Prayer Quilt

I had a sweet surprise today.  My bloggy friend from Dora at Dora Quilts ( http://doraquilts.blogspot.com/ )  has a prayer quilt ministry at her church and they sent me a prayer quilt!  Dora does all of her quilting on a treadle also.   I cried when I got it.  My emotions have been wacky since my surgery and I was feeling kind of low today.  My quilt came at the perfect time!

Isn't it beautiful?  I love the big flowers and the fabric used.  The striped fabric on the back is also fun.

Here is the label:

I love the card she sent, I'm going to frame it and hang it in my sewing room.

Dora, thank you again for my blessing!

Missy

Nine Patch Finished!

I finally finished our prayer quilt for my uncle!  I got it mailed today.  I love the binding material that Allison sent me, it was the perfect touch!

 It was a simple block, but I just love it!  My signature penguin block is right in the middle!
I just love how wrinkly and loved on the quilt looks after it has been washed and dried!

Pippi decided to take a nap on my quilt while I was quilting it.  Of course, isn't that what quilts are for?

She was really hamming it up for the camera and I took a ton of pictures of her!

I was trying to get some good pictures of the cats on the quilts, but they would not cooperate!

Why is it that when I do not want them on the quilt, they won't get off, but when I want them on the quilt, they won't stay?  LOL

I actually had Cupcake moved over and lined up with her brother and sister and went to take the picture, and a car peeled out on the street and all three cats jumped up to investigate - so irritating!

Please continue to pray for Uncle Johnny.  The chemo and radiation is not working and the tumor is getting bigger.  I am not sure what their next step is.

Missy

June Finishes

Good morning everyone!!!  I know it might not be morning where you are, or when you read this, but it is morning to me, soooo Good morning!
 I wrote my June Goals here.  I wrote my goals and then found out my uncle had stage four cancer, so I went back and changed my goals so that I could get a prayer quilt done for him.  Thanks to everybody who sent me blocks I was able to make an over sized throw for my uncle!  Well, right now it is just a flimsy, but today I plan on piecing the back and getting it basted so that I can start the quilting on Sunday.  My cats were great helpers this morning as I was trying to take pictures.  They kept running and sliding across the floor on the quilt top.

 When I had laid all of the blocks out, the browns and whites were pretty evenly spaced, but I must have gotten something turned around when I sewed it together.  See the upper left corner and all that brown?  Oh well, it will do.  I doubt my uncle will notice.

 My goals for this month was to finish 10 blocks of my scrappy trip around the world quilt I started in January 2013.
 Like I said, the fur babies were a lot of help!

 I met that goal!

The goal I changed was refinishing the rocking chair, it got stripped of the old fabric and stuffing, but it is now waiting to be recovered.  Maybe I'll get to it in July.

Did you meet your goals this month?  You still have the weekend to finish them!

Missy
                                                       

Winners and new blocks!

I got three packages in the mail yesterday and today!  They were blocks for my prayer quilt!

The first set of four were from Cheryl in Illinois.

 Then next four were from Lea Anne at Podunk Pretties.  Be sure to check out her blog, I love her quilts and she has a lot of free quilt tutorials.

 She also sent me two great fabric panels that have scripture on them!

 The next four came from my friend Valerie in TX.

 She sent me two extra blocks of an England print!  She is from England and I am so excited about these!

 The last four came from my friend Allison in TX.  She is a machine quilter and deals with vintage machines, so if you have need of either in the metroplex area let me know and I will get you in touch with her!

 She also sent me some blue batik to use as either a border or binding.  She also sent me some extra squares to make more blocks with!

I think I got everyone's blocks.  If you have some on the way let me know, otherwise I am going to start putting the quilt together on Monday!  Thank you to everyone who sent me blocks and for sending them to me in groups of four or ten!  That helps me with having the same number of blocks that start with blue and start with cream.  Right now, I have a total of 38 blocks!  That will give me a nice size quilt.  I'll lay it out Monday and see if any blocks need to be made to finish off a row.

I drew the winners of the spool pin doilies.
The first winner is Kathy.  She said she is fixing to get her mom's redeye 66 treadle and is excited about having a spool pin doilie to put on it.  She has shared some of her stuff here:  http://quiltwithus.connectingthreads.com/profile/KathleenKingsbury

The second winner is my vintage machine friend Joann from AZ.  She emailed me and asked to be in the giveaway, she does not have a blogger account so I replaced her name with Dora who has plenty of doilies for her machines so asked not to be in the giveaway.

There was quite an interest in spool pin doilies so I'll get my husband busy in making them.  He has been super busy with work, so I'll let you know when they are ready.

Missy

How to make a skirt fit

 Colette from What About Rheema sent me ten blocks for my uncle's prayer quilt.  I love all of the fabrics in the blocks.

 She also sent me some cute kitty fabric and buttons that I forgot to take a picture of, thank you very much!

I somehow ended up with someone's old skirt that was a size 3x.  It is super comfortable, so popped some safety pins in it and wore it around the house.  Last night I decided to cut a hole in the seam of the waist band  to make the elastic shorter to fit around my waist but the elastic was serged on to the skirt.  I did what my grandmother did with all of my skirts and added pin tucks around the waist band.  I picked out the seam, cut off part of the elastic and then resewed parts of the waistband.  Can you see what I did?

 I think it looks great and the sewing part took 5 minutes!  This can be done with any waist band.

 This is how I normally wear my my T-shirts, untucked.  This is my "I'm staying at home and want to be comfortable" attire.

I am a terrible procrastinator when it comes to mending clothes, but it is a lot cheaper then buying new clothes!

Missy

Nine Patches Received!

I have received my first two sets of nine patches for the prayer quilt!  Thank you!
Stephanie in TX sent me four blocks.

 Pat in MA sent me two blocks.  Don't you just love all of those different prints?

For those of you who are sending me blocks, please try to get them to me by the 18th so that I can quickly get it put it together and quilted.

I have an update on my uncle.  The stent in his esophagus slipped so he can only eat pureed foods.  My mom said that he has to sit at the feeding tube from 6 pm to 6 am every day.  So far the chemo has not made him nauseous, thanks to the stomach pills he is taking.  I have found a baseball cap I am going to send him tomorrow for when his hair falls out.  It says "Relax, God is in control"  Proverbs 3:5

Thank you to everyone who is helping!

Missy

"5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7 ¶  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil."

Proverbs 3:5-7

Nine Patches

Nine Patches are such a simple quilt, but I love them!  I have finished three more blocks for my uncle's prayer quilt.  I cannot sit for long at the machine still because my knee still bothers me some.  I'm thinking I like the blocks with just the blue and cream better then the ones with blue on white used for cream.  The rest will be just blue and cream.

I was also able to cut a lot more squares to use.  I found some plaid and stripes which are great for a man's quilt!

That brings my total up to six so far.  About four ladies offered to help me make a block or more.  Thank you very much.
For more information on this prayer quilt, go here:

Missy

New Prayer Quilt Needed and a Tutorial

Hello my friends!  I need help with another prayer quilt.  Since I have moved to MO I do not have a quilting group now to help me make prayer quilts (I'm still looking!) so I really appreciate any help I get from ya'll!  This quilt is for my Uncle Johnny Hobgood.  Over the past few weeks he was diagnosed with throat cancer (they think it may be from the inhalers he has used for the past 50 years).  He does not smoke or drink.  After his pet scan, the doctors realized it has gone into his bones and it is already stage 4!  My mom says that it is going to take a miracle for him to go into remission.  He is only 55 years old, very young for this to happen.  They started chemo and radiation this week which will go for six weeks.  I would like for him to have this quilt as he starts feeling worse during these procedures.  If you can help me make some blocks for his quilt I would appreciate it.  Leave me a message and I will email you my address.  I know it is short notice but I would like the blocks around June18th, this will give me time to make any additional blocks that is needed to balance out the quilt and get it quilted.

The quilt is going to be blue and cream 12 inch finished nine patch, 12 1/2 inch unfinished.  I know most of you know how to make them, but here is a tutorial on how to make it and which way to press your seams.

Start with 4 1/2 inch blocks.  Lay them out alternating cream and blue.  I am counting the blue on cream as a cream since it is a light colored block.

 As you can see here, I sewed the first two blocks in each row together.

 Always press towards the dark color or blue in this case.

 Finish sewing your rows together.

 Then sew the three rows together and press towards the row with two blues.  This will help all of the blocks to nestle together.

 Watch out for your cat's fuzzy tail!  He somehow got it caught in one of the straight pins.

 Brother and sister (Oreo and Cupcake) have to be close to me while I am sewing!

 I am using my hand crank since I can't use my treadle until my knee heals more.

 I am making the blocks in alternating colors so that when I sew them together they will still match up blue and cream.  That is why I have to wait to make all of my blocks until I see which color variance is needed the most.

This block will have my signature penguin material in it!

 It is a scrappy nine patch and I am using solids and prints mixed together.  I really like that effect.  I am using some calicoes, I just ask that there is nothing too girly please.  I have some gorgeous blue fabric with roses on it but it was not appropriate for this quilt.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help!

Remember, June 18 and leave me a comment if you can help.  I've had some people reply lately that are no reply bloggers and I have no way of contacting them, so if in doubt - leave your email address.

If you cannot help with a block please pray for Uncle Johnny because that is what he really needs right now - a miracle.  If something was to happen and he does not make it, I want this quilt to be a blessing to my Aunt Debbie.  Please also be in prayer for her.

I am on a hunt for a hat this weekend to send him for when he starts losing his hair.

Missy

A finish!

I am so excited I finished my rail fence quilt! Finishing this quilt was my April Goal.
This quilt is a prayer quilt that many bloggy friends sent me blocks for.  A prayer quilt is a quilt made for someone who is either sick or going through a rough time. This quilt was made for a friend who escaped out of an abusive relationship.   I had started the prayer quilt ministry at my church in TX.  Unfortunately I do not have a group of friends here in MO to help me with the ministry, but I do have several bloggy friends to help!

I had fun taking pictures of the quilt outside in my backyard!

I just did quilting in the ditch across the strips going both ways.  I did not mark it so some of the lines are wonky in the off blocks.  I quilted it on my Singer Industrial Treadle who is 124 years old!  She does a great job!

Of course my cats had to model the quilt also.

Tiger

 My husband said he liked all of the different reds in the quilt, I told him that was a scrappy quilt.  My favorite kind!

Oreo

Oreo and his sister Custard

 Warning - a very fuzzy cat butt!  I have never seen such long hair on a cat's behind before, and what a gorgeous tail!

Oreo's butt and Muffin in the window

I used a very soft flannel for the back that I found in my stash.  I had to do some piecing because there was not enough.

This was my first red and white quilt and I really love how it turned out!
SewCalGal is have a red and white quilt challenge and I will be entering mine. Go here.
       
Here is a tutorial if you would like to make your own quilt.  It is a great starter quilt and very quick to make it.  Go here!

Have you ever made a red and white quilt before?

Missy