Along came a Tumbler template

I know you all are an animal lovers and I need to share some sad news with you.



My Husband found Stubbie dead on the road just a moment ago. So sad. We wrapped her up and taped her into a box for burial. I wondered why I had not seen her this morning. There was not a mark on her...she was just dead. I kept her alive through three winters. She had no tail to wrap herself up to keep warm. So I am positive that my intense feeding of her kept her alive.
And today is my daughter’s BD.
I am so sad!
XOXOXO Subee
I cut way too many patches for my token Tumbler quilt. I only wanted to "try" one to see if I liked making it. I made one in a lap size that I will hand quilt with Bonnie Hunter's method of Freehand Baptist Fans. I cannot wait to cuddle under this quilt. I will use Quilters' Dream Wool batting.

Every little patch of fabric sings to me. I do not want any of them to get away or not to be in this quilt. As I said I cut way too many patches. I believe I have enough to make three quilts. Geeezzzzz!
I also cut 2" tumbler patches as I was cutting. This will make a nice tiny quilt for the kitties.

This was the first cutting board turntable I ever bought.

It is PERFECT to trim these patches from 4" & 2" squares.

 It really turns way too easy...could be dangerous.

Which is why I had it under a tool caddy in the cutting room.

It allowed the caddy to spin. I use an Olfa spinning square mat now for different cuts.

But this one is too perfect for one patch trimmings.

I am glad I had it.

I am glad I am a Gadget Girl!!!!!

 Progress on the first Tumbler quilt on the design wall.

 Organization is always VERY important to me when I start a project. I have lots of little baskets and leftover plastic containers from veggie/fruit purchases. When I dove into that great box of 2000 4" squares I found they were sorted into color families already! So I only took a few from each grouping. That way the colors would be spread evenly throughout the quilt.

 Look what I found in the box! So this tells me the box was my 2000 year purchase. I also have another one that I think I bought in 1998. I have not broken the seal on that one yet!

 I keep things even in my mind and on my sewing table. The pattern needs a row of each starting with a dark and a light. So I count out the # of rows I want to start off with and alternate the fabrics.

This is one of my Mother's glass bowls.

I use them to collect small trimmings when rotary cutting.

Keeping my work area clean is VERY important to this quilter.

I have carpet underfoot. Need to be careful!

 I finally satisfied my Spring Cleaning Urge. I moved out all the sewing furniture. I washed the windows and the curtains. Then I turned my sewing area  towards the TV and away from the window. With the summer sun coming in (someday! we have had the wettest April on record) I needed to keep the sunlight from my eyes. It feels almost as if I have more room this way. I have turned it this direction before but I had never moved the big lateral file cabinet to the side of my machine. It fits there so perfect. Hubby says there feels as if there is more room to walk. But it is not so because my rug does not fit on the floor. It is only narrower by 1". But it seems bigger somehow.

 I put that cover on for the picture. Since I sew everyday it is never covered!

 My second set of 60 String Blocks.

I did join in the swap at Quiltville.

 I also am going to try to sell some on E-Bay.

 I sew 10 at a time. And I do pin. It keeps the strips flat after just finger pressing.

The new telephone books arrived this month.

I never thought I would be so excited over having old ones to cut up!

That must have been what drove me to make more string blocks.

 MaggieMae always walks over my sewing. No respect!

I also call her "Magnet" because fabric patches stick to her!

She is such a good girl though.

I wash her eyes everyday.

She just sits on the toilet and lets me wash her face...purring the entire time.

And I have finally found a brush that she actually likes me to use.

It does not really get the tangles very well but I am trying to keep her tanglefree until we do the summer cut again. It is called a Lion Cut. Makes her look soooo cute!

One of the first fledglings this Spring. A sweet little female.

A BlueJay got too close and the entire flock drove it away.

Nature is so wonderful to watch.

Just Stringing along

I made my 60 blocks for Roll, Roll Cotton Boll long ago. I still have not assembled the quilt. I want to do things a bit differently then the way Bonnie Hunter designed the quilt. I love it and all but my blocks look too Christmasy.
Anyway, over on the Quiltvilleswap group there is a swap going on for string blocks. Today I am just limp with pain. The meds are not working as they have. I am afraid I will need some stronger meds. So I wanted to sew but my brain is fuzzy. Why not make some string blocks.? Then if I get enough done I will sign up for that swap too. I actually made 14 blocks without breaking into a sweat. I used up several almost gone bobbins. Great way to be frugal and have fun sewing!

I need to check the swap to see if we are to trim these or not....

 I won a copy of the 100 Blocks Volume 3 during the quilt blog. So cool! And there even was a card in the envelope saying I was a winner. I have been so very lucky lately.

I quilted this for a friend/student of mine. It turned out so nice and sweet. Jan is really getting the hang of quilting. She has the "quiltbug" sooooo bad! I enjoy helping her along on the learning journey.

Another Kaleidoscope quilt!

I have Elaine Adair to thank for an addiction to this great ruler that makes this pattern so fun and easy. I no longer know how many quilts I have made from this pattern. It never gets old as each is unique.
I love the optical illusion it creates. It almost makes me feel I have had one Margarita too many!

 The ruler is called a "45 degree Kaleidoscope Wedge Ruler" by Marilyn Doheny.
http://www.dohenybooks.com/

 My goal is to have this done by June 13th. I want to give this to my great son-in-law, Kevin. He looks so nice in green and I thought I might as well make him a green quilt for his birthday!

 Decisions, decisions! Four fabrics or five fabrics. I opted for the four fabric design and will put the sample block on the back  al'a Bonnie Hunter style!

I thought I should add a picture of the ruler. Such a great tool for this gadget girl.
At least this is one gadget I do use!

 I am still working on the "Different Box of Crayons" quilt. I have three more borders to add and the quilt is now too big for me to machine quilt even without the borders added. I have to work on multiple items. I wish I could clone me and work on everything at once!

 Even Hubby likes the way the design flows out from the center. I can only say "wow" I made this and I love this quilt! Grand daughter AnnaMarie will love this I am sure!

I guess you cannot see much of anything of the Oriental quilt in this picture. I was just beginning to add the binding. I accordion fold my binding and lay it on the machine bed. It stays straight and helps the process. It took 4 of us at guild to hold the quilt up. I wish I had a picture of that so you could see more. When I give this to Laura I will be sure to get a good photo.

Scrappy Mountains quilt progress

I am always amazed and pleased with Bonnie Hunter's patterns. I have only been working on this for two days and have half the quilt top together already. I could not resist taking a photo of course!

And preparation always makes a task easier. I love these little baskets. The pieces fit perfectly. With this pattern you do need to stay organized to make the process fun instead of work.

These fabrics all came from Iole's cotton summer shirts. Hubby says it looks real old fashioned as in any fabric will do. I told him that was the whole idea!

I sadly had to remove the Different Box of Crayons quilt from the design wall to place these blocks up. The quilt is sooooo beautiful. But I did need to get Lisa's quilt finished before the other. That is a matter of whose BD falls first.

A Different Box of Crayons

I was looking through a quilting magazine (American Patchwork & Quilting June 2010) a year ago and came across this pattern with the option of ordering the kit to exactly replicate the quilt. Since it was in pinks with a bit of brown I fell in love with it! I ordered the kit and the designer, Lynn Schmitt Cibulka, communicated with me before and after the kit arrived.
I also made another pattern from this magazine. Remember the Odds & Ends (designed by Jill Reid)I posted about eons ago? This magazine was a very pleasant read and sewing adventure.

Here is a photo of the kit. I just love the name she uses.

A Different Box of Crayons.

Too clever!

After a few days of sewing I now have the center part made using my own fabrics to see if I even liked the pattern. I fussy cut the strips too! I like the effect! (I love it and can see several more quilts using this pattern) So I have the kit to use (will be MINE) and I want to do it all in scraps too. Hubby even liked this so far. He is not fond of pinks. He likes the graphic way the blocks meet. I have all of the outer blocks made already. And here they are:

PINK AND ROSE FABRIC! My grand daughter AnnaMarie is going to love, love , love this quilt. Red is her favorite color. She even has red carpet in her bedroom.

Slow and steady was the sewing process. I am so glad that Lynn had us making the largest amount block first because I may have stopped after I finished the middle part. But why stop now since I have the blocks all made?
After my marathon sewing spree last week finishing the Project Linus quilts and the other two small projects I made some little cup mats from a pillow panel. The one panel was a misprint and I took some colored pens and tried to fix the yellow tabby who was blue! Anyway it is now a cup mat and is ready to be abused!

Aren't they sweet?

 I felt the need to finally cut into Iole's shirts. Her spirit came and talked to me at 3:30 a.m. A pleasant visit and she wanted me to stop delaying using the shirts. SO I got up and cut into those shirts. I have enough cut now to make the larger version. I did a few blocks to test the process. I should have known that Bonnie Hunter's designs are so simple to sew and the graphics are wonderful.
I have all the triangles sewn and just need to square them to 8" and slice them up. I have been sewing in two rooms practically at the same time.

I love quilting!

 I made chicken and noodles for one part of our first Easter dinner in Grandma's old home that is now my daughter's home. Memories were welcomed and it was great to be cooking in Iole's kitchen and also using some of her pans and recipies.
In my pan above there are two whole (Amish)chickens, an entire stalk of celery, a large onion and some garlic cloves. This boiled for 5 or 6 hours and then I had a wonderful pot of pure chicken stock.

Sorry about the darkness of this photo. I bought this on E-Bay. It is an egg cup. I am planning on making myself a small pincushion. Any advice on this project for me? I think I will need a hot glue gun and some wool batting....I haven't a clue...sigh! Perhaps it will come to me in a dream.

Back from retreat and a SPIDER story!

Quilt panels are so easy to use. I love them!

After a short visit to my brother's house last week, I really enjoyed loving on his 4 male cats. One of them looks like the black/white tuxedo cat on this quilt panel. I had two of these panels (45"X36") and today one is all quilted and bound. So this will be going to Alan and his wife Sue as a "just because" gift. That is the one I took the photo of. I salvaged some wool battings and pieced enough for both of these quilts. The Quilters' Dream Wool batting is unreal! I LOVE IT! I even used some precious fabric for the backings on these two quilts. And one will be for me. Well...for the kitties as they love the wool batting too!
I felt like Bonnie Hunter.      Use it up! 

And I did. Used up saved fabrics...pieced wool battings...and used some green fabric for bindings that would have never made it in to a quilt because it was a polished type cotton. The color matched so well you would have thought I planned it that way!

Our guild has been on a Project Linus quilt making spree. We had a three day retreat last week at Bear Creek Farms in Bryant, Indiana. I made 6 quilt tops and quilted them on Monday and Tuesday. Each one has pieced batting. I am so glad I have been a "saver" of batting pieces. They are all done and ready for giving. But some of the ladies were on "overdrive". Two of them actually made 10 different quilts and had them all quilted too after the weekend was over. As I was leaving they were both going to make just one more apiece to have 12 done! All of us were working on charity projects. I did take a personal project but it never even made it out of my truck. They are some great ladies! Our goal is to have 100 done to present to the Project Linus charity this June. We are VERY close to having that many done.

Here are all six of the finished quilts. They are on top of my "tumbler" storage that went with me to the retreat but never made it out of the back of my truck. And next to the container is another container that did make it in to the room but never was opened. It will be a pink/red quilt for Grand Daughter AnnaMarie. I have plenty of time. Her birthday is in August.

Do any of you have a fear of bugs?????? The first night at the cabins at Bear Creek, I was reading in bed and saw some movement between the beds near my slippers on the floor. As I watched there was a Wolf spider the size of a dog (well not quite that big maybe 3" across) crawling across the floor, heading to the bed I was in! They are terrible looking...hairy...dark brown camo colored with wicked red eyes. I managed to not scream too loud and picked up one of my slippers and pounded the #$%& out of it. Squished it all over...juicey...gross but DEAD. Then I was not able to relax. If there was one there were more I was sure. These cabins are very rustic...no phones...long way to walk to find anyone to complain to...seclusion...darn. So every few minutes I got up and stomped my feet around the room to keep the spiders in hiding. I did leave the dead spider body on a kleenex on the floor between the beds. When I returned to my room later the next day, the bed was made and the trash was taken out BUT THE SPIDER WAS STILL THERE ON THE FLOOR AS I LEFT IT! I was a bit angry then. So I spent another night of not sleeping and continued to stomp around the room. All the ladies were laughing at me. I really did not feel too bad with no sleep for two nights. I slept like a baby when I got home though. I am sure I snored through the entire night! And I did not leave a tip for the sweet faced Amish girl who cleaned the rooms. Why did she not pick up that spider and then sweep the room to remove any more of them? Could she have been more frightened than me? NOT!

Lake Cabin top completed! And new Cherry Blossom bobbins for Janome sewing machines!!!

I fixed the sashing that was missing a star leg. Much better to my eye. I added a small black border then searched my stash and used a nice brown that has some rose tones. This quilt looks as if it could be for a man or a woman.
The pattern is in a new book by Kim Brackett called "Stash Basket Sensations". This was another quilt made and quilted by Mary Flynn of Quilt Hollow that was in this newest book.

I have the backing all made for the Oriental quilt. And the batting will be here Fed EX tomorrow afternoon. I am in love with all the types of Quilters' Dream battings. I ordered a package deal of 5 King Size battings (122X122) from my favorite batting seller:
http://www.quilternatives.com/

Always free shipping and the costs are VERY competitive. I am rapidly using up my Queen size roll of Quilters' Dream Select cotton batting and then I plan on buying a roll of the wool! LOVE IT!!!!! But I do not enough room to store the new roll until I use up the others. I have 4 rolls in my utility room...my house is soooooo small. I wish I could just add  a few feet to every room!

 The Deer quilt came back to me on Friday. I included sewing the binding on in my charge for making this quilt. That is all done and Gladys picked the quilt up this morning. Gladys is concerned with a small oil/grease stain on the back of the quilt. There must have been a machine issue as the stitching was all messed up too. So I resewed some of the quilting and marked the stain with a pin so Gladys can find it again. Her Hubby says he has some type of cleaner that will remove the stain.  Gladys and her Hubby are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. WOW! 50 years!

This weekend I am going to Bear Creek Farms for a three day retreat. The food is amazing (Amish) and we have little log cabin rooms. SO cute. Little wooden front porches for each cabin. Lots of outside walking to the rooms. And we are expecting rain for the weekend. That makes a bit of a hardship but so worth the peace and quiet.
I am gathering up all my totes and am TRYING to decide what I will work on this weekend. We will be making some more quilts for Project Linus but that will not take up the entire weekend.
Decisions decisions! I will bring too much stuff I am sure. I will get to see how pleasant it will be to carry my new QDC3160 Janome sewing machine.
And oh! I bought the cutest PINK bobbins in a Cherry Blossom case. They are made of a different material. Supposed to absorb bouncing better. They work fine in my 6600P. So, I assume they will be fine for my new machine. And they are PINK!

Here is the link: http://www.sewvacdirect.com/janome-cherryblossombobbins.html

WHOOOHOOO!