This is a way I figured out to keep track of my log cabin block strips.  I made a notebook with "O" rings and notebooks and labelled the pockets, light and dark with size and letter.  Works great!

These 2 are for Project Linus.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Project Linus here we come!

Two more for Project Linus.  First one is a bright orange Yellow Brick Road that is made from 6 of the Fat Quarters that I won for Project Linus. And the second one is for there, too and is a string quilt from a pattern by Bonnie Hunter.  She has such great ideas and patterns on her website.  She is one busy gal!

Going to be getting some rain this afternoon and next couple of days.  We sure need it ----the lake levels are  falling.  It's overcast and looks like rain.  Good afternoon to curl up with some quilting or a good book!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Quilt Show and Two New Tops

Hope some of you got to go to the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  It was wonderful!  We were there for 2 days and had such a great time.  I don't think we saw everything even with being there two days----it wasn't because we didn't try!!  LOL!  I even got to sew a quilt top at the Project Linus booth---what a neat set-up they had.  The kits were ready and all you had to do was sew straight lines.  I saw a couple of kids sewing, too.  It was nice to see that they could participate too.  Made me really want to come home and sew and so I did.

Here are two log cabin quilt tops I did from a layer cake from the line called "Amelia."  It is very bright and cheerful.  Fun to work with!

Project Linus has published book written by National Vice President Mary Balagna and President of  Project Linus Carol Babbitt.  The book is "Quilt It With Love,  The Project Linus Story."  It has 20 patterns in it and I have called it another challenge book. I want to try to make all the patterns in it within the next year.  Should be a fun challenge to myself!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Fall Medley

 This quilt is called "Fall Medley."  It is "Yellow Brick Road."  Sorry the color is so bad.  Much prettier in person.  We are getting room ready for new big quilter, so have not been quilting many quilts.  We moved my sewing room and so I share room with computer.

This is the pile of quilts that wait for the big quilter to arrive, so Maynard will have some for practice quilts---that's where I'm putting most of my tops.  So if you don't see much from me in the next few weeks you'll know where they are!

I'm working on a Log Cabin quilt from a layer cake right now.  It is an "Amelia" layer cake and the colors are nice and bright----a joy to put together.  I'm using Kona Snow as the background light color.  Very much fun!

Fall arrived at our house last night.  Temp got down to 39 degrees and it felt so good to cuddle up in a quilt or two!  Going to be nice and in 70's for the rest of the week.  Hope this weather continues.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Project Linus again

 Another Yellow Brick Road---my all time favorite pattern because it so easy to put together and only uses 6 fat quarters.  It's just the right size for baby through probably 4 years old.  It is a Terry Atkinson pattern.  This is  some more of that wonderful fabric from my friends Jacque and I.J.  Thank you again!

 This pattern is called "Just Can't Cut It" and is a pattern from All Washed Up Quilts.

The last quilt is from a freebie on the web and is from Moda Bake Shop and is a "recipe" from Cindy.  Moda Bake Shop has all kinds of neat patterns on it and a new one most every day.  Lots of fun to check out!  I was so excited to have the "recipe maker", Cindy leave a comment on my blog!!!  This quilt was fun to put together because as you saw from my block picture from a few days ago, you do not make the pinwheels blocks, but they "appear" as you sew the blocks together.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Two for Project Linus

 This quilt is done with all scraps and is from Quiltville with Bonnie Hunter.  She is so generous with her patterns and I especially like this one.  Thank you, Bonnie!  Didn't make much of a dent in my 2.5" scrap box though.  I guess that's what everyone says!  I called it "Scrappy Rainbow."

This quilt I called "Ring Around the Scraps."  This is a pattern done by Betty Hammock, who is a lady from around my part of the country.  I was able to take a class from her once, which was very informative.  She is a nice lady and writes good patterns.  She teaches through Quilt Mercantile which is my favorite quilt store.  They just celebrated their 10th anniversary!  Congratulations to them!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Four Quilts for Project Linus and One for Me!

This one is called Mult-Colored Polka Dots and is my favorite pattern, Yellow Brick Road.  I think I like it so much because it only takes 6 fat quarters and it is so easy to do.  It turns out differently each time.  I like to choose a "focus" fabric and then choose fabrics to go with it.

This one is called Wildflowers.  I used one charm square and a yard of fabric to make it.

This one I called School Days because there are school images on the fabric--school buses and letters and  numbers.

This quilt is one called Night Trains that I did for my Hubby who has a collection of trains.  He even has them outside.

This one I called Western Red.  The pattern is Urban Cabins.  I won the Fat Quarters when we played Fat Quarter Lotto at our last retreat.  That was fun!

I'm having trouble lining up pictures with the new blogger settings, so I hope you can see what goes with what.  Guess I'll have to play around with it some more.

We are getting some nice rain today, glad to get it.  good day to stay in and read and quilt.  I'm all caught up on my quilting now, so get to make some new tops!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Happy New Year!

Starting the New Year out right with some Project Linus quilts and an afghan.

The afghan is again a variegated pink, yellow and lavender mix.It reminded me of the song from "Fiddler on the Roof:" "Sunrise, Sunset" for some reason, so that's what I called it. Guess I'm getting melancholy this time of a new year starting and our grandkids are growing up so fast!

The next one has what I call "Starfish" so I called it "Did you Catch Anything?" Love those "Starfish."

The third one is called "Lime Green John Deere." and the fourth one is called Double Wonky Pinwheels." If you look real close or enlarge the picture you will see the Double Pinwheels. They were a bit fussy to do, but they turned out fun looking.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

What I've been working on........

Sorry to have been neglecting my blog lately, but I have been working on a Christmas present and couldn't show it here because "someone" might see it!

So here is something I have been working on, too. A magnolia flower embroidery set off with little one inch squares. I have all the little one inch square alternate blocks done, but still have at least half of the 40 flower blocks to go. I am using Sulky Blendables thread and it is great! The flowers are fun to do. I have made a couple of Project Linus quilt tops, too and need to get them quilted---that's the part I tend to put off! Maynard's been too busy to help me out on the PL quilts, so I have been quilting them on the Bernina. I've grown afraid of the Little Gracie Pro II for some reason and don't like to quilt on it----afraid I will mess it up. But the Bernina works great for quilting the smaller quilts.

Also in the middle of putting together a quilt from the "Farm Fresh" line of fabric. Maybe can show that one soon!

We have been getting some "teases" of rain here. How about in your part of the country?

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Another Trio of Quilts

Here are the last three of the pile of 6 quilts that needed to be quilted and bound. One is seed for the next pile because I took a batch of 15 to the drop off point in McKinney this morning.

Debi and I met for breakfast at IHOP there in McKinney and ate breakfast and chatted until it was time for the quilt shops to be open and then a-shopping we did go!

We first stopped at The Quilt Asylum. They have all kinds of nice brights--------so much fun to shop there for Yellow Brick Road quilts. Plus they had a bunch of fabric for sale, so I stocked up on backings for PL quilts. Then we drove over to Happiness is Quilting, which is located downtown. They have nice brights, too. Can you tell I like bright fabrics? LOL! McKinney has a wonderful downtown with all kinds of little shops---a great place to wander around!

So we shopped there, too and found some more bargains in the 50% bin for PL backings. Such fun!

All in all another great adventure with Debi! She made me the cutest frame out of fabric. Thanks Debi! Now I need to look through my pictures and find the perfect picture for it!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Four-Patch Spinning Blossoms Top

This Four-Patch Spinning Blossoms top was a kit from Connecting Threads website. I should have pre-washed the fabric because the flower print was quite stiff and the iron dragged on it a lot, but I don't usually pre-wash fabric and so there it is!!! I do hope some girl will like it. The middle four-patches do a spinning thing just like a stack and whack , except they are only 4 squares. It was fun to see all the different blocks appear. Although I think I like the one I did that had more sides to it.

Hope it isn't too hot where you are and you are able to quilt----I've been quilting and when I get too hot, I stop and take a break and read a book---sometimes I even fall asleep and take a short nap---Buster, our poodle usually sleeps all day---every now and then he comes in the sewing room to get a pat on the head and then he goes back to sleep!

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

Checkmate!

This quilt is called "Checkmate" and is a pattern from Pieces of the Heart. I used some Zippity-Do-Da fabrics left over from a quilt and some charms that my friend Jackie gave me and some other scraps that I had from my stash. I didn't add the big border nor the navy border and it is still a good size quilt for Project Linus. It seems like a very happy quilt!


Today I plan to start on my Challenge To Myself quilt number 10! It's stars, so I know I will enjoy that one!!!


Let quilting help you make someone smile!


Jan

Another Kind of Disappearing Four-Patch

Ran across this wonderful tutorial for making another kind of Disappearing Four Patch block, so just had to try it! It is easy, but looks complicated and that's what we like! I just realized that I forgot the top and bottom borders when I took the picture and so you will have to imagine them on there!!!! Wow, talk about being absent minded! The tutorial will tell you how to do the block.

"Red and Green Log Cabin" is a quilt that is going to Project Linus. I'm starting another pile of quilts to be delivered. I delivered a pile of 20 quilts a week ago--they are always so happy to get them. Makes me happy and spurred on to continue making them!

Last, but certainly not least are two pictures of a darling little pincushion that my friend JoAnn made for me. I turned it on it's side so you could see that it is made in a tartlet pan. It is just precious! Thank you, JoAnn!!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan