Needles and Pens

Over the weekend, I finished the purple/lavender ragtime quilt, which was a special order. This was on my to-do list last week, so I guess technically, I did get it finished! Here are a few pictures... It's so hard to accurately show that deep purple in photos, but it is such a pretty, rich purple. I bought a lot of it, too, so there will be more purple raggies in my future for sure! And now for my list of to-dos this week: Dinosaur ragtime quilt - My daughter purchased the dinosaur quilt from my shop this weekend, and I still have enough of the dino fabric to make another and just switch out the photos on my listing. (And that purple above would look great with the dinos...) Make a few more purple/pink scrappy string blocks With all the ragtime quilts I've been making, I must say I'm missing my pieced quilts. Need to stay on top of that project so it isn't completely forgotten/buried in my sewing room! Vacuum Not fun, but my whole house needs a once-ov...

Well, I did it. Over the weekend I got this whole bin of flannel scraps sorted and cut up... ...into many, many pre-cut strips, squares and leftover bits. If I would only learn to do this after each project, I could save myself the killer backache of doing it all at once! At any rate, my to-dos for the week will most definitely involve some flannel. Time to enjoy the result of all that hard work. Here are my goals for the week: Complete one scrappy flannel project Depending on how quickly my order from Fabric.com arrives, begin work on two potential customer quilt orders. Clean the upstairs bathroom, and take down sheetrock on bathtub end wall to expose plumbing (from there, we'll decide if we really want to tackle the rest of that project!) Sounds like plenty of work to me... here goes!

Okay, so it worked pretty well last week. Here's what I plan on accomplishing this week: Straighten up the basement, so I can start using my treadmill (I'm down another two pounds this week, but I'm ready to step things up a notch - literally!) Get the TV hooked up in the basement... so I can start using my treadmill Paint Tim's bedroom Finish another quilt And the quilt I'm working on is this: I put the blocks together over the weekend, pulling colors from the "Woodsy Wonders" panel in the picture. I had planned to use the panel as the backing, but now am having other ideas. I need to make a final decision on the borders and get a move on if I want to have this finished by Friday! But first, I'm going fabric shopping! I have a nice, fat gift card that my husband gave me for Christmas, and with all the sales today, it's the perfect time for a shopping spree. :o) Ready, set, go...

In an effort to hold myself accountable this week, I posted two main goals on Monday to have finished by Friday. And... it worked! Okay, so we didn't quite finish everything, but progress was made! My son's bedroom is one layer closer to clean, and the paint is purchased. In the color of his choice. Very, very yellow. Suffice it to say, this is going to be one bright room. (And we've had some pretty bright rooms through the years.) But I'll do almost anything to inspire the removal of the last few layers. As for the quilting I wanted to get finished -- it's finished! Here's a photo I took before it was washed and crinkled, outside on the fresh-fallen snow. I couldn't resist. You can hardly tell that's really snow, but it is. See? I really had fun with the quilting on this one. On the center star, I did straight-line crosshatching through the checkerboard and into the star tips, and then more straight lines around the diamond surrounding the...

Yes, he is finally here! Our baby grandson, Mason Mitchell, was born on Wednesday, September 26, at 10:32 a.m., a beautiful, healthy, nine pound, 4 ounce bundle of joy. Mama and baby are home from the hospital and doing well. We're all so happy the waiting is over. He is so precious! Just like his big brother, Aaron, so proud of his baby brother. And I am SO proud of him. :o) Yes, I am one happy Mom and Grandma. Here's the quilt I made for Mason, which has been all hush-hush until now. I wanted to do something extra special with this quilt, so I had it longarm quilted by Marcia Wachuta from Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting . She did a beautiful job with the swirls and hearts. I love it! I'm going to free-motion quilt like this someday... I couldn't wait to get the binding on so I could get it washed and see it in all it's crinkly goodness. I finished a baby quilt for my niece the same week, so I had to take a shot of the cous...

Another week has passed and I still don't have a new grandbaby to brag about. Darnit! My poor daughter is two days away from her due date and feels like she's about to burst. Hang in there, baby. It can't be long now! Meanwhile, t-shirts are ready for baby's big brother and sister when the big day arrives (iron-on embroidered letters)... we are beyond prepared. LoL Last week I mentioned how I had fallen in love with a certain CQUSA mystery quilt , and made three in a row using the same pattern. Well now I can share the second of the three -- this was the original "mystery quilt." Starting out, I knew only that I wanted to make a baby girl quilt for my niece's baby shower (she's expecting in November), and that if I used half the number of fabrics called for, I'd get closer to baby quilt size. Here are the fabrics I chose, six fat quarters and Kona white for the sashing: After cutting, the first step was to make these little 8-1/2...

I've been making a lot of gifts lately, so haven't been able to share as I go, but there is one I can share today for Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday , a gift to my husband's longtime friend and co-worker, who is courageously fighting a battle with cancer. I fell in love with this pattern during a recent CQUSA mystery (I made a baby quilt, which I can't share quite yet), and for the first time ever, I've made three quilts in a row using the same pattern. It goes together really quickly, is perfect for showcasing larger prints and is very fat quarter friendly. The full pattern is made up of twelve 18" blocks plus sashing. This one is half that, with only six blocks, measuring approximately 46 x 66 inches. Countless prayers for our friend are stitched into this quilt, and my hope is that he will feel our love for him whenever he uses it. Our prayers continue for Joel and his family... for strength, for healing, and for peace that passes un...

Officially en route to the birthday boy today, and therefore really and truly finished... ( Thanks to Austin's grandma and grandpa, for the extra-special delivery service! ) ... for my great-nephew, Austin, who turned thirteen last week. Since he was born before I really started quilting, he's waited a very long time for his quilt. On the plus side, his is a lot bigger than the baby quilts his younger cousins have received! The inspiration for this quilt came over a year ago, when I joined an online quilting bee to make blocks for Margaret's Hope Chest . One of the requested blocks was a very simple, sports themed hourglass block. If you look closely at the finished quilt for Joshua , you'll see a couple of familiar blocks in there... ... 9-1/2" squares of the sports print and black Kona cotton, cut diagonally both ways, sewn back together and trimmed down to 8-1/2" blocks. Here are all of the blocks sewn together for Austin's quilt, before ...

What? Two posts in one week??? I haven't managed that in awhile. But before time gets away from me again, I wanted to get in an update on the scrappy cowboy quilt I was making for my niece, Annie (of Decorator in a Box ). She had chosen the fabrics and the scrappy layout, and the top was almost finished when I last posted... And just in time for a 4th of July visit from Annie and family, the quilt was finished! She'll be giving it to her friend back in Texas, as a special gift for her baby boy. I ran a little short on the cowboy print for the back, but had just enough of the buffalo plaid flannel left over to piece in the extra length: It's quilted with a gold thread similar to blue jean stitching, all diagonal crosshatching, except for two "blocks" that seemed perfect for quilted cowboy boots. Can you see the boot? I had a hard time getting a picture to show it off. Here's a closeup that shows the borders: And some of the crosshatching: ...

Well I needed a break from house projects, and boy, did I get one. We've had a lot of rain lately, and this week experienced the worst flood in Duluth's history . Not to mention the flooding in Superior, Wisconsin and so many small towns and rural areas surrounding the twin ports. I'm so very thankful that our home was not affected and that there was no loss of human life, but so very saddened by the deaths of several zoo animals and the devastation of the homes and property of so many all around us. Duluth, on a better day... Staining the deck has not been an option -- and getting it stained? Suddenly, not such a big deal. My thoughts and prayers go out to all who are suffering as a result of the floods... Minnesota Public Radio has some good coverage of the flood in photos here . KARE-11 News Coverage What I have been doing during these rainy June days is catching up on my baby quilts. I have two finished (one awaiting baby's name for the label) and a third i...