Merry Christmas

Here is a close up picture of some of the details. This is a Quilt As You Go. I made 90 blocks. It is 119X131 inches. The new owners of the quilt grew up in the 60's so they know about Pink Panther. I had to use that in the quilt as a  fun thing. 

It was so heavy I had to move it to the dining room table to do the final connections. You can see I have a 20 year old domestic machine. That was a lot of weight to support. The quilt is quilted with 60/40 batting. It weighs 15lbs. 

Here it is in all of it's glory. It is bound and delivered. He was thrilled with it and his Mother called me and was so nice to praise me on the quality of the quilt. Oh and yes he paid me for it in advance also. 

I hope all of you have your Christmas shopping and sewing done. I have been cleaning and doing some cooking in advance for Christmas Eve. 

We have our family gathering on Christmas Eve. I hope you have a very nice Christmas and enjoy your day where ever you live. I will see you probably after the first of the year. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Chris 

More progress

This is so big I had to take it out to the driveway to take a picture. It is about 117X120 inches. I am ahead of schedule, but it will be done before Christmas.

I hope you all are getting your sewing done for Christmas. I still have five sashing strips to join all the sections. This is a QAYG project. Then of course the binding. 

I always wash a quilt before I give it as a gift. This one will have to go to the laundry mat to use the bigger machines. 

I will get my Granddaughters today for a couple days and be on the road taking them back and forth to school. They live about 30 miles away from me. My son and his wife went to SC for a business trip. So a busy couple days going on in ,my house. 

Hope you are staying warm and healthy. Chris

Getting closet to being done

The blocks are coming together. It will be a kings sized quilt soon. This is a partial section. I find on the bigger sized quilts doing the QAYG method I can do them in sections and then add a larger piece instead of handling each individual block at a time. This will be about 117X124 inches in size when finished.

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I have used everything but the sink in the making of these blocks. They grew up in the 60's. The people who are going to get this quilt. So for fun I added a Pink Panther fabric. That is the fun of making scrap quilts no wrong fabric is used. 

I told the husband who is getting it made for his wife and he got a big grin on his face over me telling him about it. 

All straight line quilting. SID and cross hatching done, but it is sturdy and will hold up for the test of time. 

I know one thing after all this stitching I need to make a thread order. I have used a ton of light gray thread on this quilt. 

We are getting closer to the holidays and the wild shopping and decorating is all starting. If I don't get back in touch before Thanksgiving I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving.

We are having the meal here, but I am not doing all the cooking. My son and his wife are. 

The Holidays will not be the same from now on. They have taken the burden of all the prep and cooking off my shoulders. It hit between the yes when they said they would do it. I guess it is time to step back and let the younger generation step up to the plate. My Mother wasn't a cook so I have made Thanksgiving dinner since I was 10 years old. 

Hope you all are  able to sew this weekend. Suppose to be in the 40's here, but more cold weather is coming around the corner. Chris

Commissioned Quilt

My new neighbor saw the quilt I made for my Granddaughter and she fell in love with it. According to her husband that is all she talked about for days was that quilt. He asked me if I could make one for their King sized bed. 

I ordered the backing and the sashing fabrics and a whole roll of batting. I have been cutting and sewing off and on for a couple months.

My husband got sick and the days of sewing were not coming as often. I had the 16-patches all sewn and started with the 2 inch strips around the 16-patches. I still have a few more to do, but wanted to be sure I was not over saturated with to many blues of reds so I stopped and started adding the red/pink strip which is 1.5 inches wide. 

Today I started cutting the backing and batting pieces and thought I might as well sew some off and on to get this farther along. 

I moved a sewing machine into the dining area because my husband has been sleeping a lot. I couldn't hear him is he needed me. 

It has worked out pretty good so far. I have until Christmas to complete this. I would like to get it done before that time if I could. 

I hope you are not in the real cold weather with snow. We had frost on the roofs this morning. Suppose to get colder tonight. 

Chris

FYI in the States

This week is fire prevention week. Sorry to say their are wildfires burning out of control in the Western States.

Back to why I am posting this. My son is a firefighter and part of his training and also continued education to others is that your clothes dryer can cause a house fire.

My stepson came and didn't think we would have an issue until he started working on our dryer vent. To qualify why we needed help. My husband spent 2 1/2 days in the hospital with a lung infection from COPD. He came home from the hospital with Oxygen 24/7. So his abilities are not functioning well.

The Fire Departments educate people who have either natural gas or electric fires to clean out the back of the dryer and the duct work at a minimum of once a year. We have a very long pipe going out because of where the dryer sits in the house.

It has been two years which was our fault, but it is clean now.


The lesson in this is the Chief of a Rural Fire department didn't do his dryer and his house caught on fire. 30 minutes of maintenance can say a house fire it is worth checking into it.

I wash our regular clothes and bedding and also the fabric I purchase. I clean the lint screen after every load to help with the build up. If your vent cover doesn't shut or your dryer takes longer to dry that is a good sign it is plugged.

Hope you all will be safe after doing this cleaning on your dryer. There are companies that can do the job for you. Duct cleaners they are called if you need help in doing this. Chris

i am here, but not to organized

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The last time I posted I was making crazy/crumb blocks and QAYG method of quilting them. I have several of them done and did a lay out to see how many more blocks I need to get this into a quilt.

I started out with the connecting strips and decided on 4 in a row. Rechecked and decided on 5 in a row. So the rows are almost completed. This is going to be couch size for the girls to use in the bedroom on the twin air mattresses we have for them to sleep on when they are here.

I plan on borders to add to the length and the width of the 7X5 layout of the rows after they are connected together.

Fall is upon us. The trees are starting to change color here. The flowers are almost done for the season and soon the leaves will be falling. We have been cutting back flowers to get the beds ready for the Winter.

My Granddaughters will be starting school on Friday and the oldest started college yesterday.

The year is almost slipping away so fast that where has the time gone. I have three quilts on the go right now. My new neighbor asked if I would make a quilt for his wife for Christmas. So that is in the works and I will show you the progress on it in the near future.

Just a few more days to this month and then Labor Day. I hope you all have safe plans and the weather holds out for you. Chris

Way to long

I have  QAYG happening. I made crumb blocks and then I trimmed and sandwiched them and used the deco stitches to do the quilting. 

I decided I need twice the amount of them as I have finished to make a twin quilt.

Also have been fiddling with using up squares I have cut at 2.5 inches. I have 52 of the 16-patches stitched together. 

I had a request from my new neighbor to make his wife a quilt. I told it would take time and also money for fabric and labor. He didn't seem scared off. 

His wife saw the quilt I made for my Granddaughter and gave to her last month. He said that is all she has talked about was the quilt. So it will be a surprise. I think I need between 120-150 of these so just a dent in the overall picture. 

I have batting and the thread and the scraps so that is all paid for, but the backing is the next thing and sashing fabric. I am going to check out Quiltedtwins.com for backing. They have the best price and tons of variety. $8.49 a yard at 108" wide. Shipping is $6.00. They carry over 200 different prints in wide backings. 

To the reason it has been so long. Jeff my husband is going through another phase with his journey with Parkinson's disease. He is weaker and thinner. Each day gets harder for him. So we go with the flow. If he can do something great if not we put it off or I do it. 

I try and chisel out some time for me which is hard some days. I have pulled out some counted cross stitch to sit with him so he can not feel so alone in the evening. Plus it is therapy for me. 

Hope your days are going well in all this heat we had and the approaching days of Fall. Chris 

qayg

7 quilts done since October

This is the latest scrap quilt completed. It is a queen size.  9-patches surrounded with 1.5 inch strips then a strip of 1 inch cranberry solid and sashed with navy mini dot.

This is quilt as you go method I found on You Tube.  This is the back where I connected the quilted blocks. This is the 7th quilt since October.

This is for my 20 year old Granddaughter. She is married and she called and said her twin sized childhood quilt was in shreds. So I had this in the works with it being intended for her. 

I offered to mail it and she says she is coming home soon. So I will have it laundered and all clean when she does make it. She has seen a picture of it and she says she loves it. she is a blue freak so the Navy sashing and the navy backing all fall in her scheme of decorating. 

I have other piecing I am doing using scraps. Never can use them all up if you know what I mean.

Hope you have an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. Chris

Been a while

I have been sewing just not a lot of anything different. We wallpapered and it took time away from sewing also. The paper went up in my living room and hallway. 

These are 6 inch string blocks made with 1.5 inch strings cut from neutrals I bought. The online store is www.quiltedtwins.com. They have Kaffe and Grunge at reduce prices with $6 shipping. Great service. Plus they have close to 150 different 108inch wide backing fabrics at $8.49-$10 a yard.

I bought three separate half yard bundles and cut strips off of the pieces and started stitching

They will be used with colored string blocks to make stars with string blocks. More blocks need to be made.  

This is the blocks I had a stack of in the last post. I have been connecting them into rows and not the long rows are getting sewn together. I think you can see the QAYG method of stitching I did on the blocks for quilting them.

Here are the 4 of 10 rows sewn together with the long rows. This will be a queen sized quilt for my Granddaughter who turns 20 next month. I need to get this done because I have to mail it to KY. 

Hope your weather is warming up. Snow/rain mix is expected in a couple days. In the 70's today and the sun is out. Chris

I am here I guess....

No it isn't that bad. To qualify the statement we have been wallpapering our living room. So things are torn up and out of place.

I want to sew. but my husband needs help with doing the papering. He is doing the ladder work and I do the pasting and clean up. Which we move things and then paper and go behind to replace the furniture. Move to another section.

Off and on a few minutes here and there a few seams or cut some sashing pieces, but not a lot of sewing happening.

We have had some days finally of warming. The rains have started and flooding around our communities. We are not in a low lying area so we are ok unless a huge huge amount happens in a very short period of time.

I am still working on these blocks. It is a QAYG method. I have 100 of them quilted and trimmed and need to make 10 more for length. They are in the works.

I am starting to assemble the blocks into rows. So the few minutes here and there are connecting the blocks together with sashing pieces.

I have five rows of 10 blocks sewn together. It is grounding me with all the mess going on. As we get older the mess effects us more than before. Hopefully in a few more days we will be close to finished. 

There has been a debate on other blogs and Facebook about Joann's and their changes. Many like the Warm Companies products and Joann's has chosen to replace with other battings. I got an email on sales with Joann's yesterday and they are now carrying Pellon Battings and have them on sale online only for 3 days. 

I recently have used Pellon battings. They are close to The Warm Co.'s Warm and Natural products. I finished 4 quilts for Christmas gifts. It seemed to sew up great on my domestic machine. I have heard others with long arms do not like it. Have you heard any comments on the use of this product?

I think we all have a favorite product that works for our needs. Warm and Natural is still available through Walmart and online. 

I have use Hobbs 80/20 battings and like them, but they can be distorted with packaging. I am not every making any judge able quilts so I use what I can afford.

Let me know if you prefer a batting and why you do. Thanks. Chris

cleaning up sewing desk

I had a pile of strips that had been cut off of the width they were cut from. I started cleaning up the sewing desk and thought don't throw back in the basket use them up. 

I then made strip sets out of the 1.5 inch strips and pressed everything well. I then diced them up.

I started pairing them up and made 4-patches. They are small, but they will come handy in making a scrap quilt.

No I don't have a plan yet, but I am sure they will come in handy shortly. Scraps create scraps so I used the whole width of the strips by using as a frame for a block and then strip sets from the leftovers. 

Hopefully you can find a use for your scraps or pass them onto someone who can use them.Chris

Things are happening

I have been quiet, but not just sitting. 

We are wallpapering our living room/dining room. Lots of furniture to move and also cleaning to put back everything. 

We living in a manufactured home and the wall board is put on with strips or batten strips. So to eliminate those we chose a textured wallpaper that can be painted. It looks like the new technique used in texturing drywall. 

When you have doors windows and electrical out lets to cut around besides a fireplace that is rough stone it all takes time. Plus we are older and we hang one piece and rest. LOL

I have been working on trying to get these blocks done. I have 84 quilted out of 100. The rest of the blocks are in the process of being made. I have the centers made and waiting on pressing and then the cranberry strip needs to be sewn on. Hopefully this next week a couple good hours of work and I will have them done.

Then the fun begins. I have to lay them out to get the layout how I want it and then start connecting the blocks. I don't have a design wall and with them quilted I fon't think the weight would hold them to the wall without pinning them. 

We have had such a cold and hard Winter and I want this one done so when it does warm up I can be outside enjoying some of the nicer weather. 

My husband has a Dr's appointment this week so it will take some time out of my sewing, but it is anual checkup so we have to get it in. 

As I was sewing and cutting strips to go around the 9-patches I hade smaller strips piling up on the sewing desk. I decided yesterday to start making strip sets with the strips so they could be cut into a usable size. I think I have a 100 little 4-patches made with the small 1.5 inch strips. I have to snip the threads and press them. Not sure for certain where they will take me, but my mind is wandering. 

I can't throw away anything, but eventually they get use for another quilt. 

I hope this finds you well and warm. We are -7 degrees below zero this morning. Yesterday was horribly windy and yet Spring is coming they say. Chris

Some quiet sewing going on.

I have been slowly stitching on these blocks. Got the cranberry borders on them and then QAYG done. I now have 40 of them quilted and trimmed. 60 more to go. The quilt will be about 100X100 inches.

They are a simple 9-patch sashed with a strip and then sashed with the cranberry strip.

This is the backing on the blocks. You can see the stitching lines I am using in the quilting of the blocks. 

This has been fun because I am using the 9-patches I had stitched together. I do those as leaders and enders when sewing on other things. The other leaders and enders I make a lot are the string blocks. They use up pieces that are to small to make anything else with. 

We have had such awful Winter weather so staying in is our only option. I just heard a rumor and I hope that is just a rumor that over the next week we will receive about 30 inches of snow. Yikeeesss!. The quilt will get done in that case.  

Hope you are warm and safe. Going back to quilt some  more Chris

Life has been happening along with the weather

This is where I am going with simple 9-patches. I bordered them with a color strip and then a small cranberry strip

I am QAYG these blocks. They are easy to handle for me with this method.

This shows the quilting design I am using on these blocks. It is continuous stitching and is easy to do.

The blocks are piling up. They are 9.5 inches and it will take several to make a queen sized quilt.

Found a new/old tool to use to press at the machine. It is my wallpaper seam tool. It was in with my wallpaper tools. You can buy a new one for lots of money, but this works for my budget. 

The weather was awful this last week. Days went buy when we didn't get out of the house because of 56 below zero wind chills. Finally Saturday I was able to get to the store and stock up. 

Today the snow is melting fast, but the temp is falling. Freezing rain predicted with snow coming back on Tuesday. Live in Illinois and 20 minutes later the weather will change. 

Hope everyone is surviving this seems like the longest Winter. Getting closer to spring. Chris

Still playing

I got out the 1.5 inch tub with the strips that are cut already. I had two things in  mind to use them for. So alternating which goes under the needle next.

I am making string blocks and so this was an obvious choice. I cut my foundation pieces and started with them.

Then I needed to sash these 9-patches so it had it's turn under the needle. I think I have 89 of this 9-patch sashed now. Did a lot of pressing, but went in and sewed for an hour or two each session. 

My son had an appointment last week to go back for a post treatment checkup. The Doctor's say he is cancer free. They are amazed at how well he did through the whole process. I am relieved and felt more like sewing. 

The snow has been another factor. We received about 5.5 inches over the weekend. We finally got some Winter weather. I think it is here to stay now. More snow coming over weekend. 

Hope you are warm and enjoying your day. Chris

Scraps flying everywhere.

I hadn't done any piecing for months. I love to piece so I got out the fabric scraps and the strips and started cutting.

This is a pattern by Becky Tillman Petersen from Quiltedtwins.com. It is called Orbit. On her blog she has free patterns. These are 12.5 inch blocks and are set with sashing and corner stones. These are going together pretty fast being the size they are. 

I have half of the blocks stitched. I had to put things away because the girls were here over night.

Here are the three Characters. They are a lot of fun. They got matching outfits from me for Christmas. I won't be able to do that many more times. 

The baby is almost two. In a couple days and she is a little character. She always acts up when pictures are taken.

See what I mean. She is a hoot.....They got Wonder Woman pj's for Christmas and she is a stinker and wouldn't show her face. LOL

I had the girls New Years Day overnight. Daddy had to go back to have a PET Scan. Preliminary reports say no cancer, but side effects of some swelling and maybe thyroid issues. So he has another appointment next week sometime.

We are thankful that his health is as good as it is and the side effects can be dealt with. Hope you have a Happy New Year. Chris