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.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Just because I haven't been blogging, doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  I've been doing things a bit slower since I injured my hand on the way home from the Michigan TOGA (bottom of post).  I finally went to the doctor earlier this week.  He sent me for x-rays (no fractures, thank goodness) and I now have an appointment with a hand specialist for next week.  I still think I damaged the ligaments, but, we'll see what the specialist says. 

Here are some of the things I've been working on recently.  I've worked on my Red, White and True quilt along tops.  I've changed mine up so that they fit the sizes needed for a Quilt of Valor.

I took a row out of the middle of the quilt to make them a bit shorter.  Yes, I'm making 3 of these, but, I only have 2 tops this far.  I took apart the blocks from the row that I didn't use, and, I figured out how to use them in the border instead.

my graph showing how I will finish these tops

I only have to cut some of the white to add to the block pieces that I took apart.  I also need the white for the little, inside border.  I don't think I have enough white left over for the quilt in the top picture.  Maybe I'll 'frame' it in red or blue instead of using the white for a frame, before I add the pieced border.  I like the white better, since it seems to make the top 'float'.  Hopefully I'll get more done on these at the next Quilts of Valor sew-in on Tuesday.

Remember this frog quilt top? 

Frog quilt top

Not only did I make a backing for it (not basted or quilted yet) but, I started on a 2nd Frog quilt, using different frog fabrics.  I have the blocks made.

blocks for 2nd Frog quilt

Here are the fabrics I'll be using for the sashing and cornerstones.

stripe for sashing, green frogs for cornerstones

The first Frog quilt is for a friends husband, but, the 2nd Frog quilt will be for charity.  Both need to be finished before Christmas.

Remember the baby quilt I made that turned pink?  Well, that baby quilt is due in 3 weeks.  I made a new top.  I pre-washed the Minkee (red) this time.  Guess what?!?!  The Red Minkee bled again.  I've treated it with Retayne, and washed it again with another color catcher.  This time the color catcher came out white (thank goodness).  This is a WARNING to all of you out there!  Pre-wash your RED Minkee, just in case!  Now I need to baste and quilt this.

NEW Churn Dash baby quilt top

And YES, I pre-washed and pre-treated ALL of the fabrics for this quilt BEFORE I cut anything out.  I'm not taking any chances. (all the quilt top fabrics for the last quilt had been pre-washed and treated, too, just not the Minkee).

I've also been working on some other projects, bit by bit.  I've started the blanket stitching on these RV placemats and pot holders (8 of each).

The blanket stitch on my Janome works great for a while, then the tension starts messing up.  Do you know how hard it is to remove bad blanket stitches?  Let me tell you, IT'S HARD!.  I've already changed the needle once on this project.  I'll change the needle again, when I go back to it.  A new needle seems to help a lot! 

I've also been working on my little guild's challenge block.  We are supposed to make a 12.5" unfinished block with either a witch or a scarecrow for our October meeting.  As usual, I'm making two blocks (one for the challenge, and one I will turn into a wall hanging for me).  This is as far as I've gotten so far.

Witch blocks

I still need to draw on the words so that I can embroider them.  This is the pattern.

Hopefully I'll get the words traced onto the blocks this weekend.

I did get a fun package in the mail yesterday.  I was involved in another pin cushion exchange with my Treadle On group.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished pin cushion that I made.  Here are pictures of the unfinished pin cushions I made.

I sent the pin cushion on the RIGHT (I kept the one on the left for me)

back of pin cushion, signed

Well, I got my exchange pin cushion in the mail yesterday.  I even got a bonus pin cushion from the hostess (how sweet).

pin cushion from exchange, isn't he CUTE!

pin cushion from the hostess of the exchange

Usually people send a gift to the hostess.  I've never heard of the hostess sending gifts.  Thanks Stephanie!

Oh yea, I did get a FINISH in the past few weeks.  I finished the binding on the twin size Churn Dash quilt.

twin size Churn Dash quilt (DONE!)

Now to go FINISH some of my projects!