A Pillowcase and a Birthday

Today was a quiet day (compared to yesterday) After church I took a nap and then we went out for a ride and got something to eat. When we came home I made a pillowcase to go with the T Shirt quilt. It can either be used for a pillowcase or to store the quilt, whatever.

Not very exciting but I used up the 3/4 yard I had left after I cut the bias binding. No accent strip on this one. the quilt is going to Missouri on Friday so I only get to share it here. No show and tell for the quilt at our church group or the Basement group or my guild. Oh well.........

 

Now yesterday was not quiet!! Yesterday was great grandson David's 7th birthday. It is always a fun time. All 5 of the great grand kids are usually there and the weather has always been hot; only one year, did it rain. Yesterday was especially hot but there are huge trees in their backyard so there was plenty of shade and a nice breeze. The kids had a great time playing in a small pool, riding around on the various battery powers ATVs, and during the annual water balloon mayhem; there were 1000 balloons filler with water.

 Everyone got water balloon fight, including me (that is why there are no pictures of the balloon throwing). I am a terrible shot and only hit what I was very close to but I didn't even have to get out of my chair. My daughter had grabbed a bucket of balloons and set it behind my chair so all I had to do was reach back. No one really threw any at Jack and I because the parents warned them not to hit Gigi because of my stitches and black eye and Jack was sitting next to me.  After the presents were opened there were plenty of water guns and other fun things for the kids to play with. David didn't seem reluctant to share his new stuff so everyone was happy. No one minded getting wet yesterday because it felt good to cool off a little. I told the kids they could spray me with the water guns and spray bottles.

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T Shirt Quilt Finished

Finally! I put this quilt aside in February never thinking I wouldn't get back to it in a few days. It is good to be finished and it will soon be on it's way to my grandson. My son and daughter in law will be going to see him in 10 days and they are taking it with them. He picked out the T shirts he wanted in the quilt two years ago,  I hope he is still interested in having it.

It was hard getting a shot of the whole thing. I can't put it up on my design wall because it is blocked off with my tables and sewing machine set up for machine quilting. Maybe if I stood on a ladder I could have gotten a better shot but after my mishap on Tuesday I am not courting trouble by standing on a ladder.

The second photo shows the top edge of the quilt. My intention was for the top border sections of the 4 columns to alternate narrow, wide, narrow, wide but that got messed up when mixed up the 2 center sections I sewed the 3rd section to the first (left) section.  The distribution of light and dark shirts got messed up a little as well.  However I still  think I made the right decision to leave it where it is and just move the sashing.

I gave away my Rail Fence sample quilt from Quilt Camp. It will look much better as a throw at my granddaughter's than it did here. I am going to finish the Dresden Plate pillow and give it to her too. I think before I tackle any more UFO's I will make 6 placemats for my other granddaughter. She asked for them last year and I never found any more of the fabric that she wanted. I finally found a good substitute so I should get it done.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July

I always bring out all my red white and blue quilts and wall hangings Memorial Day and leave them up till Labor Day because all the summer holidays are patriotic. I have a small shelf just opposite my front door  and this is what I have there this year. I made the angels years ago when I used to make cloth dolls; I copied the wings and arms from a Country Threads pattern and made up the body so they would stand instead of hang by their arms. The original pattern was "Oh Suzanna" and had long dangly legs with knots  for feet. My friend gave me a piece fabric that was  just flags printed all over it and I hand quilted it. I bought the shelf at a craft show at about the same time (when "country" was in)  and it has always filled a blank space just inside our front door wherever we live.

I had planned on making one more wall hanging for the living room but this on my design board is as far as I got. I was going to fuse some stars from the border fabric that I have (somewhere) but I got sidetracked with Quilt Camp.

You can see my pictures from 2010 here or go to June 2010 on the sidebar and look for the red, white and blue quilts. Today Blogger will only allow me one link. some of my quilts I gave away
Some of those quilts I have given away and that is the reason I am making one more. 

Second Thoughts on my Big Mistake

It pays to quit for the day and start over after weighing all the options. I thought some for about ripping 4 layers of seams and decided that my first idea about moving the sashing on the third section to the other side was a better idea. It was not easy ripping out the one seam I might have pitched the whole thing if I had to take out 4 layers. What I did worked out well; I just had to trim off the batting and backing after I took out the sashing seam and I moved the batting and backing to the other side as well. I worried about the batting not being wide enough as it was already trimmed but because it was trimmed it was perfect I just join it with a wide zigzag stitch to the other edge. I always leave a generous amount to fold under on the backing so there was more than enough.

After I sew the sashing to the next section on the front I turn the whole thing over and I whip stitch the two batting edges together. Then I turn the backing under so it overlaps the seam enough that it will be caught when I stitch in the ditch along the sashing on the front.

I got all the hand sewing done today. I would have finished the whole thing but I had a little mishap and spent the afternoon in the emergency room  getting my forehead stitched up. I also have a black eye and a sore elbow. I didn't feel like sewing when I got home

Tomorrow being the Fourth of July and a family picnic I probably won't get back to stitching that last seam in the ditch and the binding until Thursday.

A BIG Mistake

Quilt Camp is over and there is nothing pressing that I have to work on this week. I have some UFO's that need to be finished because they are taking up space so I set up my room for machine quilting. I decided that the first thing I would finish is my grandson's T shirt quilt. I made it in 4 vertical sections and they have been all quilted for a while. I laid they all out side by side they way they would go together and picked them up and folded them one by one in order and stacked them up with the one on the far right on the bottom. Today I sewed the first two sections together and hand stiched the batting together where it was trimmed to butt together and hand stitched the seam on the back and stitched in the ditch along the sashing to finish the quilting. Then I picked up the next section............ Oh no, no, NO..........  

There should not be 2 sashing strips next to each other and there should not be a space with no sashing strip between 2 sections.  I mixed up the two middle sections.  How could I have done that?

At first I thought I could just move the sashing strip to the right edge but I have trimmed both of those edges through all 3 layers but I would have to add a narrow batting strip and piece a narrow strip on the backing. I think I will take out the stitches between the two sections that I just finished putting together. That is 4 layers of stitches, 2 by machine and 2 by hand. I think in the long run it is a better solution.

However..........I am going to put it away till tomorrow and

 THINK ABOUT IT FIRST.

Quilt Camp Day 5 2012

We finished up yesterday at Quilt Camp, it was a whirlwind day with everyone working to finish. Everyone had a finished quilt; we count as finished the one that still needs the binding and one that will be quilted on a long arm. We didn't want to rush to do the binding. Joanna will come back to our regular group meeting in 2 weeks and we will help her finish.

This year our additional helpers made it so much easier; I hope they know how much we appreciated them.  I hope they had enough fun to make them eager to do it again next year.



 Friday  Day 5 2012 Quilt Camp



I made this collage in Picasa but I was really trying to make a slide show.  I  am not familiar with Picasa and yesterday wasn't the time to figure it out. I am using it anyway because it shows the quilts a little better than the group pictures. I didn't get as many pictures as I expected because we were spead out over 3 rooms layering and tying. We had a pizza party at lunch time and then the cleanup began even while some of the quilts were being finished. 



All the participants and their quilts



All  the participants and adult helpers minus 2



Two of the adults were not able to be with us on Friday. Beth was driving to Hiltonhead with her sisters and Loi had to go back to work. I know for sure Lori would have had more fun working with us.

So...... another year of QC is over

 and we have a a lot of nice memories that will stay with us.

Everyone received thank you notes

 from the quilters they were assigned to work with.

My thank you notes were very touching;

they made me kind of teary eyed. 

It really has been a good week, 

certainly worth the time and planning that goes into it.

 Some of us are already thinking about next year.

Quilt Camp Thursday

Peace and quilt at 9AM

At 9AM this morning there were only 2 of us adults and no young quilters yet. Our starting time is 10 O'clock.You can tell that there has been a lot lot of progress because the design walls are either empty of hold mostly finished tops  need borders or only need a few more blocks sewed into the body of the quilt .
I know there was a lot of activity all day but I got only a few photos because I spent a lot of time today over in another room. We had some big tables there for layering the quilts. Everyone is moving along and getting their quilts nearly finished. We are having most of the quilters layer their quilts and turn them pillow case style. One of the quilters wants to finish hers with binding; most of them are happy to turn them and just stitch along the edge to finish. With the time restraints we have we had to make some decisions about how much we could realistically accomplish in 5 days.

Layering

3 PM Empty design walls are showing our progress.  



Her way



One of our  young quilters was determined to do it "her way". In the end I  gave up and let her do it. It didn't require any extra work for the adults and it worked with her backing and with the size batting that was precut. Truthfully, I kind of like it. the design has good balance and the new pattern does have a logical flow. When I took this pic she was sewing the pair of blocks together for the left upper corner.  

Tomorrow is our last day and we hope everyone will leave with a finished quilt. Anyone who hasn't finsished can come to our regular meeting on July 14 and we will help them finish.

  Come back tomorrow to see the finished quilts.



                                   

Quilt Camp Day 3

Today was our third day of Quilt Camp and and everyone really accomplished a lot. I took a bunch of pictures but I left my camera at the church so I won't be able to post those till tomorrow.  I do have a few more that I uploaded to my computer yesterday. This one on the right was pretty far along yesterday.

The one on the left  was this far along before lunch yesterday and she had the blocks all done and was putting on the borders today. This one has 2 borders and will be quilted by someone on a long arm for her.

One of the girls had to leave after lunch on Monday and I pictured her as being behind everyone the rest of the week; however, she really stayed focused on what she was doing and hers was the first one we layered up today. Here she is late yesterday with only one more vertical row of blocks to finish. She will be ready to start tying her quilt tomorrow

Almost everyone will be tying their quilts; we do not really have enough space for proper set ups to quilt 13 quilts and one week isn't enough time to make the whole quilt and machine quilt it.
We have been blessed this year to have more adult helpers. Four of us have been working at QC since the beginning and the second year we picked up Cathy (with a C when we lost a couple people, Debbie came either last year or the year before.  Gail, one of the new ladies in our quilting group at church, came to help us this year as did Lori and Kathy,two of the ladies from the Basement Divas group that I meet with once a month. Kathy (with a K) brought her sister Margie along. Margie came all the way from Madison, Indiana to help us.

 Kathy gave us all a little scare at lunch when she inhaled a bit of raw carrot. It all turned out all right but we were ready to do a Heimlich if necessary.
Come back tomorrow for more pics; there should be a few finished quilts to show. 

Quilt Camp 2012



9AM



Today was our second day of Quilt Camp at our church. We have 13 young people from those going into 6th grade to one just starting college in the fall. I think this is our 6th or 7th year. Yesterday was our first day but it was a busy day and I didn't get any pictures.

9 AM

 These first 2 pictures are of a few early birds. You can see her strip sets up on the design wall and below that the strips are cut and the blocks are laid out on the design wall later in the day.



later in the day.



Below are some of the young quilters and adult helpers cutting the blocks from strip sets and squaring them up. 

the quilt in the background is one that one of the adult helpers made and we have it as an example of the group quilt that we are making. We made the blocks as practice for strip piecing and 1/4 inch seams before we moved on to their own quilts. the young quilters made the 4 patches and sewed thenm to rectangles contributed by the adults who cut them from their own stash. Everyone will contribute some blocks to the group quilt and after we are sure they have enough fabric for their own quilts we we collect some of the 3 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch rectangles from left over pieces for the group quilt. We are using Bonnie Hunter's Bricks and Stepping Stones pattern for the group quilt which will be auctioned at a Youth Group fund raising event in the spring. 

The other photo on the right is one of a couple of the quilts starting to develope.

On the left is one taken toward the end of our day and is one of the more colorful. To tell the truth, when we were cutting the strips for this one I was a little doubtful about how it would turn out. I really like it and it shows that even young people with little experience can select their  own fabrics and come up with something great. We have a fabric meeting before Quilt Camp starts and they are given very general instructions about fabric and they do a good job. I think they all did a good job with their fabric choices.



3PM ready for tomorrow



On the right is one area at  3 pm  just before we turned out the lights and left the room. Her area is all cleaned up neat and tidy and ready to work tomorrow. All most of them look like this one.

Come back tomorrow to see our progress.



Dresden Ruler

I bought the EZ Dresden Ruler 2 or 3 months ago; we used the Dresden Plate  for our block of the month at our church group. Recently, I have been looking at the Dresden Plate designs that are popping up on some of the blogs I follow. I want to try this one at Diary of a Quilter and this one from Happy Quilting.
There has been an EZ Dresden Challenge and blog hop going on with a lot to look at and tutorials as well. There are others that have piqued my interest and I will be going back to them also to try some other things. It all fits in with our current circle theme with the Basement Divas

This is what I have been doing the past few days. I cut up a charm pack of Central Park and  made all the blades yesterday. I am ready to sew the one on top left together and maybe the one on the left as well. The one on my ironing board (with the gay background) needs some work; I will take out the brown blade. I may add a few fabrics from another line if I can find something that will blend in. I was able to get two blades from each 5 inch square. There were a few blades left over and a few charms that I left out. I am not sure what I will do with these. I made a Jellyroll Race quilt from Central park  fabric so maybe I will make some pillows to go with it or maybe a table  runner or some placemats.
I don't often buy specialty rulers but the EZ Dresden ruler is a  good one to have. I prefer to figure out how to use my basic rulers to cut what I need but when it comes to angles other that 45 or 90 it makes sense to buy a ruler made to do the cutting. I am sure I will get my money's worth out of this one; the Dresden Challenge has caught my interes as I see the neat ideas on the blog hop.
I want to make something in red, white and blue using this ruler. I am drawn to citrus colors right now but after I got out all the summer quilts with red, white and blue colors I realized that this is looks much more cohesive in my decorating scheme instead of citrus colors. I was feeling like my living room and dining room area looked like a flea market. I can hang all  the bright  colors in my sewing room and make it happy and bright there.

More Friendship blocks

I am finally caught up to date with my blocks for Friendship group. we  were asked for 31/2 " and 61/2  inch blocks. The first 3 inch ones turned into 6 inch blocks because Judy asked that the outside logs be at least an inch and I just started out with out paying attention to the size of the center square. It is not a difficult block once I gave it a little thought. Judy gave us a Zip lock with some various size strips and asked that we use those and some of our own. she wanted yellow in some of the blocks. I think the yellow is a great accent color here. I am really looking forward to our Friendship meeting tomorrow I have missed too many meeting this year.

I also got the piece of jewelry sewed on the wedding dress. It was a picky intimidating process. I wanted to do it so it will hold but also so that it can be easily removed it if she changes her mind.

Not much  no more sewing will be done this week .  I have to catch up on some Quilt Camp fabric buying handouts for our fabric meeting with the teens on Saturday (that is also the day of the wedding). After this Saturday I will have two weeks with nothing much to do until Quilt Camp the last week of the month. I am probably being delusional about this there will more than likely be a bunch of things I need to do.

Friendship Blocks etc

I finally got around to making the Friendship blocks that I messed up last month. I got the colors right this time. The first time I made the blocks I missed the line in the instructions that said black, purple and teal. You can see them here . I went out and bought some blue-green and purple and black fabrics  but only used 2 of them after all when I found something I like better in my stash. Of course, now I am second guessing and wondering if they are  really OK. This one on the left below, I sewed the last two rows upside down and I came close to doing it again when I made the second block.These two side by side above are the finished blocks. I made two of each. These will go in two quilts using Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips around the World pattern.

I am getting back into a more normal routine. My son was released from the hospital and is home and I have seen him and I am not feeling apprehensive every time the phone rings.  Ater a flurry of cleaning and baking and doing laundry I ran out of busy things and I just came to a stand still and couldn't do much but get the bed made and fix dinner and sit and worry

Today I made a door curtain for my daughter in law and took elastic out of a pair of pants. Taking wide sewn in elastic out of a waistband is a real pain. It makes me think I should go back to sewing my own clothes.

The next thing I have to do is sew a piece of jewelry on a wedding dress. I intend to do that in the morning when I can take my time.  I expect it to be no problem at all but I do not want to do it in a hurry.

Soon I will get back to quilting. Well, after I make this months Friendship blocks that are due Wednesday.