TA DA!

I have finally finished the two quilts and put them in the mail for my granddaughters!  I'm going to try to post the pictures now.

This is the front if Toni Marie's quilt.  She loves yellow!  The pattern is called "Turning Twenty" by Tricia Cribbs.  The finished size is approximately 70 x 86.  It was hand quilted with "x's" and "o's".

The back of Toni's quilt is yellow also with tiny flowers.  Toni will be 14 on her birthday this week.

This is the front of Felicia's quilt.  It is also a "Turning Twenty".  Hers was hand quilted with "x's".  She turns 16 today!  (2/21).  She loves purples.

This is the back of Felicia's quilt.

So far I have completed 5 quilts for 5 of my 10 grandchildren.  As well as a queen size log cabin for my bed, a quilt for my son, and a quilt top for another granddaughter.

This is my next quilting project.  It's a pattern by Eleanor Burns and will replace the wallhanging of cardinals that I currently have in my kitchen.

Now I get to concentrate on rug hooking!  Yay!  I've been a member of the 10 Minute Rug Hooking group and have yet to spend two minutes hooking but that all changed today!  And tonight I'll be working on the rug again at our rug hooking/crafting group!  And (and I'm so excited about this!) I "met" two people on RHD who live close by and they will be attending tonight so our group is growing!  And soon I'll be posting pics of my rugs!  Yay!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had some warmer weather around here this weekend.  Snow is melting.  But we're supposed to get some snow tonight. 

I finished the binding on one quilt last night.  Now I just need to finish the binding on Toni Marie's quilt.  I've already machine sewn it onto the quilt top and pinned it toward the back.  Then all I need to do is hand sew it to the back.  I use a blanket stitch when I sew it to the back - I just like the look.  I must say I feel like I'm quilting in my sleep!  Saturday night I could sleep so I got up at 3:00 a.m. and started working on Felicia's quilt (the one I finished last night).  Then at 6:00 I went back to bed and slept until 7:30 (a.m.).  I got up, ate some cereal, made lasagna for dinner later, and made a batch of Swedish cremes cookies.  It was my first time making them and I think they turned out ok.  Not as good as what others have made, but not bad for a first try.

Our rug hooking group is not getting together tonight so I'll be working diligently on Toni Marie's quilt.  I need to get them done by the end of this week as their birthdays are next week.  So my goal is to have them done, washed and mailed by Thursday, Friday at the latest.  I'll have to send them priority mail but that's okay - they'll be happy to get them!

Julia - I saw your comment about showing how I bind my quilts - sort of a tutorial...  I will have to remember to do that the next time I bind a quilt.  I have one quilt top done for my granddaughter Skylar.  For the boys (Ryan and Andrew) I'm doing a rag quilt so I don't think those will need binding.  Oh, I know!  I'm going to be quilting a small wall hanging that I've had ready to go for over a year and I want to get it done to put up in March.  I can show how I bind then!  Good idea!  And thanks for the input!  Your blog is always so full of pictures and info!  I really appreciate the suggestions!

Binding/quilting

I sewed the binding for the quilts last night.  Tonight I will machine sew them onto the front of the quilts, then the weekend will be hand sewing them to the back then labeling and washing!  Yay! 

I had finally saved enough money to buy a cutter and an additional blade.  So I ordered a Fraser 500 with a #8 and then I ordered a #6 blade as well.  It came in Monday.  But we went to the Home and Garden show Monday night.  Tuesday night I went to exercise class and pulled a muscle in my back so I didn't feel like opening it up and playing around with it.  Wednesday I was sick.  And last night I was busy with the quilt binding.  And on top of that - I'm AFRAID of the cutter!  LOL!  I don't know enough about cutters to know if the tension is right etc.  I do know that Fraser will answer any questions that I have so I'm not really worried on that end.    I'm just funny that way.  I will open it this weekend and make sure there are no pieces parts missing etc.  Can hardly wait to cut some wool!!!  :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

YAY!

Both quilts hand quilting have been completed.  Will be adding the binding this week and will have them finished, labeled, washed and pics posted here by next Monday I'm sure!  I'm so happy to have them done so I can concentrate on rug hooking!

The weather here is still going to be cold, cold, cold!  Today it's in the mid 30's, then it's going to go downhill from here.  But by the weekend maybe close to 40!!!  Yay!

TGIF!!!!

What a week this has been!!!!  First all the snow, then all the sleet, then more snow!  And the cold!  Aaarrggghhhh!!!  I, like a gazillion others, am sooooo ready for spring!  I want to go to Amish Country and buy some chairs for my new front porch.  I want to sit in said chairs and while it's still a little cool do rug hooking, then as the weather warms up do cross stitch and then when it's really hot just sit out there with a good book and a popsicle and enjoy life!  I don't want to shovel more snow.  I don't want to keep bundling up in layer after layer of clothing!  I want to drive with my car windows down!  Whine, whine, whine!  :)

Meanwhile, I'm so close to having the quilts finished!  Yay!  Then I can dedicate my spare time to rug hooking!  Yay!!!

Take care everyone!
Char

Brrrrr!!!

We got quite a bit of snow on Tuesday.  Driving in was treacherous to say the least.  Lucky for me that I leave so early to come to work!  Then we started getting reports Tuesday afternoon that to the west of us they were already starting to get ice/sleet/rain/snow.  So I told me staff that if we get the ice storm they were predicting that if they didn't feel safe to drive in the morning maybe delay coming in or not come in at all.  Well, around 3:30 this morning the temperature rose to 38 and stuff started melting - the drip, drip, drip woke me up.  So all but one of my staff came in which I am very thankful for because otherwise I'd be sitting out at the front covering phones and hoping I could grab someone to cover for potty breaks and lunch!

Still working steadily on the quilt. Last night to my surprise I found out I'm much closer to being done than I had thought I was!  Woo Hoo!!!!  I wish I could be there to see their faces when they open their gift.  When I gave my grandson (my stepdaughter's son) a quilt for Christmas a couple of years ago, he opened it - looked at it blankly and said, "A blanket?"  So when I said it was a quilt I made he then thanked me for it but you could tell he just didn't get it.  Now my daughter's two sons keep asking me every time they see me when I'm going to make them a quilt (they're 6 and 10).  Now in the Spring I can move on to creating theirs.  I'm doing a rag quilt for them so I'll just cut my squares and batting and sew them with a large x a little here, a little there.  Then in the fall I sew all the blocks together, cut them, wash the daylight out of them and they'll be good to go for Christmas.  :)