Vintage embroidery quilt

While I am on vacation, I am working on a few unfinished projects.  Last year I made all of the little embroideries that would eventually be in this quilt.  Yesterday I started assembling it and today I will put the borders on.  There is a white border that is 8" which has some embroidery on it too, so I will do that tonight and tomorrow.  So far I love it.

Our puppy is now officially enormous!  She makes Penny look like a miniature!  Lily is the dog in front!

Christmas pillows and some easy to make lamps

I finished the pillows and have them all in use!  I am seriously finishing things that I start!  It's a good feeling that I hope I can sustain for a while.

The pillow here is from a cool disc that I got a few months ago.  You actually have to slice the stitching to create the fuzzy look.  I like it a lot

I made these lamps on the mantle last week.  You thread Christmas lights through the hole in the bottom, arrange decorations and other fun stuff in there and it's done, and pretty.

I did one in reds and whites and the other in gold, red and white.  

Well, Christmas is already over and done with.  It was such a lovely season, especially since we had snow several times.  Today I was planning to visit the quilt store, but when I got in my truck, the battery was dead.  Perhaps I should not have left the door open for hours so the dogs could sit in there while I did my chores the other day!  There is one quilt I hope to finish this week, so I will work on that today.

Christmas pillow with red ticking!

I am making Christmas pillows today for my dinner guests on Christmas Eve.  The other night I found these cute redwork designs and loved their simplicity.  I stitched out  four and this one goes to my dear friend Debbie.  The cool thing is that I fell in love with this red and white ticking fabric years ago and here it is being used today!  See, it pays to stockpile when you like something.  Anyway, I have it in blue and white and in green and white, so will use some on the other pillows when I finish them later.

Evy's quilt done and given to the quilter!

Sorry the picture is not very good but the quilt is large and the room was full of people at the quilt shop when I brought it in.  It was wet outside so I could not take a picture outside either!  When it's all quilted and bound I will take a good picture.  At least now I have my sewing time to make anything I want again.  I did some embroidery today and last night so might make pillows tomorrow.

Evy's quilt almost done!

Tonight I just finished putting the blocks all onto the quilt!  I have to add the white appliquéd borders this Saturday night.

Tomorrow I am off to Frost Valley for three days with our seventh graders.  Should be fun even at 1 degree!  I love this trip more than the 8th grade trip to Washington, DC.  Then it's only one week of school left for the 2013 school year.  Wow does that time fly.  I am looking forward to being home for 12 days.  My sewing machines will be humming away every day.  Plus I will read books and magazines leisurely!  That is not a pleasure I have much during the school year.  

The wedding quilt is coming together!

Today I got two sides put onto the quilt!  So far, it is all coming together nice and square!  The top and bottom rows are almost done too!  Yay!  Hey, I just realized I can see Kenny's shadow behind the quilt as he was holding it up for me.  I am so happy with the way it's turning out.  

Evy's centerpiece done.

All I had planned for this weekend is cleaning and finishing this quilt.  I did clean, but then we decided to put up all of our trees and most of the decorations instead, so I did get the center done and all of the flowers ready!  The center is 40 inches square!  Once it's quilted, I have some colorful buttons for the centers of the flowers.  Can't wait to see it done.

I used black thread for the appliqué which is often the way it was done in olden times.  I love he way it looks in the black.

I love,love,love my little tree in the kitchen.  It keeps my Hoosier company and looks so cute there.  The angel on top needs lights, but didn't come with any.

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I am hoping to appliqué the borders for the quilt tonight, then I can assemble the quilt tomorrow night and Tuesday if necessary.  Doesn't time just always go too fast when you need it most?

Centerpiece basket for Evelyn's quilt

Well, I have been working on the center block of Evy's quilt for two nights.  This is my first basket block ever, and I am happy with it.  It's about 24 inches square and will have flowers appliquéd in the white area.  I actually have to do that before I assemble any more of the quilt.  This weekend I will do that, assemble the quilt and appliqué the borders.  Tomorrow night I will lay out paper versions of both flower types and make my choice.  So far though most of my friends and my mom said the regular flowers would be their choice.  I will decide tomorrow.

Evelyn's wedding quilt is coming along...finally!

I had some blocks ready for this quilt from a sampler class years ago.  I still needed more, so this weekend I made the rest.  This is a fun block called Jacob's Ladder.

Lover's knot is one of the names for this pretty block, so I knew I had to make it.

My friend Sandy gave me some of her blocks for the quilt.  This Dresden plate is hers.  All I had to do was appliqué the center on.

Bow tie is one of my favorites, so it made the cut!

This block is called Hearts and Gizzards in Eleanor Burns' new book.  That book was the inspiration for this quilt.  I enjoyed this one.  I ran out of fusible interfacing, so used a dryer sheet for the hearts.  It will smell good anyway!

This apron block will remind Evy and Jon of me whenever they see it.  I still love my aprons and wear one every day.

I used to give the kids a cup of tea every night before bed, so this is a nice memory.

Ok, so I am sewing really slowly on these blocks...and I am trimming and trimming to be perfect when it's possible.  My friend Sandy liked to force me to show my backs back in the day (it wasn't pretty! Lol) so these are for her.  The sewing slowly part makes me think of all the times my friend Jennie watched her sewing machine hop all over the table when I sewed by her.  Colleen is smiling about all the trimming I am doing too!  I growl at her every time she says I have to do that step in my work...so all these fun thoughts made this more fun for me as I worked.

Now I have to decide if I want appliquéd tulips on the white borders or if I want little flowers and vines.  I have the accuquilt block cutters for either choice.  What do you think?

Hand embroidered harvest quilt

I started this quilt last fall and finished it today!  I actually did all the embroideries by hand in less than a month last year. The images are crayon tinted before being embroidered, which made it so much fun to work on!  If I have time his week, I will quilt and bind it so that it's totally done and can be used at the beginning of fall next year.  

Look at how big our puppy is!  She's 8 months old and huge!  She is so funny and quirky too.

Weekend pillow projects

This weekend I made a few Thanksgiving pillows out of embroideries I did last weekend.  

This one is for Rob and Ail on Thanksgiving when we have dinner together.

This one is for Evy and Jon.  I thought Evy would like the bright colors of the clothesline!

I had to iron this one after I did the embroidery, but it looks great in person!

Rosa Mountain House Quilt Retreat

A month ago was our yearly quilt retreat upstate in Windham, NY!  It was a spectacular weekend of great food, quilting and relaxing, which we all need at least once a year, right?  If you are looking for the best place to have a quilting (or scrap booking, or knitting...you name it)  retreat with friends, I think you should go to Rosa Mountain House.  Pat is the most gracious host I have ever known and she makes sure your weekend is everything you hoped for.  Follow this link to get to her website:

http://www.rosamountainhouse.com/

I have used the pictures she sent us to show you how gorgeous it is.  The two quilts are two of the three I worked on that weekend.

All of these photos are of her property and the views from her porch or front door.  

I quilted this on the first night there,so already felt accomplished.

I quilted this once I got home.  Just need a binding for it now.

Of course we already booked next year's retreat!  I think I will finish my Christmas quilts there next year since the past two years I worked on Halloween quilts.  It's great to get so much done in three days.