Happy Independence Day

"Blessed is the Nation Whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12)

Wishing you a very Happy and Safe 4th of July

Baby Quilt

 I finally finished quilting this baby quilt.

And gifted it to the new mama.

Design wall Monday    Sew and Tell    NTT     Finished or not Friday   Brag About Your Beauties   Scrap Happy

June Sew Sampler

 Summer has arrived. And so has the Sew Sampler box.

Lots of goodies in this one. Find the details on Fat Quarter Shop blog.

Red, white and blue

 Red, white and blue.  This time of year brings out the patriotic colors.

 

We start off with Memorial Day, then Flag Day and then our American Independence Day.

Do you only use these colors at this time of year?

Do you decorate for the different seasons?

By hand or machine?

When I was a new quilter in 1985 I took a quilting class at the local craft store. Back then we were taught how to cut out the pieces with scissors and used cardboard templates. Towards the end of the class, our teacher showed us a tool that looked like a pizza cutter. She told us this was a Rotary Cutter and would speed cutting time. Of course we all laughed and said it could not take the place of scissors! HA!

About that same time, my sister in law took a class at a quilt shop. She learned Eleanor Burns Quilt in A Day pattern for the Log Cabin. She shared with me how quick and easy it was to use this method (using a rotary cutter). And as the saying goes, the rest is history.

I started this quilt around 1986. I purchased 100% cotton fabrics from a quilt shop. My plan was to make a quilt for my then toddler son. We worked on the Log Cabin pattern, and I completed the top. It was my goal to hand quilt this quilt.

So I started working on it, but did not make very speedy progress. Hand quilting took a lot of time. As a matter of fact it was not completed until 2004!

This is one of my favorite quilts and the only one I completely hand quilted. It was fun to work on, and I love how the colors all worked together.

Do you quilt by hand or machine? Or do you send your quilts out to a longarmer?  

Lost and found

 So as I was going through fabric, I came across two orphan blocks that I had made several years ago. They were supposed to be part of a blog hop I participated with a friend. My friend finished her quilt, but my little orphans lay around, just waiting for the day.

So here they are. I thought surely I must have some of that fabric somewhere.

Since organizing my stash I was able to find the background fabric. Which was a huge help.

I did not really want to make 10 more blocks so I was going to go for a table runner.

Easy enough to make one more block.

And enough extra fabric to work out a table runner. Yay!

Design wall Monday    Sew and Tell    NTT     Finished or not Friday   Brag About Your Beauties   Scrap Happy

National Sewing Machine day

 If there is anything I love to talk about it's my Bernina Virtuosa sewing machine. Since receiving this machine I have enjoyed sewing so much more. 

When I graduated from high school I bought myself a Singer Stylist sewing machine. It was a basic model that I thought would serve me for many years. But after a couple of years it was giving me a lot of trouble. The repair man told me, there was one plastic part that kept breaking. It became a drudgery to sew. Thankfully a dear lady from church gave me her "old" Kenmore when she bought a new machine. I sewed on that machine for miles.

Then Christmas 2004 my dear hubby gifted me with my Bernina. I asked him how he knew to get a Bernina. He said he heard me say one time that Berninas were the best machines. And I have loved it ever since. She doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, just a few fancy stitches. Lately I have noticed that some stitches I used regularly are not working. So I am just hoping this grand lady is not going to bite the dust. I love it too much. And I would never be able to find another one to replace.it.

What about you? Do you have a machine that you love. There are so many fancy machines now, it would be hard to choose.