First Snowman Block/Row

I made my first snowman block/row for the BOM!  I loved this block and it was very easy to put together!  My noses are a little wonky though, but that's okay!  I had problems with my stitching too, I sewed the blocks on my hnadcrank but had to do the applique stitches on my electric Janome and after testing several stitches on scrap fabric, I found one I really liked.  The only thing is, as I was sewing them, they kept skipping stitches and since it is an electric machine I have no idea how to fix it!

The Block of the Month is from Quilt Doodle Doodles and you can find the post about this block here.  The patterns are free for that month, for example:  January's block is free for the month of January, but then you will have to pay to be able to purchase it.  This way if you don't start at the beginning, you can catch up later.

I am very happy with all I accomplished this month!
I finished my sailboat quilt!  Here is a picture of my nephew, Jaxon, with his quilt.  He is 6 months old, that's not too bad for finishing his baby quilt!  LOL  It's so big, he can use it on his toddler bed!

I finished my string quilt, which you can see here.

I also finished my pin cushion for my pin cushion swap.

And last, but not least, I made two Jacob's Ladder blocks for the Sew Sweet Bee from Donna's Lavender Nest.

Were you able to meet all of your goals for this month?  I can't believe I did!

Missy

God's Quilt of life

I was thinking about my string quilt and how Chris had dared me to use whatever I pulled out of the basket, despite whether I wanted to or not.  Life is like that.  Wouldn't it be great if we could go through our days and everything match up and fit together perfectly?  That is not how life works however.
We have some days that are all bright and cheerful, the yellows and pinks of life, where everything is sunny.  Then we have some blues and purples thrown in, the bruises of life.  Next we have the greens and browns, the dirt and grass that represent new life, whether it be a baby or or someone giving their life over to God or even the flowers and trees that we enjoy in life.  God also gives us oranges and reds, which can be the fire that consumes our passions.  Whether our passions are our family, hobby, or serving God.  It does not have to be either - or, as long as God comes first we can still have our other fires simmering in the pot.

 We also have the greys and blacks.  Days that are dismal and we are sad.
Don't forget your white fabric, it is the most important color of all!  Isaiah 1:18  "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Romans 6:23 " For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

God takes all of the colors  of our life and sews them together to make a quilt to keep us warm and protect us.  You can not be the quilt God wants you to be without accepting all the colors he has for your life.  Not every piece of fabric is the same, that is what makes us unique and strong, sewing all of those fabrics together.

Psalms 1:3  "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Let God quilt your life together the way he sees fit and and accept whatever color he wants to add, you'll be surprised when you look back and see the quilt he has made with your life!

Missy

FYI - my life is nothing but one big crazy quilt!   LOL

Mouse Pincushion

I made my first little pin cushion that looked like something.  I signed up for a pincushion swap on the email list from http://treadleon.net/ .  I wanted something simple since it had to be done on a people powered machine, whether treadle, hand crank or by hand.
I made mine on a Singer redeye/redhead 66 hand crank.  I was surprised how much easier going around the curves was on my hand crank versus my electric, it was a lot easier to control!

Unfortunately the pattern did not have any instructions, just the pattern to trace, which I did not realize until after I cut out everything!  Like I said, this was my first time to make anything like this!  I've only done clothes and quilts and they always had great instructions!
I was so happy I remembered to sew the tail (which I did a simple crochet out of yarn, the only crochet I can do!) on the wrong side of the fabric, I sewed it several times.    Only to realize after I sewed the mouse that I had the tail facing the wrong way!  I actually remembered the correct way on the ears though.

So I took out the gazillion stitches I had put in it to make sure it did not come out and turned it around to where it was on the inside!

I forgot to take a picture, but after I stuffed it I realized there was not a point on the nose and it looked like a deformed mole, so I had to go back and sharpen up the nose.
I stuffed it with my leftover strings you would normally throw away, it makes the pin cushion stiffer then using plain old polyfil would.

Then I added buttons for the eyes and threaded on the whiskers.  The pattern called for seed beads but 1. I didn't have any and 2. I though the buttons matched the buttons on the fabric.  I hope whoever gets it likes it!

And no, I did not plain to have that button right there on the nose in between the whiskers, it was just a happy coincidence!  I have only made a couple of other pin cushions before, but they were easy, this scrappy one and then the wrist one.  I did make another one for a secret sister gift for a friend at church, but I don't have a picture of it.

Have you ever made a pin cushion before?

Missy

Finished String Quilt

I finally finished my strings quilt!  I really wanted a dark pink binding but with all of my fabric still packed, I was limited to what I could find among the fabric that was in plastic tubs.
Pippi kept an eye on me while I quilted, she was not happy because I kept having to move her off the quilt.

I love all of the different fabrics in this quilt.  Most of the strings came from a friend at retreat, thank you Mary Lou!
I love the sewing machine fabric in this block!

And the happy faces in this one!  With this quilt, my husband dared me to use what ever piece of fabric I puled out of the basket.  He said I was too much of a control freak to do it, with the exception of looking at the size of the strings, I did it!  I have blues, browns, blacks, pinks, reds, Christmas, spring, baby etc. all combined together!

The pinks and blues make me think of Tabitha(blues) and Valerie(pinks) because they are leftovers from their quilts. I also have leftovers from my niece's, nephew's and mom's quilts! I decided to do a free motion scallops on the quilt and really loved how it turned out!

It showed up great on the back with the minky blanket I used!  I decided not to use batting, just because I still have two more tops that need quilting and I don't know when I will be able to get more batting, it is at least a 30 minute drive to the closest Wal-Mart or quilt shop and 1 1/2 hours to the closest Joann's or Hobby Lobby.

I made lots of mistakes, I made this quilt after seeing someone else make one, but did not really follow any directions.  First off, I should have trimmed my strings before sewing them on, the strings that were not trimmed had places I had to resew.  For example the blue girly stuff fabric.  There were a few places like that.  I think I will take some pink embroidery floss and make x's over those spots (like a crazy quilt) to hide those spots.

Another mistake I made, was not knowing the muslin would stretch.  I just trimmed off each edge following the line of muslin without measuring which made all of the blocks different sizes.  I 'm thinking next time I will pick a square ruler one inch smaller then the cut muslin and cut to that size?

Custard

I was also careless with my binding because I was rushing and had to go back and fix several spots today.

But the cats love it and so do I!  This is only the second quilt I've made for myself!  (both throws!)

Pippi

I sewed the strings with my red eye/redhead 66 hand crank sewing machine and quilted it on my Singer 16 treadle!

Have you ever made a string quilt or any quilt with complete abandon?

Missy

Hand Quilting

 This is the newest quilt they are working on at the Senior Citizens Center in Gainesville, MO.  This lady hand embroidered all these deer on the quilt.

Everybody is now working on hand quilting it. They have all been hand quilting for years and have perfect tiny stitches.   I did not go this week and will not be going back for a few weeks until they are finished with this quilt though.  I'll be honest, she hurt my feelings.  I asked her if my stitches were okay or if I should take them out and redo them.  If she did not like them, all she had to say was to go ahead and redo them, after all I did ask her.  Instead she said she did not know I would have to ask the lady in charge.  Then she sat down and started stitching again and proceeded to lecture me on how she practiced her hand stitching for months at home before she tried working on someone else's quilt because she did not want stitches that were not very good on somebody else's quilt and that was not the place to practice, etc, etc.  She made me feel an inch tall.  Now please don't leave a lot of hateful comments about her in the comment section because I can understand that after all the time and money that she invested in this quilt she would want the stitches to look good, but she could have been nicer about it.  The whole reason I was excited about finding a local quilting bee was 1. because I wanted the fellowship, there is no one around here for me to quilt or sew with and I really miss my sewing group in TX and 2. I wanted to learn from experienced women how to hand quilt.  I have already learned a lot even though I've only been a few times (the holidays and weather got in the way).  I have practiced a lot, but I was doing it wrong until one of the ladies took the time to show me the correct way.  I don't have a problem with someone telling me nicely that I need to redo my stitches, that's how I learn.
I have told ya'll this as a reminder to be gracious to people who are learning and not to discourage them, although if you are reading my blog I'm sure you're not the kind of person to expect perfectionism because I try to keep it real and show you the bad along with the good.  LOL
I really wish I could find people to quilt with.  I'm hoping once I move to Ava I'll be able to find a group to quilt with, they actually have two quilt shops there!

I should add, that I will go back to the center after her quilt is finished to do more quilting because not every body feels that way.
Missy

Psalm 64:3  "Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:"

FMQing the Strings!

I got half of the Strings quilt quilted today.  As you can see, Oreo was a big help!

I decided to leave out the batting and it is still pretty heavy!

I finally got him out of the way, he and Custard were enjoying my latest acquisition.  I bought a changing table for $10 and am going to paint it when I decide what color theme I will go with in my new sewing room.  The top will be a bed for the fur babies, I will set it in front of a window and use the bottom two shelves for storage.

He just really liked my quilt though!  I could not find my EZ glider to cover the feed dogs on my Singer 16 treadle, so I placed a business card over it.  It is working great!

I know some people say you do not need to cover the feed dogs, but I prefer it.  I quilted all day and finished half the quilt.  I decided to do small scallops starting in one corner.  I'm not sure how well you can see it in the picture.  So far this is the easiest FMQ design I have done, or maybe I'm just getting more used to FMQ?

I hope to finish it tomorrow and then put the pink binding on it Friday.

Custard tried to pull my thread off while I was sewing today and Pippi did succeed in pulling the belt off of the treadle!  Good thing it is easy to put it back on, she needs to be careful or she could get hurt!

Do your pets help you sew?

Missy

Ecclesiastes 3:7  "A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;"

Horse cake

I made a cake for a friend who likes horses.  I made what is called a buttercream transfer, you can see what that is here.
I should have looked at the directions again first, because the lines look like horse brains instead of being smooth. Maybe once it has hardened I can smooth it out.
 Her husband asked me to make the cake last week for Sunday, but I told him I would be gone all day Saturday at a disaster preparedness class thingy, so I would have to bake it on Friday.  I baked the cake Friday and Saturday night she was ill and was not going to be able to make it for church on Sunday, so I offered to have it for him today.  He forgot to pick the cake up after work.  That means this cake is going to be four days old!  I hope it tastes okay!  It is a lemon cake with lemon pudding filling and buttercream frosting.
That is all I have done today, now I can get back to quilting!  LOL

Missy

Girl with a parasol hand stitched quilt

 One of the ladies from the senior citizen center brought in a finished quilt on Wednesday.  She embroidered these girls with parasols on it.  The entire thing was hand stitched and quilted.

 She has not washed out the blue quilting lines yet.  This is the back of the quilt.  Isn't it great?

Embroidery is not something I can do very well.
What a talented group of ladies!

Do you like to hand quilt?

Missy

Jacob's Ladder block

I am participating in a virtual sewing bee called Sew Sweet Bee.  This is my first one and the host is Donna from Donna's Lavender Nest, you really should check out her blog.  She has the sweetest quilts.  She wanted a Jacob's Ladder block, each person is making a 12 1/2 block.  I think it is neat how it really does look like a ladder!

 I made mine on my Singer Redhead/Redeye 66 hand crank sewing machine.  She is great at precision piecing,  I bet mine is the only one not made on an electric!  LOL

I am super nervous about making a block for someone else's quilt.  I kept unpicking and resewing this one block because I was not happy with it.  I laid all of the blocks out to make sure I sewed it correctly and then Cupcake jumped on it and messed it up.  I showed my husband my finished block and he says "you sewed it wrong", sure enough, I sure did!  It was an easy fix though.  Do you see it?

I also finished sewing the top of my strings block.  Tomorrow I need to even up the sides, baste it and quilt it.  I'm thinking of using a pink binding, what do you think?
My tip of the day, when you make string blocks, make sure you trim it up to certain size because the muslin stretches so don't follow the sides, all of your blocks will be different sizes.

I feel like I have gotten a lot done this week with my quilting.  BUT, I really need to catch up on my housework now!  What a mess!

Have a blessed weekend!

Missy

Genesis 28:12  "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

Finished Sail Boat Quilt!

I must say that it is not easy to quilt when a sweet cat is wanting to sleep on the quilt.  Pippi is so adorable it was hard to make her move!  LOL

 I think this sailboat quilt was the hardest quilt I have made yet!  For some reason I have a lot of pieces left over from those million pinwheels I made.

 This is what I did with my one extra block, I really like it - it looks like one ship sailing by itself - LOL

 I took the pictures at the gazebo in the town square.

I used the backing for the binding, I was trying to keep it simple.

  I just made simple lines going horizontally and eyed it.  Vertically I put lines through the middle and on each side of the pinwheels, I wanted to keep the boats simple.  I put an x in each corner.

I got the pattern from the book Sugar Sack Quilts by Glenna Hailey.  I love this book, it has a lot of history on sugar sacks and a lot of beautiful patterns.  I obviously just used a lot of scraps for my quilt.

I am so glad to be finished with this quilt!  This week I need to make a block for an online quilting bee, a BOM and a pin cushion for a pin cushion swap, then I can get back to my string quilt and my scrappy trip around the world quilt.

This was my goal for this month http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2013/12/almost-finished.html , I am so glad I finished it!

You know you are living in a small town when:
you drop your friend off and her goat tries to crawl in your car,
you then go to Wal-Mart and there is a baby goat in somebody's small car sitting in the parking lot.  LOL  We could hear it and kept looking around until we saw it.

I love small town life!

Missy in Missouri

Strings!

Cupcake

My strings blocks has been an off and on project since early this summer.  I have enough blocks made for a lap quilt!  I have a hand crank set up in the living room by Chris's desk and last week I worked on my blocks while Chris was home.  (I work on quilting the sailboat quilt during the day)  (Please ignore the ugly floor in my rental!)
I had my blocks laid out on the blanket that I am going to use for my backing and I decided to just roll it up instead of picking up all of my blocks again.

 This makes a great portable design wall!  I just love this blanket with the penguins my husband bought me.

I have three rows already sewn together and the blocks just happen to come out to the same size as the blanket!  I started making the blocks a long time before I got the blanket.

Oreo

Since I am using a fuzzy, thin blanket for the back and muslin for my foundation piecing, should I use a batting?  I don't care about the quilting showing through, this is just a utilitarian quilt.  It is kind of small, should I add borders to the front and back to make it bigger?  I would definitely have to add batting if I did that, although I probably have some fleece I could add to the back if I wanted to.  What would you do?

The kittens love my basket that I use for my strings.

When I first got Oreo as a kitten, he would pee in my strings basket, until I found this one with the lid!

Cupcake likes to dig and throw the strings out until she gets comfortable

Custard was just being dainty when she crawled in.

I have had several people lately asking me questions or leaving comments on my blog.  I try to answer everyone, but if you are a no reply blogger I can't!  Please be sure to leave me your email if you want a reply.  If you are not sure if you are a no-reply, then leave a comment on your blog to find out.  Mine has a tendency to revert, so if you notice I'm a no-reply, please let me know!

Have a great day ya'll!
Missy