Feb.19… hand quilt a long

Sorry…. that I’m a day late. We were not home over the weekend. Leona has had the flu ,and has been rather sick for close to two weeks. I did notice that while her illness seem to be getting better her spirits were low. Leona is a happy child often humming in her off tune way, so this had me concerned. Steve (hubby) and I were sitting in the family room Friday noon as he can in from the office for lunch. I mentioned to him my concerns. He looked at me in a knowing way,then at Leona saying casually that the weather would be perfect for camping. Leona’s face lite up with a hardy grunt of excitement. So that is just what we did. We were on the road in less than two hours heading to our favorite state park! We had a very lovely weekend. The fresh air and enjoyable wheelchair strolls did much for her ,Leona is back to her humming self.😀

So now for the update on my projects…..

The double wedding ring quilt was worked on the most . Here I was last update…

Here is where I am now with one more ring to go until half way….

It is rumpled for being in a basket.

Then the cathedral window quilt…. last update…

Here now…

I didn’t work on the Fire Island Hosta quilt. I just couldn’t get it worked in . So I’m still working in the corner…

Now I’m off to catch up on what the other bloggers are doing….

here’s the list of other hand quilt along bloggers

Kathy,http://livinginrapidcity.wordpress.com/

Lori,http://www.quiltingneeds.com/

Margaret,http://www.thecraftycreek.com/

Kerry,https://lovethosehandsathome.wordpress.com/

Emma,http://emmacraftprojects.wordpress.com/

Tracy,https://itsatsweetsday.blog/

Connie,https://stitchingirlblog.wordpress.com/

Deborah,https://adailydoseoffiber.wordpress.com/

Susan,https://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com/

Jessica,https://myhappycountryfarm.wixsite.com/website

Sherry,http://www.bookshookssticksetc.blogspot.com/

Nannette,https://doitrightquilter.wordpress.com/

Sassy,http://farmquilter.blogspot.com/

Edith,http://ediscraftinglife.blogspot.com/

Sharon ,https://piecinglifetogetheronestitchatatime.wordpress.com/

Bella,http://createdbybella.wordpress.com/

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Feb.8… a challenge quilt,and more practice drawings

A community lady was stricken with Alzheimer’s,she then gave all her sewing supplies ,fabrics and unfinished projects to the church sewing. I was handed this unfinished project to finish. It is an older pattern maybe 80’s at least the fabrics are. Here is what was handed to me….

I had the challenge of figuring out what was done and what wasn’t ….I soon discovered that she had the colors backward from the pattern,with two of the blues switched.

I switched the blues around .. if I had been a little wiser … I should have just redone those first strips. I’m a very visual person and the color coded instructions messed me up at time or two.

I finally covered the color code and worked by letter and numbers… things are going much better ,I will soon have it finished for the church ladies then to do with as they please.

Cleaning my sewing room yielded some cute fabric that instead of cutting up I just added a fleece backing ,knotted them…and they were done!

A nice start on this Years charity quilts.

I have been practicing my drawing….. if you see a fault,and would like to give a pointer or tip to improve I would be most happy to know.

I need to work more on sketching structures….

That bottom wall is a little sorry..😀

Keep warm and healthy friends… flu is going around here😖

Deb

Sept.22 …. the old log cabin

I bought this lovely quilt top for its beauty captivated me. The history of its maker is a mystery ,that will always be so. I do know it came from Lancaster county , Pa. The fabrics used are from the civil war era until the early 1900’s. The maker of this top was a lovely sewer. Check it out!

I had to wonder as she sewed these strips of fabric together so careful if she had a plan for the top,or if she just enjoyed sewing in her spare time. I wonder what she would think if she knew her quilt landed up in the hands of a southern lady.

Was she old or young ,married,or single or perhaps widowed….

here’s the quilt in all its glory and I will let you wonder about the top.

Enjoy this carefully kept treasure!!

Deb

Aug 22……the meaning of scrap..

Scrap…
A small piece or something left over from use of a greater piece . (Noun)
Discard or remove ( verb)
Words that are similar in uses , fragment,snippet, shred

I have this problem of discarding little pieces of fabric,also accumulating from others their rejects…I so enjoy the colors of a scrappy quilt while the last quilt top I put together was pretty, it isn't a delightful display of colors like the log cabin….

Here are some scrappy knotted quilts that are finished.

I have been having some back issues 😟 ,puts me in a chair for a few days. I don't mind a chair for an hour or two but after awhile I get really disgusted with sitting… so I put my office chair at the table ,got the scraps out that I found,cleaned and ironed, and started cutting these strips into little fan pieces. I need to decide if I want to use the cream fabric or the barn red..

I like both .. although I think the red brings out all the colors of the shirting fabric, where some of the shirting gets lost in the white. What do you think?
The weather wasn't perfect for seeing the eclipse ,as the storm clouds kept getting in the way. I found that it was still beautiful. I needed to always look though the camera on my iPad as I didn't have glasses . Love the reflection of the sun ,moon in this photo.

Take care friends.

Aug.13th, a miscellaneous post

This month is flying by so quickly! We have been butchering,enjoying company,and trying to keep up with yard work between the thunderstorms.
I did finish the pink and white top.
.

Put together this little lap throw, I used a cheat fleece piece for the backing. That was a real no- no ,but a lesson learned. It left the quilt rippled on the edges,as it stretched this way and that as I tried to sew.

My flowerbed is starting to show signs that it is time for cooler weather, although there is a few beauties left.

I still am learning to draw, while I know that my talents are limited, I so enjoy sitting down and doing a simple drawing of something I have seen around me. Here's a few things that I scratched out…

Does any body know how to keep cute little bunnies from eating all your lilies down to stalks? Isn't this stalk rather pitiful!!

Take care friends 🍄

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

June 18th … A Drunkards trip around the world

I’ve had to put aside my double wedding ring sewing for there’s another project that needs to be done first. I need to put together a  quilt top that is to go into a grandma’s room that an lady in making in her house . I do not have to handquilt it as this lady’s friends wish to quilt it for her. The material that is to be used in the quilt is vintage and is pink. I wasn’t sure what pattern I should work with until I came across the drunkards trip around the world. Perfect …. why … it’s perfect for two colors, it’s an old pattern ,and it interesting enough that the design has been found in ancient Egypt.

I drew up my own pattern to keep me straight with the colors,also added the twist with the corners.

Fabric up close. I would take a guess that it is a fifties fabric , but if someone knows for sure then please let me know!

Three rows done

Does it look like it would fit in a grandma’s room?

It has warmed up big time in GA.. today it was 93f degrees (33.8 c) So the walk that I usually take was cut start until it cools off!!

That clouds were beautiful,hoping that it means rain is on the way!!

  This looks like a frog jumping over an alligators snout. Lol

Also was chasing butterflies..

  
And seeing if the little wrens weren’t too hot..

Their little mouths were open hoping for a bite.😀

The little dahlia was posing so pretty that I readily agree to take its picture.

Now off the make a menu up of the meals I wish to put in the camper for our trip to Kentucky . 

As Leona has a lower immune system, I don’t take her out to public eating areas or restrooms.  She also has a special diet that is easier on me if I just plan them out ahead of time. It is amazing to me that a child who the doctors at one time said she will only have a lifespan of ten years ,is now going on twenty. 

The next post I’m sure will be on wedding!😀

Until then.. take care , Deb

June 11…. update on a double wedding ring quilt

With all the other sewing that was being done, I haven’t been able to work on this top very hard. I did how ever take a few minutes each day to do a few stitches on it.

I have 77 of these done and 57 more to do, have two complete rows done with seven more to go.

There are many little stripes of  scraps that I can’t use in the double wedding ring , I made a log cabin block that took 1 1/2 inch strips . I really like the block. 

Did a few more blocks… I think a log cabin is also going to be made out of these old scraps.

There was a gorgeous sunset this evening ….

and of course , I need to add a few more flowers.

 

Oh yes.. I need to share what I found in my washing machine that made me take a second look…

It fell out of my son’s jean pocket when washing. He had been fishing. 

Have a great week ,

Deb