Getting close !

I am SO VERY TIRED after spending hours at the sewing machine and at the ironing board and at the cutting table today !  

But all of my triangle units are pieced, pressed, trimmed and sashed.   Thank the good LORD for the strength to stick with it !   Monday is looking like either a doctor's appointment (eye check-up for hubby) or a snow day, so I don't know how much piecing I'll be able to get done that day.   But one more row assembly, plus adding a few rows together, and I AM DONE.

This picture looks confusing because I have pinned the quilt in progress SIDEWAYS to a design wall on one wall and a curtain on the adjoining wall.  Remember, my home is small and this quilt is growing to be RATHER LARGE !

I know, I know......it could be days, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  For now I am just happy to have those 576 triangles DONE !

Halfway there !

I'm pretty much halfway finished on the commission I'm working on........the embroidered quilt top's sashing/stars !   It is a TEDIOUS undertaking, but done in increments, it is manageable.

I am doing the stitch and flip method for making the triangles at the end of each yellow sash, stitching diagonally across 1 1/2 inch squares on each corner and then flipping and trimming.  I sew enough sashes for one row at a time, including the sashing strip that joins rows as well as the sashes that join the blocks.

There is A LOT of pinning involved, but I am pleased with the appearance thus far.

This morning I took a bit of a break to make a diaper-changing pad for a sister in Christ.

One of these proved to be my most-used item when I had a grandbaby in the house ! 

 This is the quilt I made for her last year,

if you remember, and today was her due date to deliver her baby daughter, Abigale Marie Hope.  I used the same roll of strips that I used when making the quilt.......solids from Connecting Threads.

Working on the project gave me the perfect opportunity to pray for her during her scheduled C-section.

I can hardly wait to hear more details about the baby and her arrival, but we, her friends, are celebrating Krista's victory, and praising God for his faithfulness.

Yay SNOW ! ! !

I've been asking the LORD for one good snow that blows into every crevice, but leaves the roads clear for safe driving (cuz' we Southerners DO NOT know how to drive on snowy/icy roads !)  And HE delivered last night !

I love this kind of wet snow ........ beauty for an early morning, then gone before you have time to get tired of it !

Lottie was curious, so I took her out into the backyard on the leash.  She enjoys getting out there in harness.

I thought that I had all of the pieces cut for Jen's quilt-top, but after piecing a few sashes and trying a layout, I found that if I put green squares in the center of the green starpoints, the stars take over from the soft, gentle blocks of the quilt.

Instead, now, I think that I will put yellow in the center, so that there are only green star outlines, rather than solid stars.  I would prefer to keep it all muslin, but this is their choice, and I think it is going to be really pretty when finished......very traditional-looking.

GOD is good !

And His peace abounds !

It's Monday morning again, and I've been busy with first-of-the-week household chores.   Got some laundry done, a big pot of potato soup made (along with muffins and bacon to go with it, of course), dishes washed from that job, and the hubby's hair cut.  It is such a beautiful day outside today, and PRAISE GOD, I'm feelin' FINE !

Now having gotten all the fabric for Jennifer's quilt top, I can buckle down to that project.  She's done the most beautiful hand-embroidery, using the patterns for the fifty United States, along with the state flowers.  I will attempt to add sashes, and complete the top before mailing it back to Jodie to be basted.  Then, she wants to send it BACK to me for hand-quilting.
I hope to start cutting and sewing on the sashes this afternoon.
Maybe I can do a little mock-up in EQ4 to show you what I have in mind.

In the meantime, I've done a little bit more fabric acquisition !  I made my third fabric-searching foray out to the second-hand store, "The Ultimate Garage Sale"; and this time I came away with 4 one-yard pieces of gorgeous nearly-tone-on-tone prints.  I only paid $7.75 for the four, altogether !

AND, Jodie sent me these fabric remnants as a birthday/Christmas surprise (I just realized that the one-yard piece didn't make it into the photo), and it has me in the mood to play.............but that will have to wait just a bit !


So, now that my lunch is settling, I think I'll see how much more work I can get into.  Love to you all.........and peace in Christ JESUS !

Lagging behind........

.....I am so bad about posting here !

I finished the new quilt top on Wednesday, I think.  It's really big for a couch quilt, but that seems to be the way I make them lately.  I guess it comes from my napping on the couch......I'm pretty tall, and I hate it when a nap quilt won't cover my feet while letting me snuggle it against my cheek.  So I try to keep THAT in mind when I make them for other people.

Anyway, the big piece of fabric from last weekend's "score" worked out perfectly for the border.



























  I call this one, "Marking Time", and it measures around 60 by 80 inches.  I haven't chosen backing fabric yet, as I expect that I won't get a chance to baste it until the weather opens up again in the Spring and I can do it outside.

But I went back to the second-hand store this weekend and made my second score !   I had messaged the lady who runs the store, and asked her to look and see if she could locate a copy of Electric Quilt among the sewing supplies she had.  While I was perusing the aisles this Friday, I looked over, and there sat EQ4 on a shelf that I had already passed once.

 I asked her if she had put it out for me, and she said that, no, she hadn't had any luck finding what I wanted.  Well, I don't believe in luck.......I KNOW that God blessed me by putting that right there where I HAD to see it myself !   She let me have it for $4.00, and I loaded it onto my computer when I got home.  I know it's not the latest version, but IT IS the version that I had before, so I am perfectly comfortable in knowing how to use it !   SCORE again, praise the LORD !

SCORE !

I went out to one of our local second-hand stores today, wanting to just dig around and find some treasure........figured I'd spend 3 or 4 dollars, so I raided the piggy bank for the quarters that I save just for such a trip.  When I found it closed, I decided to take a peek at another one that I usually don't bother with.

Well.......I'm glad I BOTHERED.   I stumbled upon a treasure-trove !  Apparently, they have bought out a storage locker that had been rented by someone who ran a quilt store or something, because there are shelves packed with fabric, rulers, books.....who knows what all?  I only spent about TWO HOURS picking out fabric pieces, since all fabric was HALF-PRICE today !  So, I didn't even get to PEEK at the books !

They had bins full of folded fabric pieces, both quarter and half-yard, that were priced $1.50 each or 10 for $10.00.  So that made them 10 for $5.00 or FIFTY CENTS EACH !  So I dug out lots of the ones that were fat enough to be half-yard cuts, and some of the fat and long quarters.  I wound up with 5 stacks of ten, and a couple of 2-yard pieces, plus a couple of cotton batting remnants that are big enough for a baby quilt, and a small couch quilt (each cost me $2.00)  So, I left there with 24 1/2 yards of fabric, plus batting, for $35.25 !  I am so tickled !  The fabric is probably from around 2000 to 2005, maybe, but that's newer than alot of my stash, and will allow me to feel free to get rid of some of my own, and mix this in with the rest.   Mostly, I tried to restock my lights that I used up making these blocks recently.

I may have even found the border for the current project.   Here's a look at it on the design wall.......still would like to throw some more batik in there, so nothing is settled.


I can hardly wait to go out there and dig around some more !  I'm really hoping to find a great buy on EQ7 or something similar......I've really missed mine since my computer crashed and I lost the program during a full system recovery.