Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Thanksgiving Company

My parents are here this week for Thanksgiving so this might be my only post for this week. Mom and I are doing some sewing projects.



She wanted to learn how to make a Sew Together Bag. It's coming along but she is now at the hardest part - attaching the binding.


One side is done. The other is only half on, but she'll get it done this afternoon.

I'm working on the next Christmas Quilt block. This one is a decapitated snowman!


This has certainly been an interesting project.



Friday, November 21, 2014

Time for Quilting

I'm hoping to make good progress on this quilt today.


I should give you a quick camera update though. After a little research, it seems that the combination of low battery charge and cold caused my camera problems on Monday. The good news is that my camera is now working properly again. The bad news is I'll have to take mostly inside photos for the next few months.

Better get quilting!


Thursday, November 20, 2014

Film At Five Quilt Top Finished

My scrap group met yesterday at our new home, Kathy's Fabric Trunk in Del Norte, CO. It's a bit of a drive for me, but worth it to get to spend time sewing with friends.

We worked on our Film At Five quilts using Deanna's excellent tutorial. I finished my top this morning.


My top is 54" by 70" as I only made 12 blocks instead of the 25 blocks called for in the tutorial. I used Kona Ash for my background and a packet of coordinating 2.5" strips I had in my 2.5" strip box.

When finished this top will be going to Gene's Angel Project, so it needs to get finished soon. I've started pulling out potentially backing fabrics and hope to make a decision and get this basted in the next day or two.


Monday, November 17, 2014

Technical Difficulties :: Camera Woes

I wanted to share with you my progress for my next Scrap Group project. We meet on Wednesday so yesterday I sewed up the first row of the quilt we will be making. I took it outside to take photos this morning but my camera is not cooperating.


The top part of the picture is correct. Then there are two horizontal lines that shift the image slightly and I have no idea where that green came from! I took a photo inside as well of my pile of quilt pieces.


It's a little better but there is still a horizontal line that shifts the image slightly and everything is darker beneath the line.

I also took pictures of 5 donation quilts that guild members brought on Saturday. Guess I'll have to retake those at a later date. Grrrr!!!!!

I have no idea what is going on with my camera. When I first turned it on it gave me a low battery warning, but it still took the photos. It has done that before but the pictures always turned out fine. I'm charging the batteries and then I'll take a few more photos to see if this fixed the problem. If not, I guess I'll be shopping for a new camera this afternoon.


Thursday, November 13, 2014

Back to Globetrotting

In an effort to have something to show you I made up block 6 for my Globetrotting quilt.


The new block is the one on the far left at the top. I haven't worked on this since May. You can read my last post about this project by clicking here. I believe the deadline for getting entered in the prize drawing is the end of November. So my goal is to have the top done by then so I can enter. I've only got three more blocks to do then assemble them all. Surely I can get that far by the end of the month, but we'll see.


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Show and Tell :: Another Batch of Quilts for Oncology

I've been working on my Sue Spargo BOM this week. It is going well, but I'm still not suppose to post any photos of it. I'm not sure when the online photo ban will be lifted, but I will share photos as soon as I am permitted to do so.

In lieu of photos of my own work, I'll show you a few more Quilts for Oncology that have been made and donated by guild members. Unfortunately, I do not know who made these.




I'm pretty sure that all of these were in the batch of ten quilts in tote bags I took to the hospital last week. All of these range in size between 40" by 50" and 50" by 60".


Monday, November 10, 2014

Christmas Quilt :: Block 10

I finished up the applique last night but waited until this morning to add the pieced border and take a picture.


I must admit that I find this guy a bit creepy. I thought he was creepy when I pulled out the pattern. I hoped that when he was finished in fabric it would help. It didn't.

I'm pretty happy with my solution for his teeth though. The pattern said to piece the teeth with black fabric for the inside of his mouth. The alternate suggestion on the pattern was to color with a black Sharpie on the white fabric to make the teeth. I didn't care for either of those. I outlined the teeth using a chalk pencil on the black fabric, backed the black with stabilizer, then zig zag stitched tightly with my machine and white thread to make his teeth.

Two more blocks to go! My goal was to have the top done by Christmas. I may bump this project up on my priority list to get the top finished by Thanksgiving because I'm ready to be done with this. I'm also considering taking this project to a local long arm quilter for the quilting. I could quilt it myself, but I don't have any ideas yet for how to quilt this despite spending hours on this project already. We'll see how I feel about it once the top is completed.


Friday, November 7, 2014

A Friday Finish

This is a finish for my art group.


The theme for these little pieces was "doors" and the required technique was "beading." The individual pieces have been finished for a while. I posted about mine several times last year while it was in progress. Click the links for these posts: post 1, post 2, post 3.

It feels good to cross this off my to-do list!




Thursday, November 6, 2014

Block 10 of Christmas Quilt

I've started working on the next block in the Christmas Quilt I'm finishing for friends.


It will be a nutcracker. This guy's teeth have been giving me fits. The directions say to piece the teeth using black fabric for the inside of his mouth and white fabric for his teeth. However, his teeth are barely an 1/8" wide! I don't want to work with such small pieces. I'm trying a couple of other ways to make his teeth. Hopefully one of them will work well so I don't have to attempt to piece his teeth.


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

UFO Progress

I'm finally quilting a small improv pieced top I last blogged about in September 2012. Click here to go to that post.



I was surprised to discover that it has been waiting so long for me to get back to it. I don't even remember what, if anything, I had planned for the quilting besides the fact that I wanted to hand quilt it densely. I have done some ditch stitching to hold things in place. Now I am just filling the spaces with whatever occurs to me at the time.


Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Show and Tell :: Quilts for Oncology

The ladies in my guild have been busy! These were all made by guild members. I do not know who made each of them because I was not able to attend the last guild meeting when the quilts were turned in.

I do know that Debbie made this first one. She is in my Scrap Group. This was our Modern Spools project. The link will take you to my post about my Modern Spools quilt and contains pattern information at the bottom of the post.





I took 10 quilts in bags to the hospital yesterday afternoon and dropped them off at the oncology treatment center! I still have 7 quilts in bags at home that will be dropped off at a later date. The nurse in charge of the oncology center said they could only store 10 at the moment. She knows how to contact me if they need more before next month.


Monday, November 3, 2014

A Finish :: Disappearing Hourglass

Another top from the pile is completed.


Click here to read my previous post about this quilt and for a link to the tutorial.

The finished quilt is about 46" by 56". It will be a donation quilt for my guild's quilts for oncology project.

Please be sure to visit Gene today for his Around the World Blog Hop post.