Giveaway Excitement

It is wonderful reading all of the comments for the Back To School Blog Hop and Giveaway.  So many people who love quilting and even some very new quilters!  I am totally enjoying reading about how long each of you have been quilting. 

I'm packing up my "To Go Bag" with my cathedral window quilt to work on while we are in Florida checking on Roger's mom. 

 I am also taking my featherweight and the kitted up spool blocks just in case I can sew a few of those while we are there.  I will of course have to check out any and all quilt shops that I can locate between here and there.....hehe. 

Don't forget that there are only a few days left in the Blog Hop and Giveawy.  Don't forget to enter.  Love the batiks and can't wait to share some of those with the lucky winner.  Here is the post for the giveaway  Back To School Blog Hop And Giveaway   There are wonderful blogs to check out on the hop.  So better get hopping and enter all of the giveaways.

I'll post updates on what I'm getting accomplished this weekend.  Hope you find some time to quilt this weekend also.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Weekend Quilting Time

I have so enjoyed this weekend and getting to do some quilting.  Some alone, some with mom and some with the bee girls.  Quilting is such a stress reliever for me and I soooooo needed that.

I started out remember making some of the small spool blocks.  I decided to kit some up to take with me to Florida next week just in case we were in the house for extended periods due to the Hurricaine Issac.  Below is some of the blocks as I was cutting.

 I kitted them up into baggies of 10 blocks each.  I thought that would be easy to count as I finished and each baggie would be 10 completed blocks.  I've got 100 blocks kitted up as a start to this project.  These  blocks finish at 3 inches.  Cute...Cute....Cute!

 

Mom was feeling better today so she brought up her box of string blocks for me to square up for her.  We had read the pattern wrong and thought she had to make 200  4 1/2 inch string blocks, but she actually only needed 80.

 We used old phone book pages as her foundation.  I had cut the 200 pages 4 1/2 inches for her to use.

 They square up into some beautiful string blocks.  These are for another Bonnie Hunter quilt she is making.......and I thought she said she was not going to do anymore of those....hehe....think she is hooked.  Just glad to see her feeling better and back to sewing some.

Also started cutting out the pieces for the rest of the quilt for mom.  We had to cut out over 800 half square triangles for the quilt also.....grrrrrrr.  I am strongly considering one of those Accuquilt Studio things.  I think today put me into the "Yep that is the next purchase" modes.

Now to getting some more things packed up for our trip.  Hope you had some quilting time this weekend.  Don't forget to enter the giveaway.
Shelia

Giveaway Time!

We're Celebrating Back To School With A Blog Hop And Giveaway!

Thanks to Michelle Foster at Quilting Gallery for organizing this blog hop.  I know everyone has been running around furiously getting all their children ready to return to school and now it's time for some quilting fun and relaxation.

Last night my bee girls came over and we hand quilted on my mother-in-law's quilt.  We had a blast!  I think we all needed some "girls giggling time".  It's amazing how you can quilt yourself into a corner...Gina......hehe

 

Here was Gina just quilting along and suddenly glasses are off and she is like a pretzel trying to get some stitches into the quilt.  We all rolled......and of course there had to be a picture.  Ever fill like your arms are just not long enough to get that last needle full of stitches in?

 

Below is where we all suddenly ended up at one end of the quilt trying to get this row finished.  We bumped elbows and heads.  We would be sewing along and suddenly someone would hand you their needle and say "here do that piece".  What a great group of ladies!

 



 Mom was sewing a sleeve and label on her challenge quilt and being the quilt police for us....hehe.  She is always able to find a "spot" that we might have missed some stitches.  Here shows the four quilters all ending up on the left side.  What a hoot!

Love having my bee girls come over and play.  Thanks ladies for all the help quilting this quilt.  We spent so much time oohing and awing over the beautiful embroidery that my mother-in-law added to every one of the sunbonnet sue and sam blocks.  How talented she was with those skills.

 Now to my giveaway........

I've put together a jellyroll of 20 batik fabrics from my stash.  I have really grown to so love these beautiful and unique fabrics.  The giveaway is open until September 4th at midnight Eastern Standard Time.  I will draw a winner on September 5th at 5:00 a.m. and post the winner.  Entering is easy........Just follow my blog and leave a comment telling me how many years you have been quilting.

Make sure you visit the rest of the bloggers who are participating in the Giveaway and Blog Hop.  Blog Hop and Giveaway Party Link

Good luck and Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Quilting Time

I'm spending some time today to decompress in my quilting studio.  You know I realized today that even cleaning up in your studio can be very relaxing.  After all you are touching fabric, deciding what to do with it, pressing fabric, cutting fabric, sewing some stitches.  What could be better?  Have you ever wondered what people who have no hobbies at all do to decompress?  I believe part of the drug additction issues in our country could be solved with a great hobby.  We have to keep our minds and hands busy to keep from tumbling down into a pit of despair.  I am so blessed to have a hobby that I can share with friends and family.  The time I get to spend with my mother, grand daughter and friends quilting is priceless. 

The first thing I am working on today is cutting some scraps and kitting up some blocks to use as a leader-ender project.  I'm using Bonnie Hunter's spool blocks this time.  You can find the pattern here.  http://quiltville.blogspot.com 
I love Bonnie's blog and books.  These will be great to have as an easy project. 
I'm going to kit them 10 to a bag so it will be easy to keep up with how many I've made.  Great use of scraps as you only need a 1.5 inch x 7 inch piece of background fabric and 1.5 inch x 9.5 inch piece of spool fabric.  Great for using up those scraps in your bag.

Here is the practice block I made.  This is the 7 pieces you need for the block.  4 squares 1.5 x 1.5 inches of spool fabric, 2 rectangles 1.5 x 3.5 inches background fabric and 1 rectangle 1.5  3.5 inches of spool fabric.

 Sew the squares diagonal to the background fabric, watching carefully the direction of the angle.

 Trim off the extra leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

 I finger pressed the seams.

 Then sew the two spool edge pieces to the middle spool piece and magic, a pieced spool block.

 These blocks are 3.5 inches square and will finish as 3 inch blocks!  Aren't they precious.

Sewing.......my heart sings!

Now to cut and kit up as many blocks as I can this morning. 
Quilting and happy,
Shelia

So Many Projects

Ever feel like this?  After this week I think I need intervenous coffee......hey maybe that would really work....hehe.
Today's plan........get some quilting done!  Sew some stitches into something...I don't care which project it is that I work on, I just want to get something quilty done today.  My brain needs to feel me touching some fabric, hear the hum of my sewing machine and see something come together from small pieces of fabric into something beautiful!
I'll update later.  The bee girls are coming over tonight and we better have some laughter in this house........laughter is good for the soul!  You know when these girls get together that there is always laughter and LOTS OF IT!!
Happy quilting,
Shelia

Great Heart Cath Report

Mom was in emergency room Wednesday morning from 2 am for chest pain.  We did a heart cath and no new blockages, so no new stents.  Dr. San said great blood flow and very little plaque.  What an awesome praise report.  She is home today with me for a couple of days of "Shelia watching"  just to make sure she behaves herself.  This morning she is already in my quilting studio going through my scraps to use for her string quilt.  What a woman!
Our plans were to quilt today and tomorrow anyway......so she could have just skipped all of the hospital shenannigans....hehe.  So proud things are better today.
Thanks for all of the e-mails checking to make sure I was still alive and kicking.  Been working tons of hours and taking care of friends and family.  Think I earned a few more gray hairs this week.
Will update on quilting progress this week.
Many blessings,
Shelia

Bee Night Activity

Last night we were able to get started hand quilting on my mother in law Alberta's quilt.  We had a great time.  I haven't hand quilted in a long time so it took me a little while to get my stitches to where I wanted them.  We had lots of laughs as we all worked at getting our minds back into hand quilting.  Here is (left to right) Gina, me, mom and Suzanne.  Mom can't do the close up work yet after her surgery but she kept us going while we quilted.

 Alberta has put so many little details into this quilt. We had a great time as we did each turn seeing what she had embroidered in the blocks.  Once we were quilting away when Gina said "I can't wait to turn so I can see what else she has put into this block".  Alberta's embroidery skills are wonderful and we were in awe as we quilted to see all of the details.  I'll post pictures sometime of some of the little details in the blocks.  Wonderful memories for this quilt.

Roger was out in the garage working "playing".  Whiskers was his helper.  "this is my car......don't touch"........hehe what a boy.

Off to work this morning.  Have a great day quilting.
Shelia

Sewing Day With Mom

Today I was able to sew with mom for a few hours.  Mom needed to sew some borders onto two Habitat for Humanity quilts that she was working on .  She used the 1600 quilt pattern for the two tops. 

While mom was working on her two tops I was finishing up some more labels for the Habitat quilts.  I made eight more labels.  We use a generic label and place on all of the quilts that are donated for the Habitat for Humanity projects in our guild.  The label reads:

From our hearts

to your

home.

Nimble Thimbles Quilt Guild

Mauldin, SC

Sue gets me to write the inscription on the label fabric then we add strips to frame the label.  Love some of the fabrics I used this time for the labels.

 Next mom and I worked on our Block Quest blocks for our quilt guild meeting.  (Block Quest is where you are given a pattern and you can make as many blocks as you want, you get one chance for each block you make.  We draw out one person's name and they get all of the blocks at the guild meeting).  This month it is an applique block.  We were to fuse the fabric but not do the stitching.  The winner will be able to finish them in whatever way they want to so that they match.  The fabrics were to be brights.

I was using Wonderunder Light fusible for this project. 

 I traced the pieces of the blocks onto the wonderunder light on the paper side of the fusible.  Since I needed to make multiple copies of the pieces so mom and I both could do blocks I cut 4 pieces of fusible and stacked them together.  I then put one staple in each of the pieces.  After cutting the pieces out I numbered each piece of the fusible that were stapled together.  Now I had 4 copies of each piece and only had to trace it once. 

To make each block I just had to release the piece from the bottom of each pile and make the flower.  The other pieces stay stapled together to keep things organized.  If you carefully push the piece away from the staple it will release that side then you can carefully push from the opposite side of the staple and slide the piece off.  I'm all for keeping all of the little pieces organized so I don't loose something.

Here is mom's first block.

 Here is mom's second block.

 I also cleaned up some scraps and added some more pieces to my stash of precut blocks and strips.  Below is my "Scrap" bucket.  I sent this home with mom so she can piece some string scrap blocks.  We cut up some more phone book pages into blocks and strips for her to use as foundations.  We'll decide what to do with them when she gets a big pile of them made.

While writing this I realize we really got a lot done yesterday.  We also got my mother-in-law Alberta's quilt loaded into the hand quilting frame.  The bee girls are coming over tonight play.  Some of us will be hand quilting and some will be working on other projects.  ALL OF US WILL BE LAUGHING.  How wonderful laughter is for the soul!!  Thank you Lord for the priviledge of having wonderful friends who can make me laugh. 

 In preparing to hand quilt this quilt I realized that my frame has been up in the attic for at least 10 years now and as much as I hate to say this and my bee girls will laugh and say.....are  you crazy???   I have to go buy some thread.  I realized that in all of the thread that I have I no longer keep hand quilting thread.  So I had to go buy some hand quilting thread.   So mom and I made a trip to the store for thread.  (So have you girls stopped laughing yet?)

I saw the picture below again today and I always love it!  Yes it is how our brains work.......and yes there are a few brain cells left up there!

Happy quilting everyone.  And don't forget the Think Christmas blog hop is still going on.

Shelia

Think Christmas Blog Hop

 It is finally time for my Think Christmas Blog Hop Post!!

I just love making Christmas quilts and Christmas projects.  Just being able to think of cooler weather helped me get through the hot August day here in South Carolina.

So here we go.........

Christmas Star 2012

I used fabric that I had in my stash to do the Christmas Star.  It is one of the first projects that I have designed on my EQ7 software.  The block finishes at 12-inches.  I originally designed this block to be a single 12 inch block.  Then after playing with the design I decided to make four 6-inch blocks (finished) and combine them to make another design.  





 Below is the first quarter of the block.......fun.....fun....fun.

 The four quarters sewn together and ready to piece into my Christmas Star.

 And now the finished block.  I love the beautiful double star that is formed by piecing four blocks together.  This will definately have a special place in my holiday decorating. 

Thanks to Lesley and Madame Sam for having me participate in the Think Christmas Blog Hop.  I have enjoyed the hopping!!

Don't forget to check out all of the other bloggers who are posting today as well.  So much inspiration!

Grandma's Stories

Sandra Kaye Designs

North Hills Quilter
Luv2Sew
Quilty Doo Dads
The Raspberry Rabbits
Charise Creates
Traveling Quilter
Nancy B at That Other Blog
Selina Quilts

Hope you are enjoying the blog hop......Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Afternoon With My Honey

This afternoon Roger and I went downtown to get my wedding band fixed.  Downtown Greenville is beautiful!  We definately don't get downtown enough.  They have made so many changes to the downtown area and they have put in so many things to do, it is amazing.

 Roger and I decided to walk around downtown a little and we had lunch at Trio's which a little cafe downtown.  It was wonderful.  We had a window table so we could watch the hussle and bussle of everyone walking down the street.  Wonderful relaxing time together.

After we ate a late lunch we decided to walk back down and look through some of the shops.  I love the Mast General Store so of course we had to brouse through there.

 Since I collect nutcrackers I always love seeing O.P. Taylors store.

 Roger has been looking for a TV for his garage so he can watch TV while out there playing......in the man cave.  So we went and picked out the one he has been looking at.  He is in the garage now getting it set up.

I better get busy and finish my post for the Christmas Blog Hop!!
Shelia

Lost Stone

Yesterday morning I lost a diamond out of my engagement/wedding ring.  After almost 24 years it is hard to believe. 

A lot of glare and shadow on the photo but you can see where the large stone is missing.  Roger and I are meeting today with jeweler to get the stone replaced.  Bummed as it has been with me for so long.  I don't remember hitting my hand on anything or having a loose stone. 

I've been working on my blog post for tomorrow.  With 92 degrees outside it is really hard to think Christmas, but I am so excited to be able to do some sewing and designing today.   Just love the time I get to spend in my room.  I have the Olympics playing on my TV, the little kitty cat fan blowing, some cold coca cola and I have having some "Shelia" time!

Have a great day quilting,
Shelia