Has It Been A Year Since I Started?

 It has been a year,

not a year of constant work,

but a year from start to finish.

It was last February 

while I was staying in Denver,

helping to take care of my little grandson and granddaughter,

that I began this

wool/flannel project

designed by

Primitive Gatherings.

There was lots of prep work:

fusing, cutting

and more fusing ,

along with  some help at the ironing board.

("Hey, Nana, I think it works better like this.")

But the blocks got done.

Well, not done completely.

There was lots of button hole stitching to do.

 I even had help with that.

Then all the borders were appliqued,

 half square triangles made,

and the top was finally pieced together.

Last week I got out my Perle cotton

and started big stitching.

Big stitching doesn't take too long

It is big stitches, after all.

So here it is all done,

quilted

 and bound.

Not bad for a calendar year,

even with help.

 Until Next Time-

A Good Little Gismo

One of my friends had 

the opportunity to go to 

the Houston Quilt Festival last fall.

And she brought me this little gismo.

 It's a needlepuller

by Anneke's Quilt Supply

from the Netherlands.

I hadn't used it until she mentioned 

it a couple of weeks ago and 

told me it was a wonder when

she was doing big stitch quilting on wool.

She's right!

I  thought I would finally give it a try

on a flannel/wool piece that

needed quilting with some Valdani Perle Cotton.

It did work great!

 I was able to pull the larger needle 

through those heavier

fabrics quite easily.

It's worn on your quilting hand.

The pointer finger is placed through the hole 

and the pushbutton is pointed toward the thumb.

 I was actually able to load my 

needle with a lot more stitches

than usual.

Then you slide 

the eye of the needlepuller

over the tip of the needle,

 squeeze the button with your thumb,

it grabs the needle, 

 and Da-Dah...

you pull the needle through.

It does takes a bit of getting use

to on your fingers.

I haven't mastered that yet.

But it did work very well.

I looked on line to try and find a source.

Amazon carries them, but 

they are out of stock,

so you might have to do more searching

or head off to a quilting venue

with lots of vendors.

Someday you might want to look for it.

It's a good Gismo

to have on hand.

Until Next Time-

What's the Skinny?

With all of this dreary

winter weather,

my quilt group needed to do 

something fun.

I had found the blog,

Amy Made That!

with the directions for

 this delightful skinny pincushion.

 I figured it was

a way of enticing the group to

make something sweet without

worrying about calories.

I made a sample 

using two different fabrics from a batik jellyroll.

Added a little bit of rick rack over the

seams and

there was a skinny pincushion that

fit up against my machine.

We swapped last week.

The freezing cold weather

and dead car batteries,

hindered several people being able to come.

So here's the skinny.

This is the one I made to swap.

And here are the others,

just as unique as the wonderful friends

that made them.

It was a simple fun project to sew

and sweet to swap.

Until Next Time-

And I Think to Myself What a Wonderful World

It has been an exciting week.

My newest grandson arrived.

February 9

This photo album generated with Smilebox

Until Next Time-

Vintage Valentines

 Valentine themes
can define what's happening
in the culture.

Right now there are plenty of  princesses

and

plenty of super heroes

About 15 years ago
I began collecting off of Ebay
Valentines from the 1940's
that reflected
America during the war years.

They are very
patriotic

and full of hope.

They showed women

serving their country

 in  all the different branches of service.

And, of course, guys

as soldiers and sailors

were represented

on Valentines

They showed the reality of 

war

and what was happening

on the battle front

but this was shown in a 

mild cartoon way, but

still expressed the feeling of love

and the desire to have
someone as a Valentine.

Some  showed the countries past times

and funny slang words

yet, were strongly patriotic.

They showed life in the military

 and what life was like

on the home front.

I love the

sentiment.

Until Next Time-

February Is Red and White

 With red and white hearts 

as the popular design element 

for February

you have to think of 

the classic red and white quilt.

  A Red and White Tribute

2011

 The pattern is so crisp and well

defined especially when it's pieced

with solids.

 It has been a popular combination

 

for centuries and

  will continue to be
sewn by quilters no matter the month.

So Sweet

Until Next Time-

I Can Be Such a Cut Up

 We've all known someone 

we would be classified as a

"cut up".

You know, someone who

acts pretty silly and can 

make you laugh.

If you know a quilt maker or

are one, you know

we can spend a lot of time being a

"cut up".

In this case, it is 

the literal translation.

In fact, I spent all of last week,

cutting,

auditioning,

and cutting some more

as I worked on about

4 projects.

It started with wool.

and a project from

Primitive Quilts and Projects

designed by Lynda Hall.

I cut lighter, more springtime colors,

and here it is ready for stitching.

The background is an old skirt,

with the seams included.

Then with two BOM's that 

need to be cut each month,

I dragged out the fabrics and

cut applique pieces for the 

the Noah and Matilda quilt

and got the next 4 blocks

ready to stitch.

I'm not sure about the indigo leaves on the 3rd block

sticking straight up.

Maybe those are quilting muscles.

Then the A-Z with Ewe and Me

required more cutting

and designing 

and leaving a huge fabric trail.

And one more,

the Roseville  Album Quilt or

"the quilt that just never seems to want to get done".

I cut out freezer paper templates...

 and cut up

all kinds of small bits of fabrics,

more than shown here.

(Please note: I've finished a second one

of those "delightful" trees.)

Now I'm ready to stitch.

With all of this hand sewing ready,

it must mean I'm heading 

to Denver to wait for a new baby to arrive

any time now.

Until Next Time-