part 3

This is the last of the pictures. Hope you get some great ideas and enjoyed it. I have a lot to share with you but that will be in another post.

Part 2 of show

Here are some more quilts. I have more to go.

smithtown quilters show

Here is the first group of pictures from the Smithtown Quilters Guild show that I attended on Saturday. I will post more later.

As promised and more

As promised, I took a close up of the plaque I painted some years back. It was quite easy since the design was traced on and the painting was filled in. It is not visible but the black area i s dotted with the end part of the brush.

The table is filled with pumpkins I made and a tomato that I purchased in a craft fair. The painted boxes were painted by me several years ago, also when I belonged to the painting guild.

Here is a closeup of the boxes.

This quilt is hanging over my fireplace. It was made from a panel that I added borders to. Tomorrow I will have more to show you. Hope you are enjoying the different crafts.

Where oh where does the time go!

I cannot believe I have not posted since Oct. 2nd! Did anyone notice??

It isn't that I have not had anything to show because I have been busy sewing. I even went to NYC last week with DH. It was a wonderful experience. DH had to repair an intercom in the building where Katy Couric lives on Park Ave. in Manhattan. He needed someone to watch his car if he could not find parking. I volunteered because I love Manhattan. As it turned out, he found parking until 11 am. That left me 45 minutes to walk around the area. The area is very nice and there were a few brownstones I would love to live in. One can dream.

After my husband was finished, we drove around Manhattan and he pointed out the buildings he has worked in and told me the names of the wealthy and famous who lived in them. In the past, he has met Paul Newman, Tony Randall, Katy Couric, Jackie Kennedy, and the writer, Lillian Hellman. I always enjoyed the stories he brought home.

We continued on to Harlem and then to the new Yankee Stadium. The old one is still standing but will be demolished to make room for parking. DH asked me if I wanted to see our old neighborhood in the Bronx. I jumped at the chance. We stopped by the Catholic church we attended almost 50 years ago. The priest showed me around and told me of the changes to the church. It was, 50 years ago, a big parish and every Mass was filled. The priest said that they now only have 250 parishioners. I have to confess when I first walked into the church I became teary eyed. So many memories. The catholic school I went to was still across the street. The building I used to live in was demolished a long time ago. When we passed, a new building was there with my old address. So strange.

Some of the other things I had done was decorate the house for the Fall. This is the front of our house. I meant to take a close up of the plaque by the door. I painted it when I was a member of a local painting guild. Tomorrow I will take a close up for you. It is cute.

This is a tablerunner I was working on with my library group. I had to make templates and did a terrible job. When I started piecing it, I could not do a good job in making the points meet. It doesn't look too bad in the picture. Anyway, I made the back in this simple Halloween print.

This is the side I am using. The colors are very off in the picture. I have more to show you, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I have to get back to blogging regularly and also reading my favorite blogs!

Done with 2 days to spare

Well, the baby quilt is done. I have 2 days left before the shower with no pressure. Usually I am sewing on the binding the morning of the gift giving. Thanks to Marilyn for responding to my need for advice http://marilynpiecebypiece.blogspot.com/. She suggested the yellow border and I listened. I am very happy with that choice. Tomorrow I can get my hair cut and my nails done in preparation for the shower. Maybe even get the binding finished on my table runner. Woo hoo!

Need help

Well the top is finished. The center panel is a scanned copy of part of the baby shower invitation. I also put his first initial above the panel. Now I need help. Since this is from my stash, I only have 3 fabrics left to use as borders. I was thinking of a smaller border on the inside and a wider border on the outside of the quilt. I just cannot decide which fabrics to use. The fabrics are to the right of the quilt and I did not get a full picture of them. They are incorporated in the log cabins so you can see the prints better there. If I use the softer blue, it might look blah, but if I use the brighter yellow it may pull out the yellow too much in the blocks. Maybe the softer yellow and blue? I want to keep the borders simple so I can hurry up and finish the quilt. Any ideas?

Notions and fabrics

Thought I would share some recent purchases I made. The 5 inch squares and fat quarters were from ebay. In the next picture are items from the World Quilt Show and my stop at The Quilted Crow in Boxborough, Ma. which was on the way to our son's home in Westford, Ma. At the Quilted Crow, I purchased Jo Morton fat quarters and 2 patterns. If you are ever in the area you must stop at The Quilted Crow. It is not large but adorable.

One of the purchases that I am very glad I made was at the quilt show. Martelli Enterprises was there. I have seen their rotary cutter on the internet, but did not know anyone who had one. I could never find it in any local quilt store and was very happy to have the opportunity to see it in person. I bought the rotary cutter and have been using it often since I came home. What a pleasure. I have a problem with carpal tunnel syndrome and this cutter is a dream and cuts like butter. So far it has my endorsement as a great ergonomic cutter. Some of my other purchases were more reproduction fat quarters, a ruler that Bonnie Hunter recommends for one of her patterns, and a tube of gel that goes on the Featherweight gears. The bag and entrance fee to the quilt store were paid by my generous son.

If you noticed my messy cutting table, it is now clean and organized for my next project, a baby quilt. Yes, I finally decided on a pattern. I am in the process of finishing log cabin squares that measure 7.5". I also made a copy of part of the shower invitation which will be in the center of the quilt. I will share it with you once I have the top put together. Well, it is late and I am tired. I hope to have more pictures soon in my next post.

World Quilt Show

We left on Friday to spend the weekend with our son in Westford Ma. On Saturday we drove to Manchester , NH, to see the World Quilt Show. It turned out to be a great day because while I attended the show, DH, my son and daughter-in-law were able to see a hugh car show right next to the hotel. I hope you enjoy the slide show of some of the quilts.

I've been gambling!

In the last couple of days, I have given into gambling. I have never been on ebay, but in a moment of pure innocence I looked up fabric on ebay. I told myself I would just bid real low to see what happens and I got hooked. The results are the 5 " squares pictured here and 2 expected deliveries for another charm package and a set of fat quarters. I now have to stop cold turkey because ebay keeps calling to me and little purchases add up. Not to mention, do I need more fabric!!!

I have been doing some sewing in between babysitting. The quilting on the table runner is not going as fast I had hoped. It also is far from perfect. Since it is for my use, I won't critique it too much when I use it. (Who am I kidding. I will be annoyed every time I see the stitch that swayed off a little.) My mantra will be, I will not rip it out, I will not rip it out.

Tuesday evening I went to the library group and we will be making a table runner. It requires templates. One of the templates is down right confusing. Two of the woman, kept making mistakes trying to draw this particular template. I did not even try because I did not have the template sheet with me. Also, I think I can concentrate better at home. Then again, I do not have to make it. It is times like this that I love rotary cutters and strip piecing.

You know what, I have to give it a try and challenges are good for the brain.

Table Runner

The last few days have been busy with things other than sewing. I was able to put a little bit of sewing in the evenings and organizing of my fabrics. Today I woke up very lathargic and had no energy. I slept on and off for a good part of the day. We were supposed to go to my daughter's for dinner, but for the first time I did not accept the invitation. I was just not myself. Later today, I made myself go into my sewing room and was able to finish the Thimbleberries table runner top. I was surprised at how big it is, but am glad because it will go on my dining room table for the holidays. I hope to have it quilted by machine tomorrow so I can sew on the binding at my quilting group on Tuesday evening.

I was able to borrow the quilting book from my library that was on Patti's blog http://quiltingisstillmypassion.blogspot.com/. She made the most adorable bear quilt with small log cabins. The book has some lovely quilts, but all those little log cabins look tedious. I would consider one of the quilts in the book for the upcoming shower, but am afraid that I would not finish it in time. I will put it on my list of to do quilts.

A Fall Day?

For some reason I woke up today at 9:15 am. I never sleep that late. DH, who is usually still in bed when I wake, was awake having his coffee and reading the paper. He said he woke up at 9 am and I was snoring loudly. Come on, we know women do not snore! :-) I was really disappointed I slept so late because I had plans of working on my table runner early this morning. But what was really a bummer was the fact that it was beautiful outside and I wasted part of the morning sleeping. I immediately had my tea, ran around vacumming, and at 11 am had 2 big pancakes with fresh blueberries and walnuts. Blueberries and walnuts are supposed to be good for you. I do not think the butter and syrup count as good for you. I then took my shower, dressed and went for a walk with my husband.

I know Summer is not officially over, but today felt like a Fall day. Even my geraniums are starting to look spent as the days grow shorter. Maybe I should give them one last shot of plant food to revive them.

Our cat, Kitty, (We are very creative with our animals names) is also starting to show the changes of her coat which sheds at this time of year. Seems weird, but she sheds and then her coat comes in real thick for winter. After our walk, we went to our library, read some magazines, and I picked up a book they had on hold for me. I had them also send for a quilting book that I saw on one of the blogs (I cannot remember which one). The book had the cutest baby quilts made out of log cabins. When I get it, I will show it to you. Finally, we came home and I worked awhile in my sewing room. Sometimes I feel that DH would like me to spend time with him in front of the TV. Tonight, I decided to sit and watch Bones with him, but as soon as it was over I was out of there and back to sewing.

This is what I am working on.

The apples and trees will go around the table runner.

The tree pieces were getting a little confusing. I layed them out before piecing them and then kept them piled up when finished so I could refer to them for the next one. This would be a fast project except I have other projects that I am working on. I still do not know what kind of quilt I will be making for the baby shower. Once I decide, I will have to devote all my time to that quilt.

I am back!

Officially, we were to visit our son in Ma. this past weekend, but thought it best to stay home. The weather forecast was not good and when one gets older driving can be more difficult. We were prepared to leave on Friday, clothes were ironed and packed. Mentally I was ready so when we made the decision to stay home, I went into a slump. We did not know what to do with ourselves. I think it was harder for my husband because he does not have any hobbies (besides playing the horses and lotto!). After cleaning, I finally slipped into my sewing room and escaped the disappointment. On Saturday, I went to my library group (some good came out of staying home) and sewed and chatted with the other women. There were only 8 of us. I guess the rest were afraid of the bad weather that had not come yet. Later that day, my husband, in his infinite wisdom, suggested we go out to dinner. Food seems to placate the soul so off we went in the rain. It is moments like these that I know that I will never be a size 10, 12 or 14, never mind 16!

Sunday was a surprise. DD called that morning and asked us to come for dinner because it was Grandparents day. She said it was last minute and would just be making what she had. It turned out to be a nice day, the food was great, and we enjoyed the grandchildren and their other grandparents.

I have some pictures of things I worked on. The threadworks are 2 of the free designs from Lynette Anderson's designs http://lynetteandersondesigns.typepad.com/. I am not very good at needlework, but enjoyed it. There are more free designs, but I am a slow neddleworker.

The 2 blocks are numbers 8 and 9 from my library group. The table runner below them is not finished. It is from one of my thimbleberries books and will have apples around the border. So...., you see mentally I am back and sewing!

Block #3

Here is block #3 from the Be Attitudes Quilt. I am behind and have to catch up. This block was very appropriate because I was losing my patience as I sewed and the fabric on the letters kept fraying. For me, the blanket stitch is a very slow process. Accuracy is hard as you approach turns. I guess by the time I finish these blocks, I should have a pretty good handle on the blanket stitch. (I hope!)

The baby quilt was delivered today so that is one more project out of the way. I still have not decided on what to make for the next baby shower in October. The father of the baby had called my daughter and asked about my making a quilt for his future son. She told him that she thought I was intending on making one for the shower. I guess I cannot get out of this one. I just need ideas for a sports theme that is still childish. I need inspiration my fellow bloggers!

Tomorrow is my library group so I will work there on their block of the month. Hope to have it finished and will post it.

We did attend a Labor Day barbecue at the home of one of my son's friends. Lots of food and a DJ. At one point, the DJ said he hoped everyone was having fun because the party was not over until 4 am . Could you imagine? I would just be turning over in my bed for a few more hours of sleep at 4 am and would be very annoyed to hear music until that time. Oh well, I am glad we do not live near the party. It was nice and quiet when I fell asleep at 10:30.

Between Bonnie Hunter and Judy Laquidara, there has been a mystery quilt and a block of the month. I want to do it all, but can not seem to fit it in with my other projects. There are bloggers who have participated. Check out Bonnie's and Judy's sites to see those who posted their work.

You have to see it to believe it.

I was about to throw away the left over scraps from the baby quilt, when I thought about Bonnie Hunter's idea of salvaging the remaining fabric. I had fussy cuts all over the place and was not in the mood to spend too much time cutting out anything usable. I decided to just take the fabric, holes and all, and lay it down folded over as best I could. I took my rotary cutter and ruler and sliced across everything. I cannot get over all the strips, 2 1/2" and 1 1/2", of different lengths that came out of it. Even some 2 1/2 squares.

All I have left is this little pile to discard. Bonnie is right, at the cost of fabric we would be throwing out a lot of money already spent.

Murphy's law

Well I worked on the little quilt yesterday for most of the afternoon. I did the quilting on my grace machine frame and it went okay. I still need practice.I decided to try to finish it last night by sewing on the binding. It was all sewed and as I turned it to the back, I noticed a tear in the front of the binding. Very unusual because I was using a good quality fabric and I never had that happen before. Frustrated, I decided to take part of the binding off and redo it. Of course, the patched area landed right on the mitered corner. After a few expletives, I continued to sew the rest of the binding down. When I reached the area, where the binding meets; guess what I found? Another tear in this piece. What was going on?! I lost my patience, attached the binding differently and hid the tear. Since I was tired and wanted this quilt done, I decided to sew it down by machine. What a mess! Needless to say, I will be undoing it and sewing it down by hand.

What is too many cherries!

Since I do not have any quilts to show you, I thought I would show you my breakfast. Do you think I ate too many cherries? I feel a belly ache coming on.

My dog Maggie, aka Cujo, acts like she would like to take part in my cherries' breakfast. Old Chrissy has bed head. It is 9 am and she doesn't look like she wants to start her day yet.

Hope to finish my baby's quilt today and will post when it is done.

Lunch

I finished the quilt top for my neighbors baby. It only measure 36" square, but he is only an infant. I will probably sandwich it tomorrow and try quilting on it. I will be binding it in the same color red as is in the print.

My niece treated me to lunch at the Jedidiah Hawkins Inn in S. Jameport, L.I.

http://www.jedediahhawkinsinn.com/index01.php

The Inn was a victorian home built in the 1800's. It was repaired and was used as a designer's showcase in 2005. It is now a restaurant and inn. If you click on the email address you can see several pictures of the home. The pictures do not do it justice. It is one of those must see in person places. It is pricey so I would only have lunch there.

A Beautiful Day

Today the grandchildren came over and we watched them for awhile.

After dinner, DH and I went to the Bay to enjoy the beautiful scenery and cool breeze. The first thing we saw was this lovely flower growing among the reeds by the dock. The tide was unusually low and we were told it was a full moon tide. As you can see, the evening sky was clear. We were able to see Fire Island but unfortunately it is not visible in the picture. We stayed to see the sunset and considered ourselves lucky to be able to enjoy all this that is only minutes from our home.



I received an invitation to a baby shower
in October. My daughter told me that the new mother will be decorating the baby's room in an all sports theme. I am hoping that I can find some fabric or pattern for a quilt with that same theme. I would like it to be more babyish looking than the fabric I have seen for older boys. If any of you know of fabric that you think would be appropriate, please email me.

A little tidbit

I had been looking for an end table for the guest room for sometime and did not want to spend a lot of money. Last summer there was a garage sale only a few blocks from my home. I saw this table and immediately bought it for $50.00. Inside was this great 301 singer sewing machine. It came with the table, storage stool and all the hardware. Included in the table was the original sales receipt. A Mrs. Holland bought it in Saratoga Springs, NY, in 1953 for $386. I was 9 years old. Her son told me she sewed on it every day until she died in her eighties. I hope she knows I am taking good care of it. By the way, it really sews well. Oh, that scale, I have not used it in sometime. It just makes me too fat. :-)

I have plenty of UFO's that need attention, but once again I am starting something new! My excuse is that it is an overdue quilt for my neighbor's new baby. The fabric is from my stash which I am really trying to use. I bought the fabric a year or two ago. Well, I better get back to work!

Frustrated

Here it is Friday and I have not blogged in a week. You know why? I have been sewing and ripping out the little orange block I had made from scraps. I ran into so many problems! I used spray adhesive to keep the sandwich together, I am not too impressed with it. Then I machine quilted a spider web from the center out. First I had the spaces too close together, so rip, rip, rip. Then I had to figure out where to stop and start on either side of the appliques. After all that, the stitching was hardly visible. I guess I should have used a heavier black thread. Oh well. I also wrote the words Boo on the top and bottom border in an orange thread. Also not very visible. Well, this was a practice quilt and I did learn from it. I did put on the binding with the glue technique. I think I really like doing it this way and will continue to use it.

On a good note, I went to Joann's. They have their thread for 50% off and I bought some to try on my grace frame. Aren't the colors great! If I was daring and had more money, I would have bought some of their bright colors. I ran into Joann Powell who used to be the president of the East End Quilters Guild and had one of my favorite quilts in their show. You can see her quilt in my posting of the quilt show. Anyway, she saw me buying thread and got the bug when she saw the colors. Her picks were bright and cheery colors. Hmmm, maybe I should go back tomorrow and buy bright and cheery?

I have to babysit tomorrow evening so I hope to get some cutting done tonight and maybe some piecing.

Fun purchases

Well, DH gave me a gift certificate for my birthday to http://www.patchworks.com/ and cash so I could buy whatever I wanted. I have no complaints! These are the gifts I love because now that I am retired, I can use them to take classes or buy quilting stuff. We also went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Chachama Grill. It sounds like a burrito place but is far from that. It is a little pricey for us, but we go for the price fixed meal of $38.00 I had an appetizer of crab and avocado salad, a main course of pan seared shrimp over purple peruvian mashed potatoes and coconut flan for dessert. DH had oysters rubio, loin of pork and a warm chocolate cake. My mouth is watering and it is only 10 am.

Now down to business. I shopped! I went to Patchworks and bought 2 yards each of their $4.00 sale fabric. The blue floral and the light blue fabrics are Danielles P & B textile. The dark green is Thimbleberries Fancy Free. The fat quarters are a child's novelty print of fireman and coordinating fabric. Should make an adorable quilt for a child. My husband is a retired NYC fireman so maybe one of my grandchildren will get it.

I also bought from Connecting Threads 48 fat quarters of their sale Fall Country Essentials and purchased an additional 2 yards of their pumpkin print, for borders. Maybe I should have bought 3 yards? I have really tried to not buy fabric, but, hey, it was my birthday. Isn't that a time for frivolous purchases!?

Today, we will meet with the family for lunch at a local Italian restaurant and celebrate with them.