My granddaughter Emily just graduated from High School. A group of her friends are exchanging gifts on Friday. Em decided to make them each a pillowcase and a necklace. I haven’t seen the necklaces she’s making but here are some of the pillowcase she made today.
Here’s the individual pictures. I know she made 2 others a few days ago so I think she still has one more to go.
Enjoy,
I spent some time yesterday working on my Hunter Star and I’m finally starting to make progress. I’m 2/5 of the way there. I’m going to try to get it finished in the next few days so that I can get it quilted before I head to Las Vegas next month.
To see what others have on their design walls, click on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times Blog.
Enjoy,
This morning as I was clicking away through Google Reader, catching up on some of the many blogs I follow, I came across the newest blog post by Ami (rhymes with salami) Simms. It is called “It’s Not Your Fault: 10 Excuses For A Rotten Running Stitch” and it’s very funny as her writing always is. The last sentence in her post is what really spoke to me.
I have done some hand quilting, and would like to do more, but generally I machine quilt my quilts using my ancient Handiquilter. I also like to do some free-motion quilting on my Brother PQ 1500 (have I mentioned lately how much I love that machine). But sometimes “Quilting by Checkbook” is the right solution.
Here is my latest “Quilting by Checkbook” quilt.
The quilting was made last summer at my annual retreat in Las Vegas. It was a mystery taught by my sister Melinda but designed by Debbie Caffrey. I really wanted to complete it and have it ready for show-and-tell in Last Vegas this year so having my friend Sue quilt it was definitely the right thing to do.
I have also promised many different people that I would make a YouTube video showing my binding techniques. Hopefully with the help of my granddaughter Emily I will get that accomplished this week using this quilt to show some of my techniques. Stay tuned.
Enjoy,
I may have the smallest backyard in the history of backyards. If you take a couple of big steps out the back door you fall in to the pool. Along the block wall at the back of the yard we used to have what we called the “green monster”. I’m not sure what kind of plant it was but over the years it took over the entire neighborhood. Although it didn’t start in our yard it had been there for many, many years. When we had our decking redone we new (or at least hoped that it would kill the “green monster” and sure enough it did. Thank goodness we have a wonderful gardener that has an able bodied son and son-in-law who came in and removed the dead “monster” and repaired the block wall.
Here’s a picture of the before.
And, here’s a picture after the “green monster” was removed.
After staring at it for a while I decided that it needed to be painted. After a search for someone to hire we found just the right person. She’s the only one that said we first need to stain the blocks and then paint on top of that.
Just the simple step of staining made a huge difference but then she started painting. She knew I was a quilted and that I love whimsical. All I can say is, she definitely understood my vision.
That just left one problem and that was what to do along the bottom of the block wall. Although there’s a little dirt, it’s mostly cement so it’s impossible to plant anything.
Finally this week, Emily and I bought plants, pots and solar lights and I just love it.
I love it and hopefully I can keep everything alive until a big family party in just a few weeks.
Now it’s back to sewing and quilting.
You’ve heard the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”, well that definitely describes my design wall lately.
Here’s my design wall as of this morning. Things have been moved around a bit but nothing new. Just my “Swoon” block and some Hunter Star blocks. I really need to get back to working on the Hunter Star.
However, I have been rearranging, reorganizing and purging my sewing studio.
Here’s a glimpse.
To see what’s on some other design walls, head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times Blog.
Until next time. . . . . . . . .
Enjoy,
My New Design Wall
I have been cleaning and reorganizing my sewing studio. One of the things that has always in the way was my design wall. I have various sizes of Cheryl Ann’s Design Walls and although I love them, I have a very small room and it just took up too much space. So, I did what I should have done a long time ago and stapled some cream colored flannel to a wall in my room. It’s not as big but I think it’s going to work a lot better for me.
You can just see the top of my sewing machine that I free motion quilt on. I 
To see what others have on their design wall, head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times blog.
Enjoy,
On Monday I posted a picture of my new “Quilter’s Caddy”. I was using the app Blogpress on my iPad and for some reason (no doubt something I did) the picture came out itsy bitsy. So, today I decided to post some better pictures along with the link to the project instructions. The pattern came from the Baby Lock website http://www.babylock.com/ftp/projects/Project-Quilters%20Caddy.pdf. This will take you directly to the pdf.
I can’t wait to fill it with supplies and give it try.
Enjoy,
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