Quilting for Charity

In the spring, I grabbed a set of cut out quilt blocks to make for our church's quilt group.  The quilts are donated to people in developing countries.  Due to theft, the groups accepting the quilts have asked that the quilts not be attractive.  This was my first time making an ugly quilt and it was a different experience.  Sewing the quilt blocks together was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon (when I wasn't watching the Olympics), but the satisfaction of making something beautiful was missing.  I'll probably continue to make these quilt tops, but I will certainly make more attractive quilts in between each ugly one.

New Quilt Project

I've been wanting to force myself to get back into more serious sewing. It's easy to cram projects in that need to be finished, but I want to enjoy the process on a few projects.

Melissa over at Happy Quilting is beginning a quilt sew along project. The finished quilt looks fairly straight forward. I'm hoping to complete a beautiful springy project for my bedroom. Come join the fun!

Finished At Last

Is there a world record for the longest time taken to complete a quilt project? If so, I must be in the running for some kind of award. In 1989, I decided to make a quilt. Most people would have read a book or magazine on quilt making to learn the process. Not me. I jumped in and began to design and make quilt blocks. My mother taught me to sew when I was in my early teens, so I felt that I had enough experience. My blocks weren't perfect. They had 5/8" seam allowances. The corners of each piece didn't necessarily line up to the next piece.

After sewing the quilt top, I tried to quilt the project on my trusty Kenmore sewing machine. Two rows were quilted before I discovered that basting probably would have been a good idea. In disgust, I placed the project in the bottom of my linen closet for completion "as soon as I figure out a way to quilt it on a machine.

Twenty years and two household moves later, the quilt is finished. It seemed stupid to move the in-process quilt again. I decided to tie the remainder of the quilt. There isn't enough time to take out all the previous quilting and begin by basting the project. Machine quilting a queen size quilt is not something I would tackle on my Pfaff sewing machine. Here are the results of my very first quilt project. There's nothing like the feeling a person receives when finishing something!

Quilted Christmas Ornaments

I'm still in my Christmas crafting mode. Yesterday, I completed two ornaments using scraps from my daughters' Christmas dresses from past years. The batting was scraps from other quilting projects. The pattern for the ornaments was in Easy paper-pieced keepsake quilts : 72 quilt blocks for foundation piecing. Throwing out supplies is so difficult for me that bits and pieces are saved for future projects. Unfortunately, the time for these future projects never materializes. This is the summer to reduce the Too Good To Throw Out stash in my hall cupboards!

Unexpected Gifts

My brother and sister-in-law came down last weekend to visit. They had been to a garage sale earlier in the week and noticed 2 large racks of material for sale. My brother bought all the material and gave it to my mom, my niece, and me. My mom and I went through the fabric together on Monday and did the first split. There were 7 large plastic bins of fabric. I came home with 3 large bins. I was amazed at the quality and variety of the fabrics. We divided the brushed suede, linen, pre-quilted, flannel, knits, and denim. I began making Christmas presents and plan to spend all day Thursday in my bedroom sewing.

This weeks completed sewing projects: 4 lounge pants, 1 quilted robe, 1 pillow, and 1 quilt top.




I hand appliqued the leaves, but machine sewed all the seams. The quilting with be done by hand around the applique, but the borders will be machine quilted. Too little time, too many projects!

Quilting Supplies Give Away

There is a really nice give away of quilting items at this site. The drawing will be on August 1, so enter soon!