Ellie's dolly needs a quilt

Ellie is coming for a few days visit. Decided her dolly needed a little quilt. This is a tiny twister quilt made from some leftover 5 inch squares. No batting, solid yellow background and binding. Just stitched in the ditch. I think her dolly will like it.Happy Quilting! Lynda

Ellie's new hat

I found this pattern for a Jack and Jill hat by Izzy & Ivy designs that I thought just needed to be made for Ellie. I read over the instructions several times and finally cut out all the pieces and started making the hat. The instructions were a little difficult for me to follow completely. It told me to make a buttonhole in one part but never had me use that button hole for anything the rest of the pattern. I don't make clothing very much anymore so I may be a little rusty on following those kinds of patterns. I made a couple of mistakes but eventually the hat turned out really cute!

Here's Ellie wearing her new hat. She only wore it long enough for a few pictures tho. I will make it again because I think it turned out quite well. My daughter thought it would look great in black and white striped fabric for a train conductor hat for a little boy.....some day.

I've also been making a couple of quilt backs and taken one of them to the quilter. I finally got the rest of the fabric for the Rick Rackasaurus quilt too. Can't wait to get that one finished. My niece should be having her new baby boy soon and I want to have it ready to give to her.

Happy Quilting! Lynda

Been gone so long.......

Hope you all had a good Christmas. Ours was wonderful. A couple of our children and their families came for a few days (making 1 cute little granddaughter and 1 very active grandpuppy). Having family around sure makes Christmas more fun. I think I love having Christmas on a Sunday so that we can attend our Church meeting and then come home to open gifts. Here is one of our little Ellie enjoying the bag just as much as the gift that came inside.

Ellie helped us make pies using her very own rolling pin and dough.
I saw this simple felt Christmas tree on pinterest and knew I had to make one also. A very simple triangle tree with magnets to hold it to the fridge. The ornaments were just circles cut from felt I had on hand. It was a big hit with Ellie. She spent a lot of time redecorating the tree each day.
I've also started a Rikrakasaurus quilt for my niece who is having her 3rd son in January. I found the pattern in a Quiltmaker May/June 1997 magazine and have always wanted to make it. I'm now looking for some dinosaur fabric to use for the outside border and maybe some wild striped inner border and sashing.

Looking forward to 2012!

Happy Quilting! Lynda

Back in the sewing room.......finally

I've been wanting to make a zipper bag for quite some time but was a little leary because I really don't like to sew in zippers. But I was really surprised how easy it was. Much easier than putting one in the back of a dress. The patten for this was off the internet and it wasn't lined, just used iron on interfacing. Next time I'll line it for sure since I now know how easy it is now.

I call this a "free" quilt since everything I used was in my small stash. Several months ago I cut strips from fabrics and started trying to use them in baby quilts. This one is just 8 inch squares with a tiny white sashing. The pink polka dot flannel for the back was even left over from a larger quilt. Would you believe I even machine quilted it myself AND sewed the binding by machine too. Now it's ready for the next little baby girl born in our neighborhood.

Happy Quilting! Lynda

A little of this.....a little of that

The other day my boss, Dr. McBee, needed to borrow my car. He rides his bike to the office quite often and he forgot he was taking another doctor out to lunch. We figured he wouldn't want to ride on the handlebars. So...............After taking lots of picture of Ellie during our visit this week....this is what I found...............
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wait for it..........
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I know..................funny guy.

I gave this quilt to a young man in my neighborood named Harrison. He is such a quiet young man but is such a strong, gospel centered young man too. Whenever I give a quilt to someone I tell them why I picked the colors and the pattern. I figured the creams were indicitive of his calm and quiet nature and the red depicts his strong love for our Savior. You can see by the smile on his face that he was happy to get a nice warm quilt since it is cold outside.

We went to visit our daughter and her family this week....again. Luckily her husband doesn't get tired of our visits.....yet. Ellie's favorite place to play is the bottom step. She carried this bag around most of the day filling it with her toys and taking them out to line them up on the step.

Here she is digging to the very bottom to get everything out.

She is at that age where she wants to try everyones shoes on. When I got ready to leave I found cheerios and toys in my shoes.

We brought these cute pink furry feet slippers for her. The toes are painted with bright pink polish.

We found this gyro bowl for her. It is amazing. It really doesn't spill no matter how she carries it. However, she likes to take all the cheerios out and line them up.

She has discovered her tongue. She was probably making raspberries (that's what we call it) with her grandpa.

Here she is reading a pop-up book with Grandpa.

Maybe this week I'll get back into my sewing room.

Happy Quilting! Lynda

More Retreat

Suzanne, our Quilt Retreat Hostess, always has a gift for each of us. This is a bag filled with buttons, a covered notebook (that she made) and a chocolate bar wrapped and ribboned. The sticker says, "So much CHOCOLATE, so little time".

This is a quilt I took to take the binding off of. I used the backing fabric for the binding and didn't like the way it looked on the front with the rich fabrics. However, the vote after folding it over and seeing how it would look, was to keep it and save me the trouble of all that ripping out. I'll be working on that tonight.

This is what I worked on. You can see the baseball quilt and the bag of applique that I was sure I would have time for also. I love this quilt and I'm sure the young man I am giving it to will love it too. Funny how I didn't notice until I looked at the picture that most of the light reds are on one side!

I do enjoy getting together with other quilters spending the day working on projects, seeing what others are doing, laughing, talking and eating. Thank you again, Suzanne, for sharing your home with us.

Happy Quilting! Lynda

Retreat was a real treat!

Myrna's quilt top that she worked on all day. Then she started the borders.....oodles of 2inch squares sewn together.

These pumpkins greet us every year on our climb up the stairs to Suzanne's quilting room. AND every year I say I'm going to make some of those next year!!!

Maybell showing a darling 4 patch and square in a square baby quilt. She also had a beautiful quilt in blue with the most amazing back (no I neglected to get a picture) :(

Claudia, Nancy and Alice busily working on projects.

Claudia with a cut finger still managing to make a big dent in her projects. She finished the vest she is wearing. Judy and Alice sewing and laughing in the back.

Suzanne, showing off her striped socks was binding a quilt and Dee was working on applique.

Myrna admiring Patti's Dresden Plate.

And of ourse.....there is always delicious food.

Alice and Judy taking a break from their projects to admire Dee's applique. This is the 2nd panel of 3 that will go into a quilt. Dee and Suzanne are champion appliquers. I brought some to work on so they could help me learn.....but never got around to doing any of it. I spent the whole time binding 1 quilt!

Dee explaining how "easy" it is to applique.

Nancy sharing the quilt top she finished.

And a couple of quilters spent a long time helping Nancy arrange and rearrange her Sampler quilt blocks.

A big thank you to Suzanne for sharing her home with us a couple of times a year for quilt retreats. She has quilts hanging everywhere and on every bed and couch.

Would you believe I didn't even take a picture of the quilt I was binding! Tomorrow I'll show you the finished quilt.

Now I just want to lie down and take a rest.

Happy Quilting! Lynda