What Does A Quilter Need Most ??

Well, maybe it's not the most thing a quilter might need. We all have a fabric stash of some sort and believe me I have one. There is the fabric in my walkin pantry, the fabric stored in the garage, and the fabric stored in two of the three bedrooms. In other words there is fabric everywhere in the house practically. So what is this all leading up to you ask. How about shopping for more fabric. Yep, you heard me, more fabric. I was at the Chickasha Quilt Shop owned by Phylis (the actual name is Steelman's) with some of the girls yesterday working on the Great Pumpkin Patch Quilt when to my wondering eyes I kept seeing fabric and I was determined to buy more fabric. I told Phylis I had a list. The NNNQG has a retreat in April and one of the things we will be doing is a mystery quilt. I had a bolt of fabric at home and hoped she would help me with matching up fabric with it for the mystery quilt. She and the girls I was with helped and I bought. So here's what I got for the mystery quilt:



Next on my list was to buy sashing for the Great Pumpkin Patch Quilt and the two borders for my Road to Dixie Quilt. This is what I found:






So now I am set to finish some ongoing projects and ready for the mystery quilt at the April Retreat.

Road To Dixie Rows

Last night I finished adding my last two rows of my Road To Dixie Quilt. Now it's on to buy fabric for the two borders tomorrow. Anyway you can see here that I have sewn the last two rows on to the quilt.

Working on The Great Pumpkin Patch

This morning I finished appliqueing on the sewing machine one of the blocks in the Great Pumpkin Patch Quilt. There are twelve blocks in this quilt plus a topper across the top of the blocks. A small group of friends are working on this quilt together and have been so kind as to share their background fabric and oranges for the pumpkins with me. On Saturday I will meet with some of them to work some more on it. Until then I am going back to work on my Road To Dixie Quilt.

One Of Many UFO's

This quilt is called the Road To Dixie and that I started at the Renegade Quilter's Retreat last March. As you can see I don't work very fast. Actually I get distracted when something new comes along and I start a new project. However, this year in 2009, I want to try to get some of my UFO's done. As you can see here I have two more rows to attached and then comes the small inner border, the outside border and the piecing will be done. I am not real crazy about the fabric I picked out for those, so this weekend I will shop for something else. Oh well, everyone can use more fabric, right??? So until I get more fabric I will work on sewing the last two rows on.


So until then I will work on sewing down the The Great Pumpkin Patch blocks, which is a new project. Til next time Happy Quilting.

Third Saturday Quilt Day

I went to the once a month Third Saturday Quilt Day. I am currently working on the Great Pumpkin Patch Quilt. It is applique and I now have my 12 pumpkin blocks fused down and I am now ready to do the buttonhole stitch by machine on them. I was able to cut the background for the top of this quilt and then I need to fuse down the top row of pumpkins. So now I am one step further on this quilt.

I also got a good start to the Road to Dixie quilt and only have three rows to attach and then I will be ready to do the borders. I will try to add pictures of these quilts later as I go along.

We had a good lunch and it was a baked potato bar. Seventeen of us were there and everyone brought something to add to the lunch.

I feel I got something accomplished and plan to get some UFO's done before the end of 2009.

Frogs

I probably should explain the frogs. I am not actually obsessed with frogs, although one might thinks so. It seems I have been collecting frogs that friends have given me. The frogs represent having to rip out my mistakes when I am quilting. So the frogs say "rippit, rippit". If my friends and I catch someone ripping out a mistake we will throw a frog at them. It's just a fun thing.

I have received stuffed frogs from small ones to a large one. Then there is the frog watch, the frog sweatshirt, t-shirt, denim shirt and so forth.

No, I tell you I am not obsessed with frogs.

Frogs, frogs and more frogs.

My Knitting Efforts

I tried knitting this baby blanket and the pattern was on the diagonal. Well everything was looking fine til I finished. The corner I finished on is out of proportion to the rest of the corners. So I was disappointed in my finished project. A picture is shown here and it looks OK, but the one corner is distorted looking. It is still usable as an everyday blanket and one that the parents don't have to worry about if it gets ruined. Of course I am very much a beginner and I will learn as I go. I probably won't choose a diagonal pattern the next time.

My Christmas Stocking Stuffers

Here are some samples of Christmas stocking stuffers I made for my family. I kept these for myself. I enjoyed making them, however next year I need to get an earlier start to make sure I am not working up to the last minute. I made the frames to show off our 2 Great Grandsons who are cousins and were born a little over a month of each other. Now that Christmas is over I plan to work on next year's each month so as not to have a rush when next Christmas comes around.

Learning To Knit

I am trying to learn how to knit (as if I needed another hobby, LOL) I have crocheted for years, but have decided it was time to knit. So I have started out with the most simple thing I could think of ----slippers. I wanted to get the feel of the needles. I tried to knit years ago, but could never figure out where I was in a pattern if I made a mistake and had to start again. That really explains why I went to crochet. It was easier for me to figure out. Well I am going to try knitting again. So you see here the simple knitted slippers I have made for myself. Now I am knitting a blanket and when I get it done I will show it here. Oh, I almost forgot last winter I did knit a prayer shawl for a Christmas present. I haven't forgotten my other hobbies such as machine embroidery and making quilts. I have just added another one to my list. No sense to having idle hands.

Trapunto

Our Quilt Guild had a trapunto class and I found it to be so much fun. Now that I found it is rather easy to do, I will be doing other trapunto projects. Thanks Karen for teaching this class. Here you will see my finished project and I made it into a pillow. As it turns out this will be a gift and I hope they will like it. So this class came in the "nick" of time.

Baby Showers

The two baby showers have been held for my future two "Great" Grandsons. I was busy getting the quilts done for the showers that were a week apart. I had fun making these baby quilts that actually turned out to be more like crib size. I was able to incorporate the use of my embroidery machine and do some applique. This was my first attempt at doing applique with my embroidery machine and I found out it was rather easy. Here are the pictures of the quilts along with the label I put on each.

Happy Fourth Of July

Happy Fourth Of July. Celebration Day for all and for our family it is also Birthday celebration day. Happy Birthday to John, Ray and Megan. I haven't blogged in a while because I have been busy working on some projects. I have two Great Grandsons that will be born in the fall. I have added pictures here for all to see. It's a reason to celebrate today with Birthdays and completed projects for the new babies to come. I have made 6 crocheted baby blankets and 4 baby burp cloths. Plus a completed quilt called it Sure Is Red for Megan. So enjoy the pictures.

More Spring Time Flowers

Mrs Wren and My Spring Time Flowers

Mrs. Wren has been busy feeding her young and this morning I was able to catch her on the camera, just barely. It has been such a joy watching her everyday. My Spring time flowers are doing better than they have in years. We've had more rain than in years past.