It's the day before Christmas, and all through the house.........

 Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse......

Is this your favorite Christmas story?  I know it is mine.

These past few days/weeks, there has been a lot of designing, sewing, quilting and the such around our house in preparation for the Christmas season.

This is my newest quilt, Heart and Home.  It is off the quilting frame now and awaiting time for me to prepare and sew on the binding, hanging sleeve and put its label on it.








I really did some custom quilting on this one to make the parts stand out.  Let me know what you think of the quilting.  I would love some feed back, good or bad or just other ideas.

This is a quilted table runner is for Jeff's youngest son.  He asked for a table runner in red and black for his coffee table that his dad made for him last year.  I really like how it turned out.  I think I need to make another one or two in different colors.  It was easy and fast to make.  I used the backing fabric as the binding as well.  I guess I didn't get that picture taken once it was finished.  I think he'll like it.  Hope so, anyway.

Now, on to cooking, baking and cleaning house for company tomorrow.

It looks like it's going to be ham, shoepeg corn, scalloped potatoes, broccoli, rice and cheese casserole with some purple hull peas.  Let's top it off with some banana cream pie, pumpkin bread and pumpkin cheesecake.  Doesn't that all sound delicious?

What is on your agenda for Christmas dinner?  I'm sure it will all be just yummy.

Merry Christmas to all my friends, family and blog followers!  Hoping for a healthy and prosperous New Year in 2016!

Happy quilting!

Glenda

Heart and Home quilt

I've been working in my studio on this newest quilt, Heart and Home.

Aren't the colors just the best?  I have really enjoyed working on it these past couple of weeks.

With the heart in the center, it makes you think of home, doesn't it?  Perfect to hang on the wall or snuggle under, right?

Here it is on the quilting frame.  I'm doing some real custom quilting on it.  This block is called flower box.  Doesn't it look like a flower box in your garden?

 Here is the heart block and the tree block.  You can see some of the quilting I have done on it.  Echoing around the heart, then added some meander fill on the bottom half, with rays at the top.

The tree block I added a swirl with a basket at the bottom and a star at the top.  This one isn't finished yet.  I will add some more quilting before it will be finished.

Working right now on the house block.  It has a door and 5 windows.  I am working on bricks for the main walls of the house and there will be shingles for the roof and more bricks on the chimneys.  Won't that be cute?

 Not sure how I will finish the outer borders just yet.  It's a work in progress.


For today, I had to take it off the quilting frame so Jeff can put a customer quilt on to quilt before the week is out.  A last minute job for a Christmas gift.

I will get back to this one next week sometime, I hope.

What are you working on now?  More Christmas gifts?  What is that special someone going to get under the tree this year?

Happy quilting!

Glenda

Vintage Brother Sewing Machine

We Found this cute little blue/green vintage Brother Sewing Machine 1351A at an antique store a few weeks ago while traveling to the War Eagle Craft Fair in October.  It is mostly really grungy and dirty.  It needs a little TLC and some cleaning.  I haven't ventured to plug it in yet, but I think it will work just fine.

Isn't it just the cutest little machine?  I can't wait to try it out!

I have been searching for information about it online.  So far, I have found nothing on it.  Basically, I am looking for a manual.  This one threads a little different than other machines I have owned in the past and I think I may need a new tension knob, after some preliminary investigation and inspection.

If anyone can direct me to some information, I would be grateful.

Do you have a vintage machine or two in your sewing studio?  Do you use them?

I would love to hear about your little cuties!

Happy sewing and quilting today!
Glenda

It's a cold and dreary day in Oklahoma today........

I guess it was bound to happen sometime.......

What are you doing today in your work studio?


I am working at my real job today, but was doing some work in my studio over the weekend.

Here are some cute upcycled denim jeans bags that I finished up.  Too cute for that little something to carry a cell phone or for that little grown up girl to carry all her important stuff in.

First there is one with butterflies and a cute pink flower.

 Then a patchwork heart.

And isn't this one cute with the little girl and pink flower?

They all have a patchwork pocket on the back for additional storing of things.  Just what every little or grown up girl would want.  I will have them in my Etsy shop before the day is out.

I also worked on some big girl bags as well.  I didn't get them finished or any pictures of them yet, but maybe by the end of the week.......

What are you working on?  Show your projects here!  I would love to see them!

Happy Crafting and Quilting!

Glenda 

Busy time in the Sewing Studio

First off......can you believe that I have a clean corner to work in?  This table was piled high with unfinished projects, fabrics, books, patterns, and all kinds of things for a while now.  This little gem was on a tv tray right in front of the table.  While I will never share the before pic, I made quite a change in this little corner of my sewing room.

What prompted me to clean this little corner, you ask?  Well, it's like this........I can't deal too long with messy and there was a project under that pile somewhere that my daughter asked if I could do for her last year at the end of winter.  Knowing she would soon want me to finish that little project, with colder weather approaching, I decided rather than just hunt that project out of the pile, I would begin with putting things away and organizing as I went and then I would do her little project for her.

She had a couple of shirts that she wanted some sort of embroidery on.  I hunted up a pattern and this is what I did for her over this past weekend.

Same design on both shirts, different colors.  I think she'll like them.

So, then, I ran across this little jewel that I started months ago and had gotten buried on that table.  So, I finished it into a cute wall hanging for the dining room.  It has really subdued colors, but I think it will work well for the wall.  Jeff liked the roosters on it.  He has a couple on the shelf above the dining room table.

 This was a test stitch-out for the embroidery for my daughters shirts and it looked good, so I made a Travel sized pillow case out of it.  Colors were Purple and Grey.  Then I did a band at the top of the case with a cute purple fabric.

I also managed to get some Baby Burp Cloths made last weekend too!  Wow!  Was I productive or what?  Best I've done in a long while.  I guess I was just in the mood.

These prefolded diapers were some I had left from a package that I did some custom burp cloths for a customer.  Yes, they too had taken up residence on that table I mentioned in the first part of this post.  Are we beginning to see how piled up that table was?

 I found some books I had forgotten were some inspiration for some quilts that I was going to do and some patterns that I had used and then got piled there as well.

I am really glad I got a bunch of projects done, finished, off the pile, or whatever you want to call it.  I have a place for my vintage Singer Fashion Mate sewing machine to sit, waiting to be used at a moments notice, AND....I can actually see my tv again!  How sad is that?  LOL

Understand that organizing and putting away things will always be a work in progress, I am very glad I was able to make some progress in the past couple of weeks.  Yes, it has taken me two weeks to get this far.  I still have 3 little bins of scrap fabric pieces that I need to go through and sort then put them into their little sorted bins.

What projects or organization have you been able to do recently?  Share them with me!  I would love to see!.


Hope you have a Happy Quilting week!
Glenda

Vintage Grandmother's Flower Garden

These are truly vintage Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks.  I received these blocks from Jeff's aunt a month or so ago while we were visiting.  She picked the bag up at an auction some time ago and didn't know what to do with them.

Of course, I couldn't resist saying, "I can figure out something to do with them!"

She gave them to me.  I'm so excited!  I can honestly say that I have never seen any of these fabrics before, so I'm not sure how old they really are.  I love vintage fabric and vintage quilts!

There are 22 blocks that are assembled and a stack of pieces that I didn't count.  I pressed all of them and took these pictures.

As soon as I finish my current hexie project, I'm going to start on the leftover pieces and see how large a pieced project I can end up with.  If I remember right, they are 2-1/2" hexies, I don't remember for sure.

I'm thinking I may put some unbleached muslin hexies with them to surround the existing blocks and finish it up somehow to come out with a rectangular quilt when I finish it.

Looks like I need to get some closer pics of the blocks and pieces.  I'll keep you posted with my progress and we'll see where it takes me.

And there are also so bonus miscellaneous blocks that she gave me as well.  I put them away for the time being in a cardboard box for safe keeping until I can do something with them.  It's like a treasure hunt!  And you never know where you'll end up!

Do you have some surprise fabric pieces hiding somewhere waiting on you?  I would love to see!.

Happy Quilting!
Glenda

Red and White Quilt

Ok,, so you know I've posted about the blocks I've been working on for a Red and White quilt.  This is a request from my quilt guild for the June Quilt Show for 2016.  They want to do a display for the show with all of the display in red and white quilts.  It will look fabulous.

My issue is this.....I have been dwelling on what pattern/patterns to do.  How I want to lay them out.  I've been googling red and white quilts, looking in magazines, everywhere I could think of to get inspiration and ideas.  After months of this, I finally decided on a design using 3 different blocks, cornerstones and sashing.  You see two of the blocks here in these pictures I have posted in some past blogs.  I am deep in the construction stage of my red and white quilt, with only 9 blocks to go before I start to work on putting the sashing, cornerstones and blocks together.

So, let's see if this has happened to you?

In the last week or so, I start getting in the mail, magazines featuring what?  Red and white quilts, of course!  Today, I get an email with red and white fabric choices it in.  Geesh!  lol

In one magazine I got, there were, not one, not two, but three double pages of red and white quilts!  So, NOW you show me inspiration!  TOO LATE NOW!  Lol.....  Not only that, but I have gotten magazines and emails with red and white combinations of fabric lines as well as more featuring red and white quilts.  They just keep coming and coming, continuing to taunt me.  Now, I don't need any inspiration for my quilt.  I got it figured out already.  Stop with the red and white inspiration.....I GOT IT!  Really, all in fun, but has this ever happened to you?  Have you ever tried to get some inspiration only to find nothing?  Then when you finally get it figured out, then comes the inspirational ideas, pictures, magazines, emails, etc?  I can only laugh.

Funny how that happens.  Anyway, I've been working on some customer quilts and haven't been back to working on those last blocks, so nothing more to show you on the red and white quilt yet.

Just where is this year getting off to?  Seems like it was just turning spring the other day, now we are looking at winter just around the corner.

I hope you are having fun on your newest project.  Share it here!  I would love to see it!

Happy Quilting!

Glenda

More flower gardens and quilt blocks!

I finally remembered to add some pictures of our flower beds in the back yard.  They have filled in nicely this year.  Jeff is still working on the path around the half circle flower bed just off the patio.  It's getting there.  The one  in the top picture is a new one.  I built that one about a month ago.  We put a Huckleberry bush (I think it's huckleberry) at the back and some hostas in the front.  One of them has bloomed.  What a surprise!

This week we have been Grand Dog sitting for Richard while he is having fun in Utah.  I think we broke them.  Ha, ha, ha, ha.....Don't let this picture deceive you, they are definitely a hand full.  We love having them around and don't they look so innocent in the picture of them sleeping.

Lucy doesn't much like them in her domain, but she is getting along well with Kirk and tolerating Nyota.  I think Nyota is just too rambunctious for Lucy.  They are playing a bit, but Lucy is very guarded when Nyota is nearby.

Jeff had baked fresh banana bread yesterday and one of them, we won't mention any names, got into the banana bread and helped themselves.  Lol......

This top picture shows the block I was working on over the weekend.  It is called Kansas Troubles.  They will go with the block I showed you last week below.  The Kansas Troubles block I will need 14 blocks.  There are a lot of pieces in this block.  I did manage to get 5 blocks completed.  Only 9 more to go!

As you can see, I have my 1-1/2" scrap pieces in the tub in the top left to put together for leaders and enders.  Amazing how much you can get done on another project while working on a different one using the leader and enders system taught by Bonnie Hunter.

I will keep you updated on my project as I go.  This is not going to be a quick quilt project.  Onward we go!

 

There is a lot of love in each and every quilt made.  

Hope you all had a good and productive weekend!  

Keep on quilting!

Glenda