Road to Pineberry Hill

Which photo do you prefer? The one with the table set so nicely with flowers and tablecloth or the one with the buckets? Buckets, did I say? Actually, I prefer the buckets. It gives a certain cottage/camp feel to a city home. It has that “Je ne sais quoi” feel for a dinner setting. Definitely a conversation opener, would you not say! LOL

A week ago coming home from the dentist, I was greeted with the sound of dripping water onto the dining room table and by the patio door. Now the irony is that three weeks previous, we just had our ceilings done. New drywall, plaster, and paint, the whole bit. The ceilings before were god-awful due to a bad paint job (for which I was responsible for). :o) Our roof was done two years ago, so there was no cause for leaks. The water has now stopped and no water damage remained. Thank you!

Anyway, during the dripping, I sat in the living room quilting away and listening for any new areas for drips. It was actually soothing and I had quite a good rhythm going …. drip, stitch, drip, stitch, drip,drip,drip. No, slow down, I can’t quilt that fast … drip, stitch, drip, stitch,stitch,stitch. Yes, it finally stopped after a couple of hours! :o)

Anyway, back to the quilt! I made a lap size quilt as a wedding gift for a niece and liked the pattern and colours so much that another one was in the works soon after. Luckily, there was enough material on hand. In hind-sight, I should have given the niece the bed quilt instead. Oh well, she is promised a bed size quilt soon.

This quilt was machine-quilted (SID) in the middle and the border was hand quilted. Why not combine the two? If I can’t do the swirly bits by machine, then I’ll do them by hand. As well as quilts on our beds, my dining room always has one up. I love the look! New curtains and painted walls are in the works but will have to wait until spring.

Have a great day!

P.S. Sister, I haven’t told Mom about the water … didn’t want her to be worried.

Pattern Source: Moda Fabrics-www.modafabrics.com

Crayons

This post was prompted by Norma at Silver Thimble Quilting http://silverthimblequilting.blogspot.com/ . Norma talked about crayoning and gives good starting points on how to proceed.

I thought you might like to see what I do with crayons and fabric. Do you have a denim shirt and want to dress it up a bit? Are you crafty and like to colour with crayons? This shirt was ho-hum until I added a strip of lighthouse blocks. I drew these scenes from photos and then had fun with crayons. I love my denim shirts and do different things with them. I'll post a few more at another time.

My shirt has been washed and dried so many times and the crayons have faded just a tad. The good point about this is, I can just take my crayons out again and touch up any scene.

My choice of fabric is actually poly/cotton. Experimentation with cotton and poly/cotton was interesting. The crayon wax actually adheres better with the poly/cotton. I found that cotton (perhaps it was just the brand that I used) didn’t hold the crayon wax and faded out very quickly after one wash.

I also colour my quilt labels as well with crayons. Crayola Crayons are the ones I use. Did I mention how much fun this is? It’s like being a kid again! :o)

Have a great day!

Beading

I need to do some embellishment for the quilt that is being hand quilted. Time to dig out my beading box and see what I can use. As well as using up my fabric stash for quilts, my challenge is to use up whatever beads are in this box. You’ll see what the end result will be next month sometime. Got to keep you folks guessing! :o)

Have a great day!

50th Quilt

Nine-patch is one of my favourite blocks and it sneaks into my quilts quite often. EQ5 was used for the layout of this quilt. All the fabrics were either plaids or had stars in them. This was my 50th quilt. My first quilt was for a baby and it was fitting that my 50th would be for a child as well. A grand-nephew received this one for his 1st birthday.

This quilt has a combination of machine and hand quilting. Fooled you! You thought that I only did hand quilting. From time to time, I will venture to the machine to do the quilting. Nothing fancy, just straight stitching (SID) in the nine-patches. The stars were hand quilted.

Best of all, all the fabrics were from my stash!

Many thanks to you ladies that visited my blog and left comments!

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday, dear hubby!

Nine-patch and primitive stars B.O.M.

These blocks were the B.O.M. for Jan. 2007 with my Guild. Another lady and I pick and choose which months we want to be responsible for the blocks and these were my choices. We’ve been throwing in two blocks to make as there are members who prefer to do either appliqué or patch and this way both are included in the B.O.M. We give them the choice to do both or just one of their choices. Do you see the one lone star block on the right?

I really liked these blocks so much that I just had to make a quilt. No, I didn't win these at the meeting. Another lucky lady walked away with them!

Hand quilting

This wall hanging is going to have quite a lot of hand quilting. Am liking the way it's turning out. Thread used is Coats Button Craft extra strong thread. I like to use very long lengths (about a yard long) of thread and take the time to wax my threads using beeswax and then ironing the excess off. We're not supposed to use thread that long, but that is the way I like to do it. :o) I do so hate having to knot off and start a new thread right in the middle of an open area. The bonus is my threads don't tangle from the beeswax and my quilting really shows up well because of the heavier thread.

There are a number of bloggers that use Perle Cotton thread for quilting. This, I will have to give a try to see which I prefer.

Is there something missing for this wall hanging? Yes, it's not complete ... yet! You will have to wait until the end to see what it will finally look like.

So far today, I've made a batch of fat-free hummus and this afternoon I will make a cherry cheesecake (fat-free of course)! Ugh, you say! Actually, it's quite good or maybe it's because we have been eating low-fat for so long (about 10 yrs. now) that the food does taste good! LOL

Have a great day!

Folding quilts on the bias

How do you fold your quilts for storage? I used to just fold them in half and half again and so on. Then, I read the article in QNM December 2006 and refolded all my quilts as the article suggested. What a difference it makes! Not only to help eliminate creases but also for storage space. Before in this basket, I could only barely fit the two smaller lap quilts. Now I can fit three easily. Try it ... it works!

All these quilts have hand quilting and I will show them to you in other posts.

Have a great day!

Here are a few wall hangings that I'm currently working on. The photo is taken in my studio. I might add that it's usually not this tidy! LOL

Have a great day!

First blog

This is it ... I've made my first posting! For the past year, I have browsed, oohed and aahed and also drooled over the beautiful quilts that have been posted by so many other quilt bloggers. You have impressed me and also inspired me to work on my own quilts and clear out my UFO's.

I have wanted to start a blog so many times and have finally decided to come out of the closet and show my quilts. Eventually, I will post photos as soon as I figure out how to.