Out With The Old, In With The New

As this year ends, a new one begins.
Happy New Year.
Jeri

Another Pincushion

Since I am not sewing this month (except for quilting JoAnna's quilt) I have found myself looking through quilt magazines and patterns for quilts I would like to make next year. I think I am up to seventy-five. LOL. There are so many nice patterns out there it makes you want to live forever.
Bonnie Hunter has a mystery quilt in progress at http://quiltville.com/carolinachristmas.shtml.
I want to make it later in the year. I am quilting one of her quilts now. Her Scrappy Bargello http://quiltville.com/scrapbargello.shtml was easy to make. You can use any size squares and you have a nice size quilt in no time.
We had decided not to go to the Jacksonville show next year (2010) as we are going to Houston, my quilt guild show, the show in Trenton, the World Quilt Show again and Linda's quilt guild show. Plus any other show close to home. But Bonnie Hunter is coming to the Jacksonville show and I want to see her. JoAnna took a class from her is Colorado and said it was nice class.
I do not know how many quilters started out life in homemake economics class making clothes but I did not. That came later. It is not my choice of sewing but I made all my children's clothes when they were little. I also made a few things for myself. I was looking around on the McCall's website and found the cutest patterns. One is a dress that could be made longer for a New Year's Eve dress in black or red http://www.mccallpattern.com/item/M5973.htm?search=m5973&page=1. The other pattern was by a designer/pattern maker called Marfu, an Italian designer. It is a cape that could be made into an evening jacket. Take a look at it at http://www.mccallpattern.com/web/shop.cgi?search=f2029&TI=42000&M=&pageSize=12&s.search.all.x=49&s.search.all.y=12. I do not know if I will be making any clothes this year but I did like these patterns.

I have made another pincushion. I made it and did not like the height so I took it apart with my handy-dandy seam ripper and decreased the height. It is about 2 1/2 inches in height. It was about 4 inches in height.

Will I make it again? Yes, but I would make it wider/rounder. This project offered me the chance to make hexagons for the first time. I enjoyed that. I can see a Grandmother's Garden quilt in my future.

This is my first Christmas gift for 2009. I have wanted this since my friend JoAnna told me about it.

This is my second Christmas gift. I had a 50% off from JoAnn's and could not find anything I wanted to buy. I had wanted to buy this book last summer but I didn't. But since I went to my big stitch class I have had the urge to quilt my daughter's Girl Scout quilt I made her. I put a lot of patches on it (front and back) so handquilting is the answer.
I made my Christmas list and mailed it to Santa. My wants and wishes will not cost him a penny. Just changing the minds and hearts of others. I want/wish for world communication. I do not think we will ever have world peace. But we can have world communication. Talk. Talk. Talk.

So, this Christmas season talk to your neighbor.

Happy Holidays.
Jeri.

Old Friends

It is my favorite time of the year. I love the holidays-from Halloween to New Years. I love everything about it. The shopping is the best. I do not shop any other time of the year but I love looking at all the things in the shops. And (forgive me all English teachers but and had to go here) the smells. I adore the smells. I lavish the smells. I worship the smells. Cinnamon and nutmeg and sugar. Yes, I can smell sugar. The chocolate. The pecans. The coconuts. This sounds like a cake.
Oh, well. I can smell a cake cooking in my oven tonight.
Every year I wish for a Christmas quilt. Last year I said I was going to make one. Never did.
Although I did see a Red and White Snowball Challenge on Fat Cat Quilts blog. I missed the cut off for the swap date. Maybe next year.

I love this quilt. It is a free pattern from Timeless Treasures http://www.candysfabricshop.com/projects/Tree.pdf. I have seen this pattern made up three times and each time I always think of adding trinkets to it to make it look more festive. I love it.

Very little sewing is going on in my house at this time. I am not working on any projects. I am looking and planning for next year. But no real sewing. I am however, quilting a quilt I made for my friend JoAnna last year about this time when she moved to Colorado. Well, she is back in Florida and just bought a new house. Congratulations JoAnna. I hope to have it quilted by Christmas.
As you can see from the picture the seam ripper is my best friend once again. It is an off and on love affair. I tried to eyeball my sewing from corner to corner and made a royal mess of things. I know I have to use blue painter's tape and use a longer stitch. But I wanted to try something quick and easy. Now it is going to take me longer. I sewed four rows hoping and wishing that the lines would somehow straighten up with each new row. No such luck. They just looked worse with each row I added.
I also used fusible batting. The verdict is still out on that one.
I wish everyone a joyous holiday and a Happy New Year.
Jeri

Thanksgiving Thanks

It's Thanksgiving in my house and that means family, friends and food (the 3Fs). So that means, for me at least, that sewing will be a late night thing when I am alone and can savor the joys of the day, the smiles on everyone's faces, the innocence of little children and the after dinner naps.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
I finished off the first of my on-going quilt block top. I hope to quilt it this weekend even though I do not have a back yet. I like how it turned out. I have started on the next one.
While at the World Quilt Show last week I bought a pressing stick called The Strip Stick @ http://thestripstick.com/. I bought the 45 inch stick. I now iron the seams of my On-going quilt block on it and it works. If you see it at a quilt show buy one. I save so much time with pressing seams.
At the World Quilt Show I took three classes. One of my classes was a Kite Class with Pat Yamin. I will take a class from her anytime. Well, I had so much fun making these I came home and added it to my leader and ender pile. How may leader and enders do I have going on?

This is my new baby. She is in good shape. I have not named her yet but I am trying out different names for her. I thought of Kitty because she purrs along like a cat. But Kitty did not seem to fit. So, the search goes on. While at the quilt show I bought a quarter inch foot for her. I also need to buy a new case. Her case was badly damaged. I saw some fabric cases but I did not buy one. Still trying to decided on a hard case or a soft case.

I have a weakness for pincushions. The bigger the better. I had seen this pattern at the Moda site http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_prairie-flower-pincushion.pdf but thought it was "yuk"
with all those pointy things sticking up. Well, if God doesn't sometimes make us eat our words/thoughts/deeds. I saw one at the World Quilt Show and had to pick my mouth up off the floor and wipe the drool of the front of my blouse. It was gorgeous. I heard it calling my name. So, the scraps from the kite quilt is going to be my pincushion. I went to my local pet store, Incredible Pets, and bought some crushed walnut shells. So, during naptime on Thanksgiving I will be handquilting. My stitches are a little tight but for a first time hexagon project I am making progress and improving with ever stitch I make. I may have to make a Grandmother's Flower Garden.

If I forgot to say Happy Thanksgiving during all my chatter I would like to say "Happy Thanksgiving everyone young and old".
Jeri

Quilt Shows-Part One

I was looking through my quilt show pictures and thought that I had not posted any of my favorite quilt show quilts and I have been to several shows this years. So, I decided to make this a three part series with pictures of some of my favorite quilts. I do not know if this is legal or not but here we go.
I decided to start with the Lancaster Quilt Show since it was one of my favorites. I recently read that starting next year it is going to be an AQS show. How exciting.
On the way to Lancaster we stopped a lot of quilt shops. I got to see a lot of quilts in a lot of different color schemes. Plus, I met a lot of nice quilters.

I saw this purse at Colonial Quilts in Savannah, Ga. I do not know the name of the pattern but I liked the colors. Green is one of my favorite colors. So is red, blue, yellow, purple, etc, etc. LOL.

At the show they had this ironing board in the quilt art section. I thought it was interesting and unique. The craftsmenship (quilting) is marvelous.

This is the Balloon Quilt. I was amazed at the amount of applique in this quilt. Wonderful job.

This is called An Alphabet. The letters were beautiful.

This is Wistful Willow and it won First Place for Applique. Congradulations.

This is Gorilla Gorilla. All the grays and blacks with the tans makes you think of gorillas.

This is Rebecca's Legacy and it won First Place for Pieced Traditonal. I love it.
I hope you enjoyed the quilts. I take so many pictures of quilts at shows. I just want to thank every quilter that ever entered a quilt show for giving us so much of him/herself.

Once again Thank You from my heart.

Jeri

Catching Up

I cannot believe that I have not blog in over a month since I like chatting.
Well, I have not been doing nothing. I have been working, sewing, chatting, visiting with JoAnna and buying material. Oh, I forgot. I bought a Singer Featherweight. I hope I got a good deal. I won it on ebay. I WILL post pictures when it arrives.
I went to the Jacksonville quilt show last month and had a great time. There were so many nice quilts. The Best of Show was beautiful. I bought a ruler with a lip for paper piecing. I went to a demo given by my local quilt shop and they recommended it. They also recommended using newspaper print for piecing. I bought some packing paper from Lowe's. I will need to cut it down to size to get it through my printer. I bought three patterns, some fabric yardage and fat quarters. I had a great time. I also went to the Olde Green Cupboard Quilt Shop. If you ever get to Jacksonville please visit their shop. The ladies are great. The fabric select is wonderful. The quilts they have displayed are to die for.
Next month I am going to the quilt show in West Palm Beach. I have signed up for two classes (that means I paid my money) and ordered the required materials and book. I may sign up for an applique class. I got the day off but I have not decided. While I am down South my friends and I plan to go to the quilt shop in Margate. I will take pictures and post them.
I will post more later but I need to get back to sewing. I have a deadline with my Aqua and Red nine patch blocks.
Happy quilting.
Jeri

On-Going Quilt Block

I went to the sit and sew or craft at the Lutheran Church today. I met some very nice women that were making some very nice quilts.
My friend from work had a sock book she let me look at. I really want to make my daughter some socks for Christmas. Another to-do list add on.
My on-going quilt block is now 6 inches x 668 inches. This is not typing mistake. I have pieced together 668 inches in scraps. The block is now hard to work with. It is too long. I need to start cutting out a quilt.
I am still undecided between a tumble block (first choice/original goal) and a pyramid block.
I am going to cut something next Tuesday, if not this Saturday.
Keep quilting.
Jeri