"She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:27

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Scrappy pin cushion

What do you do with all of your scraps?  I decided to make a pin cushion, I really did not have time to make a cute one like on of these on my pinterest board. .

 I just grabbed some of my scraps and started sewing them together willy nilly like a crazy quilt.
I trimmed it up with my ruler on a slant.  I then sewed up the sides leaving an opening for the stuffing.
Wanna know what I did for the stuffing?  I took a bunch of those little bitty trimmings I usually throw away, I really like it because it made my pin cushion a little heavier than regular stuffing would be and I didn't have to buy any rice or sand.
Here is the back of it.  I put a pin in it to hide the thread from the button.
Unfortunately, I could not get my button to give me a "dimple", oh well.
This is where I'm keeping it, in the door of my green cabinet.  A couple of my cats like to pull the pins out of my pin cushion and the pin cushion I have will not ft here, so this is a perfect set up for me!
I finally decided what to do with the machine in the cabinet, I'm selling it to a friend.  She is going to convert it to a treadle.  I put my Singer Redeye 66 hand crank in it.
My husband helped me.
He used the sander to make it fit better on the edges.
 I love the way it looks in the green cabinet.  Did you know it is also called a redhead?  It takes class 66 bobbins.  It was made in 1918 and sews better than my newer machines!
I've been sewing my scrappy trip along on it, I love sewing with my hand crank!
Here is my trail of chain stitching underneath the cabinet.
Happy quilting!
Missy

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Goals For March

I am going to keep my goals pretty simple this month.  Instead of making Scrappy Trip along blocks, I am going to strip piece them together so I can see how many more strips I need to cut.  I want to take these to retreat with me in April and this way I won't have to bother with  taking the individual strips since they will be half done.  I have no idea how many I will finish, it just depends on the pinwheel quilt.
I also need to finish the pinwheel quilt this month so we can get it sent to sweet Kenzie, her casts are coming off in a month.
And I have more that have been sent to me!  I did not make any of the pinwheels above, but will be sewing them together to make one quilt!

I also have three capes to make like this one for a friend.

I'm hoping to finish the granny square quilt this month, but that depends on other people, not just me since we are all hand quilting it.


These goals should keep me pretty busy this month!
What goals do you have planned for this month?
Missy

Monday, February 25, 2013

Color help for maverick stars!

I am going to a sort of quilt retreat in April.  It is called a TOGA, treadle on gathering academy.  As ya'll know, I love treadles and hand cranks, although I still have not been able to get my treadle to work right!  I get a lot of my help from treadleon.net, they have an email group where can ask questions and talk about your people powered sewing machines!  They have TOGAs all over the country.  The NE TX TOGA is April 5 and 6th.  It is a quilt retreat, but everybody uses hand cranks or treadles!  If you are interested in going, check their yahoo group! 

One lady will be doing a demo on Bonnie Hunter's Maverick Stars.  You can see the pattern here. 

Have you made this pattern before?  I was thinking of making the stars yellow and the background blue using scraps in those colors.  Do you think it would look better if I made the points blue and the middle yellow and the background white?  I have a lot of 2 1/2 scraps in those colors from my scrappy trip along.
I don't have any small pieces for the tips, do you think it would work if I just my squares in half and use those?
I have no idea what I am going to do with the blocks after I make them!  LOL  I'm open to suggestions!

I converted a sewing machine last week.  I found an electric 99k without a foot pedal.  I took the motor off, and put a spoked wheel and a hand crank on it.


 I had to borrow my hand crank assembly from my 15 and now need to buy another set for my machine. My 15 is not as pretty as the 99, but it is an old friend and I'll keep her and the 99 is going to a friend.
After a couple of hours of cleaning and oiling it sews like a dream!


What have you been up to?

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Prayer Quilt Presentation

We worked on our prayer quilt some more on Friday at my house.    Pippi helped me set up the quilt rack, she thought it was a great trampoline!
 Precious knew the correct place to sit, he was ready to help also!  I wish I had gotten a picture of Pippi greeting the ladies on top of the quilt while they were trying to sew!  She is the friendliest cat I have ever seen!
We had four ladies including me and one preteen, Kayla come on Friday.  This was Siousxie's and Marie's first time to hand quilt.  Miss Debra is teaching them how to hand quilt.
Tabitha and Valerie also came, but they worked on their postage stamp quilts.  They were arguing who got to use my hand crank!  LOL  Their dad is going to buy them one, but we'll have to wait until April to get it for them.  The lady lives in Plano which is only one hour away, but right now that is just too far to get it.
Tabitha got to use my Redeye 66.  She worked on making four patches.
 Valerie got ahead of herself and made a 16 patch, now she needs to go back and make all o her four patches!
This prayer quilt is for Skye.  She has had a very hard couple of years.  She is pregnant with their sixth child and has had some heart aches the past two years.  We felt like she needed a prayer to wrap herself in.  I'm sorry we only got two pictures.  Today was her baby shower, the quilt is not finished but we still wanted to present it to her today.
 She is an amazing woman who puts her complete trust in the Lord.
Here are some of the posts if you want to see the progress we made while making this quilt, http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/search/label/prayer%20quilt%20ministry
Here is the label we put on the back of the quilt.
It says "quilted with love from the Kingdom Baptist Prayer Quilt Ministry, 2013" and our theme verse:
James 5:16  "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
We had to take the quilt back so we can try to finish it up for her!
Happy quilting,
Missy

I am linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Monthly Finishes for February




I finished my great granny square top!  I'm afraid the picture is not great!  I pieced the entire top on my hand cranks!  I finished it up on my Redeye 66!  This is going to be a Christmas present for my niece.
 I almost did not have enough material for the sashing, I had to sew a couple of these leftover squares together to make it long enough.  The sashing was my inspiration for the colors in this quilt.
I have 20 scrappy trip around the world blocks done.

I finished two tonight, and just realized I messed up one of the blocks because I want for all of my blocks to have royal blue in the center stripe, and I accidently have the brown there.
 I have five more blocks strip pieced and already cut ready for quilting back together!
 I have penguins in these blocks, this material is over 23 years old!  I bought it a long time ago and made cullotes out of it when I was a teenager!
I decided not to make my dress, I want to lose five more pounds and will reward myself with a new dress when I do!
Did you reach any of your goals this month?
Missy

Monday, February 18, 2013

Decoupage and Pinwheels

Did you see Bonnie Hunter's post today about decoupaging messed up sewing machine cases and bases?  It reminded me of a notebook I had decoupaged in my Christian Womanhood class in college, remember back in the 90's when it was very popular to decorate wedding albums with fabric?  In my class our assignment was to decorate our notebook for the class.  All the other girls came in with similar decorated notebooks, not me, I've always been a little different!
Truth be told, I had no idea how to decorate one of those other books and I did not have the money to buy material, so all I had to buy was the notebook and decoupage glue.
I had a lot of fun decorating it!  Yes, I still have it even though I made this 16 1/2 years ago in 1996!
I had been married a year.  I did get an for originality!
 Sorry about the glare!  I really enjoyed it, I should do some more decoupaging!
Here is Bonnie's post in case you missed it, click here.

I got some more pinwheels in the mail.  If you have some pinwheels to send me, please get them in the mail as soon as possible, we are going to assemble the top at our next prayer quilt meeting on Friday.

These pinwheels came from N. Brown in TX and Karen from KQuiltsathome.blogspot.com in Arizona. I'm afraid I forgot which set came from whom.

I would like to think everyone who has sent me pinwheels so far - it has been a blessing!

Missy

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Prayer Quilt Update

We are still plugging away on our prayer quilt!  Her baby shower is this Saturday and I am hoping to get it finished by then!  I have been asked why we are hand quilting this quilt instead of machine quilting it.  This quilt is for a lady in our church, so I wanted it to be a gift from all of us, that we have all worked on.  If I machine quilted it, I would do all of the work (and it would take me a few days to a week, I'm slow).  But by hand quilting it, it gives all of us a chance to put a part of our heart and time into the quilt and show her how much we lover her!  Not to mention the fellowship is great!
We had five ladies and two preteens working on the quilt this week, our quilt frame is so small we had to take turns!  LOL


 We were playing musical chairs and one person would get up and the next person would just take up where they left off!  We also took turns eating lunch, so somebody was constantly stitching!
Here is a closeup of my stitches.  They are terrible, the 12 year olds stitches were better than mine!  But, I can't fraw a straight, or even walk a straight line, so how can I expect to stitch a straight line?  LOL
Miss Debra is teaching her seven year old granddaughter, Abideth how to quilt.  She is making a Dresden plate quilt.
 Look at how perfect her stitches are!
Atarrah took a break from her granny squares and made a cute little hat today. All by herself without any help!  She is nine.
 Well, Declaire did help her by holding the yarn!
Tabitha is still plugging away on her postage stamp quilt!  She's now sewing them into four patches.  She is thirteen.

I'm hoping to get the quilt finished on Friday. My goals on Friday is to have some ladies hand quilting, one lady cutting out the binding and getting it ready to be attached, and if we have enough ladies show up, have a couple of ladies to start sewing the pinwheel quilt together (another prayer quilt)  I'm hosting the quilt along this week.  If you live in the area and want to come and quilt with us, let me know!  I live in the area of Arlington, TX.
Happy Quilting!
Missy

Friday, February 15, 2013

Mid-Month Update

My husband bought me some tulips and mums and Muffin and Pippi just loved them, a little too much! Pippi broke my tulips!  They(the flowers) now stay in the bathroom with the door closed unless I can keep an eye on them!  Mums are poisonous to cats!  We're moving in October so I don't want to plant them outside.



I seem to have finished more than I realized!  I finished two more scrappy trip alongs this week bringing them to a total of 18!  I'm thinking I really like this layout with the blue cornerstones!
 I have four more strips sewn together and three tubes waiting to be cut and re-pieced!  It is getting scrappier as I go along!
I finished three more great granny squares blocks!
I only have one more to finish all of my blocks!  I have cut out half of my sashing.
 Here is my layout, I'll be working on this today!
 Of course Pippi had to help!
 I got 18 more pinwheels from Plano, TX!
I'll start sewing the pinwheels together next week!

Missy

I'll be linking to:
 Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
A Lovely Year of Finishes
Feline Friday at Sarah Did It!
Can I get a whoop whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." Psalm 34:8