Gathering of Pumpkins

We have sold our house and bought another one to live in come June. It was 30 yrs. ago when we moved into our current house and I just don't remember the stress that goes along with a move back then. So, we have a couple of months to sit back and relax and then get serious about packing.

We de-cluttered a lot before putting our place up for sale and now, I can't find anything. My studio is almost non-existent and cabin fever was starting to set in since no quilting/sewing of any kind was done for almost a full month.

Mind you, having my studio all packed up is forcing me to work on my UFO's. I decided to just work on those and not start anything new. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to get a few tops finished over the next few months.

This is my 3rd finish for the year and a bit early for autumn; but it will be ready to get hung up on the wall for display along with my collection of pumpkins come September. Here is a peek at the hand quilting. This grid design is one that I will do again. I just love it!

There are still a few threads to be tucked into the quilt and a hanging sleeve to be added. Right now, I can't find the material for the sleeve. Once we are moved it will surface at some point. :o) My label has been sewn on .... so this quilt is finished.

Quilt size: 48" wide x 47-1/4" high

Quilt source: Country Quilts for Friends by Margaret Peters and Anne Sutton. The quilt name in the book is When the Frost is on the Pumpkins.

For those of you wondering how my tally for hand qulting was for February .... let's just not go there. Other than a few days here and there, I was just too exhausted by the end of each day to do anything let alone quilting. Hopefully, March will be kinder to me.

Have a great day, eh!

Blog Break

While we are in the midst of selling our home, there won't be time for blogging .... so on that note, I leave you with a photo of my quilts and unquilted tops in a cabinet. Enjoy!
Have a great day, eh!

Let it Snow

This is the mini quilt that I made for Mary of We 3 Quilters that I talked about in my last post. A close-up of my hand quilting. There is machine stippling in the tabs and in the snow globe. Everything else is hand quilted. From time-to-time, I do like to do both machine and hand quilting in the same quilt. Oh well, call me quirky. :o)

Beads were added for decorations and jingle bells were sewn onto the tabs.

Where did this design come from? From Quiltmaker's 100 blocks, vol 2.

This is the snow globe pattern.

The tab idea came from this block in the same magazine.

Have a great day!

Xmas gifts

This past Thursday, We 3 Quilters finally met and exchanged our Xmas gifts. We have been trying to meet for quite some time; but there was always a hiccup. Here is Mary (no blog) with her snow globe quilt (my next post will show more of this quilt) that I made for her. Debra received this lovely mini from Mary.

This is me just killing myself laughing. Debra gave me a UFO! There is a good reason why she didn't get around to completing my gift (and which she promises to have finished in 2 weeks time). Go here to Debra's blog and check out the applique top she had to have finished by the end of January. Her top just left me speechless.

After having some cake, we were high-fiving each other. We had a great time. Can you see how bare my studio is looking? Packing up to move is quite the task. Almost everything has been packed away. On the bright side, it is forcing me to work on UFO's.

Have a great day, eh!

Got a mug

Back in the fall, I was feeling frivolous one day and went to Wal-Mart and had a photo of one of my quilts made into a mug. Now, I really enjoy my cup of coffee even more.

Have a great day!

January tally

Back on Jan. 4, 2012, my post was about hand quilting and setting up a time sheet to help keep me motivated into doing some hand quilting every day. So, for January my tally was 28 days of quilting and 3 missed days.

Some days, a good hour was accomplished; other days just 5 mins. Still, this schedule is really helping me keep at it and that is a good thing! I'm seeing progress and that makes me smile.

This hexagon quilt is about 1/4 of the way done. See the arrow pointing at a piece of black to indicate my starting point for doing diagonal rows? All horizontal rows up to this point have been done and I'm doing diagonal rows in both directions. This has been a great start and I'm hoping to have this done by the end of May. We'll see! My pumpkin quilt hanging also got worked on and there is just the top border to quilt and it will be ready for finishing. Progress, progress, progress!

Have a great day!

Finish #2

This is the way to start off the year, with my second finish. I can't show you the first one yet as it is part of a secret swap with my We 3 Quilters group and we've been trying to meet up for a while now but something always gets in the way. So, for now, enjoy this quilt!

Once you have done that, let me take you back to the beginning and how this quilt got started. Over the years, I have been buying up charm packs and these were the leftovers. What I call ugly fabrics .... you know the ones that just don't fit in with what you were doing. Big prints and stripes. They could have been trashed or given away; but they ended up in a bin. One day last November, I started pulling out all of those charms and was amazed at the number that were found. More than 176 to make the above quilt and there are still leftovers.

Pinwheel blocks were what these fabrics needed to be made into and I got started on them right away.

Ummm ... what would some circles look like on the blocks? Yes, love what is happening here!

Since this quilt is intended for the cottage, machine quilting was the way to go. Simple straight line stitching was done throughout ..... even into the borders.

The back shows the gridwork well.

This was my ugly duckling quilt but in the end ...... my new quilt has charmed me instead!

Waiting in the wings is another stack of charm leftovers and you just know that there will be another pinwheel quilt in the future.

Quilt size: 66” x 87-1/2” (top size before quilting: 68” x 90-1/4”)

Pinwheel block size: 8" x 8" (88 blocks x 2 charms per block = 176 charms)

All from my stash, including backing .... now that is a good thing!

Have a great day, eh!