Catching Up

I had a pin cushion exchange with my Treadle On group.  Here is what I got from Stephanie.

Owl pin cushion and mini pin cushion

needle keeper

needle keeper

zipper bag

Thanks Stephanie for the lovely goodies.  I've used the Owl pin cushion several times already.

I finished both of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings quilt tops.  These are for our new grandson, Korin.  The first one is HUGE for a baby quilt (54"x72").  Korin will get to use it on his big boy bed one day.

Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit quilt top

I'd already made the sashings for both quilts, but, since the first quilt was so large, I decided to cut the sashings down.  The second quilt finishes at 44x59.  Perfect for another wall hanging for the babies room.

2nd top with thinner sashing

This photo shows the difference in sizes (one top on top of the other top).

both quilt tops

I have no clue when these will be quilted, since they really need to be long arm quilted.  I can't free motion quilt, and I don't think straight line quilting will look very good on either of these tops. 

With all the flip corner sashings on both of these quilts, I ended up with a stack of 96 bonus half square triangles.  I'm getting a good sized collection of bonus HST's from different projects.

96 bonus HST's

I did finally finish the 3 baby quilts I designed back in June.  A friend asked me to make a baby quilt for her niece, who was having a baby girl.  It has pink minkee on the back.

first baby quilt

The second quilt is for a young lady who used to be in our Venturing Crew several years ago.  She just had a baby girl.  I decided to use faux piping binding for her quilt, and made the piping larger than I normally do.  I love how it turned out. I just taught this technique (again) to my little quilt guild. (I promise the pink isn't nearly as bright as the photo shows).

2nd baby quilt

faux piping binding with larger flange

The last quilt is for our grandbaby, Korin.  Since his Hobbit/LOTR quilt will be a wall hanging (at least the smaller one will), he needs something that can be thrown on the floor and used.  I added his name to the edge of the binding.

Korin's quilt

Korin Josiah

I decided that Korin needed a satin/flannel blanket, since his big sister has one.   I made two of them.  Korin will get the Spiderman blanket and the 2nd one (Winnie the Pooh) will be used as a baby gift in the future. 

satin/flannel blankets

Way back on August 20th (the day Korin was born), I finished the last of the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machine blocks. 

Muller 15 toy sewing  machine

I'm really missing my embroidery each day. 


A friend gave me a lovely vintage quilt top a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know what the block is called.  If you do, please let me know.  The top is in great shape.

top Carrie gave me

I'm sorry I haven't commented on any of your blogs.  I'm almost a month behind on my blog reading.  I've been really busy, and will stay that way until October.  Our oldest son will be coming home from Alaska (where he has spent the summer with his younger brother, his wife and our grandkids).  Our inlaws are coming for a visit (yipee) and I also have another Lyon's Farm Fall Festival coming up (booth/demo of vintage sewing machines).

If  you are near the western suburbs of Chicago, come visit me at the Lyon's Farm Festival the last weekend of Sept.  Info at this link.

New Grandbaby is Here!

Our newest grandbaby is here.  Meet Korin Josiah.

Korin Josiah

Korin was born August 20, 2019 at 8:26pm.  He weighed 9lb 6oz and was 21.8 inches long.  This little guy was well over a week late and our poor daughter in law was in labor for 5 days.

The day after he was born, he got to meet his big sister.  I think she likes him.

Korin, mommy & Gwendolynn

Our oldest son is spending the summer with our youngest son (the father) and he got to hold his nephew.

Uncle Christopher & Korin

Now to finish Korin's baby quilts.  I'm a bit behind this time.

Beth Hunter Class

My large quilt guild, Pride of the Prairie, had a blogger friend of mine speak at our guild meeting Thursday and also teach a class on Friday.  Beth Hunter of IHAN (I Have a Notion) spoke on threads and thread painting.  Her class was on thread painting.  I saw one of her blog posts about thread painting last summer, and recommended her as a speaker.  What I didn't know at the time is that Beth used to be a member of this quilt guild (before I joined). 

Since I don't free motion quilt, I knew that learning to thread paint was going to be a bit of a stretch for me.  Way back in 2014 I got a great free motion quilt kit off the raffle table at the Michigan TOGA (Treadle On Gathering and Academy).  I hadn't used the kit yet (great intentions, but no follow thru, bad me).  That kit was great to have for this class.

homemade 'super slider', quilting gloves

card from the free motion kit

I used the homemade 'super slider' (it worked great), the darning foot, and the gloves.  The chocolate was given to another quilter at the TOGA, way back when.

Beth had practice pieces for us to start off with.  I didn't do too bad on it, but my flower went from flat to almost 3D by the time we stopped working on these (VERY wavy petals on my flower).

before ironing

better, after ironing

from the back

up close

Beth did several demo's to show us how to work on our flowers.

Beth, showing us how to add the stitching

After lunch, we started on the kits that we'd purchased.  We were encouraged to add leaves or stems if we wanted.

thread painting my flower

The lady sitting next to me had a great pale greenish white metallic thread that we both thought would look great on my white flower. Unfortunately, the thread was a cone, and neither of us had an adapter for the cone with us.  I thought of a work around, by using a small spool of thread inside the cone.  It worked great.

metallic thread

how I could use the metallic thread on my machine

This is as far as I got on my flowers before we packed up for the day.

my 2nd piece, in progress

This will be fun to finish.  I have lots of ideas for it.  Thanks Beth for the fun class!

Final 2 Hobbit/LOTR blocks done

I've finished the last two Hobbit/LOTR blocks for the baby quilt(s).  The color in the photos doesn't show up well.

Legolas' bow

both of Legolas' bows

Grey Havens

both Grey Havens

Grey Havens is the ship that Bilbo, Frodo and the elves sail away on at the end of Lord of the Rings. 

I've decided on how to 'frame' the blocks and now I'm trying to figure out the setting.  I have 2 different settings below.  I'm trying to put the blocks 'in order' from The Hobbit thru Lord of the Rings.

Setting #1

Setting #2

I'm leaning towards setting #2.  Any suggestions???

On Monday night I taught faux piping binding to my little quilt guild.  I've taught this before (several years ago) but we have several new members that wanted me to teach it again.  Well, I realized on Sunday afternoon that I don't have anything that I've used faux piping binding on.  It's all be given away.  Oops!  Well, back in January I taught a class at church on mug rugs.  I still had some of the mug rug kits leftover, and 3 of them had faux piping binding in the kits.  I'd stitched up the mug rugs a few months ago, but hadn't put the binding on yet.  I quickly added the binding on all three mug rugs.

2 mug rugs with faux piping binding

My Oops! turned into 3 more finishes. 

Now to start cutting the sashing for the Hobbit/LOTR blocks.  My new grandson is due TODAY, so I'm behind.  Oh well, we expect him to be late, too. 

RSC19 & Other Finishes

I decided to finish my pink RSC19 blocks on my Featherweight.  The block I'm making each month is called Cut Glass.

pink RSC19 blocks

I also turned the 4 pineapple blocks into pin cushions.  One of these is for the Treadle On pin cushion exchange. 

4 pin cushions

Yesterday I finished block #11 of the Vintage Sewing Machine blocks. I only have one more block to finish.  I was really hoping to find the other Ella & Skysie sewing machine design called 'Antique Sewing Machines', but I'm not having any luck.  These patterns are out of print.

Vintage Miniature Sewing Machines block #11

The block above is of a Singer 20 chain stitch machine.  I have one in my collection.

1950's Singer 20

I also finished another LOTR/Hobbit set of blocks, Lord of the Eagles.

Lord of the Eagles block

both blocks together

I only have 2 of these LOTR/Hobbit blocks left to make. 


PS:  For those of you who have been praying for us, hubby started his new job Monday.  It's been a long 9.5 months, but God has provided all along the way.  

A few quick finishes

I finished the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machine block that I was working on during Slow Stitching Sunday. 

block #10

I'm at least 3/4ths of the way thru block #11 already.  I'm trying to find another Ella & Skysie pattern 'Antique Sewing Machines', to compliment these blocks, but I can't find anywhere to purchase the pattern.  Ella & Skysie don't publish their patterns anymore, and most places are out of stock.  If you know of where I can find the pattern, please let me know. 

AQS is having a cute quilt along, Scoops & Cones.  They released the instructions for the Ice Cream Cone block early and I made a couple of paper pieced cones.

AQS's paper pieced pattern

my 2 ice cream cones

You can also make this quilt using traditional piecing methods. I made these 2 cones as leaders and enders while I worked on the next LOTR/Hobbit blocks.  I'm thinking that I can use some of these ice cream cone blocks to go with my Chocolate 9 Patch blocks from the Treadle On exchange from last year. 

I finished my other leader and ender blocks while I finished the latest LOTR/Hobbit blocks.

pineapple blocks

JRRT block

both JRRT blocks

These blocks went together really quickly.  Now to figure out which block I'll make next.

Slow Stitching Sunday and lots of projects

I do most of my slow stitching on weekdays, not on the weekends.  Today I did some slow stitching on my Vintage Miniature Sewing Machine block.  This is block #10 of 12 blocks.  I've moved the  hoop since this photo was taken.

block #10

I finished block #9 earlier in July, but haven't shown it before now.

block #9

I've been working hard on the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings blocks.  I've finished 4 different block sets since the end of June.  These are all paper pieced.  The first block is Sting, Bilbo's (then Frodo's) sword.  I'm making 2 of each of these blocks.

Sting

both blocks together

Next I worked on Smaug the dragon.

Smaug

both blocks together

After Smaug, I stitched up Arwen's jewel.

Arwen's jewel

both blocks together

I finished Gimli's Axe on Saturday.  If this block was my first experience paper piecing, I'd never paper piece again.  The pattern doesn't work properly.   Some of the pieces are too small to fit with the other pieces.  If you look closely at the parts next to the red Clover clips, you can see that they just won't fit properly with the rows of pieces between. 

top and bottom pieces are  supposed to finish at the same size as the 3 pieces in the middle

same problem on both sides of the axe

I didn't notice the problem until I was finished with all of the paper piecing and started to try to put all the pieces together.  Thank goodness that I could just add more of the background fabric to make everything fit.  You can see where I had to add fabric on these photos, since there is fabric and no paper.

fabric added along the seam to make it all fit together

fabric added along the seam to make it all fit together

When all the pieces were finally stitched together, it is supposed to be a 12.5" square block.  You can see below that it was much larger than 12.5" square (the ruler on the block is 12.5" square).

block finished the wrong size

Thank goodness I could save the blocks.  I've done lots of difficult paper piecing in the past, but this pattern receives an 'F' from me.

Gimli's Axe

both blocks together

I have four more of these Hobbit/LOTR blocks to make for these quilts.  Thank goodness none of the other blocks were designed by the person who designed Gimli's Axe. 

I've been doing lots of Leaders & Enders while I've been working on these Hobbit/LOTR blocks.  First I stitched the pink HST's for July's RSC19 blocks.  I use Triangulations papers to make my HST's. 

stitching HST's using Trianglulations paper

I have the Purple and Light Blue colors waiting to be stitched up. 

I have my HST's cut and the papers pulled, but I haven't finished making the finished blocks since I'm not using a 1/4" foot while I'm paper piecing.  I also have my stitches set on 30 stitches per inch, while paper piecing, so, I don't really need my stitches that close together on the finished blocks.   I now have a bucket of HST's waiting to be turned in to finished blocks.

pink & white HST's for RSC19 blocks

I've also been doing other Leaders & Enders while I've been paper piecing.  Last December, I was given the striped charm squares from my little quilt guilds Left-Right-Center game at our Holiday party.  The lady who won them didn't want to have to make something with them.  That means that I have to have a completed quilt top by this December.  I have an idea for a cool modern quilt, using circles, so these charm squares are being stitched to interfacing and turned into circles.

striped charm squares

23 finished striped circles (the puffy ones on the right haven't been pressed yet)

I have lots more circles to prep and stitch.

My last Leaders & Enders project is for something that is due August 1st.  Of course, I can't make just one of anything, so I'm making 4 blocks.  The center squares are fussy cut vintage sewing machines.  I'm using strings left over from other projects, that I've collected since the end of May (baby quilts and RSC blocks). 

pineapple blocks (started)

Now to head back to my sewing room and start on the next Hobbit/LOTR blocks and some more Leaders & Enders.  I'm supposed to be basting and quilting those 3 baby quilts, but I just haven't felt like working on them.  Thank goodness none of those babies are here yet.