At last! Sewing time….

Finally starting to get back in the sewing groove after the Christmas rush….This makes me happy, I need to be sewing to be mentally healthy! It’s an addiction that I absolutely love….it really does make me happy!

I’ve decided that I can’t start anything new until I get a few of the older half done projects completely finished….so to start things off I finally bound my Civil War Quilt ‘Patriots in Petticoats’….this is a 100”x100” quilt, so it’s pretty big. And it’s all done! This was my first attempt at mitered corners….I did okay, but I should be able to improve with the next try. I think my favorite part of this quilt is the ribbon border.

And here is my Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt “Grand Illusion” so far….I’ve got one more row to sew on and then comes a solid border and a pieced border….I’ve got most of the pieced border done, so I think this should be done by Sunday…anyway very close to done by then. It’s definitely not what I would do normally…not my colors or a pattern I would choose, but it was a lot of fun to do and I’m certain I’ll do the Mystery Quilt again next year. Hey Regina….You’d better get busy or I’ll get done before you!

I’ve been doing lots of infinity scarves this past month too….something to do on my break at work, and while we’re waiting for freight…..I just sent 33 of them to my sister in Iowa to sell at her store. This is just fun, busy work….I can’t just sit…..I have to be doing something with my hands and this fits the bill perfectly! Just ignore the saggy jowled lady modeling this scarf….I have no idea who she is!

Yes this is wool! My wonderful little sister Val found this for me when she went on the Nebraska Junk Jaunt this fall…Wonderful colors and a very nice wool! I just love them….Thanks Val! And all for only $3!

One of my next projects….some year!  From Bonnie Hunter’s book ‘More Adventures with Leaders and Enders’….it was the mystery quilt from either last year or the year before….I’m not sure which….but I like it more every time I see it, so I thought I’d start collecting fabric so I could make this someday.

I went to Cozad to the quilt store ‘Prairie Point Junction’ a couple of weeks ago and they had fat quarters on sale….Buy 12 and get 12 free….so I went a bit crazy! I love the Kim Diehl ‘look’ so I bought some of her fabric and the fabric for the Bonnie Hunter Quilt in the picture above…..I just love fabric, period!

Block # 3 and 4 for my Sunflower Gatherings wool Quilt BOM….I will get them ready to stitch and take them with me to St. Joe when I go to visit my daughter in a couple of weeks…Good thing to do while on the road!

And this is what really makes me want to smile….the flannel wonky log cabin throw  that I did for the family Christmas auction…I got it quilted just in time and I’m so happy with how the border turned out….I was in such a hurry I never did get a picture of the whole thing, I will do that soon, since my sister Susie is the one who has it and she lives close, so I can get a picture. It’s not perfect or anything, but the overall effect was very good and it inspires me to spread my wings and try things I thought would be impossible or too hard to do! I can’t thank my friend Kelly Kreft enough for all the encouragement and help with my longarm!

Here we are, my sister Susie and I after she opened her Christmas presents from me….she is one who truly loves my quilts and appreciates them, so it was nice that I got her name for Christmas this year.

Happy Quilting!

Kris

Finally some sewing time…

I’ve finally had two days off in a row, so I actually got to sit down and sew longer than a one hour stretch….I’ve been having fun! Even got my kitchen, dining room, living room and entryway really cleaned up, now that makes me happy.

I’ve gotten a lot of infinity scarves done this past month while waiting for freight and taking my break at work. I’ve probably done around 30 of them….have given some away and will send the rest to my sister’s store to see if she can sell them for me. The price of yarn has really gone up from last year…Ugh

Any spare moments I’ve had to sew this past month have gone into Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery quilt for 2014, ‘Grand Illusions’. She posts every Friday for 6 weeks what you have to get done that week, or at least try to get done. She gives you the colors you need for your quilt, which is a scrap quilt. I did pretty good with that, but the colors were not colors that I had bunches of in my stash….yellow, pinks, and turquoises….which were the main colors. I did have plenty of the black, greens and neutrals that were also used. I figured I spent about $30 to supplement the colors I was short on. I’ve got every step (week 1-5) done now except the last one where she tells you how the pieces you’ve been working on the last 5 weeks are sewn together. I really enjoyed this and will be doing it again next year. I’m going to take a few weeks off from this quilt and will sew it all together sometime in the next month. Here are the Ziploc bags full of 5 weeks worth of work…doesn’t look like much, but believe me this was a lot of time and effort considering how many hours I worked this Christmas season delivering all of those Christmas presents. The quilt is a pretty big size too.

I made my granddaughter Emersyn, an apron to go with the kitchen set she got for Christmas…..it’s made from an old pair of jeans that belonged to Grandpa Wayne. I think it might be just a bit too big for her, but I’m sure she’ll grow into it soon. I used ‘D’ rings for the ties around the neck…thought that made more sense than tying…much easier to put on a smaller child this way. The purple carrots are on the apron because my daughter Lesley has a food blog that is called “The Purple Carrot”.

I’m on vacation in two weeks, and I can hardly wait! I’ll get to see my granddaughter Emersyn, it’s been way too long…haven’t seen her or her mother in 4 months.

Happy Quilting

Kris