Aprons, aprons, aprons!

A few weeks ago, we made these adorable pillows in a class at Pieceful Quilting.  Our teacher, Colleen, came up with the design while she was shopping for a dress!  How smart is that?  It requires 2 inch strips and I had this jelly roll with Halloween fabrics, so I made it for Halloween.  My daughter loved it, so she will get to keep it now that Halloween is over.

 Just look at that great fabric!!  I love it.

I made quite a few aprons this fall.  This is a 50s pattern I got while in Washington state last summer.  A little more complicated than usual, but still pretty easy.  I made this for my friend Kathy who always does so much for my family and is very generous with her Vermont condo!!

The pocket is a flower!!  So very cute (and it was easy).

Same pattern, different fabric!  Don't you just love the jello?  I have this one hanging in my mud room with the other aprons.  I still want to make one more before I move onto another pattern style.  Maybe next week.

I made this at a class a few weeks ago.  It is a super easy pattern.  Evelyn picked out the fabric so I made it for her.  It just looks too cute on her.

 Don't you love the fabric?  I cannot believe Evelyn chose this instead of something more modern!  It made me so happy!

This is a cranberry cherry pie!! It was fun and easy to make.  I just had to make it look like a jack-o-lantern!!  It was gone in one night!

A Quilt for Michelle!

My friend Michelle from work was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring and is finishing up her treatment now.  She is expected to make a full recovery, which is such a blessing, but she has had a lot of trouble with the last few rounds of chemo.  I made her this quilt to keep her warm and cozy as she gets rest and healing before coming back to work this November. 

I had actually made this quilt as part of a mystery quilt series a few years back.  Even then I knew that I was making it for Michelle since it was called Mexico, and she is our Spanish teacher.  When she got sick, I decided it was time for me to quilt it and give it to her.

Last weekend Evelyn and Ali were baking together and they made these cake balls.  They were so delicious!  Ali put them on sticks after Evelyn poured melted chocolate on them.  They looked like a little bouquet when they were all done.  How cute and yummy!

You know how sometimes you have to be at the right place at the right time?  This happened to me last weekend.  I just happened to look up at the sky while I was cooking outside and there was this HUGE full rainbow over the eastern part of the sky.  Kenny was outside unloading the work truck and he got to see it too.  If you click on the picture, you will get an even better look and see the colors more vividly.  After I took these pictures, I had to run inside for a minute, and when I came out, it was gone.  To think that I could have missed such a sight! 

The sky over the back yard after the rainbow.  After the hurricane that blew through here last month, we have a few trees that have no leaves.  This is a walnut tree that looks funny because there are really only nuts hanging and not too many leaves.  The squirrels are having the time of their lives with these trees now.  They climb up, knock the nuts off and eat them all over the yard.

 Did I tell you that we already decorated the inside of the house for Halloween?  Yup..about two weekends ago.  I wanted to be able to enjoy it for a longer time, so we cleaned and then decorated on a Sunday evening a few weeks back. 

Millie really does smile in her sleep!



Millie smiles whenever she is sleeping lately.  Must be having good dreams!

I made this little quilt one night while I sat at the sit and sew at my favorite quilt shop!  When Kenny and I went to Vermont, we went to a quilt shop in Chester and I saw these little pictures on fabric.  Of course, since they were chickens, I had to have them.  Sorry about the picture being sideways, but for some reason, I could not align it correctly.  This was an easy little project.



Back to school!

My niece had a little baby girl this summer, so I made this cute girlie quilt for her! My mom and I went to some amazing quilt stores on Cape Cod this July, and I got tons of jumbo rick rack to use on my projects. The pink was perfect for this quilt.

I embroidered the baby's name on the center panel.

I am back to school already (after what seemed like a super short summer vacation) but it feels good to be working again and being with the little middle school kids. This year the kids are great and it looks like we will have a wonderful year.

Over the summer, I did do quite a bit of sewing, but no blogging. I have a quilt that I am making Kenny and it was my mission to get it done so that I could give it to the quilter who does my important quilts. While I do a lot of my own quilting, I only trust Debbie (Divine Quilting) to do the ones that I think will be real heirlooms that take me a long time to piece, embroider, etc.

Later today I will try to post a few of the other things I have done lately. See you soon!

My first ever pickle day~!

This morning I went out to the garden and there were a million sorta large pickles on the vine! I had just picked a bunch the other day, but did not do it yesterday. We had rain last night, so they were really ready today! So, I decided to try making kosher dill pickles for the first time. I searched around for recipes, but some books seemed a little complicated. Then I remembered that book called Country Wisdom and Know-How, which I use as a reference for everything all summer and fall. It had a super easy recipe for a million kinds of pickles and they were easy to follow. So, I packed the two dogs into the truck and went out for dill, mustard seed, garlic and a new jar-grabber (to grab the hot jars from the canning pot). Then it was time to pickle. Seeing the pretty green pickles in the jars on the Hoosier makes me happy. I hope they taste as good as some other pickles that I have gotten from my friends.

There is very little cooking time with these, so they should be crunchy when we open them in three weeks. So, besides pickles today, I had to do very little housework. The whole house is almost sparkly clean since I have been off from school. I did the bathroom upstairs yesterday and then I started my bedroom this morning. Ken is vacuuming the house now, and then it will be time to start dinner already. Then a little sewing time is in order. Oh, I have been listening to the podcast called "Within a Quarter Inch" which I started a while back and then had a friend remind me about. It is fun to listen to that while sewing and cutting. I can't get the Alex Anderson one to just play without downloading (it's still free though), so that will have to wait for a while.

Has it already been six months since I last posted?!

My friend Brad got married this June, so I made him and his fiancee this wallhanging. He is our band teacher, and the quilt has fabric with musical notes, and songs on it. I thought he would like it because the colors are bold and loud too. He did love it.

I did an all over loopy pattern with the quilting. This quilt was made during a mystery quilt session at Pieceful Quilting. We did not know what we would be making until we had all of the pieces made. The clues were that it was related to a famous singer. It turned out to be Kenny Rogers and the song was the one about knowing when to hold them or fold them (cards). The pattern for the quilt is called card sharks or something like that.

I was happy when he saw it and loved it. It's hard for a quilter when the gift is for a guy, especially one in his 20s. They don't always realize what goes into something like this, but he did. Oh look, Millie and Penny are sleeping on the couch together. Aren't they cute? Ok, they do this all of the time, but I still think it's cute!

My Aunt Ellen had a battle with lung cancer last year and now she is all healed!! She was an amazing patient who just knew she would be ok. Boy did that make it easy to help her and deal with it alongside of her. Anyway, she was a little baldie bean for a long time and now she has HAIR!!! Look at how cute it is!! It came in all curly, which is not her normal hair texture.

This is a quilt I made in a class last month. It came out so lovely!! Our teacher, Alice, is so patient and kind with people like me who kind of rush through everything. She made me slow my machine down and really make my points perfect. We had to cut and measure several times to achieve perfection. I had a great time and finally finished it today.

Here is the corner piece. I hung the quilt on the clothesline to take this picture so you could see the shadowing from dark to light.

I used only three colors, which I think made it work for me!! I loved making this project because it reminded me of my past, which many of my friends know about. However, I am working on a story for a magazing about the significance of the design, my color choices, etc. so will discuss it later! (Oh, a cliff hanger!!) A fall wallhanging just waiting for binding. It's been waiting a few years already, so I guess it's time!! I just found this when I was cleaning the sewing room in my attic. For all of this time, I was wondering where all my pretty fall wallhangings went. Finding them was like going shopping and finding something I just had to have!

We made this quilt in a class in the spring. Dresden plate is a great quilt block and this is a HUGE one. It will eventually be hanging in my kitchen between the doors. This one will be
quilted as I attach the dresden plate to the background. Right now it is all just pinned on.

Now that it's summer, I hope to keep my blog going. It really is a great source for me to see my work over the years. Even though I did not post, I was still sewing every night!

Holly Lane, some runners, and Calendar Girls Block of the Month

Holly Lane is a six month block of the month project that I started four months ago. This is a very pretty quilt for the Christmas season. The fabrics are so Victorian and sweet. However, it takes a long time to make each block because there are a ton of very little pieces! I usually cut and label each piece one night (or afternoon) and then put them together the next day. You have to be so careful or the pieces won't line up properly, which will make crooked houses. Only two more months to go, and it will be ready for quilting.

Yesterday there was a class at the quilt store that taught us how to make a table runner in 15 minutes. The two shown below are from the class. It is such a nice, easy runner that I will probably make a bunch more. They really are that fast.

Once a month at the quilt shop we go to a class called Calendar Girls. Each month you get a different pattern to make a wallhanging or a part of a whole quilt that will have a block for each month. I am making mine as a whole quilt. This is February. Very easy and fun, plus you use your own fabric. It is great and inspiring to see how everyone does theirs each month.

This was a fun vacation from school. Kenny and I went to see my parents in Florida and had a great time there. We go to go on the boat, Kenny went fishing with my dad and the weather was perfect. It was a nice break from the serious winter we have had here. Only another month or so and it will be nice here, but it was great to get a preview this week!!

another quilt done totally!!

Years ago, we did a Block of the Month at Pieceful Quilting that was so pretty and soft looking. I loved these colors and fabrics, so this past November, I put it all together and quilted it before Thanksgiving (actually, I quilted it the day before Thanksgiving!!). I did a cross-hatch design, but instead of straight stitching, I used my specialty stitches. I changed them every other line, so it looks like a sampler of quilting stitches too. If you click on any of the pictures, you can see the quilting more closely. There are NO puckers on the back or front of this quilt!

My friend, Colleen, at the quilt shop picked the binding out for me. I love it. I made the binding last week and put it on last night since I have been super busy at school doing the play and other stuff until this past weekend. Now I am free again, so will be able to come home and sew a little more each day.

The butterfly block is one of my favorites!! I plan to make an entire quilt with them this year. In the 30s and 40s, it was a common quilt pattern, so I have to make one for my collection!

My friend Debbie has never sewn in her life, but wanted to learn how after her mom passed away this October. Her mom was an excellent seamstress and Deb wants to sew in order to feel another connection to her. She cut and sewed this quilt top together using all flannels. She cut one for my son's girlfriend while she was at it. I will have her sew that one together too so we can give it to Ali this spring. Finally, after dragging Deb to all those quilt stores for years, she is getting hooked!

If there's snow, you might as well sew!

One winter when I was in Vermont, I saw these beautiful appliqued patterns for all of the seasons and I had to get a few of them. Last Saturday, Kenny was working on a puzzle at the dining room table, so I took this pattern out and started working on it. Applique used to be my favorite thing to work on (with my machine, of course! Even in the old days when I only had a Kenmore that did zigzag stitches!), but over the years, I have done it less than I would like. I kept to my promise and finished what I started!! It is quilted, bound and hanging already! I am in a great BOM program called Holly Lane. It is a six month program with all of these adorable houses and shops in Victorian fabrics! I have two done so far and I am pretty much up to date with them. Just to keep me in the mindset, I hang them up in my sewing room when I get them finished.

At our quilt shop in town, we are in a BOM called Calendar Girls. Each month, we will be doing a block that matches the season, so that we will have an all-seasons quilt when we are done. The cool part is that we have to use our own stashes, which will make them all so unique. I love the snowman! Of course, he will get button eyes when I have finished quilting the whole thing next year.

This is the second block of Holly Lane. The quilt really is beautiful when it's done, so I am excited when I get the kit each month.
A closer look at Winter's Song. I had a great time working on this project. I have a lovely one for Halloween, which I will make next fall.

We have so much snow outside that it seems like we are in Alaska. This week is supposed to bring more snow. It's like a blizzard a week this year. Won't that make spring more enchanting? I can't complain...I like the snowy winters. We still get outside and go for walks if there is a path at the refuge. Also, we have to bring firewood in, so Kenny and Rob make paths for us to walk outside! There is a path to my chickens, so at least I can get around. It does get slippery when it ices up at night!