Meet Gracie

I had a very fun filled week.  I have started to follow Massdrop  and a few weeks ago the Janome Derby sewing machine came up. I could have gotten one from Amazon or at Joanns for a comparable price but not with as large a color selection.

I loved the gray with pink, they call her Graceful Gray. I call her Gracie.

The big draw for me for this tiny machine is that it weights in at 5 lbs.  Yep, 5 lbs.

Exactly what I need to drag to guild meetings.  I'm really done with carting my bigger machines and tend to do nothing rather than bring one of them

I choose this 8 inch house block to test run the machine and to find it's 1/4 inch.  See that blue tape.

I figured that if I could make a 22 piece block match up I'm good to go.

I'm also well on my way to getting my Christmas list started.  I am making Christmas table runners using a row from the Fair Isle Quilt pattern that I made last year.  

This will be a very long table runner, about 72 inches.  See my little 8 in house block up in the corner.

I'll be traveling this week so will be doing some red work or crochet to keep my hands busy.

Swapping, Knitting, Crocheting, Keeping Secrets and Happy Halloween

I have been keeping busy these last couple of weeks with various projects. First I want to show off and thank Annette for the terrific postcard she made for me for the current Post Card swap.

I have it sitting on my desk for the remainder of the season. Who  better than Charlie Brown to spend time with.

Here is just a little of the back of the card.

I can't show you my contribution to the swap yet as it still hasn't finished making it's way to Canada. 

Happy Halloween

I thought I'd get this post done before Halloween.  I found Princess #1 had made herself at home on my Ghastlies quilt.  She seems to think it belongs to her and fights with Princess #2 whenever she dares to put her paw on it.  She will be very unhappy tomorrow when it's not back on the bed.  I'm pretty sure she'll take over a Christmas quilt in the near future.

I got a couple of helmet liners finished and on their way.

&

A friend sent me a pattern from Michael's for this tote.

It is done with a very bulky yarn.  When I went to Michaels they told me that they no longer carry it.

I picked up Bulky yarn #6 but it wasn't quite bulky enough.  I went with it anyway and added an extra round.  The whole thing took under 3 hours to make.

She loves it just the way it is so all is right with my world. tee, hee.  

This is my latest obsession. 2.5 inch tumbler blocks.  I made a couple of place mats for a friend last month and found myself hooked to the little guys.  I decided that they would make a great leader/ender project.  That was until I found myself making 3 instead of 1 after each section of a project.  I've gotten about 3 times the number in the picture cut and paired at least once.

Last but not least is a sneak peek at my current project.

I am participating in a challenge with my guild and participating in a blog hop, both in November. I will be using the same quilted piece for both. I have gotten further along than the bags of parts shown above. I'm actually to the sandwiching stage.  Please stop back on the 20th to see it completed. More info on the hop can be found on the link at the top right.

Be safe and be happy and enjoy life.

Quilt Along Hop with Dog Gone Cute from Sew Fresh Quilts

When I first heard about / saw this Dog Gone Cute Pup I knew I had to make at least one.  

Of late I have been obsessed with back packs ( see previous posting) and I thought that this "Cute" pup would be perfect.  The measurements for the finished large Dog block was close enough to what I'd been using for the  back packs so off I went.

It would have been a good looking back pack if I wanted my pup standing on its ear. Some

days I scare myself when I take off at full speed without engaging my brain.

I tried adding some fabric top and bottom but that would only work if I intended to give the back pack to a line backer.  So pup got stuck on my design wall for a few weeks and kept me company while I waited for an idea.

I was still stuck on the backpack idea so I went ahead and made one of the smaller dogs. The pattern has so many Dog Gone Cute dogs to choose from.

I expanded the block and cut down the size of the back pack and came up with this cutie.

I knew exactly who I would send this one to.

Our great niece just started Pre K and I thought this would be a great bag for her "stuff". I filled it with a couple of  Disney projects and off it went.

The straps needed a little adjusting.  I shrank down the back pack and forgot to shorten the straps.

Perfect.

Now back to my newest companion.  

I finally decided that I would make him into a simple baby quilt.

I bordered him out slowly.

I thought about adding "things" but nothing really appealed to me.

Here he is all done.  I took him for a cart ride to take some great pictures in the beautiful sun light.

This is as close as I got to getting a picture of the backing. 

As any good dog knows when you go visiting you get your choice of chairs so long as you are Dog Gone Cute.  Mine had trouble making up his mind.

Turned out he was partial to the rocker.

In the end he was so Dog Gone Cute I had to throw him a bone.

The girls were not very happy playing second fiddle.

If you want to make your very own dogs visit Lorna over at  Sew Fresh Quilts 

And please take time to visit the rest of the ladies participating and sharing in this great hop.

Tuesday, October 20

Cathy of A Quilting Chick

Selina of Selina Quilts (me)

Shauna of Shauna’s World

Gayle of Pedal Sew Lightly

Kathy of Kayak Quilting

Thursday, October 22

Sandy of Upstairs Hobby Room

Heide of Heide’s Quilty Hugs

Britt-Inger of Hill Valley Quilter

Judy of How ART You?

Louisa of Sewmotion

Tuesday, October 27

Teje of Nero’s Patch and Post

Stephanie of Jak and Will

Valerie of Val’s Quilting Studio

Ellen of Georgia Florida Studio

Cristina of Pretty Little Quilts

Thursday, October 29

Abigail of Cut & Alter

Magdalena of iloveneutrals

Jenn of A Quarter Inch from the Edge

Anne of Batiks by the Bay

Susie of Susie's Sunroom

Tracy of Tracy’s Bits N Pieces

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

  

Backpacks and more backpacks and the beginning of Christmas

I've been very busy making the      Easy Peasy Back Pack      over and over and over again.  This is going to be a very picture heavy posting, just giving you a heads up.

Several of them are going to the group Angel Snugs for their annual fund raiser.  The one in the Ghastlies fabric is on its way to Jersey as part of a B'day gift for my niece.

 I shared the link with members of my guild and we got a group together  to make them.

We had sewers of all levels working together. It is the type of pattern that works for one and all.

Someone suggested trying pre quilted fabric so I made one of mine using some I had in my stash but following the rest of the direction thus forgoing seeing the backing fabric.  It gave the bag a lot more structure. I also added an outside pocket.

One of the other ladies used the pre quilted fabric and left it unlined but did french seams and a facing to hide the raw seams.

It was a great afternoon with lots of chat about making more of them as the holiday gift giving time approaches.

Speaking of the holidays approaching... I started this table runner awhile back, as in several years ago.  It is for my brother and his wife.  She is a big collector of all things snowmen.  I got side tracked and it ended up in my UFO pile.  They came to Florida for a visit and it reminded me that it was buried and unfinished somewhere in THE ROOM.

It is now complete and actually in the mail back to Jersey. In time to use for this holiday season.  I know it's a tad early but I just had to get it out of THE ROOM before it was buried again.

It's looking pretty good on my table good thing I got it in the mail already.

I love this backing fabric.

I'm off to work on a project for a blog hop I'm participating in on the 20th and the other 7 projects on the list at the moment.  Have a great week.