D.O.N.E. - TaDah!

Whoever is in charge of the Quilting Fairies... thank you! Ta Dah! All four placemats are quilted and bound and ready for their new home!

I'm liking the back2front binding method. One small straight line of stitching shows on the back just over 1/8" from the back binding. Looks neat and tidy to me. Think I'll stick with this method for awhile.

This has been a very busy, but very productive day. Love it when a day goes like this. It was such a glorious day today that I had hoped to work outside and get some of my new veggie starts transplanted into their big-girl pots. Well, it didn't happen, but a ton of other good stuff got finished. Sew I'm happy!

Please forgive the lousy photos, but here are all four of the placemats. . . I am pleased with how they turned out. And they are DONE! lol

 

 

 

 

This is how I'm doing the corners on the front.

 

Until next time. . . It's almost 10 pm now on Saturday night and this ol' lady is heading to the sheets! Nighty night.

 

Edit: LINKING to Connie at FreeMotion by the River.

Quilty Hugs,

JAVA-TIME PLACEMATS and Reversible Napkin set

This project has taken about forever, but they will be finished by tonight! Even if I have to stay up until midnight, they will be done! 


Clipping on some black fabric for a binding... do I like it? Yes.

The center fussy-cut squares are from a cute fabric line that is no longer available. The primary idea came from a picture in a magazine. Took almost a year to find all the coffee-themed fabric I wanted to use. Then another year to sew them up. lol. You ever do that??? Procrastinate like that?

4 Reversible Napkins

What held me up and took so long? Confession time: I choked on the FMQing, stuttered, got blocked. Sheesh! Because these are a gift, I just plain "tried to hard". . . once I told myself to just get over it and get them done, it was clear sailing. I'm still shaking my head. In the end, I just added some simple quilting lines in a grid and let it go with that... it's fine.  We are our own worst critics, I think. Well, I'm happy now and they are almost done.

Backing... all coffee cups. Cute.

Sure hope their theme is still "coffee" in the breakfast room... it would be more than inconvenient if it has changed to "seashells" or something. lol

Hope where ever you are that you have plenty of time to sew. Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

I'VE BEEN SEWING AWAY...but not much to share

My sewing machine has been humming away connecting little bits of this and that, but I don't have a lot to show you just yet because what I am currently working on are gifts and surprises for others.

Friendship Star

This little friendship star is part of a pieced backing for a rather small quilt that I hope to finish soon. I am pleased with the piecing of this star. At least the intersections match up. Each square finishes at less than one inch... not much to hold on to when feeding it through the sewing machine. Thank heavens for stilletos!

Until next time. . .what are YOU working on? Do you like to create and send off surprises and gifts to friends? It's so much fun.

Linking to Connie at Free Motion by the River's Tuesday Linky Party. Come visit and see what everyone is up to.

Quilty Hugs,

HOW 2 WRAP SECRET SANTA GIFT. . .

Secret Santa gifts are so fun! This year for our Annual Family Party we were given a range of how much we could spend: $15-$20.  Below is how I wrapped my little gifty which is all bling and very little substance!. . . . hee hee hee:

Secret Santa Gift

But first things first...
1.) Find rock from neighbor's yard -- ask first! lol --  clean, wrap in tissue paper, put in bottom of bag:

"cost" of rock NOT factored into the $15 to $20 limit...lol

2.) Slip Lotto Tickets inside set of 4 special Holiday Coasters:

Coasters / Mug Rugs from scraps + Lotto tickets

3.) Wrap Coasters in tissue... add bow. Place in bag and 'poof' the bag out with more tissue paper [see above]:

Coasters n Lotto tickets all wrapped up

Ta Dah! All done. I'm such a kid this time of year...lol... can't help it! Until next time, what devious methods have YOU devised to wrap your gifts???

MERRY CHRISTMAS

&

HAPPY NEW YEAR

From my home to yours -- whatever you celebrate and share this time of year may your Season be full of blessings, family, friends, good food, and fun.

Linking to: SoScrappy RSC2012.  Click over and see what the others are up to.

Love n Quilty Hugs,

PS: If I turn up MIA from posting for a few days it might be a result of too much party or too much "festive drinks" at the party! lol

AND ONE MORE . . .WOOF!

How do these things happen? How did I get into the MugRug-making-business? lol. Well, I've made one more for another co-worker of DD's and now I consider myself retired from this activity! No more, none, nada, fini, and dat's it!

But I kinda like this one...Woof! There is no pattern. It's just some strips and odd pieces of blue stitched together 'crazy' fashion with the batting as the foundation so it was quilted as I sewed it. Simple fusible appliques on top finished off with a blanket stitch courtesy of my Janome6500. No binding either... just layer stitch and turn like you would make for a pillow form - the lap seam in back is secured with a narrow strip of fusible. I like how it turned out.

Woof! A MugRug for Crissi

And a coaster:

With a quick little double heart FMQ'd on the back. ;-).  I started adding quilting to these about 8 months ago. They really go through the washer/dryer better.  Now I cut the batting smaller so the seam isn't so bulky. I like it this way. 

Until next time, I hope where ever you are that you have time to sew up something that makes your heart sing! 

Quilty Hugs,

FIXED! Thanks to blogging friends. . .

Thank you, THANK YOU to the many people who responded to my plea for some advice. I used a composite of all your ideas and some of my own and shown below is what I came up with. [Please forgive the bad picture - this little quilt is NOT wonky, but it sure looks like it in the picture. Drat. Quilt size 6x9 inches.]

MugRug for Kristen

The color absolutely needed to be spread around the surface. In addition to putting Blue on the Orange and Orange on the White, I put some White and Tan on the Orange. It sure is more balanced now. I had hoped to put an Orange flange/piping with a Blue binding but didn't have enough blue fabric to do that. Too bad, 'cuz I think a Blue binding would have looked good.

Just in case Kristen's desk isn't big enough for a MR, I put "Quick Triangle Sleeves" on the back:

Pencil shows the Quick Triangle Sleeves

and made her a coaster... it's orange - sort of, but has no puppies.

I think it is good to make ourselves work outside our own color box, you know, our usual comfort zone. This has been a learning experience for me and I'm grateful.  Thanks again to all my blogging friends who really helped bail me out of this design corner I had backed into! You are ALL so wonderful! Please go to this post to see the problem flimsy, and then read all the fabulous and helpful suggestions.

Until next time. . .
Quilty Hugs,

CAN ANYTHING SAVE THIS PROJECT???

The guidelines I was given: A MugRug and I like dogs and orange. Oh my. This is a toughie. The orange just jumps right out, but then orange is like that, eh?

 

I embroidered the  seam lines of the strips and did some quilting with variegated thread hoping that would help calm the orange down. It helped a little:

If some Orange/Tan or Orange/White mini stripe could be found, or even Orange/Blue, then cutting the stripe on the bias for binding might help.

Someone very good with color once told me if a color isn't sitting nicely in a project to ADD more of it... it helps it to quiet down. I've used this trick before very successfully, but I'm not sure anything can help this little mug rug. Do YOU have any SUGGESTIONS or ADVICE?? I would really appreciate it so much.  Thank you. This is supposed to be done by Sunday night... no pressure, right?!

Sew, until next time I am gonna quit for the night -- maybe go read. What are YOU going to do?

Quilty Hugs,

TUNISIAN CROCHETED BEDSPREAD: How NOT to clean it

This is the story of how NOT to wash a large hand-crocheted project in one's washer, when all the yarn type/content is not known:

partially re-blocked after 'felting'

How it came out of the machine, before blocking attemps

Trying to pull/stretch the felting out somewhat - first efforts not so good

Story:  In the Spring of 1981, I finished an almost 9 year project for a Bedspread, Dual-King size, Tunisian Crochet - aka: Afghan stitch, covered in detailed Cross Stitch using more than 200 colors of yarn. Nice. I was happy with the outcome and satisfied with my efforts. It was a gift to my DMIL. She and Dad used it on their dual-king bed as a spread for several years. After they passed, the 'afghan' went to my DD Laura who stored it in various ways for about 10 years, 5 of which were in my garage under less than perfect circumstances.  So, naturally it required cleaning. No local cleaners would guarantee the outcome. I cut some bits off of the gold fringe and did the "match test" to determine what kind of yarn it is: natural/wool, or acrylic/mix. It passed the test and told me with a hardened nub that it was indeed washable yarn -- the GOLD was! My mistake, I did not test ALL the yarn. I should have. Great Grandma bought all the yarn, all I did was make it and that was so long ago, I couldn't remember any details. Anyway, long story short. . . don't let anyone tell you that you cannot FELT wool in a front loading washer b/c I am here with the results that it is indeed possible!

"blocked" afghan drying under sheets to keep my Kitty off!

A huge thank you to a new neighbor and sweet friend Marge, who came to my house late last night  to help me - these things never seem to happen in the afternoon! And we proceeded to try and "pull it out" to some kind of shape. Only somewhat successful, but way better than what we started with. I'm going to steam the gold strips after the afghan is all dry and try to coax the extra back into itself. May work, may not. I figure if all else fails, I can remove the 8 gold strips, make new strips, crochet them back in place. This afghan will never again be what it once was, but it has been saved to a certain extent. I'm grateful my mistake didn't turn into unrepairable disaster.

Good news: somewhat successful - gold strips can always be remade/replaced

Thank you for listening to my rant and sad song. Normally I try to keep my blog happy and up-beat because that is usually how I feel, but if I "own up" to my boo-boo and share what happened when I tried to wash this afghan, it might save someone else the grief and disappointment that I am experiencing. So. . . with all this behind me for now. . . Until next time, I am going to go sew on a DJ block; I'd like to console myself with some pie, but that's not gonna happen! lol.  What are YOU going to do today?

Quilty Hugs,

Java Time... Need HELP, please

I really can use some HELP... read on:  My DD loves everything to do with coffee: drink it, decorate with it - everything! So when I saw the "Daily Grind" fabric line it was a natural to buy some. The placemats are all pieced and the first one is basted.

"Daily Grind" java themed set of 4 placemats

PROBLEM:  My first quilting task will be to anchor everything with a little ditch work, but then what??? I need some suggestions, PLEASE!  I think maybe 3 curving lines coming up out of the cups like "steam"... but that's it. After that, I am drawing a blank. IF I do quilt some steam lines above the cups, will it be necessary to do a tight b/g fill behind it? Not sure I can do that yet.  I am still 'meandering' and haven't graduated to 'stipple', yet. lol.  As you can see [below] every center square is slightly different.

 

I think part of the problem is that my mind still thinks like a Hand Quilter - I really need to work on that.

I would very much appreciate hearing how others would quilt these placemats. Thank you for any help or advice you can offer. Oh, I should mention, these will be machine quilted - they are batted up with Warm and Natural, and they will be a gift... guess that's why I'm freaking out a little bit over the FMQing. Thanks again.

Until next time. . . I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone out in blogland has a solution!

Quilty Hugs,

RAINBOW SCRAP SAT: October is Brown!

Not a whole lot accomplished today. But, with a ton of prep work behind me, the next couple of days should be very productive... I hope. *g*

Even though it is late, it is still Saturday [somewhere!], so I will share what I worked on today that is this month's color: Brown.

Taming a "just pressed" seam.

A nice little pressing trick I learned a long time ago by watching Sally Collin's DVD about precision piecing, is while a just-pressed piece is still very warm, smack something straight on top of it and add weight. Don't move until cool.  It is amazing how this trick tames an unruly seam allowance. Thank you, Sally!

Seam allowance after pressing, adding weight, allowing to cool.

My real "claim to fame" today was making a ton of HSTs... all in cream, brown and black. Sorry no pic. It's late. I'll share them later.

Linking to: SoScrappy. See what others have done with their browns.

Until next time. . . I hope you have a lovely Sunday and find time to sew up something you love!

Quilty Hugs,

RAINBOW SCRAPPY SAT - Orange!

This month's color for the RSC12 is: ORANGE! What a fun color. I want to incorporate more of this great color into my quilts.

Halloween themed block for a friend's Oct 31st birthday!

Hiding in my on-going stash blocks, is the little gem above. So near completion.  I better hurry up and finish it because it is for a friend's birthday next month!  A small pieced border using up my orange bits would bring it up to just the right size to cover a pillow form.

So that's what I'll be doing today... how about you? What are you up to?  Until next time. . .

Linking up to: SoScrappy Linky Party. Go see what others are up to with their oranges!

Quilty Hugs,

COASTERS & MUG RUGS . . . DONE!

Happy almost 4th of July everyone. I am in the mood as I have been working with Red, White and Blue fabrics.  Finished the Mug Rug project for DD and her office crew... except it turns out she wants Coasters, NOT MugRugs. OK, I'm easy. I made Coasters - finished the last 13 today. Plus... I made one Mug Rug anyway so she could see what one looks like.

For Lori and others who haven't made these before,

here is a link to a tute I wrote in 2010:

http://cynsquiltedtravels.blogspot.com/2010/08/mug-rugs-small-quick-project-fun-too.html

Of all the coasters, the 3 above are my faves. And below is the one lonely Mug Rug. The red looks almost pink in these pictures, but it is RED.

Today I have included two dishes for "Menu Fun."  They are below my signature. I think this is a good idea to put them there. This way those who are interested can see them and those who are not won't be bothered. Good?

That's all for today. Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

MENU FUN:

Note: The pasta is whole wheat. The 'saute' is accomplished with either water, veggie juice, veggie broth, etc... NO oil.