Being sidelined

Back in September I was going to work on these pillowcases for Ryan's Case for Smiles. But was sidelined by a visit to the hospital for two days. 

But I am happy to say that I completed 12 pillowcases and will deliver them to a drop off site.

Wed Wait Loss

 Finished or not Friday 

 Brag About Your Beauties 

To Do Tuesday

Two finishes

 So what have I been doing? 

and,

Which makes two finishes.....

This one was for my daughter.

This one has a story.....

About a year and a half ago, I started making the blocks for this quilt. A start and stop, again start and stop. I finally got discouraged and handed the pieces over to my cousin and told her she could make it for herself or just trash it. Well this sweet cousin made the quilt and gave it to me for Christmas last year. I never got around to quilting it. But decided that THIS year I would quilt it up and it now hangs in my dining room.

Yay for finishes.

Wed Wait Loss

 Finished or not Friday 

 Brag About Your Beauties 

To Do Tuesday

Scrap Happy

Grateful Pillow

 I am always blown away at the cost of pillows. I mean two pieces of fabric, a little bit of stuffing and the cost is over $20.

I'm not really much of a DIY crafter, but when an opportunity comes up, I rise to the occasion.

My daughter bought a placemat for $3. When she brought it home, she thought about making a wall hanging. BUT! Mom took it in another direction. The pillow.

I purchased a pillow form for about $5, found fabric in my stash for the backing and created my own Grateful pillow for under $10.

As opposed to the Target pillow

 

 that listed for $40.

I can live with that!

Wed Wait Loss

 Finished or not Friday 

 Brag About Your Beauties 

To Do Tuesday

Scrap Happy

November 1st

 

Well it's the first of November!

26 days until Thanksgiving.

54 days until Christmas.

61 days until the New Year!

Are  you ready??

Making pumpkins

 The fall season always brings out pumpkins.

So I wanted to make my own pumpkins. Last year I came across a very easy tutorial on Stacey Lees website.

These were so fun to make.  I wanted to make more!

Sew and Tell  Finished or not Friday   Brag About Your Beauties   Scrap Happy Hand Made Monday

Sharing my thoughts

There have been many times when I've had such a burning desire to quilt, that everything else goes by the wayside. 

I was going through some old magazines, sorting them as keepers and give aways. There was an "aha!" moment as I leafed through a variety of older magazines.

 Quilting times have changed. More and more quilters have lent themselves to modern quilting. Modern fabric, modern patterns, modern quilts.

I'm not saying I don't like the newer brighter fabric colors. It's just that I have always been a traditional quilter, and I'm not finding much anymore. Especially since so many quilt shops have closed in my area.

Quilting magazines feature lots of modern patterns, applique and paper piecing. All of which I don't do.

Another thing I've noticed is the emphasis on long arm machine quilting. I don't know about you, but I don't own a long arm, and I don't know anybody who does. So are the magazines pushing quilters to buy a long arm? There certainly are lots of helpful hints for longarmers.

Believe me, I'm not downplaying modern quilting. It's just not what I enjoy doing. I like my fabric to coordinate, my patterns to have symmetry, and my points to match.  I'm just sharing my thoughts. We each have to enjoy what we are creating.

I do wish each of you Happy Quilting. No matter which kind you enjoy doing.

The end of the tour

 Finishing my tour, we ended up in some very nice shops.

Making our way over to VA found some awesome places.

I would definitely return to this shop. Big selection of fabric.

The Sewing Gallery in Princeton was a very classy and beautiful shop.

Batiks Etcetera was an amazing powerhouse of batik fabric. Although I don't usually do much with batiks, it was a treasure trove of the best batiks around.

If you are into batiks, this is the place for you. There had to be hundreds of bolts of gorgeous batik fabric.

Well there you have it. It certainly makes for Happy Quilting.