Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the guys around me. Sonny is a great father to five sons who are good fathers. We have been blessed with wonderful fathers and grandfathers and father-in-laws who have had a tremendous influence on us. This is our day to reflect on our blessing and thank the greatest Father of all, our heavenly Father.

Grandchildren

Today is my birthday and I am so very blessed. My wonderful husband prepared me a delicious dinner. My son cut my yard and I had many Happy Birthday wishes. Here are more of my blessings--the rest of my grandchildren--Gabby, Hannah, Andrew, Jacob, Maggie, Nikolas, and Shannon. Jase and Josie Clare are shown in yesterday's post.

Josie Clare

Josie Clare is here. She arrived at 10:14 a.m. on June 8, 2009. She weighed a little over 8 pounds. Josie Clare and mother are doing great. Big brother, Jase (2), is great. He is staying here with Grammy and Granddaddy and wakes up with a smile and goes to bed with a smile. He is so much fun and doing great. Hope to have a picture to share.

Coin Quilt

Well, I finally completed the coin quilt. Recently, I saw on Moda Bake Shop a quilt that had a ruffle edge and thought I would add a ruffle to this quilt. I do not think I will do that again. It was a PAIN! However, I have learned how not to do it. Adding the patchwork to the back of the quilt seems to be quite popular. (I saw this on http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/). I used a pantograph for the stippling quilting. I cannot doodle. I tell the story that even as a child I did not color, because I could not make up my mind which color to use. I find the same problem with quilting so I tend to buy charm packs, or copy colors from a pattern, or I get someone at the quilt shop to help me out with color selection.

By the way, the pink material were scraps from two baby quilts I have made.

Pic 1 -- front of coin quilt

Pic 2 -- close up of front

Pic 3 -- back of coin quilt

Another P & S

Here is another Prayers and Squares quilt. After ties are added, the quilt is presented to the church and members will voice a specific prayer for the recipient of the quilt, and tie a knot. The quilt will be presented to Nancy who is battling effects of cancer.

About the quilt--made from a Moda layer cake, it measures 50" x 50". It is quilted in a 2" arch.

Joining the Binding Ends

Do you have problems joining the ends of your binding. Well, one of my favorite tasks of making a quilt is finishing with the binding. My only problem has always been joining the ends of the binding. I always had too much material or lumps but never a smooth finish--until I found the following method. I have wanted to prepare a tutorial, and this is my first quilting tutorial. I have not been able to find a tutorial on this subject on the blogs I follow. My tutorial pictures are not as clean as those on other blogs but here goes.

1. When you begin stitching the binding, start in the middle of one of the sides, leaving an 8" tail. Stitch the binding on all sides of the quilt but stop about 10" from where you began. Remove the quilt from the machine.

2. Working on a flat service, pull the binding ends together to meet in the middle.

3. Crease both ends where they meet, leaving a 1/4" space between the ends.

4. Cut one end off at the crease.

5. Measure and cut the second end the binding width from the crease. My binding is 2 1/4" wide so I cut the second end 2 1/4".

6. Now join the two ends with a diagonal seam careful not to twist.

7. Finish sewing the binding to the quilt.

That is all there is to perfect binding. Hope this tutorial helps with your binding success.

One WIP Completed

Well, I have worked this week trying to finish up a couple of projects before Miss Josie Clare arrives. The first quilt is made from squares Josie Clare's grandmother, Charlotte, cut before her death. Charlotte was a beautiful lady who had a form of dementia and died at age 57. The original blocks were 9 patches. I cut the 9 patches to make a Disappearing 9 Patch. The quilt measures 58 X 58. I am not sure about the light border but I searched hours for some material to match and could not find anything I liked.

This next quilt is a coin quilt that I have seen on lots of blogs, and I have wanted to make one. SO--here it is. I am not finished with binding so will show the final quilt when completed.

Next, I want to show off a gift I received from a friend, Frances. She crocheted a beautiful table topper. I just love it and will treasure it.

Saturday

Rainy Saturday--Well, I thought today had been a slow day until I realized what I have accomplished. I have washed three loads of clothes, planned Sunday dinner, went grocery shopping, printed bulletins and prayer sheets for church, took Mother her gallon of milk, fixed some delicious Sloppy Joes for lunch, cooked chicken spaghetti for Sunday, and made a Southern Praline Cake. So I have done a few things for a rainy day.

Menus/Meals--Would anyone like help planning menus? Recently I have been following a blog who has a 30-day Meal Plan. I like her plan and also her Excel worksheet where she has created a organized list to help with planning and shopping. Well, my niece recently spoke to a group of busy mothers and gave them a four-week meal plan. This should help us with our menus when we are wondering what to cook.

Projects--I have been working on two quilts this week and also the bag pictured. Find the tutorial on Moda Bake. I made the bag for Jaime, my daughter-in-law, who will give birth to Josie Clare in two weeks. The material for the bag belonged to her mother who passed away a few years ago. Jaime then ordered two more to be made for her sisters.

In a few days I will post a quilt made from the same material.

Tuesday Boating Trip

This is my precious grandson with his new haircut. He loves a boat and fishing with his dad and granddad. Granddaddy took this picture with his phone.

Happy Mother's Day

We had a lovely day with my mother and mother-in-law. In fact, there were 8 mothers at my dinner table. How blessed we are!!

Here is a picture of my sweet granddaughter, Maggie, and her quilt. I cannot wait until their visit in July.

Strip Quilt

My wonderful husband just returned from a business trip to Laramie, Wyoming. Would you believe he stopped in a couple of quilt shops? He bought me the quilt material below. I wanted to show the material off. He said this was our quilt and not to give it away. I am including a small picture of the quilt I will be making. A lady at the Snowy River Quilts designed the quilt. It is a "strip" quilt.

Show and Tell

Well, my quilting week is over and, as usual, I did not get all I wanted to do completed. BUT here is what I finished.

First, I needed to complete a prayer quilt. I have not tied the quilt yet, but will get that done this week to be presented to church next Sunday for prayers and tieing of knots. (Prayers and Squares). By the way, I used a package of 20 ten inch squares. I had to add a few cream colored blocks to make the quilt about 45 by 55. The next problem is I could not find material that suited me for the binding--so--I binded with black. I was not happy about this. My stash is small and I spent two hours in the quilt shop trying to match material to the quilt. I thought I had the right binding but when I got into the sunlight, the color just did not work.




Want to see my quilting? I am limited in quilting but am practicing and kind of like the results.




Now, I have also completed my granddaughter's quilt and got it in the mail. Here are a couple of pictures plus a picture of my quilting. I quilted this using my Bernina setting #4 and really liked the results.

Quilt Week

This week I am spending everyday quilting. I began machine quilting on a Prayers and Squares quilt. I hope to finish today. Then I finished Maggie's quilt and will get it in the mail to her later this week. I love the quilt, and want to keep it in Mississippi a while longer before sending it to Michigan. :-) I am also beginning a baby quilt for Josie who will be born in June. Pictures and stories later. The weather was cloudy yesterday and dark this morning--so not picture taking weather.

Later--I'm off to the quilt shack.

Quilt Show

I want to share some pictures with you taken at the quilt show today. The two ladies who made these quilts are very special people, and I admire them both.

This happens to belong to my friend, Janet. She does not use a sewing machine--so all seams are by hand. She also hand quilted it. She won 2nd place Viewer's Choice.




If she doesn't mind, I am going to show a quilt she has been working on for ages. It is also hand sewn and hand quilted. It is beautiful.



This next beautiful quilt was designed, sewn, and quilted by my friend, Barbara. The pattern sold commercially. Barbara teaches classes at the local quilt store.

Tax Day

Oh, woe is me--this is tax day. I would rather spend my money on fabric but

Then He said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.” Matthew 22:21 (NIV)

Easter Sunday

"Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead' . . ." Matthew 28:7

Easter Dress

Here is an Easter dress for another granddaughter, Shannon. Her favorite color is pink. Sure hope it fits and hope I can get pictures with her wearing it.

4 WIP Completed

As promised here are pictures of four of my completed projects which were mailed today to my grandchildren 900 miles away. I completed two similar panel quilts but only showing picture of one. On one of the Cars quilts I tried to do a binding by sewing to back and bringing forward and top stitching. Not sure I will try that again because it looked really sad, and I take pride in my binding. I also got to practice my stippling. I am going to need more practice but had so much fun learning.

The skirts are for two of my granddaughters. The blue is a size 10 and the pink is size 8. The pink skirt is completely lined. I hemmed it using the Bernina blind stitch foot, but I could sometimes see too much thread on the top. The blue was cut on bias so I used a serger to hem and then turned under and top stitched. I used a new top stitch foot for my Bernina that really made the hem look good.

So each project was a learning experience -- some very challenging and some that did not turn out to my expectations. Oh, well, I had a good time and hope they will enjoy my happys.

Bye March

This has been my first post in almost a month. I have been busy. Sonny and I took a nice school trip to Washington, DC. We had such a nice time. We stopped and visited our 2nd cousin and his lovely wife. They gave us a wonderful tour of Washington. We visited in their church and following church visited with their extended family.

The next week my husband's mother was in the hospital. I am happy to report she is improving each day.

We have just been busy. Today I returned to my "quilt studio" and have been working a a couple of projects. I plan to finish 3 quilts and two sewing projects by the end of the week. Pictures will follow.

Cute Dress

On Friday I attended a workshop taught by Tisha Smith of Nashville. She is a designer of little girl dresses. Her pattern was very detailed with illustrations. There were about 10-15 ladies and each had different material and every dress was precious.

It is completely lined and has piping at neckline, back peephole, and arms holes. The dress is a size 3.