GIVING AWAY GREAT STUFF

I hope everyone is having a fun National Quilt Day. I want to let everyone know about a great give away over at Abbey Lane Quilts. Go over and check it out.

http://abbeylanequilts.blogspot.com/

More Dresden Plates

I am still really interested in the Dresden Plate block. I can't believe how much I thought how hard this block would be to do. But is isn't and is fun to do. I was looking around in blogland and came across Lurline's Place http://lurlineg.blogspot.com/. She has a Dresden Plate Tutorial for this style of Dresden plate. Thank you Lurline for posting this. I love it. I love scrappy quilts so this Dresden just falls right in there. I put together a few of my flower scrap pieces and this is the one I came up with.

I then wanted to try a smaller Dresden plate block. I had just bought the March/April issue of McCalls quilting magazine and found this pattern by Virginia Robertson http://www.virginiarobertsondesigns.com/home I love this too. I will try to make this one of my many next projects to do. I got out a few of my 1930's scraps and made this Dresden up from the magazine pattern. I think this one is my favorite size of Dresden.





I hope everyone is having a good day.
One quilting project, like one cookie, is never enough!

Dresden Plate Blocks

Let me just say that it has been a little while since I have posted on my blog. I had some knee surgery but I am doing good now and fixing to go back to work this Monday. I have been off for about seven weeks now.
While I was off I did try to get a little bit of sewing done. I have fallen in love with the Dresden Plate block. I have seen so many beautiful quilts with this block. I found this tool called The Easy Dresden. I love it.
I have only made one block but I want to do more and more. I am hoping to make a full size quilt.


I am not sure about one thing. I am not sure if after I applique the plate to the background fabric do I need the cut out the background fabric on the inside of the stitching to make it not so bulky?
I am kind of new to appliqueing. I haven’t really done a lot of it. I did this by machine with a blanket stitch. I wanted to do it in black thread to give it that older look.
To the ladies at Tomorrows Quilts shop in Waco Tx. I will be coming there this next month to stock up on some 1930’s fabric for my Dresden quilt.

Christmas Ornaments

Hello Bloggers...its been a little while since I have had time to do any posting.I have been trying to get some new freestanding lace done on my embroidery machine for my Christmas tree. I love snowflakes so some of these make me think of snowflakes.

The Boston terrier ornament is for a good friend of mine. She has Boston terriers and they are her babies. I found these ornaments and couldn't resist making them for her. Gail I will get these to you soon.





I hope everyone had a fun Halloween. We did...I went to the town Boozar. All the stores were giving out candy to the kids. I think everyone in town was there. Kids had a good time.
Here is a picture of my Grandson....he went as Darth Vader from Star Wars



Well it is back to work on some more Christmas ornaments.

Local Quilt Shop Cupcake Birthday

This is my Cupcake square for the local quilt shop I go to frequently. They are celebrating their 5th birthday next month. I love this shop, the owner Linda and all the ladies that work there are very nice and will help with anything they can. They have asked their costumers to make a cupcake square and put our names on them. They will take all the squares and make a quilt to hang in the shop. I have seen some of the other cupcake squares and everyone did a great job. I will try to get a picture of the quilt when it is finished.

Oh and they also had a cute little cupcake potholder pattern I bought. I like to make different kinds of potholders. Can't wait to make this one.

Happy 5th Birthday Tomorrows Quilt http://www.tomorrowsquilts.com/

I hope you have many many more birthdays.

Rag Quilting Question

I am off work today so I am trying to catch up on my blogging.


I have fallen in love with rag quilts. They are easy and when you are finished you are done...no having to get anything machine quilted...great gifts to give.
I have only made one so far...but want to make many more. I got interested in them when my Aunt passed away and she had alot of bluejeans and blue jean dresses. I asked my uncle if I could have them so I could make a few blue jean quilts. I got looking around at different ideas for some quilt with bluejeans and came across the rag quilts. I am still trying to get all the jeans and dresses cut out into squares. I had bought some jean material from hobby lobby several years ago to make me a dress and never did. I picked up some pretty flower and pink material and made this rag quilt. I did put flannel in the middle for batting so it is a little heavy but mighty warm.



The next rag quilts I want to make are going to made out of all flannel. They look so pretty.
The local quilt shop Tomorrows Quilts http://www.tomorrowsquilts.com/ I go to in Waco has some flannel rag quilts on display. Linda the owner just started selling the Accuquilt Go fabric cutter http://www.accuquilt.com/homepage.asp She used the accuquilt rag quilt dye to cut out those rag quilts. I have been looking into buying the accuquilt go. Does anyone have one and have you used the rag quilt dyes? How much do you like the Accuquilt? I would appreciate any feedback on it.
When I do a flannel rag quilt I will post some pics.

Changing to Fall

Fall is in the air. I have woke up several mornings (I get up at 3:15 am on work days) this past few weeks and I can just feel Fall coming. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the colors and the cool air...not to hot and not to cold.
I haven't been on my blog for a while. My husband had foot surgery and I have been busy with all kind of other things. I have been trying to get some sewing done. I will post some pics soon of what I have been working on.
Oh school started. This is my granddaughters last year in Jr high and my grandson is in kindergarten.
Here is a first day of school pic.



I hope everyone had a good Labor day.

Quilt Magazines

My grandson took this picture of me while I was into reading my new quilting magazine. I didn't even know he was standing there taking the pic.

I think sometimes I have a addiction to quilting magazines. I like to read all about the new gadgets, fabric lines, and all the new and different quilt patterns. I subscribe to all of my favorites so I won't miss one. I have a question to everyone.....Do you keep any of the quilt magazines that you buy after you have read them? I can't seem to get rid of mine. I feel like I need to keep them so I can go back and look for patterns some other day. The magazines are going to take over my closet one day. The quilt shop I go to in Waco does take donated used quilt magazines and sells them for 25cents apiece. The money is then donated to the animal shelter. I have given a few of my magazines to them one time but it sure was hard to let go.

I remember the first quilt magazine I bought. I was in Beaumont Tx. with my mom when she had her cancer. I went to a fabric store there and at the check out there was a Quiltmaker mag. with the pattern on the cover called Friends. It caught my eye, I bought it, and read Quiltmaker ever since. I ended up making a quilt from that pattern on the cover for my new granddaughter.

Here are pics of three of the box's I have my mags in. I have two others that I didn't get into the picture.

There are even more magazines that are on my sewing table.


These are my favorite quilt magazines. I don't want to miss any of them.

Maybe one day I will be able to let go of some of these but for right now I will keep them to read over and over.

Items I finished on Days Off

Well I am on my last day off. I am glad I didn't set to many goals to get done. I was rather busy these three days off. I took my grandson to the pool. He had a lot of fun swimming and going down the water slide. Yesterday I got a surprise visit from three nieces that I haven't seen in a long time. We had a good visit.

I did get to work on the three goals that I set for myself on these three days off.

First I started working on my scrappy nine patch blocks. I got inspired from looking around at other blogs and the nine patch sew along that was going on. I think it was started by the blog Crazy Mom Quilts. Every time I have some scraps left over from other projects I cut out any 2.5 by 2.5 squares and charm size squares that I can. I want to try to make a scrappy Irish Chain quilt out of some of the squares. I do have a lot of my Christmas squares so I will make a nine patch out of that. Here are some I work on this weekend.







I also work a little bit more on my Sunbonnet Quilt. I didn't realize that I didn't have enough white muslin for all the blocks so I will have to go to the quilt shop this next week and buy some more so I can get this quilt finished.


And last on the list I cut out some more hexagons for my grandsons I Spy quilt. I love shopping for novelty prints...they are so much fun. I think I am going to buy just a few more prints from www.bugfabric.com. They have such a good selections of prints.

Goals for Days Off

I am off work for the next three days. My three days always seem to go by way to fast. These three days off I just don't want to go anywhere but from the kitchen to get a snack and then back to my sewing machine. I will have my grandson for some of that time so I don't know just how much of my day off sewing goals I will get done.
I will make my list short.

1. Work some more on my Sunbonnet Quilt.
2. Sew a few oh my scrappy nine patch blocks.
3. Cut out a few more novelty prints for grandsons I Spy Quilt.

OK..short list.

In the mean time let me post a few pics of some of my quilt tops that are waiting to be sent off for machine quilting.
When I look at everyones blogs I love looking at their pictures of the quilts they have done or are working on. I will try to put pics on each post I make.


This is the Christmas Quilt I did that I had left over fabric for my yo yos.






This is my bug jar quilt. I had fun incorporating machine embroidery into the quilt.





This is a pattern I found in a McCall's Quilting magazine. I used all different flower fabric.



Now it's time to start on my goals....everyone have a happy quilting day.