Vintage Quilts

I wanted to share some beautiful quilts I  saw at the antique mall.  I do not know the name of this one, but I love all of the scraps used in it, and the centers are yo-yo's!

 I believe this one would be called a Grandma's fan, I love how the use of the white wedges makes it look like a sunburst!

 These are yo-yo's that are connected by crocheting!  It was gorgeous and very old!  The placement of the yo-yo's reminds me of a Grandmother's Flower Garden with yo-yo's instead of hexies!

 Here are 3 yo-yo quilts, I wish I had also gotten a close up view.

 Can you believe this trip around the world?  I love the colors and it is gorgeous!  I wish I could have bought this one and brought it home!  I am thinking this quilt needs to be on my to-do list!

I love this quilt, it was white with embroidered designs all over it!

 Here is a close up view.  I wonder if the pink on the border was actually red at one time to match the circles?  What a lot of work!

 Another beautiful scrappy quilt!  This is a pattern I need to try sometime!

I love old quilts, don't you?
I got more pinwheels from Cheryl in Maryland, bringing me up to 64 counting the ones I made.

I've run out of the brown fabric (I kind of wish I had not used it because it is so dark), but to late now, I was kind of thinking of maybe adding this red fabric in place of the brown, what do you think?  Or should I do a navy blue?

 You can see my original dark color was the dark yellowish orange.

Thanks for your help!
Missy

Design Wall Monday

I got four more scrappy trip along blocks done!  I seem to be averaging about four a week, st this rate it will be a while before I get them all made!

 16 down and 84 to go!  LOL  I'm making an oversized king size quilt.

I got more pinwheels in for the prayer quilt.  These ones came from Missouri, Texas and South Carolina!

 I got a new thimble while I was in Lubbock, I love it!

 This side has a butterfly.

 My goal this week is to make the last four great granny squares for my quilt and maybe start putting the sashing on.
I had to share this cute picture of Tiger and Boots, they love the afternoon sun.

What are ya'll working on this week?
Missy

Pinwheels

Wow, I got three packages yesterday!  All full of pinwheels!  The packages came from California, North Carolina and South Carolina!

Here is a view of the wonderful background fabric I was sent!

Aren't these pinwheels great?  So much better than mine, but maybe mine will look better once I trim them!
Lisa, at Piecework Treasures has also made up some pinwheels!
I got three more packages, but did not get them photographed yet, I'll share those tomorrow.
I have not gotten very much sewing done, I have half done scrappy trip along blocks I will share with you on Monday, they should be finished by then!  I've been cleaning instead of sewing this week.  Yeah, sometimes I HAVE to do that!  LOL
Pippi has not been feeling well.

 This is her pillow, she has slept with it since she was a kitten, and she slobbers all over it too, yuck!

 She does not want to leave the bedroom, and she cowers under the quilt.  I think she hurt a nerve on her back and thinks something is biting her.

 This is her safety zone.  She seems to be feeling better this morning though, She's back to climbing my husband's bass (sigh), at least it has a thick cover on it.  The nice thing is she sure is cuddly when she's not feeling well!  She's usually too busy too cuddle, even though she always very affectionate - even to strangers!

Muffin and I had a little adventure the other day, I wish I had remembered to take some pictures!
My cats are strictly indoor cats, I'm terrified of losing them!
I will let them play in the backyard while I'm out there to watch them.  Muffin got out through a hole in the fence, and behind that fence is like a little overgrown mini-forest, about a block long.  It's impossible to walk back there!  I stood on a chair calling him, trying to get him to come back.  I heard him start wailing!  Of course, that freaked me out!  There is an entrance at the end of the block, on the other street, his wailing was coming from that direction.  I walked over there and looked in the backyard of the first house down there.  He had gone back in the wrong backyard and was terrified and could not get back out!  (he was still wailing by the way).  There was a small pile of wood about a foot high on my side of the fence that I was standing on, I noticed there was a pile of pallets on the other side of the fence.  So I scaled the fence and balanced on this wobbly pile of wood and braced myself against the wood and the fence to get down.  (Did I mention the duplex was vacant?)  I pulled Muffin out of an old aquarium he had taken refuge in to take him home.  He continued to wail until he saw my front door, can you just imagine me walking down the street carrying a cat who was wailing at the top of his lungs?  Crazy cat!  They have lost their back yard privileges after that episode!  LOL

Here is Muffin, Precious is on the back of the chair, his usual spot!
Hope ya'll have a great weekend!
Missy

Quilt Along!

We had a lot of fun today!  We have combined our quilt alongs with our prayer quilt ministry.  We started hand quilting our granny square quilt which will be going to a lady in our church who is having a tough time right now.  Some of the pictures were taken by a young man who came with his mom, so ignore any blurriness please!  And yes, my thread was way too long!

 Unfortunately we can only fit four people at a time around our quilting frame, we really want a full sized one, the type you can hang from the ceiling and let down when it is needed.  Until then, we can only sew four at a time and have to take turns!

   We have sold our church building and are now taking turns meeting at everyone's houses, which I really like because it is so homey!  (We are sharing our building for a couple of months)
Tabitha and Valerie were sewing their twosies together for their postage stamp quilts.  Valerie borrowed my hand crank and has decided that she really likes it and is going to try to talk her parents into buying one for her!  Tabitha is thirteen and Valerie is twelve.

 You can see all of their blocks that they have cut out!
Here is half a 16 patch that Valerie has finished.

Valerie put her little sister Atarrah to work and has her ironing her twosies.  Kayla is helping her out.

Atarrah is crocheting a granny square quilt, she has three done so far.  She is nine!

I suggested putting the two seven year olds to work snipping the threads between Tabitha's twosies, with Kayla supervising.  Abigail and Alexa liked being able to help!

Chrystal spent the first part of the hour fixing Tabitha's machine, it turns out they were using the wrong size bobbin!  They were using class 66 instead of class 15, as far as I know the majority, if not all of the new machines are class 15.  I have an old Redeye 66 that uses a class 66 bobbin, they are a tad bigger than the class 15.

Chrystal has finished 10 of her great granny square blocks and has ten to go!

She is teaching her daughters how to hand sew.  Camelia is five and Mary is three.

I also wanted to show you a quilt that Chrystal has, I meant to take another picture in better lighting, but I forgot.  This quilt was made by her Nana's friends for her Nana's wedding!

The prints have Raggedy Ann and Andy, Hobby Lobby and I love that orange cat and the apples!  I wish I had gotten a picture of the quilting, they stitched in the ditch and quilted a circle in the middle of each square.  Simple but very nice.

Just remember that you are never too young or old to learn how to quilt!
Missy

Pinwheel Tutorial

I have been making pinwheels for a prayer quilt for a little girl with cerebral palsy.  If you would like to help and get more information you can go here:  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2013/01/calling-all-quilters.html
I included a video from Missouri Star Quilt Company in that post, but some people are not able to view videos (especially if viewing from a phone) so I thought I would write out the tutorial for you!  This is not my original directions, I got them from the video!  Since this is what is on my design wall also, I thought I would share it today!
First, Melinda, a member of treadleon sent me pictures of the pinwheels she is sending me:

 Aren't they gorgeous?

 They are perfect, unlike mine!  Such bold and bright colors!

 She is also sending me fabric for the backing, she said people have blessed her with fabric so she is paying it forward!  It is so bright and cheery!

To make your pinwheels, first you need to cut 5 inch squares (or you can use a charm park), of course you can cut any size square you want to make bigger or smaller squares!   I cut an equal number of white and colored since I want my background white.

 You will take one white square and one colored square, facing right sides together sew a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the square on all four sides.

Take a ruler, I just used this one because of it's size, not shape, lay the ruler from corner to corner and cut.

 Do this both ways to give you four triangles.

 Take your triangles and iron them open towards the dark side.  You will do all of your ironing towards the dark side.

Be sure to lay your squares out in the way you want them sewn together, do this before any sewing because it is almost like a puzzle (At least for my add brain it is) to try to get them all facing the right way.
Next you will sew two together at a time.

This will give two halves of a pinwheel.  Again, iron your seams to the dark side.  Next, sew these two halves together.  Make sure you line the middle seams up, if you have ironed right, they will nestle together.  I forgot to do this on most of mine which is why my points do not match together perfectly.

When you iron your last seam, iron it open to help reduce the bulk in the middle where all the points meet together.

They are so easy peasy to make!

I still have a few that need to be cut and sewn.

I can't wait to see all of the pinwheels that are donated for this quilt!  I think Melinda's bright pinwheels will set off my light colored pinwheels nicely!

Check out the ones Snoodles made from Lily Pad Quilting here!

Also on my design wall is my sashing for my granny squares.  What do you think?

What are you working on right now?
Missy
P.S.  If you still want to help it's not too late!

Feline Friday and February Goals

I had to share this picture!  This is Pippi and Precious sleeping together.  Pippi loves all of my other cats, she's the spoiled baby.  I guess it is because we got her when she was only four weeks old, so the other five cats helped me raise her.  They did not want to move when I tried to lay my blocks out.  I got four more blocks finished and fixed the ones I messed up before I left.

Tiger inspected them, but was not impressed!  Should I move the brown over a row?  I had replaced the orangey yellow with the brown when I ran out of the other material.  I'm thinking it should be light  dark, light, dark, light, etc.  But if I move it for the rest of the blocks will it throw off the pattern?  I know it's supposed to be scrappy, but I'm doing the best I can - LOL.

Here are all of my blocks laid out.

I'm loving laying them out in different patterns!  I have 12 blocks done, my first goal for February is to get at least another 12 blocks done.
My second goal is to finish my granny square top.  I have four more blocks to make and the sashing to attach.  I'm not sure if I will get the border on it, we'll see.  I still have to decide what border I want to attach, I'll have to audition fabrics when I get the top made.
I have a dress I would like to make for myself, I have the pattern and the yellow and gray material.  My  third goal is to get it at least cut out and ready to sew!
I am linking this up to Feline Friday at Sarah Did It!, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and a Lovely Year of Finishes..
If you would like to help me make a quilt for a little girl with cerebral palsy, please check out this post!
Thanks for popping in!
Missy