String Quilt Top Finished

 I spent last evening removing the paper towels from the back of 56 - 10" string quilt blocks while I watched some television.  It took me a few hours and this is what I had left when I finished:

   Today I put the quilt top together.  Here it is:

   This one is just as pretty and colorful as the one I made last month.  I'm so glad I'm keeping this one.  I have lots and lots of strings left and I will probably make another one of these at some time in the future but I have two other quilt projects waiting to be started, so I will be starting those soon.

   I ordered the backing/binding fabric just a few minutes ago from Fabric.com.  I bought 5 yards of Kona Cotton in Honey Dew.  This bright yellow green will be a really nice solid frame for all this color.  The row of string blocks to piece into the back is done, so I'm ready to get this one finished.

 

Little Girl Quilt Gifted

   So when my cousin's little girl turned one I made her a couple of gifts.  One gift was a quilt.  I bought a small quilt top from an ebay seller for $8.00.  I added the large pink rick rack to frame the inside of the top, I backed it with the pink daisy fabric in the picture below, did the quilting, and bound it with the pink daisy fabric.  It was a simple, fun project.

   This is the fabric I used for the back and binding:

      The second gift was a knitted toy.  I knit her a toy from the Big Book Of Knitted Monsters, by Rebecca Danger.  I can't find a picture of the finished monster and I don't remember which monster it actually was, but I do remember the pattern was easy to follow and it was a fun knit.

Favorite Baby Project Ever Made

   My cousin had a baby five years ago and I crocheted a baby blanket as one of her gifts.  I wanted a blanket that was solid so it would last.  I found a basket weave crochet pattern that I liked.

    I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease yarn (recommended by the pattern writer) which was a 50% cotton and 50% acrylic blend.  I really like that yarn, it was great to work with.  Cotton Ease is now discontinued.  The Lion Brand website says Cotton Ease has been replaced by a cotton yarn called Cotton 24/7, but Cotton 24/7 is 100% cotton, not a blend.

    The link to the basketweave pattern is here:  Crochet basket weave baby afghan pattern.  The pattern was easy to follow and once I got used to doing the forward and back post stitches it worked up very quickly.  The post stitches do tend to eat up a lot of yarn so make sure you buy enough for the size afghan you want to make.

   Here's a picture of the afghan I made.

Floral Square Quilt Is Finished.

  Here it is.  I did all straight line quilting on my Janome using the dual feed foot.   It was super simple.  I did have to adjust my tension to 7 on the dial to get the needle tension to work nicely.  If I leave the tenion dial on Auto I get loops on the underside of my stitching.  Weird.

     The front:

   The back:

   I'm currently working on my secret project which I won't be able to share until it is gifted.  I'll be back as soon as I can with projects I can share.

Saying Goodbye to Elsie, the Singer 401A

   I received Elsie from a friend about 4 years ago who asked if I wanted it and I immediately said yes.  I love vintage sewing machines.  This machine has a lovely history.  My friend's mother bought it new in 1959 with inheritance money from her father's estate.  She made dresses for her four daughters with it and my friend learned to sew on it and made her own clothes until she graduated High School.

   While we were loading the machine into my car, my friend say that I should never sell it.  If I ever wanted to get rid of it, I should contact her so she could take it back.  I agreed.  

    At the time my friend gave Elsie (I named her after my friend's mother) to me, she was moving in with her daughter and downsizing.  The machine was out of its cabinet, (the cabinet was taken as a piece of furniture by a family member, whereabouts unknown) kind of moldy, missing the power cord, with rusty attachments.  I had the machine serviced, bought a new power cord, and cleaned up the attachments.  But I never really bonded with the machine.  I used it about 3 times.  I think the reason I never bonded with the machine is because it was never completely mine.  It always belonged to my friend.

   So I emailed my friend today and told her I needed to get rid of this machine for space and I would gladly meet her halfway (about 100 miles) and give it back to her.  I haven't had a response to my email yet.

Disappearing Hourglass Quilted Stand Mixer Cover

      I've been wanting to make a disappearing hourglass block since I saw the video by Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company demonstrate the process.  I even bought fabric to make a quilt top with this block in the future.

     Yesterday I decided to make a stand mixer cover to replace the one I bought many years ago.  I was only going to make the blocks and jimmy up the cover with some white borders, then I thought the whole thing would look better quilted.  So I put borders on the blocks, added some white fabric at the top to pull the two blocks together.  I used the white fabric as backing and leftover batting from my last quilt to sandwich it.  I quilted it with straight lines and put the blue binding and blue ties on it.

   I really like this stand mixer cover and it was the perfect project to get me out of my daylight savings time slump.  Now I can move on with my vinyl pouch project.

The Back Of The Christmas Quilt Is Done

   I finished the back of the quilt tonight.  I managed to have just enough of the light grey fabric to make this.  I don't know how I did it because when I bought the grey fabric I had no idea what size the top was going to be.  I probably couldn't get this lucky again.  I say lucky, because the grey fabric that I bought to make this side is not available now.  I was told this fabric would not be back in stock until mid-March.

Here is the back of the Christmas quilt.

   I ordered the batting for this quilt today.  I should have that in about 10 days.  So this quilt will not be finished until March.    While I'm waiting for the batting I can work on a few other projects.  I want to do some machine embroidery (I have a couple of St. Paddy's Day designs for dish towels), some vinyl pouches, and a tote for a birthday present.  Maybe I'll get my buttons to finish my pink flower wall hanging.  I also have an idea for a pink granny square pillow cover.

Granny Square Quilt - A Finish from Last August

         I had a couple of jelly rolls that I bought for DD.  I thought she might like to make herself a quilt at some point.  She told me she doesn't have a lot of interest in making a quilt (she enjoys making smaller, quicker projects) so I told her I would make the quilt for her.  The jelly rolls were called "Wilderness" and I bought them at Connecting Threads right after I started quilting in 2012.  I knew we needed some additional  yardage to go with the jelly rolls so I asked her for her input and she suggested the cream and the turquoise solids.  To cut down on the inevitable duplication with the jelly roll fabrics, I also added some of my stash that I thought would look good.  I picked the pattern, the good old granny square.  You can see I quilted it with my walking foot in a grid pattern.  The back is a dyed muslin (she picked that fabric out as well) with blocks I made especially for the back pieced into it.  I used the dyed muslin for the binding as well.  Of course, she loves it.  So glad I made this for her and she was able to help with the planning.

Crazy Backward Christmas Quilt Making

    So here is the back of my Christmas quilt.  Yes, I started the back before I sewed the top together.  I had these charms squares from the Blitzen line in my stash and I wanted to use them.  I bought some Mirage fabric from Connecting Threads in Silver Lining and I made four patches with the charm squares sashed with the silver fabric.

  I'm working on the top and should have that together by next weekend.  After I figure out how big the top will be I can finish piecing this back to fit it.  

  There's no rush to finish this.  Christmas is a long time off (for now).