Working on Baskets...

I am sewing along on my basket blocks that the guild members made for me...

Trying to find aqua embroidery floss to hand embroider a block about my years of NQG presidency. Wouldn't you know it...with all of this floss NO aqua.

Designing  border for this jumbo rick rack and some flowers to tie it all together ...want to hang it up in my sewing room once I get it all painted. DO NOT LOOK FOR THAT TO HAPPEN AMY TIME SOON! But at least the wall hanging should be ready.

And will use some of this lovely fabric ...

And finally...

WHAT a find on Etsy...a handbook for my new featherweight machine!!! Only paid $9 too..good deal and it is an original.

Blessings all,

Kathy

I must confess...

THE GATHERING THING...well, let's just say it works best on a single layer!!!

Now I know why I have used two basting rows and zig zagging over yarn...

IT WORKS EVERY TIME and on two layers.

Sorry to mislead you!!!

But if you need to gather just one layer it works well.

Pretty sunny Sunday afternoon

here in eastern North Carolina...Spring will be here in two weeks.

Blessings all,

Kathy

Can Anyone Please Tell Me....

Can anyone please tell me 

how in 46 years of using a sewing machine

that I have missed this trick???????

To gather fabric,

place your machine tension on the highest number

AND

your stitch length on the longest stitch

and just sew!

Voila

No more stitching two rows and gathering
OR
zig zag over a thread to gather
OR 
using a special foot!!!!


SO, DID YOU KNOW THIS????

Blessings all,
Kathy

Quilters playing Bing-O

Our guild is going to our annual beach retreat in March and we try to come up with different things each year. So this year we are including some quilters Bing-O or Quilt-O.

Have you played???

Our night guild first played it years ago and had such fun winning fat quarters.

Here is Fons & Porters blog instructions if interested...Bing-O

and a few other sites too.

Vroomans quilts

Nana Girl Quilts


Here is my first block and I may make another. The members are also making theirs and putting a frame around it so all we have to do to assemble is have 2-3 people sew the rows together and we have a quilt top all ready for a charity quilt.

I will post all of our blocks from the retreat on a later post.

Upcycled...Book to Quilt

At our guild, Neuse Quilters, we have a great group of ladies who love to share their hand me down fabrics. One day recently, I had been busy and noticed, towards the end of our meeting ,that there was some fabric on a table....so I began to look through it. At first I just thought, "I do not need any more left overs" and then I thought again....

There was a scrappy piece of brightly colored fabric with animals.... letters... an alphabet?????

Well....maybe I could take just this one...????

It turns out it is not just a piece of fabric

but a fabric book

@#@$@%@^@&@&

WOW.....I see a quilt....not a book at all.....

So here it goes.

All quilted...

and I made a little pillow with the extra block/page.

All ready for the Ronald McDonald House!!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My good friend's daddy's VA Home quilt
all finished.

We are praying he will like his nice new home
and I want him to feel comfortable there
and that his quilt helps with the transition...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Blessings all,
Kathy

Squaring Up, Snow and Seeds...???

Do you like to square up a quilt? Well, I DO NOT !!!

I really jut like to put the borders on and get it finished

so I can hold it up and go...

awwwwwww...it is finished.

Here are some hints/pointers/rules

that others have discovered

that I find helpful.

First I love my 6" X 12" ruler.

I find common measurements for the block,

like 1/4", 1/2" or 1" etc

and make sure that I am holding the ruler on that mark

on the left side of the square

then cutting on the right side(of the ruler)

any excess fabric needed to be cut.

 I used some blue painters tape to place on the ruler here

to help me see better, since the fabric was so light in this spot.

However, I need some new tape...it kept on tearing off in pieces.

After all four sides are square OR

reasonably so,

add top and bottom border

and square again...

and the same for the two side borders...

Top with out borders

with borders

and then square up the whole top...oh my...this is too much...but necessary.

Make any sense?

Oh yea...the snow.

Well, we are suppose to get some light snow

here in eastern NC over night.

So, will be inside quilting away.

I am really glad about getting another hard freeze for gardening

purposes since we have not had many.

Hoping to plan carrot, turnip, beet and radish

seeds in a week or two.

Blessings all,

Kathy

Packing Up and Photos

I decided to take down the last of my Christmas decorations today...all but the mantel with the manger , of course. And wanted to take some photos for last minute memories.

Snow man

made from a kit

I made two from this pattern...

one for a friend and this is mine.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Added a cute little sunflower mug rug

to  my Etsy shop also.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And working on a baby sailboat quilt too...

So much fun to make.

And a good old pot of chili for dinner too...it is COLD here in the south!!

for the south...

Blessings all,

Kathy