New Chapter, New Project

    My life has changed in the last couple of months.  I left my job of 27 years and I'm taking some time off before I look for work.  I've been thinking about what I want to do for the rest of my life and taking care of some things around the house.  It has been very nice.

      Last year I purchased a low end DSLR  camera and I've just gotten around to taking it out and trying it out.  I took pictures of some of the flowers in my yard.  I have lots of knock out rose plants, drift rose plants, and marigolds in pots. The last picture is of the yellow knock out rose and the fragrance on those yellow blooms is amazing.

    I have started a new quilt top.  I'm making a disappearing hourglass in black and white.  The black fabric is actually a polka dot which I love.  You can get a great video tutorial on the pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company on youtube at this link.   I love the MSQC video tutorials, they are so much fun.  Here is a picture of my first wonky block.  My measuring and cutting needs some work to get this block to look nice.  I'll be more careful with the rest.

   The work on the quilt top is going slowly, but I'll have more to share soon.

   

Sunday and Monday - Making Pillow Cases Days

      Last year I made some pillow cases for my room, but they weren't exactly what I wanted.  I settled for using fabric I could afford and some stash fabric.  I've been waiting a whole year to fix those pillow cases.  This time I used Slipper Roses in Pink from the Tanya Whelan line.  This is some of the same fabric I put in the Pretty In Pink Irish Chain quilt I finished a couple of weeks ago.  I love this fabric with the roses, the hint of green and the pink, ah, the pink.  I made four pillow cases using the youtube video tutorial by Jenny Doan at Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Here's a link to her excellent video.  I didn't use a contrasting fabric for the end of the pillow case but I did use a pink gingham (leftover from the quilt) for the two inch decorative flange and I finished my seams with a french seam because they are so cool to make and make these pillow cases perfect.

   Here is the finished product.

 

    Gingham flange.

    French seam make a really neat finish.

   I received the pink yarn for my fluffy afghan and I started it the other night.  So P.I.N.K.  Love it.

    Here is the start of the afghan.

   I was not able to return the embroidery software I purchased that I can't use, the on line store has a policy about not accepting returns on software, but I was able to sell it for a reduced price and get some of my money back and at least someone else will be able to use it.

   I'm in the process of sewing together my charm squares for my Christmas quilt and sandwiching the Union Jack block for quilting.