Two Unquilted Tops and One Ready To Go!

 These barns are what I call "quilt barns" because they have a 6-inch quilt block on the side or the front as is the case on the silo barn blocks.  They were so much fun to make and the patterns were easy to do------no funny angles.  They came from Lori Holt's blog "A Bee in Her Bonnet."  It is a very nice website.

This one, "Tessellating Stars" is all ready to go to Project Linus.  These are fun blocks to make, too and go very quickly.

Last, but not least is Eleanor Burns' "Victory Star." This is one of my favorite stars and Eleanor Burns' directions are spot on.  I really like to do flying geese her way.

 

Today I plan to put the borders  on the Christmas quilt "JOY Sampler."  It is 81" x 94".  One of the bigger ones I have made.  I usually tend toward the kids size!  So it has been a challenge, to say the least!  But I'm happy with the way it turned out so that's what counts.  Going to have to find a Christmas quilting motif for Maynard to quilt it with.

 

We are back with the hot (triple digits) weather again, after enjoying a few days of lower 90's and some much needed rain.

 

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

 

Jan

Three New Blocks for "Old Glory"

My newest project is a quilt called "Old Glory" and here are the first three blocks. It is a kit from Keepsake Quilting. I liked it the first time I saw it and so I asked for the kit for Christmas! I'm just now getting to it. It is quite an interesting quilt and is fun to do. The blocks finish at 6". Not too small, but just right, I think! You make 3 blocks of 13 different blocks. Should be an interesting pattern.

We went back to some cooler weather, but now today is supposed to warm up, so will get back to the walking again, I hope! Sure do feel better when I walk-----how about you?

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Prairie Paisley and Happy Kids Quilts

Prairie Paisley is all finished up and hanging on the quilt rack. I especially like the colors in this one. I changed one of the colors in the sashing and used a darker red than they used in the pattern and I'm very glad that I did--much brighter and more to my liking! I do tend to like the brights!

Speaking of brights here is another Project Linus quilt that I quilted and bound yesterday and it is a bright one. I called it Happy Kids because, although hard to see, the one fabric has happy, smiling kids in it--just what we like to see in kids!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

I have been busy---really!!

I haven't blogged for a whole week and how the time has flown by! I haven't done much, but I have been busy with some small items. One has been this wall hanging of wool applique--it has been slow going because it is something new to me and everything seems to take longer to figure out for some reason---even though it is just like regular applique only I'm using wool fabric and button-hole stitching it to a cotton. What is my problem??!! I don't really know except for some reason it makes me nervous!!!! As you can see from the picture beside it, it is a crock with geraniums and a small flag in it.

The other thing I did was three 12.5" blocks for a Project Linus quilt that some friends and I are putting together sometime soon--don't know just when yet. We were given the black print fabric and had to make blocks from it with other colors. I like my happy, bright other colors. These were fun to do!

Thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments on my Whirl Into Winter Drawing--there are so many comments that I can't answer each and every one, but I'm glad to hear your stories . Tomorrow is the big day where I will draw a number at random and that person will be the winner. Can't wait to see who the winner is!!!! Hard to believe that it is the 15th of January already---this month is flying by, too! Good luck to all of you!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Polka Dot Girls Block Five and Laptops

Here is Block number 5 from the Polka Dot Girls. This is the big block and I have the little one to do. I will work on it tomorrow at our Sit N Sew. It has a nice saying on it--- "A good friend is like Spring blossoming in the Heart." I still need to sew together the Blocks from Number 4--maybe I can do that this afternoon.


My oldest daughter has been volunteering her time with an organization called One Laptop Per Child---I'm sure some of you have heard of it. Well, they have now written a manual to go with it and she helped write that, too. She is a technical writer, so this was a wonderful opportunity for her! I had her write a little explanation of what these programs are all about and this is what she said: "The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. They've created the XO laptop, which you can buy on amazon.com/xo through their Give One Get One program. There's also a manual about how to use the laptop for sale at http://www.lulu.com/content/4439260. The OLPC Laptop Guide has a simple, clean cover design and the content inside was written by a community of professional writers, editors open source experts, and OLPC staff. This book contains 240 pages of how-to information for your XO laptop and the operating system that kids love, Sugar. This book was written by a group of people in the unique wiki tool offered by FLOSS Manuals. Much of the content was written in a five-day collaborative BookSprint. In it you'll find instructions for connecting with and caring for this unique little laptop. The neat thing is, once you're done with a real book, you can pass it on to the next person who wants to learn about their XO. Get a book and pass it on."


As you can see, I am very proud of my daughter and what she has done! Hope you visit these links and see what this is all about!


Let quilting help you make someone smile!


Jan

Busy Day at Sit N Sew

We had a little mini class at Sit N Sew today when 4 of us started our Mystery Quilt. The fabrics are shown in the first picture. Mine will be a lap size quilt---55x70. Some of the others are working on queen size quilts. The first thing we did was make a little pincushion that taught us how to do the flying geese that we will need to do in this first part of the quilt. The second picture shows mine--isn't it cute? The method we used made 4 flying geese at one time--it is somewhat like the Eleanor Burns method, but was a little different, although we used her rulers to line them up and square them up at the end. Then we were to cut out our fabric, but I chose to wait and cut mine at home where it is quiet---I couldn't concentrate too well on what I was doing with all the "fun," ie. talking going on around me!!!! We definitely have a lot of things to talk about at Sit N Sew and I wouldn't miss it for anything!!!!!

The third picture is of the flower basket that goes in the third block of the Polka Dot Girls quilt. Now I'm working on the big square that goes in that block.

I also started on the Civil War quilt that I got for my birthday and have done a couple of nine-patch blocks for that---I'll take pictures when I have done a few more.

Two rows are sewn together for my red,white and black quilt, but that got tedious, so that's why I started the Civil War fabric one---now I will probably have too many irons in the fire, but that's half the fun---right?!!!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Block 2 Polka Dot Girls Finished

Here is a closeup of "Count Your Blessings" and the final finished block 2 of the Polka Dot Girls. This is such a fun quilt to work on! Now on to block 3! I also finished putting together all the blocks for my red, white and black quilt and now have to lay them out--think I will get out my design board for that job--there are 3 kinds of blocks: corner blocks, side blocks and island blocks. Have to concentrate on this one to get everything in the right spot! Like a lot of things--easy to do, but you have to keep your wits about you as you do them! LOL!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan