Still Working - Ode to the Thirties

Since I have 2 large quilts I'm working on, I decided to spend my extra time one week on one of the quilts and then the next week do the other.  Just keep alternating like that.  Last week I worked on my Ode to the  Thirties quilt and got quite a few squares done.

I missed the August meeting in my guild, due to vacation, so I did that square on my own.  It's a 12" square and was pretty easy to construct.

 This was also an easy one with the larger half square triangle and the 4 patches.  The rest of these are all 9" squares.

This one was more difficult.  I did all my cutting for all these squares first.  I just zipped along according to the directions on the packet.  I tend to like making my flying geese the Eleanor Burns method, but I cut without looking at the square, so I pieced these flying geese like half square triangles,  It wasn't so easy to get them right.  I'm starting to look at my square before I cut to see if I want to do something different.

 I love applique and this flower basket was very fun to do.

 I enjoy the yellow look of this square, so bright and cheery.

This one I would normally have paper pieced, but I ended up just sewing the half squares together.  It worked out great with less fuss.

These squares are linked to WOW with Esther and Freshly Pieced.

Garage Sale Finds

I'm starting a new hobby.  Hopefully, I'll be able to make it fit in with what I'm already doing.  It's collecting hand-embroidered linens.  I went to 2 garage sales in one day and found several items to give me what I thought was a great start.

 I love the looks of these.  I was thinking of using some in aprons. 

 This one below is embroidered with a razzle dazzle thread (at least that's what I call it).

 These are machine embroidered but I still liked them.

 What ideas do you have for how I can use them?

What's Grandma giving Eloise?  She was enjoying it.

A Finished Turtle Wallhanging

Here it is all done.  I finished the applique on vacation.  What a fun project it was.  Then I had to put it in the lineup for my machine.

I am not very good at outlining.  Need to get more practice there.  I plan on doing this quilt again.  I'll do the turtles a different color.  I think that could be fun.

It's hard to see the quilting.  Next one I'll just quilt the water and let the turtles puff out.

This post is linked to Tuesday Sew Bug  and Tea Rose Party

Danita's Quilt

This is a baby quilt of many bright colors.  She gave me a thick polyester batting that she wanted doubled up, so it is very thick.  I did a large stipple and it has quite a puffy look.

 The deer that showed up yesterday.  The babies seem  quite young.  There was also a fourth one.  He just didn't make it in the picture.

Carolyn's Other Quilt

This is one she is looking forward to using.  She gives most of her quilts away, but she is keeping this one and the last one I did for her.

A close up.

Eloise gets so proud of herself when she does something that is new and exciting to her.  She thinks she's getting more like the bigger people around her.  Here she is climbing our porch steps.  She loves it.  Her expressions are so cute I couldn't pick just one, so you get them all.

What A Hot Day for a Sweater

That's what Eric thought, when his mom and I wanted him to put on this sweater for pictures.But with the promise of a popsicle if we could get good pictures, he did okay at times.  Here you can see, he's considering it.  After all, we've just started having weather in the 80's.  It's taken a while.

 He seems to have enjoyed checking out the horse.  It's the one I found on vacation that we had to talk the man down on quite a bit.  As we were heading out of town, we stopped and were leaving because he wouldn't go down to our price, but he had last minute thoughts and changed his mind.  So we carted it home with the chair (in yesterday's post) and other furniture in our car. Oh, how the kids had to suffer from lack of moving room in the car.

 The sweater is a Sirdar pattern, you know one of my favorite pattern companies.  I knit it with a soft cotton blend yarn. It felt pretty heavy.  Maybe because it is hot out.  I love doing cable patterns.  They add so much interest to the knitting.

 This sweater has buttons on one shoulder to make it easy to go on and off.  That's always important with young boys.

Eric did get his popsicle.  As soon as we were done, we got the sweater off quickly so he could have that popsickle and go check out the fish in the pond.

You can check out details on Ravelry.

Let's Tie Up Those Loose Ends

I've been working on a lot of small things that needed to get taken care of on my Heart's Desire. Some are things that I put off just because I wasn't sure what fabric I wanted to use.  It does feel good to tie up some loose ends.

On Block 1 I added the corner pieces.  I also have some ideas for the leaves for this one, but I haven't narrowed those down yet.

On Block 2 I did the sashings.  Those were quite easy to do, a pretty fun, relaxing project.

And I'm still working on Block 4.   I got the embroidery on which was very simple.

And I started the vase.  I haven't finished it yet.  We'll have to see how the decorative top part of the vase goes.

These are linked to WOW on Esther's Blog and WIP on Freshly Pieced.

Of course we must have a bit of Eloise.  When I was on vacation I bought a prize for my front porch.  Well, here it is with Eloise sitting in it.

Ready for Tea?

I love to buy fabric that cries out a use to me.  This fabric did that.  All those tea labels meant apron.  My girls love to drink tea and I can get into it once in a while.  So I bought this fabric for an apron in mind.  This style is one of my favorites with the wide band that goes up around the neck and buttons in the back.  It looks rather vintage, even though the pattern is a modern one.

 The rick-rack adds a touch of warmth to the apron.

 And who doesn't love pockets.

I had plenty of  fabric left, so I made hot pads to go with it.  Double insulated to keep those hands from burning.  Who wouldn't be ready to have tea and scones with this set?

These are for sale in my Etsy shop.  Check them out.  Apron  and Potholders.

Sandra's Quilt

Look at all those eyes!

 Eloise gets a ride on grandpa's shoulder.  What's down there?

T-Shirt Quilt

This is my first T-shirt quilt.  It is done for the customer that I did the Jeans quilt for.  I started this one in July with the T-shirts Bonnie gave me, interfaced them and sashed them.

She gave me a loosely woven wool blanket for backing.  It had stretch to it.  Therefore the quilt bunches up some as the backing pulls it together.  Stretchy backings are not a good thing on a longarm.  I don't think she'll have a problem with this though.   It is a nice memory of her husband.  You can tell the shirts were well worn.

My Newest Student

You can see Eloise watching me.  That is the first thing to do when learning to quilt.  Let's see how this machine works.

She also likes to play and enjoy the sun.

Wheel of Mystery Quilt

This is the quilt I was binding while I was sleeping.  I've been working on it quite a while, since February, but had it all put together in March.  It is a John Flynn template and pattern.  

The first four photos were taken in the shade of the afternoon.  The coloring of the one on the ladder best represents the real quilt.  The others seem to blue (even with yellow added).

 I am practicing my photography with these.  I like the fence idea.

I just did an inner outline of quilting of the circles.  It was a challenge.  I used my curved rulers to help me keep a curve.  I am left-handed and my machine is right handed, so I'm learning to be ambidextrous.  My stitching is far from straight, but from a distance you wouldn't notice.

  These were taken in the morning sun.  The coloring was washed out, so I added quite a bit of contrast to them and also added yellow as no yellow really showed up on them.  After the fix, I like the coloring of these better than the others.

Which one do you like the best?  This is a quilt my husband really likes.  He likes the hidden circles.

Wanda's Quilt

This one is a starry night.  She also has machine embroidered squares on it amidst the purple.

 And here's a laughing Eloise.  She can't keep her eyes open when she laughs.  She is really getting cute these days, crawling around and  talking.  She loves to talk.  And she has such a little sweet voice.  Of course, we have to guess at what she is saying.

Eyelet V-Neck Cardigan

This is a sweater I started as soon as we got to our vacation resort.  Our room wasn't ready for us (we were early) and so I sat by the pool in the nice warm weather, which I  truly enjoyed and started this sweater.  I always keep some project handy to work on if I have some time.  I finished it the day before we came home except for the buttons which I put  quickly on when I knew Karen was coming to my house and would be able to model it.

 I used an acrylic yarn that is a DK weight.  The gauge for the sweater is more for a sport weight yarn, so the sweater knitted up tight and thick.  I do like the eyelet pattern.

This pattern is an old one I bought in the 80's, a Peter Pan pattern.  They are very sweet ones that I've enjoyed knitting.  In the picture below you can see some eyelet also done on the sleeves.

The ravelry link is here.