Several Things

 Hi Everyone!!

It's been quite awhile since I've sewn anything so when I decided to do so my Janome wouldn't cooperate. In fact, she let me know by making very weird noises and the needle wouldn't raise or lower. So it was time to take her to get a check up. I packed her up and Mr. Cowboy & I drove over to the nearest Janome "fabric" store (65 miles away) to drop her off.  Three weeks later I got her home and discovered that whatever the thingy that the feet would fit onto was missing. In fact I had taken it off and put it in a safe place.....can you see what's about to happen her?!  I looked high and low; near and far; left and right....to no avail. 

Plan B formed in my head....I called the nearest Janome parts place (80 miles away) explained what I'd done and what I needed......he guy was very nice as I tried to tell him what I needed.....finally, he did understand ( I shopped a bit longer while on the phone...ehehehehehehhehehe). A few days later the part arrived along with some other things I "really" needed.  So now I'm back in action.

Whew!!!! This is a quick top I've had for years and decided to all a border to make it bigger. It's a bit busy but I like it.  Stay turned for the end result.

In this photo I'm sifting my old potting soil. This saves a lot money each year.

Surfing the Internet, I came across this brand of cucumber seeds......I don't have good luck with cucumbers so why not try this one out.

3 days in a wet paper towel in a dark place and wow, roots sprouted.  So far so good.

Finally, I'm going to plant the cucumbers in "grow bags" which I can keep on my back porch. We'll see how all this turns out but it's fun so far.

Starburst

It started with doodling and thinking about all the half-square triangles in my stash of UFOs.

I've had this doodle for years and have used it many times so why not for one of my helping hands projects.

The squares I'm using measure 4 1/2 inches but as we all know you can make your half-squares and solid squares any size you require.

 

I love this design but it needed something.....

a border, of course.

I've had the blue floral fabric for a couple of years at least and this past summer I had cut it into long 7 1/2 inch strips so that the design could show. It has hung in my sewing room since.

What a wonderful way to use it.

This whole quilt top took two days to make. Had I not had to cook, eat, do laundry and other housework, surely I could have finished in a day.................LOL

This quilt measures 45 inches square and is going to the

helping hands group.

Motivated

I am motivated to "clear" out my UFO boxes. There's just too many things that I've not finished or forgotten about. So this year I'm bound and determined to either make a dent or totally finish putting together those projects.  Of course whatever fabrics I was supposed to use have been used in other quilts and I'm not buying any more fabric until I get said UFOs done.....so it's off to the old stash for everything.......LOL

The first quilt above came from strips that I had sewn into tubes a couple of years ago and never got back to. It was easy to unsew each tube to sew into a staggered design.  I added the green fabric because I liked the way it looks with the black/white/red. That was going well but when I laid it out and stood back, it needed something...what? I didn't know and went to bed. As we all know, sleep lends great ideas.......I added an ABC font and now it's complete and I love it. I'm donating a lot of my UFO tops to a local helping hands group and this little quilt will make some child smile.

The next quilt top you've seen a couple of times before. I've just added another border from my stash and will possibly do another design around that......this will take some thinking on my part which not amount of sleep will help..... so cross your fingers....hehehehe

 

2013, What a Year!

What a wonderful year 2013 was.

I got into making mug rugs and could not stop myself. I loved making and giving them away.

I made a few quilt tops and actually machine quilted a couple.

This past Autumn, I was inspired by a little boy whose mom was worried about his inability to speak. One day, and I'm not sure about the entire thing, he heard Katy Perry's "Roar" on TV or radio and he began to listen and sing to it. Needless to say, his mom was over the moon about it.

I heard about this on TV and was overwhelmed and of course cried like a baby because I thought we don't know what can touch or help another person...and wasn't it great that a song could awaken a child and give a family hope.

I decided to put Katy's song to my 2013 slide show. I hope you enjoy the show.

Who knows what I'll get into in

2014!!

Black & White & Red All Over

 

 

 

Yesterday I was digging through my quilt tops and came across this beauty.  I immediately remembered pulling fabrics from my black/white/red scraps. I was so excited to see what design I'd get from my template, a kite like pattern. There are several designs involved in this quilt. You can see the diamond shape formed in the middle surrounded by a shape that lends the appearance of a circular shape....you may have to squint to see what I'm talking about. Then there are the four pointy shapes depicted in the whiteish areas.

I do think I'll add another border of some sort to make it a little bigger.

 

Click HERE for details of how-to make your own template.

I've made several of these in different sizes and color choices but this one is my favorite so far. All I need to do now is "quilt" it.......sigh.

 

Below are a few other Fractured Diamonds that I've made. It's amazing how just the color changes the look, adding a plain border or adding a border with the half Fracture in it.

BTW, all of the quilts were made from my strip stash. The beauty of this type of block/quilt is there are no matching seams to worry about until the rows are sewn together.

 

This quilt is the same as the black/white/red one. I like the earth tones in this one, especially that gray strip running here and there.

Here, I was experimenting with a secondary design using red at one end of my kite design and white in the diamond area.

This was a Christmas fabric design. I love the color green so that was a big draw for me to use those and I like the look of the muted reds in this one. 

This was my latest Fractured Diamond. Some my remember I was working with the pink (wild) fabric. With the greens and black diamonds you hardly notice the pink which I found interesting. By using a wide pink with half diamonds, this design seems to float lending a 3-D effect.

I've got plans in the back of my mind to do another Fractured Diamond using tone-on-tones as the strips on a brownish background.

 

 

Finally, vote for me! I entered this little mug rug at Quilting Gallery.

It's entitled

"Even Ants Need Refreshment"

Just click on the link, scroll down a short distance to VOTE NOW & Give Away: Summer Fun, click on that which should take you to the voting area to vote for my entry. If you get frustrated with this process and can't find the ballot, don't worry about it. This is just some friendly competition.