Thanksgiving and Stitching, etc.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.  It was just hubby, our oldest son and me for Thanksgiving.  We still ate well.

our Thanksgiving feast

I've been busy stitching even though I don't have much to show to prove it.

The ladies ministry at church hosts an ornament exchange each December.  The lady in charge of decorating decided that we needed matching table runners as part of the decorations for the tables and I was drafted to make them.  She provided the white fabric with the gold ornaments, another lady provided the batting and I provided the red with silver snowflakes fabric for the reverse side.  Thank goodness she just wanted solid fabric on each side.  I did some simple stitching with my walking foot.  Here are the six finished table runners (showing both sides).

red on one side and white on the other side

A special friend offered to quilt both of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings quilts for me.  I made labels for both quilts, including a separate label that lists the names of the blocks, in order, including the 'extra' block on the back of each quilt.  Both of these quilts have the binding stitched to the front of the quilts.  Now I just need to stitch the labels onto the back along with the binding.

both quilts with the labels listing the blocks

I finished almost all of the hand stitching for the board games (no photos, sorry).  Now to finish the last parts by machine, then stitch the parts together. 

I'm also doing some hand quilting on the 2nd Fat Cats quilt.  I made both quilt tops back in 2011.  A friend asked me to make one for her, and I finished that quilt in 2011.  The 2nd quilt top was made when I made the first quilt top, but I never finished it.  It will be finished before Christmas and gifted. 

Fat Cats quilt (being hand quilted)

Back in September I found a roll top desk at Goodwill.  The roll top desk is MUCH larger than the computer desk that I'd been using for the past 20 years.  We had to take everything out of the computer room and completely re-arrange everything to make it fit.  It took longer than expected to re-organize everything (one of the reasons I haven't had much stitching to show since early September).  I took everything off the walls (mainly hubby's ball cap collection) and we've finally hung some of my quilts in the computer room.  I still have space for a couple more wall hangings.

roll top desk with barn quilt and String Star above it

Elephant quilt to the right

Crazy quilt by the printers

Hubby also hung my wooden scissors above the door frame.  You can see our Christmas tree (lights but no ornaments yet) and our Alaskan Malamute, Ratchet.

wooden scissors

Now to get back to stitching!

Stitching, stitching, stitching.....

I've been busy, really! 

My large quilt guild is having a quilt show March 10-11, 2018.  If you are near the Western suburbs of Chicago that weekend, I'd love to see you at the quilt show.  I'll have a booth (again) showing off some of my vintage sewing machines.  This will be the 4th time I've had a booth at this quilt show. 

Tonight is when we have to turn in all the paperwork for the quilt show.  Boy does that take a long time to get ready.  I'm entering 3 quilts and 2 bags.  I also promised to make 2 Project Bags for the Silent Auction.  I finished them up earlier today.  Yes, they are all sewing themed fabrics. 

As usual, I made 2 of each fabric.  One of each will go to the guild, and I'll keep the other one for me.  I changed up how I did the zipper pulls this time.  I used cording, and added a shank button to each. 

zipper pulls for Project Bags

I finally pulled out my elephant quilt.  I hadn't worked on this since last Spring.  It is my entry in the Challenge for the quilt show.  Time to get this one finished.  I had to take a picture of it for the paperwork.  It doesn't have to be finished until the night before the quilt show. 

There isn't much left to do on the elephant quilt, thank goodness.  I needed to make a backing for it.  I had already planned to use the extra strips of fabric from making the front of the quilt.  The backing is enveloped.  I knew I'd have a hard time trying to add binding to this, so envelope method was my only option.

right sides together, ready to stitch on the backing

The tape measure is to make sure that the quilt measures correctly for the challenge rules.  The finished quilt cannot measure more than 45" in any direction, or less than 25".   Mine measures 31" tall, and 43" wide (without the tail). 

Due to the size of this and the tiny harp space on my Featherweight, I had to stitch the backing on with my Janome.  It was hard, since I had to follow each leg, inside and out. 

lots of quilt jammed in the harp area

I didn't want to trim anything until AFTER it was stitched down, which was a good thing, since I forgot to pin one side of 2 different legs.  I also realized (too late) that I forgot to thread paint the tree down.  Oh well.  I don't know how to thread paint anyways, so, it probably wouldn't have turned out very well.  Here is what the elephant looks like at the moment.

still unfinished

with paint chips on the matching fabrics

We have to match our paint chips.  The gray looks a little darker, since the Texture Magic was shrunk.  It added 'shadows'.  I can't help that.  I think the other 2 colors are a good match.

I still need to stitch on the tail, and add some buttons to the tree.  I also need to add something to the faces of the elephants, before I stitch the backing closed.  That all will get done in the next 2 weeks. 

I've also been working on 2 different baby play mats.  They are slow going.  Hopefully both of them will be finished in the next week or so, too.  The hard parts are all done now.  I've stitched on these at 2 different sew-in's this past week.  Here are pictures of what the bottom of each play mat will look like.

Pirate (Peter Pan) play mat

car play mat

 I just have to baste and quilt the bottom pieces, and add the last of the connecting hardware.  That is the easy part (I hope).  The pole covers were slow going (hard to turn inside out, since they are so narrow).

Oh yes, I am almost finished stitching the binding down on the Neverland quilt.  Hopefully it will be done later today.

I hope that you are also having a good stitching week.  

Misc Stitching

I've been busy stitching, but, on different things. 

I did a bit more work on the Elephant, fusing the tree onto the elephant background, and making the tail.

tree is fused, the gray elephants still need to be hand appliqued

The tail was fun, but, took a long time.  First, I took three strips of the different greens, and braided them.

3 strips, braided

I did this 3 times, then took the 3 braids, and braided them together.  After that was done, I tied on the scraps pieces, from when I trimmed all the fabrics, to make the tail 'hairy' like a real elephants tail.  I like how it curved on it's own.  I didn't make it do that.

tail completed

tail laid on elephant

Then I had to put this project aside for a while.

 I have several purses that need to be mailed out this month.  I started on the first 4 purses (same pattern).  Here are pictures of what I've done so far, so you can see the fabrics.

inside pockets and zipper

front of purse

inside pockets and zipper

front of purse (hard to see the pocket on this one)

inside pockets and zipper

front of purse

inside pockets and zipper

front of purse

The top one is using pre-quilted fabrics, which I haven't done before.  I'm having to figure out the changes as I go.  The colors didn't show up well.  The pink/purple/blue (bottom) is really deep colors, but, the pictures show it washed out.  Oh well.

I still have to finish these 4 purses, then, I have another one, with an older pattern to make, and still another one that uses the screening. 

My little quilt guild (Wego Quiltin') met on Monday night.  Jinnie had kits ready for everyone, and we made wool needle keepers.  I finished mine yesterday morning.

front of needle keeper

inside of needle keeper

What a cute project!  Thanks Jinnie!  Since we are such a small guild (about 15 members) we teach each other different projects or tricks.  I taught the ribbon bookmarks last month.  One of the members had made about 48 of them, for her bible study group.  She showed them off at guild.

One of the ladies at guild gave me a present.  She cleaned it up before she gave it to me.

attachment box

full of top clamp attachments

Not sure what top clamp machine these will fit, but, fun to have, no matter what.  Thanks Kandy!

I've also basted more hexie's, while watching TV. 

hexies

I've finished all the green, and some of the others, too.  I'm about half done now.

Not sure how much sewing I'll get done the rest of the week.  It's a busy week here. 

Hope you are having a productive week!

Engrossed in Elephants!

My challenge quilt is consuming me!  It is pretty much the only thing I've been working on lately.  I seem to eat, sleep and dream elephants.  Almost every technique I'm using on this quilt is new to me.  I'm making things up as I go. 

my design

I took my drawing in to be enlarged (that was a debacle).  It was supposed to be ready in 2 days, but, 4 days later, they hadn't even started on it.  It took them a couple of hours to finally do what I asked, and enlarge the elephant to the size I wanted.

enlarged elephant taped together

 It just fits in the size requirements.  We had to take the tail off, so that it wouldn't be too long.  I have an idea for something for the tail. 

I traced the elephant onto fusible fleece, then added another layer of fusible fleece underneath, since I needed more stiffness for the trunk and legs, when hanging,  I then stitched along the inside of the lines, thru both layers of fleece, so that I'd have the pattern on the back, to follow when cutting everything out after the fabrics were fused on the front.
I used red thread, so that I could see it easily.

red thread shows the outline of the elephant from the back

While I was waiting for the elephant to be enlarged, I cut my fabrics into strips, and started making 4 patch units with the greens.

80  4 patch units

I then pulled out my Texture Magic, to see if it would work the way I wanted it to, on the elephant.

background strips cut, strings to be kept (keep tuned) and Texture Magic pinned to back of grey material

stitching the outline of the elephant

stitching curved lines across the elephant

stitched both directions

front of stitched elephant

after ironing elephant

The Texture Magic worked just like I wanted it to.  It shrinks the elephant 30%, so, I made the elephant 30% larger to start with.  Now the elephant looks like it has bumpy skin, like a real elephant. 

I did the same thing with the baby elephant yesterday.

baby elephant

Both elephants are ready to be appliqued onto the quilt.

I stitched my green 4 patch units together, to cover all of the elephant and it's feet and trunk.

bottom of elephant

I then stitched the gold strips in to 9 patch units, and covered the top portion of the elephant.  I over lapped the 2 pieces, so that I could cut a wavy line in the gold, and applique it to the green.

wavy edge of gold fabric

 I then fused everything onto the fusible fleece, and basted it all around.

fused onto fusible fleece

This afternoon I quilted wavy lines across each row of the elephant, using variegated thread.  I had this thread in my stash.

green to tan thread

Then I did this to my quilt.

I cut it up!

Don't worry.  I didn't ruin it.  I just cut the elephant out, from the back, following the red thread outline.  This is what it looks like now.

quilted elephant

The end is in sight!!!  I need to applique the elephants on (by hand) then trace the tree, and add it, using fusible.  I'll machine applique the tree.  I even have leaf buttons I may add to the tree.  I do still need to make the tail before I can add the backing.  I'm going to try to 'turn' this, envelope style, for the backing.  With all these curves, I hope it works.  I really don't want to make bias binding and bind the regular way (especially since it will be a problem with attaching the tail).  I may also use some of my green 'scraps' for the end of the tail.  That is why I saved them.



I have been working on some other things, too.  I'm not 100% engrossed with this elephant.  When I cleaned my sewing room, I found some hexies that I'd bought at a quilters garage sale booth, at a quilt show, a while back.  I started basting them.

hexies

Not bad for a $5 bag of hexies.  These hexies are huge!  Each side is 1 3/4" long, and there are tons of these.  I have no clue what I'll do with them when they are basted. 

I also made another table runner, earlier in the month, but, couldn't show it until it arrived at it's new home. 

chicken table runner

table runner, showing the egg backing fabric

Kevin the Quilter, has better pictures of the table runner on this blog post.  It looks great on his new dining room table.  I made it for him after I saw him the end of January, while traveling back home from Texas.  Kevin gave me some yummy eggs from his chickens.  Hey, I even used the extra binding I made for the rooster placemats, last December, in this table runner.  See, I'm finally using some of my scraps.

I still have some mug rugs that I made that I can't show yet, since at least one of the possible recipients follows my blog.  I don't want to spoil the surprise. 

I also made a baby quilt, using the I Love Precut Quilts pattern I used for the blog hop.  I made the baby quilt smaller, using only 12 blocks.

baby quilt

pink Minkee on the back

I couldn't show this, either, until the new owners received it.  The baby shower was this past weekend.

big sis and mom holding the new baby quilt

These were NOT my usual colors, but, the mother requested greys, and pastels.  I had the grey in my stash (bought for something else, but, never made, since I don't like grey) but, I don't have pastels in my stash, so, I grabbed brights instead. 

What are you working on????