Bonnie is very generous to post these patterns for all to use with great instructions.

We attended another funeral yesterday. I don't know if I can handle this, three funerals since the beginning of the new year. I certainly hope this is not a trend for the whole year. Someone told me it is over, as these events come in threes. I hope they are right.

I did celebrate St. Patty's Day with the usual Ruben sandwich and green beer. Would it be St. Patty's Day without that?

Well I will close now and go back to my quilting. Enjoy the day.

Ready for Raffle

The Breast Cancer quilt is done and ready to donate for raffle. I will donate this to my tax lady, she is head of her American Cancer Society chapter. They hold a Mother's Day luncheon and raffle every year to raise monies for cancer research. At the luncheon they raffle off donate items and this is my donation for 2007. Here is what the back looks like. I hope this brings in much needed funds for the Cancer Society.

Off to housework and other obligations. Have a great day.

Progress

I just couldn't wait to see how things were going to go together. This is what I have so far. I have not used up all my flowers, just wanted to see how they would like. I was wondering how I was going to put these together until I saw the antique quilts Mary posted on her blog. I liked the look of just the white background. I was thinking of green to represent leaves but I just didn't feel like I wanted that but when I saw that quilt on Mary's blog that was when I made my decision to make the quilt this way.

Yesterday was my sewing group. I don't know how but I forgot to take my camera. We had a great time. We are making a double Irish Chain, which we will raffle off and use the proceeds for a charity at the church. The fabrics that were chosen for the quilt are great. I will haven to remember my camera next month so you can see the material. This is the first time I have ever made an Irish Chain. I certainly have admired them through out the years, just have never made one.

Well that's about it for today. I have the binding sewn on the breast cancer quilt and the brown/pink quilt. I need to sew the back by hand now. I will post pictures of the completed quilts after binding is completely sewn. Have a great day, remember it is the beginning of day light savings time.

A few more tops

Here are a couple tops I made a few week-ends ago. I had purchased a bag of not very well cut 2.5 inch squares at an estate sale many many moons ago. I think it has been almost ten years now. I sewed the pieces ( I don't think they could really be called squares) onto muslin and made 6.5 x 4.5 inch rectangles then sewed them together. I had enough to make two twin size quilt tops. I have a few of the pieces left and will most likely incorporate them into a crumbs quilt whenever I get in the mood for that.

I think this is my favorite of the two. They are not quilted yet. I have them in my pile. I was down to three unquilted tops but am now back up to five. I just finished quilting the breast cancer quilt. The binding needs to be sewn on and then I will donate it to the American Cancer Society. My tax lady is head of her chapter and I will donate for raffle at their Spring tea. I will post picture when completed.

Work calls. I hope all have a wonderful day.

Updates on my HAD quilts

Here is the latest on my Hour A Day quilts so graciously offered to us by Judy at Sunshine Quilts.This is the one I made following the February pattern. I choose to use pinks in hopes of using up alot of the pink fabric I have collected through out the past few years. I did use up lot of the pink but I am still drowning in it. I will keep plugging away on using it up. This top is not quilted yet, which means you will be seeing it again when it is quilted and completed.

Here is my completed November pattern. This quilt was given the name " Gratitude's" and was alot of fun to make. I like how it turned out. As above, I choose to use green because I have seemed to collect quite abit of green also. I might just have to put this one out for March, it looks like it could represent St. Patricks day well.

Here is a picture of my completed HAD, the very first one Judy offered to us. I liked making this quilt and my husband really likes it. I was considering donating to charity but might have to keep it for hubby.

I want to thank Judy for these wonderful patterns and I look forward to the next one. Her patterns are great, instructions are very easy to follow and if you keep up you will have a beautiful quilt top at the end of the month. I have enjoyed looking trough blogs and seeing how different all the tops look just by the fabric choices. Martha at Quiltcontemplation has made a really neat one with hand dyed fabrics. Beth at bzyqltr is in the process of making a very patriotic version. JoAnn at Rockin' on the Porch has a beautiful version using black, blue, burgundy and white. Last but not least, (there are probably more out there I just don't have time to research right now) is Gail at Going to Pieces, hers is very stunning with the black,red and yellow. Enjoy looking at all these quilts, you might have to scroll down a bit to find the posts but it is well worth the time.

Enjoy the day.

Remember when

Remember back in June of last year when I posted this lonely picture of an English paper piecing flower? Well, it has been along time since I have worked on these but in the last few weeks I have started again. My last post was June 13,2006 if you are interested in checking it out. Well, this is a sampling of what I have so far. I have 27 made and about 13 on the side to be sewn together. I am wondering how many one might need to make a queen sized quilt. Any ideas from others quilters out there? Just a quick post to update on this project. This definitely will be a project in progress for many many years.