Hi fellow quilters, friends and family.

I had planned to share William's quilt with you this time, but I ran into a little competition. I have a friend who is battling cancer and undergoing a rough regime of chemo and I wanted to do something for her, so I made her a quilt!

This was made using a couple of the charm packs that I bought at the quilt show here a couple weeks ago. I bought a green coordinating print to go with the squares on the front and another green to go on the back (which I didn't have enough of, so added some fabric I had on hand) and here is the finished project.
It is a "rag quilt" and goes together pretty quickly. I cut 5" blocks to make a 4 patch with the charm packs, then cut the back squares 9 1/2" and layered 9 1/2" flannel squares in the center. I stitched the X across all block sandwiches, then stitched it all together; I washed it twice after clipping all the seams (whew, that takes a while). Start to finish, it took about a week to get this one done. She loves it!!! Yeah!!

On Monday, I received an invitation to a baby shower that was to be held on Thursday. Since I had just finished Deb's quilt, I decided to tackle a baby quilt. I dug out what flannel I had on hand and started whacking away.

Here is what I came up with!! We know it's a boy, so I used this cute blue print with boats. I cut all the blocks 7" - even had to piece a couple of blocks to have enough for this layout (I think I had 1/2 yard of the boat print).
I didn't put anything between the top and back as they were both flannel and I didn't want to make it too heavy.

I created this little boat with my software to stitch on it; this serves as the quilting (I don't want to do an X all the time!!!), and I stitched it on each block with my embroidery machine. Usually when I use my embroidery machine for quilting, I have the quilt all together first, but on this one, I thought the seams would be a problem, so I stitched the blocks first, then stitched them together. This process takes a little longer and I must say that just stitching the X would have been a little faster. Speaking of fast - I started this gem at 5 am Wednesday morning and finished with only 1 washing at 11:30 pm and I did work, make supper, and go to prayer meeting that day as well. Superwoman - yes, by the way, I am!!

ps - I updated my slideshow, so check it out again, sorry that I cannot add the new quilts to the voting process - it won't let me, but when I get all quilts done this year, I'll update the whole thing and ask you to vote again - won't that be fun????

Living and Loving,
Shirley

Hi all:

I went to a quilting class at a friend's house last Saturday morning - innocent as I was - and came home with a charm pack monster raging within!!! Ok, not quite that bad, but I'VE DISCOVERED CHARM PACKS!!! YEAH!!! Oh, they are so much fun, you just have to try them.

In this table runner project, we started out with a simple 9 patch, stitch it together and then cut it apart - you can google "disappearing 9 patch" and find all kinds of instructions with very nice pics, so I'm not going to go through it here.

So, I started with this red, green, brown, blue Christmasy looking pack of charm squares and just look what I came up with!!!




How did that happen you may wonder - oh, I'm sure you've figured it out quickly enough! I had to go back to the store for some fabric to go around my three Christmasy blocks and I was "just looking" at the other charm packs and found a gorgeous fall set - before I knew what was happening, I had purchased them, ran home and stitched the blocks into 9 patches, wacked them to pieces and stitched them again. I was smart this time and bought the extra fabric I needed while I was there so I could finish the whole thing. (Oh, gee, I guess that means I don't NEED to go back to the store!!).

I made the binding by using the extra blocks in the charm pack that I had leftover with alternating blocks from a coordinating fabric and I just love it, it's on my dining room table if you'd like to come and see it in person!!!

I used my embroidery machine to stitch a leaf in the center of each block (I digitized it from another pattern I had and blew it up to fit the block). Then I also "stitched in the ditch" around the outside of the blocks. I think it turned out just fabulous and was a really quick project to make!! Thanks, Debbie!!!

In case you're wondering - I did get back to the Christmas one and here it is, all put together, just needs to be quilted (haven't decided how I'm going to do that yet), the binding on this one will be from a coordinating green with red flower print. It is just gorgeous as well.



Now I'm off to Hearland Event Center for a quilting event and yes, I'm taking my money and Yes, I'm going to buy some charm packs - as many as I can afford to buy today. I have a $20 in my back pocket with no name on it and a coupon my Mom sent me, so I'm gonna use 'em!!

p.s. I've been working on the next birthday quilt, which is for Amy (birthday in mid November) but am taking a break to do a rag quilt for William (his birthday is in December, so I have to do it anyway. Why do things in order????). I came up with an idea to personalize it and I hope you are impressed because I impressed myself!! I stayed up late last night and have a great start on it, so I'll be showing you pics of it next week and hope that I can still get Amy's quilt done in time for her birthday. (I know I'll get feedback on that comment!!!) I love you, Amy!!

Blessings to you all.

Wow, another week gone by. How does that happen so fast???

Here is a little baby quilt I whipped up this last week. I got the pattern and instructions from a book called "90 Minute Quilts". I love the book because it has great ideas for quick quilts. But.. Guess what??

If you said it took me more than 90 minutes to make you are right!!! And it wasn't just because of the extra embroidery. Maybe I'm a slowpoke, maybe I get interrupted too much or maybe it's because I have to lay it out and change my mind 2 or 3 times before I'm satisfied. You decide!!

But it was fun anyway and I think it turned out cute. I have listed it for sale on my etsy website.

I used flannel for all the blocks for the top and the back is flannel as well. I embroidered on 5 blocks and quilted the other blocks in an X pattern. It's a very girly quilt with lots of pink and oh, so soft.

Well, gotta go get kids to bed and study for my A&P test tomorrow night.

Next time, I'll share my "block of the month" blocks that I'm doing through the quilt shop here, they are really looking nice!!

Thanks for reading my blog.

Blessings to you.

Good Monday to you!! Today I wanted to feature a couple of my friends who turn my embroideries into wonderful creations!!

Diedre is a gal in California who has a wonderful business making custom quilts. One of her lovely little quilts is pictured here and it's just too cute for words!!



She's also made some adorable little advent calendars. Of course I did the embroidery on the numbers and the Merry Christmas. Just so cute, Diedre, I just love them.

Diedre has made many beautiful and creative quilts; you can find Diedre at http://www.whimziequiltz.com


I have a good friend from Indiana who makes all kinds of things with the my embroidery. Pam is a longtime quilter and is very creative!! Please check out her quilts, bags, purses, ... here. She has a great blog showcasing lots of her creations. http://pamcole-pamspatchwork.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!!

Thanks Pam and Diedre for allowing me to feature your items today!!

Hello quilting fans!! Has a whole week passed by already?? Actually it seems a little longer than that. Anyway, I just wanted to post a few of my labels. What's a quilt without a label???

My Mother encouraged me to always put a label on a quilt, but I didn't really pay much attention to that advice (sorry, Mom) and now I know why it's important to take the time to do so. Last fall I was searching through Mom's closet trying to find some old quilts that my Grandmother Burnett had made. I found several, took them for Mom to see (she was in the hospital at the time) and she couldn't remember who really made them. Were they made by my Grandma or my Great Aunt Elsie or someone else - Hmm, well, we really don't know and never will.

So, I decided to not only label the quilts, but to also put in a little history, maybe what the quilt was for, who it was made for, or at least the date and my name. Here are a few samples of quilt labels I've made to identify them; I'm hoping that when someone reads the label, they'll say - "Oh, yeah, I remember when...." ps - of course, I mailed Emily's quilt without the label (Ooops), but nothing an envelope in the mail and a few stitches won't fix!

By the way, I've made lots of labels for other's quilts, I'd be glad to make a label for your quilt too, just let me know what you would like!!

Thanks for reading!!

Click on the Quilt 2009 Slideshow link, view the quilts and read about them, then vote on your favorite quilt. There are 3 more quilts that I HAVE to make this year, so I will be adding them as I get them done.

Enjoy!!

Emily's Quilt

Hi, this is my very first blog - so I hope I don't bore you to death! I decided that this year I would make a quilt for each of my children and grandchildren's birthday's. Of course I had someone tell me that I don't really HAVE to, but, I do. I said I was and now I'm going to do it. When I set my mind to do something - there is just no stopping me. So here are pics of quilt #7 for Emily who is 10 years old now. I will post later with pics of previous quilts, etc. Anyway, i think I'm doing pretty well considering that 1) I have only made 10 or so quilts in my life and 2) We're talking NINE quilts here!!! What was I thinking??? This quilt was fun to make with appliqued flowers, stitched on rick rack and quilting done on my embroidery machine!!! I'm in the experimental stages of using my embroidery machine for quilting, but seeing as I really don't know how to quilt except for "stitch in the ditch", this is the fastest way I know of to add some unique quilting. After doing this quilt, I have come to the conclusion that I WILL need to learn how to quilt or else pay someone to do it as this is not the easiest way to do the quilting. I do think it turned out well though.