Busy Summer!

I had a VERY busy summer!  In June, I went to Texas (checking on our parents), then went to the Missouri TOGA (Treadle On Gathering and Academy) for 3 days and played with vintage sewing machines, taught some things, and had a blast!  I didn't get any photos this time :(.

I came home for 9 days (didn't even get my stuff unpacked) then left for vacation with my hubby.  We drove thru 7 states for 17 days (4550 miles).  I visited at least 6 different quilt shops along the way.  We went to the Amana Colonies in Iowa, then drove thru Nebraska farmland to South Dakota.  In South Dakota, we visited the Badlands, Wall Drug, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park.  

the Badlands

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore at night

We drove thru Wyoming to Idaho, where we met up with hubby's parents and his brother and sister-in-law for 6 days.  We drove down to Jackson, WY and went to The Legend Of Cat Ballou at the theater.  Those actors danced, sang, and had a fun time!

While we were in Idaho, we drove to Yellowstone National Park six different days.  Two of those days we also visited the Grand Teton's.  One day we drove across the Continental Divide 8 times!

Old Faithful

just one of the many Bison we saw

hubby's family

On the way back home, we stopped in Rawlings, WY, which is the Northern Boundary of the Republic of Texas (part of the territory that Texas gave up to pay off it's debt and become a state). As native Texan's, we had to stop there (and there was a quilt shop and disc golf course there, too).

hubby by the memorial sign

We also stopped at Fort Laramie (WY) and Scott's Bluff National Park (NE).  Years ago I stopped in Winterset, IA while driving thru Iowa, and got to see 2 of the covered bridges, so I wanted to see more of the covered bridges in Iowa.  I visited the Quilt Museum and a quilt shop in Winterset, then we visited several different covered bridges.  We drove along the Mormon Trail, and found more covered bridges along the way.  As we were driving to find a hotel for the night, we drove thru Riverside, IA.  I saw a banner with Spock from Star Trek on it, then one of McCoy.  Hubby turned around and we drove back, slowly, and kept seeing different characters from the TV series.  Turns out that Riverside, IA is the FUTURE home of Captain James T. Kirk in the series.  The town had just had a Star Trek Fest 2 weeks before.  What fun!

barn quilt in town with the USS Enterprise

Well, when I got home, I had 10 days before I traveled back to Texas (again to check on our parents).  The trip really took a lot out of hubby's parents.

So, I only got in my sewing room twice between end of June till first of September :(.

A New Machine and a Spool Pin Doily

I got a new sewing machine yesterday.  I found it at a thrift shop, and couldn't resist it.  It is a toy machine that was made in England in the early to mid 1960's. It is a Vulcan Countess.  

I learned how to use my vintage Singer buttonhole makers.  I've been wanting to make a Mini Dresden Spool Pin Doily (from The Featherweight Shop).  The pattern is free if you sign up for their email list.

I don't have the correct buttonhole template.  I need the eyelet template.  I made due with one of my oldest Singer buttonhole makers, and set it to the smallest buttonhole I could make with it.  It will do.  I did order the eyelet template, so that I can make a few more of these.

on the machine that I made it on

I have another one ready and waiting for the eyelet template to arrive.  

Blogger is frustrating!  I can only reply to comments from people that I have their email addresses.  Everyone comes thru as 'no-reply'.  How irritating!  I like to reply to EVERY comment that I get.  I appreciate all the comments that I get.

A Little Stitching...

I took a Laura Heine class with my larger quilt guild (Pride of the Prairie) last Saturday.  We worked on the Tomato pin cushion collage.  The teacher was GREAT!  Her name is Linda Lambert, and she has been teaching these classes for several years now.  I learned more in this class than any other quilting class I've ever taken.  I have a LONG way to go before my collage quilt is finished, but here is what I got done during the class.

where I stopped at the end of the class 

me, working on my tomato

teacher Linda, in a blouse she made using the collage technique she was teaching

I have lots more things I want to add to my collage, including 'threading' the needle, a doily, etc.  Not sure when I'll get a chance to work on this again, since I have several things that need to get done before I can finish this.

Another thing I worked on this week was butterfly blocks for next year's Missouri TOGA raffle quilt. We're supposed to bring our finished blocks to this years TOGA.  I made 3 - 12.5 inch blocks for the raffle quilt.  I also made 3 smaller blocks for myself. These are paper pieced.  You can find the patterns here. (I enlarged the pattern to get the 12.5 inch blocks).

Pepper block

Cricket block

Gidget block

3 - 5.5" blocks blocks for me

Remember the oversized sewing notions I've been making (previous 2 blog posts) for my little quilt guild's Annual Tea?  Well, hubby finished the 2 wooden needles I asked him to make, and I got them painted.  All my oversized sewing notions are finished now.

pack of hand needles shown for size

I'll be using all of these oversized sewing notions for the Tea, then (hopefully) for this year's Lyon's Farm Fall Festival (waiting for the vendor forms to be mailed out, they are really slow).  I'll also be using them in my booth at my large quilt guild's quilt show March 14-15, 2026.  Put this show on your calendar.  It is ALWAYS a GREAT quilt show!  I attended this quilt show before I ever joined this guild.  The quilt show was why I joined this guild.

I still have a few demo's to prepare for the Missouri TOGA (Treadle On Gathering & Academy) in June.  If you love vintage sewing machines, and want to travel to Missouri, come join us.  The link above will take you to our MOTOGA page (easy to join).  We will be meeting in Ava, MO June 19-21, 2025.  If you search my blog, you can find out more about TOGA's.

Updating Oversized Sewing Notions

In my last post, I told you about the Quilter's Tea I'm decorating for my little quilt guild.  Well, I've finished the oversized notions.

My friend, Carole, suggested that I add labels to my spools of thread.  I took photos of several different ends of some of the wooden spools that I have.  I printed them out to fit the tops of each of the spools.  I used Mod Podge to attach the labels.  Again, I have a spool of Aurifil thread in the photos for scale.

The three largest spools have lids that come off, so that the spools can be used for storage.  I used the next smaller lid for each spool except for the smallest, where I used a plastic lid (from a jumbo can of Nestle's Quik).  The smaller lids fit inside each canister.

with lids off spools

I spray painted all of the 'buttons', then threaded them.  The small buttons will be attached to ribbon and used as a garland.  The large buttons are chargers.  Again, I have a spool of Aurifil thread in the photos for scale.

I sprayed 2 coats of paint on each button (more for the yellow).  The 2nd coat of paint on the blue charger crinkled on the edges, and looked bad.  Even sanding didn't help.  Since I had lots of extra yarn around, I glued some yarn to the edge of the charger, then spray painted the yarn. I think it gives it a nice texture.

yarn glued to the edges

I don't think you can see the original color of the yarn (NOT blue ;).

I did do some sewing, but I didn't take any photos.

Decorating for a Quilting Tea

Wow, I haven't blogged since last October.  Things went crazy in early November, and I haven't had much time for sewing, etc. since then.  Things are finally settling down, thank goodness.

I'm the lead for two upcoming Tea's.  One is for church (Pearls and Aprons is the theme) and one for my little quilt guild, which is a sewing theme.  I found a few oversized sewing notion ideas on Pinterest (the only 'social media' I'm on other than blogging.  So far, I've made a few things.

oversized spools of thread

You can see the size by looking at the spool of Aurifil thread I included.  I still have 3 more small spools to 'wind' and then I need to add 'labels' to the top of each spool.  I took photos of some of the vintage wooden spools of thread that I have, and have enlarged them to decoupage on the wood.  I've never decoupaged anything before, so I haven't had the courage to try it out yet. (Any suggestions are welcome).

These oversized spools were easy to make, and fun.  I bought different yarns (different sizes, depending on the size of the spool).  I bought the wood circles at either Joann's (gonna miss that store) or Hobby Lobby.  The 3 largest spools are made with a set of three stacking canisters that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  The small (red) spool is an empty can of Chunky soup (hubby eats lots of Chunky soup).  I glued the wooden circles onto each can/canister with E6000 glue, and let them dry.  For the yarn, I painted each canister/can, with Tacky Glue, using a sponge brush. (I did paint the orange BEFORE I started adding the yarn).  When the Tacky glue was on the can/canister, I used a small dot from a glue gun to hold the end of the yarn in place, then started wrapping the yarn.  When I got to the bottom of the canister, I started wrapping back up to the top of the can/canister.  

The next project was oversized buttons (again the Aurifil thread for scale).

plastic plates

I found these plastic plates at Meijer (grocery story chain) for 50 cents each.  I bought 2 in each color.  Walmart also has some, but only 3 colors, and Walmart's colors are dull.  I had hubby drill holes in the plate for me, then 'threaded' the buttons with more yarn.

not finished yet

I found some chargers at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents, and bought 5 of them.  I'm spray painting them in different colors.  I ordered the wooden circles from Walmart, and hubby drilled all of them for me.  I'm also spray painting the small wooden 'buttons'.  It's taking time, since we've had so much wind lately, that I can't spray paint unless I know things won't blow away.  I'll show photos of them when they are finished.

I also saw an oversized tomato pin cushion on Pinterest.  I decided to make one. I tried to 'jumbo size' a pattern I found for a small one, but my orange peal parts don't oversize very well, so I had to work on it a bit.  I found some redish orange velvet on sale at Joann's, and also some green felt (you have to buy 2 yards of all fabrics now, so I have plenty left over).  This is my finished oversized Tomato pin cushion (with a regular sized one beside it for scale).

oversized Tomato pin cushion

The 'pins' are metal flags (from the thrift store) and wooden beads hot glued on.  I did have to stab each hole with an ice pick so that the pins would go in.  I used 1 1/2 old bed pillows as stuffing for the pin cushion. 

I have been sewing, but I haven't taken any photos of all the projects I've been working on.  

If you have any ideas for other things to use for decorations for either Tea (Pearls and Aprons) or (sewing themed), I'd love to hear them.  I do have a few other ideas that I haven't had a chance to get to yet.  Both Tea's are in September, but I'm trying to get things done really early, since I have lots scheduled (crazy busy schedule) the next few months.  

What have YOU been working on?

Prairie Star Quilt Show Part 2

This is the last part of the Prairie Star Quilt show from last Friday.  

The quilting is great on this quilt.

I've always liked Feathered Stars and Double Wedding Ring quilts.

This was a great Disney themed I-Spy quilt.

I'd never seen this style of temperature quilt before. It's all hand appliqued circles.

A few more quilts...

I love paper pieced quilts like these.  

More quilts...

hand appliqued and hand quilted

This quilt was inspired by a traditional Grandmother's Fan quilt. It's fans are in an infinite loop, and were paper pieced.  She said that there was a variation in one of the fans.

The last of the quilts.

I hope you enjoyed the quilt show.  I sure did!