Finished Baby Quilt

I am sorry, it has been a very hectic Christmas this year. I know it has been a long time since I posted. I am now back in the saddle and working on getting things organized. First off I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas. New Year is right around the corner. Does everyone have a resolution ready. I am going to try and post more regularly and sew more often. Hopefully my resolution will work. How about any of you?

 Now on to the finishing of the quilt. I got all of it together and then stared at it for a while trying to figure out what I wanted to do for quilting. Quilting it is always the hardest for me. I love doing it, but I always have so many different ideas going through my head and to decide which ones I want to use takes a while. I even tend to draw on some of the pictures I print out to try and come up with the best one.

I know I wanted an all over quilting in the center with the train. But what did I want to do with the pinwheels was hard to decide.

Here is a picture of the center. I decided on an all over cloud quilting for the train. It went really well and made the train pieces stick out better, and from further away it looked like it was traveling with the sky behind it. It turned out really well. 

I liked how it turned out. I used white thread so it would blend in with the background fabric I used.

I tried to get another picture so you could see the texture but that did not work so well. I am still finding new things with my camera too.

I finally decided to do a simple flower quilting in the pinwheels and I really like it. It sort of makes the pinwheels look like they are in motion. The quilt was not that hard to quilt on my home machine. What I really want is a long arm machine. Maybe if I am really good this year Santa will bring me one next Christmas.

Here it is all done. I am sorry I did not take a picture of the back. Darn, I even made a label for the back. I used a cute train flannel print for the back. It was so cute with it. I will have to remember to get a picture of the back next time.

Well I hope all have a wonderful and safe New Year and I will see you all again next year.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

More on the baby quilt

  Then I took the half square triangles and joined them. I had to keep looking at my drawing to make sure I was assembling them correctly. I had the pinwheels in different positions so it looked like it was moving instead of having them all one way.

These were fun and went pretty fast.

I put them together and pressed them. I am so happy that my points all matched.

I then started laying out my rows. I then cut out my center block and applied my appliques.

These were fun. I chose different types of fabrics for these because I wanted the baby to experience different textures. I used chenille, flannel, fleece, and Egyptian cotton for the different types. I then appliqued them to the square with a blanket stitch. I used the same color thread as the appliques so they would blend in.

I then connected all the rows to complete the top.

The complete quilt tomorrow.

Little Boy's Dreams Quilt

 It was hard coming up with the right fabrics and colors. I knew it had to have blue. I also tried to go to the color wheel and find what went with blue. I did not want it just blues though. So I chose orange too. Then I decided it needed red and yellow too. When I started coloring the drawings I started with just red and blue and white, but it was just too Patriotic to be a little baby boy's quilt. That is when I added the orange and yellow too. Then I played with where to place the colors. That took a while too. I like scrappy looking so I finally had to place them in random areas but not too close together. Finally I got the right combination. Then I had to figure out how much material I needed. Turns out I needed about 1/2 yard of each color and 3 yards of background.

I then had to figure out what I wanted in the center. I played around with several different things but kept coming back to a train.

It took several drawings before I finally got the look of the train I wanted. I think I researched several different ways to draw a train but I knew it had to be very simple in order to get it to the fabric.

So here are the final drawings of the train.

These were the hardest to get to the right size I needed to be without being too big or so small you really loose them in the quilt.

Then I started cutting out the fabrics. I wanted to have my blocks be about 6" finished or a little bigger. Turns out I really liked the 8" finished size the best. That size block looked the best with the size of train I wanted.

I then started cutting and sewing. It was an interesting process, and I learned a lot about figuring the size I needed to be able to cut half square triangles. I found a wonderful website that was a tremendous help. www.patchwork-and-quilting.com is where I finally decided I would go and use their most helpful directions.

Here are my half-square triangles after I squared them up and pressed them.

Hope everyone enjoys lots of Turkey and all the sides and has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving. I will continue with my adventure of "Little boy's Dreams Quilt" after the holiday.

New Quilt

I recently finished a quilt for a baby shower this past weekend. I found out that the baby was a boy and decided I wanted to make a quilt for the new bundle of joy. Now this quilt I wanted to design and make myself and not from a pattern I bought. So the first thing I did was make a few drawings.

I tried out a few block designs first, but decided I wanted to make blocks that looked like pinwheels. I also wanted to make sure they all were not going in the same direction. Then I had to decide on what colors I wanted. I know she wanted bright colors but did not settle on any one color scheme, this was good for me since I love scrappy looks. I then decided on what I wanted in the center. As you can tell I am not a terrific drawer but I thought I wanted a hobby horse in the center.

After a while I thought about a few other different things in the center.

I finally settled on a train. Perfect, just what every little boy loves, trains!!

Now I thought that this process was going to be easy right, wrong. I have never designed and created a pattern and directions for a quilt before. This was going to be an interesting project.

By the time all was said and done, it took several weeks to come up with all of it and to then test the directions. But eventually it was a wonderful gift.

Here it is as the top is complete. I will post the more on the quilt as the week progresses.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and stay safe.

Homecoming Dance

Well I never thought this day would come. Not to mention I was not ready yet for it to come. My daughter and her first year of High School was invited to Homecoming. She was so excited. We went to store after store to find a dress, she did not like any of them.



We happened to be in Good Will one afternoon dropping off some clothes for donation and she asked if we could go in. She found the fancy dress section right away. She found 4 dresses she absolutely loved. We went through trying them on one by one. First one was too tight, second one too loose, third one she decided she did not like it on.

 Finally we get to the last one and she loved it. We get to the counter and find out that it was half off due to Halloween. Right on!!

Here she is ready to go. We spent about an hour on her hair. We also spent about an hour on her makeup. It was the first time I spent that much time putting her makeup on and explaining to her how to apply it and why we apply it lightly, not like a hussy. hehe.


She had a blast spending the time with me and learning the fun things about starting to grow up.

I tried to get a close up but she did not want to smile.

So I kept taking the picture until finally she smiled.

She tried to get me to stop but she finally gave in.

I dropped her off and wanted to get more photo's with her friends but she said I was embarrassing her so I only took one and said my goodbye's and when I would be there to pick her up.

Oh and on the way there she said she felt like she was going to throw up because she had never gone to a formal dance before and did not really want to go now. We talked for a few minutes and once we got there she was much better. Now it is all she can talk about.

I hate that she is growing up too fast for me. But I know she is going to, I just have to deal with it. Hope you all enjoy the photo's.

First batch of Ketchup

For the last couple of years I have been getting more and more canning done. I love canning, and with my other half working on a farm, we get lots of fresh fruits and vegi's each year. I have canned strawberry jam, cherry jam, cherries, and peaches so far this year. I just started getting the tomatoes in. I spent most of last evening making ketchup.

I got 6 half pint jars of ketchup with my first batch. That is about 15 pounds tomatoes for it.  But so worth it.

My family is very big on my home made ketchup. They love it. When it starts to get close to being ready to go into jars they are all in the kitchen with a spoon wanting samples.

It is like they could drink it. I do have to admit that it is very good. The recipe is from my mother. She makes only one batch a year now since it is just her and Dad. I have to make at least three batches to keep us in ketchup for the year. I also make one batch of spicy ketchup a year also. The spicy ketchup recipe I make came about as a "whoops" a couple of years ago. I was busy making ketchup and making dinner and helping my daughter with homework at the same time and accidentally put too much cayenne in the mixture and did not even realize it until it was made and we were at the taste test part. 

Thank goodness for me, the family loved it. It goes wonderfully when you are making things that you would like a little more bite in. We used it mostly with meat loaf to spice it up and my husband loves it on burgers.

I have started another batch today and should have that one canned by this evening.

Then it is a change of pace a little and I will be making some spaghetti sauce next and some dried tomatoes.

I will also be taking some of the dried tomatoes and making tomato powder for adding to soups and stews. I have not decided if I will be doing stewed tomatoes or whole tomatoes canned this year or not.

Hope everyone out there is doing well and getting ready for the wonderful season of Fall.

Happy quilting and canning all.

Fall Table Topper

Sorry I have not posted for a couple of weeks, but school started. My goodness it takes a lot of time to get a new High Schooler ready for School. Now that we are into school for the second week things have started to slow down to a manageable pace and I was finally able to get back on the sewing machine for a bit.

I was able to start piecing more of my fall table topper again. Here it is about half way together.

This is a fun topper. I love the fall fabrics for this. The magazine I saw it in had the topper as a Halloween topper with all fun Halloween fabrics, but I wanted something I could use for a couple of months instead so I chose fall and more Thanksgiving type fabrics. These fabrics have been in my stash for a few years so I am not sure who they were by.

Here it is almost completed. The top still has some edges that need to be put on yet. I am getting ready to put a backer on this portion soon. I love the colors. I am such a fall person. I love all the rich colors of fall myself.

Here is closer look at the side of the topper.

I love the smiling pumpkins. They are so cute.

I really like this print. It is so adorable. I love the birds and birdhouses on it.

Hopefully I will have time this weekend to sandwich and quilt this.

As soon as I get it completed I will post the pictures of it.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your week.