Bee Girls All Together Again!!!

With so many things going on during the summer months we are not always able to get all of us together for bee night, but tonight we were all here.  So in honor of this I had Roger take a new bee picture.

The Chicken Coop is complete....all the peeps are here!!

We had a great time tonight with lots of laughter.  You know that laughter is good for the soul.  We decided to do a salad bar for supper tonight.  Yes we do a great salad bar.  Yum...Yum!

Debbie and mom were piecing blocks for a habitat quilt.

Suzanne brought this tumbler quilt of valor to put in the longarm tonight.  She cut out the pieces on the accuquilt last week.  It's beautiful.

 Susan is hand quilting on her hand applique basket quilt.  It is beautiful.

 Sue was whipping down a binding on a quilt for a friend.

 Gina was hand quilting on a flannel quilt tonight.

 More show and share from Suzanne.  Another pieced quilt of valor top.  We need 14 quilts for a group presentation coming up soon.  So we are all piecing, piecing, piecing to make sure we get enough done.  Suzanne is doing a great job as the upstate coordinator for QOV.

 Here are some of those busy little bees......hehe.

As for me tonight I'm doing some hand quilting on my mother in law's quilt.  Trying to get it finished so I can show her the quilt. 

So that is another bee night.  Hope you have a great quilting week.
Shelia

Making Fig Preserves

Mom brought me about six pounds of figs from the last harvest of her tree.  I am making fig preserves today.  It took me a while to dig out all of my canning stuff as I have not canned anything in a LONG time.

I was able to get 16 4 oz. jars of preserves from the figs mom brought me.  These will be great little gifts.

 My hubby was out pressure washing our drive way while I was making preserves.  This is what I found in our front drive when I went out to talk to him.  What a boy!!  Love that man of mine.

Happy quilting or canning,
Shelia

Quilting Fun

Another Bee night with the girls.  Can I say how special these quilters are to me!  Good friends are hard to find, but great friends are a true blessing from God.  I am very blessed!

Susan was trying to piece some blocks when Whiskers decided that she needed his help.  He thinks this is his studio and we are occasionally allowed to play in his room.  But the cost of admission is ATTENTION.....to him that is!

 I'm sewing the binding on mom's Texas braid quilt.

Here's a picture of her beautiful scrappy Texas Braid quilt.  We put it over the swing.  Beautiful!

What would we all do without our quilting?  I don't know how people in this world survive without a hobby......you have to let stress out somehow and I choose to do it with stitches.

Happy quilting,
Shelia

Another Finished Quilt.

Another finished quilt!! YIPPIE!  This one started out as one of those 1800 quilts where you sew 2 1/2 inch strips end to end to end....Of course I just could not do it as the pattern stated.  I inserted 2 1/2 inch squares randomly along the strips to add more character.  When I finished the quilt was waaaaay too long for the width.  So I took 18-inches off of the length and re-added the borders.  (I forgot to say that I made the borders then did not like the length compared to the width.  Thank goodness for seam rippers)

I really like the look now.  I used up a lot of my pink and brown 2 1/2 inch strips and 2 1/2 inch squares.

Label attached....Quilt Complete!

 I also had time today to put out some of the fall quilts in the dinning room.  I love my fireplace mantle quilt.

 Happy Quilting,
Shelia

What Day Is It???? What Day Is It????

It's Hump Day and It's Give Away Drawing Day!!

The Pin it blog hop has ended.....awwww.  But today is the drawing day for my giveaway.

And

The

Winner

IS......
Heidi at grizz-n-dove
CONGRATULATIONS HEIDI!!
I've sent you an e-mail confirming your win.

 

Thanks to everyone who viewed my blog for the blog hop and all of the great comments I received.  I again enjoyed being part of one of Madamme Sam's blog hops.
 

Happy Quilting,

Shelia

 



IT'S MY DAY! Pin It Pin cushion Blog Hop......And Giveaway.

 

Pin cushions how we love them.  So many shapes and sizes to choose from.

 

Pin cushion:  Pin.cush.ion  noun

A small firm cushion into which pins are stuck when not in use.

 

Oh...but they miss the point.  For quilter's and sewer's pin cushions are items that we love and use daily.  They provide us with many hours of use for our craft.  I believe that if we were to answer honestly most of us would admit to owning many, many pin cushions.  I myself have 18 prior to this blog hop.  Wow...I knew I had a lot but not that many!  Now with my newly made pin cushion for this blog hop I have 19.  Oh My!

Now let's get down to the business of my newest pin cushion creation.

I was very excited when I was accepted into this blog hop.  I've had an idea for a while to make a different pin cushion and this was the catalyst to get it made.  Below is my inspiration.  My nursing cap.  I received this cap when I graduated from nursing school in 1988.  We wore them with pride for many years.  Today we do not wear our caps, but to nurses who earned them it is a reminder of how hard we worked to obtain our RN license.  It now resides in my cedar chest, but today it is the star attraction in the quilt studio.

I was able to unbutton the cap and trace the shape to make a pattern.  This is the full size nursing cap pattern I made.

Since I wanted to make a smaller version of the cap I took the pattern and used the dimensions to draw a new pattern onto grid paper to fit within a 6-inch block.  I wanted to make a tiny little nurses cap.

From that scaled down version in my design book I was able to make the first pattern on the right which did not come together in the back correctly, so I lengthened the side pieces and cut out a second pattern which worked.

I used a satin stitch with green thread to do the ribbon across the cap, then put a backing, sewed it together leaving a space to turn inside out.  I then stuffed my little lady and tacked the back together to form the cap.  And this is my final Nursing Cap Pin Cushion.

 

This is a picture of the back of the nursing cap.

I am very proud of this little lady!

 

Now she joins my other pin cushions as part of my working collection.....although I don't think she will be used as much as the others are.

 

Speaking of collections.  How many of us over the years have collected pin cushions?  I think most sewers and quilters have collected many of these little useful objects.  And of course they come in all shapes and sizes.....as this blog hop is reminding us.  Each one has it's own personality.

After taking that group picture I found another one of my pin cushions that is in my "to go" bag.  This is the one that my sweet friend Suzanne made for me a few years ago.  I love it!  It is a wrist cushion.

I also acquired two additional pin cushions on a recent trip Roger and I took.
The first one is so unique.  It is a rustic sunflower pin cushion that is mounted on an old spring.  I just couldn't leave it in the antique shop.

The next acquisition was an old boot pin cushion.  The maker put a lot of work into this cutie pie!

Now I guess I have to adjust my number of pin cushions to 22.  Didn't realize I had that many.......but hey.....you can never have too many pin cushions!!

As part of this blog hop I'm also having a giveaway.  The giveaway includes the following items:  A "tools for stash management" zipper bag, five quilt labels, a travel sewing kit, a sunbonnet sue needle holder, a pair of tweezers, forcepts and scissors and 10 binding clips.

I will draw for a winner on September 18th after the Pin it Pin Cushion Blog Hop ends.  How can enter to you win?  Become a follower of my blog and leave a comment on my post telling me how long you have been quilting and how many pin cushions you currently have. 

I also will have a second giveaway if my "blog followers" number goes over 200 during the blog hop.  I currently have 142 followers as of the day of the post.  If we go over 200 I will also give away 100 die cut scrap pieces 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch rectangles to a second winner. 

Hope you have enjoyed the blog hop.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway.  Many thanks to Kristen at Meadowbrook for being our cheerleader and host for this blog hop.  And many thanks to Madame Samm over at Sew We Quilt for always keeping us inspired with all of the blog hops.  You ladies ROCK!

Now follow the links below to visit all of the other wonderful blogs and their post for the blog hop.

Quilting In South Carolina (you are here)

Negligent Style

Debby Kratovil quilts

Sew Many Yarns

News From Bear Hollow

Around The Homestead

Living With Purpose

Buzzing and Bumbling

Colorpoint Quilter

Scraps Of Life

Daisy Days

Stitchduchess

Life @ RuffHaven

AnnieOak Designs

Grandmama's Stories

Suebee's World

Handmade by Mama

 

And of course follow all of the blog lists at

Sew We Quilt

 

Happy Quilting,
Shelia