Christmas On The Mind

Tomorrow I plan to put the finishing touches on my blog post for the Christmas blog hop.  I'm working today so tomorrow is my day to spend in my studio.  I can't wait, I definately need some time to unwind and just play. 

Don't forget to stop back by on Thursday August 2nd for my blog hop post. 

I may post some hints tomorrow......hehe.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Olympic Time

2012 London Olympics

The 2012 London Summer Olympics start tonight with the opening ceremonies.  My 92 hours are over this week, I'm exhausted and I plan to be a couch potato tonight and take in the opening ceremonies......if I can stay awake that long.

Maybe I can also get some hand stitching done tonight during the festivities.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia



Roger's Truck Progress

My husband Roger has been customizing his truck for a while now and is in the finishing stages.  Yesterday he was in the garage at 4:00 a.m. to paint the cab of the truck.  It was already 80 degrees there at 4:00 a.m.  YUCK! 

Here he is working on the red stripping that will be down the side of the truck.  And here I thought they just took a brush and went down the side with paint? 

It will be beautiful when he is done.

Below is a picture of the truck bed that he has finished.  Look at that mirror finish.  I had a hard time finding an angle that I could get a picture without all of the reflection.

 A closeup with the red stripe.  He spent a lot of time sanding and painting on this thing.  But it looks great.

 Roger has also gotten my Treadle machine cleaned and ready for me to try out.  We'll bring it into the house hopefully sometime this week.  I can't wait to try her stitching out.

I'm back off to work now.....still have 42 hours of the 92 hours I'm working this week and I am sure feeling it......not as young as I used to be.

Hope you find some quilting time today.
Shelia

Treadle News

Roger is cleaning and oiling the treadle and base for me.  Everything seems to be in great working condition.  While Roger is cleaning and oiling the machine I decided to clean out the 5 drawers in the cabinet.

This is the pile of stuff that was in the drawers.  WOW!  So cool to go through each drawer and see what the last seamstress had put into the drawers.  This pile is just of the sewing stuff that was there.  I also had tubes of glue, piliers, picture hanging brackets, paper clips, push pins, a combination lock with the combination tag still attached, adding machine paper, an electrical cord..??...hair bows, an old curler and bobbie pins.

There were 5 pairs of scissors, 12 bobbins for the treadle, many spools of thread and some of them very old, buttons, pins, needle threaders, machine parts, screws, a roll of stitch witchery and 3 keys......and one of them fits the machine top!  YIPPIE!!

 Below are some pictures of the manual and a loose page that I found in one of the drawers.

 This page was torn but laying it together it shows the attachments for the machine.  (all I want it to be able to do is sew a straight seam.....and I will be a happy camper).

 Roger's cleaning job on the base of the treadle.  Beautiful piece of history.

Do you ever think about what someone would say if they were to clean out your sewing room 100 years from now????

Until next time.....Happy quilting,
Shelia

Thanks For Advice

Thanks for all of the comments and advice on how to finish my mother in law's quilt.

I have decided to finish it with hand quilting.  My husband got my frame down from the attic yesterday.....boy I haven't used that thing in a long time.  Got it cleaned up and hopefully I will get the quilt into the frame early this week.
My bee girls have said that they will help me quilt it.  Maybe with all the help it will not take long to complete the quilt. 
I'll post pictures of the progress as we go and of course the finished project.
Quilter's are such giving people.....wish the rest of the world could learn this giving nature of quilters.  We would truly have a more peaceful planet.  Until then..... I'm off to work again.
Hope you find some time to quilt today.
Shelia

Look What Just Arrived In The Mail

Yep it is my new Bonnie Hunter book....String Fling!!

Love that girls scrappy mind.  She has made 13 more beautiful quilts for this book.  Where does that girl find the time???  I'm sitting in my recliner and reading every page.  Beautiful quilts and illustrations in the book. 

Happy Quilting everyone,

Shelia

Another Finish For Mom

Mom has completed another quilt.  Yippie!!  She completed her Orca Bay Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter.  Mom was 77 years old when she started piecing the quilt and 78 years old when she finished it.    We finished the binding today.  Label is done and she has a quilt for the quilt show in October.

Below is mom with her quilt.  So proud of her piecing in this thing.  Look at all of those quarter and half square triangle blocks in this quilt.  And to think she did all of this piecing prior to getting her cataract surgery done.  Great job mom!

I love that we have this quilting time together.  Priceless!

Happy Quilting,

Shelia

Need Quilters Help....Advice.

I am needing help and opinions of my quilting buddies today.  My mother-in-law Alberta is 78 years old and in failing health.  About 12 years ago I started her out quilting.  She was to make a couple of pillows to learn the technique but decided to keep going and made a large quilt.  Alberta was a wonderful embroiderer and embelished the quilt with lots of embroidery, which is beautiful.  I gave her one of my quilt frames and she started hand quilting the quilt. I also quilted some on it for her when we visited.   As her health became worse she was no longer able to quilt on the quilt.  She then removed the quilt from the frame and stored it in a closet.

Several years ago on a visit to see her she gave me the quilt and requested that I finish it for her.  It has been in my "to do" pile since then.  With my schedule I have not had time to put this back into a frame for hand quilting, nor do I have the time to hand quilt anymore.  Now to my dilema......Several times in the past six months she has stated that she would love to see the quilt finished before she passes away.  Now with the events of the last year and half with losing five family members, including my dad, I feel sure that I need to complete this quilt as soon as possible.

So I need your opinions.  Below are pictures of the quilt.  Beautiful but only 7 blocks have been quilted which is only a 10th of the quilt completed.  So what do I do?

• Rip out the hand quilting and put into longarm and get it quilted as soon as possible.
• Put into my frame and quilt on it when I have time and hand quilt it.  (hoping that she will live until 90+ years as it will take me at least that long with my schedule)
• Pay a hand quilter to finish the quilt

This is the first and only quilt Alberta ever made.  Thanks for helping me decide what to do with this project.

Happy quilting,

Shelia

Another Great Surprise....I'm A Blog Hop Winner Also!

And the winner is....

I received an e-mail this morning from Linda saying that I had won her drawing from the blog hop.  Above is the beautiful sign that will have a special place in my quilting studio.  I totally agree with the sign's statement.
Any Day Spent Quilting Is A Good Day!!
Thanks Linda for the giveaway.  Linda's Blog

Today I plan on getting mom's Orca Bay Mystery quilt into the longarm.  We just returned home from her post-op visit.  She is doing great!

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

An Awesome Surprise!

My son and husband have been up to some sneakiness.  They have been ploting a surprise for me.  Didn't think that they could actually keep a secret.....but guess I was soooooooo wrong.  Roger Jr.'s step father had an old machine from his grandmother that he was wanting to get rid of.  Roger Jr. knew that I loved sewing/quilting and he asked if he could buy it for me.  He and his dad talked and they put together a surprise.  When he and Daniel arrived Friday morning he had this hidden inside the cab of his truck. 

This is my surprise.....a treadle sewing machine.  This is the spinx model and when I searched the serial number at the singer company website I found out that it was made in 1894.

The machine is beautiful.  It needs cleaning up as it has been stored in a shed for years.  All of the drawers are intact and full of stuff.  I can't wait to go through all of the stuff.

 The decals are beautiful, it has egyptian spinx on it.  How interesting that this is the model that they put those decals on.  Some fine scratches but overall beautiful.  All of the mechanisms turn freely.  Need a belt for the treadle but it moves freely.  Roger is going to clean and oil everything up for me and get it into sewing order.  I'll go online and find a belt to order.  As far as I can tell that is all it needs, except maybe some new needles.

 It also has the coffin case cover. 

This is information I found about the treadle machine.

 And a line drawing of the sewing mechanism patent application.

Boys I really think  you outdid yourself this time.  I must have really done something right to have such a wonderful son and husband.  Thanks for the great surprise.  I am going to have a blast learning to use this machine.  Next time we have a power outage I can still quilt......hehehe.

I'll post more pictures as we get it cleaned up and all the stuff sorted.

Happy Quilting,

Shelia

Red White & Blue Bloghop Giveaway Winner!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GIVEAWAY WINNER!

I used the Random Number Generator to find the winner for my giveaway.  I had 74 comments left on my bloghop post.  The winning number was 17.

SewWhatsNew is the winner of my giveaway for the Red White and Blue Blog hop.  Congratulations.  I have sent you an e-mail and will send your prize out when I receive your contact information.  Thanks for visiting my blog during the blog hop.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Family Blessings...Life Is Good!

Our Son Roger Jr. and grandson Daniel arrived early this morning from Florida.  Today we were able to get together with our oldest Grandson Roger III and granddaughter Haley.  What a wonderful day with them.
Below is right to left Roger III, Roger Jr, Haley and Daniel up top.

 Then we got group pictures.  Left to right:
Haley, Michael (Haley's boyfriend), Roger III, Roger Jr. Me and Mom, Daniel in front.

 Then I had to get a profile picture of Haley.  Here she is 31 weeks pregnant with our first Great Grand Son. They are going to name him Anthony. 

 Another group picture with Haley, Michael, Daniel, me and Roger Sr. and Roger III in back.  Wish I had a tripod today.

Mom and I took care of some probate stuff today.  Today is Daddy's birthday, he would have been 78 years old today.  Sure missed him during this gathering.  Give everyone you love extra hugs today....life is short and you never know who will not be in the next group picture you take.

Today my youngest grandson here, Daniel, asked if he could sew something with me.....so of course grandma whipped out the bucket of precut 3 1/2 in squares and let him pick out what colors he liked.  He decided that he wanted to use the colors of his baseball team in Panama City. 

Here he is piecing his first block.



 He is very proud of his accomplishment.

 Now for the block using his team colors.

 He also wanted to put a "C" on it to symbolize his Callaway Cougars.  Reminded him later that it is also C for Chandler.  He he is doing a satin stitch around the C.  I think he did great for his first time doing machine applique.

 His finished applique.

This is Daniel with his first Mug Mat. 

Forgot to show  you that we used Pat Sloan's machine binding technique.  He chose to use the herringbone stitch instead of the blanket stitch and I really think I like it too.  He did wonderful  I think.

Here is the mug mat from the back...he insisted on using his first block on the back and his second one on the front.

TaDah!  A finished mug mat in only an hour.  Daniel is currently 11 1/2 years old.  What a wonderful like it is!  He even used the herringbone stitch to quilt over the seam lines.  Cute as a button.

Enough excitement for today.  Tomorrow I have to work but Roger will have some time with the grands.  Everyone will be back over on Sunday before Roger and Daniel have to return to Florida.....bummer!!

Happy Quilting,

Shelia

Red, White and Blue Blog Hop Block

I am so thrilled to be participating in the Red, White and Blue Blog Hop. I have named my block Paul's Celebration in honor of my dad.  He would have turned 78 on July13th.

Paul's Celebration Block

The block finishes at 12-inches. The three fabrics I used were:
Red-Dela Des Cimes From Studio E Fabrics
White- Paisley from Hoffman Fabrics
Blue - Hoffman screen print fabric
I think that the colors and textures of the fabric worked beautifully in the block. 

Now to the directions.
From your Red fabric cut:
2-     2-1/2 inch squares
8-    2-7/8 inch squares and cut them in half diagonally to make 16 red triangles

From your White fabric cut:
18-    2-1/2 inch squares

From your Blue fabric cut:
8-    2-1/2 inch squares
8-    2- 7/8 inch squares and cut them in half diagonally to make 16 blue triangles.

Your pile of cut pieces will look like this.  (I have cut pieces for multiple blocks)

Now we'll start piecing the block. 
I like to layout the block pieces onto a large ruler beside my sewing machine so that I can pick up the pieces, sew them and put them back into place so I don't loose the design I am trying to piece.  Especially when I have a block with lots of pieces.  Below I have all of the pieces laid out onto my ruler and ready to piece.

I first make the half-square triangle blocks by piecing one red and one blue triangle together.  After you sew together the half-square triangle blocks square them up to 2 1/2 inch blocks and trim off the dog ears.

 Your results is nicely trimmed blocks.  Set these aside for piecing the blocks.

 I also utilize chain piecing to save time and thread while piecing.

 Once you have the half-square triangle blocks done you can start piecing the blocks.  Following the block picture piece one half-square triangle block to a white square, then one red to one white square and another half-square triangle block to a white square.  You now have began the three rows of this block.  Press your seams open or to the side if you wish.  Now piece another half-square triangle block to the opposite side of the white block, another white square to the opposite side of the red square and another half-square triangle block to the opposite side of the white block.  Press again.
Now matching seams you can sew the three rows together.  Carefully watching the block design placement.

 Once you have completed sewing the three rows together press and square up to 6-1/2 inch block.  I love to use the diagonal arrows when I square up a block to make sure I do no nip off any points on the block.  You can see this in the photo below the arrows run from the right upper corner to the left lower corner.

Next you start piecing the 9-patch blocks. 

Then sew the three rows together into the 9-patch block.

 Now trim the blocks to 6-1/2 inch.  Again I use the diagonal arrows to keep the block square as I trim.

Next we start to piece the block together by sewing one 9-patch to one churn dash block for the first row, then a churn dash block to a 9-patch block for the second row.  Sew the two sections together to form your 12 1/2 inch block.  Trim to 12-1/2 inch.

This is the completed block.  Love the play of the red churn dash blocks within the blue and white. 
I also made a project from the Paul's Celebration Block.  I made a table runner to use in my home during July.  The runner is named Paul's Celebration also in honor of my dad.  I added red sashing between 3 blocks.  Then I added red border and then a blue & white border.  I appliqued stars in the corners to complete the table runner.

The backing fabric was left over from quilting my uncle's quilt which is the Navy Seal.  I quilted it on my longarm freehand.  I added red rick rack into the binding.  Below is a closeup view of some of the quilting.

 Some of the border quilting with the rick rack I added in the binding.  This is the first time I have added anything into the binding.  I really like the effect.

 Next is a view of the stars in the corners. 

 And finally the finished table runner. 

Here's the table runner with my favorite nutcracker.  Dad always loved this patriotic little guy.....and I think he looks great on Paul's Celebration Table Runner.

 A close up of the little guy.

I hope you have enjoyed my red, white and blue block I designed, the table runner designed from the blocks and the patriotic blog post today.  If you are a blogger and follow my blog please put a blurb about the blog hop and my post on your blog. Thanks for helping spread the love of quilting.

Here are the other quilters who are also posting today.  Make sure to hop over to their blogs and see what other beautiful quilt blocks are showing today.

Amanda Murphy

The Slow Quilter

Creativity Amongst Chaos

Mocha Wild Child

Diane P (Hosted by Jane)

Now for our giveaway.....

My giveaway consists of Red, White and Blue embelishment package, Sewers Aid, Thimble-It, A hand beaded thimble necklace, a sewing travel bag and a Sunbonnet Sue needle holder.

Here's how to enter the drawing:

• Follow my blog. 
• Leave a comment about the project and tell me your favorite 4th of July celebration ideas. 
• Post your comments by midnight July 16th to be included in the drawing.
• I'll draw for a winner at the end of the bloghop on July 17th so be sure to check back and see who the lucky winner is.

The full bloghop schedule can be found at www.janesfabrics.blogspot.com

Happy quilting,

Shelia