A Finished Quilt

I think I quilted this last year sometime.

It is an Edita Sitar pattern.  It is mostly batiks. I finished it just in time for a 50th birthday gift for John's brother's daughter Chrissy.

 Yesterday was the anniversary of John's birthday!  We miss being able to celebrate his day with him.

This is a picture my daughter gave me recently - Out in his workshop reading a book to Emily in 1999.  

Thanks to Mario the yard is all cleaned up for spring

 This would make John smile as he loved being outside when the weather was good especially after the lawn had just been mowed.

Backings and Bindings Continue

I found this purple and blue batik for the binding for the Scrappy Squares Quilt.

Cut and sewn on  - it looks pretty good  - added it to the growing pile of hand sewing.

I cut and sewed the binding on the Blue Moon Quilt too.  I had already planned to use the same fabric as the inner border.   I finished quilting it except for the inner border which I will have to do on the Bernina.

This is a donation quilt that I cut out awhile back and sewed while at the beach with friends. It is a very easy pattern called Greek Cross that is available as a 12" block on Quilter's Cache.

Saturday at the Bee, I bought 3 yards of this very pale lavender with white roses to use for the backing of this donation quilt.  I ended up choosing a red binding that I had already made.  Another top ready to quilt.

 I later went back and bought the rest of the bolt of the lavender fabric  - it is much prettier than it appears here  and it was a good bargain too.

It is good to get these little chores done.

Scrappy Squares

I finished the quilting on the scrappy stars quilt.  The quilting doesn't show very well in the pictures but I am satisfied with it.

I have trimmed it and need to look for s suitable binding fabric  Most of the time I choose and make the binding when I make the backing.  

Sooooo  - on to another quilt and another challenge.  I am struggling with this pattern and am hoping it will look better as I go along.  I practiced this pattern so many times on paper but I still find it hard to get into a rhythm with it.   Well I have a few more rows of practice.

Quilting Another Quilt - Water Woes

When I took the garden trellis quilt off the Crown Jewel last week I had time to load this one.   I have been trying to do this so that hopefully  I will feel more compelled to quilt knowing there is something already to go.

It is a pattern that Edyta Sitar calls scrappy squares.  It uses a lot of batiks.

I struggled with what I would use in the squares,   I saw a You Tube video of a gal using a similar design so I practiced drawing it on paper. And then practiced it on my DSM.

I had lots of trouble with thread shredding and breaking.  So I switched threads and needles etc.  I also slowed down my speed.  I t was pretty good then but I had to sew only from left to right  - when I tried to sew back to the left the thread still shredded.  It is a little slow going and I have to turn after every row.

I have been sewing on some new window treatments for the den  - that is chore sewing.  I had to get out the serger and I was glad it was threaded so I didn't have to rack my brain about that.  I will have a tall guest staying at my house this weekend so hopefully they will get hung then.

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Mother's Day the family came over in the afternoon. Just as we were preparing to eat - the water stopped flowing.  Glad for my son-in laws and their input.  We were expecting the worst but the  water came back on in about an hour.  The well people came our Monday and checked everything out.   The well is in good shape  - just a minor thing.  But I was glad in the long run  - I will have an additional filter put on the lines next week to help with the iron in the water.. Our area is plagued with iron in the water!!!!  But when I think of all the people in the world who would be thrilled to have water from a well even with the pesky iron. I am thankful for what I have.

We made another 21 loaves of bread Wednesday.  Our delivery guys said the gift was well received.
We will meet again in a couple of weeks - we may try a new recipe next quarter so we are looking around for recipes.  I found one for a cinnamon bread that I will test soon.

Thursday - Shelly treated me to a reflexology massage and pedicure.  Then we ate at Champa, an Asian restaurant at Brier Creek.  A little shopping and I was ready to call it a day.

Our town is having an Art Walk - there will artists painting pictures of various locations downtown. The paintings will be auctioned off in the evening.  Our church will be painted by one of our members. Another artist will paint the Woman's Club Building.  We are having an open house there so I will be baking cookies.

Scrappy Squares Sewn Together

With all the cold weather - I sewed these blocks fairly quickly.  

It took two days to sew them into rows!

And then I took two more days to sew them into a top.  It is about 72 x 88".  I picked out a backing but the binding choice is up in the air.