Back to Sewing!

Finally!
After a long break I am sewing on my quilts again!  Thank Goodness!

It seems that life just keeps throwing obstacles on the way to having a great time sewing.

Well I decided it was time to put the string blocks that I have been working on together.  For the past nine months or so, I have been sewing just string blocks, scrappy string blocks that is. They measure 4 1/2 inches square and are a mish mash of all fabrics . . . cotton,  polyester, flannel, and some I can't identify. Now I have two plastic bins full of these little blocks.

Yesterday I started sewing them together. First I sewed a whole bin full of two blocks together; which may sound simple but it's not when you are trying to avoid sewing the same fabrics together.
So it took half the day to get the bin sorted so that like fabrics didn't end up together.

After that, I took a much needed lunch break! Then back to sewing.  This time I took the "two block" blocks and sewed them into a "four block" configuration.  That also took a long time because of the "not matching fabrics" thing.

So next time I have to sew the "four block" blocks together and keep going until I have everything sewn into a full bed quilt.  As you can see by the pictures, I have a long way to go before I am at the full quilt stage.

I decided that it was easier on my eyes and my brain to do it this way instead of rows. Last time I made rows I got the rows mixed up and had to take some rows apart.  That's a lot of ripping out stitches and big headache by the time I was through!

This way I only have to watch a couple of blocks at a time. Much easier on the eyes and the brain, LOL!

Will keep you updated on the progress of this "not matching blocks" quilt.

In the mean time . . . keep on quilting!

Aveli

Finally starting to Quilt!

I finally got my quilt onto the frame. My husband bought some new wood bars from our local lumber yard.

Once we got the quilt rolled onto the bars, I piled up some plastic boxes and one case of soda (LOL it's the only thing that would fit!) in the middle for support.  I didn't want to take any chances of these bars breaking. I had already wasted $30 on buying "new extension kit bars" that broke.

Even though these were a solid piece of wood eight feet long, they were 1 1/2" by 1" thick.

I was holding my breath while we were attaching the rolled quilt to the frame.  Thank goodness it held and didn't crack!  I am a happy quilter again!

National Quilting Month -- ooops! "National Sewing Month" and Rain!

Looks like there are more clouds and rain in our future!

 

Today starts "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"!  YAY!  Of course, being a quilter, we are always sewing . . . right?

I have been doing my part since last week when my daughter left.  I got back to sewing on my basket weave scrappy string quilt. It was originally going to be a lap quilt, but I really liked it and decided to enlarge it.  It is now up to a queen size quilt and has the overlap on the length to cover the pillows. Today I have been finishing up adding the blocks to make it queen size.  So I greeted "National Quilting (Sewing) Month" at 5 a.m. this morning with my project on the machine . . . see picture below.

Sorry about the quality, this was taken with my phone! 

That's the phone book pages you see on the back of the quilt. I used my old phone book pages for foundation piecing. Our local phone book is the size of half of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.  I cut the blocks to 4 1/2 inches square.  That way I can get 2 blocks out of each half sheet.  One of our phone books is enough, with some left over for the next project, to make this queen size quilt.

What are you working on during this "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"?  Is it something you have been working on for awhile or did you just start it within the past few weeks?  I would love to hear about it or see pictures of your projects!

Meanwhile . . .everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli

She's Gone!

My daugthter left for California today!  I am so sad! I miss them already and I miss the squeeky laughter of my little granddaughter!

I guess all I can do is get back to quilting . . . but not tonight.  We went to Las Vegas and dropped off my daughter and her family at the train station, left and went to a baby shower in Mora.  Then we came home. I am exhausted! I don't know if its from emotional goodbyes or just from a long day.

Tomorrow I will get back to my basket weave string quilt and probably sew all day, but not tonight!

Aveli

Finally Pink Baby Quilt is Done!

 I haven't been posting the past few days because I have been diligently frantically working on getting this pink baby quilt finished!

Well, Here it is!  I just finished the binding and took some pictures to post.  I didn't put any quilting on the border.  But now that I look at these pictures, I see that the border is still crooked!!!  I guess that I will have to add some kind of quilting in the border to "hide" the crooked wrinkles that I see in the left lower corner and the upper right corner.  I have no idea how that happened! Maybe because I was in a rush to finish before my daughter comes next week.

 

 This is a close up of the hand quilting that I did. It doesn't look too bad! Does it?

 

 There is not much else I can do to improve it, now that it is finished.  I will add a little quilting in the border during this week.  It shouldn't take too long.  Plus, I have to wash it and wrap it in a box.

Now since that is finished, I can get back to my string quilt!  Oh, wait, I have to wait until my daughter leaves from her stay here with us!  

I can't possibly be sewing on the sewing machine because it is in the cabin where they will be staying.  I can't move it because all my sewing supplies are in there too!  Oh well, I guess it's time to get back to my hexagon "insanity" quilt while she is here!

I love my hexagon project! It is still a long ways away from being put together, but I love the hand work.  I am still forming the individual hexies and then forming the individual flowers for the center.

I will post pictures of my progress later this week.

Meanwhile . . .

Keep on Quilting!

Aveli

 

More Blocks! More Blocks!

 

As you can see above, I am still making blocks for my "Basket Weave" quilt. I have been working diligently for the past 4 days on finishing it.  I found out that it wasn't quite big enough to drape over my double bed. So back to making blocks again!

In the picture above you can see that I have been busy sewing and now comes the trimming down to the size of my foundation paper.  My foundation papers (local telephone book) measure 4 1/2" square. Of course you can make your foundation paper any size you want. But, my leftover scraps seem to best work at 4 1/2".

So once I finish trimming these blocks, I will start adding on to the quilt to make it larger, then I will add the border and finish it.  I am undecided whether to add a wine colored border and keep the quilt for my bedroom.  Or add a lavender border and give it to my daughter since she has been asking for a quilt for a long long time!  I will probably give it to her, LOL!

 

Back to Quilting!

Yesterday we drove to Albuquerque to take our grandson so he could go back to California. After several hours of waiting, he was off into the wild blue yonder!
His flight was delayed in taking off because of some mechanical difficulties.
After his plane took off, we drove back to Guadalupita.  On the way, just north of Las Vegas (New Mexico) we saw a lot of smoke.
The fire that is raging in Northern NM is pretty far from where we were but the smoke was everywhere because the winds were blowing out way.
Now that we have no guests, its time to get back to quilting.  So today, have been working on adding 7 more rows to the basket weave quilt that I have been sewing.
As you can see in the pic below, it barely goes over the side of my double bed.