Sunday Sewday

I worked on a comfort quilt for a friend starting chemo this week. She likes her flower gardens and cats so I tried to combine the two. The best part of any comfort quilt is a soft, fluffy back, right?

 

My inner tiger - - -

Do you ever feel like this when told to release your inner tiger?

 

Open Sew Show and Share

Deb Semmens was pinning and rolling pillowcases to stitch later for a holiday charity.

Nancy Johnson shared this quilt she made for a granddaughter. It commemorates a trip she took with her granddaughter for a class report on the state of Illinois. Each block has an Illinois signifigance/name.

and the label, of course.

This baby quilt was a collaboration of ladies from Nancy's church. They salvaged two of the blocks from a quilt top the great grandmother started several years ago, the pig and the chicken. If you lift the chicken wing, you will see a baby chick. 

These next two quilts give you an idea of what Kathy has been doing during the pandemic!

This blue one was a block a day promoted by designer Edyta Sitar

This next one is Kathys Leaders and Enders quilt. For those of you who aren’t familiar with leaders and enders, they are bits of fabric that are used to start and end your sewing, thus preventing thread waste and thread nests.  It works similar to chain piecing.  When you get to the end of a seam you are piecing, you stitch onto the fabric scrap so that you always have a scrap under you presser foot.  To make it even more efficient, you can cut a pile of squares to use as your leaders and enders. Layer two up and stitch as your leader or ender, thus essentially piecing two quilt tops at once!

Well, that's how Kathy created this large quilt. See a close up of the total scrappiness.

For the back of this quilt, Kathy salvaged yardage from an old duvet cover. Brilliant!

And this final share from Kathy is paper pieced. This is a graduation quilt for a teal loving niece.

Next to Kathy's teal quilt, on the floor, you can see what I was working on. It's a flannel "Cabin Rules" quilt I made for my sister and I am finally getting the binding on it.   Guess I can't hold it up and take the picture both. hahahahaha. I have come to a place in life where I can work on quilts that are not shop-related!

Back to Nancy with a quilt her daughter started and she finished.

And a donation quilt using up strip sets.

 

Visit us this weekend at - - - - -

 

New Phone Number

 Need to talk to us?  Please call 515-993-4115

Tis True

 

A Few Fall Blooms

This is a Lavender Bush, a Grand Closing gift from a customer. It has doubled in size and is now covered with little purple blooms.

 

Autumn Clematis

One tired bloom coming on my spring clematis

And new to the yard, this hibiscus I just purchased at Lowes. 

Wool anyone?

Ruth Beaman of Adel is downsizing her stock a bit. She has a trunk full of wool looking for a new home.  If you are interested, give Ruth a call at 515-993-3250.

American Gatherings, Blocks 13 and 14

 

OOOPen SEW!

Pack up your stitching and join us for a day at the Adel Library, Friday, September 17, anytime after 9 am.

Squirrels!!!

 Those of you who have followed this blog for a while remember all of the squirrel stories.  Frank used to spend almost as much money on food for birds and squirrels as we did for groceries for ourselves.  

He trained some of the squirrels to take a nut out of his hand by tapping it on the patio to get their attention.  He was a very patient and kind hearted man BUT we had A LOT of squirrels.

Fast forward to 4 years later and the squirrel population around here is significantly lower. One did not miss the opportunity to step in the new cement poured for a sidewalk in my backyard today though - hmmmm. I kinda love it.

All in one piece now.

A week or so ago I posted a picture of this in a tentative lay out. Here it is after piecing.  I may add more borders to this, using the rest of my snowball blocks from a different QC exchange.  Stay tuned.

And --- How about this for the backing?

 

Kaffee!

I feel like, with the Kaffe fabrics, you need to go big or go home. That's why I am planning this Kaffe black and white as a background with these Kaffe fat quarters for my next new project. 

If it works, you will be seeing it at our Ladies of the Lake Fall Retreat the last week of October. I'm sure you will see it here as well!

 

Penny - - --

Today we lost a good friend and former member of Quilt Circle of Friends, Penny White.

Penny was a member until she moved to Marion several years ago. She fought a long tough battle with ovarian cancer but is at peace now.

She was a prolific quilter and made several shop samples for me. I searched this blog to find a few pictures of Penny and her quilts.

She will be missed by her husband Earl and their two daughters as well as a host of friends. 

Here is a verse I saved from one of her many positive Facebook posts.

Farewell, friend. 

This is the last quilt she managed to finish. It was for Earl.

These next three quilts are from patterns she collected by going to a shop hop along the western side of the US.

Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday to our Chicago daughter. Many of you have asked about her career. When you read her bio, you will understand why I struggle to explain it. I just know she's a very cool young lady.