So irritated!

Okay, so I just went to make a post, and it won't let me upload any more photos!  What a rip off!  I thought blogger was supposed to be free? It says that I have to pay to upload more photos.   I know there is a way that I can fix it, I just need to research it.  I don't want to be miserly with my pictures, I love lots of pictures!  So, I guess this means I'll write my blog later.
I hope ya'll have a great weekend!
Missy

Finished Dresden plate quilt!

I finally finished my Dresden plate quilt!

 Since I am still learning how to quilt, I just did a basic cross hatch in the squares.  I love my backing, it is a retro sheet I found at a yard sale.  I saw the same sheets on the Mary Tyler Moore show, ain't that a hoot?  I definitely want more retro sheets for my backings!

 I was so worried that my fabric marker would not wash out from the antennae  it was the first thing I looked at when I pulled it out of the dryer.  My first appliques!

I did straight lines on the border and I love how the corners turned out!  I used this tutorial from Pt Sloan on my binding, unfortunately I did not have a reverse blanket stitch to use, so I just sewed a straight line.  I was reading another tutorial that had a great hint, if you want the binding to be 3/4 of an inch or 1/2 an inch or whatever, that is the seam allowance you use while sewing the back of the binding, it worked perfect!

I didn't have enough of the green, so I added left over pieces of the sashing here and there.  I got to the end and I was an inch short, I was so happy I had not thrown away that last piece of sashing, it was just long enough!  They pulled the quilt off the chair and then crawled in it.  They love quilts!

This is my first full sized quilt that I made all by myself that I have finished.  It has been approved by all six of my cats!

 A couple of my yo-yo's came undone in the dryer, so I will fix those tomorrow and then package it up for the person I'm giving it to!

 For more info on my quilt and some tutorials, go here.  I still need to post my tutorial on how to make the butterflies, that will have to wait until next week though.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving ya'll!
Missy

Thanksgiving Recipes

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Thursday is Thanksgiving! This is my husband's favorite holiday and sometimes his birthday falls on Thanksgiving! Here is a turkey cake I made him one year:










Here is a post about our first turkey dinner when we were married 17 years ago!


Here's a great recipe, my apple/cranberry relish, it is delicious!


My favorite cupcake recipe is my pumpkin spice cupcakes here:


Here is last year's Thanksgiving dinner, even seasoned cooks have mishaps!

This year we are going to a friend's house.

My spiced pumpkin custard pie!


Of course my buttery sourdough rolls I shared with ya'll last week.


If you use any of my recipes let me know how they turn out!

Have a great day of thankfulness!
Missy

A finished top!

 I was busy on Friday night!  I got to church at 6:30 and did not leave until 11:30!  Six blocks were made by friends at home, and the other six were made Friday night.
This is Marie using the other Janome I won in the friend to friend contest at the beginning of the year.  I gave her the second one.

 She had never sewn anything before Friday night!

 Here is her block before it was trimmed, she had to leave before the last step!

 Siouxsie is hard at work!  She said she felt like she was in a sweat shop!  LOL

 Here's Chrystal, multi-tasking - sewing while taking care of her children.

 Please remember that these pictures were taken at 11 at night, so I don't look great, but here I am with my two blocks.  One done at home and one Friday night.

 Siouxsie also did one at home and one Friday night.  One of Siouxsie's blocks is out of order, but I told her that is part of what makes friendship quilts so special!

Julia couldn't stay Friday night, but she did two at home.

 Chrystal actually did two Friday night.  Her seam allowance was off on the one she did at home so she had to redo it, the only thing she did not finish on the second one was trimming it and sewing on the four corners, which I did for her Saturday.

 I didn't get everyone's pictures though, Lauren, Kristi, and Cara also each sewed a block.  Here are the ten that were completely finished when we left.  I finished up Chrystal's other one and had to fix one and sewed the top together on Saturday.

 I'll pass the top to Joeann and her mother,who will do the embroidery on the borders.
Since it is a prayer quilt, we made sure to take the time to stop and pray for the person getting this quilt.
I can't wait to show it to you when the top is completely done!
Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Hexie Help needed!

I couldn't find a place to spread out my hexies to take a picture, so I pinned them on the wall in my sewing room er, dining room.  I thought I had sewn them in a straight line, but that does not look very straight to me.  My question is this, I thought I was going to be able to make a straight line for each row, but after looking at this and other Grandmother flower garden quilts, I don't think that is going to happen.  Should I just sew the other flowers on the best I can (I put the garden trail on every other flower already) and pretend like it is supposed to be wonky?  I really need a good tutorial for this step of the process because I have no idea what I am doing.
Sorry about the post it notes still pinned on the flowers, but I did n't want to forget which row this one is.
Thanks for your help!
Missy

Working hard

I got so irritated that I missed my self imposed deadline on my Dresden plate quilt, that I put it to the side and started working on other things.  Well, I have to get it done now, so I've pulled it back out and started quilting it again.  As usual, Pippi wants to help.

 I've been doing a cross hatch pattern on it.

 Word of caution, don't get in such a hurry that you sew the corner of the quilt to the quilt.

 Tiger had to check out the quilt and make sure it was looking nice.

 This is where it is right now, I have one or one and a half blocks to finish quilting.  Then it is ready for the binding, which is already cut and pressed, ready to go.  I have really got to clean off my table!

After helping me, they decided to take a nap.  Aren't they cute?  They love quilts, just like me!

Tonight we are having our first prayer meeting for the prayer quilt, and my goal is to  get the top sewn tonight.  It's only 12 blocks.  This will be perfect for the Friday Night Sew In at Handmade by Heidi.   We'll probably be there until 10-11 pm.
Tomorrow I'm having a yard sale.
What are you working on?
Happy quilting!
Missy

A win

I wanted to share with you some fabric I won, my first Moda fabric!  I'm so excited!

 I'm going to show my ignorance here, I think t is a fat quarter bundle?  I usually buy yardage, so I'm not familiar with the terms.  It is called fabric hill.

 I won it from The Shabby Blog of Shabbyfabrics.com .

 I love this material, I would have never put purple with with green!

 The birds are my favorite!

Thank you Jennifer!
Missy

One block finished!

I finished sewing one of the blocks!  I love it!It was a lot easier to sew than I thought it would be, I actually did not mess up the first time around!  I'm really liking the mauve, brown and red combination with the navy blue background in this block.
I am using this tutorial from Lori Holt  to make my blocks.
These make 12 inch squares.  I have other tutorials on my pinterest board if you want to make different sizes, or just a granny square instead of a great granny square.  The third row is what makes it a granny square, the middle is the baby, first row mommy, second row is granny and the third row is the great granny.  I love that description from Lori!
First, always iron each piece as you sew when using your sewing machine, if you are hand piecing, do NOT iron as you go.  Confusing, huh?  The reason is because with machine piecing, you sew over the seams, with hand piecing, you sew up to the 1/4 inch seam, but not past it.
When you iron your rows, be sure to press the seams for the first row to the left, second row to the right, etc.  The reason for this is so that when you sew your rows together, you match your seams kind of like a puzzle piece, see the picture below.

See how, that since the seams go in opposite directions, the lines match up perfectly?
I don't normally pin, but I wanted to make sure my seams stayed perfectly matched, so I highly recommend it!

After sewing all my rows together, before ironing, this is what it looked like.  I purposely did not iron my rows so that I could take this picture.

Here is the front of my square, before sewing my rows together.

I had to trim my sides to even them up.

 I put my 5 inch rectangles  on the center rows, I have them pinned on here before sewing them on.  Be sure to press them after sewing.

My 12 1/2 square ruler kind of confused me, I was not sure where my center was, since there was and extra 1/2 inch on two sides.  I asked my husband to figure it out for me.  Of course Pippi had to help.

There was a yellow line going from one corner to the next corner, so my husband took another one of my rulers to figure out the center from the other two corners.

 The first black dot from the six was my center.  (where the scissors are pointing)

 I squared up my ruler and trimmed with my rotary cutter!  I'm so excited to have made my first block.

Since this is a prayer quilt, I passed out five other blocks to four of my friends who will sew them up this week.  We'll finish them on Friday.
Is everything clear as mud?  Be sure to read Lori's tutorial for the full instructions on making this block.
Happy quilting!
Missy