my first quilt

I got my kitchen chair, dragged it over to the linen closet and there it was was ay in the back. The quilt I made after my youngest was born. Background info; I worked nights at a hospital a few years before Samantha was born. One of my co-workers sewed all the time and when one of the nurses was having a baby she gave everyone a muslin square and told us to stitch, draw, whatever on the square. With her directions I used some novelty print and did a trapunto block. Our stitcher then put it all together and the quilt was so cute.  Fast forward. I was shopping at a craft store and saw  stencil I liked. I said to myself , " I can make a quilt with that stencil". At the time I frequently set off on projects that I had no skills for....
 Anyway I stenciled the little bears using fabric paint and then I drew and figured and off I went. I am pretty sure the batt is 100% poly and I tied it, but only at the corners of the blocks. I can't believe that quilt is still in one piece. I remember being so proud of it.

This is the quilt I posted about that I started years ago and just pulled out of the UFO pile. Still needs borders, but here are the blocks. Now please remember that this was cut and started while I was still in my first quilting class.

Lastly, my DD#1 was over today for crafty Sunday. She got another new craft book and we had to experiment. A little background on why we chose this project. We have two West Highland White terriers and DD#2, (Sam) misses them while she is away at school so we made these. I will be sending them to her tomorrow along with the latch hook supplies she requested. Yeah they are both crafting! 

Have  a great week everyone!

Craft Day

I worked yesterday at the quilt shop and when I came home I had to nap. After that I was wide awake so I worked on a quilt I started when I first began quilting. The first class I took was at Joann's and I was so excited about the quilt that I started a second one, same pattern, different colors before I finished the first one. What a surprise hu? Anyway, that class started a small quilt group that met every week ( for a couple of years) and we were always starting up new projects so this poor quilt got tossed on the UFO pile. I would never pick these fabrics now, but, I just could not get rid of my little pile of cut pieces. I will post a photo once I get a little further.

Craft Day..that was today. My DD#1 had back surgery in October and being a normally very active woman, was going nuts sitting around her apartment. She ordered a craft book on Amazon and started crafting like crazy. We planned a day to get together and make a couple of things from her book. Today we made beauty products, Body lotion, body scrub, and crusty foot balm I( the crusty part is the title in the book not my title). The projects we very quick, easy and pretty cheap. We had fun shopping for supplies a lot of the supplies came from the dollar store) and then working together. I will let you know how our lotions and scrubs work.

Have a good week everyone and happy stitching. Beth

Blocks

I have been working on some BOM projects. The wool BOM is called Settlers Pride. This month is the 3rd month. Wool is so much fun to work with, this one is going fast so far.

These are some of my star blocks for the swap. Photo isn't very good, I'll try again in daylight. Most of the group in this Bee are more traditional so I went with a very traditional block.I still have to do the 9 inch blocks, but we are not swapping until March so there is time.

The last photo is a PatchAbilities BOM . It is actually a series of mini quilts one a month. Feb. will be the first month of this program. The quilts are about 6"x 18". I couldn't get this photo rotated, so this is actually a sideways view.

Long day today. I drove my youngest back to school today. She had a month off between semesters and I got used to having her at home again. The University of Illinois is 3 hours away from our house. The trip there went really fast even with fog all the way. The trip home seemed to take forever, but I made it. It is way too quiet in the house now. Samantha (DD#2) got Guitar Hero and The Beatles for her Wii for Christmas, so there was a lot of music eminating from my living room the last couple of weeks. Then last week the husband was off work. Now everyone is gone except me and the dogs. (And they are sleeping).

I didn't get much quilting done this week end, but I did pick out my 6" star block for the swap with my Bee. I got them all cut out and ready to sew. I think I got organized to get some projects done. Will take pictures when my stars are done.
Have a good week
Beth

Back to work

Yesterday 2 of my Bee friends and I sewed some blocks for a super secret project. We sewed and unsewed and laughed, a lot. It was great fun and we got our portion of the project done. I will tell you more once the project has been given. The next Bee project is a block swap. 9" and 6" stars. Medium tones. We can each select a star we want to make. The challenge will be to put all the blocks together once we have swapped. I have been pondering what stars and what colors for ages and I am no closer to a decision than I was when we first embarked on this swap.
Any suggestions?

Today, sadly there was no sewing for me. I have been avoiding the removal of all things Christmas because it is sad to see it all go. ( Ok I also dislike all the work involved in getting it all down, packed, and stored). The Santa and reindeer collections are packed and stored. The snowman collection is down and stored as well. The tree is down and stored along with the lights. My DD #2 helped me pack up the tree and put away some of the ornaments. I just have a small village to pack up and the rest of the ornaments. So, time for summer hahaha

Lucky for me I work tomorrow .( I work part time in my LQS. Work is really the wrong word since I get to play with fabric all day and hang out with other quilters). The only problem with working at the shop, is that it is too much temptation.

keep stitchin

Look I am blogging

Hello to all the APQ bloggers who are blogging here. I followed APQ for literally years before I got brave enough to dive in and set up my own blog. I really enjoy seeing what everyone is working on . I also have enjoyed the sharing of tips and information passed on by the many talented quilters who posted.
I have made a resolution to post more often and to try to keep up with all the quilters that I can from over at APQ.
So what am I up to? Well I waste way too much time on facebook, another thing I resisted for a long time, but finally got into. I was involved in two Block of the month programs in 2009, both of which end this month. I got a little bit behind on my blocks, but catching up is at the top of my list. One of the BOM is Lori Smith's pattern Ode to the 30's. The other is Fiesta from Possibilities. I will charge up the camera and get some photos of those blocks. I also started a wool BOM in November that I am not behind on yet. I belong to a small bee and we are doing a block swap soon. ( Wanna guess who has not started their blocks for that yet?)

I also have 16 quilts in various stages of completion and (gulp, gasp) 52 finished tops that need to be quilted. Not all of those are big quilts, there are a lot of runners and wall hangings in there. I will not even count all the projects I have bagged up and ready to go. It is just so hard to resist the next cute fabric/pattern to come out.

So stay tuned.. see what I can get finished. .