Older Quilts

Since I am going to be a guest blogger on quiltinggallery in the next few days, I thought I would post some of my older quilts. This is still a favorite, called Rachel's baskets (how appropriate!).  One of my firsts.  Funny how a quilt attracts a cat. I hand quilted the baskets, got tired of that, and machine quilted the log cabin blocks.  I'm not much about following the "quilting" rules.

This is a sweet little thing I made for our bathroom.

This was made from a block of the month. I think it was called American Heritage.

And here is a block of the month called Back to Nature that I did last year.  I made the pillow shams to match using Heather Mulder Peterson's pattern.

Jesse's catch of the day

Notice he is inside the screened porch.  That means Jesse had to have brought him in through the cat door.

Our favorite furball

The last of the day lilies

Simple pleasures.....

Spring Fling Quilt - finished

Spring Fling Quilt

Woodpecker

I zoomed in on this little guy this morning.  It isn't that clear, but you can see his little red head!  We often hear them pecking away in our woods.

Supper

Yummy....

Working on the binding.  Do any of you use these little gloves?  The only time I use them is when I am putting on a binding.  They do help keep my hands from slipping.

Ready for Fall

I am thankful that this weekend we are not like so many who are in the path of Irene. We would love a little rain.  I am ready for this hot, hot summer to be over.  My outside ferns are dying early.  The first time in 8 years that they have started dying before cold weather.  We usually get to enjoy them up to Thanksgiving.  I brought out some little silk mums for the outside table.

I got the new door curtains up today.  Hubby thinks they are too drab.  I like the neutral.

I have been searching for some way to put up a clothes line on my deck.  I didn't want to put one in the yard to have to mow around and I wanted something easy.  I finally found an umbrella type, that can be put up when needed, fits perfect on the deck, and can really hold a lot of laundry.

The Quilt That Shrank

The morning light seemed good upstairs to show more of the quilting on my x-favorite quilt.  It shrank up when I washed it and now it is too small for our bed.

The hubster

The hubby with the "Golden Doodle" that lives next door.

What a sweet looking picture.......(he posed)

Spring Fling Pantograph

Started the quilting.

Grandma Mary's Five Patch

The original pattern was only 61 x 72.  I ended up adding another row of blocks and an 8 inch border.  Mine ended up about 91 x 91.  After my last summery quilt shrunk up and is now too small for the Queen bed, I was determined to make this one big enough. Now I get to decide how to quilt it.  Would love to custom quilt it, but just not sure yet.  You can find the pattern here.

I used mostly scraps, plus a few 1/2 yard cuts I purchased last week at our local quilt shop sale.  Yesterday, I found the cute border fabric at JoAnn's on sale for only $2.49/yard.  It seems to be a good quality fabric.

Saturday Sewing

A nice day.  Walked on the walking trail listening to some Nicole C. Mullen, Anthony Evans, Allen Asbury. Great music.  Then worked on this.

Also did internet research on cameras.  My little "freebie" fujifilm (work anniversary gift) just doesn't make the quilt photos I would like to see.  They aren't bad, but I can tell from other blogs the difference in good photos and great photos.  I'd like to take mine up a notch.

Another Summer quilt

After I gave up on making a bed skirt (I need to stick to quilting), I started another summery looking quilt. Our local quilt shop had a sale today, 25% off all fabric on bolts.  I brought a few 1/2 yard cuts home.  I searched through my stash for some bright colors and started cutting.  I had to put a few of these together tonight, although you can't really see the overall pattern with only those four blocks.

  It is a simple pattern of 2 1/2 inch strips and 6 1/2 inch squares. Much like the one I just finished.

Supper

Kabobs!

And Jesse enjoying the nice weather outside near his daddy, while the kabobs are cooking.

I guess letting his leg hang off feels better on his sore knee.

By the way, any of you readers ever made a bedskirt?  I am going to try it tomorrow......

Jesse's Knee

The vet says most likely he has a torn ligament in his knee.  He has been limping around for a couple of weeks, but it really hasn't hampered his active lifestyle much.  Our choice was x-ray and then possible surgery (ching, ching!) and then he still may get arthritis, or give him an anti-inflammatory medicine for a few days and see how he heals on his own.  I voted for that.  Either way, he is probably going to get arthritis in his little furry knee.

Dry Thread

Yes, dry thread.  That was the cause of all my problems on the machine last night and today.  I should have known.  It has happened before.  The spool of thread was less than a year old but it does get hot up in my sewing room. This is the little chair quilt I was trying to make for my friend. 

I bet I had it on and off the machine about 3 times. Tried to quilt it on my little one, but that was unsuccessful.  After my mom mentioned the thread may be my problem, I changed to another color and it worked, but this was after I already had the straight lines stitched on the little machine.  I just hope it will work for my friend's husband, and will keep his head cool when he is in his leather recliner.

Arrrgggg!

The top thread keeps breaking on my quilting machine.  I hope the timing isn't off ---I don't know if I can fix that.  I've always dreaded the day when something messed up on it.  Even though I took a maintenance class, that was two years ago, and it has been humming along fine with no problems.

And I was working on a special little chair quilt for my friend's husband who is battling cancer.....