Do you hand quilt?

I have been busily trying to finish this project in time for our guild's quilt show in October.  I have quilted all around the appliques, and the two borders and am now working on a grid over all the remaining "unquilted" parts of the quilt.

 For the first time I am trying the masking tape method for marking my lines and I really like this method.  I have 6 needles going across - now if I just had 12 hands I might get this done in time.  I have the lines in one direction about half done, I think - progress is slow, but steady.

I really need to learn to take better pictures!

I have also been working on the cute little thimble pips from Willowberry Designs.  They are fun to make and hopefully I will get a few more done for the guild's boutique at the quilt show.

And then there is always these little distractions to keep a Granny away from her stitching. 

Happy Stitchin!

Teresa

Caddy Pad

So...I get a call wanting to know if would go with a friend to Gastonia - and while there, we could go by Mary Jo's and  Sew Much Fun,  hmmmm...lets see....YES!  We connect with a third friend and off we go for a fun day of shopping, lunch at Olive Garden and just some good girl time.   I found the pattern for this cute bag at Mary Jo's and the fabric at Sew Much Fun.  Can you guess what it is??????

An iron caddy of course!   I just love this, it is a pattern by Sisters' Common Thread and I had so much fun making it.    A word of caution to those of you that are like me and think you can just look at the pictures in a pattern and make it - you gotta read these instructions a couple of times and take it step by step!

The bag opens up flat to make an ironing surface.  Just right for taking the iron with you to workshops.  There is the layer of metallic like ironing board fabric on the reverse of the mat, and a Insul-Bright inside.  The pattern calls for two layers of Insul-Bright, or two layers of cotton batting, or 1 layer of Warm Tater, whatever that is.   I elected to use one layer of cotton batting and one layer of Insul-Bright, which worked out great.

Did you notice that cute covered button on the bag up above?  I thought that would be really cute and also cheaper than buying big buttons.  As soon as I buttoned it, this happened! Yep, the shank came right out of the button.    So I went to my button jars and found a couple of white buttons.  Guess that would be better than the covered button -- but I sure did like that covered button.

All in all, it was a fun project and I hope to make a few for my guild's boutique at the quilt show.  It really is a cute iron tote, and one you can put your iron in even if it is still a little warm.  Not sure I would put it in there if it was really hot, as I would think it would scorch the bag, just like a hot iron can scorch your ironing board cover...a lesson I know all too well.

Happy Stitchin,
Teresa

Grandkids

Happy Father's Day !

Who could resist these smiles.  These are my grandkids - from left to right - Taralyn, Tess, Tobias (Toby), Timothy, Malachi, Levi and Elijah (Eli).  

Twilling Class

I would like you to meet some of the most important people in my life - Darlene, Brenda, Vickie, Darlene, Cheryl, Brenda and Donna. These sweet ladies are all members of my club Stitchin Friends.  We were not all there Saturday and those who could not make it were greatly missed, but we had a fun time learning to twill".

 Cyndi, over at Bee Tree Designs, got me hooked on twilling, and now I have hooked my friends. 

They are all excited about doing one of Cyndi's table runner designs or some other patterns I provided from the internet but to get started I took them back to their childhood and we played with lace-cards.  Remember those?

I made some  punch cards on cardboard from a gift box and we practiced the stitch on that until we had it just right.  Its so much easier to see it when you do the stitch in "giant" thread.  From there we moved on to a little blue bird practice piece that I did not get a picture of for some reason, and by next month I expect they will all have their table runners or blocks well in process.

Cyndi was sweet to send us a pattern as a door prize and here is Donna, who was so excited to receive it.  That is Darlene peeking over her shoulder in the background. 

And talk about sweet people, I was honored to win a give-a-way from Cheryl over a Willowberry Designs .  The package arrived yesterday and what a great coming-home-from-a-long-day-at-work surprise.  Doesn't my thimble look cozy in its new thimble keeper?

Thank you Cheryl, I just love the fabric, scissor fob, buttons and the thimble keeper.

And I close with a picture of my newest flower bed endeavor.  My father would be so pleased at my gardening attempts and that my flowers are actually still alive.  I was never much good  at growing things, other than weeds, but so far so good. (knock, knock, knock on wood)  I think my Daddy must be watching over them for me.

Have a good day everyone, and thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

Home Sweet Home giveaway!

Hurry on over to Hugs n Kisses and register for this wonderful give-away Helen Stubbins is having!  On the other hand..just go and look, but don't sign up cause I want to win!
http://www.hugsnkisses.net/index.php/shop/boms/home-sweet-home-bom

Going to Houston!

Circus Stars

I recieved word this week that my quilt, Circus Stars, had been accepted by the International Quilt Festival to be a part of the In the American Tradition 2012 special exhibit.  Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled, humbled, excited, teary and many other emotions all at the same time. 

I have never been to the Houston show, but I am going this year for sure!  It would be great to meet some of you there, but if not - at least maybe you can "meet" my quilt!

Teresa

Twilling

I have been in Port Huron, Michigan visiting a friend.  This is a view off her deck and we saw lots of these freighters passing by.  Far in the distance you can see Canada.  We had  a great visit, and while there visited the Sew Elegant quilt shop and got the supplies we needed for Twilling!

I have been seeing other sites talking about twilling and was anxious to try.  The three of us watched the YouTube videos, read the tutorials and finally came up with our version of the stitch.  I found this pattern on the internet and enlarged it to 8" square .  The center is backstitch  and I added the glass beads to give it some bling.
Here's a close up of my twilling.  Not sure I have it right, but I like the look.  I hope to teach this stitch to my quilt club in  June.


I also finished up the applique on my new grandson,Toby's quilt. My daughter and the kids came by this morning and I gave them the quilt.  He looks like he is sitting on the branch with the owl, don't you think?  Gotta love that t-shirt he is wearing - guess whoooooooooo bought it for him?  I have included a picture of the top half of the label and you can see the backing cloth too.  Some of the fabrics in this quilt are from my father's shirts - very special to me and will hopefully be special to Toby since he never got to meet his Great Grandpa.

And I close with one more picture from Port Huron.  We saw many beautiful homes like this one.

 Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa