January Fun Stuff & NewFO

January really did fly by quickly this year. We had a few birthdays, ate to much and sewed to little.

First was Louie's birthday. I made him his birthday wall hanging. He loves it and is still hanging up. Picture is not as bright as the actual wall hanging. I will have to make something up for Valentines day real soon!

I made a couple pairs of shorts for his mom, and a pillow case for his sister. Forgot to take pix. 

I belong to the Block Swap Adventure and made a 12 " inch block for Teresa in UK. She liked it. The pattern she wanted was called cactus basket so why not a cactus with flowers. The centers are orange buttons.

Then the deadline for Alzheimer's Art Quilt was looming so I made this cute little block.

#13096

Flowery Stars.

Flowers are felt with button centers. It was great fun to make. If I could have figured out how to sew the buttons on by machine I would have!. I really have gotten spoiled making things by machine only. 

My sewing machine was sounding like a tank for a few weeks and was getting louder and louder. I didn't want to take the chance and ruin my blocks so I set them aside and worked on the other stuff.  I was working on my Easy Street blocks. Bonnie K Hunters quilts are piece intensive. Someone said this one has over 3000 pieces but it is so worth the work. 

 So what am I going to do??? 
Working on my NewFO Challenge at Cat Patches of course!


Well it just so happens that one of Bonnie's quilt blocks Scrap Trips Around the World! has gone viral. There is a Flickr group called Scrappy Trip Along that is posting the quilts.  Since I start going by the adage that if the scrap tub is full make something, I decide this would be the perfect block. I made 25 strip sets in 2 days and now that I have my sewing machine back from the repairman "Fabric Will Fly"!!!

Some of the strips are 10 years old!


Last year I started keeping a running total of things that I have made. I was surprise how many there were considering I often could only sew for 15 to 20 minutes a day. It was 54 finished items. So I am tracking this again this year.

Happy Quilting 

Aileen in Florida

Finished projects 2013: 1 pillow case, 1 AAQI quilt, 1 Wall hanging, 2 shorts, 1 BSA block, 3 nookbook rests

Happy Birthday Louie!

Happy 3rd Birthday Louie!

Louie is my grandson and constant companion in my sewing room. He has his own table and chair in the there. He loves scraps and has been playing with them since moving here in July of 2011.

His favorite thing to do with those scraps is bury his toy cars or fling them in the air! Good thing he helps me clean up every night.
He knows what a rotary cutter is. He says it is a pizza cutter for fabric. He is fascinated with all my tools. His greatest pleasure is watching me clean my sewing machine and he tries to get between me and the machine for a better look.

Every night he sleeps with his Grandma blankets.

Currently his favorite blanket is a Christmas UFO lap quilt I finished just in time for Christmas. While I relax in my chair at night, he get up on my lap and loves to hiding under it.  Since he is a ball of energy I am grateful that curling under the quilt calms him down just before bedtime.

 While I was working on my blocks for Easy Street, I realized that I wanted to made him a birthday wallhanging.  
This is what I came up with. 

Happy Birthday Louis!!!!
Love Grandma  

Easy Street - Rounding the bend

Hi Fellow quilters.

I have been plugging away at my Easy Street blocks. I finished Orca Bay a few months ago for my daughter Carri. This one is for me. I love the colors.

Due to lots of pain meds and the Flu I have been doing them Very slowly. I tend to sew like my machine is on fire. This is the way my mom taught me  to sew 43 years ago. Husband sometimes says it sounds like a machine gun going off in there.
I am finding that it is going together very nicely. I have been very careful not to stretch anything. I have not ironed any of my blocks yet. All have been finger pressed. This eliminated the usual swearing that I would have been doing by now, due to those quarter square triangles.

I have 9 blocks of Block B to go and all will be completed. For a change I sewed the blocks Bonnie's way. Webbing them! What a difference that made. I usually do all of one thing and then go to the next and end up ripping out stuff left and right. I had to rip out 2 -  4 patches and resew about 10 flying geese because they were warped badly. Not bad. I think my ripper got lonely for me! LOL

Can't wait to finish those last 9 blocks. 

Sorry about quality of pictures. I thought cut off for linky was Monday as well.

Happy Sewing

Aileen in Florida