Catching up time.

I didn't realize it was Dec 1st when I last posted. Dec. sure flies by. I have a lot of catching up to do. And a correction to make about Easy Street. Remember in my last post I had signed up to do the mystery quilt from Quiltville with Bonnie Hunter? Well, I said I was showing you a pic of the black and white 4 patches I made but actually posted the 2 patch before I had them sewn into 4 patches. So here's the right picture along with the next week which is blue and black on white Flying Geese units.

Then it was onto Week 3. I'm not sure what these are called but they were fun to make.

 Week 4 I made orange and blue Flying Geese.

Week 5 not really a house but does remind me of one.

We added scrap blues to the units this week.

Week 6 will be posted on Quiltville's blog tomorrow morning so I can't wait to see what we will be making this week.

Now this is what I'm really excited about.

This is an American Home sewing machine and the sewing cabinet that belonged to my mom. I remember her sewing on this when I was a kid. She made almost all of our clothes when we were kids and also did her quilts on it. She had this machine along with 2 Singer machines. So when we were selling out the contents of her house, I decided to keep the 2 newer Singers and sold this one. This was about a year or so ago. Now that I have the quilting bug, I have also been biten by the vintage sewing machine bug. Not that this is a rare machine but it would be more collectible than the 2 Singers I kept. I have mention several times to my husband that I regret selling it. So for Christmas, can you guess what I received? Yes, It's my moms machine. Not a look a like but the very machine we sold. He and my daughter contacted the guy who bought it (he was buying it for his wife) and asked him if they would sell it back to us. I'm not sure what all was said but they did sell it back.  But what is kind of funny is that we sold it for $50.00 and my husband paid them $75.00 to get it back. I love it and it sews perfectly. You can see how much mom used it by the worn paint along the front edge. I'm so happy to be able to use it now.
                                              Here's another machine I purchased recently.

It's a Singer 66 made in 1941. It needs the power cord and a cover for the bobbin but I will get those ordered. I'm hoping I can get it to sew once I have the 2 missing pieces. It's in very nice condition. Not alot of wear and it was very clean. It came in a cabinet but I think I'm going to sell it. Just not enough room to keep cabinets.

I finished quilting the 1st quilt I had in my longarm quilting machine. I'm not very good yet but I'm sure it just takes time and pratice.  I have the binding sew on the front but still need to get it turned and hand stitched down on the back.

I have been off work since Chirstmas and have been spending as much time as I can sewing. I have been cross stitching on my Prairie Schooler alphabet. I'm working on Q is for Quilting. Go figure! I'm almost finished with it so since I've already stitched R is for Rabbit, I can move onto S is for ???

Can't think of what it would be. Seashells? Ship?

I'm trying to decide if I want to box up and put away all the Christmas decorations this weekend or wait until after new years. I really like to keep it up but also remember in the past years after going back to work after the 1st of the year thinking "Why didn't I do that while I was off and had more time?" So I guess I will see what the next few days bring. I do like to spend some of my time off doing some cleaning. There's something about a new year that makes me want to clean out drawers, closets, etc. and get rid of unused stuff.

Kitchen cabinets were cleaned out before Chistmas so it's onto kitchen drawers.

Until next time, have a Happy New Year and spend time stitching.

Deana

It's a mystery!

I'm working on a mystery. A mystery quilt actually. Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville Quips & Snips is hosting a mystery quilt a long called Easy Street. It will then be published in one of her books at a later date. I was excited to take part in this mystery. As a fairly new quilter, I was interested in what this was all about. We don't know what the quilt design is, but each week Bonnie is giving us our "clues" our instructions of what we need to make for each week. We picked our 3 main colors, our background fabrics  and  one constant color. Here's what I chose. Yellow, Blue and Orange along with Black on white as the background and the dark Gray as the constant.

 It was a little hard for me to choose since I don't really know what the design is. Bonnie showed us her choices on her blog so we did get an idea, and Bonnie suggested we make our own color choices. She also told us how much of each fabric we needed so we wouldn't over buy or run the chance of not having enough.

Last week was our 1st week. Our 1st Clue... take our background and our constant color and make 192 four patches. I cut and sewed for a couple of days and here they are.

That's alot of 4 patches but they were fun to make.

This week, clue #2

I took my blue fabric and black on white fabric and cut 192 flying geese.

Last night I got all the pieces cut while watching Bonnie on her quilt cam. She host an online quilting get together with her webcam. It's so much fun to watch her sew while we are sewing. She reads emails and text that quilters send and she will answer questions while we all sew. She is so helpful with any questions you have and it's a great time to get some sewing in.

She will be hosting the next quilt cam tomorrow at 1:00pm our time. I will hopefully be able to set in and watch and sew up the flying geese.

I cross stitch Austin's Christmas ornament for this year and gave it to him last week when we got together for Thanksgiving.

He has a black Lab named Jeff so he really liked it.

Have a great weekend and take a little time to stitch for yourself.

Deana

November, Already?

I can't believe we're now into the 11 month of the year. It seems like it was summer such a short time ago.
However our yard shows differently. Leaves are falling at a rapid pace. It's also rainy and cold outside tonight. Since I haven't posted very regularly this year, I wanted to share a few things going on this year.
In August after the State Fair we celebrated Austin's 8th birthday. Gosh! He's getting so big.

Celebrating with a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake.

 Here's the progress I've made on my fall table runner. I had to stop working on it while my quilting class was going on to keep up with that project. I now have these blocks sewn together and next will be the border added to it. Check back later for a pic of the finished piece.

I made a tote bag out of this fabric a few years ago for my cross stitch lap stand to fit in when traveling. But the overall size was just way too wide and the handles were to long.  I added several pockets inside and out. So much for my 1st try with no pattern. It's just been thrown in my sewing room closet not being used since. I liked the fabric so I didn't want to just get rid of it. A while back I decided to rip it all apart and try again. Well, after finally getting all the seams rip apart, the whole thing got folded up and put in my "To Do" stack. I think I was just intimidated without a pattern and just didn't want to start all over again. Well,

Sat. night I finally decided to drag it out again. And kind of like the Nike commercial, I thought to myself "Just Do It"  So I cut it way down side to side but left the height the same. Shortened the handles too. After redoing the lining to fit I now have a bag I really like and will finally get to use. And one more thing out of the "to do" pile. I hate looking at that pile but it's stuff I don't really want to work on. It does feel good to knock something out of that pile once in a while though.

I haven't been cross stitching for quit some time. I've been doing some primitive embrodery and working on Grandmother's Flower Garden. But tonight I looked thru my cross stitch patterns and found the one I want to make for Austin for this year. 

I'm having my gall bladder removed this coming Friday so if everything goes well and I feel like stitching, that's what I plan on working on while recurperating.

I'm also joining in on a Mystery Quilt online with Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville's Quips & Snips.

I've really didn't know what a Mystery Quilt was but it sounded like fun so why not. She will be giving us our instructions on Fridays and we have a week to make them. We don't know what we're making but as we work on it, the whole thing will come together. Then next year the mystery quilt will be in one of her new books. Wish I could tell you more but I'm not really sure what I'm doing so stay tuned to see the progress.

And an updated picture of the pups.

They just turned 10 months on the 1st and have changed since I took these pictures.

Here's Hannah.

And Teddy.

 Gotta go for now so until next time.

Take care,

Deana

It's Here!

Well here it is! My new Innova Long arm Quilting machine. I'm so excited to get it.

 Joe and Amy Hunter that owns

Hunter Heirloom Quilting came Monday morning and started setting everything up.

Here's Joe getting everything ready to go.

Amy and Joe bolting the frame together. They work so smoothly together. They make it look easy.

Believe me there was alot to this job. Worth every cent we spent. After all with what the machine and frame cost why scrimp on the setup. Steve and I would have been days trying to get this together. Having everything level and set just right is very important in how your machine handles. By the way, this frame is made of aircraft aluminum. Very sturdy.

Now Joe is putting the leaders on the poles.

On goes the machine.

Amy showed me how to load a quilt. Although this is just two layers of muslin with the batting between for practicing.  I'm going to have to do alot of that.

The machine is so easy to move around.

Here's a side view after everything is finished.

For the last year, I've been looking at long arm machines, reading reviews and test driving them in shops and to me there isn't anything better than the Innova.

I couldn't find one bad review about this machine. From what I have heard, this machine is starting to catch the eye of quilters that own other brands of machines too. I know with the machines I tried, this won hands down. If you are thinking of buying a long arm, please check this brand out.

I'm not getting anything for saying this or mentioning Amy and Joe Hunter either. I'm just saying if your shopping you won't be disappointed in this machine. 

Tonight I did some more practicing. As you can see I've rolled it a couple of times now. I'm getting better each time I play with it. Last night I also moved some of my sewing "stuff" into my new quilting room. My sewing room was getting a little full so it's really nice to be able to spread out into the next room. As you can see Emmie now has a special spot all her own in the room too. But if I have a full quilt on the frame, she will be hidden behind the quilt. She might just like being tucked away in her little hideout.

I haven't any other pics for tonight. I've been working on my class quilt. This week we started working on sashing around our blocks along with the setting triangles. I will show it to you as soon as it is together.

That's all I have for tonight so until next time...

Deana

Good Sunday Morning Everyone,
Hope you are having a nice weekend. Fall is certainly in the air. Cooler temps in the mornings now with very enjoyable days.
I have been busy around the house preparing for the delivery of my Innova Longarm quilting machine. We have been moving stuff out of our spare room in the basement so we can turn that room into the extra bedroom. Then we were bringing book shelves from the basement upstairs to use in my quilting room. The room is all cleared out now except for the book shelves.

I'm really getting excited about it. I never, ever, thought a few years ago I'd be quilting much less purchasing a longarm.  I always loved looking at quilts and admiring the workmanship, but as I said before, mom was the quilter, I was the cross stitcher. I'm not sure what happened other than Mom had so much stuff I couldn't bear to get rid of it. I really think she sent her quilting spirit onto me as she passed. I mean what else could it be?? Whatever it was, I'm sure she's excited to see how much I'm enjoying the craft. And happy we didn't just get rid of what she loved to do.

I started a new quilting class this last week at AppleTree Quilting and here a pic of the quilt we are making.

Also here's the fabrics I'm using. I have my home work all finished with square in squares and 4 patches ready for the next step.

Here's something else I'm working on. Autumn Breeze Tablerunner.

It's from the Aug 2012 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.

I took the magazine on vacation to look at while riding and loved the tablerunner I found in it.

I was able to find all the fabrics while vacationing except for the solid background fabric which I found when we got home at our local WalMart.

Then another project that's been going on for the last year or so is Grandmother's Flower Garden.

Here it is yesterday when I was laying them out on our bed. I had the sheets off  for laundering so you can see the white mattress cover under it. I didn't want to sew all the green on at the very last so I've been doing some from time to time. When I get ready to start sewing all the flowers together, I'm going to have to add more green hexagons in the spots you see the white now. And I have to figure out the color placement of the flowers too. I'm guessing I still have about 60 more flowers plus the greens for it to fit our queen size bed. The worse part is that I've been working on this so much, I think I have developed tennis elbox.

Now for my last show and tell.

Steve bought this very ugly sewing box for me at a garage sale. It was full of sewing "stuff". Some junk, some keepers. He only gave $1.00 for the whole thing.

 It was covered with vinyl and the fabric on the inside was so old.

But I saw potential with it anyway. I started tearing it apart keeping everything for a pattern.

So here is the finished project.

You really can't see the pockets on the top when I took the picture so I stuck a couple of small books in them to show them off.

I really like the trim I chose.

So when all was said and done, my $1.00 garage sale find ended up costing me 26.00. Finding the outer fabric on clearance was what helped out to keep the cost down.

That's going to be about all for today. Have a great week.

Deana

Sorry I didn't get the pictures of the quilts at the State Fair posted Monday. It was a busy day around here.

Here they are. Enjoy

I love the vintage fabrics.

These little squares are about 1" and the two panels were applique.

I love the colors in this one.

Some more vintage fabrics.

This quilt was amazing. A combination of different fabrics were used to create the tractor.

Black and Red always show great

This was 1st place Best In Show

I love looking at all of them. They inspire me to do my best on mine.

Here's something I just had to show you too.

This jacket was amazing. I can't imagine the hours it took to make this.

 Now I will tell you my exciting news.

Last Saturday Steve and I went to Clearview Mo. to meet with Joe and Amy Hunter of Hunter Heirloom Quilting. They are dealers of Innova Longarm Quilting machines. Here is what I"m sooo excited about.

Yep! We bought a quilting machine. I had to go with a 10' frame and chose the 22" machine. The room I want it in won't take the 12' frame. But with the 10' I can quilt everything up to a king size quilt. I just can't wait to get it. After looking at different machines for the last year I decided this was the one for me. It should be here in about 2 or 3 weeks. Then Joe and Amy will have their guys deliver it, set it up and show me all the ins and outs to it. I know I'm going to love it. It runs so smooth. Absolutely no vibration to it. I just can't wait to get started on something. I'll play around with it for a couple of weeks, practicing different designs. With the purchase of the machine there is free training I can receive from Amy at their shop. I must say, Steve is actually the one who mentioned me buying one when I started quilting. He is the greatest. Always supports me in whatever I want to do. And in fact I didn't even want one when he mentioned it to me. But the more I quilted the more I found myself looking at the machines. Then one day it was like.."Well let me just try one."
I found it very enjoyable. Steve's right there saying "You really need to get one of these." So the shopping began.
As I said this weekend was a busy one because we are now moving rooms around. I am moving the spare bedroom from upstairs to the bedroom downstairs that wasn't being used for anything other than storage.
So when my machine gets delivered, it will be assembled in the room right next to my sewing room now.
 Until next time, take care.
Deana