Two Projects

Finally I have time for MY projects, The holiday sewing is done!
Now is the time for the '2000 stinkin squares' or nicer name of Milenium swap squares. They were swapped by the CrazyQuilters chat group in 1999/2000. I think they have sat in the box long enough and its time to getRdone.

Here's the start of the mess. They will be sewn on the Singer industrial model, made in November 1938. This is a rescued freecycle machine, repainted, plus a lil tune-up. The base box had broken hinges so I recovered with fabric to hide the fix it job there too !

These old classic machines have pretty details that our current plastic machines don't have . Neat !

The machine in the beginning was very rough, textured industrial grey machine. Many people would try to protect the integrity of the old details. Since there really wasn't much for savable paint details so I don't feel bad for changing the paint. I did save the serial number and the Singer medallion on the front. I added curly pinstripe decals and the local repair guy re oiled the mechanical parts.

I'll be testing her out on the 2000 Stinkin Squares that I'm sewing on tween now and NewYears
~ ta da ~~~ K

~~~hohoho and Merry Christmas to you and yours~~

Saturday morning at CampDavid

Last week we were up north to see the boys and their families, some shopping, some early Christmas.. some fussing over Carson & Raelle. a pizza B'day party . It was a busy weekend ! we also made a run to the mall with Aaron to pick up a ring ! With that we welcome Natalie to our crazy family.

On getting home Tim has fussed over a sore shoulder for a couple weeks, and went to the Dr.. along with an RX, she shut the PuterMonsters OFF ! (Lets just say this is torture for BOTH of us.)


While they are getting winter blizzard warnings up north.. Diva is snuggling in her home made cave here. I think she is part mole, she burrows in wherever she can all by herself.

Also while up north we visited with Nancy and gave her 10 quilts for her latest project planning an auction to raise $ for a health clinic. One snazzy quilt and 9 lap size Good Deeds. That will be my last donation for the year bringing the total for 2010 to 39. Thank you all for the help! I'm not done yet! Ive been rummaging in the color boxes and have plans for many more in 2011 .

Finally its looking a lot like Christmas around here. I had Tim help put our lil tree up ( to keep him busy/distracted for few) Then spent the afternoon making a list checking it twice and wrapping.

FWI:: for a peek at the Holiday 2010 Quilt.. peek at the big bags !

all wrapped up and waiting for the drawing.... stay tuned....

hohoho ~K

Country Quilt Project ~ the rest of the story..

Its a warm today ~ I don't think we will have too many more. I'm caught up on the HAVE TO DO things. The Christmas quilts are done , both of them. Nancy's auction quilt got hemmed last night. A wedding one is near done. I recvd a BIg Box of fabric reccently from Kay In AZ. ( Thank You kay) So we spent the morning in the garage basting five country tops. I really like Tim's help. That's a lot of pins. This week will be spent quilting on them!

Ive had a fun month of sewing finishing the Christmas quits, Heres the TEASE: I named them 'Frost on Franks Windows' LOL You figger it out !

I had couple days of shopping w the sisters for cruise clothing. We celebrated Shells birthday with supper out and drinks on Tim. ; )

I had a fun visitor of Sharonqlts, a great gal from the old chat room CraZyQuilTers. She was enroute from Va to Seattle. We talked non stop just like old times !



Facebook seems to be the new way to chat and keep up with those we know. Its also good for reconnecting with those we often wonder about. Its been fun talking to classmates and others with bits of our daily lives thrown in.

End of the Season

Its end of the season here. The news talked about a hard frost tonite possible 27*. So with a big sigh to the last of the garden goodies, we tore it all out. I tried to do a second season of green beans. Ill plant them bit earlier next year. These were planted August 16 and just now produced 12 beans. The small tomatoes will be added to a basket full on the counter.

Tonite is pasta using the majority of those!

I'm also keeping up with the Good Deeds. The top shown is the last of the colors purchased for Nancy's Auction quilt. Tis a good thing its not all assembled ! Tim found 3 errors I need to fix first.

All in a Day

All in a day ~ Heres my mess.. LOL some quilters have studios, I call that the house. I sew in many places, just bring the tv tray along. I cut on the dining room table. I iron in the spare bedroom. In the winter the quilt frame has couple different spots it migrates to also. ( I have a really good vacumn)

Yesterday I fussed with a pencil and math to design a border for Nancys quilt. After spending the morning stitching it together it just didnt have the 'framing abilty' I wanted in a border so I ripped it off,,~ frog stitch. ripit rippitt!~ This afternoon a new plan was sewn and added to her quilt. This top is done. ( a sneek peek on the chair)





ALL in a week~ Lin and Shell were here few days. After they left the place was way tooo quiet !! Just Diva and the humm of the machine. These 3 stars were finished this week. 2 are comission job. The star w red border is a GoodDeed. Also DO notice the neat Hawiian Pillow from Lin . Neat !

From my Quilter mail list they talked about old projects. I remebered I still had a box of 2 1/2" squares tucked away from swapping 'millenium squares' in '99. This box has moved with me around Ia to Chicago and around MO. Its all there, still in envelopes with a string around the box.

As I open the box and thumb thru scanning the addys on the envelopes I come to a folded up bundle of Xerox pages.. of a pattern called 'rainbow around the world'

It so happens ! today ! I also pulled a book from the shelf with that same pattern with thoughts to use this box of squares finally~ TEN yrs after the fact !

> coincidence??

the pattern is from a book printed in 1994 by Boonslick Trail Quilters a Columbia MO quilt guild in MO. I moved to Columbia MO in 2004. and bought the book at a show 2 yrs ago '08.

Guess what Ill be doing for the next big quilt??! I think 2010 is past due for a Millenium Quilt, I better get busy !

Country Project DONE

I'm calling this project DONE ! Five Good Deed tops were assembled from the bundle of county style fabric I had in a sack. The fabric donated by Dianna. ( My Avon Lady) The first 3 tops used the bulk of the various colors cut into squares along with setting triangles on the edges and borders. The 2nd cutting was using up all the last bits cut at 1 1/2 " and framing a large print. An easy use for small bits ! The 3rd cutting was use of a pale gold as sashing to 4 pillow panels, another easy finish !

All that's left of the original pile is 3 neutrals/muslin that will be put back in the box till next time.




Now I'm back to a bit of commission sewing, Nancys quilt and Christmas Quilts2010 !!
My machine conked out last week so off we went to Sears for a new one.
The machines earn their keep around here.

Country Quilt Project

My pretty pink roses bloom from spring till frost !

Country Quilt Project:

progress so far !

I have so far constructed 3 quilt tops from the Challenge pile. Also shown is the heap of trimmings, Not much gets wasted ! I have one more top setting there waiting to be put together. It will use 1 1/2 inch bits as a border around the larger print center. Whats left at this point is group of neutrals to be used for bindings. I did remove a star print from the beginning group to a group of brights back in the closet.

3 tops finished so far!!

close up of two of them.

I had challenged other quilters to 'Use it till its gone' on the stashbuster list, but no verbal takers. Oh well Ive got 4 tops near done , plus an Idea for a Bright one coming !

Oprah got me started on this with a show challenging folks to make a difference one by one. Ive had lots of help as it bloomed with friends & family getting involved in anyway they could. Recently I put the word out for backside yardage. I got good action back once more ! Thanks for the help !!

To date we have : 25 quilts out the door and a few on hangers in the closet .. 2010 ain't done yet !

28 in '09... 15 in '08... 42 in '07

Country Quilt Project

..... in the Beginning.........

I cleaned the closet.. and came up with medium sized bundle of 'country' fabrics. (Plaids, strips, old calicos, tan, brown,.....)

I have done this before with a 'blue' theme. that amounted to about 7 quilts that time.. another time I had a shoe box full of brights while stationed in a hotel in Okla for a month. I think I got 4 quilts that time.

This Country Theme stack contains many sizes, strips, colors, backgrounds,, everything from 2 inch to 2 ft in yardage. I have a list of possible patterns, Sunshine & shadows, 4sq window pane, Chinese coins, 9 patch chain. strips... all are very simply done but will surely use it till GONE~!

I'm also on an email list called Stashbusters that encourages us to USE the stash.... so here we go ... DareYA! Use it till its Gone !

July Projects

It Feels like summer is flying past us in a big hurry ! Maybe that's just the Iowa in me since it stays warm down here thru Sept. Ive been sewing right along with the Holiday Tops, making two of them this year. The pattern book is more detailed than I'm used to, but the end result is pretty snazzy.

Here are the tease pics:

Over the 4th we attended a picnic with people from Tim's church. Had a pretty good time. The MR of that house tills my garden. While at their place I admired their garden. huge! well done and surely producing many goodies!

The week following we spent in Iowa with a rented RV. Oh boy ... It rattled and banged and was a lumber wagon ! The interior needed more help than I could give it.

We had a Great time with my boys, their ladys, and Raelle & baby Carson, sisters and families, 'almost sisters', & Old neighbors. A busy busy week !

This is what I found when we got home ! Lots of garden goodies!

I canned several qts of pickles and 4 lil pints of beans, plus crock of beans for suppers this week. Yesterday I picked a basket of tomatoes for an Italian meal tonite.

I started a summer quilt top while camping, useing barbie pinks, Margarita greens, lemonade yellows, and beachy red. I'll work on that today while watching the rain water my garden for me.

~~enjoy the summer! dont melt !~K

June Projects

We have been staying busy here, our spring jumped into summer with the tropical style heat and humidity. but the Garden luvs it !! Soon we will have goodies from there.

Finally after my required sewing, Ive got the new canopy on the swing. The old one used to be pink, now faded to a moldy grey. YUK . I cut it off the frame and measured directly onto the green fabric ~ It Fits !

My Tx Lady I sew for has been in a rut with dark brown and black fabrics for her stars. This time she chose a jazzy blue with teal polka dots for 4 stars!

The Holiday Quilt for 2010 has begun !! I'm only 6 months behind ! so why not Do TWO ? and here is a tease of the colors and the Backside !

We also sent 5 of the previous GoodDeeds to Peggy in MC for a charity auction. I have few more in the closet finished, and a few more on hangers needing quilting, and manymany more in the Idea stage.
I'm not done yet ~~ but now its time for either the pool or a ride ~~ seeya~~

Busy Spring ! 2

11 more Good Deeds in the works. If you study the 5 broken star/ carpenter stars you will notice ONLY ONE is correct. We will call it 'variation on a theme' for the other 4.

to date 25 GoodDeeds

BIG Batting

Every now and then I buy BIG BULK Batting. I found a new source, sorta local and off we went on a road trip. Ive never gave much thought to how much room is in that lil Ford till now.. We folded seats down, we shoved!, we tugged !, and squeeze it lil more! till the door went shut ! wow!!.

Thats 75 yards of batting !

Busy Spring !

The Critic~ Diva

One of our projects this spring was a bike group ride supporting http://www.homesforourtroops.org/. A local soldier had a house built for him with all volunteers! This was exciting that we had bikes from around the state come ride across town with police back up closing the intersections, humvees with flags, public all along the route came out to wave. Once at the house location they had Senators, Vets, even bussed in his Troop Unit. The walls went up like an Amish barn raising with the shingles nailed down by Sunday ! It was amazing and humbling to be part of this project.

I figured a quilt would be needed in his new house.

Also this spring after connecting with some memories from High School. I got dared by Tim to DO some art... something~anything ~~

The box of pastels was found after to many moves and 20+ yrs in storage!

ta da..........................

just tip sideways : }

! ~ PEEK~!