Thoughts on hand quilting

So, what makes a quilt top worthy of hand quilting?  :)  The Goodwill quilt top that I am currently working on,  probably never dreamed it would ever be picked up, bought, washed,  repaired, washed over and over several times, cat hairs picked, and then hand quilted, of all things!!

What makes this quilt worthy of hand quilting for me is:

The mystery of it all (who made it? why was  it never finished? why did someone give it to Goodwill? )

All the beautiful fabrics (there are few repeats in this quilt, so many pretty fabrics  and hand quilting gives me the opportunity to enjoy every single triangle.  Did this quilter have a huge stash?  Did she (or he)  exchange charm squares with others?)

As far as my own quilt tops, I have one quilt top waiting to be hand quilted.  It's the Underground Railroad Quilt that I made from Eleanor Burn's book.  I learned a lot while piecing this one and just could not dream of meandering meaningless stitches all over the top using a sewing machine.  Most quilts look better with the quilt stitches outlining the seams and I'm sure the Underground Railroad will look good this way, too.  That's not to say that a professional machine quilter couldn't make it look pretty, but that seems to take 'my' heart out of a quilt for me.

Having said that, I recently purchased a mid arm quilter and I have a quilt in the machine now.  Some quilts just need to be done quickly and simply by machine.   I'm hand quilting tonight and it made me think about how we decide what deserves our time to hand quilt.

I mentioned before that I was trying a new frame for lap quilting.  I bought this one:

It's a Q snap 11x17 size frame.  When I first started with it, everything felt too tight to quilt.  (those little snaps are tight, I promise!!)  I was able to loosen the quilt in the frame and I ended up taking one end of the 'snap' off, so that only three sides were secured into the frame.  It truly helps with making the backing stay tight and neat.

Tried and true:  My UltraThimble fingertip shield.  I've tried different thimbles and used to swear by leather ones.  (they wore out too fast).  For some time now,  I have been using this one that sticks on the tip of my finger and I love it.   I don't wear one on my underneath hand; I depend on my calloused middle finger for that side.  :)

So, what makes you decide which ones to hand quilt and which ones to machine quilt?

Hand Quilting

I love this quote from greenQuilts blog:

"There's just something about hand quilting.  It speaks to slowing down and enjoying the process.  In this world of rush and hurry and get MORE done, it's quite the opposite.  Take your time and enjoy the process.  I certainly am."

The $5 Goodwill Quilt

I needed a break from the sewing machine so I have picked up the $5 Goodwill quilt to work on again. I took it out of the frame this week and have been lap quilting without a hoop.  I have discovered there are many quilters who quilt this way. (Celebrate Hand Quilting Blog)  It has been so relaxing to sit in the recliner, with the quilt in my lap, ( a little dachshund under the quilt), and being able to stitch away, without having to sit at a frame for an extended period of time.  Downside:  my lap quilting isn't as pretty on the back as the quilting that was done on the frame.  :(  I think I'll look for a small hoop this weekend and try using that method.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed hand quilting.  (funny how the internet makes us think we have to go high tech to be in the quilting 'race')  I'm going back to the basics; quilting is for ME.

Baby Quilt for Liam

A friend from work is having a baby next month.  I finished up this little quilt yesterday.

I wish I had used a solid color fabric for the inside blocks, so the 'chain' effect would have shown.  I used an Eleanor Burns pattern to make this quilt;  the quilt in her book was blue and white and it showed up so much better.  It was an easy quilt to make and I'll definitely use this pattern again.  I'll just pick my fabrics more carefully.

I decided to baste the layers together this time, instead of using safety pins.  I had to snip a few threads as they would catch under my quilting foot, but all in all, I think my quilt was much smoother on the back than usual.

I have to show you the thread I used to baste with.. how old do you think this thread might be?  I bought it in Greenville, NC many years ago. That store as been closed for a very long time.  Do Piece Goods Stores still exist anywhere?  This was a spool I had given to my grandmother as part of a gift (a future post) many years ago.  It will be perfect for basting quilts!

I was not happy at all with the back of the quilt before I washed it.  Thanks goodness for the 'crinkle' effect when it comes out of the dryer.  (although I don't always like the crinkle look, I did this time!!)  I used a different color thread in the bobbin....variegated blue on top, cream color in the bobbin.  When I finished, there were blue specks everywhere on the back of the quilt. It's probably a 'tension' thing, but I wasn't sure how to fix it.  Thankfully, when I washed and dried it, the blue specks were not nearly as noticeable.  I also used flannel for  batting instead of regular batting.  It makes a nice lightweight 'summer' quilt, but I don't think I'll use it again.  

I'm curious as to what type of batting you prefer:  cotton, blends, poly....??  Do you ever use blankets?  Do you prewash your batting?  Do you like the crinkle look?  Do any of you still hand quilt?  (I miss hand quilting) Please leave a comment with your preferences and any advice you might have!  Thanks!!

**Sheila, I can't find your email.  Can you send me an email?**

Quilters....wanna read something funny?

http://www.craftygardenmom.com/2012/04/my-7-dirty-quilting-secrets-what-are.html


Please go to this link and read this lady's rant about online quilting.   LOL  I've had a few of these same thoughts.  (make sure you read through some of the comments)  **warning:  some ugly language there**

Trash or treasure??

My grandmother passed away just before Christmas.  My mom and her brothers and sisters are now going through the difficult task of removing her things from her home.

Mama told me that she had two 'old raggedy' quilts that 'needed to go to the trash pile.'  I asked her to save them for me, and I picked them up this week when we went to visit.  Yes, they are worn, but I could never throw them away.  I don't think I could even cut them to salvage the good parts for another project.  The colors are beautiful!  They are wonderfully soft and have a sweet musty smell.

I know nothing about these quilts...how they came to be, who used them, etc.  Both are machine pieced and neither have batting... just a front and a back.  I guess they would be considered bed coverlets and not really quilts.  Depression era?  Feed sack fabrics?  I find it interesting to see how the pink and brown fabrics held up so well, but not the others.  It makes me wonder how well today's fabric will be holding up in 75-100 years, when others are discovering our quilts and wondering about them.  I wish our foremothers had labeled their quilts.

I would love to hear your throughts.

Grandchildren Love

I've had a fun week with these guys! We visited my parents yesterday and I have some cool 'quilty' stuff to share soon. (6 hour car trip.... they were great!!)  Hopefully, I'll get some pic's today so I can share!

**ps...you must click to enlarge this photo to enjoy Avery's little facial expression.  ha ha!  **

Bloggy, blog, blog....

I really do intend to blog more often than I do, but time just slips away these days!  I've been busy, but having fun.

We finally moved the quilting machine and the frame into the garage.  Thanks to hubby, we put a practice piece in and the machine seems to run nicely. ( had it been left to me,  you would be seeing the whole setup on Craigslist today!!)   I am looking forward to trying my first quilt, realizing I have a LOT to learn still.  I have an old quilt top that I made when my daughter was a little girl that I am trying to put my hands on... I can't seem to find it this week....but I've decided to make that top my first machine quilted top.  Excited!  (hubby even wrote his name in thread while we were practicing!)

Hubby got a new toy, too.  So far,  he is enjoying retirement with his new lawnmower.  Cute little Butterbean is always looking for a ride.... the dachshunds....not so much.

picture loaded sideways....sorry

I been watching this little guy for a few days (while his  big brother was at the beach with Nana and PawPaw).  I will say it again:  This is a SWEET baby!  Do you think he has Grandma's eyes?  

I bought this sewing machine from a seller on Craigslist this week for $30. From time to time, my daughter will say that she wishes she owned a sewing machine.  Now she has one!!  It sews... I need to sit down with the manuals and figure out how to make it sew 'good'.  

I've been working on this  baby quilt for a friend from work.  It will probably be quilted on my regular sewing machine... unless I get  really brave!

Isn't this cute??  It's a vintage pillowcase....colors perfect....fabric still stiff....and it has a Sears and Roebuck tag on the inside.  I have no idea why I thought I 'had' to buy it.... maybe there will be a little girl in the family one day, who will want it.  ;-)

The  colors are poor in this pic, but I wanted to show you my vintage linen display.  I bought a painted crib rail and plan to hang this on a wall in the sewing room.  People who don't embroider don't  usually realize the hours of pleasure that were put into these pretty pieces.  And I am thrilled to death to snatch them up at yard sales and thrift stores.  

So that's about it for me.... it's off to work for me this afternoon.  I"m still working 2 days a week, but can definitely see  a light shining in the tunnel.... I am hoping to cut back at least one more day very soon!  I am trying my best to work my way into full retirement.  :))))

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring!  It  feels like spring may finally be arriving in our area of NC.  It's been a lo-o-o-ng winter.  

I made a bright yellow wreath to welcome spring... all done on the  cheap, of course. Dollar store flowers hot  glued to a grapevine wreath.  It shows up pretty from the road.  (I love using a hot glue gun...it brings out the inner child in me)

I put out my little Easter flag just a few days before Easter. I had forgotten that I had it; I bought it last year after the holiday from Pier One.  That's the best time to buy holiday items, as long as you don't forget them or forget where you put them. 

Remember the tool box from a few posts back?  I found plastic fruit on sale at Wal Mart today for $5 a bag. It took 3 bags to fill it, and I'm happy with it.  These fruits remind me of my grandma Butler; she had lots of faux fruit in her kitchen.  My favorites were the styrofoam ones that she covered in sequins.  Does anyone remember those?

And I found a cool 'new to me' toolbox at Goodwill today for $3.  This one is pretty large... it measures approx. two feet long.  I am going to paint it and fill with geraniums for my porch.  I just love  treasure hunts when I can find treasures.

Happy Spring to you!

Swiffer tip...short and sweet!

This is probably old news to many of you, but I wanted to share, just in case you haven't heard....

You don't have to buy those boxes of swiffer refills!  My friend, Debbie J., at Homemaking Dreams, mentioned her floor cleaning tools in a recent post.  I started searching on google for the best home made swiffer pad.  

Yep, a chenille sock. I have several of these in my sock drawer and I never wear them. (too hot for my feet) The website that I used says you can buy these at the dollar store for ....yes... $1 a pair.  Anyway, I slid it over my swiffer mop, cut a slit in the back to make the handle stand up again....

And OMG! look!! I thought my floors were pretty clean this morning before I swiffered.   (this is embarrassing... ha ha)  

So, yes....here's to my new swiffer socks! Throw them in the washer and ready to use again!  

(I like the wet mop pads too....now to find a homemade cleaner to try with my new sock pads!)

You are what you eat....mentally, too.

borrowed from internet...not me :))

This is who I have always wanted to be....the happy housewife.  Years of raising children and having to work didn't really make me the 'happy' housewife, though I did enjoy what time I did have at home during those years.

Now that I am 'semi' retired from my nursing job, (my husband told me to start using that term....it sounds more encouraging than working 'part time') I have so much more time at home. I have always enjoyed just being at home, but it seems that  now, more than ever, I tend to waste more time here.  I  blame it on the internet...instant access to anything I want to read.  That can be a good thing...but can be a real distraction, too. It's so easy to get caught up in reading and searching for anything that crosses my mind.  Before I know it, I have spent hours in front of the computer. 

I don't want to look back ten years from now and be disappointed by all the time I've wasted.  I have decided to feed my internet addiction with things that make me who I want to be. It's true, you are what you eat...not only physically, but mentally, too.  I have found that if I spend half a day reading facebook, my mind is then focused on people I know (and even those I  don't truly know) and what is going on in their world.  Oh, they went on a cruise?  I want to go on a cruise.  Oh, they ate at such and such a place?  I want to eat there.  Oh, they got a new car?  I want a new car.  Really???  Why do that to ourselves??   

Truth is:  I really don't want to go on a cruise (right now, anyway) I don't need or really want a new car, and I eat out entirely too much as it is.  My heart really is at home!  For the past few days, I 've been reading homemaking blogs and quilting blogs.  Now, THAT's what I want to do!  (what are your favorite homemaking blogs...I hate to say it, but I prefer the ones written by mature women... I just can't seem to accept that 20 something year old women with 2-3 kids already have 'it' altogether!  LOL)

I want to take good care of my home, enjoy my home..."feeding myself"  more homemaking blogs has renewed my desire to be that person.  I am encouraged to get away from websites that do nothing to 'benefit' my life.  I have started asking myself  before I sit down to read or do something : "how is this helpful?" "how is this helping me to reach my life goals?"  

Today I am piddling around the house.  I have cleaned the floors, I have  cubed steak simmering on the stove, and I'm waiting on my little grandsons to come over to spend the afternoon with grandma.  That is definitely a good thing, no waste of time in any of that!  I hope to spend time this afternoon going through some cookbooks and thinning my collection.  I have always had this thing about cookbooks....I always wanted everyone I saw...but with the addition of internet, I truly don't need all those cookbooks any longer.  Do you still use cookbooks?

I actually enjoy hand washing dishes (as long as I don't let them get away from me).  Why wait two days for the dishwasher to get full?  There are only two of us in the house now.  It takes hardly any time at all to keep the dishes washed up.

not my cake...borrowed pic...looks delicious!!

Last night I had to send hubby to the grocery store to pick up a few snacks for the grandsons for today.  However, I want to be the type of homemaker that can whip something up from the pantry for the boys.  I would love to be the person who can always offer someone a snack, like that yummy looking slice of cake, when they enter my home.  (problem is: there would be more cake than visitors, and you know how that would go....hubby and I would eat way too much cake).  

I think the moral of this story for me is: one day  when I read that book shown above in the picture, I want to see really happy and satisfying things in it....not a checked off bucket list of empty deeds, but a life fulfilled with satisfaction that I did what my heart really wanted to do.  I want my grandchildren to remember me as a grandma who was there for them, who opened her home to them with good food and fun, who worked in her garden and kept pretty flowers, and one who enjoyed every little thing they did.  Not a grandma who was addicted to the internet, who couldn't put her cell phone down, who always took us to McDonalds, who lived in a messy house and was lazy.  I am responsible for writing my own story.  So for now, my focus will be on becoming a better homemaker, a better wife, a better grandma, a better daughter, a better sister, etc.  What about you?  Are you writing a true story of who you really want to be?

Sewing and Grandbabies

It's been a busy week, but I did manage to get some sewing time in today.

I made this little mug rug/ mini quilt for a friend from church.  This sassy knitting lady is part of a panel by Loralie.  I have more sewing ladies that I plan to make a wall hanging with someday.  Loralie also has a nurse panel that I really need to purchase.  I can think of some fun gifts for some of my nurse friends.

 I finished the quilt top made from an Amy Bradley quilt panel that I purchased years ago.  These little faces make me smile every time I look at them.  I let Avery see this quilt yesterday and he decided the babies were all boys, even the one with the pink hair bow.... 'somebody put a hair bow on that boy's head.'

I spray painted this week, too.  I bought this wooden toolbox at Goodwill for 2.99.   It was flat brown and I painted it black. Now, what to put inside of it???  My brain is thinking embroidered mini pillows  and mini quilt block pillows.  Or fake fruit??  Ideas??

I watched the boys for a couple hours yesterday while their mommy worked on the zip line.  This was Avery's new trick....he decided  the cookie was his new mouth.  We spent quite some time yesterday, renaming our body parts.... our noses were rocks, our eyes were marbles, our ears were flowers, our hair was spaghetti, our feet were bricks, our arms were sticks, etc. etc.

This  little fellow is seven months old already!  This picture was taken just before he fell asleep in Grandma's lap.  Chandler truly lights up a room with his smiles and sweet nature!

Here he is just a few minutes later.... one precious baby!

Thank you for the kind words when I mentioned I had not been feeling well in January.  I had a little scare with my labwork and was worried about what elevated liver enzymes might mean for me.  (being a nurse, I always think the worse...over the past 29 years I have taken care of plenty of hepatitis and HIV patients, not to mention accidental needle sticks along the way)  However, I went back for repeat labs this week and all were normal.  I am feeling much better and hope whatever it was, is all behind me now.  Thanks again for your kindness. Bloggy friends are great!!

February already?

I don't know where January went, but here we are ... Feb. 8, 2013.  I was sick most of January, saw several doctors, had a wacky test result or two, medication changes, and am finally feeling better.  I hope this isn't how 'the rest of my life' will feel... hoping it's just the big  M (enopause).  But enough of that....

I finally got all the flowers sewn on this top and added a little blue border, and I"m calling this quilt top finished!  I hope the quilting will bring it to life, as it still looks kind of drab to me.

I bought this quilt kit several years ago while on a beach trip.  I swore it would be my first grandchild's baby quilt.  I have two grandchildren already and I"m just now getting around to putting this one together.  This one looks kind of 'girlie' to me, so maybe that's a sign.  I'll just put it away and wait patiently.

And this is my sewing room today.. a huge mess.  (I didn't even show you the floor... the worst part.) Can you see what's in the background, crowding up my tiny room?  Yes, hubby and I purchased a used Grace quilting frame and a Pfaff mid arm quilter just before Christmas.  I convinced him it would fit in this room.....and technically, it does fit... but there is no room to use it.  So, hopefully, this monster will be moved to my garage soon, before I start having a serious case of buyer's remorse.  :((

This big guy is going to be THREE years old tomorrow.  We are celebrating his birthday tonight at his house.  I called him on the telephone this morning to see if he was excited about his party.  He seems to be pretty excited and I am sure we will have fun tonight.

And this picture is just too funny not to share.  The boys' mom and I took the boys to have their pictures made just before Christmas.  By the time the photographer got to us, this little guy was tired.  He is usually such a happy and smiley baby, but he wasn't too interested that day.  (five months old here)

This one was taken the same day and this was probably the biggest smile we got during the session.  He is such a precious little one and is quickly catching up with his big brother in size.

Off topic:  What do you do with extra milk in the house?

We ended up with an extra gallon of milk in our house this week and I have been determined to use it before it spoils.  Neither of us drink much milk, so it has been fun to think of ways to use it.

Wednesday night, I made cook and serve chocolate pudding for us to eat while watching tv.  I like the warm pudding so much better than the instant cold pudding.   I don't think I've ever made pudding for just the two of us before and we had plenty for each of us.... almost too much to eat at one time.  (when the kids were here, there was never enough and everyone would be licking their bowls for that last little taste)

borrowed picture, but it looks like mine

Today I made potato soup.  This is one of the easiest things in the world to make and I love it!

another borrowed picture...yummy

And I have a 'no bake' cherry cheesecake in the refrigerator for later.  And I still have a half gallon of milk left!!  Maybe just a good ole mug of hot chocolate this weekend??? Or maybe I'll finish off the cereal.....