Green and Beige quilt

Here is the last of my quilts for this year's Hands2Help donations.  As with the last two, this one was also a top languishing in the closet. It patiently waited till I was ready to quilt it, wasn't that nice of it:0

All the fabrics were in my stash including a nice piece of tan flannel for the back.  This one has poly batting and I used the fast dog bone meander again so it would get done in time.  I see this is the only picture I took of it yesterday and now it is getting ready to rain, so that's it folks!

This one will also be taken to the local Crisis Nursery Center next week.  It feels wonderful to have these three out of my closet!  I never know when the time or mood strikes to create more, so if it happens this year I will stock pile for next year's donations.  I mean every once in a while I have to make something other than table runners and items for the craft shows, got to have that balance.  

Thanks Sarah for hosting H2H and getting us all in gear and using our stash!  Linking with Sarah Sunday, May 20th for the linky party.

Another H2H quilt

Here is my second donation quilt for Hands2Help.  Since I had a few tops in my stash that I had made for donation purposes, I figured now would be a good time to quilt and bind them.  This one will also be donated locally to the Crisis Nursery Center.

Early last year I had pieced several quilts using wider strips to make the jelly roll race quilts.  A good blog buddy, Jasmine, came up with this idea.  So much fun!  I made several in Mauve and blue fabrics to use up from days gone by:0  These blues are all apple prints.

I had the perfect piece of fleece to go with it, and the perfect size.   This is a small quilt at 36 x 45.

 Yesterday I had a few people mention how sad to think that any child should have to use the Crisis Nursery Center, I couldn't agree with you more.  The center is for children and families dealing  with child abuse. Every child is so innocent and to think they sometimes get caught in between bad situations is heart breaking.  They all need to feel loved and cared for.  In giving these quilts to the center they can distribute to those who need it, my small way of giving a child a hug.  Last year I donated 32 quilts to this center, the lady who works there was just thrilled to pieces and said their supply was almost non existent right then.  Boy did that ever make me glad I chose to donate there.

I will be linking up with Sarah on Sunday for the Hands2Help linky party to see what we have all accomplished.  You can find more information on Sarah's blog HERE.
Also linking with Tish for UFO busting since this is a true UFO!

Hands2Help quilt

I am really late to the party of Hands2Help quilts, but better late than never.  This year I decided I wasn't going to be able to make as many donation quilts as I have in the past couple years. But I still wanted to do at least one for H2H that Sarah  heads up.  

After going through my stash of tops,yes I have a few left from last year,  I was able to pull out this one and get it quilted yesterday and bound it today.  

 I kept the quilting simple with a dog bone meander.  With simple allover quilting and a soft flannel backing this quilt will be cuddly to some child who needs a bit of comfort.  I am choosing to donate mine to the local Crisis Nursery Center.  

There will be a linky party at Sarah's beginning May 25th-I'll be there!

Pillow challenge

A pillow challenge was put forth to us Island Batik Ambassadors this month.  There are so many wonderful ideas for pillows out there both modern and traditional.  It took me a while to make up my mind what I wanted mine to look like.  I needed a new one for the family room.




I have traditional colors in the family room, but trying for a more modern feel with them by using modern patterns.  This one will be for the hubby to use.   As you can see our couch is a burgundy color.  The walls are a gray on the brownish side.   After deciding I wanted to do an offset chevron pattern, I went through my stash of Island Batiks.

These are what I found that would go with my other pillow I had previously made with solids.  OK, all set with the pattern and the colors now get to work!



I chose to cut 2" strips for the chevrons.  The pillow went together quickly and I like how it goes with the couch and the modern quilt on the wall.  Since I have something else on the longarm I chose to use my walking foot on my domestic machine to quilt the pillow with straight lines 1/4" from the seams.  Rarely does the walking foot get used, but it worked wonderful on the batiks.

And here it is with the first pillow.

The batiks used in this pillow was provided by Island Batik, batting by Hobbs and the thread provided by Aurifil.

I enjoyed making this pillow, how about you do you enjoy making pillows?

Linking with Linky Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss and Let's Bee Social

YIPEE- some finishes

Since being home from our 2 week Paducah and Memphis trip I have had my longarm buzzing!!   I had been in such a piecing mode that the 'to be quilted' pile was growing to large.  It was time to feel accomplished with some finishes.


The first are these table runners which I have done before, but, I was trying to use a few different quilting designs in these.


A little Angela Walter influence perhaps:0


Just to show you there really are five different runners!

A little fern like design in the center

I like this fern design better with just straight lines in the colored triangles.

A little too plain in the center, but hopefully someone will like a simpler design.











This one is better, it needed the U turns in the center.












One more finish...remember I showed you the beginnings of a Plus quilt HERE.  Well I worked on it a little here and a little there and it became a top.  This week it became a totally finished quilt!

I just love this quilt, the colors are awesome.  I had gotten a really good deal on this bundle of Gooseberry fat quarters last year and it was just waiting for me to find the perfect pattern for it.     This is Plus and Minus pattern from Quilty Love using the alternate pattern.  This was a very easy block/quilt to make. 

It measures 57" x 70".  You will find this quilt in my Etsy shop right now.  I quilted it with a triple hook swirl in a medium grey thread since it had a light grey background fabric. 

There will be more finishes soon!!

Linking with NTT, Finished or not , Whoop Whoop Friday, and UFO busting

From Paducah to Memphis

As I promised you, I am sharing what we did for the week after attending the Paducah spring quilt show.  The original plan was to spend the week at Land Between the Lakes(LBL) still in KY.  But, we kept watching the weather and mother nature decided it would be a great time to rain, rain, rain most of that time there.  And we knew we would be wanting to spend lots of time outdoors there and the rain would not allow that. 

So we canceled our reservations there and were able to get a spot at Tom Sawyer campground in West Memphis Arkansas!  Yes if you cross the river you are in AR.  So we added another state to our travels:) The campground is right on the river and our site was right next to the river so we enjoyed watching the huge barges go up and down the river.

As you can see in the above picture we still got rain, but not as much as LBL did.  We managed to get in three bike rides, two across the Mississippi River by taking this bike bridge.  There was also a train bridge right next to the bike one, like only 6-8 feet away, but we were separated by lots of steel so it wasn't scary at all when a train came through right beside us!  If you look at the pic where it almost looks like blue steel, that was the enclosed bridge where we rode.  We wished a barge would come through when we were up there so we could see the top of it, but no such luck.  It was so beautiful for a peaceful ride through a park alongside the river.

We also rode bikes on a great trail at Shelby Farms in Memphis TN.  It's so easy to go back and forth from state to state.

When in Memphis, of course, you have to see...  Do you know whose house this is?

 If not maybe this will be a giveaway...

Graceland and Elvis Presley Museum.  So glad we got to visit and learn a few things we didn't know. Like, did you know he had a twin brother that died when he was born?  Seeing all his cars and his famous jumpsuits he wore was fun!

We also went for a river cruise and to the humongous Bass Pro Shop.  We are not big into fishing but it was a site to see with lots of ponds and 🐟,🐊, more 🐟, ducks.  Oh the alligators were behind a glass wall:)  This place was huge!  It was a great rainy morning activity.

Our friends recommended we visit Beale Street, so we took that in late in the afternoon and then we ate delicious BBQ ribs at BB Kings while listening to a live band play some upbeat music.  

 And all too soon it was time to start the trek back home.  The first day was a very long driving day, all the way from Memphis to Mt. Pleasant IA.  We were not sure when we would want to stop driving that day so we did not make camp reservations.  We just knew we needed to get through St. Louis before rush hour and we made it.  We pulled into Mt. Pleasant campground around 6 pm, tired and hungry.  Luckily they had plenty of space for us, the perks of camping/traveling before high season begins!  The next day wasn't all that long, but we got up and left camp at 6 am and arrived home by 11 am.  We knew the winds were going to pick up and we didn't want another head wind and low gas mileage.

The trip was lots of fun and much needed after a long winter.  I did get some sewing done while camping.  I had cut strips from orange string scraps before we left, the first night on the road I cut them into the right size logs I needed for a log cabin type pumpkin block for table runners and wall hangings. The next morning while waiting for the wind to die down a bit I got out the sewing machine and sewed a few rounds.  That night I sewed a few more rounds.

 Since being home I started using some of the fabric I bought in Paducah-these are from a fat quarter bundle.  They have since been used in 3 table runners, which need to be quilted.

And I have been back on the longarm trying to catch up on runners I have pieced over the winter. Here is one of four that I managed to get quilted this past week.  Yes I am not letting any grass grow under my feet, LOL  Speaking of grass, ours is all nice and green again and our trees are budding out more and more every day, today was 80 degrees-it feels wonderful to have Spring in MN once again!

Since this post does have some scrap usage I am linking up with Oh Scrap 

Bucket list-Paducah!!

You may have noticed a lack of posts in the last couple weeks.  That would be because I was away checking an item off my bucket list, attending quilt show week in Paducah, KY!!!!!!!!
But we are back home now and I am ready to get back to sewing/quilting:)  I did take my sewing machine we me and was able to sneak in a little sewing here and there.












Last year a friend and I was discussing how we wanted to go to the AQS spring show in Paducah. So her and I cooked up an idea that we go together.  But wait, there is more to the story.  Our husbands are friends from work, and then she and I got acquainted through our quilting and we both bought campers about the same time.  Sooo, we thought taking our hubbies and campers would be a great idea. They could hang out and do stuff while she and I attended the show.  It worked out great!



We were all planning on leaving our homes on Saturday April 14th. But as time approached, Mother Nature planned to dump a bunch of snow and ice in our city on the 14th. So we left a day early but had to battle pulling campers in really windy conditions.  My DH and I took a leisurely 3 day drive and arrived in Paducah on Sunday. Thank goodness for electric blankets and a portable heater, it was so cold on the way down there.

Our friends Carol and Rich stopped in St. Louis for a couple days and arrived in Paducah on Tuesday.   While we waited for them to arrive, DH and I biked around Paducah and I went to Hancock's of Paducah on Monday morning.  It was already busy there but it was surprising how fast I got waited on, they were like a well oiled machine.  I had been to Hancock's 10 years ago but not during quilt week.  I forgot to take my camera in there so Carol loaned me a pic she took.  Yes indeed I found some fabric that asked to come home with me, it really did ask nicely too, LOL  And gee I couldn't turn it down and besides I had a whole empty cabinet in the camper for it😄.  I had DH drop me off while he ran an errand, I no more than walked in the door and I called him and said 'take your time'-as he was laughing!  My 👀 were going left, right, forward, left, right, forward-where should I start!  There was a couple rows of Island Batik fabrics that I love and it was so much fun just walking down those isles petting the fabric.  I even got to talk to a couple of clerks about my being an ambassador for IB since I was proudly wearing my IB pin😀

Batiks from Hancock's of Paducah, and some panels.  The Batiks were a very good price,  at $4-7 a yd. for what I bought.






I also went to Quilt in a Day and found these on sale. The scrap bag was 40% off and I think the other yardage was $6 a yard, which will make great purses.










DH and I enjoyed visiting the Quilt Museum on Tuesday morning.  I was surprised by how much he seemed to enjoy it.

Wednesday and Thursday were the days Carol and I attended the show, we had loads of fun shopping and viewing the quilts. Oh my, just over the top quilts from all over the world.  The workmanship was outstanding. And the vendors were wonderful.  There were 5 different locations for the vendors and quilts, with shuttles and buses to take you where you wanted to go.


So I suppose you are just waiting to see what I actually bought, hehe.  The week before we went, I was using the Creative Grid Pineapple ruler and loved it.  So when I saw the cute snowman and pineapple patterns that used the mini I had to get the patterns and the mini ruler.  And well the fabrics just jumped up and down and said 'get me too' as they were only $2 each!  I was surprised that most fat quarters today are $3-$3.50 each!!  OK so I had not been in quilt shops for about a year, I guess things changed(again).

These bundles were at a super price at 30% off the tagged price.  One bundle for fall runners and one for-well to be determined!!  I am such a sucker for pretty fabrics, but I bet I am not in that boat alone;)

Oh and while at the show I got to meet 2 of my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors!  Great to meet Karen Overton and Dena Wilson.








And then there was this pop up shop in two locations in Paducah just for quilt week.  Murray Sewing Center and one of their buildings were all $5 a yard fabrics. This is what I got there. I see purses, table runners etc.

As DH and I were out bike riding I am sure I spotted Ricky Timms out back of the Convention Center and as the 4 of us were eating at the Mexican restaurant across from the campground in walks Alex Anderson.

So that was one week of our trip,  we left Paducah on April 20th to go a little further south. Stay tuned for another post in a few days about that.

Linking with Freemotion by the River and Midweek Makers

Sweaters

Since about the first of April I had a bug to get working on my knitting machines.  I have about 11 sweaters knit.  I always stitch the seams up by hand using the ladder stitch, it makes for great TV time sewing in the evening. These are the first 2 sweaters to be totally done and ready to put in the fall craft show boxes.

It takes about 1.5-2 hrs to knit each one, depending on the size and design.  Last year I sold quite a few between the 4 shows they were at, so I need to get my hiney in gear and knit a bunch this year.  I was in big need of boy sweaters so that is all I have done so far.  I'll be sharing more as time permits. These are size 2 and 4.

Linking with Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss

A vintage inspired new creation

This is my April Island Batik challenge where we were to use a vintage looking pattern or block and make it look more modern/new.  The drunkard path is an age old one so I decided to try that.  I have never really done more than a handful of drunkard path blocks ever.  I turned to EQ8 to draw up my idea and use a template I printed off there.  Yes I cut these with just the paper template, I didn't really want to go out and get another ruler I probably wouldn't use again.  I do have a 3.5" template by Elisa, so I tried that first, ye gads piecing small curves was a pain in the patootie.  After using EQ8 to draw it up I watched a video by Canton Village using a glue pen before sewing, it works quite well:)  https://cvquiltworks.com/blogs/blog/16537384-piecing-a-curve-with-virtually-no-pins   

When it came time to quilt it I marked a few registration marks here and there and used a straight ruler, a few curved rulers and quilters rule nested circles to do the designs.  For the background fill a little Wild Quilting(Christina Camelli) was called for. Aurifil thread for piecing.  An assortment of IB fabrics from a charm pack of Costal mist and some of the stash builder rolls.

A little bit of color added to the binding by adding in 5" piece

Its at home in our front entryway. 

The fabrics were provided by Island Batik, thread from Aurifil and the batting from Hobbs.

Linking with Monday Making, MCM, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social

The work is done and it is playtime!

I finished up the weeks work a few hours early yesterday so I got to play!!!  

First the work...

More purses done and listed in my Etsy shop

Using my design this is #3 and #4 of the 6 I cut out a couple weeks ago.

I won't bore you with the details again. But if you missed the details on this you can find more info on this HERE

I also finished up my Island Batik April challenge quilt which I will show you on Monday!!  Just had to let you know that so you wouldn't think all I did all week were these 2 purses!  I also worked on some fall runners for the craft shows-never too soon to start on those.

So now the play begins. Yesterday I finally decided to try out the Creative Grids Pineapple ruler I picked up at the Quilt Expo in Madison WI last fall.  I recently saw a You Tube video from Jenny at Missouri star using this ruler.  Her excitement is very contagious!  I got mine out yesterday along with my pile of 30's scraps and made this block and got started on 2 more. 

All the while making it I felt like Jenny-I understood her excitement over making this block!! They are just so cute.  Mine finished at a 10" block.  My goal is to make 9 blocks and border it for a neonatal quilt or perhaps 12 for a little bigger one.  We'll see.  I hope to do a couple more today.

Linking with UFO Busting and Oh Scrap