Design Wall Monday

I finished the penguin applique on my postage stamp quilt!  My friend Julia drew the penguin and cut out the templates for me.  I decided to use the green material from the border and the red from the binding for the hat and scarf.

 I used fusible webbing when I cut out the material.  I practiced with my darning foot to go around the penguin.  It's not great, but the more I practice the better it will be!

I plan on finishing the quilt this week, at least I hope to!



We had another quilt along on Friday night, that is when I started the work on my penguin, I had it all cut out before I got there.

Tabitha and I working on our quilts, this is Tabitha's first time to quilt, I had her chain stitching.

Valerie Chain stitching her postage stamp quilt.

Gladis, Sarah and Atarah are crocheting their granny square quilts.

I did finish my step mom's gifts.  She loves Raggedy Ann and Andy.  This material was the closest that I could find.  I had this plain looking apron that I had made about a year ago, I put a pocket on it with this material.

Before I practiced my free motion quilting on her gifts, I took some scraps and made mug rugs for myself and practiced on them.  They look pretty awful!  LOL

I also made my first mug rugs and pot holders!  I made them reversible.  I did not want them to look Christmasey, and had a hard time deciding on the binding, I finally decided on this blue and really love it!  These pot holders and mug rugs will also be gifts for my stepmom.  I noticed she was using cheap old freebie  costers, when I was there for my Dad's funeral.

 I made two of each, but wanted to show you both sides.

 I practiced more free motion quilting on them.  She has a country theme, so I liked the apples on this one.

 Here are the pot holders.

Here is my quilt so far!  I'm really glad I added the penguin, when I wash it, it should fray some, I clipped the red parts on the hat and the ends of the green scarf.

I also need to make a bath robe for my husband for Christmas, and then I'm done!
Do you have any last minute gifts that you need to make?
Have a merry Christmas!
Missy

Feline Friday

Hello all of my cat loving friends! I have lots planned for today. I need to make my step mother's gifts. I am making her an apron with matching pot holders and mug rugs for Christmas. I also have three capes I need to make for a friend. Tonight is our second quilt along class. My husband just laughed at me. The quilt along was originally going to be just granny square quilts and I have a granny square I am making for my niece. There are now four ladies who are making postage stamp quilts after seeing my Christmas quilt. I asked my husband if he thought it would be okay if I worked on a different quilt tonight because I really want to get my Christmas quilt done. He asked me what quilts we are supposed to be working on at the quilt along. I told him granny square and postage stamps, he's like "Isn't your Christmas quilt a postage stamp?" Duh, of course it is! LOL
I have three pictures for ya'll today. It does not seem to matter how hard I try, I can't keep my cats off my treadle. I don't want them scratching it, so I've been throwing blankets on top of it. A couple of weeks ago. I decided to put a quilt on top of it and one of my hand cranks. I really need to get a base for my red head. (Another name for my redeye 66)  Now the only cat who gets up there is Squeeky and she is declawed.

Muffin's new favorite spot is under my treadle.

I would really like to move the treadle into my dining room and my desk into the living room, have them swap places.  But I love having it sit in front of my quilt, with the whole display I set up there.  But I think it would be more convenient in the dining room, I just cannot decide what to do!  Here is my desk set up.  What would you do?  Of course the living room is the room people see when I open the door and I want it to look nice.
All of my cats must have been cold in this picture.  Five of them (I have six) decided to sit on my chair at the same time.  Pippi has just about pushed poor Precious off.  (BTW, Precious is a boy with Precious moments eyes)

Crazy cats!
Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Aprons

I have a lot of aprons to show you today!  I participated in an apron swap over at Katherine's Corner.  She is having a linky party on Friday (12/14/12) to show off all our aprons, so if you like aprons be sure to stop by!
Here is the apron Katherine sent me:

 
It is perfect for me with all of the cupcakes!  And I love the pink bows!
Here is the apron I sent to Marie, my swap partner.  It is one of my favorites I have made with the gingham ruffles! (I had to put a t-shirt on the mannequin! LOL)

I really enjoy apron swaps, although this is only the second one I have participated in.
I thought I would share some aprons I made for Christmas presents also.  My sister said she wanted a ladybug apron for Christmas.  Wow, that's easy for me to do!  I was going to make my niece a matching apron, but when I was digging through my fabric I found this one that was pre-printed on the fabric and I had already cut it out.  I had the polka dots already out for my sister's apron and thought it would make a perfect ruffle on Johnna's apron, so I added it, and am very glad I did!

It says "more sprinkles please".  I also made two aprons for her Barbie dolls.

They were so easy to make, took me 10-15 minutes for both!  I just cut it out with my pinking shears, ironed it under and sewed it down.  I guessed at the shape and size by holding it up to the Barbie doll, then used ribbon for the ties.  My husband took the picture for me and did not get a very good picture of the yellow one, but it is the same as the green one, just a different fabric.
 I wanted to make her some Barbie Doll clothes, but did not have time, my friend Chrystal had some she had made, so I bought them from her.

For my sister's apron I bought all the ladybug fabrics I could find.  Do you think there is enough ladybugs for her?  She also likes butterflies, so the top one is perfect!

The dark green does not match well, oh well.  Can you believe that I could not find the pattern I was going to use?  I pulled it out last week, and it has totally disappeared!  I bet I find it mixed in with some fabric some where.  I cut the dark green fabric 19 inches long and all three layers 36 inches wide.  The next layer was about four inches shorter and the next about three inches shorter.  I was not exact on the lengths as you can tell.
I made the top and the pocket the same way.  The top is a ten inch square, I didn't measure the pocket.  I cut two pieces of each and sewed them right sides together, and then turned them right side out.

I then lined the tops with the black polka dots.

I sewed the pocket onto the yellow fabric about an inch up from the hem.
I gathered all three layers of the bottom at the same time, that was not easy!  I then made a waistband and sewed the "skirt" in between the folded layers.

I added the ties to each end of the waistband, I did it this way so I would not have a seam in the middle of the waistband.

I sewed all the way across the bottom of the ties and waistband.  I pinned the the top to the waistband and sewed across the top of the waistband and ties.  I then sewed the neck on. I had cut all the ties and waistband three inches.  Here is how I made my ties.

I felt like it needed something at the bottom, I had a small strip left, so i made a fabric flower and added a daisy which matches the yellow fabric.  Go here for directions on how to make the flower.

I really should have put the flower on the other side from the pocket.  I was in a hurry trying to get these gifts done to send off today!
If you have any questions, just ask, I know this was not a very detailed tutorial.  Be sure to check out my apron pin board!
What homemade gifts are you making this year?
Have a merry Christmas!
Missy

Lord's Supper Quilt

Saturday, we went to Bethlehem Revisited in Waxahachie, TX.  It is a great live demonstration about Bethlehem at the time of Jesus's birth.  They have set up the city of Bethlehem and give a lot of information about what it was like about that time and have mini plays throughout it.  Unfortunately, we went the last weekend and it was so crowded we really could not see anything.  However, we did get to see an awesome quilt!  It has to be one of the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen!  It is a mosaic of the Lord's Supper.

Isn't it amazing?  The man who quilted it is 80 years old!  His wife taught him how to quilt!  The quilt was pieced by a Waxahachie dentist, Dr. Don Locke.  It took 2 1/2 years and 1,200 hours!  He took a picture  of the Lord's Supper and blew it up several times until he could see the pixels, and then made 1/2 squares to match each pixel!  If he could not find a color he wanted, he dyed it himself.

For more information you can go here.  This is a traveling quilt and has been seen all over!  All of that information is in the link I gave.

The quilt is over 15 feet wide and almost six feet high.  Mrs. Locke told me it was quilted sideways on the long arm machine because of the size.  The machine quilting was done by Linda Taylor of Melissa, TX.  She outlined the entire picture sideways!

The quilt was made by piecing 51,816 squares of cotton fabric together with a Singer featherweight (one of these days I'll have a featherweight!).  Over 350 different colors were used!  The squares finished out to 1/2 inch!  Can you imagine working with 1/2 an inch squares?  Mrs. Locke showed an example here:

If you would like to see the back, go to the link above, it is an amazing piece of art work also!  The back was done by Joy Press of Godley, TX.

I hope you have enjoyed this quilt as much as I have!
Merry Christmas!
Missy

Christmas Party!

Can you believe that Christmas is only in two weeks?  SewCalGal is having a Christmas Party today!
Hi, my name is Missy and I am 39 years old and live in Texas.  I have only been quilting for one year.  I have been married for 17 years and have six cats.  The Lord has not blessed us with any children, although I continue to pray every day!  I have a few things to share with ya'll today.
Since my Christmas quilt is also what is on my design wall, I am going to share it as part of my party!

 I put my green border on it and my husband said it needed to be bigger, so I added a white border. I had to stand on the coffee table to be able to get the whole quilt in the picture! I kind of wish I had done a pieced border instead, like maybe some flying geese, but oh, well.

 This is how far I have gotten on my penguin appliques for the corner, his hat and scarf match the green border and the red binding.

You have to have presents at a Christmas party, so I want to share a Christmas present I got when I was between the ages of four and seven.  Her name is Cindy, I'm not sure what happened to her dress.  She is between 30-35 years old!  She was my favorite baby.

 She's dirty and her eyes do not look very good, and she is missing one set of eye lashes now.  I wish I could find a baby like this for my niece.  This baby doll has gotten a lot of love in her life!

You have to have a gingerbread house at a party!  Here is a gingerbread house I made one Christmas!  Do you see my penguin cookie jar?  I collect those, and my Christmas sweaters were drying on the chairs in the background.  (Are you see the penguin theme?  Totally not planned!  LOL)  I have have a penguin made out of jellied candy on the lawn instead of a snowman.

 Here is my penguin costume Mrs. Alvis made me years ago.  I had to wear it when I worked at Borders Book store, I added the hat and scarf and made it a Christmas penguin!

I can't have a Christmas party without at least one of my cats!  Here is Precious.  Every party has to include your pets!

This is just part of my penguin obsession that ya'll have seen today!  I love penguins.

Of course, we do not want to forget the real reason that we celebrate Christmas.  We all know that Jesus was not born in December, but it is the day we have set aside to celebrate His birth.

Luke 2:8-14
"8  And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."


Have a very merry Christmas!
Missy

Feline Friday

Just a quick picture today!

 Muffin tested out my new quilt top.  I guess he liked it!

My friend Marie came over today for a sewing lesson.  For her first lesson she made an apron out of a vintage tablecloth.  She had to leave before we put the pocket on, so I'll show you pictures after her next lesson.
I have a cake order for Tuesday, so tomorrow I will be making fondant banjo and a fondant violin.  For January I have a Victorian 30th birthday.
Have a great weekend ya'll!
Missy

Church Quilt Along

I started a quilt-along at church.  We had our first meeting at church on Tuesday.  We will meet every other Tuesday morning and every other Friday night on the opposite weeks.  This way those who can't come during the day and come at night and vice versa, will have a chance to participate.  Ofcourse some of us will go to both.  Since our children are home-schooled this will be a home-economics  class for the ones who want to participate!!
We were originally all going to make the granny square quilt, but as we know, not everyone likes the same patterns, so four of them decided to do postage stamps, which I had to teach myself to make before I could teach them!  LOL

 We had three irons set up.
First everyone had to iron their material.  You cannot cut an accurate line on wrinkly material!

Our first lesson was on how to properly use a rotary cutter and how to cut their material.

Since everyone was cutting 2 1/2 inch blocks, it made it a lot easier.  I had the two adults who were making the postage stamp quilts do strips and will teach them how to strip piece.  The two girls will have to make four patches and then sew them into 16 patches since they are using scraps.

I decided to make my quilt on my handcrank sewing machine.  I have not had the opportunity to sew anything on it yet!  My husband asked me what the blue tape was for, it is to mark my 1/4 inch seam!  The only drawback to taking my hand crank, is how heavy it is!

Everyone was fascinated with how easy and quiet it was and wanted to try it out!

Julia

Joeann and her daughter Abideth

Kayla

Tabitha

Valerie

Even Caleb, who was doing his homeschooling in the back of the room, wanted to try it out!

We had a lot of fun!  I have one block that I am calling my community block since everyone sewed on it!
Since the girls were using Joeann's rotary cutter and mat, she spent her time working on the embroidery for the prayer quilt.

Next time I am going to teach everyone how to start sewing it together, 1/4 inch seams, accuracy, chain stitching, etc.  We still have more ladies who are participating, some are even crocheting their granny squares!
Have a wonderful week everyone!
Missy