Snowy Village

Today was a day of finishing up a few things. These Snowy Village blocks...and the train blocks....have been hanging on the design wall for quite some time. So, today I decided to piece them together.

The blocks are done on the embroidery machine. I used old feed sacks for the fabric. The middle blocks needs just a bit of border to fit the train blocks. I had some thin red and white stripe that worked well. And then had some larger stripe for the border.

Some of the train blocks...
The engine and coal car ...

Some passenger cars...

Some cargo cars.... 

There is a train station and a barn ...

A school ....

A cafe ...

Several other houses and establishments... and a bench to rest on ....

At least now I can say it is pieced. Hopefully will be quilted before I die. hahahaha

Vicki's Squares

I seem to steal borrow a lot of quilt pics from Vicki Welsh's blog. she has some cool stuff. This is something I saw a week or two ago.

I cut my squares at 5". I had some floral I wanted to use up, so that was the border.

I chose the colors from the flowers in the border.

I had enough, so i added another couple of rows at the top and bottom to use up all the floral fabric. Actually, I was short 2 floral blocks, so i substituted another floral....you can tell if you really look for it.

A great stash buster. Thanks, Vicki. 

I'm finished with January

I am playing along with Judy Laquidara's color challenge this year. January was Red. My mission is to use my selvages....the drawers are stuffed.

So, in January I made:

41 - 6.5" strip blocks....

111 - 6.5" I Spy blocks...

118 - 6.5" hexie blocks...

And, then used the small pieces left over to make 37 - 6.5" crumb blocks...

And now the red selvage bin is empty. YES!!

But, since there were still lots of days left in January once I finished these, I found a pattern called Lacquer Luster in a book called Great American Quilts of 2002, designed by Billie Tolmach from Mount Airy, Maryland....and made this....

I used strips...but not selvages....and it all went together pretty quickly. But, who knows when it will be quilted. haha

So, now that is it for January for me. I'll play with other things until February starts....it is an orange month. Don't have as many orange selvages.

Empty spool report for 2019

It was a slow year....haha  From July to December I emptied 41 spools

The first half of the year I emptied 51

For a grand total of 92 spools emptied in 2019.

Not my best work, but in my defense, the last 2 months of the year was spent clearing out my son's crap after he died suddenly. I hope to make better progress in 2020.

I've already emptied one spool for this year .... it's a start.

Penguins for Viv

My cousin has a 2 year old granddaughter that sleeps with a crib full of penguins....her favorite animal. So, I just HAD to make her a penguin quilt. I don't usually fold the back to the front for a binding, but I did this time. It makes the edges a bit wobbly so I sewed it twice..on both sides of the binding.

The blocks are machine embroidery

The panto was a swirly, that looks kind of like water.

I found this flannel blanket at the thrift store and knew i had to use it for Viv.

I also made a little toy for her...with a squeaker inside. haha

I used Glide Hawaiian Blue for top and bobbin thread.  It's about 40x50. I'll bet she will like it.

The Velour Quilt

My friend, Myra's, grandma.....who made the parachute wedding quilt.....also made this velour quilt. I thought it would be a lot of trouble, but it really wasn't.

It is 68" "square".  notice the word square is in quotes. haha

I first used black thread and stitched on each side of all the seams. Grandma had pressed the seams open.....and some things were coming apart....so, first i made sure i stabilized everything.

I did some feathers in the middle...and some lines.

And some ruler work in the squares around that.

And some good old meander in the red and green sections surrounding the middle.

Setting triangles got lines....kind of an inch apart....just eye balled it.  need cataract surgery, so the 'eye balling' is off. hahahahaha

and some simple cross hatching in the corner squares. White spots are where I marked with chalk.

The back is a muslin. it looks a bit 'dirty'...but that is because there is a black batting.

And...there is a black batting because the top has several moth holes in it and i tried to hide those.

I matched thread colors....Glide Ruby, Cobalt, Black, Jade, and Highlights Purple. Bobbin was Bottom Line Cream.

I used black for the binding.

All in all....I rather like it.

Fishing Game

There might not be any quilting going on around here....but that doesn't mean i'm not sewing stuff.

I saw something like this on Pinterest a couple weeks ago and figured I could make that.

I am sending this fishing game to my cousin's grandkids. 

Just lay out your 'lake'.... it's about 18" square. made of flannel...plain aqua color on the back.

Grab your fishing poles...complete with worm.  I covered a dowel rod.

And go fishing and see what you can catch. The worm and the fish all have magnets in them. If you lay your worm just right on the fish, it will pick it up. sometimes you can pick up more than one at a time.

The fish are just pieces of felt with the magnet in the middle.

The kids are 3 years old....this might keep them amused for a day or two. hahaha

I always seem to send things with many pieces.....sigh!!    Sorry, moms everywhere.