Yet another finished project!!

This is one of the wall quilts I'm giving my mom for her birthday in April. It's a panel, I had to narrow it to fit in the space - so cut off the outer border. I also had to shorten her - so I took a little pleat right above her head. I free-motioned most of the quilting. I radiated the lines out from the heart on the necklace and I'm really happy how it came out. If you blow the photo up - you might be able to see those lines ... the flash flattened it out - have to work on the old photography skills!

Any powerpoint experts out there? I'm making a pps photo album. Is there any way to have the file names automatically print under the pictures? I know I can type them into the text box but with over 500 of them - I don't want to! I appreciate any tips! Thanks!

Happy St Paddy's day to all. A little Irish joke: "It's okay to pretend you're Irish on St Patrick's Day. After all, we pretend we're good on Christmas!"


Here's one of the little Leprechauns I was babysitting today! Mr M will be 4 months old tomorrow. Maybe that's why he was up most of the night last night - worried about his fleeting youth! His sister Miss P was much too busy to pose for pictures today - anything I took ended up a blur!

Last picture was the moon set last week - I just happened to raise the shade and caught it - by the time I ran to get the camera it was setting behind the clouds - still pretty cool!

Wedding Quilt finished

I got busy today and bound and labeled it. Have I told you lately I'm really tired of pink??? I'm tempted to burn the extra! But I'll just hide it away in my pink stash drawer. Someday I picture a pink crazy quilt - I'll name it "Not crazy about Pink!" An idea for the next fool who requests pink from me! Hopefully not any time soon.

When I took it to the LAer I said, "It's a wedding quilt so I'm thinking something with hearts." She assured me that was no problem - and then quilted 20 hearts in each block. It has 720 hearts quilted on it - so I named it "720 Warm Wedding Wishes for J & S" Glad to see it done. Next on the list is the 2 wall quilts for my mom. Need them done before April 4 - when I take off for Nebraska to visit her.

Oh, and a few spring postcards ... narrowing down the pattern this week.

Keeping my eye on the sunset here. Very interesting so far! Oh pooh! DH was right, the sunset just greyed out - but it was a good day anyway!

Presenting "Sesquicentennial-ISH"

Could I pick a harder name to say?? This is the top - it's not finished but I wanted to share. The challenge is for the Oregon Sesquicentennial. To make a pattern that was around in 1859 and use the same methods to make it. So this top was hand pieced - including the sashings! There are 13 blocks. I wrote in names of quilters I sewed with in Nebraska.

The block name is Album Patch and I found it in the "Remember Me: Women and their Friendship Quilts" by Linda Otto Lipsett. The two Album Patch quilts shown in the book are from 1849 and 1854. I love this book - excellent photos and excerpts from diaries of the era included in the text.



That is not my handwriting! I did what any pioneer woman on the wagon train would - I found a font on the computer, typed out the names and used a lightbox to transfer it to the blocks! But women back then had other people sign their names for them or even made a tin name stamp ... so they would have done the computer thing; if they had them! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Besides why do you think I type so much? Sometimes I can't even read my own handwriting!!!

It's called SQ-ish because there are at least 5 fabrics in there that aren't era-correct! I looked up 1850's on reproduction.com but forgot to check back in with fabrics in hand. The purples back then were more 'eggplant' colors. And there is one background fabric that has squiggles on it - definitely not old - though it is the correct color! Next up to quilt it. Hoping to finish it by the time I get back from Nebraska in April. I dread binding BOTH sides by hand!

Friends in Nebraska were at the Spring Retreat this weekend. I'm jealous but I loved 'talking' to them on the phone. Whether in person or messages relayed thru whoever had the phone. Retreats are a wonderful invention, I miss the Nebraska ones - but I get to participate in my first Oregon one at the end of the month. I'm really looking forward to it.

I got the pink wedding quilt back from the long-armer this weekend. I have the binding cut and ready to put on. Hope to have it finished by the quilt guild meeting this Thursday. I think I'm still hoping we'll get to go to the NY reception at the end of April ... but DH says not this year. I'll post a picture after binding - hope it's just one of the finishes for March!!! Optimistic, I am!

No babysitting this week, so hoping I'll be in the mood to sew like crazy!

Successful Week!

Whoohoo! I finished a charity UFO yesterday that counts for February. Don't you hate it when you make a resolution to do something and then break it the second month of the year!?! But I got it done with hours to spare - who says I wait til the last minute!

I had Yellow Brick Road [YBR] blocks leftover from Mr M's baby quilt last fall. My DD got picky about what colors she wanted in his quilt! But not enough blocks to make the next quilt - when does that ever happen?? I made YBR blocks and then wanted to make it a little bigger - so I made up my own blocks using the fabric units I had left. I'm always wandering off into my own variation of a design - just ask any of my friends!!!

I played with the machine quilting - made large 'rick-rack' with the quilting lines. After I did the first set of lines I decided to see how a triple line would work - don't you just love working on charity quilts where you can experiment??? It looked good but left a large space between that became very noticeable! So did the zig-zaggy decorative stitch between the channels and that looked finished! A friend in Nebraska showed me how wonderful that stitch looked on kids quilts and the stitch width fit the slot of my walking foot - so away I went with it! If you enlarge the picture - you should be able to see the stitch - especially on the borders.

I have also found I can do a good binding with machine finishing both sides with that stitch. I think the secret is that it doesn't make a straight line that is really noticeable. A fellow stashbuster asked me how I did it - so - since I wrote it up for her, I'll share it with you.



Okay ... I'll explain and you can ask questions about anything that I don't explain right or leave out! [LOL!] - I have a Janome and it has a stitch that makes little two stitch triangles in both directions from the 'line' of stitches. The same stitch that I quilted in the borders with.It might be a blind hem stitch. My walking foot has a slot big enough to handle the stitch width, but you'll want to check that before starting!

I cut my binding 2 1/2 inches. Prepare like normal - I use continuous binding; I fold it around the corners. I sew the binding on with my walking foot using a straight stitch. I even sew it from the front side of the quilt as usual. The walking foot lines up with a slightly bigger quarter inch - that's why I cut 2 1/2 inch wide.

Now comes the fun part!!! Trim the extra batting/backing as needed - but not too close. I find it easier to 'stuff' the binding rather than have it too thin. Change to your decorative stitch. Work from the back - just as if you are binding by hand. Start around the start/finish of the binding - you can slip stitch by hand the join before you start if you want. Go the same direction you put the binding on - it lines up the corners to just fold and not get in your way! Fold the binding over the edge and line up with the seam line - just as you do by hand. Start stitching with the decorative stitch, making sure to keep the straight part right by the edge of the binding. Sew with 'needle down' to keep your place when you stop.

I don't use pins - I just line up 6" or so of the binding and sew it down slowly. Stop sewing while you line up the next part of the binding. When you get to the corner, fold it up into that little miter, sew forward until your needle is holding down the next side's binding, pivot! Continue around the quilt to where you started!

The first time I tried this I sewed right off the edge at the corners and then restarted on the next side. You don't really need to. In fact - it's prettier if you don't.

The whole secret is that the stitch doesn't leave a straight line - so it's not noticeable when you wander off slightly. It's very sturdy and you don't really notice it when finished and washed. As long as you have the back fold lined up with the stitch line you made when you sewed the binding onto the quilt - you're going to be in the right area from the front!

Years ago I learned to make a sample binding square with a new technique. Mine is about potholder size and I write notes to myself about what I should do. You might try it on that - see how it lines up on your machine. Good Luck!

I've also really been working on the sesquicentennial project [Album Patch] and I can see the end of the piecing. I'd been dreading sewing the sashings on my hand - but actually, it's easy and relaxing after doing the blocks. Of course, I have fabrics that aren't from the 1850s period in it. One I can't believe I picked!!! Oh, well - it's a fact - I can be a ditz!!! Maybe nobody will notice! LOL! I'm hoping to have a picture of the top for you next week. I'm actually thinking of having a hand-piecing project going at all times. It won't be a bed quilt ... but it works well to hand piece in the condo. Sometimes DH needs the table!

Heading up to Portland today for our babysitting gig tomorrow and Tuesday - I'm taking the Album Patch up with me - just in case I have the energy to sew while we're there. Hey - it COULD happen!!! LOL!

No sewing this week!

It was quality time with the grandkids! Mr M has grown quite a bit in 3 months!!! He's a chowhound. But he's sleeping thru the night and that makes visits oh so much easier on everyone! After my babysitting gig for 2 days, I brought Miss P back to the beach with me for a little vacation for mommy and daddy!

We'd been here about 5 minutes and Miss P had unpacked her books and the toys here! And that's how my week went! We had lots of fun!

Sunday report

We're having a beautiful weekend on the coast - but this morning started out really grey and threatening ... now it's sunny and 51! Sometimes I think I'm back in Nebraska with the changeable weather.

Last Monday I completed the Coast shop hop. DH drove me and we hit every kind of weather! It was amazing. It was icy underfoot when we left at 7:30 am. Rain started, then it cleared, we needed our sunglasses. But about 2 hours south we hit a snow shower that was almost a white-out! They got half an inch in 30 minutes! Then the rain, the sun again ... we spotted 4 rainbows that day and made it to the Brookings shop and back by sunset. 300+ miles! I didn't spot anything I had to have in the stores - like the first half; just bought a few 1/3 yards of blue batiks and the block kits from each store. Living out here may force me to change my quilting style - I've only been quilting with country scrappy colors for 35 years!!! Oh dear, did I hear friends saying they'll believe it when they see it??? When I finished a kaleidoscope quilt years ago, I'd been working on it 10 years and a friend told me "only you would still be working in the same colors for 10 years!" Well, believe it or not - I'm eerily drawn to batiks lately!!!

I finished hand piecing 13 album patches for my Oregon Sesquicentennial wall quilt. [Boy, was I born in the right century!] I've enjoyed hand piecing - but I have to admit I was setback when I realized I'd have to hand piece the sashings too, I knew I'd quilt it by hand, but sew the binding on by hand!!! YIKES! Good thing it's small!

Yesterday I decided I needed to sew at least 15 minutes. I haven't gotten out my machine lately. Pulled the cutting mat from under the bed. And I cranked up Prairie Home Companion on the internet - we can't get an NPR station in our condo - concrete walls to withstand the coast weather. But I keep forgetting that I can listen to PHC anytime on the computer. I ended up sewing for 4 hours! It was just what I needed!

I sewed top and bottom borders to leftover Yellow Brick Road [YBR] blocks; pieced the back together; cut the batting; framed it and pin basted it. Then I machine quilted the block lines - now I need to decide how I'll quilt inside the blocks. But I won't wait too long - I've been procrastinating on this quilt for months! No, I don't know why either!

I sewed down the binding on a charity quilt I picked up at the guild meeting.

I figured out which sashing to use for the album patch - hope to mark it this afternoon before I head to Portland to babysit for two days. Although - I don't ever get anything done up there - when they are napping, I'm napping too! Nanas can do that! LOL!

Hopefully, pictures of the finished YBR quilt next week - it all depends on whether I'll bring Miss P home with me so momma can have a break!

Shop Hop report

It was a good traveling day - went from beautiful Portland to freezing fog in the mountains to sun and haze on the coast! I am not in Stashbuster's "No-buy" this year. Good thing!!! I did the Quilt Run 101's 5 northern stores and except for a great kid's quilt kit at Canon Beach - I did pretty good!!! It was all brights and I don't do brights so had to get it in a kit.


"Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see" came out in fabric and it's fabulous! All brights with Eric Carle's scrumptuous animals ... what nana could resist?!?!?!?! GS Mr M's room is decorated in animals ... and GD Miss P loves that book [well, almost every book!] so how do you give it to both??? Not making it twice!!! I know there are some grandmas out there that have figured this out - share your strategies, Please!




I did buy 2 yards of fabric from the Moda Tranquility line. I had the folk art bird panel and charm squares - have been looking for the blue flowers for border fabric and found them in Wheeler. I did the little happy dance when I spotted it!!! IT WAS ON MY LIST!!! - so only a little guilt! I've linked the Moda website to the pieces I'm talking about - they are pretty muted on the website - in real life they are such funky colors that it's hard to pull from the stash - I'll be able to pull some but not enough for a border. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it - for now! LOL!

Then stopped at my nearest Joanne's [45 minutes away] and used a 40% off coupon for Warm and Natural - 90"wide x 10 yards. That should keep me busy for awhile. Does anyone else have this problem - when stocking up on batting - no matter how much I buy - I'm always a yard short by the end!!! I just don't know how it knows! I've used up all my usable extra pieces and I hate to cut into a king batt for anything else. So I should be set for awhile. I also bought a blue plaid to border a charity YBR - just enough - I hope! There was other stuff there but I managed to pass it by and not buy!

Second half of the Quilt Run coming up later this week - if I can just stay strong-willed!!! Send good vibes!!!

doni back @ Oregon coast