Mother Goose

I bought 3 Mother Goose quilt patterns a few years back. They are designed by Mary Englebreit. This panel was not one of the soft books panels. It was for a quilt and the site of the manufacturer had a free pattern on their site..can't remember if it was something like Robert Kaufman, Moda, or what???? Might have been Marcus Brothers..who knows??? My old computer died..I do have a back up on an external hard drive...I will look it up later and post the link to the pattern if it is still there.

Anywhoooo..I got sick...took a year off from sewing and did other things and got well.

After not sewing for a year, I tackled this Mother Goose quilt. My friend Marty called one day and I told her about the quilting slump I was in. Told her about the new baby due in the family and how I wanted to make Mother Goose. I had a lot of the fabrics already in my stash. Marty made me get off my duff and bring all I had over to her house. I did. We shopped her stash too..rejected some of my fabrics and chose some of hers. Still needed two more fabrics to pull it off. So, we went to Joann's and got the white background fabric and the green border and binding fabric. Got back to Marty's house and she twisted my arm and made me sit down and start this quilt. Marty started cutting up my fabrics and made me sit down and sew at her machine. She had several of those trigangles for those star blocks cut out and I sat there and sewed most of them up. They measure 1 inch finished.

Anywhooo...Thank you Marty for breaking/twisting my arm and making me get it done for the new baby that was 2 months later. Baby Evelyn, my nephew Jonathan and his wife Rebekah's baby got this quilt.

Quilt for Amy

I went on the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop back in March 2011. The only purchase I made was for 4 yards of Georgia fabric. The fabric was specially made to represent things in Georgia. Some of those things are long gone and some are new. The fabric needed a pattern to showcase it. Wasn't a fabric that I wanted to cut into small pieces.

A friend of mine has a quilt book by a lady that does Mystery quilts and put's them in books. I do not own the book, nor can I remember the author's name. I borrowed my friend's book and made this quilt for my lovely SIL Amy. Amy sew's, knits, crochet's, makes beautiful items out of wood and has done many other crafts. She knows the work and expense that is in this quilt so I felt she deserved it. She loves it! It's a queen size..it's on her queen size bed in the photo's. Her daughter took pictures for me...I had forgotten to take pictures before I delivered it.

I made this in the summer of 2011.

Reviving Traditions quilt-a-long

I have the quilt book "Relax and Quilt" put out by Leisure Arts. The one I have was a second printing in 1999. There are several scrap quilt patterns in this book that I want to make. The first one being a pattern that I have seen over and over in many different quilt books and magazines over the past 35 years. Not sure who originally came up with this pattern but I am sure it was someone's long ago ancestor.

I have been sewing strips together from my scraps of fabric. I am cutting several different strips in widths varying from 3/4 inch to 2 inches by 4 inches long. I will cut those strips into sections of 3 3/8 inch widths by 5 inches long after I get a bunch of long strips of fabrics sewn together.

I am posting a picture of the cover of the book, the picture of the quilt I am going to make and a picture of my shoebox of scraps I already have cut up with some strips already sewn together.

3 Inch House a day quilt-a-long

I have 9 houses completed. I have all parts made for 51 more. I have repeated some fabrics in these parts, so I am waiting until I make more to put the sections/parts together to get more variety in my houses.

Twisted Bargello

I took a class for this quilt. It was very easy to make..just got to follow that diagram that comes with the pattern very closely and have no interuptions and hang each strip up as you go and check that that strip goes with the previous one..making sure the pattern is where it is supposed to be.

We were recently talking on Stashbuster about borders..to border or not and to use slabs of fabric or piece borders. Well to me..this is an example of one of those patterns that really needs the slab border and not a pieced border..pattern calls for a slab..anything else would be too busy and take away from the pattern or the ribbon twisting.

This is the only quilt that I had someone else quilt..it was huge and I only have a domestic sewing machine..this was the biggest quilt top I had made yet. hangs way over on my queen size bed. I found an 87 year old woman in Kansas while on vacation at a friends house that lives in Kansas. That friend used this 87 year old woman to quilt a lot of her quilts. This lady only charged me 49.50 to quilt this quilt in the clamshell pattern on her long arm machine. I supplied batting and backing. She supplied thread. Her machine was an antique too...she had it from an old sewing factory. I have it written down somewhere the exact number customer I was of hers..she wrote down each and every customer....I was number 2000 something!!!! That was about 7 years ago. I wonder if she is still alive and doing well.

Anywhooo...Bertha..the quilting lady..she loved the batting I brought with me...I was suckered into this very expensive batting at a quilt shop here in Georgia. It was like 32.00 for that batting. It is Quilters Dream Poly. I will never ever ever ever ever ever buy that type of batting again..even if it was given to me..I would not use it. It has ruined my quilt!!!! The batting beards on the outside of the quilt on the top and back each and every time it is washed. It also is a hot batting. Now..it's not the quilt maker, nor the quilter, nor the fabrics..it's that stinking batting. Many others on my quilting groups have had the same problem with that awful batting. A few have had no problems..but..most folks don't wash their quilts. I always wash my quilts as soon as they are finished..if anything is going to happen to that quilt..I want it to be on my watch/wash/dry!! I take them all to the laundry mat and use the triple load, front loading washers to wash them..I use Tide detergent. I have never ever ever ever had a problem with any of my quilts other than this one. I have used a lot of different battings from cheap ones to expensive ones...I will never ever use Quilters Dream Poly again..for shame on them for selling this stuff!!!

Accidentally loaded a picture of the turning twenty here. OOPS!

The models are Zach and Sadie. Zach wants one of these quilts in blue..I have got to do that for him.

Turning Twenty quilt

This is my Turning Twenty quilt...was supposed to turn 20 fat quarters into this...I had two sets of 10 fat quarters..the same two sets..so..I turned 10 twice.

My husband has claimed this quilt. I really do not like the Turning Twenty pattern..surely with all those pretty fabrics we can do something better than just throw patches together..but...I love my turning 10 and the fabrics I used..looks like an old time quilt.

I stitched in the ditch around the big squares that made up each block. This was no where near enough quilting. So, what to do!!!???!!! I decided to learn how to hand quilt and hand quilted a ton of stars on this quilt. I put 1 star in one patch, 2 stars in another patch and 3 stars in another patch on each block..yes...6 stars in each block on this quilt that are all hand quilted. This is a very attractive quilt in real life..so much for me not liking that Turning Twenty pattern!! LOL!

Sweet Treats Bag

I bought this as a kit from the local quilt shop. I made this cosmetic bag and sent it to my sister in Hawaii because it is tropical looking. It was easy and fun to make. I hope she likes it.

I recently made another one and failed to get a picture of it..it is in browns and beiges and I gave it to my son to give to a friend of his at college..a girl..just a friend.

Here is the free pattern: http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_sweet-treat-bag.pdf