April Goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes

Since it appears that I need a deadline to get anything of mine finished, I am joining Sew Bitter Sweet this month for April.  This is a row quilt that was made with a group of quilters in my little town of Odessa.  We got to choose the fabrics and the size of our rows, then every month another quilter had our fabrics to make a row for our quilt.  It was lots of fun and not one pattern was duplicated by the quilters!  I really want to get my low-volume (first time trying this - love the result) row quilt finished this month, all the way to the label!  If I can get this one finished this month, I'll still have over 50 quilt tops that I need to quilt *hangs head in shame*, but I always seem to put customer quilts ahead of my own quilts - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

This lovely, calm quilt is on my frame...do you think I can get it finished by the end of the month?  I HATE hand work and this one will really need the binding finished by hand...my hands ache just thinking about it!!!

Elephant Parade

My stepdaughter and her husband are adopting a baby that is due to be born the end of April.  She is decorating the nursery in grays with a pop of teal and she loves elephants.  Well, isn't that just perfect (in so many ways!!)!  Lorna who blogs at Sew Fresh Quilts designed the adorable quilt, Elephant Parade, so I just had to follow her pattern and make this quilt for my stepdaughter and the new grand!!  Of course, I had to put my twist on it so it is a bit different from hers, and that is just fine.  It is not quilted yet but it will be on the frame soon!

I chose to do only elephants, use teal for the ears and some random sashing and the exploding pinwheel just for fun.  I also alternated the color placement on the elephants and the background.  Because I can't count and I make mistakes, I also had to make a wall hanging or a car seat blankie (it will be her choice)

I am linking up my almost-finish with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Microwave Plate Potholder Tutorial

Are you interested in making some of these:

If so, this is my first tutorial and this is what I made!

I love leftovers because I can just nuke them and have more time for quilting!  But I really hate burning my fingers or my lap (sometimes you just have to sit in the recliner and eat, right?) with a hot plate, so I figured out how to make these plate potholders!

You will need:

Fabric – my Dad’s plates are 10.25” in diameter and I cut the fabric 14” square and you need 2 per potholder

Batting – I used this Wrap and Zap that I bought at Joann’s that I cut 13” square.  You need two of these too!  Until we put them together, you do the same thing to both “sandwiches”!!

Walking foot for your sewing machine – you will be sewing through 2 layers of batting and 4 layers of fabric!

Pins, rulers, turning tool and thread…you know you always need those!!

Something to mark sewing lines on the batting – I used Expo’s Vis-à-Vis Wet Erase that will disappear when I wash the pot holder, but I really don’t care because I use darker fabric (light shows messes too easily) – you just don’t want something that will bleed or show through your fabric.

On my square of batting, I drew a line from corner to corner and then from the center of each side so I had a lovely pinwheel that looked like this:

The cute little triangles are made by measuring in from the side 2” and measuring 1” from that center line…then draw a line to connect the dots.

Place your fabric pretty side down and put a piece of your marked batting on top of it.  I eye-ball placement about ½” from the edge of the fabric when placing the batting down.  I put pins in the large triangles for stability and sew on the long lines from corner to corner and side to side.

(Sorry, I had forgotten to mark where the darts will be made on this – no worries, you can do it after you sew all 4 lines.)  It is easy to chain sew these.

When all four lines are sewn, fold the right sides of the sandwich together on one of your side to side lines – time to make the darts!

I put the pins on the side that will be on top when I put it through my sewing machine so I can easily remove it.

Chain sew those darts, right on the line!  You can come at the dart from either side.  Sometimes it is easier to sew it from the point.  Both ways work!  When all four darts are sewn, it will look like this:

Time to trim off the darts – they would make it much too thick!!

There is about ¼” left on there…perfect!  Time to nest the two sides.  One side has the batting side up, the other side has the pretty side up – nest them together with pretty side to pretty side!

You are going to “nest” the seams from the darts.  I have the top seam facing left, so that when I run it through the sewing machine the seam I can’t see will be facing me and I can make the top seam face away from me.  I pin on the corner lines and on each dart.  I start sewing on one of the dart seams, using the edge of the batting to determine my seam allowance – I shoot for ½”!

Do lock or back stitch there – we will be leaving that half of that side open so we can turn the right side out.  Sew all the way around to the point on the same side you started on, leaving that ½ a side unsewn, do a lock or back stitch there as well.  Take it off your machine, snip those threads and stick your hand in the hole to grab the opposite corner and pull it through the hole.  Grab something you can poke those corners out with.

This great tool was made for me by a quilting friend’s husband in Florida – thank you, Jim!!!

When you have the corners poked out so they are as square as possible, fold the edges of the hole over each side’s batting (you don’t want the batting to be visible) and pin.

Start sewing about ¼” from the edge of the potholder…don’t start in a corner or where there is a seam or you run the risk of a lovely mess of thread on the bobbin side (ask me how I know!).  The corners and where the darts are, well, are thick!

Smooth from where you start to the dart seam, sew to there then turn your potholder so the sewing line to the corner will be straight and smooth that out.  I do a lock stitch at the beginning and end of this sewing line.

I also do a square of sewing in the middle, about 2” from the center.  I don’t measure, I just guess!  I do stay away from the darts.

And you are finished!

This stack is 2 bowl and 2 plate potholders I made.  If you make them, please let me know because I want to see them!!  If I made a mistake or something wasn't clear, please let me know as well!!

Have a fabulous, healthy and blessed new year!!

I am joining with Jenny of ELEFANTZ and her 

 


Since I don't know how to put "buttons" or whatever on my blog (yeah, I've tried, just end up wanting to throw the computer out the window), I'm just going to put the link here.

May you have

a Blessed Christmas, with those you love.

May the Lord give you the gift of His Peace, Love and Mercy as we celebrate the birth of the Savior!

Thank you

Today we remember the sacrifices made by those who serve our country and tell them what we should be expressing every day, THANK YOU!  In my family, I am thanking:

Uncle Floyd, USAF (Col), WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War
Dad, USN, WWII
Cousin Rob, USAF (Capt), Vietnam War
Cousin Ray, USN (Capt), Vietnam War, Desert Shield
Ex-husband Oliver, USMC (SgtMaj), Desert Shield
Daughter Brenna, USAF (TSgt), Desert Shield, Desert Storm
Daughter Tristan, US Army (SSG), Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom - still active duty

Thank you all for being willing to sign a check to our country that was for up-to-and-including your life to protect the freedoms and wonderful way of life we enjoy here in America.  I thank God for your willingness to protect and defend and I also thank God for His protection over all of you when you were in harms way.

**Update:  My beloved Uncle Floyd finished his final pre-flight check list and took off on his final flight December 1, 2014 at 4:55 PM.  At 97, he lived a long, full life free from most illnesses.  He departed with his beloved wife, son and his wife, and his grandchildren at his side.  As he did with everything in his life, he left us with grace and dignity.  He will be missed by all who loved him so much.**

Quilt Retreat and Microwave Bowls

I got home Wednesday night from the most fabulous retreat with my local guild.  Nineteen ladies spent Sunday through Wednesday morning stitching up a storm at the Palouse Divide Lodge.  The lodge is gorgeous

and this was what we woke up to

Sunday was gorgeous, but Tuesday and Wednesday the clouds must have been tired because they were down on the ground, giving the area a good soaking!!  Wednesday we had to leave by noon and the view changed to this

 It was perfect that the two days we were unloading and loading our cars were nice and dry and the days we could just stay in and sew were quite damp!  I got a bunch of sewing done - I don't get to sew much when I'm at home - I'm too busy dancing with my longarm!!!  I got the bindings on 4 quilts, made some microwave bowl holders, came up with a way to make some microwave plate holders and made two more quilt tops.

This is the Abacus quilt I made (forgot to get a picture of the other quilt I whipped out on Wednesday morning!)

I used some of my precious stash of ombre fabrics for the two new quilt tops...I'm on a bubble kick!  And then there were the microwave finger savers:

To make the plate holders, I cut 2 14" pieces of fabric, 2 13.5" pieces of microwave-safe batting, sewed the batting to the fabric, took tucks on all 4 sides 1/2" from the center line and 2" deep.  They certainly work great!  My plates are 10" and 11" in diameter and both sizes fit perfectly!   If there is any interest, I'll work up a tutorial (it would be my first!!) and put it up here.  And I'll put up a picture of my other quilt as soon as I finish unpacking!!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - November

Where did October go??  I blinked and it's November!  I am linking up with Sew Bitter Sweet Designs - doing this really makes me get at least one of my quilts finished every month...well, at least I try!  For November, I want to quilt, bind and label the quilt I made out of the blocks I had folks sign at my daughter's wedding in August.  I made too many of the blocks when I was making her wedding quilt, so I ironed freezer paper to the back of the blocks, taped a matting frame around them (to keep my 1/4" for sewing) and voile, I had her autograph album all ready!

This is my goal - can I do it??