#5 is DONE!!!!!!

I finished the fifth MQ today!  Now all I have left to make is the one for Todd and me, and that can wait until after Christmas.

Here is the last one (front):

Back:

And all of them (front):

back:




and the stack of them folded:




I'm not sure how we are going to wrap them, but I'll figure something out.  I do need to wash them before we go, so I'm hoping we have a nice weekend where I can hang them outside.

Not sure what I'll be doing with all my free time, now! I've been working on them since the first of October and pretty much spent most of my time on them (when I'm not working, which is not much).  Maybe I can get a purse done for me before Christmas.  We'll see.

Thanks for visiting my blog!!!

Off topic for a minute

PW is having a contest on her site that I want to enter and I need to have a link to my favorite recipe.  I can't find one on the net like this, so I'm going to post it here and use this link.


Best EVER Cheese Ball

8 oz sharp cheddar cheese
1 jar (1 oz) Old English cheese
2 (8 oz) pkgs cream cheese
1 tsp garlic salt
1 dash worcestershire sauce
1 T chopped onion
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Allow cheeses to soften at room temperature.
Mix cheeses until well blended.
Add seasonings and shape into ball.
Chill; then roll in pecans.

Serve with variety of crackers.

MQ #4 is DONE! One left before Christmas!!!!!

I finished the fourth MQ on Friday!!!

I decided to take pictures of the process of putting it together (most of it, at least).

First I have to lay the backing (I used muslin for them) on the floor.  I have to use the entryway because that is the only floor we have that's big enough and not carpet.


 Then I lay the batting on top of it. (Forgot to get a picture of that).
And finally the quilt top.

Then I crawl on my hands and knees and put safety pins all around to keep everything in place.  That way when I move it, it doesn't shift.


Once the pins are in, I pick it up and take it to the office.  That way I don't have to crawl around any more.  I just use yarn to tie it.  I tie everywhere the blocks meet and in the middle of each block.  After all the tieing is done, I just add the border and it's done!




I've already gotten #5 started.  The strips are sewn, so all I have to do is sew them together and the top will be done.  After that, it doesn't take too long to put it together.  The longest part is sewing the back of the binding on by hand -that usually takes me at least three hours.

They are really warm and that came in handy this week while I was working on the last one.  We had really cold weather that I'm not used to anymore!

Today I went to the Christmas Stroll parade with the kids and grandkids.  You can read about it at my other blog.

Have a great weekend!

Another quilt top done!

Since I don't have a whole lot of hours to work this week, I decided to use my time to work on the memory quilts.  I completed the top for #4 today!!!!!



I decided to use a different thread for the label this time.


And I never did post the picture of the finished Christmas Table Runner, so here it is:


It's too heavy to put on my design wall, so I had to take a picture of it on the table.  I really like it!  Still thinking of making matching placemats, but that will have to wait until I get the MQ's done.  And I also have a new purse in mind that I want to make for me!

Memory Quilt #3 is DONE!

The long weekend gave me lots of time to sew again, so after being bored on Saturday, I decided to finish the third Memory Quilt (which will be MQ from now on cuz I'm lazy).

I had enough materials to finish it, and decided to use white muslin for the back since the center piece was white.  Sewing and tying the yarn really tore up my fingers, then sewing the back of the binding by had also was not easy on them, but it's done!  I'm half-way there!!!!

Here is the picture of the front of MQ #3


And the back of MQ #3


And the quilt with the guard dog  LOL!!!!


Yesterday I started on MQ #4.  This is the layout:


This is how I have to label each piece so I sew them in the correct order:


I am only scheduled to work 16 hours this week, which is bad but at least I'll be able to get  more sewing done and possibly I'll get #4 and #5 done before Christmas.  #6 will be for me and Todd, so that doesn't have to be done before Christmas.

Thanks for reading my blog!!!!!  :D  Have a wonderful week!

Memory Quilts again

It's the day after Thanksgiving, 2009 (Nov 27).  Today my goals were 1) to finish the quilt top for the 3rd memory quilt and 2) complete the 2nd memory quilt.  I started late morning, and it's now 8:40 pm and I have both of them DONE! YAY!!!!

First, here's the quilt top for memory quilt #3:

I started it earlier this week.  They go pretty quickly now that I have all the fabric cut already.  All I have to do is decide on a design and start sewing them together.

And here is the COMPLETED Memory Quilt #2:
(front)



(back)




I also completed the Christmas Table Runner, but haven't taken a picture of it yet.


I'd love to hear comments!!!!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Table Runner is pieced!

Training was slow yesterday, I had lots of breaks, so I worked on the rest of the quilt blocks for the table runner.  After supper I pieced it all together, so it's ready to be made into the sandwich.  We are going over machine quilting next time we meet, so that is all I need to do for now.  I'm VERY happy with it!



The binding will be the striped fabric that is the small inner boarder, so I think it will tie it all together very well.

I have a lot of fabric left, so I'm thinking of making placemats to match again like I did before, but not sure if I'll do them now or next year sometime.  I probably need to get the memory quilts done before I do them.  We'll see.....

Thanks for visiting my blog!!!!!

Home from quilt class

At our quilt class we worked on the main block.  It's similar to the block we did before, but a little different.   After ripping out a bunch of seams and working hard to get all the seams to match, my block was finally done!  It turned out very pretty!!!



I'm anxious to get the rest of it done.  We're meeting again in a couple weeks to go over the quilting, so I need to have it done by then.  I think I'll work on it and get the piecing done before I finish the second memory quilt.

Keep checking back!!!

Top is done for second memory quilt

Since I started training for my new job on Thursday, I didn't do much sewing the last few days.  I had already started on the second memory quilt and finished the top today.  I had to cut more fabric - mostly denim.  (If anyone close to me has jeans to get rid of, I'll be glad to take them off your hands instead of throwing them out.)

The middle of this is another one of Nel's sweatshirts.  I don't know if she made it herself or not, but it's one she wore often.

At first I was going to make it smaller than the one I made for Larry.  But this is how it was when I stopped:

It was too long and thin, so I added another row of denim on each side. This is the finished top:


And I added the same label to this one - I have them all made, so all I have to do is iron them on and sew around the edges:


 Tomorrow (Monday, Nov 16th) we have another quilt class at church.  This time Jean picked a table runner and we were to pick out Christmas fabric.  It took me a while yesterday, but I finally got all the fabric cut.  This is most of it:


These are the fabrics I'm using:  

The off-white will be the main background, the green will be the large inner border, the striped will be a thin border and binding, and the rest of the Christmas fabric will be the star.  The pattern is called "Shooting Stars".  Here is the blog of the designer and it shows a picture of a finished one.



I have more training all week for work, then we'll be on the telephone answering calls.  I'm excited to get back to work!

One Memory Quilt is DONE!!!

I finished my FIL's memory quilt today.  Yesterday I made the sandwich and tied it, so today all I had to do was put the binding on it.  I also made a label for it.

I didn't hang it up on the wall, but here's pictures of it:
Front

Back (Muslin)



And the label I made

 I sat down later this afternoon and made the labels for the rest of the quilts, so those are done.  I need to iron the interfacing on the back so the stitches don't come out.

Memory Quilts

The last couple of months have been sad ones for our family. On September 30, my mother-in-law passed away, then just 13 days later, on October 13, my husband's grandmother passed away. (You can read about them on my "Family Life" blog - you'll have to go back to older posts to see them all.) When I first really started sewing again, I went to Craftster, a website where people post things they have made and you can get great ideas there. I saw a post on there where a lady had made some quilts for a family who had lost their father, and the quilts were made out of shirts of the father. I thought that was such a neat idea! So after my mother-in-law passed away, I asked my father-in-law (FIL) if I could take some of her clothes to make us quilts out of. He said yes, and I brought home a bunch of her jeans, shirts, and her sweatshirts that she wore often. I fill up three Wal-Mart bags. We were home (from Nebraska) for less than 48 hours (we stayed for a wedding after her funeral) when we were notified that Grandma passed away, so it was another trip out of state (this time to Illinois). So I asked my FIL if I could take some of her clothes, too, to add to the quilts. I didn't take as many of hers as I did my MIL's, but at least I had some.

So this week I finally started to cut up the clothes.

These are the squares I cut out of MIL's clothes:


These are the squares I cut out of Grandma's clothes:


I divided everything up into six piles - that is how many quilts I'm going to make.


I decided to work on my FIL's first. I knew I wanted to use this sweatshirt for his:


So I took one pile and started sticking them on my design wall to start FIL's quilt - I put the sweatshirt in the middle. He's tall, so I knew I wanted it to be extra long. Here is the design before I started sewing:


And this morning I finished sewing it together:


His quilt top ended up being 47" by 71", which will be good for him. The rest I'm going to make won't be that long. I didn't have enough fabric from the clothes to make the whole quilt, so I had to add some squares of jeans, Todd's old shirts and other fabrics out of my stash.

I'm not sure when I'll get to the rest of the quilts. I also have to decide if I want to complete FIL's quilt (sandwich, quilt or tie and bind), or if I want to get all the tops done and then complete later. I'll have to see what I have as far as supplies (batting and backing). I'm also starting a new job on Nov. 12 working at home, so I won't have quite as much time to work on them, it will just be evenings and weekends.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to this week. Today I'm going to take a break from sewing and go to a bookstore to read the new PostSecret book that came out last month. I don't want to spend the money right now to buy it, so I think I'll go to B&N, get a coffee and read it. Maybe I'll get a gift card to a bookstore for Christmas from someone (hint hint!!!) so I can buy it later. lol

TGIF!!!

I've been sewing a little bit,

but haven't taken any pictures of what I've sewn. I will one day soon. Sam's work is going to have a mini-craft show on Dec 3, so I decided to have a table. It didn't cost much, and I think it will be fun.


But I wanted to post a picture of the quilt we have on our bed. It was made by my mother-in-law (who passed away Sept 30, 2009). We have a couple quilts that she made, but this one is my favorite.

I just love the different colors on it and how vibrant they are.

I haven't been sewing lately

We've had a couple deaths in the family and had to make two trips out of state. You can check my personal blog to read about them. Here is the link to it.

I'll update as soon as I get something new sewn. :D

Another BLB (Belt Loop Bag)

While I was out running around on Tuesday, I bought some more fabric to make some more belt loop bags. Someone asked me if I could make them out of leather, so I was looking for that, but the fabric stores only have poly-leather that they sell by the yard. The only REAL Leather piece I could find was about 18"x18" and the cost was $26.99 - not very practical for my bags. If I want to make a profit, I'd have to charge a lot of money.

Anyway, this was my first try - again, I didn't use a pattern, just made it up as I went along. The one thing I did forget to do was to add a label! UGH!

So this is made out of some of the poly-leather (brown, I also bought some black), with this fabric as the lining:


Here is the completed bag:










As always, comments are appreciated!!!!! :D

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!

Second Belt Loop Bag is done!

I have so much fun making these! I cut this one out at the same time I did the other one, so it didn't take me long to sew it. I did add two pockets to this one and used Alexander Henry fabric for the lining. It turned out very well, too!


It's pretty much the same size as the other one.


And the same shape.


With zipper and tabs on the side.

But this one has pretty fabric (not that the other one isn't pretty)!!!!! LOVE this Alexander Henry fabric!


And the pockets will help keep things a little more organized!


Here is the listing for it on my shop. Christmas is around the corner!!!! (hint hint) lol

As always, comments are appreciated!!!!!!