Another Week Has Come and Gone

Life certainly does not slow down. I hope each week that I will have time in the quilt studio and every week I find myself on Friday and I haven't done anything significant in quilting.
I no longer have major work in the yard, yeah!
I am coming to the end of job searching, yeah!
I am done with bottling for this year, yeah!
So, other than routine house work I should have more time for me to do what I like to do.
I still have not made decisions about the Grandmother's Garden blocks because I have not talked to my friend about the reality of making these two quilts.

I have finished the binding on my table runner and so I feel very good about that.

I have also had to buy a new camera, I dropped my old camera one too many times. I purchased a Nikon Coolpix. It was on sale at RC Willey and will work nicely with taking pictures of my quilts and other things.

I have also finally finished Miss Columbine and will start Miss Crocus soon. I am trying to add more texture to each of these embroideries and so I am very happy with the leaves on this flower. I had to totally change the leave from the original so it would more closely match the leaves on the Columbine flowers in real life. I am happy with the results.

I would press her but I don't want to set the transfer pencil to a permanent state.

I have decided that I need to just start quilting the tops I have ready and to stop fussing about running out of batting. The cost of a very large roll of batting is out of my reach at this time but I want to quilt so I need to move forward and get these tops quilted.

I hope that I have more to show next week. Take care!

Look at These Amazing Blocks

I have a friend who has given me some blocks to evaluate to make a couple of quilts. He wants me to tell him how much it would cost and if I will put these blocks together into quilts.

There are 163 hand sewn blocks with original fabric. I am guessing that they are definitely from the 1930's, 1940's and possible from the 1950's.

I sorted them into some rough sections.

Blue on the outside.

Blue on the inside.

Pink on the outside.

Pink on the inside.

Green on the outside.

Green on the inside.

Yellow on the inside.

Yellow on the outside.

Red in the inside.

Purple/Lavender on the inside.

I think you get the idea. I have a few more pictures but this is enough for this post. My problem is that I know that these are a wonderful find. They have original fabrics and are hand sewn. 24 of the blocks are markedly smaller than the rest but the sewer had written that she planned to applique them to 12 inch background squares so if they are scattered over the quilt you would probably not notice the different sizes.

My friend wants a price for putting these together and making the quilts. I have no idea. Also, I think that they should be hand appliqued on the squares not machine appliqued. I know it would take me years to hand applique these onto the squares. What to do? What to do?

I need some advise and help to know what I should tell him.

I have not been able to do much of anything else but some mending in the quilt studio this week.
I will hopefully have more time next week.

Where Did October Go

Hi Everyone,
I have been extremely busy this month and it seems like I have been living in the car.
I went down to deer camp last Sunday and we stayed until Tuesday afternoon. We drove home and got cleaned up to go to a funeral for a very dear friend.
On Wednesday we drove back down to deer camp and I spent the night and then drove back Thursday morning. I had to be back for a meeting on Thursday night and I needed to clean my house before the meeting.
I also had two telephone interviews this morning and I just got back from taking my Mom to the grocery store. So I have been running around like crazy this whole week.

I took my feather weight down to deer camp and was able to do a bunch of string piecing while I was there.

I brought the string stuff home and I now have it set up on my kitchen table because I just want to do some fun string piecing for a day or two and I don't feel like taking it all down to the quilt studio right now.

I have seventeen completed right now. They are in matched sets so I have them going in both directions.

I also ordered Wonder Clips to try out with my binding work. I think they are going to be great so I don't get stuck with all the pins holding the binding in place.

At the same time I ordered straw needles size nine to do my applique on the new wall hanging kit I bought in Reno, NV a couple of weeks ago.

Now I just need to find some time to work on the kit. I also have a number of UFO's that need some attention. I think November will be a much slower month than October has been so I should be able to do some things I want to do.

Well, this is all for this week. Talk again next week.

Runner Turned Out Fine Not Great

We got back from Reno, NV and was very tired. That is a long drive and it felt great to be home in our own bed.

I have pressed the Shadow Box quilt top and now I need inspiration for how I want to quilt it.

I am not in a hurry to get it quilted because I still haven't got the backing together for it yet.

I finished quilting the table runner this morning. Some parts I am happy with but the outside border I am not happy with. Mostly, that is because I used white thread on the bobbin and dark purple on the top.

 I know better than to do that but I was thinking it would be fine. It wasn't. But I am not going to unpick it.

Even with this mistake I like the runner so mcuh better than it was before.

So here it is. Done!

These are the pieced outer border units for the Smith Mountain Morning quilt. I have pressed them all and nipped off the dog ears. All I have left to do is to trim the outside edges and then sew them together to attach to the quilt top. I haven't put the inner border on yet because I haven't looked through my stash to see what will work for that very small border.

I guess it will get done in a few weeks. So for now see you next week.

Here We are in Reno

It took us 8 1/2 hours to drive to Reno from home. We checked into the Peppermill. It is a very fancy place and it takes allot to walk out to the car and get back in. I don't like having to use the Bell service but we had to get all of our stuff up to the sixteenth floor.

I quickly set up my sewing stuff and have been very happy sewing along.

 I completed the blocks the first night here.

 I had decided to put this top together by webbing the top as Bonnie Hunter does.

So I cut the sashings and corner stones so I could do that.

 It didn't take long to put it all together.

Next I started working on the pieced border for the Smith Mountain Quilt. I am making good progress.

Yesterday my husband and I went out to a fabric store. I was just looking, thinking I might get some fat quarters or some fabric to bind this new quilt. He saw something he liked so I ended up buying a wall hanging kit. It has applique and I am not very good at applique so it will be interesting to see how this turns out. I am thinking it would look real good in my quilt studio.

Well, I need to get working on my piecing again and then get some make up on so I am ready for lunch time.
See you next week.

Ready to Go

I have my quilting stuff packed for our trip to Reno, NV next week. I have prepared a new quilt to go so I can put it all together while I am there.

The quilt name is Shadow Box from MaDan's Quilting online. She made a very easy to follow tutorial at madanquilting.blogspot.com. I think I will be able to really spotlight my batik fabrics with this quilt.

I think I have everything I need to sew to my hearts content while my husband goes to his conference lectures.

I was cleaning out a cupboard in the kitchen over the desk and pulled out some table cloths and runners. In 1999 I embroidered a table runner and napkins with pansies. I loved them so much that I took the pattern and made curtains for our new house in 2001. This table runner had a cotton lace I had sewn onto it and it never has laid flat. I got this great idea to cut the lace off, add borders and then quilt.

Here it is with the borders.

Here it is loaded on my HQ. I have started quilting on the white around the outside edge with half feathers. I will start on the inside part of the white next. I think this runner is going to turn out just perfect and will lay flat the way it should.

I have purchased 2 boxes of Granny Smith apples and I will go to Walmart today and pick up more bottles. I want to make apple pie filling to bottle this week and then some applesauce. The applesauce will not be done until week after next.

Well, this all for now but I plan to take pictures in Reno of my progress and will post from there next week.

Show and Tell

Well, another week has come and gone. The weather is getting cooler and cooler but not quite to freezing. I have pulled up all my vegetable plants except the tomato plants. I am hoping that there is still time for all the green ones on the plant to ripen.

I have given away a bunch of tomatoes but I still had quite a few very ripe ones and so I came up with the idea of making salsa. Well, I don't like spicey food but I do like Pace mild salsa. So I figured I would try to make salsa chunky and mild like that. I bought a white onion, garlic and a few jalapeno peppers.
I started right in and chopped 8 cups of tomatoes, diced onions and the garlic. Then I cut the peppers in half and started to wash out all the inside. Oh my goodness, I started coughing and itching and didn't think I was going to be able to finish with them. I finally did finish, cut them up and put them in the pot.I only put in half what the recipe said to put in.  I then bottled 6 pints. I gave two daughter in laws each a pint and I have 4 left. I am a little concerned about being able to eat any of this salsa but I will not have a problem getting the kids to eat them. They love spicey food.

I have now started on 2 boxes of pears. My daughter, Jenny, and I bottled one batch Wednesday and I have one batch going right now. That will make 14 quarts so far. Pears are a funny fruit and you have to be very patient with them. They ripen when they are ready to ripen and not before. I have another box waiting but I don't think I will be able to do any tomorrow.

Don't they look pretty.

I have a son who really likes his quilts. He still has the baby quilt my grand mother made for him when he was born. I had to have my grand mother recover his quilt many years ago because he was loving his quilt to death. Well, he came to me with the holey remains of his quilt and asked me to recover it again. I tried to tell him it was not possible but he almost begged. This quilt was mostly holes so I am referring to this new outer skin as 'encasing' his baby quilt. I put fleece on the top and cream flannel on the back. I attempted to quilt it on my HQ with a particular pattern but that did not work at all. I am lucky I got it to sew the quilt at all. The lumps you see are really lumps and I am not showing the back because the thread is a mess. So I am done and he assures me that he is happy. He hasn't seen it yet.

I have decided to put the Smith Mountain Morning quilt together and now it is a top.

It is beautiful! I am working on another quilt top but I will not show it this week.

My daughter and daughter in law, Chelsi, decided to bring out my valentine quilt and try to arrange it on the design wall. It looks pretty good. I guess I need to work on this quilt top soon.

Well, this is all for this week. See you next week!