Thursday, July 30, 2009

Pam's quilt

Howdy y'all...just wanted to show you a friend's quilt, as I have not had any quality quilting time lately. My friend Pam finished the quilt above. A few years ago, we all made red work blocks, any pattern, any subject...then all swapped! Another friend put them all into stars. Then each of us set our particular set of blocks together. Pam got hers done first...and here it is! I am binding it for her. You can see where I am in that process. Another friend with a long arm quilter, quilted it for her. Pretty!
I like this block in her quilt.. a cute little sewing lady!

And this block too..I like this one! We swapped red work airplanes, alphabet letters, flowers, animals...you name it and we made it. Four friends swapped, and we had enough for four quilts with nine blocks each. It was fun!!! We have swapped nine patches in reproduction fabrics, batik slice and dice blocks, and made several quilts together for our charity, which is the elementary school by our hospital.
And speaking of fun...hope you are having some this week!!
Julie


Sunday, July 19, 2009

Progress!

Progress on the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt above: this little 6 inch block has 60 pieces! I am so enjoying this project, as I am learning to piece so much better. Yahoo! Fun to stretch a little in my skills. Not perfect, I never will attain that, but better piecing skill is great! This is called the "Barrister Block".

Using up a few more of the 1,000,000 half square triangles blocks I have saved. This is a gift for a nurse friend at work. She loves red!


I pulled out all my plaid scraps in anticipation of the making of the plaid string quilt in my last post. A wonderful blogger commented that this quilt was in a book by Evelyn Sloppy. Huge thanks to MJ in Michigan, who shared this information with me. I appreciate all your comments so very much, thanks so much to all of you! So....want to do this quilt with me? Come on, pull out those plaids you have been hoarding and make this quilt with me!!



I finished cutting all the rest of the pieces for the Jewel Box quilt. These are in a box salvaged from the trash bin at the hospital, the kind that sterile supplies come in. I am enjoying recycling these boxes.
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(edited after publishing)

Hope each of you has a wonderful day today!!

Julie


Thursday, July 16, 2009

My latest muse...

Lori from www.humblequilts.blogspot.com took this wonderful picture at the Sister's quilt show. I just fell in love with this! I sure wish I had information about the quilter, she is absolutely wonderful! Do you know? Please let me know if you know!! Special thanks to Lori, who graciously gave me permission to use her lovely picture.

I want to make this quilt, seriously, friends....

Hey, did you notice? I figured out how to LINK to something! Click on Lori's name above and it takes you right to her great blog. I am so happy I can link...I am so backwards, I should have been born in the eighteenth century! Make that the nineteenth, I like the fabrics better in that era...

Juliek

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Bear Paw Progress

Good afternoon! Day off again...housework in progress, laundry is spinning, and I took a little time to do this. I decided just out of the blue to domestic machine quilt the Bear Paw quilt, inspired by Judy Laquidara at sunshine quilts. I quilted in the ditch...It was all hanging together pretty well, so I added the binding. I think I will add some hand quilting too. This is made entirely with old stash, including the binding, pieced together from old leftover bits of binding. I still need to hand stitch the binding. It is just the right size for a cuddle quilt. The above picture is with the flash...
And this picture is taken without the flash. Amazing the difference in colors!

I made this for the Fourth of July, well, a bit late, but hey, it is still July! I still need to finish the binding and clip strings. It is hand quilted, insomnia quilted, I should say. I have been waking up every night at 2-3 AM, and just cannot sleep the rest of the night. Yuckola! But I do get a bit of sewing done.

Remember all my blocks were done for the bright stars quilt from Judy Laquidara's blog? Well, I put one row together today. I was so worried about my wonky blocks, but I think it will work. Still three more rows and sashings, then borders to do.






Do you have a binding basket? I save all my binding pieces and then use them for my scrap quilts. It is so fun to just pull them out and use them, without having to make new binding. Definitely from the scrappy side of things!



This is the latest Sylvia's bridal sampler block, and it was a woolly bugger to put together. All set in seams. A fair rendition, I think when I press it more, it will be OK to use in the quilt. I have 10 blocks done so far out of 140, so that is 7% done! Woo hoo!!!
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Nursing update**********************************************************

I had a older lady yesterday, and she was just sweet as pie. Her husband warned us not to given any narcotics to her, as she just goes wild. He stated "No morphine and Lortabs". I duly listed them as allergies, and off she went. She came back around an hour later from the cath lab, and just was so sleepy, but fine. Then the you-know-what hit the fan!!!! Three hours later, I was caring for her, when she just sat up in bed and started punching away at me!! Ooww! I mean really hitting at me with serous intent to knock me out! She outweighed me by about 100 pounds, and she was just totally confused. No amount of explaining, kindness or anything would help! Mean while, she started bleeding from her cath site, badly. I could not leave, because I was holding pressure on the cath site. I screamed "help!" Coworkers rushed in, thank heaven for them! What was funny is that when I screamed, she kind of "came to" and laid back down, and was quiet as a mouse when everyone came running in. I am totally bruised up today on my arms, but she did not get to my face, thank goodness I was a good blocker. Well, turns out the cath lab gave her Versed, and she just went nuts. 7 hours later, by the end of the shift, she did not remember anything and was as sweet as pie again....sigh!! Every one teased me that "What wrong? Couldn't you take out a 80 year old lady"? Of course, just joshing...
Have a super great day!!!
Julie


Sunday, July 12, 2009

Another one...


Another little 6 inch Sylvia's Bridal Sampler block...a bit wonky, may have to redo this one. It was fun though! The block is on my roll-top desk.

I just wanted to say...quilters are so kind! Pat was so nice to put me in touch with her friend Barbara, who gave me tons of information about Atlantic City and the whole state of New Jersey, that we are going to visit this year. It helped so much to know the high points, those not to be missed quilt shops and wonderful things to do. A sincere thank you to you both!!!



Have a super Monday, all!!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Another one...

This is another of my Sylvia's bridal sampler blocks...It is 6 inches square, finished. The pen is in the picture so you can kind of see how big the block is. I like this one!! I have taken the approach of just going page by page through the book, doing each block as it comes. I may change my approach, and do the blocks row by row, so I can put them together as I finish them. What would you do?

In other news...I won a nursing scholarship (gulp) four years ago, to go anywhere in the world for a nursing seminar pertaining to my field. The amount I could spend is $1500.00. This was sponsored by the hospital and by physicians in my hospital. Well, I have been working so much and focusing so much on getting our son through college, I never took it. I recently asked administration if it was too late...and they said I could go! I pondered, and looked and dreamed about places to go...and the best seminar I found for critical care nurses was in Atlantic City, New Jersey! So, we are going! How fun, huh??? Does anyone live close, and what can we do for fun there, except gamble? I am into the beach, nature stuff...any ideas?


Have a wonderful weekend you all!!

JulieK

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A Gift!

Hello to everyone! Work was slow today after the holiday weekend, we only had a very few patients, and THEY SENT ME HOME EARLY! It was a gift, a gift of time! Felt weird at first, but then I thought, I can work on the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks. I really enjoyed the hour and a half of not worrying, not thinking... just doing, and I finished these three blocks. The hexagon one is a gift from Lyn at www.bluebirdquilts-lyn.blogspot.com. Thanks Lyn, it is appliqued down and trimmed!!


Hope you have a gift of time for yourself this week too!!

Julie

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Post # 2!!

I just wanted to take a moment and thank all of you all who take time to read this blog and comment, it just is so much fun for me. You make my life richer.

Danielle of www.wanttobeequilting.blogspot.com gave me the above award!! How fun! The thing is to tell 10 facts about yourself and pass it on to 10 other quilters. So here goes!


1. I am always for the underdog...always.
2. I once had my hair so long I could sit on it, and it wrapped around me when I was sleeping. (not so long ago!)
3. I was taught to quilt by my mother, from observation and doing. All her quilts were tied.
4. I absolutely love java chip frappacinos from Starbucks...have to limit myself to one a month!
5. I always ask for Christmas, a gift card to the quilt store. Never gotten this yet, but, hey, a girl has to try.
6. I have made over 100 small wall quilts of various patterns...sigh...now what to with them all! Sell them for $ for neuromuscular disease research, that is what, that is my plan!
7. My grandmother was a quilter too, by hand, and her quilts are true works of art.
8. I have a junior high track record in my home state.
9. I am very organized at work, at home...not so much!
10. Fourth of July is my favorite holiday.


Now, it is your turn! Please consider yourself tagged...and play along!! I hate to pick out specific people, there are just so many people that I would love to know more about. Won't you consider yourself tagged and play along?

Have a super day!

Julie

Happy Independence Day America!

Happy Fourth to everyone! Hope you get the day off and have the oppurtunity to celebrate our freedom! We have a low key day planned, and are just going to eat something yummy cooked on the grill and see the fireworks tonight in our town. It is hotter than blue blazes! Above is a quilt made by Cheryl Apollo, a machine quilter in our town. I won it in the American Heart silent auction, with all proceeds going to American Heart Association. It is a randomly pieced quilt with all Americana fabrics...I love it! Hmmmm, I just figured out the pattern! Can you see it?

Here it is, on our couch, ready for a nap if someone wants to curl up with it.
I had a few batics left, those precious, colorful, lovely fabrics! I could easily become addicted to these, they are so pretty. I cut them up in strips, and the idea is to make a Jewel Box quilt someday. I really love the pattern, and these seemed like jewel colors to me. Don't you love my messy box full of color?


Well, there were some very small strings left, so I pieced them onto a backing/batting rectangle, cut them out, and made these little cosmetic bags. Each is about 6x8 inches.





Ok, there were a few smaller strings left...should I pitch them? Well, I pieced them together and made a little mug mat. 3x4 inches. I still need to hand stiche the binding down. The binding piece was a leftover I found in the binding box.




This is all that is left. I saved the tiny strings, put them in a jelly jar with a bright rafia ribbon. I will keep it until I am tired of it, then the scribble scraps will finally hit the trash!
Ok, tell me...do you ever do this? Do you just use up every little bit like that? Or do you start each project with new fabric and toss your scraps when you are done? I like both ways! Please tell me what you do!!!
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Nursing update!!!!!!!
Nuts! That is all I can say about work right now...but I am glad to report that "Mr Freeze" has gone to rehab, and is probably home by now!! Yippeee!!! He is super nice, and his wife is even nicer!!!!!!
Have a super great fourth!!
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...