Is spring coming yet?

 Well, I have been working on string blocks.  This is the String X pattern from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville website. I picked through my strings, and selected any string that reminded me of an Easter Egg.  I am confident that spring will come to us SOMETIME this year, LOL!!  We have had more cold weather this year than any other than I can remember here.  So...I made 48 blocks.  Now I have decided that the quilt should be bigger...so I am combing the drawers and bins for more Easter egg colors!!

 Since I mistakenly thought I had made all the blocks I needed, I made  this little table runner with my leftovers.

 Then this little coaster...

 Then I hand quilted it and bound it.

 And this was all the pastel strings I had left!!  I have cut some more, ready to go,  and now the goal is to make 80 blocks altogether...8x10 block setting.

 In a cutting mood, I cut a bunch of pieces and parts for these blocks.  Not sure where I am going with this, but I like the crazy cacophony of colors on the cutting board, LOL!

 A little pincushion took all of five minutes...

And more of the cut off triangles from the string blocks became this.  I still have more triangles....





*************************Nurse's Notes****************************

We had a poor little lady who was in sad shape last shift I worked at this hospital. She was a frail older lady, and she was coming out of a public restroom, and a young man was running and did not see her and ran into her.  She fell quite hard and shattered her shoulder and hip on the same side.  Quite a game spirit in this patient...she says she is upset about this set back in her life, so we need to hurry and get her better so she get home to her garden!  We will do our best, sweet lady!!

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Have a great day, everyone!!

Julie

Little bits of this and that

 Happy Sunday!  The above quilt from Terry's Treasures quilt along is completely complete. Quilted, binding done, labeled, the whole shebang.  I really enjoyed the push to get this done...thank you so much, Terry!!

 Here is a closeup of the binding.  I did it by machine...it was so much faster!  And since it will be a quilt that gets used a lot, I thought it would be OK to use a machine applied binding.  I used the little flange method so that there is a little more interest, and I could put it on by machine.  I have done this with two quilts so far, and I am getting better at it, although far from perfect!!  I learned something this week from Jo's Country Junction...she says to use the darkest fabric in the quilt and use it as the binding.  I like that idea!!

 I had a leftover block from the quilt, so I made a little candle mat and hand quilted it.  No marking, just going for it!

 A baby quilt that has been languishing for years in the quilt cupboard is at last together and quilted!!  I will wait to bind it until the next baby comes along...girl (pink binding); boy (blue binding).

 This quilt went to a patient this last week, after it was bound and finished.  He liked it a lot...poor little old fella, a patient at the hospital, needed some quilting hugs...he has a long recovery ahead of him!  I am never sure what kind of a quilt to give a guy...much harder than for girls, LOL!

 I started a string X quilt too...I do love my strings!!  48 of these to do...

 I tried to stick with all pastels, for spring!!  Tried, that is...some dark strings just insist on sneaking in there...

 The cut off corners from the string X quilt blocks became a couple little quiltlets.  The blue is entirely by machine, and the pink one is all by hand.  A fun experiment...it took about 4 times longer by hand, but I like the look better...it is somehow softer to the hand.

 Little four inch sampler blocks...

using this tool to make them.  I like this too, it gives the measurements for several different sizes of lots of blocks...easy...no brain work involved for me, LOL!!



And that is about all, folks!!  Believe it or not, it was 82 degrees yesterday, and now it is snowing and 21 degrees.  A strange winter!!  All the trees are confused...do I bud out or not, they whisper to me as I walk?!!!  Surely your trees talk to you too?



Have a great day, all!!

Julie

Organizing, and sewing just a little bit!

 Happy Friday!  It is my weekend to work, so I will be at the hospital tomorrow...so I must accomplish some things today.  I am trying to clear out every little bit of every project started.  If I start now, don't sleep, and don't eat...and no potty breaks..I will be finished by 2542 AD.  Hee!!  Not really, but I really am trying to get some stuff done!I have been going through one room a day, organizing, cleaning, and donating stuff to our charity here in town.  I found this basket of pieces and parts, and so made pinwheels from them...don't know what to do with them yet...maybe it will come to me in a dream?  or a comment, LOL??

 But...I live in an older neighborhood, and we have estate sales from one house to the next...all the time.  I swear, we all swap our junk around...pretty soon I will be buying back my own garage sale stuff, LOL!!  Anyway, I found a lady who did lots of needle work.  She had dozens of really pretty pillows she had made...who could resist this pretty owl pillow?    I think it is crewel work.  Lots of needlepoint pillows there too.

 And a pretty blue tea set...for seven dollars?  It came home too...

 And silver.  It is silver plate, but is old and worn, and I just love it.  $5.00  I can really use the serving pieces...don't care if they don't match.

And a crystal little pitcher.

And three blouses, $1.00 each, that are in the wash now.

So, a pretty fun little shopping expedition for $20.00, and I needed none of it!!  So.. stay tuned for my big GARAGE SALE!!!!  snort!!


Have a great weekend,

Julie

Giveaway! coming and going!!

I have been off today, and have not done one stitch of sewing!!  What is the world coming to?  I have been busy catching up on the house cleaning, laundry, and other necessary things.  While straightening, I found that I have two of this book. I would love to give this one away to a random person...so please leave me a comment and I will have a winner next week.

Em!  of Em's Scrapbag.  Please see her blog HERE!  Em was kind enough to give away 10 of these pretty flour sacks, and the contest is to create a quilt around the flour sack.  This flour sack happens to come from a small Colorado town quite close to where I grew up.  Thank you, Em...I am on it!!!  Please see her blog, and her badge on my blog.


***********************Nurse's notes********************

Universal Positive Regard...

I am kinda old...so when I went to nursing school, I was actually taught this phrase.  My nursing student had no idea what I was talking about when I said it yesterday, so I guess it is no longer taught?  It really means that every patient you come in contact gets treated the very same...universally!!  Positive thoughts for everyone!  Drug addicts, wife beaters, alcoholics, nuns, priests, housewives, business executives, movie stars (and yes, I have had a couple)...every one the same.  I really try to do this...and have found that almost every single person has some redeeming quality, if I take time to find it.  Consequently, I am frequently given the "challenging" patients, if you know what I mean, nurses out there.  I was just musing about this yesterday at work...what do you think about this, nurses and quilters?  I really, really try to do this...the only time it is hard is when the patient is abusive to me...then I try harder, harder, harder!!!  How do you deal with this, nurses?

I had the sweetest man yesterday...with many of these problems...but he was so nice to me, it was a easy breezy day to care for him!!  I guess it is all attitude and the approach...

Skip these musings if quilting is what you are here for...I am just thinking out loud...


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Have a great day, everyone!!

Julie

An older quilt

 Good morning!  Yesterday, when I was looking for heart quilts, I found this quilt.  Back in the day, I used to hand quilt everything.  My stitches were teeny weeny...and I don't think I can make them that small now!!  The texture of this worn quilt is soft and cuddly, and I think that is what draws me to it.

Here is a close up...this is a great one for using 2 inch squares up!!   I would like to remake this one, bigger though!!

I hope you have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!!


Julie

Happy Valentine's day! (the heart quilts)

 Happy Valentine's day!!!  Earlier in my years as a quilter, I was just obsessed by hearts.  I made dozens of heart quilts, and gave most of them away.  I found a few this morning, and thought I would share them with you to celebrate the day of the "HEART"!!  Above is my attempt at a color wash heart quilt...twenty years old, or thereabouts.

 A little heart quilt, with smaller than one inch hearts on this one...it is hanging in my bathroom, thus the ribbon hanging from it.

 A blue hearts quilt!!  I was trying to use decorative stitches to define the blocks...my Walmart sewing machine had a grand total of 7 different stitches at that time...

 Another one in pink...I tried to put a little flange...pretty uneven but I thought it was purty!!!

 Then I made a big heart quilt!!  Hand quilted this one in every heart. Maybe I will have a young person in my life that would like this one, one day!!

 My precious quilt from Anne Bebbington...please see her blog here!!  A gift from her...I love it!  She lives in England, and is a wonderful quilter and mother!

 Another one...don't know what I was thinking here at all....

 Solids!!  Echo quilted on my little Walmart machine, so many years ago..

And more and more!!  So you can see, I love hearts!!  It is a good thing I am a heart nurse...it all seems to fit!!


Have a great day, everyone!!  Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's day!!


Julie

Of quilts past, present and future

It is kind of an introspective day for me today.. I have been rummaging through the house, sorting, putting things into the donate pile, put away pile, throw away pile.  I found these blocks above.  In the earlier days of my quilting, I just knew that every project HAD to be complex, and of course, everything had to be hand quilted for sure.  And I did just that!  I guess I was making these Mariner's stars for each season...and fizzled out. I have no clue about what to do with them now.  Poly batting...hmmmm....now I have different tastes, and when the scrappy bug hit...the complexities of patterns gave way to the myriad of color, from which there may be no going back!

 I again am looking at my Flower Garden quilt.  It was hanging on the blue hanger in the upper left corner of the picture.   This is the first larger quilt I appliqued, all needle turn.  I do love it, and really, really want to hand quilt this one.  So I need to get after it, because Times a wastin'!  as granny used to say...

 Another shot...

 Hey, guess what I found at the antique store?  Buy the way, everything was on sale at the big antique store near me.  I found this quilt top for $39.95. It is entirely hand pieced, and done beautifully.  See how someone has cut away the bottom, crookedly?  The dealer, no doubt, cutting away a very worn edge.

 It is also dingy and worn...the fabrics are very thin and fragile.  I think it may have been used as a bedspread, because it has definitely been washed and washed.  Any guess on the age of this one?  I did not need this...I guess I just wanted to rescue it...what to do with it now???

And Rosie the poodle said, "Mommy, please show your Celtic Solstice quilt, all quilted!!"  I love it...it is very soft and cuddly, and trimmed so I can put the binding on.  Maybe a green binding??

There is the lure of new quilts, new ideas, new fabrics, always, but there is also the call of old projects, great ideas that never were finished, UFO's.  Where are you in your process, and working with new or old projects?

How has your quilting changed over the years???



Happy Tuesday!!

Julie

A new project for this new year

This is what I am working on today...The Quilt Show's Alphabet block of the month. The quilt is designed by Janet Stone.  It is put together a section at a time, and this was January's section.  I do love all the different blocks!  You can see the quilt HERE!! under BOM.  To see another, prettiest ever version, click HERE!! and see Kyle's version.



Have a super great Monday!!

Julie

Electricity is back on!!

 The electricity was off today...so it was not a machine piecing day for me, LOL!  I did other stuff instead; like choose these plaid quilts to go to the quilt shop.  My local quilt shop is getting a bunch of new plaid fabrics in, and the ladies asked if I had any plaid quilts I would be willing to lend them for a display.  Yep...I think I can do that, LOL! I just chose little ones, so they would not have to deal with a big quilt in their little display area.

 With no heat, no lights...what should I do?  I opened the blinds for light and dove headfirst into the 1.5 inch scrap bin...and cut, and cut, and cut!  A zillion little squares, for a postage quilt...someday.

 And a bunch of little squares for bowties....someday.  This took me hours, and hours,  and hours...and it was great fun and very relaxing.  Then the electricity came back on, and somehow stress came back, and the call of house cleaning and planning dinner, etc, came back into my head with the lights!!

 Hey, would you like to barter?  If anyone would like this book, I will swap it for some scraps or strings!  I truly do use my scraps and strings up.  I love them!  I get misty eyed over scrappys!!

How about this group?  Same thing goes!  Let me know if you want to do this...first come, first served...



Have a great day, all!!

Julie

Quilting along...

 Good morning, everyone.  I am working on Lori at Humble Quilts quilt along.  I made some blocks...then started playing with settings.  I think Lori as well as anyone knows that I just love to play with blocks and different settings and just really enjoy designing on the fly.  Let the winds carry me where they may!  (Or the overhead fan...)  Anyway, this is what I came up with for my blocks.  Not like Lori's quilt but the same blocks.  I know she won't mind, at least I hope not!!  And I got to use up some strings, which is a good thing all the way around.

The leftover piece of border became a little candle mat.  Both pieces still need quilting, which I just love to do. Thank you, Lori, for another super fun quilt along!!




I am unsure of what to do next.  I have so many plans, it is kind of overwhelming.  Today I will clean house and just think of what in the world should really be next...



Hope you all have a great Monday!!!

Julie