Friday, April 29, 2016

Smile! It's Friday!





Does this face just make you smile, or what????


Have a great day!  I am going to my youngest son's college graduation!  Woohoo!!

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Plain and Fancy

I made 18 of these sashing strips the past few days, which involved 216 flying geese units.  I made six before so that completes the 24 that I need for the Plain and Fancy block of the month - phew!  I must say these were not that fun to make.  Maybe that is why I like sampler quilts and hand appliqué etc. because I don't like piecing the same thing over and over and over.... and over....
But, this quilt is going to be very pretty when it's all done and I will be happy that I stuck with it.  Now I'm off to read a good book :)

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Phyllis - Look What You Made Me Do!

My friend Phyllis knows that I like to make miniature quilts, so she sent me a picture of this quilt the other day that someone had made using Sue Garman's Omigosh! pattern.  I've made two of Sue's patterns before and I really like her patterns and her quilts.  The two I've made already are my Monster Quilt and Mama Said.
I was so tempted by this Omigosh! quilt that I ordered the pattern from Sue's website!  (Thanks Phyllis??)  This is not a miniature quilt, this is a big quilt with a LOT of little pieces!  What was I thinking?  I don't know....
I've been reading a blog by the Rogue Quilter, who is a miniature quilt maker.  One thing she does is use these little pieces as starties and stoppies as she's working on other quilts.  Some people call them starters and enders, but they are those little pieces of fabric you use to start or end your piecing, usually just scraps.  What a great idea though to use pieces that you can actually sew into a quilt.  This also may be a good quilt to use up a lot of my Civil War fabric in too, because it's very scrappy.  So yes, thanks Phyllis!  We will see how long it takes me to get this made....

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Tapestry


I finished another little Brazilian Embroidery sample!  Four more to go and then my plan is to put them together into a little sampler quilt.  Kind of like a mini Baltimore Album - Brazilian Embroidery style!


If you have ten minutes you need to check out this amazing YouTube video on The Art of Making a Tapestry.  I first saw it on The Quilt Show website yesterday.  I had no idea how these were made - now I want one!  Notice I didn't say I want to make one, although that would be pretty amazing....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIbu-dJuEh0



Monday, April 25, 2016

Magnetic Pin Holder




A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of this magnetic pin holder given to me by Sharon Wright.  I received a comment asking me to find out where she got it.  Here is the information for those who want to know!  Have a great day!








     Ben Behunin
     Wild Rooster Artworks
     1150 East 800 South
     Salt Lake City, Utah  84102
     Email: Behunins@comcast.net
     Studio Phone: 801-883-0146

Sunday, April 24, 2016

And Another

I finished another Plain and Fancy block yesterday.  Now I have 12 sashing strips to do to catch up before I get the next block in a week!  I've done pretty well keeping up on this block of the month....

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Plain and Fancy


I finished one more Plain and Fancy block yesterday!  I am just going to work on another one today.  Hope your weekend is going great!

Friday, April 22, 2016

Maybe Not Great, But Interesting!


OK, maybe the quilting is not great but it does look all right!  I did some  interesting space fillers, that I came up with on my own.  And I quilted the miniature the same way, just smaller detail.  This was quilted on a domestic machine. Today I may have filled in with more quilting, but maybe not?  I really do love this quilt.  The fabric is from Liberty Homestead and they are hand dyed cottons that have a suede look.  They are SO soft and beautiful.


One of the things I've been learning in some online Craftsy classes I've been taking on machine quilting is filling spaces in odd shapes.  I like this shape in this triangle.

I'm excited to start quilting Dear Jane!!  I did actually make it into my sewing room  today, even though it was 78 degrees in there, and finished a block for the Plain and Fancy block of the month.  I plan to work more on that tomorrow and try to catch up!

Have a great weekend :)


Thursday, April 21, 2016

Nothing New - Something "Old"

Since I do not have anything new to share (since I have not had time to work on anything!) I am sharing a quilt I made about 6 years ago for my youngest son for his high school graduation.
I LOVE this quilt!  It's one of my favorites that I have made.  It's still at my house and I plan to keep it there as long as my son lets me.  I'm not even sure if he remembers that it's his.  Shhh!!
I love it so much I made a miniature version of it 1/4 size.  They both hung in the Springville Quilt Show several years ago and the large one won a ribbon!

This is a picture of the top before I quilted it.  I walked by it the other day and looked closely at the quilting and realized - I did a GOOD job quilting it! I was rather impressed with my quilting job!  Sometimes I look back at quilts I've made and I realize that I almost did better, before I took classes, when I was more fearless, before I knew there was a "right" way to do things and I just figured them out for myself.  Not that I regret anything I've learned in the many classes I've taken, but I do feel like I need to get back to my former, more fearless, experimental, figure things out for myself quilter person.  I think I've let myself become more inhibited the last couple of years in my quilting, more worried about color choices and less confident.  It's time to break out of my box again and have some fun with my quilting.  How about you?  Is it time to be more creative?
I will share up close photos of my "fearless" quilting on this quilt tomorrow :)

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

No More Shopping! Gotta Start Sewing!


I went to the shop in Midway to buy Sue Spargo thread and I ended up with a few more things....

There were several quilts hanging around the store that I really liked!  They came from this Cabin Fever book, so I bought it.  I have some fabric that will be just perfect for some of these quilts :)





Baby Says Sew just had some super cute baby things - too hard to pass up!



Table topper kit with fun fabric....











A wool pattern.....


Some fabric for the back of the class quilt I'm making (with the alphabet border)





And of course the Sue Spargo thread which is just delightful!  Time to get sewing and quilting! I have enough supplies to keep me busy for awhile :)

Monday, April 18, 2016

My Girlfriends


I had an opportunity to go to one of my favorite quilt shops last week in Midway, UT - My Girlfriends!  I really like this store - it's rather small, but packed full of fun stuff.









Here are a few photos of things I saw that I like!


I really like this quilt, and I really like the quilting on it.


I love, love, love the embellishment on this wool piece.  Most of the upstairs is dedicated to wool and threads for embellishing.  They carry the whole line of Sue Spargo threads in all three sizes, which is what drew me to the shop in the first place :)


Wool, wool and more wool!  Don't you love the wooly Easter egg?  I might have to make some of those for next year!



Have a wooly great day :)

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Great Grandparents

We have been seeing a lot of family recently - this time for a bridal shower!  Our grandbaby is lucky to have three great grandparents - all of whom she got to see recently!

I remember growing up with great grandparents too.  In fact when my oldest daughter was born we had five generations of first daughters:
My great grandmother - age 99 1/2
Her oldest daughter - my grandmother
Her oldest daughter - my mother
Her oldest daughter - me
Her oldest daugther - my daughter Michelle

Pretty amazing - more family just means more love :)


Saturday, April 16, 2016

A Tuque

Uncle Jonathan brought his favorite niece a tuque (knit hat) from Canada!
She likes to play peek-a-boo with it :)

Friday, April 15, 2016

Circle of Friends

My miniature quilt group friends and I exchanged small versions of ourselves in fabric, using a pattern by Karen Eckmeier called Circle of Friends. There has been a lot of discussion in the group about how to put these together. We made nine fabric mini me's and traded, so we are all making one. I decided to follow the pattern as I like the way Karen E. made hers. The pattern shows 8 friends, I expanded the circle to include nine of us. In case you can't tell, we are all standing on a spool of thread, fabric blocks are between our hands, a needle which will eventually be pulling thread is between each figure and the circle in the middle is a rotary cutter blade!  Now I, who am not a machine appliquér, will begin the laborious process of stitching around each fused little piece. (Spoken like a true hand appliquér.)
From left to right are: Leota, Annie, and Max
Eleanor, Kathy and Bobbi
Me, Sherida and June
I'm very excited about this project!

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Class Progress


I have shown you the progress on my quilt from Sharon Wright's class. I have since added the bottom border and am currently looking for a flower design I like for the top border and the corners. I also bought some backing fabric today and plan to piece a backing like Sharon showed us.
Below is the quilt top finished by Kathy who took the same class. She made it for a friend who loves purple and I love how it turned out!

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

We Have Made a Lot of Projects Together!


Here are the rest of the pictures I took at the Little Bits meeting, of projects we have made together through the years.

We made wool pin cushions at June's house.  June has been very generous with her wool! (And her yo-yos!)

More yo-yo's on a painted canvas.  I believe Lori got us going on these.


Max got us going on Snippets - cutting up little pieces of fabric and fusing them onto a background to make pictures, such as this Christmas tree and wreath that she made.


These last two pieces are quilts that Eleanor made on her own.  She found the pattern for this one in a magazine.






And here is her Dear Jane!  She decided to make a smaller version.

 It is quite amazing when we gather all of our projects together to see how much we've done over the years! Keep on quilting - there are many more projects to make!
Have a great day :)

Monday, April 11, 2016

Memories

It has been a busy week for our family.  My father-in-law passed away so we've enjoyed some family time as we celebrated his 89 years of living and the great husband and father that he was. We will cherish the many happy memories of his life!

I promised some pictures from our Little Bits get together last week.  Kathy shared this old quilt top that she recently found among family "stuff".  She is trying to decide how to finish it!
As I mentioned before we took a "walk down memory lane" as we shared projects that we worked on together from the past.  One of these projects was our little houses.  We made enough two inch house blocks for everyone and traded them.  We each had to use the blue and black check fabric somewhere in our two inch block.  Then we could put them together in a miniature quilt in whatever setting we chose.  They all turned out great.  June's is very cleverly put together in the shape of a little house, complete with a white picket fence.


We have made quick, easy table runners.  I love this one of Sherida's.  Don't you just love the fabric she used?


Another project was our miniature row by row quilts.  We did not trade any blocks for these, just used a common garden theme, shared some patterns and made them however we chose to.  Look at the teeny tiny hummingbirds on Sherida's (below).
Amazing.
What a fun group and what lovely friends.  We've been together as a group now for over 15 years!

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Slow Going


I have been working on the borders on this quilt and it has been slow going, as I am hand appliquéing the alphabet and numbers on the borders.  I will also add some flowers and vines and leaves eventually.  That's all I've had time to work on this week so I don't have much to show!

I did go to my miniature quilt group meeting yesterday and we had a little walk down memory lane as we shared projects we've worked on together over the last 15 plus years!  It was very fun.  I will post some of those pictures over the next few days.

I hope you're having a great week!!