Merry Christmas!

My husband's family exchanges Christmas gifts with one sibling each year.

This year I decided my sister-in-law, Joan, needed

a homemade Christmas!

I made her  a couple things just for Christmas time.

A Santa Jolly Belly pillow,

a Snowman dressed for winter,

and a comfy warm pillow case.

Then I added a new towel to hang in the kitchen,

a hot pad I learned to crochet this year,

a zippered pouch for change (or whatever),

a tissue holder for her purse,

and a loopy frog Mug Rug/Snack Mat.

She was quite happy with everything.......

and I had fun making them for her.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Quilting!                        Lynda

Baby Wyatt's new quilt

Baby Wyatt didn't want his picture taken but we finally

got him to hold still long enough to snap this one.

I'm sure he was thinking, "I'm awake.....it

must be time to eat.  Why are you making

me hang out here on this quilt?"

I love the Mother Goose themed fabrics.  

They are so bright and cheerful.

Happy Quilting!                       Lynda

Life is good!

 Yes, Life is good!  We were just blessed with another grandson on Thursday.

What a cute little boy.  Baby and Momma doing great!

No pictures yet....but soon.

I found this fun fabric called "Follow Me".  It has pictures of Churches, and words for all 

children to hear....."I am a Child of God, Faith, Truth, Light, Love One Another, Be Happy,

Be Grateful and Choose the Right".

Just had to make a couple of pillow cases for a couple of Grandchildren.

 Ellie is now 5 years old and in Kindergarten.  Where oh where has the time gone?!

I'm sure she will be losing a tooth or 2 soon so I made her a little, well not so little,

Mouse tooth fairy pillow.  The pocket is in the back.  She kind of 

looks like a bandit mouse!

Of course, Gavin, who is only 3 and not ready to loose teeth yet (unless he

keeps jumping off furniture) needs one too.

His is a monster and the big mouth is the tooth pocket.  

I know they will like getting presents too when the new baby gets his quilt.

Hopefully it will be back from the quilter next week.  Sheesh.....I

only had 9 months to think about making it!  Nothing like

waiting until the last minute.

Another quilt retreat coming up the first week of November.

I am already planning on what I will work on those 2 wonderful days.

Happy Quilting!                Lynda

Do you hear wedding bells?

Yes you do!

Chris and Melissa are getting married this Saturday.

I gave them their quilt and they were excited.

Nice cozy flannel on back.

Quilted with hearts.

Ain't love grand!

Happy Quilting!              Lynda

Wedding Quilt

June 6, 2015

Here's the happy soon-to-be-bride with her quilt.

I love the way it turned out.

I really enjoy using scraps

and ending up with

a beautiful quilt!

Sherry got married on June 11th and is now off to Colorado to start her next adventure.

Happy Quilting!                           Lynda

THREE IS A GOOD NUMBER

I have been working on 3 quilts at the same time.

Several months ago I started cutting my scraps into 3 1/2 X 6 1/2 inch pieces.

One of my quilting friends had made a Bricks and Stepping Stones and I loved it.

Isn't it interesting how different they "feel" with color changes and 

brick placement.

So I've been making Bricks and Stepping Stones quilts to use up

fabric scraps.  This one I call my Nascar Flag.  That border can make you pretty dizzy! 

 I used all colors of scraps in this one.

This will be for a High School graduate this next year.

 Then I decided I had a lot of browns and blues so decided to make one

just using those colors.  The stepping stones are making a diagonal line

in this one.  I think I may still add a brown border.

This one is probably going to be for a Grandson.

This 30's Churn Dash may be one of my all time FAVORITES!

It is big!  90 X 108.

If you look closely, the Churn Dash 4th across and 

5 rows up from the bottom, is made

with a piece of one of my Father's shirts.

This quilt is for my nephew who is getting married in August.  

He was only 1 and 1/2 when my Dad, his Grandpa, passed away.

I thought it might be nice to use one of his shirts

as a "memory" in this quilt.

I actually cleaned up my sewing room, sort of, after these were done.  Then I noticed 2 big bags of fabric a friend gifted me and decided I needed to look through them to see what surprises were waiting for me.  Now the room is cluttered again sorting and planning more quilts.  Isn't that the way it always goes!

Happy Quilting!                           Lynda

Just a few inches more!

 63 Churn Dash blocks done!

All have 1 border.

 All have 2 borders.

 Some have 3 borders.

And a couple have all 4 borders.

But, of course, I need just a few more inches of fabric to complete them all.

Why is that?

So it's off to the fabric store again to get about 4 different 30's fabrics,

just 4 inches each.

This time I hope I have enough!

I'm trying to get rid of fabrics..............not buy more!

Happy Quilting!                      Lynda

Can I have too many "FAVORITE" quilts?

I have started a quilt using 30's fabrics.  

This one is for my brother's son, Chris,

and his fiance, Melissa.

But don't tell them yet.

They will be getting married in August.

(Sheesh,  I can't even keep a secret!)

My Mom made him a wedding quilt about 25 years ago

and we packed it away for "someday".  He was only

1 year old at the time and her last grandchild.  She had made a quilt for all her other grandchildren.   She figured she wouldn't be here when he got married so she wanted it done.  My Mom passed away in 1999.   He is excited to finally get to

use the quilt.

 I have a stack of HST ready to square up.

Here are a few blocks ready and patiently waiting.

This may be my favorite!

And here is Janine's Bricks and Stepping Stones

all ready for her to take to the quilter.

Didn't it turn out great.  This may be my favorite!

The mint green/blue and the gray are wonderful together.

Happy Quilting!               Lynda

Ready for quilter.................Woo hoo!!!

 Yep................I'm trying to use up SCRAPS!

This simple 9 Patch now has a wide piano key border and is ready

to go to the quilters.  

This Bricks and Stepping Stones has a wide black and white border.

Rather looks like it's ready for Nascar races.

My friend, Janine, (I've talked about how much fun we have together before) saw this quilt

and thought it would be nice if I made her one for her family reunion in July.

I thought, great, now I can use up some more scraps.  But NO...........

we happened to stop at a fabric store and she saw this line of fabric and  she HAD to have it.

So now she will have an organized scrappy Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt.

Then she said, "After all, I will probably outbid everyone else so that I can have it, so I might as well 

have the color I want!"

She cracks me up.

It is gorgeous fabric tho.

Happy Quilting!                  Lynda

What I did at RETREAT

 On a shop hop with my Bee friends we saw a Shoo Fly Halloween quilt.  

I had all this leftover Halloween fabric, found a great white with lime green polka dot fabric for the background, and got these blocks done during the retreat.  HOWEVER, do you notice how bland and washed out the 2 bottom right blocks look?  Yea, me too.  So I will be making a couple more blocks and adding a border or 2.

Also, notice the tiny square in the upper left corner?  I think if I add little black connecting corner triangle to 

each corner of the blocks it will add a nice dimension to the top.

 This is the start of the Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt.  I got all 112 blocks done and started putting them into 4's.  This is only a few of them, just so you can see I was busy sewing and not just laughing and eating!

 I got a little carried away cutting tho.  I think there are probably 5 more quilts to be made from this pile.

And here I have loads of 3 inch and 2 1/2 inch blocks ready for a project or maybe more.

There you have it.....................2 days of fun!

Can't wait til the next one.

Thanks again, Suzanne, for a great retreat.

Happy Quilting!                         Lynda

More good times!

 Another one of Leslie's Lori Holt patterns.  She is one busy woman!

 Martha brought a couple of small quilts.  We had a Bow Tie exchange this retreat.

Martha thought she would like to make one but in searching for quilts for Show and Tell

she noticed that she had already made one.  How many of us do that!

 We all loved this one.

 Last retreat Martha put together all the blocks for this Halloween Twister.

She was quite nervous to start the cutting and sewing but found it was much easier than she thought.

Didn't it turn out cute!

 This was an exchange from a past Bee exchange.  

 Dee brought a few quilts to share also.  This one is huge!  Do you notice the little papers pinned to some of the blocks?  Those are ones she is not quite happy with and wants to take them out and replace with others she has made.  Really?  It is gorgeous!

 A 30's quilt she finished a while back.  We loved this one too.l

 Our last retreat we had a fabric exchange for making this Bricks and Stepping Stones Quilt.

Suzanne brought hers to our last Bee meeting and Dee just has a couple more borders to add to hers.

Of course, after seeing theirs I wanted to make one too.  The last couple of weeks I cut and cut and cut fabrics ready to work on mine at this retreat.  

 These 2 quilts were made by Claudia.  The camping one she has had in her motor home.

 I think Alice made this beauty.  She says it was sooooo hard to make and she almost gave up several times but persevered and now has this lovely top. 

 Ina shared this patriotic small quilt and

 this really great red and white quilt.  She and her sisters work on a project every year.  This one has several red and white blocks and lots of embroidery.

 It looks like a mottled fabric was used for the background but it is white and since they are holding it in front of the window you can see the bold red fabric design from the backing. 

 We were greeted by Suzanne's cat every day.  

 Lunch is always wonderful and relaxing after sewing for so many hours each day.

 Liz brought some past exchanges also.  I made the mummy and the Boo blocks for this exchange.  

 A bit blurry on the hearts but it is hard to take a picture while stuffing food in my mouth.

 This is a string table runner that Liz made.

I'm heading down to my sewing room to iron my blocks that I worked on at the retreat.  I will take pictures of them so you can see I actually do accomplish things and not just walk around looking at everyone's projects and gabbing!

Thanks once again to Suzanne, our hostess, for setting these retreats up a couple of times a year and letting us come in and take over her home for a couple of days.   We always have a great time and get lots of inspiration for future projects and acclamation  on current projects.

Happy Quilting!                       Lynda

Where have I been the last 2 days, you ask?

 Our amazing Suzanne once again invited 18 of us over for a quilt retreat!

She is smart and always has bindings to work on.

That doesn't mean she doesn't get to carry several sewing machines up the stairs tho.

 Here Dee is busy working on the borders of a Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt

she started at the last retreat.

 Leslie brought her machine, a couple of bags, a large suitcase and lots and lots of fabric.

She spent the whole 2 days cutting out fabric for 6 quilts from one of Lori Holt's books.

She and her daughters will have a few Tuesday night craft nights to work on them.

 Maybelle is busy working on a baby quilt for a future granddaughter.

 Nancy brought a kit to work on.  Didn't like the fabric quality and was thinking

of writing the company and asking how they felt in sending

such poor quality fabric out to customers!

 Claudia and Marilyn just starting.  Don't they look happy and ready for the day.

Most of us looked a little tired and sore by the end of the day.

2 More quilters ready to spend 2 days quilting with friends.

 Alice had the center of this quilt all done and was working on the border fans.

It is a beautiful quilt.

 Ina was trying to get out of the picture but I caught her anyway.

 Of course, what would a retreat be without goodies to munch on.  

Hey, who brought healthy snacks?

 Leslie, who loves Lori Holt patterns, had made a few quilts to share.

This one is the scissors and below is the dresses.

Don't you just love Lori's designs and fabric!

Guess that is all for today.  More tomorrow.  We laughed our way through 2 days.  Ended up with lots of started and a few completed projects.  Reminisced over past retreats, wandered through Suzanne's beautiful home where there are quilts on every bed and wished we could do this every week.  Not sure my back could take it but sure would like to try.

Happy Quilting!               Lynda