Itty bitty quilt - Hour 5 and 6

I'm continuing on with my 1 hour per day plan for this Iddy Bitty quilt.  

On Saturday, I soon realized my hour was going to be taken up by mostly rooting through my stash for backing, batting for this quilt, and then giving all the layers a good ironing in preparation for the layering.  The only bit of sewing was making 200" of bias binding.   On Sunday, I spend a good part of the hour  taping my backing to the floor with masking tape, then doing the same to the batting, then finally layering the quilt top over that.  On a cushion, I knelt down to put in all the safety pins.  I still have to close the pins, but other than that, I'm ready to machine quilt today.    The final hour is scheduled for Tuesday, which will be to apply the binding.  Stay tuned.

Quilt Labels

Yesterday, I stitched up these labels on my embroidery machine.  I'm so good at making quilt labels for my quilts that are given away for raffle quilts, but not so good at making labels for my own quilts.  I cannot think of one of my quilts that has a label.   The Nines and Vines Quilt for the Stan Cassidy Foundation is only a week or two away from being finished.  You can follow the hand quilting progress on the FQG blog here. It's so nice. 

And the LeMoyne Star which is being quilted at St. Anthony's church will be finished before the spring.  We are well into the stars, but I will do a photo update this Wednesday when I go.  This week is going to be special because Cecil G. is going to join us on Wednesday for some hand quilting.  It's nice to have a special guest.  I might try to arrange more special guests to keep things moving along while I'm away.

Itty bitty boy quilt

This baby quilt is just so darn cute.   All I have left to do is to machine quilt and then bind. I love the chocolate brown and the blue together.  This baby quilt should be an easy finish next week.  Right now the blue letters are just stuck on with the fusible, but they will be quilted down when I machine quilt the quilt.   A couple of the Friday girls helped me with the final configuration this morning which is a bit different than the pattern and I like it even more...

So, where did I find such a cute pattern you ask....I follow Natalia's Piece n quilt blog faithfully.  She's such a wonderful designer of quilt patterns.   She designed this Itty Bitty Babies pattern in both a baby boy or baby girl quilt for the Moda Bake Shop.   For the free pattern, click here.  Now I want to make the baby girl version... too cute, and thanks Natalia for sharing your talents. 

Oat Demerara Shortbreads

Today, I hosted the Friday Girls coffee break.  I only have a couple more coffee breaks before I head south.  I'm going to really miss my Friday coffee breaks...Anyway when I host, I like to try a new recipe.   These girls would be honest if they didn't like something... So today it was a shortbread recipe out of my Canadian Living Holiday magazine.... Oat Demerara Shortbreads.  It's more like a Cape Breton Oatcake. and the picture in the magazine was beautiful.   I must say it turned out fabulous and so few ingredients to boot.  I like the presentation. It's baked in a round 9" pan and wedges are scored into the dough before baking and then again after baking.  A nice nice recipe.  Why not give it a try next time you have friends in for a coffee break.  The recipe is on the Canadian Living Recipe website, here...

Charming Blocks - Hours two and three

I have all my charming blocks put together.    With another hour's worth of work tomorrow afternoon, I'm positive I'll be able to show you the entire top.   And I'll share the location of the free pattern with you as well.  There is another colorway that is equally as nice.    Or maybe you know which pattern it is since it has this unique grid on it.

After tomorrow's work, I'm sure that with 1 hours worth of machine quilting, and one hour of binding (by machine of course) , it'll be done. 

I love love love this little pattern and I hope you do too, when I reveal later tomorrow.

Charming Blocks

This week, I'm spending 1 hour a day working on this little quilt to get it done quickly. All together there's only about 100 charm size blocks

It's a free pattern from one of my favorite bloggers.   It's only a small quilt.  I think I'll wait until the top is done before I reveal what it will look like in the end.   Maybe by the weekend...

Good to the last drop!

Like the advertisement says...Good to the last drop!   Ice Cream that is..

And what could be better than a good book after you've had two helpings of ice cream!  Aurora recommends this book... Flik's Perfect Gift.     A story about an ant named Flik's birthday.  One of Flik's friends says "What's bugging you Flik?".  The puns are so cute.

Do you recognize this box?

If you're a quilter, you probably do recognize it.....

Yep, a Singer 221...aka - a featherweight.  I had no idea I really wanted one until I got this one home. It doesn't have many accessories, but it did come with a couple of bobbins.  I have an old jar of feet that came from my mother's sewing room and I'm positive that some of those feet will fit this machine... I can't wait to try them.

Anyway, according to the serial number, this Singer 221 was manufactured in 1951. 

I guess the fad for quilters is to have one that was manufactured in the year you were born.  I'm a few years off, but I think I'll love having this little gem just the same. 

I haven't tried sewing with it yet because I have a little visitor, but when she's gone,  you can bet I'm going to test it out - probably Tuesday.   Until then, I'm going to have fun thinking of a little project I can sew on it from start to finish...

Is anyone keeping count of how many sewing machines I have?...   Care to guess?

Betty Boop

Do you remember Betty Boop?  

She was my one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid in the 50's.     Last year I got a T-shirt nightie that had Betty Boop on it, and Aurora loves to look at my Betty Boop.  

So because she was visiting today, and tomorrow, I decided to stitch out a Betty Boop for Aurora's little blanket that she puts patches on.   We'll stitch it on her blanket tomorrow...  But for now, she's thrilled to have a Betty Boop patch to admire... And she's loves that Betty has a little doggie...

Who's Jackson?

A friend of my daughter is going to have a baby boy soon.  His name will be Jackson.    So, for this new little boy, I made some taggie blankets.   Since I had lots of notice about the name, I took the opportunity to embroider his name and initial on a couple of the taggies.  Cute, cute...

They are quite quick to make up, IF you have a small stash of all the supplies...minkey fabric, ribbons, and silky polyester fabric for the backing.   These are all soft and soothing senses for little fingers.  Will definitely quietly sooth and comfort a little baby. 

The Gauntlet Fingerless Mitt

Did you notice that I didn't use the plural of the word Mitt in the title.  Its because I've sort of made it through one mitt. 

Isn't it nice!  I love the basketweave detail on the cuff.  It's so different than just regular ribbing.

But I have to tell you that I do intend to rip it out and start over for the third time.   I knew I had a mistake in it as soon as I finished the cuff and was starting on the main part of the mitt.  Look below for the obvious mistake I made..  

But I thought I would follow through and continue to knit to see if there were going to be any further problems that I might encounter and could learn from doing a mistake...

I did consider leaving the mistake in there, and even tried on the mitt to see if my watch face could be seen through the hole.  Nope... doesn't work....  

I'll be unravelling and restarting to knit this evening.  I'm hoping to have a pair - yes two - knit and finished by Monday morning. 

Presenting Autumn Swirl 2011

I'm so pleased to present "Autumn Swirl".  

The St. Dunstan's Quilters will be loading this quilt in February and hand quilting through the rest of the winter, spring and probably into the summer.  It'll be their raffle quilt that they unveil in the fall.    

Of course, those of you who follow Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville, will recognize this as her Weed Whacker Quilt, with some modifications to the border.  

I'm going to be visiting my friend Rose this week, and she'll do some marking before it goes on the frame.    I'm so glad that she's feeling better and has even gone out for visits with the St. Dunstan's quilters a few times recently.  She's looking forward to marking and unveiling to the other quilters.

And I'm glad it's done too.  It was my last major project before we head south for some snowbird time away.