Snow Time Makes Sewing Time!

Well, this will most likely be our last trip to our cabin in the Poconos for 2013.  We bought our cabin just about a year ago and spent a lot of that year fixing the place up and making it our own.  It was in wonderful shape when we purchased it but we turned the hot tub room into a 3 season room with new carpet and wicker furniture, transformed the bunk room into a family room, replaced the kitchen sink, installed all new window treatments,  and most recently, painted the upstairs bathroom and replaced the vintage medicine cabinet and light fixture with new ones.  Now I can get busy sewing! 

The first project I started and finished this week was not a quilting project but is part of my quest to find a way to give back to the community in some way and also to have projects I can work on when watching TV with the Hubs or when I am between quilting projects.  Two New Year activities on my list are to make knitted caps for Newborns in Need and little quilts for Project Linus.  I have quite an inventory of both yarn and fabric so I am set to go on both activities.  Since I have not knitted baby hats in quite some time, I decided to knit a prototype cap this week.  I have heard that using double pointed needles after a long hiatus is like riding a bike and I found that to be true.  I made a tiny cap for a preemie which took less than a day and was a perfect practice piece.  I was able to maintain my gauge and produced a hat 5" tall with a 10" circumference.  It is the size of my fist.  This was made with variegated yarn and size 3 double pointed needles.

The second project that I completed, also in one day, is a Christmas table runner for the dining table at our cabin.  It was made using the Easy Striped Table Runner pattern by Karen Montgomery.  This is the second table runner I have made using this pattern.  You can see my Timesaver Table Runner here.  (This table runner was a gift for a dear friend who just bought a canal front home several months before Hurricane Sandy hit the area.  Their home was under 4 feet of water but the table runner survived!  It took some time but they have restored their home and were blessed to enjoy it this summer.)  When using this pattern, it is very interesting to see the variations resulting from the way the fabric is cut.  My next table runner project will illustrate this.  The table runner finishes to 16" x 45" so you could get two of them out of 1.5 yards of fabric.  This runner was made from a kit of pre-cut yardage which measured 22" x 54" and included backing fabric as well.  I also used 18" batting which I purchased from a roll of batting during last year's NJ Shop Hop.  This is a perfect size for table runners and results in very few scraps.  

The candle holder was a recent gift from my sister-in-law.  It was made from the trunk of a tree that grew on the front lawn of the house where she and her 5 siblings were raised, my Hubs being one of those siblings.  The tree was planted in the early 50s and recently declined into poor health which necessitated it being felled.  Each of the siblings now have a wonderful memory of that house and that tree. 

            

And of course, I had a group of QIs watching my every move while I was stitching.

Got to run back to making these wonderful runners!













Time to be Thankful

Well, it's the end of November - how did that happen?  I have finished a few things, started a few things and planned a few things.  But before I get into those topics, I want to correct an error from my previous post about the barn quilts.  It appears that the NJ barn quilt page is down.  I have inquired about an update but have not heard back yet. 

But on that note, I have finished my own version of a barn quilt which will be hung on our cabin in the Poconos when the weather warms above freezing!  Here is the finished product:

It is appropriately enough, a log cabin block!

 

 

I have also finished, well except for the binding, two little quilts (42" x 59") for a friends two grand daughters, ages 2 and 1.  They were fun to do and were quilted by Karen Thompson.  These are on schedule for completion the next two weeks. 

 

 

 

 Her bedroom is done in pink and brown and I was lucky enough to find this fabric at my LQS. 

 

Here is her sister's quilt:

 

 The binding has been started and I decided to try these little clips rather than pinning.  I will let you know how that goes. 

 

This quilt has "back art" included on the back.  This was a, um, design flaw.  The fabric requirements were a bit fuzzy on the pattern for this quilt so I was short by a few inches.  I had extra of the coordinating fabrics so I got creative.  I like this pattern so I rewrote the fabric requirements for my own future reference.  I did not have this issue with the first quilt since I already had that fabric which turned out to be more than enough. 

 

So, for my planned projects, there is a quilt for my son for no particular reason other than my sweet grand daughter asked for it.  On a recent trip to Florida to visit them, she asked if I could make him a Florida Gator quilt that he could use when he was watching the games.  We shopped together for the fabric and found Florida Gator themed fabric.  I may have enough for a pillow case as well. 

 

Then there are some table runners on the list for Christmas.  One will be made using a template from the Missouri Quilt Company.  I have recently gotten hooked on their You Tube tutorials.  I have a lot of holiday fabrics so this should be a good way to use some of them. 

 

As part of my always on-going organization of my sewing room, I have now taken inventory of my rulers and tools.  An eye opening experience.  I will put this in a database of sorts that can be stored on my smartphone so I can minimize duplication of rulers which I discovered has been a problem in the past!  I will share my totals in a future blog - but trust me, it will be a bit of a shocker. 

 

Well, enough for now.  We are packing up to go home to the NJ abode after a wonderful birthday week at the cabin.  Got lots of snow but I was also able to get lots of quilting done!  I like those weeks! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family!  It is certainly a time for me to be thankful on multiple levels. 

 

My quest to quilt continues!

 

 

  

 





Summer is done, time for some quilting fun!

Well, it's September already!  The grands are back in school, Camp Nana is officially closed until next year, the pool at the cabin is closed for the season and the stream of summer visitors to the mountains has slowed to a crawl.  The major projects at the cabin have been completed including a new kitchen sink (my personal favorite).  With a full summer schedule which included boating on the bay or fishing on the lake, time to quilt was just about non-existent.  I did read my favorite quilting magazines though and managed to organize my list of quilting projects by priority and status so could hit the ground running when quilting time became more plentiful.

I did sneak some quilty activities in here and there which were fun.  I am a participant in a "baseball" swap with an online group.  I have been a member in this group for many years and this is the third time I am participating in this swap which is based on how the various baseball teams do midway through the season and at the end of the season.  You either get or give 6.5" squares depending on how your team did.  I need to cut 109 squares to deliver to others in the swap.  I am getting back more than that so my teams did pretty good so far. 

Also, I finished the cover for the electrical box in our family room at the cabin.  You can see the box in my March 16 post.  Here is the finished project:

 

The cover will be hung using a swing-arm curtain rod so the box can be accessed when needed.  The quilting lines on the cover match the pattern on the paneling behind the electrical box. 

 

 

A new project that I started is quilt related but contains no fabric, thread or sewing.  I have long been a fan of barn quilts.  I hope to follow the American Quilt Trail one these days.  My project is to create a painted barn quilt to hang on the outside of our cabin in the peak of the roof overhanging the front deck.  This is also a great project to do together with my husband who is much better with the circular saw :-)  So far, we (meaning my husband) have cut the base of the quilt from really nice wood based on the location we have chosen.  I have drawn the lines for the block to be used on the quilt - it is a log cabin block, of course!  Now, the board will be sealed to protect it from the weather and then the painting will begin.  We will see how well this "frog" tape really works.  Once the painting is done, another coat of sealer will be applied to protect the block from the mountain weather.   After a suitable drying time, it will be hung on our cabin.  Here is what we have done so far:

 

Square block with countersunk screw holes.

Pencil lines have been added for the "logs" of the quilt.

 

 

Here are the paints that will be used.  Sixteen different colors will be used for the light and dark logs.  Other paints will also be used for the background and edges of the board.  Red will be used for the center of the block as is traditional in log cabin quilts.   

 

If you would like see more information on barn quilts, you can use Google or other search engine or go to www.americanquilttrail.com to read about the history of barn quilts as well as see pictures of some of these works of art.  There are approximately 3200 of these gems spread over 30 states.  To read about the barn quilts in NJ, go to www.njbarnquilts.com where you can also download a brochure for traveling a trail to see all the NJ quilts.

 





The quest took a vacation of sorts!

Well, my quest to quilt ran into a bit of detour due to a busy schedule of vacations, working on our mountain house and getting our boat out of dry dock and launched.  That doesn't leave much free time but I did manage to get some quilts finished and delivered and just recently, was able to get two more blocks from the Sunday Scrap Basket completed.  It's amazing what you can get done when the hubs goes fishing! 

These quilts were made for a dear friend's grandson and granddaughter.    They were beautifully machine quilted by Karen Thompson.  So, once I finished the bindings, they were delivered.  I like it when I can check things off my quilts-to-do list!  Check, and check! 
 

Mason's Dino Quilt

 

The back of the quilt

 

A close up of the quilting - looks like dino claws!

  - 

Regan's quilt

 

I did some back art on the backing to make the best use of the fabric.

 

You can see the sweet quilting in this photo. 

And here are the two blocks I made for the Sunday Scrap Basket project.  I planned to make four blocks and was lucky enough to get these two squeezed out when the Hubs decided to leave from the cabin a day early due to the pending rain from TS Andrea.  Although I can quilt in any storm, he cannot fish.  Fishing trumps quilting (his rules, not mine) so I got trumped and had to pack up.  It was a wise move given the local road flooding, but don't tell him I said that!  These are blocks 5 and 6.  The Hubs is planning to work on the boat this friday so if the weather holds, I should be able to get a few more blocks completed. 

Kirby is guarding the two blocks I was able to get done so no one would walk on them.  As if!

More to come so, I feel a productive week coming on!