Saturday, July 27, 2013

Quilted!!

 Many years ago, I made this applique quilt top, inspired by a picture in a magazine.  I tried to draw out each flower as they looked, and somehow this quilt came into being. It is now quilted!!!
I am so tickled that is in the almost finished catagory! It is a very early quilt for me...so I am so glad that is is nearly completion.  Do you have any like that, quilts I mean, that are not perfect, but represent a period in your life?  I say, drag 'em out and get 'em done!!




******************Winner!*****************************



Paulette!  You were chosen by random number to win the house quilt kit from last post...I will send you an e-mail and post it off to you!!

Thank you, each one of you, for your comments.  I wish I had a ton of kits to give to each one of you...so stay tuned!  I am going through stuff, and will be giving away some more things soon!!




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Have a great day, everyone!!

Julie

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Sister Choice is a Flimsy!

 Happy Tuesday!  I finished the pieced border on my sister's choice quilt, and here it is, being modeled by the lovely Miss Rosie Posie Pudding Pie.  She finds it quite scrappy, and though not quilted nor as cuddly soft as she requires, she thinks this finished quilt top has potential!!
 I think the flash hurts her eyes...she always turns away.
Another shot...  This did use lots of my scraps!!  I truly enjoyed this piecing...thanks Bonnie Hunter for providing the inspiration!!


Have a great day, everyone!!


Julie

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Sister's choice progress

 Focusing is really paying off here, folks.  If I can just stop thinking of the next quilt, and cutting out pieces and parts for quilts in the far future...I can make real progress...see above!!  Yippee Skippy, I have the Sister's choice blocks all done and sewn together!  I have a pieced border planned, and cut out...just need some more time to get it all together.  I love scraps, don't you?  There sure are some ZINGER blocks in there, don't you think?  I love those that don't fit!
 I have a birthday coming up...and received the most beautiful package from my dear friend Lyn.  It was all in a Parisian theme!!  The little pink key ring is an Eiffel tower...so cute!  There are lots of little wrapped packages in there...and I am to take one out every once in a while and open it!  What fun!!  Thank you, Lyn!!
 The first gift?  The Timecula quilt!  At least that is what I call it...each block has an increasing number of pieces.  It is so pretty!!
Have you seen these pendants?  There are the artistic work of Julie, at Me and My Stitches, and I ordered one in her heart pineapple pattern, to wear at work in the heart hospital.  It is the tiniest quilt block ever!!  And so precise!  She also has bracelets that she is making, with many different charms that you can order through the year.  Fun, fun!!





Have a great day all!  Thank you all for the huge response to last post...the drawing will be next week.


Julie

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Leaders and Enders Spool quilt!

 A couple years ago, I made this spool quilt.  Honestly, I had the best intentions of making a leader and ender quilt...but!
 You know how those leaders and enders take hold and make noise and want to be the life of the party!! LOL! The main focus!!  I enjoyed hand quilting this quilt, and it is displayed in my living room.  A dear friend exchanged some of these little spool blocks with me...thanks Joan!
 I ended up with a plain border on my Lisa's flower garden quilt.  I made several attempts at a pieced border, and fussed and fretted...and this fabric won out.  I plan on hand quilting this one too.
 Do you like these little houses?  This pattern is by Pam Buda.  I love her designs!!
To celebrate this day (it is Wednesday...and there is no other reason!  Seize the day!), I am giving away this kit to make this pretty house quilt.  Just leave me a comment, and I will draw for it next week.




Have a great day, everyone!!!

Julie

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Progress on my Sister's Choice quilt

Hi Everyone!!  I am off today from working at the hospital.  I was supposed to work, but they called at 05:30 and put me on call.  So far, I have not been called in.  So that means there are not many sick patients, and that is a good thing!  The bad thing is, I do not get paid unless I use my PTO hours...but that is OK.  I have enjoyed the day off!!

Above is my progress on my current focus, my Sister's choice quilt.  Scraps, all of it!!  A few of the star points have had to be substitutions, because the strip I was cutting from just was not long enough.  That is the fun of scrapping!!  These are 10 inch finished blocks, so they are big, and will make a good sized quilt soon.  I am making a total of 42 blocks, and plus a pieced border, which is already cut out.  FOCUS!!  It is helping me a lot!!



Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!

Julie

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

About face! MARCH!

Well...I got to thinking about this quilt, and looking at it last night.  About 11 PM last night, I UN-sewed all those pink triangles and the pink border from last post.  I just thought it made the whole quilt dark, and it is busy enough  without adding any more drama to it!  So I replaced the pink with muslin setting triangles, and walla! there it the lightness I was looking for again.  Now...I am at a loss for what to do with the border!!  I am thinking about it...I don't want to have to do any more frog stitching...RIPPIT!!!


The next quilt I am focusing on is the sister's choice quilt that is entirely cut out from earlier in the year.  I am GOING FOR IT!!!  FOCUS!!!!  (note to self...)  By the way, my new mind set feels really good.  I am really happy about focusing on just one project at a time...it helps my not feel so scattered, and to not be looking for new projects all the time is refreshing!!  I know I will start new things, but for now, it is important for me to finish a few of these quilts all cut out and looking at me...somewhat accusingly!!  They really do take a life of their own at times, don't you think?!!


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

Last time I worked was a challenge at the hospital.  I had a tummy ache all day, due to stressing about one patient.  She hit, kicked, punched all of us when we got within reach,  and finally we had to call security and eventually the city police.  She was violent and dangerous, and a stout young lady.  She was also in her right mind...and knew exactly the damage she was doing to people.  Scary stuff....but the doctors could not let her leave, due to her condition...she very well could have died.  When she was stable, she walked out in the middle of the night, against medical advice.


Next door...an angel!!  Another young lady, she had her internal defibrillator going off for an hour.  Poor thing, she was terrified, and just prayed out loud that God did not take her now, but rather let her live to raise her adopted baby...I prayed with her, while we were getting drips and meds to help her stabilize her heart rhythm stat.  We got her stabilized, and her husband came to the room, and he was as precious and sweet as she was.  So my tummy ache melted away in that room!!  Just tension, I guess!!

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Have a great day, all!!

Julie

Monday, July 8, 2013

A finished flimsy!!

 Happy Monday to all of you!  It means a day off for me; but I know for many of you, it is the start of a work week.  Sooo...I worked on this!!  Finished all the applique, and then set the blocks together.  Here is where I am so far.
 A few of my favorite blocks.
 And a few more!!  These little applique flower blocks finish at 3 inches...little!!
 All the blocks when the applique was finished.
And a few, a little closer up!!


I am so very glad to have found this focus...it feels so wonderful to get a long term project together, in one piece!!!  Now to decide on the next focus!!!



Have a great day, everyone!!

Julie

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Focus Factor!!

 I decided that after reading my own last post, that is was essential that I FOCUS on something!  I couldn't keep lamenting about a lack of focus; I just had to find my DISCIPLINE and DO IT!!  I can be pretty headstrong at times, and I decided that if I wanted to make real progress on anything, I had to just buckle down and DO IT!  So, I went looking through my UFO's.  And found this one!  This is Lisa's Garden, a block of the week from some years ago, from Lisa Bongean at Primitive Gatherings.  I have had all the nine patches cut out, and all the applique prepped, for years now.  What on earth was I procrastinating about?  I sat myself down after house cleaning and pieced all those tiny nine patches yesterday.
 Today, I am working on the applique.  I sometimes think I have to save handwork for a road trip, or waiting times in a doctor's office or something, so I fall woefully behind on some projects I really want to finish.  No more waiting!!  Time's a wastin'!!
 The original background was a dark muslin, in a primitive style.  I wanted to infuse some light into the piece, so I used a light muslin instead.  Now I have a pretty piece of primitive dark muslin to use in something else!! Above are a couple of my favorite blocks.  They finish at 3 inches, so they are pretty tiny!!  I am hand blanket stitching them with ordinary thread.
Best of all?  An empty basket, from the cut out nine patches.  HURRAH!!!




Have a great fourth of July, everyone!!!

Julie

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Hand quilting...and pondering!

 Good morning!  I have been hand quilting lately, so I do not have too much new piecing to show.  Cutting out projects too...that is what is going on around here!  Above is my leftover plaid triangle table runner.  I hand quilted it, with big stitches and Perle cotton.  It was just pure joy to hand quilt this one!!
 A close up...
 And the back.  I think what attracts me most to quilts is the texture.  I love quilted softness, and this little table runner fits that bill!  It will be fun for my autumn time table setting.
I finished hand quilting this one too.  About a year ago, a young man came in to the hospital where I work with extreme shortness of breath.  I thought he must have a PE (blood clot in his lungs), but it turned out that he had ruptured his Chordae (tiny strings that hold the heart valves in place and help to open them).  I learned so much from him and his disease process, and was so honored to help him through surgery and recovery.  So the above quilt is a heart string quilt, remembering him, and the great docs who fixed him up!  You know, I don't remember his face, except for his extreme shortness of breath and anxiety...poor guy!  When he left the hospital, he was 100 times better!!
I am steadily working on the applique for this quilt.  I love working on it!!  Thank you again, Lori and Randy, for this wonderful project!!





********************Dilution of efforts*************************

I am at a loss of what to work on, to really concentrate on.  I know this comes from having too many ideas and projects floating thought my brain like flotsam and jetsam in the ocean...do you have this problem?  And what do you do to fix it??  I want to able to concentrate on one thing to the end, but the BOM's mess that up, LOL!!!!  What do you do to help concentrate on one thing???  Any ideas....?




Have a great day!!!

Julie

Hexies, rainbow quilts and plaids!

Good morning to all!!!  Above is a hexagon, for English paper piecing.  My kitten Lucky has discovered them, and decided that they are great...