Still Quilting

I'm still quilting on my mom's quilt but it won't be long before I'm done. Never mind, after that I have to sew the backing around all the binding. Still haven't decided if I'm going to hand or machine sew that part down.

Quilt Books And Patterns

Lately, I've been buying a lot of patterns on line from some really nice women from FB sewing groups. I've also hit some resale shops and have found some new clothing patterns for 50 cents. I even found the Kaffee Fassett Romance quilt book for 75 cents. I thought I was dreaming when I saw it. LOL! Heck I even found some beautiful brand new fabric for at least two blouses along with the thread. I like going on Fridays because the linens including fabric is 50% off. I only buy from a thrift store who donates all their money to a women's shelter.
First and second pictures are some patterns I bought from a sewing group. I don't think these weren't that cheap since I paid $6 a piece but I really liked them especially the large doll block quilt pattern.  I also love me a strip quilt and the 12 block quilt reminds me of Sunbonnet Sue but in a primitive style.
The cottage quilt pattern I bought cause I've never made a house quilt before and my plan is to make several houses in the colors of the houses my husband and  I lived as a children. One of the books I just bought today. It's full of scrap quilt patterns and the older looking book I bought at half price books and that one has lot's of strip pieced patterns. I've got to use up all the scraps I have. Believe me I have tons of scraps! The pattern in the middle is a large angel wall hanging pattern. That pattern was lost for a couple of years and I had already given up on it until I found it cleaning out my fabric cutting table drawer. I've got rulers and scissors and lot's of other quilting stuff in it and the pattern was under all the rulers and cutting matts. I'll have to hand applique that to the front of a quilt top.

Umbrella Girls Quilt Top

I bought this top from a girl I use to work with. We were talking quilts one time and she said she had an old top that her aunt had made a long time ago but that she herself wasn't into quilts so I told her I would buy it. I made her $30 and I think it was worth every penny. I'll be quilting this beauty some time this summer. The blocks are 16 inches and they have embroidered shoes. I love it. I think it's from the 50's.

Restoring My Mother's Quilt

Some thirty years ago my mom made a quilt out from clothes I wore in junior high, high school, and when I was pregnant with my boys. It's not an artistic quilt it's just a very utilitarian quilt made out of squares she cut out of fabric from my old clothes. It also has some squares from some of her clothes. After being used and washed throughout the years it got some holes here and there and the backing became very thin and the batting was exposed. I finally decided to restore it so I cut out some squares from some clothes that my mom use to wear.  I made her new clothes every summer and boy did she look forward to that. After she died I kept some of her clothes with the intention of making a quilt. I am instead restoring this quilt. I didn't remove any squares I just sewed newer squares over the

squares that had holes and I put new thin batting on top of the very thin and torn batting and backing. I am now in the process of going over my moms quilting by hand. My mom didn't make tiny stitches so I'm not either.  It sure is a lot thicker and warmer and hopefully this quilt can last another 20 years.

Original Front

Old Backing

New Backing With Some Basting

Quilting after restoring

Can't do without these two thimbles.

Quilting 2018

Wow, haven't blogged in two years. I got away from it and before long life got in the way of my blogging. I hadn't sewn for about two years because my sewing room turned into storage room and my sewing things including sewing machines were in boxes. I reclaimed my space back in Dec. ni time to make  Christmas gifts. I made some quilts and pj's for my grandsons. Quilts were made with two pieces of fleece so they turned out super warm. They both looked so darn cute with the pj's.

Had to stop quilting to make some almond cookies for my son who is stationed in Korea. Must send them off today!

Kitty Quilt Finished

I finished the kitty quilt for one of the twins. I love ❤ how it turned out. I was going to make the binding from the same sock monkey 🐒 fabric I used for the backing but Joannes was out of that fabric. Big bummer! I did manage to fine some frog 🐸 fabric with the same colors as the sock monkey 🐒 backing though. I wasn't too sure if frogs fabric would look good but its not bad at all. It actually looks really cute. This is the first time I machine sew the binding. Saved myself  about a day. Woohoo!

Meandering Kitty Quilt

There's no time to hand quilt so I decided to just machine quilt meander style. I've decided to use flannel for the binding as well. I'll finish the quilting tomorrow and hopefully the binding won't take to long. Then I'll start on the other one for the other grandson. His will be a puppy theme quilt. 

Quilts For The Grands

About to machine quilt this kitty quilt for one of my grandsons. He loves his family cat.

Good Reasons To Quilt

I haven't done much quilting due to my son and his wife having twins 16 months ago. It was all about the twins after they were born so all my hobbies pretty much went out the window. We were all living in the same town so I was spending a lot of time with my grandbabies. Due to my son's job they moved to California 5 months ago so I am slowly getting back to my quilting, painting,drawing and crocheting.  My son and his family will be visiting us the end of Dec. so I'm going to try and make them each a crib size quilt. I'm aiming for bug theme quilts. I would appreciate any suggestions.

 

Sunbonnet UFO

Finally, making more Sunbonnet Sue blocks. Been working on this UFO for about 4 years now and I will not start another new project until this one is finished . The lighting was very bad which makes the white block look like it has yellow edges.

Quilting Again

I managed to make a quillow for my DIL. I had been saving that cat fabric for something special and it's what I used since she loves cats. I just machine quilted around each cat. My arm was hurting quite a bit the next day ,but I have to use it to make it strong again. She's so happy to have a quillow.

New York Wedding, Dislocated Elbow and Crocheting

Wow, this post is way overdue!  The reason I stopped posting was due to the preparation of my son's wedding which took place in June of this past year. Anyway, my family and I drove to New York and I enjoyed every minute of that trip. I prefer driving rather than flying because I get to see different parts of this beautiful country of ours.  Here is the lovely couple. I have three sons so you can imagine how happy I am to finally have a daughter. We get along great and luckily for me they are moving to Texas and will be living 20 minutes away from us.

In July my husband and I were leaving the mall and when we were just feet away from our car I fell and landed on my side. All I know is that I look at my forearm and it looks deformed and the pain is a pain I have never experienced before. Hubby drives me to the hospital where it takes about two hours for me to get checked by a doctor and that finally happened because I yelled out to the nursed that I could feel my bones moving in my forearm. Well, x-rays showed nothing was broken and the nurse said it was just a bad sprain.  I went to an orthopedic Dr. three days later and my arm was so swollen and bruised he didn't even touch it but again he checked the hospital x-rays and says nothing was broken. He tells me to see him again  two weeks later. He sees it again in two weeks and he sends me to get an xray right away. Well, it turned out my elbow had been dislocated the whole time. You just can't imagine all the pain I went through. I was put under anesthesia when he relocated the elbow . I came out of the hospital with my arm totally wrapped up and in a sling. Wore it like that for three weeks then that came off and I wore a hard cast for two weeks. After that I wore a mechanical sling that was very expansive for three more weeks. After that I was sent to therapy and after three months doctor said I was o.k and that I just had to use my arm in order of it to get strong. Dr. told me my arm would never be the same as before and that it might not ever be able to straighten completely like the other arm. In November I was feeling desperate to use my hands again doing some kind of craft. I couldn't try quilting because it was still very painful to turn my palm up. I decided to try crocheting thinking it would be good hand exercise. I learned how and managed to make a bunch of baby hats and booties. Just what I needed another hobby. I have to say crocheting is excellent hand and . I decided finger exercise. I'm just so grateful and thank God this didn't happen right before the wedding.

This is a DynaSling and it's set to a certain degree and that's how much it stretches the muscles and ligaments and let me tell you it hurts.
I decided to try crocheting thinking it would be good hand exercise. I learned how and managed to make a bunch of baby hats and booties. Just what I needed another hobby. I have to say crocheting is excellent hand and . I decided finger exercise. I'm just so grateful and thank God this didn't happen right before the wedding.Some of my crocheting.

Son Getting Married

I got good news a few weeks ago and it's that my middle son got engaged to his girlfriend from New York. The wedding will be next year but ever since the news I haven't thought of anything else but the wedding. I can't really concentrate on quilting or jewelry making now. I'm very happy for both of them and for me because I finally get to have another girl in the family. I have a feeling the next 11 months will go by very fast.
 The latest update on my Chiquita is that she is still holding on one month after getting her diagnosis. She is losing weight but her appetite is still very good. She still barks at strangers and still defends her cat Cotton. Cotton is our two year old cat whom she bonded with as soon as she saw him when he was just a tiny 5 week old kitten. She will go after anybody who she feels is threatening him. It's very cute to watch. I'm just loving her to bits and lightly rubbing her tummy every night. That's something she loves and helps to totally relax her. I will keep you posted on her health and the wedding plans.

Little Bird Necklace

Ever since my little Chiquita has been sick I have been really up and when I do go out I feel guilty leaving her behind. I'm happy some days and then Im crying when I see her and know her end is coming soon. My very sweet hubby surprised me with this very nice bird necklace. He was trying to cheer me up. Well it did. It's a very cheerful bird necklace.

Getting Hot In Texas

Man, is it getting hot in the Texas East Gulf Coast! We haven't had any rain so it looks very dry which we rarely see here. We usually have lot's of rain and everything is always very lush and green, but not this year. My husband ended up putting in an irrigation system for the roses and other plants we have around the house. I pray for rain!
My little Chiquita is still losing weight but still has a very good appetite. She is not moving as fast as she use to and it breaks my hearts seeing that. But she still has her doberman attitude. I'm giving her lot's of love and kisses which makes her very happy. The only problem is her sister is getting jealous. She actually turned her face at me the other day. When I'm loving on Chiquita, Minnie runs and gets right in front of her. Just like human kids.Aye, Aye, Aye!
I haven't even been inside my work room because as soon as I open the door I feel the heat in the room so I just shut the door closed again. I think I'm getting my Sunbonnet Sue applique blocks out to work on them tomorrow. Maybe I can finish them this summer.

Taking My Chi To The Vet

I took my Chi to the Vet this morning because she has gotten bloated. She still eats normal, plays normal and poops and pees normal. She is 9 years old and I know that's many years for a pooch but I'm trying not to think the worst. Well, we got to the Vet's parking lot at 8 this morning and it was packed and a long line of people with their pets waiting outside the building door. I didn't want her to get too upset and nervous so we just turned right back and came home. That's the second time that happens because I also took her on Friday and the Vet was doing a long surgery and wasn't taking anymore patients. Of course they said, "If it's an emergency take her to the animal hospital." I'm going back at 10, 30 minutes from now. Anyway, my Chiquita loves being in the van with me strapped in the little doggy car seat. The seat can be set high enough for her to look outside so she loves looking at the other cars, and when we stop at a light next to other cars she does her barking thing. Her sister Minnie has to stay home by herself and she hates it. I hate leaving a crying pup behind. Just like kids I tell ya. I'll give you and update on Chiquita later.

GENTLE GIANT Rose

This rose is huge! The scent is very sweet.

Bad Case Of Spring Fever

Have had a bad case of Spring Fever. Visited MAAS , my favorite nursery. It smells heavenly in that rose section.

Tennis Elbow So No Quiting

 I haven't posted because I haven't been quilting due to very bad tennis elbow. But since I can't keep my hands still for long I tried jewelry making and I liked it. I have done a couple of things since I can't do a lot for a long period of time due to the pain in my forearm and elbow.