Misc. Sewing

This is my first 'complete' finish for 2019.  I actually finished it Jan 13th, but haven't had much time to blog.  This is winging it's way to it's new owner now.

table runner

showing fun floral backing

The hearts are paper pieced and can be found for free here.  I pieced this on my 1927 Singer 15 hand crank, and quilted it on my Janome.  Most of the fabric in the hearts are scraps leftover from my son's wedding signature quilt. 

Last week my large quilt guild had a schoolhouse as the program.  I was one of 4 people who taught different quilting techniques.  I taught several different ways to make Flying Geese.  I taught this to my little quilt guild last August and wrote a blog post about it then.

On Saturday, I taught a mug rug class at church.  Because of the weather (snowing all day), several of the ladies didn't attend, so I'll be teaching this again this coming Saturday.  Here are the ladies who attended, and the mug rugs that were completed.

ladies making mug rugs

Ruth's

Kelly's

Carla's

mine

I have kits prepared, but still need to cut out fabrics for a couple more kits.  These mug rugs come in sets of 7, that you quilt as you go.  You can get Spiritual, Uplifting or Quilty themes.  They also have a YouTube tutorial on how to make these.  They are fun and quick to make.  All the fabrics are from my stash.  Here are some of the kits I have leftover, that will be used for the next class.

My friend Marilyn just had a special birthday.  She had been wanting to have an ice cream party at Colonial Cafe on her birthday but her hubby planned a trip, so she was out of town.  Well, Colonial Cafe is known for their 'Kitchen Sink' ice cream sundae.

The 'Kitchen Sink' sundae gave me an idea, and several of her quilting friends helped out.  On Sunday we surprised Marilyn (at Colonial Cafe, of course) with her own 'Kitchen Sink' full of 'fabric' ice cream.

Marilyn & her kitchen sink full of fabric ice cream

I'm way behind on several baby quilts.  I made 2 quilt tops back in October, but didn't get them quilted until this month.  Today I finally finished the binding on the quilts.

1st Churn Dash baby quilt

faux piping binding

back of 1st baby quilt

The 2nd quilt I used some poly batting that I've had for a while.  My Janome wasn't happy trying to quilt thru it, with minkee on the back.  The walking foot didn't want to walk very well (the layers kept shifting), so I machine quilted much less than on the first quilt.  That left some spaces without enough quilting.  Well, the baby this quilt is for is named Zariah, so, I used her initial and hand quilted it in those spaces.

hand quilted 'Z'

Here is Zariah's finished quilt.

2nd Churn Dash baby quilt

pale yellow minkee backing

The yellow backing doesn't show it's true colors.  It is really a deep butter yellow.  I used faux piping binding on both of these quilts.

Last week I found a different way to join the ends of the binding on quilts.  I tried it first on my mug rug on Saturday.  It worked GREAT!  Now I don't have to remember what size I cut my binding.  This is the easiest way to join the ends.  I'll be using this method from now on.

Crazy Quilt is almost done

We've been watching all the Harry Potter movies, since New Year's Eve.  That gives a lot of time for hand stitching. 

First, I finished up the Be Attitudes quilt blocks.

Next, I did some hand quilting on a baby quilt.  Sorry, I don't have any photos of that, yet.  I'll show it when I get the binding stitched on it.  The binding is cut, waiting to be stitched for 2 baby quilts.

Next I started the last of the stitching on the Crazy Quilt for the Camp Tuckabatchee Quilters challenge.  This quilt will be shown in the quilt show the end of March.  I finished the embroidery on it last night.

I used a vintage table runner, cut up, for the top and bottom ladies.  To make it easier to applique them, I cut out a circle from non-fusible interfacing, and stitched it to the pieces.

stitching the interfacing to the piece

two ready to be appliqued ladies embroideries

The next embroidery was much harder to work with, since it had been cut roughly, long before I acquired it.  The satin around the lady's head was way too small.  The lace at the bottom of the lady's dress was in bad shape, and needed repairs, too.  I didn't want to change out the lace.  I repaired the lace as I stitched it to the Crazy Quilt.

trying to attach the interfacing to her head

ready to applique to the Crazy Quilt

And here are all three pieces, appliqued to the Crazy Quilt top.

This would have been finished sooner, but, I had to do lots of ripping out of stitches.   Ding dong me wasn't paying enough attention, and stitched the lady not only to her square, but, part of the quilt top was turned under, and it also got stitched to the underside of the quilt, as I stitched part of her dress down.  I'm glad I noticed it only half way thru stitching her down. 

Now to find a backing for this Crazy Quilt, and finish it. 

I also made 5 crazy heart paper pieced blocks for a table runner.  I'll show that later this week.   The table runner is due by Sunday, so I need to get cracking on it.  My time is now very limited, since I started my new job this morning.  It will take me a bit to re-arrange my schedule, and figure out how much quilting time I'll have from now on. 

I'm off to my little quilt guild.  Have a nice evening!

Be Attitudes is Done!

My first finish of the year is the Be Attitudes quilt top!  I've had requests for close up's of the finished blocks, so here they are. The eyes are all stitched, along with any other seed beads, but the other buttons are just sitting on the blocks.  I'll stitch them on after this is quilted.

Ok, I have a question for all of you.  Which cupcake 'topper' button do I use for this block?  The plain button or the strawberries?

plain button

strawberry buttons

Here is the finished quilt top.

The pattern shows several borders around this top.  I'm not going to add any borders for a couple of reasons.  One, I want this to be a wall quilt, and two, I don't have any of this fabric, other than the tiny scraps that came with these blocks.

For those that don't remember, I 'won' these blocks, already fused, back in October 2015 from Karen at K's Quilting Korner. 

I don't know when I'll get time to start hand quilting this.  These blocks have been my hand stitching project for several years now.  I guess I'll have to prepare something else for my hand stitching project.

Happy New Year!