Sweet Dreams

Now that we have two homes, we have a few more beds as well as a pull out sofa that need sheets, pillowcases and quilts.  I have a list of quilts I want to make when I have a block of time and I have purchased and/or shared sheet sets for all of the sleeping accommodations.  But we, and many of our guests, like to use more than one pillow.  Of course, standard sets come with one pillowcase for twin beds and two pillowcases for other size beds.  So, I have been totally absorbed in making pillowcases for here and there! 

I have been sorting through my fabric stash lately and have come upon a few pieces that are at least 3/4 of a yard.  Most of them had not been assigned to a project yet so I thought they would make cute pillowcases and reduce my fabric stash.  I needed 1/4 yard of coordinating fabric for the border and about an hour of time for each one. 

I have a few instruction sheets that have come in pillowcase kits or found online.  I have also found patterns that include  small accent stripe which becomes a flange just below the border.  My favorite pattern produces a pillowcase with all seams enclosed in French seams.  I like this one although it takes a few more minutes to do.  This gives a very finished appearance to the inside of the pillowcase.  Well worth the extra time. 

Here are some pillowcases I have made either for gifts or for utilitarian use.  I have several more planned.  Since they take about an hour to make, it gives me my quilting fix on what could be a busy day otherwise.  I like those kinds of projects every once in a while. 

This one was made for my husband for our cabin bedroom.  As you can see, there is a theme to the fabric which may, or may not, have anything to do with his "indoor" hobby!  I'll never tell!

This one was also made for my husband and is representative of his favorite "outdoor" hobby!

This one was made for my grandson and has all his favorite Super Heroes!  He loves to use this at our cabin.

My stepdaughter loves to trout fish and I had the perfect fabric to make her a pillowcase.  She often rents a cabin in the forests of north Jersey and I thought this was great for her to use while camping.  She loved it!

This one was a hoot to make!  It was a gift for my daughter for her birthday and is totally her!  She is still my granola girl! 

Well, better late than never!

I switched to a different computer and it appears that I can now upload pictures again!  Thank goodness I save legacy software.  So, without further adieu (I have always wanted to say that!), here are the other projects I have recently completed. 

This quilt is a companion to the one shown in the last post.  This is for the little sister and is called "Flutterbys" and was  also beautifully quilted by Karen Thompson. 

I used "back art" as part of the backing.  This is quilt-speak for "I misread the fabric requirements for the pattern so I had to improvise".  I think it worked out well. 


The other fun quilty project I worked on was a Mug Rug Swap with my quilting friends online.  Someone in the group commented that is was way too quiet on the group and suggested we start a swap of some kind.  Ended up being mug rugs.  I had never made one of these before and I was amazed at what I learned about them on line.  Each person in the swap was paired with another person.  A deadline was chosen and off we went.  There were no other specifications.  Just make a mug rug.  This is the one I received from my buddy.  It is very sweet and in my favorite colors. 


I made a mug rug for my buddy but it needed to be sent to Sweden.  It was mailed on February 3 which gave it plenty of time to arrive on time.  I knew it would take a bit more postage and time to get through customs.  No biggie, right?  WRONG!!!  I waited patiently for my buddy to let me know it had arrived, but nothing for a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month!  Others were arriving daily to their buddies and being posted for all to ogle.  I felt so bad that mine was nowhere to be found so I made a second one and mailed it off.  Fingers crossed!  Here is the second one I mailed.  Her favorite colors are black and purple.  This one, thankfully, arrived in only 7 days.  Figures, since I paid for the international tracking!   I guess that's the secret!


But that's not the end of the tale!  Another month goes by and I receive a message from my swap buddy.  Guess what arrived in her mailbox that morning!  Yep, the first mug rug I sent!  I was so happy!  We can only surmise that it got stuck in customs some where!  Here is the nomadic mug rug:

Of course, by now I had gotten hooked on making these.  There are quick, use up some of my smaller stash pieces and come in very handy for all the beverages and snacks that are enjoyed either in NJ or our PA cabin.  Here is one I made for me to use when I have my afternoon tea in our cabin. 

Now I have a new project to use up some of my stash: pillowcases! 

Less than a yard of fabric, less than an afternoon of time! 



Time for an update!

Well, I have not been posting very much lately, but I have been quilting quite a bit.  So, I guess an update is warranted. 

I finally finished two youth sized quilts for a wonderful friend and her two granddaughters.  I had started these a while ago but retirement, buying our mountain house and unexpected health issues got in the way of completing them in a timely manner.  But, with everything else out of the way, it was once again back to sewing!

These two quilts were made from the Baby Log Cabin pattern but have different looks due to the fabrics used.  All the fabrics were purchased at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ and they were quilted by Karen Thompson who always knows the best patterns to use on my quilts! 

The first quilt is called "Buds and Birdies". 

I also made one for her little sister which will be shown, hopefully, in my next post.  I also just heard the great news that I will be making one for their little brother who will arrive in a few months!

I have more to share but it appears that Blogger is not cooperating with my browser (or Chrome) these days so I am going to quit while I am ahead at this point.  Hopefully I will be able to resolve these issues without throwing anything against the wall!

Happy New Year - Let the quilting begin!

Hoping the first 18 days of 2014 have been good to everyone!  I have been busy quilting and knitting and enjoying both.  The holidays were crazy around here and the tree is still up though the external decorations as well as the decorations in the other rooms have been taken down.  The Hubs loves the tree lights so I chose to leave it up a while longer.  It is very soothing. 

So, my last post was about the table runners I was making for Christmas gifts.  All have been gifted and very much appreciated.  My sister decided we would not do gifts this year since we both have grands, and I agreed.  But she said nothing about New Year gifts!  She has also just purchased a new house in Delaware and she said it would match her decor perfectly.

Since I had purchased yardage for this table runner and not a kit, I had enough fabric to make two table runners.  In a kit, there is generally a 22" x 54" strip of fabric which makes one runner.  I decided to use the stripes in different ways to get two different looks.  Here's the result:

The first picture shows the runner made for my sister with the backing and quilting.  The second picture is the same runner along side my sister's runner, although a bit smaller to fit one of my tables.  One was made with the dark stripe inside and the smaller one was made the dark stripe on the outside which results in a darker inner band.  I like them both but I think I prefer the smaller one with two dark bands.  That one will be used in our cabin. 

With the triangles that were removed from the ends of the runners, I was able to make a candle mat.  My sister liked that idea so that will go to her new home as well.  I like this pattern since there are very little scraps!

Here are pictures of the snowman runner I made for my sister-in-law who is also a quilter.  These pictures show the front, back and close-up of this runner.  I have cut several of these cuties and will finish them for next year so, hey, for once, I am ahead of the Christmas rush! 

This fabric was purchased during a NJ Shop Hop.  It was odd to find Christmas fabric in April, but the shop said it was delivered late and should have been there for the previous holiday season.  The timing was just perfect for me!