Quilt of the Month

Every month in 2014 I've made, or supervised, twice, the making of a quilt. The patterns were all by Villa Rosa Designs. They were chosen by Bernina Sewing Centre. Sometimes I purchased the fabric kits and other times made my own choices. Some of the quilts are going to family, while others will be given to charity.

Yesterday I made the back and loaded the first charity quilt onto my APQS, Mellinium longarm. Today I'll start quilting it. I'm using So Fine by Superior Threads #534, a chartreuse color, for most of the quilting. The inner black border will be quilted with a black thread. I'll be binding the quilt in the same fabric as the inner border.

The fabrics for this quilt are definitely out of my usual color choices. I wanted it to be fun and cheerful. Hopefully it will make the person it goes to feel happy!

Peace!

Gourmet Pancakes

Today, two of our Granddaughter's are making us gourmet pancakes for breakfast. They've taken orders from everyone in the house. The choices include, plain, blueberry, pecan, raisin, chocolate chip, or a combination. Yum!
Toria, 19, light hair, Shelley, 14 tomorrow, dark hair, are cousins.

Peace!

Woods

Hiking on the Rockdale River Trail, in Georgia. A beautiful crisp Winter day!

Peace!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Granddaughter's special gift for her Dad

This post is about very special presents from a daughter to her Dad. Our son-in-law always uses cloth handkerchiefs. Roger has his undergrad and master's degree from University of Georgia. He also loves cows. Roger would probably like to own a cow, but unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be, it's not allowed in his subdivision. 
So, every year for Christmas, Father's Day and sometimes Easter, I help our granddaughter, Shelley, age fourteen, make him a handkerchief. Shelley and I go to a local quilt shop and hunt for cow or UGA fabric. When we first started making these, we always purchased cow related fabrics. After a few years, as it got harder to find them, we added UGA fabric. I iron the fabric edges double folded and then Shelley sews along them by hand or machine. Usually it's done by hand. Once we did a rolled hem on the serger. We started doing these when she was five or six. Shelley's stitch size has improved considerably over the years. 
Roger loves his handkerchiefs. He's proud to use them in church, a business meeting, or social situation, as well as at home.
The following photo is Shelley working on this year's handkerchief. On her lap are just some of the handkerchiefs she's made for her Dad.

Peace!

Amber Hope and Lacey Love

I'm  missing my babies. They're being boarded while we celebrate Christmas with family. At least I know they love the people where they're boarded and they're together and well cared for. Doesn't make me miss them any less though.
Amber Hope is a three and a half year old Maltese/Toy Terrier. We got her from a rescue when she was nine months old. Her first name comes from her eye's which are Amber colored and her middle name from the fact she's ALWAYS hoping for food! Amber is pretty laid back, most of the time, unless she sees a squirrel. 
We ordered Lacey Love from Moss Creek Goldendoodles in February of 2013. Her father is Sammy, a moyan poodle and the mother is Mindy, a golden doodle. That makes her 1/4 golden retriever and  3/4 poodle. She was born the end of May and came home with us the end of July.
We wanted a small goldendoodle. Waiting through the conception, birth and then the nine weeks after, was like waiting for a new human baby. We saw pictures of the parents, on the breeder's website. They took pictures of the litter every week and emailed them to us. When the pups were old enough to be separated, they took individual pictures. Each pup had a different colored collar put on at birth. We got to make a first and second choice from the litter photos. We got our first choice, yellow collar girl. She is named Lacey Love.  Lacey because she is white, soft, feminine and I'm a heirloom sewist among other things. The Love is because she is so sweet and loving.
They are our very spoiled children!

Peace!

Square in a square

I started blogging again this month after two years absence. My last post two years ago was of a square in a square quilt I was making for my husband and myself. That quilt was on my Longarm to be quilted when I wrote my first blog this month. I had loaded it in July to quilt but ended up having two eye surgeries over the Summer and Fall with some extenuating circumstances. Finally got back to quilting and finished the job last Sunday night. Yesterday evening I sewed on the binding so all that is left to finish is the hand sewing. I'll do that over the holidays. 
The quilting on this quilt isn't what I would like to have done but I had to get it off the frame to get Teej's quilt quilted for Christmas. I just meandered in the borders. I wish I'd had the time to stitch a fern-feather border. I still think it looks pretty and I'll enjoy using the quilt. 

Peace!

TJ's Quilt

I finished the quilting on TJ's Christmas present  yesterday afternoon. This morning I got the binding sewn on. I'll do the hand sewing on the binding at my daughter's house. I'm always cold there so having a quilt in my lap will be nice.

This quilt is one of the 2014 QOTM's from Bernina Sewing Center. He got to choose from a couple different ones. I love the colors and quilt pattern. It was made from a Jelly roll and 2 1/2 inch strips cut on a Accuquilt Fabric Cutter by sweet Hannah, an employee at BSC.

Teej likes green so I used a funky fabric for the back. I don't like using batik on the back with a batik top. With the tight weave of batiks I feel it's harder to quilt.

Here's his almost finished quilt!

Peace!

Birthday Gift

On my birthday earlier this week two wonderful friends treated me to lunch. We had a pleasant time of fellowship and delicious food at Carmel Kitchen and Wine Bar. We'd never been to that restaurant before but definitely plan to return.

While we were there Erica and Elizabeth gave me a birthday present. It's a framed portrait of a "Quaker gentleman". I think it's wonderful, being I'm a Quaker.

The story behind it is interesting. The portrait is on the lid of a box from the Quaker Lace Company. The box contained a lace tablecloth which was given to Erica's Mother-in-law as a wedding gift some 60 or so years ago.

I think the company choose the name because of the Quaker's reputation for their honesty and integrity. I have my doubts the owners were Quaker because they would have known that Quakers didn't wear lace. It would have been considered too fancy. Quakers dressed plainly, not drawing attention to themselves by their clothes.

At the moment the picture is sitting in a chair in my family room, as I haven't yet decided where I'm going to hang it. I'll wait until after the holidays. In the meantime I'm enjoying looking at it from my sofa.

Thank you Erica and Elizabeth for my delightful surprise! 

Peace!

Ouilt Of The Month 2014

At the beginning of 2014 I made a commitment to make a quilt each month chosen by Bernina Sewing Centre. If you brought in the previous month's quilt you got a discount for the purchase of the fabric for the next month and a free pattern. Each month you participate the discount increases by 5%!
Two of the quilts were made by my grand-daughter's Shelley and Angelica. I'll post a picture and talk about those in future posts. They had permission of management in the store to make them.
This morning I finished QOTM number eleven. It's a lap size. They vary in size each month. After my grand-daughter's dentist appt. we'll be going to the shop to show my quilt and buy the next one for a wonderful 55% off!
Here is QOTM number eleven:

Peace!

Toria's Crazy Patch Quilt

In June of 2006 when my DGD was eight we watched and episode of Simply Quilts. The guest that day was Cindy Needham. She was demonstrating making a crazy patch quilt with antique handkerchiefs. After the show Toria asked "Do you have to use handkerchiefs or can you use fabric?" I told her you could use fabric. Her next question "Can I make one?"
We got out my scrap bag, and a scrap of background fabric. I put fusing on the background. Toria picked out the fabrics she liked and laid them out on the background. When she was done arranging them I asked her which piece of fabric didn't belong. She studied her creation a little bit and pointed to the gray that stood out lie a sore thumb. It got exchanged for another fabric then we fused everything down.
Toria sewed on the borders and choose a backing. I layered, quilted and bound it for her. It has hung on the wall of my sewing studio ever since. The other day I sent her a text asking if she'd like to have it for her first apartment she's moving into in January.  Toria texted back a resounding "Yes!!!!!!!"

Here's her finished wall hanging:

Peace!

Birthdays

     
This would have been my mother's 91st birthday.  Unfortunately she passed a few months before her 85th birthday. Today is also my birthday as I was born on my mother's 25th birthday!

I was reading the Grace at Home blog.  Rachela lost her mother when she was in her 30's.  That  made me think about how blessed I am to have had my mother live so long. I was 60 when she passed.

Mom was a daughter, sister, wife, mother of five, grandmother of thirteen and great-grandmother of twelve.  She was also a very talented artist and pianist!

I miss you Mom!

Peace!

Christmas decorations

My favorite display for Christmas this year at my house is the new "fake flame" candles.  I purchased them at Kim Coe Designs in Casselberry, Fl., last Saturday. The candles are actually Luminara, Real Flame Effect, Vanilla Scented Pillars made from real wax.  Each candle takes two AA batteries.  They are displayed on antique candle sticks I've collected over the years.  It's so nice to have candles that I don't have to worry about the dogs knocking over and burning themselves or my house down.  Another really nice feature is that you can purchase a remote control to turn them on and off.  One of my candle sticks has a slightly raised area under the base that is the perfect place to store the remote.  It can't be seen and hopefully won't get lost!

This is my Dining room for Christmas. It makes me happy. The Summer Quilt that I'm using for a table cloth was made by my great-great-grandmother, on my father's side, in the 1850's.  It's one of my most prized positions.  We do take it off the table when we want to eat!  The quilt on the wall I made at least ten years ago.  It was one of the first things I free-motion quilted on my Bernina 180.  The quilting is pretty awful!

The most important display in our house is of course our Precious Moments Nativity scene. Jesus is the reason for the season! He came to save us by grace for our sins. Lets us be grateful and not forget that's what Christmas is all about.

Peace!

Modern Quilt

I made this modern quilt for Cara, a sweet young lady. She's a college student that I consider family.  I looked at all her Facebook photos to see what color she most liked to wear.  Blue was by far the predominant color in her photos.  The quilt was inspired by quilter Valori Wells.  The fabric was purchased from Bernina Sewing Centre.
I used straight lines for the quilting and really was pleased with the way it turned out. I think I'd like to try my hand at some more modern quilts.

Front: 

 Back:

Peace!

Thanksgiving vacation project

Over the Thanksgiving break our two daughter's and their families came to spend the week with us.  My son's family lives close by.  On the very rainy Tuesday before Thanksgiving the girls(Kim, Heather, Melissa, Toria 19, Angelica 16, Shelley 13, Faith 6 and I) decided to do a project.  We dyed silk scarves using silk scarf blanks, sharpies, and alcohol(90+% works best).  We marked our designs on the scarves and then sprayed them with the alcohol.  Alcohol makes the ink run. We let them dry and then ironed them to set the dye.  After some of the scarves were done we showed them to TJ one of our 17 yr old grandsons and talked him into doing one for his girlfriend.  Being the least crafty of all our seven grands I was surprised he made one.  He did a beautiful job as did everyone else. TJ used his mothers scarf blank so she didn't get to make one. We have 14 more blanks on order from Bernina Sewing Centre.  We'll do more over Christmas.
Here's a photo of our finished project.

Peace!

Cloud 9 module directions

In my previous post I said I'd explain how to put the Bernina embroidery module in the rack on the Cloud 9 cabinet.  I'll also post a picture.
When we take our module off our machine we move the arm all the way to the left. When you look at it in that position your thought is the left end is the one that should sit on the rack.  You need both the body and the arm to balance in the rack. That doesn't work because of the curve on that end.  I thought they'd sent me the wrong rack.   It turns out that if you turn it and put the other end down the arm slides all the way down and holds it in position. Didn't realize it would do that. The word Bernina is at the top.
Now my module is stored out of harms way on the end of my beautiful Cloud 9.

Peace!

My Sewing Studio Machine Cabinet

Two years ago this month I picked up my Bernina 750 sewing and embroidery machine at Bernina Sewing Centre.  It is an awesome machine to sew on.  I've really enjoyed using it.  I've spent most of the two years since purchasing my 750 trying to find the right cabinet.  The 750 is larger than my previous machines.  The cabinet they had at my local store was bigger than would fit my studio.  I finally found online the Model 8300 Quilter's Cloud 9  made by Fashion Cabinets of America.  I went to Bernina Sewing Centre and they ordered it for me.  I've had it for a couple of weeks now.  The cabinet shaped like a cloud, thus it's name, has a leaf to give you space for large quilts. It also has a place for my embroidery module, and is motorized so the machine can be stored away.  It's the perfect addition to my studio!

Just off to the left you can see just a little of the embroidery module.  In a future post I'll give directions and a picture of how it fits in rack.  There were no directions or pictures with the cabinet to show one how to place the module.
Peace!