Old Quilt Top, New Quilt

 

I made this quilt top over 15 years ago. I had left it at my mom's house. I have no idea why! She found it and thought I should make it bigger for her so she can put it on her bed during the winter. It measures about 71" by 82".  She wants more of a double bed size. The pattern is an Irish Chain from the Quilt In a Day series by Eleanor Burns. I'm pretty sure it's one of the earliest quilt tops I ever made. The fabric is not the best. I think I bought it all at JoAnn's during a sale. The border fabric includes a calico! (Hard to see in this picture) This is definitely from the 90's!

 

I went to my local quilt shop and looked for fabrics. This wasn't too easy. I wanted to try and modernize the quilt but I didn't want to replace any of the old fabrics. It took awhile but I did find something. You can see what I chose in the above picture. There is orange in the original border so I found an orange fabric that wasn't completely solid. It has a hand dyed look to it. I decided to play it safe with the remaining fabric and chose a navy blue that was very close to the original blue fabric print used in the top. I'm going to make another border similar to the original but I'll be using the new fabrics instead. It will add an extra 12 inches to each side. That should be big enough!  I suppose it's about time I finish this WIP!! I hope my mom likes the result!

My cats seem to be getting along better. I still hear hissing once in awhile but it's happening less and less. We've had Molly almost 2 months now. I wish she would stay a kitten forever but I don't think that's going to happen! Lily, my older cat, is probably happy about that. Molly doesn't sleep half as much and runs around a lot more than her! Molly is almost 5 months old now. Lily wants to sleep more and play less!

Tea is Ready!



I didn't plan on finishing my little wall hanging but I did! I had planned on sewing but had a headache. I took a Motrin and decided to sit down, sew and relax. So nice to finish something! By the time I finished, my headache was gone and I felt fine. I feel as though I didn't waste my afternoon.

 

Before finishing, I thought basting the bottom flowers would be the best thing to do. They were moving around very easily. I tried using pins but they were hard to sew around. The basting really helped. It was a fun little project to make. I plan on hanging it in my kitchen.

Has anyone ever made a rag rug using leftover fabric? I bought this at JoAnn's. I thought it would be a neat way to use some of that leftover fabric as well as older fabric I have sitting around. It came with a nifty little tool as well as a booklet with detailed instructions. I read through the booklet very quickly. It doesn't seem too difficult but fabric strips need to be prepared ahead. I'll let you know how it goes if I actually start making a rug!

Tea Time Kit



I've been so preoccupied this week. I had a bunch of appointments that kept me from working on anything for a good chunk of time. I decided to work on a hand project that would be easy to pick up as I came in and out. I bought it at the Mancuso show last month. It's a wool felt project by Annelle's Originals from Beacon Falls, CT.  All the pieces are precut which makes it so much easier!

 

 

Here's the main body of the project. I did sew down the flowers and leaves but tea cup, saucer and tea pot are just pinned onto the black background. I'm not the greatest at embroidery but it's not too hard so far. I will have to embroider words onto the background which may be a bit difficult for me.

 

 

 

 

Here's the little scallops that go along the bottom of the wall hanging.  Those weren't too hard! The hard parts are coming up.

 

 

 

Here's the wire hanger.  I thought it was a cute kit that included everything needed. I hope to finish it up soon and get back to my quilting. My appointments are finally over and I can spend some time at home! Have a great weekend!







Sewapalooza!

I didn't really know what to expect when a good friend asked if I was interested in going to Sewapalooza with her. I googled it and found it was an event sponsored by Bernina. These events are held all over the country. Our event took place at Quilted Threads in Henniker, New Hampshire. I'm happy with my sewing machine but it sounded like a fun time. I read that you work on a few projects. I could always use a day of sewing!

This was the first project we worked on. It's a pouch to carry around cords while travelling. I got to use different embroidery stitches. I've never worked on a Bernina before but the instructors were great. They made me very comfortable. I used many different feet as well. I used a foot to sew on the button. My own machine does that but I never use it! I don't use many of the embroidery stitches either. After yesterday, I think I'm going to look into all the different things my machine can do. It's never too late to learn!

There were two other projects also. One is a travel pillow and the other is a wristlet pouch to carry your cell phone and other little items. There were 3 of us on a machine and we all took turns working on a different project. I got kits to finish the remaining 2 projects at home.

I won a door prize! I really wasn't that lucky. We all won a door prize! Isn't that nice?! It made for a really fun day. Other than the door prize, we were treated to breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack made up of cheesecake and chocolate mousse cream pie! I definitely ate too much!

 

We received goody bags which included the t-shirt seen at the beginning of this post. The bag included little things like a luggage tag and chocolates. At the end of the day, we received these wonderful vacuum kits for our sewing machines! I've always wanted one but never got around to buying it.

We had time to shop throughout the day. I bought a couple of books as well as the two items pictured. I had never seen that Point Turner & Presser. We used Isacord thread for our embroidery so I bought some thread too. The shop is great. I would really love to return and spend more time discovering all the shop has to offer.

All in all, it was a great time. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. You won't regret. So fun!

A Knitting Finish



 

I just finished this scarf/shawl last night. It used a self striping sock yarn so that part was easy! The ruffle on the left uses short rows. I didn't like them at first but got used to them. I don't mind them at all now. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or give it as a gift. It was fun to make and didn't really take too much time.

 

As you can see, our kitten likes it too! Her name is Molly and we've had her for about 6 weeks. I'm not sure if our older cat, Lily, likes her. She seems to tolerate her and hisses at her once in awhile. They do like chasing each other. I hope they  become best friends soon!



Practicing my "C"s!!

 

Amy from Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures added a tutorial this past Monday. I almost missed but am so glad I found it! One of her first tutorials focused on McTavishing. We needed to make "C"s to travel between designs. It's hard to backtrack and keep the shapes uniform.  This Monday was all about practicing our "C"s! I must admit, I really needed this one badly!

 

 



I tried to sew a couple of curved lines and sew my "C" between them.  It's hard to keep them rounded but so much harder to backtrack over those curved lines. I used white thread on dark brown fabric just for practice. I would never use this on a real quilt! I hate seeing my messy lines! I definitely need more practice but could actually feel myself finding a rhythm and getting better at it. It's so true that practice really helps out with FMQ.

Here's the quilt I'm McTavishing on right now. It's white thread on a white background. So much safer! You can see where I've made my "C"s, especially close to the Dresden Plate. It looks so much neater but don't look too closely! I'm sure I didn't backtrack that great but it doesn't show up.  Sometimes, it's easier to play it safe!

I'm linking up to Amy's blog. Hope you have a look over there. She has some really neat stuff!