Nothing says it better than a quilt…

A very dear friend, Sue, suddenly lost her beloved Father recently.

Our quilt bee sent a donation to her Father’s favorite charity group, but it just didn’t seem enough.

Sue is a quilter and as we quilters know- we make many quilts for gifts for others and often never get quilts as gifts ourselves.

Sue is one of those quilters who is always making a baby quilt for a co-worker , friend, or family member.

I wanted to give Sue something to let her know how much we care about her

and something that would give her a bit of comfort as she grieves her great loss.

Nothing says you care like a quilt.  Nothing.

Catch- Up…

I am still plodding along on my Halloween postage stamp quilt. I do love all the fabrics I am using… they represent years and years of collecting.  Some from dolls I made or decor items or quilts…  such fun memories!!

I actually added a design element to all the tiny pieces which I think will look great when it’s quilted and embellished afterwards…

I had 2 lovely family visitors from out of town for the weekend, so did not get any sewing done until this afternoon after they left.

I had bee last week and made my dear beemates  little hedgehog pin cushions that I found a tut for on Pinterest HERE!!

Very fun to make and they turned out so cute and pleasing to all!!

I also forgot to post that a few weeks ago, my dear bee friends and I went to a lecture/trunk show by Alex Anderson.

I have always wanted to meet her, as she taught me how to quilt… well, her “Simply Quilts” TV show did. 

How many of you feel the same way about her?

She was quite fun and down-to-earth…seemed like a girl next door!!  It was fun too see her quilts, too!!

I’ve got bee tomorrow here at my house.  Yay!!

What are you up to this week? 

Sewing on something awesome??

Busy Times!

I looked at my list of things made in July and saw …NOTHING…  so unlike me!

But we are busy with preparations for packing up this tiny apartment…

and getting into our new house! They just finished the landscaping!!  Sod is next!!

We close in less than 2 weeks now!

But I must finish this month’s Schnibble!!

The rail fence blocks are done…

ad the star points are done…

So just gotta get it all together! This Saturday is our monthly bee, so I must finish piecing it and   get it quilted and the binding attached, so I can do the hand work at bee!!

Yogi wants to know what you are up to this week and hopes you are staying cool in this awful heat!!

Hat Trick and a Sweet Tea Cozy!

Bee was on Saturday at Suzanne’s house!  I did finish up my Hat Trick there by sewing down the binding. 

I’m not adding  label because I want to be able to use both sides of it on my table.

I love this Moda collection by Kate Spain called Honey Honey.  I like all her collections… they are always in my colors!!

My dear friend Linda, who lives in Haymarket, about 5 minutes away from the new house we’re building,

took the time to go by the lot and took photos of the building progress and emailed them to me so we could watch the progression from Italy!

So, I wanted to make her something as a little thank you!

She is a tea drinker and so I made her a bee skep tea cozy!

Super fun and easy as pie!  I cut strips of various widths from 7 different yellow fat quarters.

Cut the batting bigger than you want the finished size to be.  Add the strips one at a time with the stich and flip method.

Repeat this process for 2 sides.  I added 2 more layers of batting to make it more insulating! 

I fused a door shaped black scrap on each side and blanket stitched the edges.

Trimmed it to 1/2” larger than finished desired size.  Cut lining this same size.

Stitch around the shape on outside the do the same with the lining but leave a space open at the top for turning.

Then, with right sides together, align the bottom edges and stitch all around. 

Turn it right sides out and push the lining into the shell and top stitch around the bottom. I added some little bee buttons and a flower on the top made with a yoyo and a button.

Done! Time for tea! With honey!! 

(Oh, and Yogi wants a cookie!)

BEE-utiful Friends!

I am so very blessed in so many ways.  I have the most generous and wonderful bee-mates!!  We had bee on Monday at Linda’s gorgeous house.  Look what my phenomenal bee-mates gave me!!

And I was feeling sorry for myself during summer school as they were all off and going to quilt shops around the country (Keepsake, Hancock’s of Paducah) and to Quilt Odyssey in PA… and I was working summer school…

Aren’t bee friends the BEST???  MINE ARE!!!

Thank you dear friends!!  :-)

 

Gettin’ Jiggy Wid It!!

OOKAAAAY… not sure why that title just popped in my head for this post…  but I like it!

I am torn!!  I had this Amy Butler “Soul Blossom” jelly roll sitting on my sewing table calling my name BIG TIME since I got back from the quilt show, so I ruminated a few days, designing a quilt to make with it and came up with one that I think will be a good one.

I sorted the strips into sets of four

I sewed them together into strip sets and then sub-cut them into 2 1/2” strips which will be sewn together to create 16 patch blocks.  I got this far then remembered that this Saturday is our March bee day and I need a quilt to bind there!!  ACK!

So, I am torn between dying to get on with my new quilt design and getting a top quilted to take to bee… which goes along with my goal to quilt at least one top a week until my pile is gone…

So, the top won, sigh, and I have quilted about 75% of it so far.  Will finish it tomorrow after work and get the binding prepared and sewn on ready to do the hand work on Saturday at bee.

Then I can get back to my new quilt!!  YUMMM!

Oh, and one more thing!  I had a little “light bulb over my head” moment the other day chatting with my bee friend Lorraine in the car going to the show.  So, I tried out the new idea today while quilting.  I took one pair of my favorite Atlas quilting gloves and cut the fingertips off the thumbs, and first two fingers on each glove.

I HATE having to take my gloves off each time I need to snag a stray thread or rethread the needle or pull up the bottom thread. 

And with just those three fingers out on both hands, I can leave the gloves on do anything I need while quilting!  YAY!  Why the heck did I never think of this before???  Well, DUH!!

So, what are you working on these days??  Has spring arrived in your area yet?? 

Yogi and I are dreaming of spring!!