Sept.10th… diversity

Sitting here in my recliner with coffee cup in hand,listening to the rain and wind. We are to receive some of Irma’s nasty weather… hopeful the tornadoes that was on the news doesn’t come true. We are in need of some of the rain though as we are very dry.

Last weekend Russell and Kim were home, so good to have them here, we enjoyed a day out on the water, did a little fishing.

Spectators,who just blinked an eye as we rode by.

Lovely views …

Hubby enjoying himself… he catch a sting ray.

There were bottlenose dolphins swimming around,I tried hard to get a good picture of them jumping out of the water. They played hard to get.

The end of a beautiful day!!

Now for an update on some sewing…

I’m half way done on the double wedding ring quilt.

And I have a few blocks of the grandmothers fan done. I played around with the blocks to see what layout I would do…

Or this one

I rather like the last layout.

Did a small drawing of Snuggles. 😀

Take care,Deb<<
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July 31,….. mowing,old fabric scraps and fabric balls

As a young teen into my early married life ,I did a lot of mowing with tractors, when the oldest boys were old enough to mow I had them do the mowing to help keep them busy. Now I'm back to mowing my own yard again … but time brought changes to the type of mower. We have a zero turn lawn mower, which looked so easy as Russell maneuver that mower over our large yard. Oh wow was I in for a surprise!! The instructions never mentioned to handle the bars with a very light touch,and I liked to make my self seasick until I learned that light touch!😳😁 I am pride to say that I have learned to handle it in a more productive manner.
My daughter LouAnn and I went to some yard sales recently, a fun time of trying to find that little treasure. Oh how I found it!!
I was so delighted when I found it. It was old balls of fabric in a lovely old jar.

Perfect to display in my sewing room. I also bought 5lbs of dirty old scraps ,I almost didn't get them but they call out for a second chance of being beautiful again that I didn't have the heart to just ignore them. They were so smelly!! Poor things…
Here are some soaking in the sink in baking soda and laundry soap.

I hand washed them then put them in the dryer .. I had many little pieces to iron which I worked on when I needed a little break from other work.

There were many pieces that looked like they were from a shirt factory, I believe that they are vintage maybe dated at 1940's to 1950's . If any one knows for sure of a date let me know,I would be pleased to know .

I have been working at this top again.. I had to make some changes as I didn't have enough of the one fabric . There were two pieces to be used but I thought maybe they would clash some for the pinks are just a little different so I was hoping that I would have enough of the one .. not so. It not going to look too bad.
Now off the decide what pattern would be nice to use the old scraps in….. maybe a tree of life or a grandmothers fan…..

July 15th ….. a box of scraps

I received a pile of scraps. Ok, so your thinking what’s new ,that poor dear always has a pile of scraps.  And boy are you right!!

Last weekend an older gentleman from our church ,who to keep himself busy, cuts up fabric into 6″, 5″and 4″ that people give him. He does this to support a program that helps poor widows support herself and her family. The widows will receive these blocks with batting and backing, they then will make quilts to sell. To make a long story short… He brought me his scraps to put into quilt tops for Christian aid ministries. Of course.. I can’t say no. Here’s the big bag of scraps,which I dumped into this box.

The type of box… my daughter likes lightening McQueen.. so instead of wearing princess pull ups she wears these😁

I want to go through to sort the big pieces from the little . I made a few blocks like this to see if I cared for them. I believe it will make a nice top.

This is what I’m going to work on this week, the weather is to be hot  for awhile now.. time to keep myself in except for early mornings.

I was messing around in my fabric closet,digging down under looking for an old briefcase that I wanted to put my art stuff in to keep it all in one place. I got a surprise…. the old case wasn’t empty.  Guess what was in it!! No not a mouse nest!😜 an unfinished double wedding ring top.

There are two rows of four blocks to a row. It is in vintage fabric except for the navy blue . Plus there are lots of little pieces ready to be pieced.

I want to make this into a throw for at the end of a bed,then use the rest of the pieces in this top

I had the life scared out of me Saturday… I went out to do some watering , I have some small oak tree starts that needed a good soak, well.. when I first grabbed the hose to fill up some pails I  thought heard a raspy noise .. looked around .. saw nothing ,continued to work ,when all of a sudden Wiggles ,our Jack Russell came unglued!!!! Not more than 3 feet away was a rattler!! Needless to say it’s history.  Can’t say I care for a rattlesnake right outside in my front yard.

 

We had a storm pass through this evening ,the clouds were beautiful!

Take care ,Deb

July 9th…. A little bit of this & that….

Seems like I haven’t got much accomplished the last few weeks when it comes to sewing. First ,we moved Leona into Russell’s old room,we fixed it up for her so it didn’t look like her brothers old room.

I really hate to admit that having our youngest son leaving home for good has been a little hard..okay a lot harder than I wished for it to be. So I did something that I have been wanting to do… that is to learn to draw. I ordered a book for beginners,bought an online course,and got some pencils. I have been enjoying it to the fullest. It has helped me see things in new ways. I see shadows ,depth,little details and colors that I hadn’t noticed before. While I will never be a fantastic artist, it is good to be challenged instead of mopping about life’s changes. Here is a peek at my newbie work.

 

I did put a little top together for a friend. She had found these old blocks at a yard sale , and wanted to display them in a throw. The blocks are vintage ,my guess would be 1920 to early 1930’s.

And back to work on this top.. half way through 

Even with the hot weather that we are having the flowers are still going, not sure how long they will go until some of them will stress out. 

 
 
This last photo is a mushroom,these grow randomly in our yard. 

And one of the boys found this arrowhead .

I wonder what the story of this arrow is ? Lost in a practice run.. or missed the animal it was shot at .. or maybe it was a no good curving so it was tossed aside….

Take care, Deb

April 1st… Strawberries and double wedding ring update.

Strawberries are in full swing here,and my counter is full of bowls with berries. The kitchen smells so good with the smell of cake and strawberries.

I will put some in the freezer for milkshakes and homemade ice cream when the weather is hot and we are looking for a cool supper. For the shortcake I use an old recipe that is a plain vanilla cake. Here’s the recipe..

If you wish to try the coconut icing that is wonderful tasting as well.

Now for the update.. I didn’t get as far on the Double Wedding Ring quilt top as I would have like but there is still a little progress. I was able to get more rings sewn.. and started sewing the rings together.

  
It is hard to match the rings at the seams evenly, some are off a little bit . I was able to get one row done which has 9 complete ring sections,and started on row two. There will be 72 sections when top is completed. That means I have 61 more to go.

Here you can see how row two is joined on.

Have a lovely week! Deb

March,12 th…. a trip up north

It is that time of year when hubby goes to dealer meetings again. I alway enjoy riding along ,taking a littler sewing machine then while hubby is in meetings I sew away. Here’s a peek into our journey.

We started out with temperatures in the upper 70’s … so in packing I only put in a heavy sweater forgetting just how cold some parts of the US still are. I really didn’t mind the temperature drop until it hit freezing and below temperatures…. needless to say there were a few times I was nearly frozen myself.😄

 
From hills to flat land

 
From warm to cold

 
From upside down house to huge tires

 
From lovely farms to rocky views

 
From red barns to brown ones

Now for all the quick miscellaneous shots…

   

Soooo… what did I work on while hubby was in meetings….. take a guess😄

Yep the double wedding ring quilt. I have 54 ring sides done. 

 
What the rings look like before trimming. I did sew a few of the rings together to see if it was what I thought it was going to look like in my minds eye ..as to what quilt would really be. 

I’m happy with it! Sorry about the wrinkles as the iron was worthless there and I was afraid of ruining my fabric. Two of the rings aren’t sewn to the center neither.

I also took a book along to read,”Georgia quilts” what a wonderful book! I didn’t get it finished completely,but I did find a pattern in there  that would use my little scraps up ,that would make me very happy. It was made by two black ladies here in Ga .

The flower petals were done by Mary Lizzie Parham in her elder years then her daughter Annie Howard finished it after her mothers death. Fabric era… about the same time frame as what I’m working with now…. 

 
I believe the design is simple enough for me to make one similar.

We did go to two museums on the way home ,that I will do a later post on.

Deb

Feb.26th… 73 degree Sunday afternoon

Today was a beautiful day,sunny ,warm with a soft breeze,perfect for a Sunday stroll….

Pine trees blooming

Maples seeds

Lovely Gerber daisy…

Daffodil

Woodpecker haven,woodpeckers are plentiful on the farm they love the pecans and the old pine trees

Neighbors old barn

My little strolling buddy, Wiggles

Wild widow’s tears growing in a ditch.

 

Our farm in view from the road…

And of course there’s a few rings in progress… 

Have a lovely week , friends. Deb

Feb.19th..double wedding ring

I finally decided to do the double wedding ring after going though the box of scraps . There is enough fabric to do another quilt of a different pattern later with larger pieces. The pieces that I have are all very small just big enough to get the little pieces for the rings . I am going to paper piece the rings for it would take to much time to cut each little piece with a template. At least to me it would.🙂

I made a pattern to piece on..

It will work out great! Look at all these lovely old fabrics .. I really forgot I had so many.

 
There are some really little pieces 1 1/2 inch or less that I thought would be cute to make into mug rugs.

Then I found these pieces that looked to me like they were cut for a quilt.

A fan ,tumbler ( larger and smaller size) Dresden plate would be my guess.

Then I found some blocks..

This piece was sown to the bottom piece in foundation piecing. There were a lot of strips so I might just do a log cabin with those pieces, and put this one in the quilt.

This block looks like it many have been a victim of mice teeth.

As I went though this fabric , I had to think of the lady that owned these before me. I do believe she liked to quilt, she also liked to save her scraps.. some of the fabric looked like shirt fabric ,so did she also make shirts for her family? I also had to wonder if any of the fabric held special memories for her…..

I hope my readers don’t get tried of seeing  camellias.. I am still taken away with their beauty.

As I was walking taking my evening stroll ,I come upon this bush. Don’t know what kind it is,( maybe in the japonica family ?)But the bees loved it.

Tomorrow hubby and I will be married for 29 wonderful years. My.. how time flies!

Deb

Feb 15 … vintage scraps

I have this storage box full of old vintage scraps..

 
I want to make something special with these scraps,but I’m having a hard time deciding on which pattern I want to use. I want to use an older pattern like a grandmothers fan or the double wedding. Is there an older pattern that you think would be great made with these scraps? I’m open for ideas.

I did get a scrappy top finished. The idea for this pattern came from a lady off Flickr,who makes lovely tops  Linda Miller is her name if you are looking for some inspiration.

A few blocks cut ready for sewing.

I would really like to try this pattern with these blocks. It would be more scrappy then this picture,but if I use light ,dark ,medium ,dark and light again … let’s see what happens.

Again look at the vintage scraps and tell me what quilt pattern comes to your mind. 😊

Dec.4th The New Home machine

I had a new interest for a day or two that wasn’t very sewing machine productive,although it did help the handquilting along. My daughter Leona wanted me to watch Chronicles of Narina with her,I have always enjoy reading the books so I found the movie interesting. Oh, yes I still enjoy children’s books.😄 Do you?

Now to the New Home sewing machine that was hidden in Mom’s attic for many years ,at least thirty some years. She was in a dirty state when I found her.  “the ol’ girl” ,as I call her , was stiff and froze up from sitting in her box way too long,the old oil was nasty and ugly. She is in much better state now, soap,alcohol and a spray that my husband uses out at the shop did much to improve her looks and movements. I did replace the motor ,for the other motor had a funny noise. The tension didn’t take much to adjust to proper sewing. The ol’ girl is up and running  ,a delight to sew with. 

I cut out some patches that were cotton ,polyester/cotton ,polyester and other fabrics that were about the same weight. I wanted to see how the ol’ girl handled different types of fabric tension wise. She did good handling the different fabrics without skipping a stitch.

Here is the top not ironed that the ol’ girl sewed together.. not bad for not being used for 30 some years .

Oh yes, I finished  miss Paulines quilt top,it is on is way to her now.

My nativity project has been put on hold for some knotted quilts are in demand right now… so beings it is going to be a rainy week ,perfect for tying tops!

Deb