June finishes

I finally have a finish to show you!  I still need to clip the rag quilt and wash it, but I am calling this a finish!  I'll do the clipping in the car the next time we go out of town.  It's going to take a while!  I used six inch blocks, 13 across and 17 down.  This is going to be a Christmas present for my 17 year old nephew.  I'm not really sure how I ended up with a almost a whole row of light blocks on the right side.

When I sorted my blocks, I made sure that the colors were not next to each other, then when I chain stitched my blocks they got all messed up, but that's okay, boys don't care.

My husband even said that he liked the quilt and would not mind one!

On the label I put the first part of Psalm 143:10 - "Teach me to do thy will; for thou art God" .  I pray that my nephew takes this verse and pays attention to it.

Of course the second a quilt is laid down Tiger has to lay on it!  You can see his tail at the bottom of the other pictures, he was just waiting!  LOL

I also finished all of my barn blocks.    http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2013/06/barn-update.html

I worked on my sailboat quilt.  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2013/06/pinwheels.html

This means that I finished all of my June goals!  Yeah!

Have a great day!
Missy

Feline Friday - Sock Tower

Some of you may remember that I have a bit of a sock fetish?  I love socks, the wilder the better!  Last year we were at a flea market and my husband saw one of those closet organizers that hand from the ceiling or a anger, this one is round with "shelves" and holes in each section to stick things in.  My husband suggested I buy it for my socks because my sock drawer was over flowing,
When I brought it home, Pippi jumped in it once or twice and then forgot about it.  A couple of days ago the kittens seemed to notice it for the first time.

Cupcake thinks it is a  great hammock!

Aww, Oreo beat me to the top!

Hey Custard, I was here first! 

Oreo thinks it is a great tree!

Boy are they having fun!  They are also pulling my socks out and dragging them to the living room, my fluorescent socks seem to be their favorite.  I'm not sure who is doing it though, every time I leave the house they carry a new pair in there.

Have a great weekend ya'll!

Missy

Be sure to check out other Feline Friday posts at Sarah's blog!  And check my side bar on the right to see other blogs I link up to!

Packing tip #1 and 2

As I mentioned yesterday, we are moving, Lord willing, October 1,  We are wanting to move to a little town called Theodosia, MO, or at least within 20 minutes of there.  Our church is in Long Run, which is even smaller!  In fact Theodosia is so small that I sent a letter to my friend and forgot to write down the post office box number and the zip code, and she still got it!  I can't wait to move, but we still do not have a place to live.  We are looking for either a rental that accepts cats or a three bedroom house.  My husband will be working from home, so he needs an office with a door that closes and I NEED a sewing studio!  That and the kitchen is my main concern.  It's all about priorities!  So, with that said, if you live in the area and know of a house, please let me know!  Thanks!

Packing tip number one:  I collect penguin cookie jars and snow globes.  I also collect aprons, so I used my aprons to wrap up my breakables.  This way I'm not wasting room on paper!   I did leave four or five aprons out to use until we move though.

Packing tip number two:  Clearly mark all of your boxes!  Put what room the box goes to and what is in the box.  Trust me, this will help tremendously after you have moved.  You don't want your box of towels to end up in the office.

Right now I'm packing up breakables and books.  This is another reason I have not been blogging or quilting as much, I'm trying to pack a few boxes every week.  I'll be having a yard sale at a friend's house to get rid of a lot of stuff in two weeks.  Another friend is supposed to be having a yard sale in August, so I'll sell more stuff then.

Whew, what a lot of work!

I hope this helps when you move!

Missy

Barn update

I really have not gotten much done.  I had the flu last week, of all things!  I've been trying to get my house back in order after being sick for a week.  I have some regular sewing to do now, although I would rather quilt!  I did get some sewing done on my barns.

 I think laying the blocks out is the hardest thing!  You can't have two chickens next to each or two polka dots, and you have to try to distribute the light and dark sashing, etc,

 Cupcake was helping me as I laid the rows back down.  I got all of the rows sewn.  I then sewed the 1st and 2nd rows together, and then the 3rd and 4th rows together.  When I went to sew it all together, I realized I mixed up one of the rows and now I have to seam rip it or it won't be distributed right.  Ugh.

I just kind of threw it on the table until I could get back to it, so of course Muffin thought it was a new bed for him.  I had to move it.
I am moving this fall and really want to finish this quilt, but first I need to finish the baby quilt for my step nephew, and for Christmas my niece's great granny square quilt needs to be quilted and my nephew's rag quilt!  I need all three done by August so that I can send the last two to my mom and she can hold them until Christmas, this will make sure I don't lose them in a box somewhere!  My step brother's baby is due August 12, so his quilt needs to be done by then!

I guess I need to put my barns to the side for now.  Sigh!

Have a great day ya'll!

Missy

Last three barns and Feline Friday

I finished my last three barns!
First I cut all of my "wood" for each barn and sorted it to make sure I had all of the pieces I needed for each barn.

In these barns I have owls, cows and of course we needed more barn cats harvesting the cat nip!

Next, I built my frame to make sure everything was in the correct place before I nailed it together.

Then I nailed them all together, ripped the seams out of the ones messed up and resewed them!

The barns with the silos are a lot easier to make than the full barns!

This scrappy star pattern is from Bonnie Hunter, here is a link to the free pattern!

My first log cabin block!

Of course I have to include a couple of cute cat pictures.

Quilts are cat magnets!

Cindy from Retro Revival, did you get my email?  You won my giveaway!

Now all I have to do is sew all of my blocks together and I will have a finish!  Yeah!  My husband said now that I know how to build a barn, that I can build us a real one when we move!  LOL
Missy

A Winner

I drew the winner for the goose patterns.  Cindy from Retro Revival won!  I love her blog and she makes the cutest shower caps and aprons!  I really want a shower cap!
You can find her shop here:  http://retrorevival.biz/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=295&zenid=012267fac9f0496ee0d4b2b404a62c6a

Her blog has all kinds of retro stuff and she is so friendly!  Check out her blog here:  http://retrorevivalbiz.blogspot.com/

Congratulations Cindy, I sent you an email!

Missy

Feline Friday - Cat Pile

Poor Tiger was sleeping soundly on the chair all by himself.  (The big cat)  Then Oreo comes and goes to sleep beside him.  Well, Pippi is used to being the baby and sleeping with "big boys" (Muffin and Tiger), so she came over and laid right on top of Oreo and Tiger.

Cupcake, calico kitten, decided she wanted to sleep with them too and laid herself across Tiger.  Poor Custard, in the front, could not find a place for herself.

Of course, we needed another cat, so I added Muffin.  He stayed like two minutes!

Muffin and Custard decided the rocking chair was just too crowded and decided to move to my chair.

The rocking chair is a popular chair for the cats, they are constantly fussing over it.  I was really surprised Squeekie let Cupcake sleep with her here.

Okay, how many cats did you count sleeping on the rocking chair at one time?
Yes, six!  LOL
Have a great Friday!

Missy
Don't forget to enter my giveaway, Sat. is the last day to enter!
http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2013/06/give-away-and-strawberries.html

Cats are not in the Bible, so I thought a verse on friends would be good for this post!
Proverbs 18:24  "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."

Barn time!

I finished two more barns!  Custard wanted to model this block!  I like the silo with the black and white polka dots.

I got some new cat material!  My husband said calicoes are on sale at Hobby Lobby if I wanted to get some.  I was getting this cut and he commented that he thought I was getting some calicoes.  I explained to him I did, see the calico cats?  LOL  I love the one with the big pregnant tummy!

I did not have enough of the red chicken fabric for the window also, so I put French chickens in the window.  This barn has American chickens, which are short and fat and French chickens which are tall and skinny!  LOL

This is my cow barn.  My friend picked up the cow print at a yard sale for me.

She even found the small cows at the same yard sale!  What do you think of the red stripes?  I'm thinking I might need to do another red striped barn, to balance out the quilt.  I put some of the cat material in this block too.  I even have the moo material in the sashing on this block.

I am thinking of using this red material for my border.  It says cup of kindness and has teapots on it.  Do you think it is too busy?  It would need to be at least 3 inches wide to show the print.

I had made seven barns before I decided to also do the barn with silos. The quilt will have 12 blocks.   I was thinking of doing three more with silos, which would leave me with an extra block.  I could either put it on the back, or make a pillow with it, or leave it in and just change up the sashing to fit, then I would only need to make two more.  What would you do?  The block on the bottom is the odd ball sine it does not have a quilt block in it.

These are my options for the additional three barns.  I could use the first one with circles, but I do have two doors with that print.  I also have the black checked which was used on one roof.  There is also the black gingham that has only been used on one silo.  I would have used it on a roof, but just got it at a yard sale and had already made those blocks.    I could also do another cow print, although I will be putting that into the sashing also.  There is a black on black print underneath but I think it might be too dark?  Which three would you pick?

Tiger all stretched out.

Oreo matches!

Okay lots of questions!
1.  Do I make two or three more blocks with silos?  7 barns and 5 silos, or an even 6 of both?
2.  Do I use this red border?  If not I was thinking another (2 1/2 inches) small red border instead.
3.  Which material would you use for the last three (or maybe two) silos?

Thank you for the help!
Missy
If you follow my blog, don't forget to enter the giveaway!  Sat. is your last day to enter!
http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2013/06/give-away-and-strawberries.html

Give away and strawberries!

 Organic Strawberries were on sale a couple of weeks ago, 2 quarts for $5, so what is a girl gonna do but buy four quarts?  My favorite dessert is Strawberry Shortcake, but I did not have time to make shortcake, so instead I ate sugared strawberries with whipped cream, delicious!  Then a couple of days later I melted some Chocolate Wilton Candy Melts in the microwave and made chocolate covered strawberries - as good as you get in the store, but a lot less money!  That left me about three quarts and so with those I made strawberry preserves.  Delicious, but I was pretty disappointed  that it only made four pint size jars!
That is to say that I have been pretty busy with one of my favorite berries!  The reason I buy organic is because with the soft skin it can really absorb pesticides which are not good for you.  Not bad though for $10!

I got a pile of stuff in a raffle and these two patterns were in it.  I'll never make it, so I thought I would pass it on to ya'll!

It is two patterns that can be either hand or machine appliqued.  The country goose fits in a 14 inch hoop and the Christmas goose fits in a 12 x 20 hoop, or of course you can always quilt it into a wall hanging or quilt!  This would also make a great Christmas present.
As ya'll know Google Reader is going away July first, this is how I like to read my blogs.  I've tried Bloglovin, but I do not like having to wait for an email to read my blogs, it is not convenient.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Of course I can always just read them on my Blogger dashboard, but will that show blogs that are not on blogger?
For a chance to win a pattern, please leave a comment with any suggestions you have please, and don't forget to leave an email so I can contact you if you win!
I will draw a winner on Sunday and announce it on Design Wall Monday, this means that Sat. is the last day to enter the giveaway!

Missy

Pinwheels

I've been making a lot of pinwheels!  For my sailboat quilt I had to cut 220 white squares and 220 red or blue squares, all of them 2 1/2 inches.  With these squares I made half square triangle units, and with these I will make 80 pinwheels, the rest will be "waves" under the boats, this will be the sashing.  It's easy, but a lot of work!
I can't use a 1/4 inch foot on my hand crank, which is a Singer Redhead or Red Eye 66.  I have my 1/4 inch seam allowance marked, so it is not usually an issue, but the way I am making my HS (short for half square) units, I draw a line from corner to corner, per the pattern directions, then sew a 1/4 inch on each side from the line.  This is hard to do with out a 1/4 foot unless you draw line a 1/4 inch on both sides of the line.  Well, it seems that the left side of the foot, is a 1/4 inch from the needle to the left side of the foot which gives me a perfect 1/4 inch seam!  Yeah!

I just went through and sewed all of my squares (off and on) and then sat down and cut the middle of the squares.  Then I would iron them open.  Next, I wanted to go ahead and make some pinwheels, so in order to chain stitch them I am sewing the top of the pinwheel and then sewed the bottom of the pinwheel.  When I cut my strips, I did it two at a time so I would still have a whole pinwheel, top and bottom, on one string when it was time to sew them together.

Then I iron them open and sew the top and bottom together.

Meanwhile, I have tins to put my WIP in.  With so many squares, it can get monotonous, so I've been hopping around, doing the different steps at different times.

The left side are my cut squares before ironing, the right side is after ironing and the finished pinwheels, the bag on top are ones I messed up and I accidently cut a whole row white too short so I need to re-cut that strip and sew those squares together..
These are the ones left that still need to be sewn on one side of the line.  Not many!

These are the ones that have been sewn and are waiting to be cut, like I said a lot of work!

Here are the finished pinwheels!  The first picture has 11 and this picture has 10, so that makes 21 finished!  Only 69 more pinwheels to go and 15 units of waves to go!  (I'm trying to be optimistic!)

I have to leave you with a cute picture of Cupcake.  I've never seen a cat that moves as much as she does in her sleep!

So far I have tried three different methods for pinwheels, I think I like this one the best.
What is your favorite method for pinwheels?

Missy

"16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

I Thessalonians 4 16-18

June Goals

I have been doing a terrible job meeting my goals I set for myself.  I know what the problem is, I am very ADD!  I'll have one quilt I know I should be working on, but work on another quilt instead!  I have decided that I am going to keep my goals simple for this month.
Goal # 1:  Finish the denim rag quilt for my nephew.  It is a Christmas present, but I am moving in a few months and I want it done before I move.

Goal #2:  Finish at least two more barn blocks.  I pieced four this month and finished two more.

The rest of my barns will have the silos on them.
Goal #3:  Work on my Sailboat Quilt.  I got a good start on it at the retreat.

I have started on the sashing.  440 squares, which I am sewing  together as sets of 220 and then cutting into half square triangles.  The vertical sashing is pinwheels and the horizontal sashing is "waves".  I have already drawn the line down from corner to corner and set them all in pairs.  Muffin thought it made a great bed though so I have moved the tray out of reach!

Those are my set goals for the month, I also have a couple of dresses I am working on for a friend, capes for another friend and some mending for another friend, the problem is that I would mush rather be quilting!
I also have my scrappy trip around the world quilt I am working on.
Too bad I have to take time out to clean house and cook meals!  LOL
Do you have any specific goals you are working on?
Have a great day!
19  "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
20  She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy."  Proverbs 31:19&20