Happy May Day every day of May

May has been a special month for me since I met my good friend Carol May.

Carol’s birthday is in May and one year she was so bugged that her husband did not celebrate  her birthday that she vowed to make every day in May a Carol May day.

Carol is going to be putting her house up for sale. It is that time in her life.

 

This is her back yard. It looks like a park.

We sit up on her deck on the 2nd floor drinking coffee and watching the birds at the feeder. Carol loves her coffee just about as much as a nice glass of wine in the evening.

Happy 29th day of May miss May.

Last summer we had to take the boat in 4 times to finally get it working properly after 8 years in the garage with engine trouble.

I was born to be on the water.

When I  have both of my sons with me I feel pure happiness. Look how they both have that left eye squint. They are as different as night and day but brothers thru and thru.

The end of a wonderful evening.

Our crabapple tree brought so much joy this month and walking under it to the front door was a sensory delight.

the May Day Parade was a highlight for me but I will do a separate post but I do have to show you this great t-shirt.

My nightly routine has started to include the Golden Girls. I am starting to feel like a Golden Girl these days. This guy just chuckled when I snapped his photo. It was super cute! I kept walking but we both had a good laugh.

It is always a wonderful evening when your parents, grandpa and your Godmother come to see your concert. Family LUV!

 My niece Emily and  Caleb’s wedding in my mom’s backyard overlooking the Mississippi.

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

With a wedding comes a quilt.

I am on a deadline to get this quilt done before Caleb comes home from boot camp.

and I am hoping to do a little sewing outside in our new gazebo.

Happy Month of May (Carol May)

Adding Kitties to the Scrappy Bargello

I had fun last weekend with a visit from my sister. She came in town and did a sleepover. We went to a flea market and then to a few antique shops and then came home and she made homemade pizza. I wanted to go see her this week. She just purchased a home and is going to have 3 residents living there that she will provide care for. I wanted to be a part of her setting up the house but… it didn’t happen. I am on a countdown for may last 6 radiation treatments for breast cancer. It is a journey that began the end of March. I am too tired to drive. She sent text with some pictures of the kitchen wallpaper yesterday. I enjoyed being a part of her adventure even if from afar.

My niece offered to come and get me and bring me to visit mom but it would be a 3 hour drive for her and I did not want to inconvenience her.  So I did a little cutting and planning and just a little stitching and mostly  pinning fabrics to the bottom of the Scrappy Bargello. This is me after a 2 hour much needed nap!

I am sitting on a stool in the hallway deciding what color needs to be added next.

I worked on fussy cutting cat fabrics to put into the quilt.

Before I knew it I had 10 more kitty sets to add to the quilt top.

and some nice sets of squares ready to be added to the project.

In an attempt to stay organized if I find a fabric that is already in the quilt I pin it to this hanger to use on other projects.

yes every once in a while I find a duplicate. No duplicates allowed in this quilt!

Having fun.

Yesterday I found a spot for each of the kitties.

Once I get a spurt of energy I will sit at the machine and start sewing some of these together. There are nine blocks going up and nine blocks going down. I iron one strip upward and the next strip down so they line up nicely when sewing the strips together. I have the top set up in panels right now. The first 3 sets of nine are sewn together and then the next two and the remaining are just sections of nine. It is easier to work with the strips under the machine.

My 10th panel is still in the infancy stage. I just added the 11 rows ending with the leaf fabric which is from Grandma Susan’s skirt and shirt outfit.In her memory. Love you Susan.

When I look up from my stool I see a curtain of color.

Scrappy Bargello

I started this quilt the week of July 4th 2008. It has been 8 years in the making!!! Wow.

Here is my progress shot from yesterday  Dec 31 2016

Happy New Year Everyone!

It is the Scrappy Bargello from Quiltville.com by Bonnie Hunter.

It takes some time because I am making certain I rotate the colors

Red Blue Yellow then Orange Purple Green

And then sprinkle in some black, brown, whites, creams, and pinks

As well as adding stripes, polka dots, the cat fabrics, florals, music fabrics, 30s repros, patriotics, batiks, metallics, vintage pieces, etc…

The design goes nine squares up and then nine down. I prefer where they meet that it not be the same color. The strips are 1 1/2 inch making 1 inch finished squares.

Here is my son trying to pull down that 10th panel! The wind was not cooperating with our photo shoot!

NOTE: I decided on a 10th panel this past fall after laying the top down on my queen size bed. I want to allow for shrinkage when this beast is quilted! I sewed that panel together yesterday so I could hang it for the photo. I had it pinned to a design board but it needed to be sewn. Today I cut 4 more kitty fabrics I have.

My most recent purchase Dec 7 2016 for this quilt is the wonderful blue fabric below from JoAnn Fabrics. The scale of the kitties is just perfect for this quilt! This is the start of a third row of cat fabrics along the 10 panels of the quilt.

Sept 4th 2016 fussy cutting another set of kitties to go in the quilt and setting them next to coordinating fabrics. Just for fun!

August 6 2016

“I have done a lot of checking of strips to see if the fabric is in the quilt top already or not continually over the past few months and then I would pin the strip to the top hanging on a wall going down into the basement. This week I sewed strips together and sub cut them. Last night Aug 5, 2016  I brought the quilt up and hung it in my hallway since the ceiling is higher and I can work on the lower portion of the quilt.”

August 6 2016 Hallway shot -here is a shot of the quilt after I moved it upstairs to the hallway leading to the back rooms. The ceiling is higher so it allows me to sit on a stool and work on the bottom of the quilt.

October 18th 2015 hanging along the stairwell to the basement.

A STEP BACK IN TIME OVER THE PAST 4 YEARS!

July 5 2015 – I love working on my quilts outside. On this day I was able to pin on at least 100 more blocks to the strips.

Nov 25, 2014

I enjoyed adding length to this 2nd panel. This quilt is my pride and joy. At this point I had been working on it for 5 years. . It  dawned on me that I may finish about 5 quilts all around the same time since I bounce from one project to another and work on many of my quilts simultaneously. In this picture I had  taken it off the wall  and set it on a table. This is the lower quarter of the quilt and my wall is not high enough. There are 5 panels of 2-3 columns to make it easier to sew on.

Note to self: The bottom portion looks lighter than the top on film.

I occasionally have the women in my quilt group look over the quilt to see if any fabric has been repeated anywhere. I audition each fabric to make certain it is not already in the quilt. Having a few more pairs of eyes to check on it is helpful! The gals donated oranges and purples and I know they are excited to see where they end up in the quilt.

Sept 4 2014 – all of these were given to my by one woman in my quilt group. It is so exciting to work these into the quilt!

June 27 2014  I added a touch of orange. Yes, I took out my seam ripper and made room for more orange. It is so much better now. I am happy. I know…. silly me.

April 27th 2014  here is a shot on a rainy day where  I worked on sewing the vertical strips together and finished all the dangling strips on the first three panels. This shot makes my heart beat faster. Just look how wonderful it is!

March 27, 2014

Confessions of a QUILTER!

“I have it hanging along the stairwell. I like to work in the same room as my family when they are watching Tv but I tend to make a really big mess. It drives my MR crazy but overall he handles it alright. You should see the mess I have right now. Searching for fabrics that are not already in this quilt.”

That entire panel on the right has 20 squares pinned to one piece that need to be sewn together and then added to each of the nine strips.

I have the quilt in panels so it it easier to sew. I calculated the size was 72 squares wide by 79 squares long. Each square is one inch. I just read that a queen size quilt can be 90 X 108. Well if I add two more panels of 9 it will end up at exactly 90 and then I only need 29 more squares for length. I will no longer be able to hang in from a wall in my basement due to the low ceiling.

Quilted Thrifted! March 26, 2014

“Working these thrifted fabrics into my scrappy bargello. yellow tags 50 percent off. I saw this last week and decided I would get it if it was still there this week. Sometimes I think the fabrics start looking dull. These will add some brightness.”

TWO YEARS EARLIER:

Sept 27 2012 –

I made a little progress.

Fussy cutting Kitty fabrics

I have worked on many other projects over the past 8 years. I am getting to the point of finishing one quilt top a year. Maybe 2017 will be the year for this one! Maybe!!!

Happy New Year to you.

Vintage Love

I would love to share with you my love for vintage fabric as this year comes to a close.

I have an ongoing love of making Triple Irish Chain quilts. I completed the top and back for my niece Erica and based and bound it. I gave it to her at her request not quilted and hope to quilt it some day.  This one I am currently working on is for her younger sister Mary Ann. I am cutting the white background fabrics for two additional quilts. One for my niece Emily and hopefully one for me. These one inch strips of fabric put into quilts has been a signature of mine.

This white fabric is a little thin. I hope this block holds up over the years. I do love the music pattern it has and I am able to use it in Leah’s musical quilt back as well.

Look at this beautiful fabric. There is nothing like it!

At this time of the year I like to bring out my vintage crocheted containers. I thrifted this one this past year at Value Village for $1.49. Ohhhh, I like it so much!

Look at these fabulous vintage cards and papers used in this box.

I got a new camera for Christmas which is one of the reasons I have not done a post in a long time. My other camera the lense is not retracting and of course it would cost more to have it repaired than to just purchase a new one. I don’t like this concept of our throw away society. I wish I could find someone who tinkers with electronics and would be willing to fix it just for fun!  I have to thank Scott for getting me a beautiful camera. Look at the detail it catches! Yay!!!! It has been a tough year for me. I have been battling cancer since the end of March. I still have a ways to go with treatments but so far so good. I am looking forward to 2017. I have to thank the 30 plus people who have followed me on Flickr and commented on my pictures this year. So many people have sent me gifts and cards it is sooooooo appreciated. Just when I would feel down I would get a greeting card or gift in the mail. Thank you all so much.

A Quilt Top Finish!

I am so excited to say I have finished the top to my SCRAP ATTACK quilt!

I thought I was finished a month ago when I posted a photo on Flickr of the quilt on my son’s bed. I was very excited to find out the photo made EXPLORE!

The photo has over 7000 views and has 48 favs! That is a first for me.
I decided to add another vertical row on the right side after the Explore photo. The quilt needed to be a little wider.
Now I have to decide what I will do for the back of the quilt.
For now I will use it as a backdrop for a photo of my Valentine’s present from my LUV and our son. Our son was nice enough to hold it up for me so I could take this shot! Color is how we stay warm when it is a 20plus below zero wind chill outside. COLD COLD COLD. Luckily we have a basement here and we can close the upstair door and the door out of the Tv room and turn on the electric fireplace and it gets nice and toasty warm. The only thing is then I get sleepy!

Merry Christmas 2014

I have my first chance of the holiday season to sit down and do a little sewing. I chose to add some Winter fabrics to the block for my Scrap Attack quilt.

This is block #33 for this quilt.

While photographing the finished block I notice the musical staffs are upside down. I will rip that little piece out and turn it around.  I also noticed the tan fabric that looks like snowballs is in the quilt twice. I may take that second set in the middle section out.
I was looking for my white fabric that has trees on it. That little scrap of fabric is always around when I am not looking for it. This may be the last block I need to complete the top – or possibly just one more.
“The Holly and the Ivy”

“Glory to the new born KING”

A little metallic gold fabric
I love in the winter time how the plants pop up from the snow. A sculpture in snow.

“Patches” she was out kitty growing up. This metallic leaf fabric is found throughout the blocks on the quilt.
The stars in the darker golden fabric are metallic as well.
A little sparkle for the season.

Snowflakes!
There was not snow here Christmas  morning but shortly after waking it started to fall. This morning we have a good 4 inches of fresh white powdery snow on the ground.
Wishing all my friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Autumn and Halloween block for Mary Ann’s Triple Irish Chain

Tonight is the first time in 25 years I have not taken one of my boys out Trick or Treating. Today is the last day of the 1st semester of 7th grade for our youngest and he still has homework to submit online before the night is over. He was just nominated for the National Junior Honor Society. We picked up the application today.

I had the day off today so I took a few moments this morning to finish sewing this block. I had everything set up and about half of it done so it didn’t take long. It was a beautiful day today.
I should be working on the alternate blocks to this Triple Irish Chain quilt but I keep running these blocks thru the machine as leaders and enders and just keep making the 49 patches.

Just look how blue the sky looks!

There are not many leaves left on the crab apple tree out the front door.

I have never noticed the Forsythia leaves changing colors before. The bush is almost 5 feet tall. I was wondering if I should trim it down before it gets too spinkdly??? Any suggestions?????

It is a beautiful time of the year.

I was thinking I may set a goal to get this quilt top finished by Christmas.
Isn’t this just the perfect KITTY for Halloween.
I am also hunting for a new job which should be my top priority. I threw my back out 2 weeks ago and it has been a painful recovery. I am at about 80 percent now and feeling so much better. Thank goodness!

I have been enjoying using this spiderweb fabric this month.

I made these a few weeks ago and wanted to share them today – Happy Halloween 2014!

Spinning round and round

I am very excited about a new quilt I started on May 25th – It is an idea that has been in my head for a few years now.

I am going to follow the colorwheel with  blue – purple- red – orange – yellow- green – and back to blue

Red is the easiest color to work with. I seem to have a lot of red fabrics.  I pulled the orange fabrics I have and tried to sort them by the orange fabrics that were darker with red tones to the ones that have more of a yellow tone to them.
I intend to have the music fabric on the lower side and then on the top.

I don’t know if you can see it yet but the top and bottom of the light spiral is in cream tones the sides have more white.

I am hoping this will give it more depth.

On June 6th I was able to go outside for a while and cut a few more strips of fabrics.

It is wonderful to be outside this time of year.

 

 

Footprints in the Snow

Footprints

Originally uploaded by Q_uilted T_hrifted

Our older son just came in for a 10 minutes visit while picking up his mail. When he left daddy said “you look sad”.

I didn’t share how much I have been missing him.

Moving forward

Our son had looked at his younger brother and was amazed and said he has grown an inch since he saw him last. That was January 11th when the younger one stayed overnight at the older one’s place so mommy and daddy could go out for dinner. We hadn’t had a date in a while. I digress.

Getting There

We immediately went to the hallway wall where we have the measurements of both boys on the wall. The younger one is 1 1/2 inches taller than where the older one was at 12 1/2 years of age. Our younger one will be that age in March. The older brother calls the younger brother a “beast”!  They are 13 years apart in age.

Peaceful

I did shed a quick tear while measuring the younger and placing the mark on the wall. I miss the older one so much and the depth of feeling is intense at times like this morning. I am proud of what he is doing in his life. I like the woman he is dating. Life is really good.

It really isn’t a feeling of sadness. It is a feeling of life. The part of the heart that always is held for an individual child. That special feeling when you know he is a part of you and it is a good part.

Sunshine

I finished this block today. It ended up looking like this.

The photos are for a project I started this past year and the main blocks are a disappearing nine-patch.

The alternating blocks are the yellow and creams with touches of blue running through them. Six design boards are ready to be finished up.

I completed a red block this week and the blue one this morning. I always have leftover squares that start the next block in that color.

Passion

I started this morning with making a red block and decided to take out many of the red reds and all those that read with more pink. A tribute to  Valentine.

Earth

I find it interesting this block #14 is Blue.

Polka Dot Luv

Blue Jay – bird watching this morning

Sunflower Crazy Quilting Revisited

One of my goals today

Originally uploaded by Q_uilted T_hrifted

I haven’t worked on this quilt in a long time. Today I finished this 49 patch.

Kitty fabric I got from my friend Kitty.

Added print to go with the current trend.

Laid out over the floor.

four crazy quilted blocks ready for embroidered sunflowers or butterflies.

The block with the flower petals will get embroidery on it and some crazy quilting in the center.

The second from the bottom has an embroidered heart and the hint of another.

Pulling a little plaid

This thought process has been in the slow cooker…

I drew these based on blocks on a quilt calendar I have somewhere …..drawn about 10 years ago for a different project.

I will have to reduce them in size to fit the applique blocks in this quilt

 

I want to add these two prints to a 49 patch block. The clock fabric I have had for years and years. I added it recently to a few other projects.

The bird fabric is in my Spiderweb quilt and the scrappy Bargello.

I don’t remember what this type of stitchwork is called. I believe it came from my sister from the deserted farm. It will go in somewhere. I have a doily in the quilt already.

this is a rework of a block I had started laying out and set aside….ended up in a container with these little pieces scattered. I located the piece of fabric with /3 of the squares so I cut new pieces and have this so far.

Now I need to cut more creams and whites.

I had hoped to have a different fabric in each 49 patch but I think I am going to give up on that idea.

It really does make the process “slow”.

A few blocks have not been found. This  ragged edge sunflower is somewhere and also “Yes We Can“