Twelfth Challenge Quilt Top Finished!

The Challenge to Myself quilt top is finished! Next is to get it quilted. It turned out to be a pretty good size -- about 50" x 60". All of the baskets are polka dots even though some of them don't show up on the picture. It's a nice quilt even though quite time consuming with all the little 2 1/2" squares! Now I'll have to figure out prize for myself for finishing my challenge!!!!! Maybe another quilt---maybe a kit this time---haven't really got my eye on anything special, but the looking will be fun!

Grandsons (Evan, 6 and Nathan, 4) and their parents are coming this week-end--what fun that will be---we'll get out the slot cars and the trains and have lots of fun, even though rain is predicted. Probably fit some Mario Bros. in there, too!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Twelfth and Last Challenge to Myself Started!

Here's the first block of the 12th and last quilt in the Challenge to Myself---it's a basket quilt of all polka-dot blocks--the polka-dot fabrics were fun to find--BFF Debi helped me find them when we went to the Big Sale at Stitchin' Heaven a few months back--lookings half the fun----right?!

The second picture shows Blended Stars. The pattern is from "Open Up a Can of Worms" by Debbie Caffery. It used a jelly roll called Cherish by Chez Moi for Moda. They are all stars, but some show up better than others.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Yellow I Spy

This pattern is from "Scrap Basket Surprises" and was fun to put together. It included a partial seam, which I have always avoided, but they really aren't that hard to do, I found out! In fact, I don't know why I always avoided them!! I used up a lot of my yellow stash for this quilt---yippee!! I wish the photo showed the blocks better. I have a new camera and I am still learning on it.

I have had pneumonia this week, so have not done very much quilting. Sure does knock you for a loop!!! But each day is getting better!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Cutting Up!

I've got a new book called "Scrap Basket Surprises" and so decided to cut some "kits" to go along with the book. I've been pulling my boxes of fabric by color and picking a pattern and cutting out the scraps according to colors. So far I have a brights, a red, a green, and a yellow. Now to get busy and sew them! It was fun to see the storage boxes go down a tiny bit!!!

I got a new digital camera and now am having trouble downloading the picture of my 2 days worth of cutting---I'm determined to figure it out though! May have to wait until Maynard comes home from work tonight and get some professional help! Couldn't get it to work, so got a picture with the old camera and posted that. But I'll get it figured out yet!!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Challenge to Myself Number Eleven Top Finished!

This is Number Eleven in the Challenge to Myself. It is just the top. It is called Bento Box in Blues. This one proved to be quite a challenge indeed------I cut it out and discovered that I had cut one of the pieces wrong---too small-----and it affected all the other pieces. So I put that aside for another project and ----------what else?----------------started over!!! Since I was using scraps, I had plenty of fabric-----good thing!!!

Now I have one more quilt to go and I will have reached the end of the book. the next one is polka dot baskets---they sure are pretty and I sure hope I can do them. Haven't looked too closely at the pattern yet.

Decided to tackle a jelly roll and so I am doing one from the book called "Open a Can of Worms" by Debbie Caffrey. I used the Omnigrid 96 and 98 rulers for the first time and I really like them. You use them to cut the 2 different parts of the flying geese that make up the star points. They really worked slick!! (no affliation etc, etc, just satisified customer!)

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Saturday's Quilting

Here are the last 3 quilts to quilt that are the size I can manage on the Bernina---there are 3 left that Maynard will do on the Little Gracie Pro II when he has the time.

They are "Flowers Among the Stars", "Flower Fairies", and Red Wavy Stripes."

Now onto some more quilt tops and some handwork. I have several pieces of handwork that I am working on, so will work on some of those for awhile. Then back to some Yellow Brick Roads, which are my favorite, I guess I should be able to do those in my sleep, but I haven't reached that point yet!!!LOL!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Finished more PL quilts before the Week-end!

I finished some more Project Linus quilts before the week-end. The week-end is when I give up my sewing space to my husband, Maynard and he works on his quilt and I set up my Featherweight in the kitchen and sew out there. Can't do any free motion quilting on that---just straight forward sewing, so I have to plan ahead!!!! He is coming along very nicely on his quilt and is already looking around for what he wants to work on next---------------but he says he "has" to finish this one first!!! I told him there's no quilter's law that he has to do that, but he is determined!!! LOL!!!

The first one is called "All Star Ball"--there are ball players (basketball).

The second is "Purple Snoballs"--reminds me of that poem "I thought I saw a purple cow" and ends "But I'd rather see than be one."

The third is from Eleanor Burns book of the same name "Orion's Star." A star within a log cabin---this one really was a quilt in a day---I got the top done in one day---I was very surprised at how fast it went---fun to do!

The last one is "Checkmate" from Pieces of the Heart company. I used leftover Zippity DO Dah fabrics for that. Jackie gave me some leftover fabrics that she had---thanks Jackie!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

"Plarn" Bedroll finished

I finished the "plarn" bedroll---it is huge, but someone will be sure to use it! It took a month to make (working off and on) and 13 balls of "plarn." The literature on this project says that one bedroll takes about 900 plastic bags. That's quite a saving of bags ending up in the landfill. The first picture shows it rolled up into a bedroll held together with the handle. The second picture shows it laying out for use. It's much softer than you think it would be. (That's the leaf of a plant showing in the lower right hand corner!)

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

More quilts finished!

The first one is called "Hot Summer Cars"-----you probably can't see the cars, trucks and etc, but they are on the red squares.

The second one is "Happy Camping" and features paw prints and animals that you might see when you are camping---but they look friendly!!!

The third one is "Stars at Night" and you have seen this one before---it was a challenge to myself quilt---I was mighty glad to get all those stars done!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Liberty Banner

This little banner is called Liberty House banner and only measures about 16x20". It was fun to make. Now to quilt it a little bit and then bind it and find a little spot for it! I found the kit when I was looking for something else!!! Guess that happens to everyone now and then---I'd forgotten all about getting it at the Houston Quilt Show 2 years ago!!! Wonder what else I would find if I went really looking??!!

Today I hope to get some quilting done on the pile of Project Linus quilts. I have 10 pinned and ready to quilt on the Bernina. Maynard has one on the Little Gracie, so we are working hard at it!!!

Don't have any big quilt projects that I am working on, so think in between quilting PL quilts, I will start Challenge to Myself quilt number 11--Bento Box. I will use all scraps for that.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Tiny Little Mice

Arletta of Polka Dot Pineapple has a tutorial for the cutest "strawberry" mice and so I just had to try one. Her tutorial was great-----------so easy to follow and even though these mice are teeny, tiny, they weren't hard to do. In fact I made 2 of them. Thanks, Arletta! Check out her page, because her pictures are much better than mine!

They start with a 4 1/2" circle and you cut that in half and make 2 mice, so that tells you they are tiny! They were such fun to do that I may have to do some more!

I started knitting some more socks today and now the 2 at a time method seems to be easier for me-----I really like the concept of doing 2 at a time---when you are done, you are done and don't have another sock staring you in the face saying, "Make me, make me!!!!!"

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan