MY NEW PASSION

Sometimes the most wonderful things just drop into our laps!  Last summer I bought a new sewing machine.  The difference in this machine and all others I have owned is that it has an embroidery feature.  Being a quilter I thought I would use the embroidery only for making an occasional quilt label.  Once I began playing and experimenting with embroidery designs, I found that machine embroidery is a real joy.

I didn't jump into the machine embroidery with both feet...I went in one toe at a time.  I find the supplies for embroidery quite expensive and, of course, we need all the gorgeous colors of thread.  Then there are the designs...even though my machine has pre-programmed designs, those are not the type of things that really interest me.  So off to the internet I went and entered the amazing world of digital embroidery designs.  Downloading the designs, transferring them to a memory card and then getting them into my machine took more than a little time for me to learn.  It's like second nature now.

Here are a few designs I'm currently working on.  These are fairy tale characters with some background dialogue often spoken by the villain of the tale.  I love the interplay of the scibbled test, the splash accent of red in each piece and the sketchy look of the black outlines.  I think these designs would work well in a quilt, framed to hang on the wall or turned into a small accent pillow.  What do you think?

Little Mermaid



The Glass Slipper from Cinderella

Rapunzel

Little Red Riding Hood

The Ugly Duckling

Rapunzel, Rapunzel..Let Down Your hair

Sleeping Beauty

Please give me your honest opinion of these, as I'm thinking about offering them for sale.

Quilting will always be my passion...but I have to tell you, machine embroidery is so much fun!

Thank you for looking....

Wishing you a Bounty of Peace & Plenty....Barb

ST PATRICK'S DAY

 

Being Irish, there is never any question what we will be having for dinner on March 17.  Rain or shine, sickness or in health we will have corned beef with potatoes, carrots and cabbage and homemade soda bread. 

I always buy a good cut of corned beef and I cook it a day ahead according to the directions on the brisket wrapper. Refrigerate the meat and the broth separately.  Remove some of the fat from the cold broth. About an hour before dinner bring the broth to a gentle boil and add carrots and about 10 minutes later add red-skinned potatoes (halved or quartered) and 10 minutes later lay wedges of cabbage on the top and push them down so they are covered with broth.  Continue to simmer gently until all the vegetables are tender.  Slice the beef and lay on top of the cabbage and spoon some of the broth over the slices.  Cover your pot for about 5 minutes or until the brisket is hot.  Serve and Enjoy!   

I finished up a table runner this week just in time ~~

The embroidery on the center panel was done on my Janome 9500 and the rest of the runner was simple strips.  I'm thinking of adding some hand quilting to the center panel to give it more stability.  My Hubby really likes this runner, but green is his favorite color!

Wishing you a Happy St Patrick's Day from our home to yours!

QUILTY SMILES

My sweet granddaughter Bree likes the quilt and pillowcases I sent her for her birthday last Saturday.  My daughter took loads of good pictures of Bree opening her gift but unfortunately the pictures are sideways because they were posted from a phone.  I worked and worked rotating them, but the rotation won't hold, so here are just three:

Bree loves bright colors and her quilt is nothing if not bright!

It's trying to be a beautiful day.  The sun is shining and our temperature should get close to 60.  With weather like this our Dogwood trees will be blooming in no time.  I noticed the tulips are up but it will be a while before they're ready to bloom.  I should take a walk in the woods this afternoon and see what I can find. 

I need to pull out my grandson's quilt and get it ready to go to the quilter.  I probably just need 4 hours to finish up the rows and borders.  Jesse's birthday is in July, but I don't want to cut it as close as I did on Bree's.  After Jesse's is done, I need to start the quilt I promised my daughter for her birthday this year, which is in August.  This seems to be the year for making quilts for the family...I love it!

Wishing you a wonderful day filled with Peace & Plenty!

QUILTED HEARTS

The new year has been..shall we say 'different'.  Normally I'm out of the starting gate on New Year's Day industriously working on new projects.  Not so in 2013...so far it's been pretty (yawn...) boring.  Not that boring isn't nice (and needed) at times.

Last night I finished up the two table runners I intended to have ready for Valentine's Day 2013.  Both runners are made from the tutorial at Missouri Star and are also featured in the new quilting magazine Quilting Quickly (first edition).  The heart design would also make a darling small quilt to drape over a table or chair.  In one runner all three hearts are aligned in the same direction...in the other, the center one is turned.  You can add or subtract as many hearts as your heart desires!

The top runner is made from Flirt (by Moda).  I like the bright contemporary colors and think it worked up cute.  The second runner has hearts made from hand-dyed fabric.  It took forever to get the dye to quilt running on this fabric and I'm thankful I dealt with it before I made the runner.  The border fabric is a romantic postcard print called My Funny Valentine.  Each runner took me about one hour of cutting and construction time.  Each heart takes only six 5" squares and a few 2 1/4" squares.  The binding takes more time than everything else combined.  Some day I will get the nerve to machine bind..until then I attach the binding by machine and tack it down on the back by hand.  Both runners are machine quilted with hearts and loops.

Table runners are simple to make and add so much to your decor.  They are also nice if you need some instant gratification and they also make great little gifts.  I think I will make up a few more of these this year to have on hand for gifting...everyone seems to like hearts.  I think they would be darling made from black prints...

Wishing you a wonderful Saturday filled with Peace & Plenty.....Barb

SAFE LANDING!

Monday morning I put my granddaughter's birthday quilt in the mail hoping it would arrive by this Friday.  Surprise ~  ~ It arrived today safe and sound!  After answering 'No' as to whether there were chemicals, explosives, anything with Lithium batteries or perfume contained in the box, I offered up that the box contained a 'blanket'. 

Mailing quilts (with or without insurance) is a daunting thing for me.  Thank goodness for tracking numbers that enable me to follow the progression of my precious parcel cross country all the way to California this time!  Here's what I was fussing over ~ a simple little Jellyroll Race quilt made from a Soul Blossom (by Amy Butler) jelly roll.  I also had enough fabric to make a few pillowcases to match.  I hope she likes it.  It's nothing grand, but when you turn 22 you're not too old for another quilt from Grandma!  Happy Birthday sweet Bree!!

Bree's Birthday Quilt

Since my last post I'm feeling so much better.  Thanks to everyone here who took the time to send me get well wishes. 

This coming weekend is when we Spring Forward with our clocks.  You may be up to your knees in snow right now, but before we know it Spring will arrive. 

Wishing you bushels of Peace & Plenty....Barb

THE HEXIE POOL!

I belong to an especially vibrant online quilt forum at Missouri Star Quilt Company and recently we have numerous enthusiastic new members who have joined us from all points around the world.  This is one of the things I enjoy most about being a member of this forum!

One particularly perky new member from Sweden has fallen head-over-heels with making hexagon 'flowers' and  she is trying to accumulate 1200 different prints to make hexie flowers with no repeats.  A daunting task for sure!  Several of us are sending her little envelopes with scraps of prints from our own hexie collections. Her enthusiasm has been very contagious and every day someone else is jumping into the Hexie Pool!

I have a collection of hexie 'flowers' I made the winter of 2010-2011 while recovering from shoulder surgery.  At first I thought they would be too fussy for me to manage, and then there was all that hand sewing.  The lure to endure was there and after a short learning curve I was actually able to make a hexie flower that wasn't too bad.  Then my enthusiasm gradually turned into near obsession and I was sewing hexies day and night...night and day! 

To make the procedure more enjoyable I recommend you buy pre-cut paper (cardstock similar to magazine inserts) foundations.  An excellent source is Paperpieces.com.  They have good products, good prices and very good customer service.  Their website has countless ideas for making and assembling hexies (and numerous other shapes) into beautiful projects.  There are free hexagon printouts you can download and cut out yourself if you choose.   If you do a Google search on hexagon quilts you will find you are not alone out there making little geometric shapes...hexagons are being made and cherished world wide!

My hexies have 1" sides and this is the way hexies are measured (the length of one of the six sides rather than across the center of the paper foundation).  In other words I am making 1" hexies. A flower made from 1" hexies will finish out 5" in diameter after sewing six hexies to the center hexie. I find that cutting my fabrics into 2.5" squares is perfect for this project.  Use up some of your leftover 2.5" strips if you are a quilter.

A stack of paper foundations, some squares of fabric, needle and thread and you're off and running.  I use a #10 between needle for basting and sewing, but use what is most comfortable for you.  I also find that a neutral light to medium taupe thread works great on almost all fabric colors.  If you want to go the distance, silk thread absolutely melts into your hexies and your stitches disappear like magic!  I wear a thimble to help push my needle through the card stock.   For information on basting and all other aspects of assembly, paperpieces.com explains it so much better than I could ever do. 

Give hexies a chance...I once thought I couldn't make them and then thought I would go out of my mind with boredom making them....surprise, they're easy, fun and addicting to make!

Wishing you the best of the best.....Barb

ANOTHER SUNDAY

I'm feeling so much better after a week of shutting down and taking antibiotics for the pneumonia that moved in a couple weeks ago.  It wasn't all pills and Kleenex, I actually managed to get my DGD's birthday gift finished and ready to mail.. I will post pictures of this later just in case she's peeking at my blog.

Here are the two little quilts I finished up for the PICU unit in St Louis ~ they will go into the mail to our group leader and will be taken to the center along with all the other quilts she is collecting ~~~

The top quilt is a simple framed square made from the Sweet Tooth line and scraps of solids I had in my stash.  I also made a matching pillowcase for this quilt.  The bottom quilt is a Disappearing Nine Patch (D9P).  I believe the fabric was called Whooos In The Forest (or something like this!)...I had the fabric in my stash for a while.  The backing on the Sweet Tooth quilt is the bright balloon print of the binding.  The D9P quilt backing is very pale pink with white dots.  All items are washed and ready to go to their new home.

I hope you are making/finishing up some wonderful projects.  So far 2013 has been a slow year for me creatively, but I feel my enthusiasm and energy coming back so there will be new projects popping up here from time to time. 

I have a tutorial I would like to do soon and possible another giveaway for Spring!

Wishing you the Best of the Best!