Another finish

All I have to say today is that I finished another Quilt of Valor last night.  It's the second of the ones made by my guild while we were on retreat last month.  So far I've pieced 1 QOV, partially pieced 2 more, and bound 4 so far with one more waiting for the final stitching of the binding.  Trust me when I say I'll be happy to have these finished, washed and ready to go to their new homes!  At least I didn't have to do the quilting on any of them, thank goodness!

This afternoon, I have to take the QOV that I actually pieced all by myself to the family of the veteran who was slated to receive it this coming Thursday. He was a veteran of the Vietnam war and passed away a few days ago. The family want to display it at the memorial service this afternoon so I'll present it to them.  I feel so sad that the veteran himself never got to wrap himself in it's comforting folds.

Other than meeting with his family, I'll be in the sewing room all day. I never got to work on the other things I want to get done for the store, so today is it!  I want to finish up the embroidered pin cushions and the last wine tote and then I have to move on to making a few more holiday dresses for the 18" dolls. and a few parkas and "fur" coats for them.

I'll post pics tomorrow of what I get done today.

QOV finish!

My days are simply filled with things I'm doing in relation to the quilt festival and if I were to write about them every day, you would be more bored than you probably already are. Hence, my posts will be short until after the festival when I hope to resume a more leisurely pace in the sewing room.

I was informed a couple of days ago that we'd been given another QOV that needed binding and also needed a veteran to receive it. Well, the Veterans Service Office had another person ready and waiting, so I need to get a label and stitch the binding on. Yesterday, I made bindings for two QOV and machine stitched them on.  Last night, instead of embroidery, I hand stitched the binding and label on one of the 2 quilts we made at guild retreat in October.  Here it is:

Just a simple plain block alternating with a framed block, all different fabrics.  There was enough excess backing fabric that I used it for the binding as well.

I'll begin hand stitching the second one tonight, and get it done at least to the point where the label has to be stitched on.

Today, I'll be taking care of the business end of the Festival--emails, bank deposits, running errands, etc. We're having an easy pizza supper tonight so I don't have to spend time cooking.  So I hope to get back into the sewing room and get some work done on the wine totes and doll clothes. We'll see.

Breaking News!  Just got called from the quilter that the second retreat QOV was ready to be picked up, so I know what I'll be doing this afternoon--getting that binding on! The rest will have to wait until that's done.

Nothing New Here, Folks.

http://www.blobbysblog.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Same old, same old.  Yesterday was spent working on wine totes--got 2 finished and a third one cut out, to make a total of 5 to put up for sale.  Hope they do sell cuz, what am I going to do with 5 wine totes?  I don't carry wine bottles around, I open them up and drink!  

I also spent some time preparing for the guild meeting.  I'm enjoying being president this year, but it's more work than I imagined it would be.  And I'm always very tired out when I get home.  But someone has to do it and it's only for a year so what the heck!

After I got home, I worked on my little embroideries and only have a dozen or so French Knots to do and then all 4 will be finished and ready to stitch into pin cushions.  The long arm quilter brought one of the Quilts of Valor to the meeting last night, so today, I get to make bindings and begin the stitching on it so it's finished in time. I have another QOV quilt ready for binding that I was just told about the other day, and then the second one that was made at retreat last week will come in soon from the quilter, I hope, and will need to be bound as well.  In between, I'll be working on making doll coats and party dresses.  Whew!  I'll be so glad when this is all over and done!   Maybe I need to open a bottle of wine to help me manage it all!  Just kidding.  I never drink when I'm sewing--I wait until the rotary cutter is put away and the sewing machine has been turned off.  Then I'll take a sip or two.

Or three.

A finish!

Did you survive the Halloween festivities?  Trick and Treating was from 5:30 to 7:30 last night and I went down to the sewing room around 5:00 and left Don to cope with the hoards of kids ringing the doorbell. He came down around 6:15 and said he was done. All the candy had been handed out--in less than an hour!  He said they came in groups--up to 10 at a time!  And he had a great time with all the kids, and I had a great time with my mug rugs!

Here they are, all finished.  We'll be selling them and the cocoa set (I'll add 3 more packets of cocoa--one for each mug) as a set.  What do you think?  I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Especially since I had all the fabrics needed already in the house--no need to go shopping!  As you can probably see, I did give in and sewed a button on each snowman's scarf.  I know what I said about the buttons yesterday, but I didn't want to cut circles of fabric and applique them on. Besides, everyone should be able to figure out where to set their mug so it doesn't land on the button, right? The mug rugs finish at about 7 1/2 inches, so should be plenty of room to avoid setting the mug on the button.  Besides, I think the buttons add a nice touch!

Yesterday was really quite a waste as far as getting things accomplished.  When I went out to get groceries, I decided to make a detour to the local GoodWill store.  I've been looking for a used crock pot that I can designate for soap making--and I found it there!  For $7 ($6.99 actually) I got it, and I think it works!  I'll give it a try one of these days and see for myself.  I'm really so anxious to make more soap, but I think I'll have to hold off on that until after the quilt festival.  Then, watch out!

After scoring with the crock pot, I took another detour to the paved walking/biking trail just outside of town, and walked the length of it and back, about 1 1/4 miles.  That may not seem like a long distance, but for me it was challenging. Remember, I've done very little walking for months since I've been sitting at my sewing machine.  It felt very good to accomplish that, and surprisingly, my legs and knees felt okay afterward.

Then I got the groceries and headed home.  After putting them away, I sat down to have a little lunch and to read some in my book.  I can't believe it but after eating, I continued reading and woke up an hour later!  I NEVER take naps!  But I guess I needed one yesterday!  So all of this to explain the lack of progress in making things for the store.

Last night, after all the Trick and Treaters has gobbled up the candy, I came up stairs to have some dinner and a little TV.  I worked on the third of the 4 pincushion embroideries and finished it before it was time for bed. And here it is.  I chose to use a golden colored thread for the bird instead of the red shown in the book because I have some golden colored fabric that I want to use for the body of the pin cushion.

Tonight I'll begin the last of the embroideries, but today, I want to make up the wine totes and get that crossed off my list. Let's hope I don't "read" for an hour like I did yesterday. LOL 

Not Monday but Boo Day

Are you ready for them?  They'll be coming to my house tonight and I'm ready for them! Yesterday I realized  I didn't have anything to hand out to the Trick and Treaters so a quick run to the store and now I'm loaded with candy and ready to meet the neighborhood zombies!  

When we lived in our old house--out in the country--we never got Trick and Treaters, but every year I would buy a heap of candy, light the Jack O'Lanterns, turn on the porch light and wait. And wait. And nibble a little. Then nibble a lot. Until the candle had burned out in the Jack and it was time for the 10 o'clock news and bed time.  Every year I would buy less and less candy until it was only one bag--just in case. Eventually I stopped buying any candy, and wouldn't you know, that was the year we got one family trick and treating!  Don and I had to really scramble to find something to give these poor kids--some apples and coins, I think.  They never came back.  I don't blame them.

Now that we live in town, we get a couple hundred kids at the door every year.  I guess we have to make up for all the years we had none. Payback's a b---, I guess.  I usually stay in the background and Don hands out the treats. He loves it--I don't.  When the children were young, I was always the one to take them out into the neighborhood to fill their buckets while Don stayed home. We both were happy with that arrangement. I miss those days of going out with the kids. One year, I was taking Lily around her neighborhood while her mom was in class, and after her bucket was overflowing and all our pockets were stuffed, she turned to me and said, "Wow! This street's like a candy faucet!"  Such an appropriate comment!

Other than getting ready for the evening activity--and there's nothing really to do--I have another busy day looking at me.  Yesterday I worked on the snowman mug rugs but didn't finish them as planned. However I managed to get them this far--all embroidered and ready for quilting and binding.  

I embroidered the eyes with satin stitch instead of sewing on buttons as the pattern called for, and I embroidered the stick arms, through the batting so it's already somewhat quilted.  The pattern also calls for stitching on white buttons in the background, like snowflakes, but I decided to leave off all the buttons.  If you set your mug on the button, it'll be lopsided and tippy and I don't think that's very good.  

I also worked on my little embroideries for pin cushions.  I finished the redwork house last night . . .

Below is the bird on the branch that I completed the night before  . . . 

and I began the third of the 4 designs, another bird on a branch, but different from the first one.  

I'm really anxious to get these finished and made up into the pin cushions. Each design measures about 4 x 4 so I traced them out on one large piece of fabric in order to have room to hoop each one. So even though some of them are finished, I have to complete all of them before I can cut them apart and sew them into the pin cushions. Sigh.

Today, I have to make a trip to the grocery store and then I'll be working on finishing these embroideries. Also I hope to get to making more of the wine totes.  Got to go and get everything done before the goblins and ghosts come out!  

Mug rugs and ice cream cones

I worked on both things in the post title--and embroidery as well. It was quite a productive day for me. :o)  

First on the day's agenda was hosting an ornament party in my basement.  Three fellow quilters came over and we spent the morning making these oh-so-cute ice cream cone ornaments.

Becky and Jo had bought up plain Christmas balls throughout the summer and we used that icing made of egg whites, powdered sugar and cream of tartar (that you use to secure the pieces of gingerbread houses) to create the "snow" on the cone and then colored sprinkles. After the cone was decorated, the icing dripped just enough to round off the edges and make it look like real snow drifts.  We ended up with 30+ large ornaments and 30+ tiny ones. They will all go up for sale at the country store in November.

We finished making all these cones before noon--"many hands make light work"--and I moved on to other tasks.  For once, I went for a walk before settling into my sewing room and it felt so good to be outdoors.  I've been so centered on making doll dresses and other things for the sale, that I've only stepped outside to get the mail or run errands. We've been having a very mild autumn with temps in the 50s and 60s and I don't think we've even had any frost.  (I'm waiting for a frost so I can harvest my brussels sprouts and get that job done.) I'll have to make more of an effort to get out walking while the weather holds.

After my walk around the neighborhood, I set to work copying a set of new embroidery designs to make up into pin cushions for the sale. I became familiar with Gail Pan designs when I found this book last summer and simply fell in love with it.  I've drooled over this book a lot but hadn't stitched anything from it.

On my way to retreat last week, I visited a new quilt shop and found more books by Gail Pan and ended up bringing this one home with me.  On the cover is a needle holder and inside are designs for 3 pin cushions.  And many other beautiful designs!

I copied out the bird on a branch shown in the upper part of this sampler (below) in the "Stitches from the Garden" book---

and copied the three pin cushion designs from the "Patchwork Loves Embroidery" book, shown in the lower left of this picture I took from Amazon.com.  

Last night, while watching TV, I finished one of the designs and most of a second one. Should finish the embroidery by tomorrow and can then stitch them up and get them finished.

Just wanted to show you these beautiful table runners that I want in my house--someday!--when the quilt event is over!--I hope!  The one below is from "Stitches from the Garden"

and this one is from "Patchwork Loves Embroidery."  I like them both so I guess I have my stitching projects lined up for quite some time! 

Back to what I actually accomplished instead of all I want to accomplish! Someone donated a cocoa set of 4 mugs and a cocoa shaker. I found a pattern for 7" mug rugs made with appliqued snowmen so yesterday I got them fused to squares of aqua fabric that almost perfectly matches the color of the mugs.  Today, I'll get them fused and hopefully finished off and that's another thing that's off my to-do list.  If I have time, I'll try to make more of them to sell as sets of 4 without the mugs.

I also want to make a few more wine totes and coasters today so that task can be crossed off. Then I can return to making more doll clothes--especially the holiday dresses and fleece coats.  Even though the weather is mild here, it won't be long before the dolls will have to wear coats, just like their little girl guardians. And I know the dolls all want a pretty holiday dress, right?  LOL

Finishes!

I'm getting things done around here! Yesterday, indeed, I spent several hours in the sewing room.  When I opened the door, I decided it was time to finish some of the things that I'd started to make for the country store but abandoned when the squirrels began arriving!

To begin, I worked on putting on the borders of this table runner.  I'd run into a math problem as I was adding the pieced border and had set the project aside. Now it's ready for sandwiching and quilting.  Next week, I think.

Here's a closeup of the fabric I used for the gift packages. I absolutely fell in love with the cute little forest animals when I saw this and I think it's perfect in these blocks.  Unfortunately, I only have a little left of it--it'll probably show up in a scrappy quilt sometime in the future, and I'll smile.

Then I turned to the embroidered redwork ornaments that I've been stitching in the evenings.  Those little buggers took a long time to get done--not difficult, just time consuming.  But all 8 are finished and ready to hang on someone's Christmas tree.

I had just enough of this Santa patterned red fabric to use for the back side of the ornaments--and the scraps will turn up in a scrappy quilt. just like the Christmas fabric above!

Then I decided I may as well go ahead and make a couple of wine totes for the store.  I lined one with purple (red) fabric and one with cream (white) fabric and they go along with the sets of coasters I'd made using the same grapey fabric. 

 

I made these totes out of 2 layers of fabric--left out the batting.  I had such a difficult time turning the first one I'd made with the batting that I decided it really wasn't worth it.  I think the plain fabric ones will be fine.  I still want to make a few more, but can't decide on a fabric to use and don't want to buy any more--Lord knows, I have plenty of fabric in my stash!  

So, while it looks as though I didn't accomplish too much, this really did take most of the day to complete.  Why does everything take a lot longer than you'd expect?  Especially when you're in a hurry?  Sheesh!

This morning, I have a group of the guild members coming over to make ice cream cone style ornaments so I have to get a move on. I promised them some coffee and cake to go with and I have to make a run to the store before they arrive.  I'm off!