Friday, September 21, 2018

Catching up on Quilty Projects

Searching for something in my photo gallery and just realized that I've been amazingly productive this past month in and around the Welcome to My House hop and should probably get these pics posted before I totally loose track of them.

Starting with my most current and working backward through my my photo gallery would be

#1 Zip Pouch


I had an idea to make a zip pouch as the packaging for my niece's upcoming birthday gift.  Somewhere in the past couple of weeks I saw a pouch with a really long zipper that turns into the strap. Never made note of where I saw this or how it may have been done.  Searched google and pinterest with no luck

So I'm very sorry that I can't give credit and sorrier still that I didn't have a pattern to follow for getting that zipper done.  I'm sure it could have been done faster than how I muscled through it.

It is the result that counts and I am tickled with it.  The raw edge applique pattern is from Minki Kim's new book Diary in Stitches    I also did some quilting using my Quilting foot for some practice.  You can hardly see it because I did it in black but from the back I can see how I'm improving.







#2 Small Animal Kennel Quilts

Requests are now coming in for help at shelters helping with overflow from Florence. These have gone to Tennessee.  The requests come through Quilt Pattern Magazine and Petfinder Follow the link for details and patterns and how you can join the team.


#3 Quilts for Heart Builders

Being retired with a considerable stash does allow me to help several organizations throughout the year.  I am on a Heart Builders team where I make quilt tops, some fabric is sent to me, some from my stash.  I do my top and forward it to my team captain for quilting and distribution to a childrens organization that has been choosen somewhere in the country.  I completed 2 last week, the first with the panel was fabric sent to me by the group. I added the beige border to make it a bit larger.




the second was made with scraps  and a little stash





#4 Disappearing 9 Patch

The scraps from this quilt were used for #3 above. I took a Member to Member class offered by TQGOTV.  Got all of the blocks done at the class and about half of the top. Came home and finished the top. It has joined the pile of tops waiting for inspiration to be quilted.



#5 Pin Cushion

This sweet little pincushion was made for a very supportive friend.  Another pattern by Minki Kim.



#6 House gift for New Home Owners

Good friends of ours moved into a new home here in sunny Florida earlier this month.  They have several sets of my placemats but I felt the new house required new place mats in their favorite colors and my currently favorite, tumbler blocks





and while I was at it a new table runner


and why not use the scraps for tumbler shaped coasters.


Yes, they were a complete success.

I feel much better now.  The reason I originally started to blog was to keep track of what I have done in my crafting (quilting) life.  Blogging has evolved to much more in my life but I still like to keep track.

I need to run a few errands but then back to the sewing space for work on the next postings. Yeah, I have several projects started and scattered around the room fighting for my attention. (don't we all)

Til next time.


Thursday, September 13, 2018

Welcome To My House Hop

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Come on in and have a seat, make yourself comfy.  Depending on the time of day that you are visiting would you care for a cup of tea, coffee, hot chocolate maybe a glass of wine?  Sure, feel free to use the mug rug,  that's why I make them.


Let me give you some back story on this one.  While looking through one of the several boxes of misc stuff for the these


I came across this stray house block.  It looked so sad and forelorn in with all the stray stuff. You know the hardware, rulers, pencils etc. etc. etc This box should not have had a stray block in it. It was also very fortuitous that it was a house block while I was working on items for this particular hop. I took it as a sign that I needed another mug rug.  One to commemorate this wonderful event.



Next up is the reason I was in the box of stuff in the first place.  for the past month and a half I have been working on lots of small pieces of raw edge applique/stitch art / sketch applique/free motion applique (it seems to have many names).  Not  quite an obsession more like taking a night class. Along the way I saw many fun ideas for using these tiny pieces.  One that I loved is decorative key rings.


I drew a house a couple of months ago and thought this would work into a key ring perfectly.  A little trial and error and low and behold key rings.  I don't think they would hold up in my purse but they are cute. Probably should have looked for a you tube version for durability but I'm happy.



yeah, that last one isn't a house but its just so cute and if I put my golf cart key on it, it should last forever since that never goes inside my purse.


A couple of weeks ago   Carla over at Creatin'in the Sticks  posted her Merry and Bright Christmas House Ornament. It drew me in and  I had to do it and I had to do it immediately.  I may have overstuffed my first house but other than that it was a very easy pattern to follow.  Of course it would have been better if I actually followed all of the pattern.



 I was on such a roll that I skipped over the part that clearly explains the attachment of the hangy  part.  So instead of being an ornament mine will now be a very festive pin cushion. 

Once I realized that I made the mistake I decided on a do over.


We retired to Florida so I thought I'd make my house look like it belongs here


This is from the back and the far side of the house


Carla's attention to detail is wonderful.

Last but not least is my quilt of the raw edge applique blocks that I mentioned earlier. It started several months ago with this block , don't know why.  I had been looking at it on the wall and decided it needed to be something. Now its a sweet little pin cushion.


I did one block a day for 30 days, pretty much the month of August.  The quilt wasn't intended for this hop but the rules say that your good so long as there is a house somewhere in the piece.  My quilt has 2.  One is the base for a couple of the key rings


 the other just another misc block  among many misc blocks. Since it fell into the guidelines I figured I'd run with it.




 Several of the blocks I used were from Minki Kims latest book Diary in Stitches and some of her older patterns.  I also used  a pattern from Erin Cox's book Sweet Tweets and that little deer is a Gail Pan design from 2016 that I've loved since the first time I saw it.


Well I am sorry that your visit to My House is over but I wouldn't want you to miss any of the other places to go and people to see that Carol has so graciously invited to participate in this event. Thank you Carol, I kinda feel like I 'm attending one of those parties where you go to one house for appetizers then one for salad, then the next for the entree and another for dessert.  All with excellent cooks  ;-}

So here is the list of excellent cooks.  Have fun visting them one and all.

September 10


September 11


September 12


September 13


September 14