Working on Friday!

 

I wasn't able to get my new piece finished, but I am almost there. I won a pattern in a Facebook group, called Church Cat and I still have to do the binding and finishing touches. I also made up a quick wheel chair top and plan on doing another, these two will be for guys and I plan on hand quilting them. Normally I would use the machine, but I was able to get a camping spot at the state park, so I wanted something to work on while camping. 

I have been spending more time at home with heat and enjoying the birds, a Chipping Sparrow, Black Capped Chickadee and a Goldfinch in my neighbor's yard.

And to my surprise, one finally came over to enjoy the seeds on my Cone flowers.

And I have seen more House Finches lately.

And my resident Cardinal is letting me know that he is not happy, that the feeder is empty. 

We also got to spend a day at my favorite beach, the harbor is always busy with boaters.

And I never leave without a nice little treasure of beach goodies. I hope everyone has had a nice week and cooler temperatures. We have gotten better with a few rain storms, so it is nice to be able to open the windows again. May you be able to get out and find your own peace of heaven, in your area.

Charity quilt top finished and Winner!

I guess a lot of you know me and with the blue strips, guessed it was a boat. I wanted to do something simple, since this is for babies and kids in the african orphanages and they will be washed a lot. I was going to machine stitch it, but my body gave out this week and it was easier to hand stitch in my chair. My stitching isn't the best, but it is sturdy;)

The finished size of the quilt is 44" x 55", to fit the size of the flannel backing. I was going to put that on today, but my brian wasn't working, so I cleaned house while I had the energy. If you would like to know more about the charity quilt drive, you can visit Rosemary Youngs blog for more information. They are easy to do and a good way to use stash and help others.

The camera makes the colors pop out, but I really like how they go together. I still have more of the fabric, so I will do a patch quilt with them. The boat design came from a book by Sara Sporer.

Here is a close up of the quilt, outside. You can see the fabrics and designs a bit better on this one. For the appliqué I used wash-n-gone. You sew it rights sides and turn it, so no needle turn, which makes it easier to sew quickly and easy to sew through. I messed up a bit on my points, but hopefully it will smooth out when I wash it.

 And now the winner of the giveaway.... Wendy of Ravenwood Whimzies! Congratulations Wendy, email me with your choice of an epattern or booklet from my ecrater store. And if you see this before midnight, I noticed that Wendy is having a giveaway too and it ends at midnight tonight!

What is it... Giveaway!

I started a new project yesterday, another charity quilt for the kid's orphanage in Africa, sponsored by Rosemary Youngs. Rosermary has also put up some new free patterns, this week.

Of course I get an idea in my head and I have to try it, lol. So, I made the top and now I am adding an appliqué. I was going to machine quilt it, but my body is not cooperating and I need to sit in my comfy chair, so that leaves hand stitching. It will take another day, but I will have it done by friday... I hope;)

What do you think I am making to put on the top? What is the applique and here is a teaser piece. I know, not much help, but have fun guessing. I will leave it open until 10 pm on friday night and announce the winner then. The winner gets their choice of one of my epatterns or booklets.

New and Improved Charity Quilt!

I played with lots of different fabrics to add a border and still keep the fun look, but nothing was working. I found the perfect black with red flowers, but of course it was old stash and not enough. So, I went with the tried and true black and red homespun. This is a heavier weight, so perfect for this quilt. I like how the black frames it but it was too plain and I remembered the black spool of ric rac that I bought. It was perfect, it gave it a fun touch and bought it all together. The photo makes the middle pop and the border got too dark, but in person it looks nice together, at least I think so.

I noticed I didn't get many comments, don't be afraid to voice your opinions.  Do you think the new version is better or am I just off my rocker? LOL

If you would like to know more about the quilt drive, visit Rosemary's blog. It is a nice way for beginner quilters to get into charity quilts, especially for those of us who are quilting challenged.

An Almost Charity Quilt!

Yesterday I decided I wanted to start a charity quilt, something simple that I could finish in a day. Well, you know how that goes, it became another lesson in, what not to do.

Rosemary Youngs has started a drive to make quilts for the orphanage in Uganda. These are basic quilts, a top and a flannel back, since they do not need heavy blankets. I thought it was a good way for me to get started with charity quilting and a wonderful cause. Rosemary also has free patterns with applique and blocks, so be sure to visit her webpage, as well. She also has instructions on quilt construction, on her website, something easy that you can do, use up your stash and help the children in Uganda.

I started out with a charm pack called Little Apples that was given to me by Linda of This and That fabrics for my charity quilts. I wanted to use the designs so you could see them, so I thought, half triangles would be nice, but it didn't look right. So, I cut them again into smaller triangles and the blocks became smaller. I have nothing that matches the colors and I want to use us my stash, so I found a red/orange shade with two of my fabrics. I liked the contrast it gave, what do you think? Of course the colors are not the same online, as in person.

Now the problem is, what do I add to enlarge it? I will have to go to jo anns to see if they have something that matches it, would be nice if I could find a print in those colors. It is for a child, so I want it to be fun and make them smile. Right now it is only 25" x 32".

The homespun is something I bought and the solid is Kona fabric that I won from Jane of Jane's Fabrics.

The next quilt will be larger blocks with fun prints, no more triangles;) No matter how carefully I piece and cut, I can never match them up.

A fairytale: The Three Blocks

I finally got motivated to do some charity blocks, considering the deadline is looming, but my nerves have been a bit frazzled lately so the nervy pain, makes it hard to do work that requires perfection. So, I made a block and for some reason it came out too small and the block was off, this one is too small.

Then I thought, what if I make it larger, then I  can cut it down, the one on the right is too large. Not sure if it can be cut down, my brain can't think that way, right now, lol. So, this block is too big.

The block on the left is just right, the right size and the blocks sit right on the edges, I was so happy to finally figure it out and be able to just keep going. Then I realized, something didn't look right, I have two blocks in reverse, ugh, so guess this one is not good, either. The moral of this story is; it is a fairytale if I think I could ever make a perfect block, lol.