Back in the Day

Years ago... and I am not kidding when I say years ago, I learned to crochet before I learn to sew.  My mother taught me and I remember when she use to get booklets called "The Work Basket" with a lot of different patterns and information.  My Grandmother also crochet and tatted.

I got my hands on these books and could not let them go, as these were just like the ones my mother use to get.  Most have 1948 and 1955.  I love these books.  Some of the ads in them are so funny now, but in those days it was a big deal. Here are what they look like.

These bookets have recipes in them as well as crochet patterns, gardening, etc.  It was so much fun going through them.

Embroidered blocks

I am working on embroidering blocks for a quilt. I have one done so far, and will be starting another one. I picked up the quilt pattern at a quilt shop that is called Country Holiday by Bronwyn Hayes.

The quilt pattern 

This will be fun quilt to make.

New Quilt technique I want to try

The more I see pictures of a Crazy Quilt  the more I want to try it.  I am starting to collect fabric, ribbons, buttons and other kinds of embellishments.  Here is a block showing some of the things you can do:

Special quilt for my husband.

My husband was working on cars starting at the age of 14 and loved it. He has always had two passions; one was drag racing and second, was restoring older model cars.  I watched him over the years restore cars. I was always amazed at how he can strip down a car and a motor and put them back together.  So what better than to make him a quilt featuring cars. I have blocks that have older model cars printed on them that I am embroidering and I printed onto fabric a couple of pictures of him in either his drag racing cars or his son's car.  I have two blocks done with the hand embroidering and have 7 more to do.

The first picture are the printed embroidery blocks and the others on the picture are pictures that I printed on fabric.

The picture below is one of the blocks that I have hand embroidered. The embroidering will take me a little bit then I will start on figuring out how I am going to lay out the quilt.

Quilt for a new family member

When I found out that I would be welcoming a new family member, a great niece I decided to make a quilt.  Once they found out that they were having a little girl and my niece let me know what the color scheme was for the baby's room, I got started on a quilt for her. Here is Emma and her quilt.

Fabric pieces

I have a lot of left over fabric pieces because I am one of those that hate throwing away fabric.  I am currently cutting and working with all of these fabric pieces to be used in different project that have nothing to do with a sewing machine.  I am hoping to use these pieces in fabric art on canvas and a fabric rag rug.  This is what my work space looks like:

First the pieces of fabric are cut into 5x1 inch strips for the rag rug and then the left over pieces are being used for the canvas fabric art.  I am even tracing different shapes and sizes on the fabric to be cut out later. I am hoping that I can get my two Grand-kids to collage them on canvas.  It has been three days of doing this so far and I am only half way through my scrap fabric.  I am excited to get done so that I can start working on the rag rug.

Another quilt top done.......

Saying "another quilt top done" sounds good but the problem with that is just that, it is ANOTHER QUILT TOP DONE. I have 4 quilt tops now that are waiting to be finished, and another quilt to be made along with other projects I want to do.  I will not start another quilt, even though it is for my husband who want it done because it has to do with old cars.  But he will just have to wait.  I want to get the 4 tops done because a couple of them are for charities.  So with that said here is the one I just finished. I wanted to find a way to use up some of the scraps that I had.

Another project that I am going to do that will use up some of the scraps is a rag rug. It is made up of pieces of fabric scraps.

Pipe Cleaners

When I was a kid I use to love playing with pipe cleaners but the creations were pretty basic.  I came across this book on the web and fell in love with it.  I love the pictures on the front and the other pictures that they showed.  I am contemplating on getting this book but the problem I have is no young grandchildren to make them for.   If any of you that read this have small ones that would enjoy these little animals, you should consider getting the book.

https://www.anniescatalog.com/detail.html?code=909630&source=fcbdtl

Wish Upon a Quilt Give Away

Final week - GIVEAWAY - FREE GO! BABY
Just click on the link below and enter.

Wish Upon a Quilt give away....

Decision made ........

After working with the circle squares, I have to decided to only half the squares because of the size of each square.  If I quarter them then they would be to small so with that said this is how I am laying them out on my design wall.

Circle Quilt

My next project is a circle quilt.  The pictures will explain but I have to decide if I want to just make a simple circle quilt or to make some adjustments to the circles.

This is what I am currently doing, sewing the circles onto the squares:

The following is the two designs I am looking at:

Not sure which way I will use until I get all the circles sewn onto the blocks, and get them up on my design wall.  Feel free to comment on your thoughts.  I am always open to suggestions, oh and by the way those two designs are not my fabrics.

Another Quilt Top Finished

Well I managed to get another quilt top done.  This makes three finished this way, waiting for the binding, batting and back to be gathered to finish. This only means that I will have to start working on the circle quilt top.  This quilt is the one that I found in my craft closet that I started over years ago.

My poor dog Buttons is so use to me creating or making an attempt to create a piece of garment for her.  Usually having to do with the cold weather.  I have used socks to create booties for her to wear outside in the snow so that snow won't pack in between her toes.  She hates me putting them on her but once on she loves the fact that she can run around in the snow and not have it stuck on her paws and in between her toes

I came across this hooded thing that is for a human to wear while outside in the bitter cold.  Me or my husband have never worn it and when I came across it of course my mind immediately went to "I think that I can make this fit the dog with a few alterations. So this is what I came across that I am going to make some kind of hooded jacket/ body suit out of it.

Cold, cold weather

I just can't deal with this -40 (with wind chill) temps.  I have to put so many layers just to go out for 10 minutes with the dog.  Our dog Buttons, won't even go out unless she has her booties on along with a sweater and coat.

Our dog loves the snow, but she doesn't like getting cold (when the temps are in the negative).  So if she doesn't want to go outside then you know it is cold.

Winter and Sewing

With winter here and being stuck in the house there is nothing to do but, go through my craft closet and all of the containers in there.  Looking at my quilting stuff I found that I have on completed quilt that needs to be laundered and stored for giving it away.  I give most of all of my quilts away, mostly for charity.  I have quilts where only the tops are done and need to be finished (binding, batting and backing).

Then digging through some containers in my craft closet and came across a quilt that I had started in 2002. I have no idea why I stopped working on it, but it was mostly done.  I am just finishing up on it and it will be quilt #3 where the top is done.  I also have all the pieces ready for a circle quilt that I guess I will start working on.