Crazy me

Got this out last night and while watching TV got the upper right star made. This morning got it all attached. Not sure where this is going, but my hands are busy working on it.

Today we have  yard work to do. My husband can't stand the smell of the weed killer we have. It is a spray on type and I'm the luck one to go out and treat the yard. We have crab grass, clover and dandelions, plus some other strange stuff. Then later we are going to help the ladies next door put some mulch down.

We have had such a huge problem with Ticks this year. My husband has found three on him in the last couple weeks. They did announce on the local TV that they would be bad this year. Also Fleas and spiders. Not any of it is my favorite thing out in the yard or the house.

The last day of the month. Where has the first five months of this year gone? It seems like it should only be April. I think because it was so cold early time slipped away from us quickly.

Hope you have a great weekend. Chris

9-patches are piling up

In my cutting session I cut a lot of 2.5 inch squares. So I started sewing 9- patches. I have 100 of them all sewn together. They are 6.5 inch blocks. Not sure what the outcome will be, but they are ready for a future quilt. 

This kind of sewing relaxes me and I like o have somethings ready in case the mood strikes me. I bought batting and thread on Monday and it came today. so now have some more parts to complete a couple more quilts. Need to get motivated. 

Maybe I will get caught up on my sleep and I will be all ready to go. Chris

Trying to find time

For so long I haven't slept well. Maybe 5 hours a night. Well the last couple days it has been more like 7 hours and I'm not up so early.

The sewing is taken a back seat when it comes to outside work and doing my errands. Today not a stitch was sewn. We had an insurance person here and I tried to pick up so it looked somewhat normal.

Tonight sounds like we need to run to my Mother's and do a couple small repairs. She is having issues with a turn blind.

Hopefully i can get back at my many UFO's and WIP's. What every you want to call them. The unfinished stuff. Hope you have a Good Weekend. Chris

Scrappy stars

My husband made a request. He wants this block made into a quilt for his Mother's adjustable bed we have. It is a twin. He wants it more like a bedspread so need to make quite a few of these. I have about 10 of them done now. I think it will take about 70 of them. I will add sashing to it also. They are 6.5 inches unfinished. The squares are 2.5 inches. 

The weather has been gloomy here for part of the day and sunlight off and on. Rain that gets the sidewalks damp everyday for about 5 days now. Just enough to make the grass go wild so you have to mow every couple of days. 

The A/C is on, but basically to get the humidity out of the house. We have issues with ticks this year so we are not spending as  much time outside as we have other years. Keep on sewing Chris 

Sewing Day I think

I made this about three years ago. I have had so many compliments on it and people wishing they had one. Well I have enough blocks to make another one. I need the sashing and borders. Which I think I have some sashing that will work. Maybe get another top done and ready to be quilted. Problem is I have about 6 tops done and none finished quilted. I like the process of the piecing better I guess. Do you prefer piecing or quilting? Chris 

Two mornings of slicing and dicing

The last two mornings I devoted about 5 hours to cutting up scraps. Some were smaller pieces out of the stash, but most were scraps that have been around for awhile.

The picture above is 2.5 inch squares and strips. This is 1 in. 1.5 in, and 2 inch strip which were leftover as I was cutting the strips from the pieces. They will get put in their correct sized tubs later this afternoon.

I had two tubs cut of 2.5 inch squares and it made these 70 9-patches that are 6.5 inch blocks. I usually use between 100 and 120 for a queen sized quilt. The tubs are about 1.5 gallon sized. 

Here is another handful that needs pressing and cut to work with the sizes I use. I'm trying to get more of it out and used up. I make strips and squares in different sizes so I always have something to work with. Have a Great Memorial Day and remember those that served and lost it all for our great lives we have. Chris

No cleaning and no sewing

As I was walking into the sewing room yesterday the phone rang. Well see who came to visit Grandma. Then last evening the phone rang again and guess who stayed overnight. Well Autumn Grace stayed with Grandma. Needless to say no cleaning no sewing. She is a good a baby but wants to do everything I do and somethings just can't happen while she is here. 

Today we are going to go and get some more mulch to finish up the last flower bed. Hopefully that expense will be done with until next year then. Chris

Time and past time

Yes the mess is back. Well to be honest never went away. I keep sewing and more comes out of the closet. The bags and baskets and tubs of fabric are everywhere. Today is suppose to be hot again so maybe will stay inside and try to get this room a run for it's money. 

I need to do some retail therapy, but will put it off. Need to order thread. I use the larger cones of thread for piecing and a couple colors are not enough to do a major project. I get my thread for piecing from Connecting threads. They have a sale on right now on thread, but it is the smaller cones. 

Got a different car to me and got all the paperwork and a lot of money spent in the last couple days. So the wallet is pretty thin at the moment. But at least it is a dependable car and it will work for me. Hope you have a good sewing day. Chris 

More playing with scrappy blocks

I had all these scrappy small blocks. So why not make them a bigger block. I made the crumb block into a crumb in a square block. Easy enough. Get your dimensions and start cutting. The crumb blocks have been made for several weeks just waiting for the right time to do something with them. 

I have more made since this picture was taken, but they are coming along great for maybe a twin quilt. With little ones around never enough quilts when thy are potty training. They are in the wash constantly.

As you can see I try and somewhat match the square triangles with some of the color in the crumb part of the block. Not sure I like the coral colored ones. Maybe a little to intense for the rest of the blocks. Maybe they will be a potholder. Chris 

When there are scraps make a quilt

Sleep isn't going on at my house so I decided to get the blocks I had done sewn into a top. We are going to be Grandparents again in September so why not a baby quilt? I tried to make it fairly gender neutral because we don't know what we are having. So a good press and sandwiching will happen sometime today. 

We need to get the last of the tomatoes in the garden today and do some clean up of a few weeds. More rain is suppose to be on it's way. We have had a strange Spring and from all the predictions with the weather issues going on it could be a thing we deal with all the time. 

News! I am getting a new -to-me car on Monday. My neighbor traded cars and the trade amount wasn't a fair price so he kept the car and we are buying it. My rust bucket van is 15 years old and also leaking oil. So time to make a change. I like the van for hauling things, but can't keep up with the care the van needs. This car is low mileage and a very fair price so it works for me. 

Now that I'm up going to get a bag of scraps out press and cut while sitting here. Take care Chris

You maybe saw this picture yesterday, well I made a couple more blocks and need to press them. I made the star part around and other crumb block and then I pieced together a couple more crumb centers. 

Someone I think it was my Mother said why do you hang onto all these small pieces. Well as you can  see they make more fabric. Basically the small pieces make a piece of fabric I then square up. As some one said with the price of fabric today you have to use all your scraps because they are valuable. Just like it was for our Grandmother's who used scraps in their scrap bags. Back then nothing was left out of a quilt. 

We are suppose to warm up today. We had snow showers here yesterday and a week ago we had the A/C on. Crazy Spring in NW Illinois. 

Lots of rummage sales going on, but I think I will stay home today and sew some more. I could have a rummage sale in all the storage bins and bags in my sewing room. Have a Great Day. Chris

Is anyone reading my blog?

I haven't had a post to any of my blog posting for over a week. Thinking of hanging it up.

Crumbs turn into Stars

Small scraps were sewn together with 1/4 inch seams, pressed and more added on. Then trimmed to 6.25 inch blocks. Should have been 6.5 but I slipped cutting the blocks. I made 2.5 inch flying geese segments and 2.5 inch corners. It is close to an eleven inch block when pressed. It is using the smallest scraps up and yet makes a good sized block which will make a quilt top faster. The bonus HST's or the cut off triangles from the flying geese I re-sized and going to make a doll quilt with them. Having fun! Chris

Not much good going on here.

I had a tub of 2.5 inch squares cut from scrap fabric. Decided the tub was overflowing and needed stitching. I got 70 6.5 inch 9-patches out of it. I picked them up and started sewing off and on for about 6-7 hours and ended up with these. Now what do i do with them?

They are darker in their overall look so maybe a masculine quilt? Maybe a couch quilt? Not sure but they are done this far. Going to do some cutting and machine quilting today. It is raining out and can't go out and play outside. Chris

I finally got off the computer yesterday and got to the task of stitching this sandwiched quilt. It was going pretty good and then the phone rang. I got a little girl for the rest of the day. She was good, but I don't get involved in sewing while she is here for now. Maybe later on, but she wants her hands on everything.

Took the typical route to quilt this. It is going to get used hard so might as well secure the best way I can. Lots of stopping and starting so many threads to bury as I get farther along. I think I will stop part way through and get some of the thread lengths pulled into the batting so it won't be to much when I complete the rest of the quilting. Hope you have a Good Quilting Day. Chris

Been playing

I got these out and started playing with these at night while watching TV. They are 1/2 inch on a side. You can see the quarter in the picture with the template. on the table. 

Yes insane, but maybe that is my sanity at this point. 

We went from heat all day to A/C. Which happens as lot in our neck of the woods. It has been so muggy out you don't want to stick your nose out the door. We had a lot of lightening and thunder and downpours through the night last night. Can't see the rain gauge amount because it isn't quite light out this morning. 

Stopped the sewing process and did some major housecleaning in one room and haven't gotten back to sewing much since then. Maybe today I will get the urge to get more scraps out and sew. Need to take time and dig in my bags and press and cut things up. Have a great day. Chris

Mother's Day outside

Crab Apple Trees in bloom. hope they hold up for a few days, but storms are coming and usually that ends the blossoms. They smell wonderful.

Tomatoes got planted and they are doing ok with being outside. We plant our own plants from seed inside the house during the Early Spring.

 No I'm not growing coffee plants. They are pepper and we place the coffee cans around then to shield them from the birds. They love to snip off the tender leaves. We have a fence around out garden because of rabbits everywhere.

This is always a lovely picture looking up into the tree and snapping a picture. Hope you had a nice day yesterday. Chris Off to do some sewing!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone

Hope all of you enjoy this 100th Mother's Day. I've been a Mother for 37 years. My Mother is coming for a cookout and she has been a Mother for 62 years. We don't thank our mothers often enough for all the hard work and love they have shown us through the years. Happy Mother's Day

All hand basted now

Finally about 11:30 am this morning got the rest of it basted. Going to get ready to quilt it. Here's the thing  "quilt as desired" Right how do I know which way I want to quilt it. I guess time will tell after I get some stitching in the ditch done. Chris

This is the problem

This top has been done for three years I think. It is 90 X 90 inches square. I had pieced it all together and decided I needed to get it quilted. I made the back and sandwiched it together with pin basting. As I was about 7/8 ths of the way done I found a huge pleat in the back half way back. Tried to adjust pins and it didn't work. So what was I to do? I decided I would hand baste it to get the excess out. Started on the side that was smooth and worked my way across.  Don't know if you can see the basting threads  on the surface of the quilt. 

You can see them better on this picture. I have almost all of it done, but it got to warm to sit and work on it last night. Need to finish it up this morning so I can get to quilting. These were leftover HST's from a couple quilts that had the same sizes in them. My Mom made a Broken Dish quilt and I had used the same size in a snowball block quilt. I had to add some to make it the size it is, but it is more masculine looking than some of the other ones I have made.

The weather went from heat yesterday morning at 44 degrees to A/C weather yesterday evening of 87 degrees. Suppose to be the same today.  So that is why it was to warm to work on this last night.

I dug in a closet in the sewing room looking for a piece of fabric which I didn't find, but I found 6 garbage bags full of fabric not all quilting fabric, but a lot of it was. I will never get caught up. Oh well going to sew some today and try and get this basting done. Need to clean up a mess on the sewing cabinet and bobbins to wind to get this show on the road. Hope you have a good sewing day. Chris

Not much to show for all my work

Yesterday decided to get a quilt sandwiched. It is about 90 X 90 inches square. Got the backing made and pressed laid out the batting and added the top. Pinned off and on for about 2 hours to get it pulled out and straight. Well went to roll it up to take it to the sewing machine and had a huge pleat in the back. Tried to take out pins and smooth out a had a bigger mess. Very frustrating on that big of a quilt. Normally I do in sections, but this was a top that was finished 3 years ago.

I went out and helped my husband do some landscaping well really adding mulch to an already made flower bed. Fixed dinner and then started in on hand basting the sandwich. As I do this I'm taking out the pins and drawing the back to one side and smoothing it out. Should have done this to begin with. I was to tired I did one row and part of another. They are large blocks to it will go pretty well if I do a little at a time.

Now I know why I do these quilts in sections and piece them together. I have one more that is all in one top and it is even larger. That will have to be basted by hand to get it smoothed out right.

Off and on today I will continue to work on this quilt. As I get some machine time on it I will take some pictures. So frustrated with it right now I was ready to throw it in the corner and forget it, but determined to get another finished quilt done I stuck with it.  Hopefully today will be a better day. Chris

Decided to do some sewing in the next couple days

I haven't done any garment sewing for a long time. I noticed a grandma on Facebook that had made several outfits for her young granddaughter and I thought well I do enjoy little ones clothes. We went to the store the other day and i found this patter with a couple different styles in one pattern so I thought a couple of these dresses would be fun. 

Then of course the fabric is there and this was cute and with her red/blond hair I thought why not. Besides it was on sale. I will make one outfit with the longer pants then I think a couple with bloomers to cover her diaper would be cute too. I took her measurements and it is close to the pattern other than her waist. Pattern is about an inch larger which is no big deal. They grow so fast and with the fullness of the skirt it won't matter anyway. They are fun to sew for when they are small because they just wear it. When they become older and have their own style it isn't as much fun to sew for them.

Woke up to thunder and lightening, but no rain. Need to get the garden planted in a few days. Hopefully we don't have to re till the garden again before we get to it, but my luck isn't that good. Have a good day. Chris

Sewing set aside

How can you get any sewing done with this little angel running around. I know I can't. She is a tease and is finding her own way. Has a temper and wants things her way. She then can run to you with a big hug and a wet kiss. 

I got a stack of blocks out I had made and let her look at them. She ended up throwing them down and walking on them. Decided she wasn't ready. But she loves a quilt. She holds one while sleeping and she prefers one on top of her if she is cold. 

She had her little cheeks stuffed with french toast. Her first time eating it. She really likes it. Today she goes home. We have had her since Friday afternoon. Daddy had a seminar he was giving and she couldn't be outside so we ended up with her to stay out of the wind.

I hear the birds outside waking up the morning. Have a great day. Chris