Want a tease?

No, NO....not like that! Geessshhhh! You people! Ya'll sound like TJ getting all excited! Anywho, back quilting.

I've made this quilt top for my friend from Flordia. Her grand baby will be here any day now. Remember my nephew's "odd" name, Kentlee? Her granddaughter's name will be Meilin. I'm not even sure if I can pronounce it right. Next time I talk to her, I'll have to make her say it for me. I've even got the binding made and ready. I'm not sure what to do for the backing yet. I'm checking out everything I have to see what will do best. It might just be white. She sent me some pictures of Meilin's nursery. OH MY........it's white and pink heaven. So pretty.

I'll show it completed as soon as it's done.

For Kaye.....

.....and anyone else who might find this interesting. The other day on Kaye's blog she was looking for ways to baste without getting on the floor. I too, cannot get on the floor to baste a quilt. Well, I could...but, someone would have to help me up. Soooo, I explained to Kaye how I do it and I'm sure she understood it. However, if she's like me pictures make it easier to understand.

I lay the backing, batting and top on my sewing table. Half of the quilt will hang off. I hand press it flat, just smoothing it out more or less. Then I start at the very top of the quilt and start basting going from left to right. Now, you see I've got my new basting gun. Normally I would sew big stitches across the quilt to bind, that has worked great. Today, I used my gun and so far so good. I guess the true test will be how it does during quilting.

Here you can see I've basted the first row or so, and folded it over and moving on down towards the bottom of the quilt.

Almost finished.

Ta-dah....all done and I haven't basted any wrinkles. Which I have done before.

I hope this helps Kaye. And I hope you have a table big enough to do this on. Let me know how it works for you if you try this.

A Break from the Winter Blues

Most of us on the East Coast are expecting a BIG winter storm to start within the next 24 hours. Pat had a great idea on her blog. "Let's break the winter time blues", she said. She had several ideas of how to pick a picture. I went to my 5th folder and choose the 5th picture.

And what a great picture it is. This picture was taken along the creek that runs down beside the Linville Caverns.

Yesterday was TJ's 34th Birthday. My cousin that sews (well, she's my only cousin) comes up every Wednesday and we sew or craft something. Or sometimes we just sit and talk and have a blast. Yesterday was no different. TJ normally goes and picks us up lunch, but we decided to go out yesterday since it was his b-day. Well, before we left we had a surprise for him on the way back. He loves adventure and loves to have a good time. I have a Chrysler Sebring convertible right now (rental car, I'll explain later) and it's brand new. We had lunch, and went to the spill way at the damn and it was roaring with more water pressure than I'd ever seen there. Anywho, on the way home we pulled over and put the top down on the car. Yes, it was 41 degrees. I've never laughed so hard in all my life. Me and her were not to cold, as we were in the front seats with the heat on high. Thankfully, TJ had a hat on and a hoodie. He said it was cold but he would be fine as long as we didn't roll down the windows. So, what do we do? Yep, rolled down the windows. We had a blast. We stopped just short of being home and put the top back on.

I think he'll remember this birthday for awhile. His mom called later from California to wish him happy b-day and he told her what "we did" to him hoping for sympathy, but she was soooo on our side. She loved it and just laughed.

Happy Birthday to the love of my life. I'm glad you can have so much fun and see the best in everything. (Even if you were freezing)

My "new" car was hit in a parking lot 2 weeks ago. It crumpled the hood so bad, you couldn't open it. I didn't even notice I had been hit till I got home that night. It was a hit and run. It's been in the shop since Monday and we're hoping it will be done Friday. uggghhh

Star Wars Completed

Another one out of the UFO pile.

It's a super windy day outside, so I took this picture inside. I really think the wind is going to blow us off the mountain and set or slam us into the next mountain.

Here's the back with my super binding skills recently acquired. Don't look to close, it's not perfect yet! haha This is about lap sized. However, I don't think TJ will use this. I think it will go with his collections of Star Wars junk stuff.

I think the back would relax more once washed and dried.

So Proud.........

.........of my binding. You thought I was going to say E, didn't you? Shame on me.

Nevermind the lint, but it is black ya know. I'm just so glad I finally got the hang of this. I know your wondering, what did I do for binding before now? Well, I'm afraid to tell you. Maybe I will one day.

This is Tj's star wars quilt that was in the UFO box. Woohoo, another one bites the dust. I'll show it completed tomorrow.

Can you Yo Yo?

I can, and now I'm addicted!

Can you believe I don't have a thimble?

Last night, hand sewing binding to the back of a quilt finally sank into my brain. I watched a video over and over and over. Seriously..... I was on a roll, it was all looking good. I was so proud of it, so I wanted to show you all. This morning I noticed the finger I was using to push the needle through has a nice blister on it and is really sore. I set out to the quilting shop today to find a thimble. They were $8-10. Is that normal? I couldn't pay that for a thimble. I guess if I find out it's normal pricing I will. Instead I found something else they had for the same purpose. I'll tell you about it later in this post.

Remember the "frayed trees" blocks I was working on? Here's the lap quilt from those. I just quilted using stitch in the ditch.

Back of quilt with the greatest backing I've ever seen. (lol, only because it's turtles) And the best binding job I've ever did. This is the quilt I basted using the link Gene provided in yesterday's comments. It worked! It was more work, but it was worth it. I'm still trying to find what works best for me when it comes to basting.

Here's my loot from the quilt shop today. I finally got a yo yo maker. Some fat quarters, they used to be $1.00 and now their $1.25. Not to bad, but it does make a difference when you buy several. And, the thimble thingies. If you click on the picture you can see it better, they are like plastic stickers that stick to your finger, in place of a thimble. errrmmm......does not work! Not for me anyways. These will probably end up in my next giveaway. So, I guess I'm still in search of a darn thimble. I'm guessing my Wal-Mart probably don't carry them since they have nothing fabric related. We'll see.

Country Essential Wall Hanging or Table Topper

This was a kit from Connecting Threads. I really love small kits like this. It's super easy and goes together in a day, that's piecing the top and quilting it.

I don't really care for these colors, I think it did a bit of fading once it was washed and dried. Well, I actually rinsed it. I think this will be on it's way to California to GG (great grandma). The pattern didn't call for the red border, only the blue...but I thought adding the red looked good.

Thanks for your comments on the basting gun. I did order one, but found one much cheaper at Ebay rather than Amazon. Also, I basted a quilt this morning using a technique from a video Gene sent me. Thanks Gene, it went really quick and it was a good lap sized quilt. It's ready to quilt now, so we'll see how it goes. *hoping for no wrinkles*

Has anyone ever seen this, or used this?

Amazon calls this a Quilt Basting Gun. I was looking for some Quilt Basting Spray and I noticed this and I have to admit, I'm intrigued. I kinda want this. Here's what Amazon says about this:

"JUNE TAILOR-For quilting crafting and labeling. The Ultra-fine needle leaves a minimal size hole in your fabric. The needle mechanism contains a blade that cuts the fasteners from the strip. Each needle replacement provides a new sharp blade. Smaller and lightweight for comfortable use. Includes a reusable storage case 500 fasteners an a 2 year warranty."

So, has anyone used this or seen this? I need to know, because I sure want it. My biggest problem in quilting is basting or pinning. Especially the bigger the quilt. I'm so scared to do big quilts. I know the back will wrinkled or something. Let me know what you all think.

Taggies for babies..

I've seen these around before. However, it didn't hit me to make one until my friend Debi started making some for her grand daughter. Alot of people, me included wondered what the fascinationwith these blankets are? Well, after doing some research...it seems as if babies love to play with the tags (ribbons) and love the colors or textures if you put different ones on there. They are super easy to make.

This is the first one I made, flannel turtle fabric and green and white ribbons.

I went out on a limb on the second one and attached some embellishments. It's super cute! However, I'm not sure how this would work with babies and younger toddlers.

Hello Betty Mini

I love this fabric line of Hello Betty. These little 2" triangles were the scrap pieces I trimmed off from my siggy blocks. And if any of you saw my latest Facebook status, it was pertaining to this mini quilt. I was quilting it on the diagonal and all was going well, until I turned it over the last time and noticed a BIG wrinkle. I was crushed. And after reading a blog post Barb did on pulling out stitches, I was inspired to pull out the stitches from this mini. Her quilt was much bigger than my mini, so I can't even imagine how long it took her.

Today is the "drain the knee" day. Yah! Really, I'm ready to get this over with.

Just for Kentlee

Kentlee Jonah

*my nephew*

*precious*

*has big feet*

*and a huge big toes*

*his fingernails were sooo long*

*his daddy is the greatest*

*did I mention his dad is my brother*

*Kentlee has 3 brothers*

*Caleb 12*

*Mitchell 11*

*Kaison 5*

*he will never be alone*

*his auntie Tonya loves him to pieces*

*his auntie don't see him near enough*

*he was born 1/11/10*

@ 10:20 am

and inquiring minds want to know......

have you ever heard of the name Kentlee before?

Me either....

Quilt Hanger

This is the little quilt I won a few weeks back. It has a built in sleeve on the back of the quilt for hanging. So, TJ took a good look at it and said "I can build you a hanger for this". Of course, I was like "ok". And this is what he came up with. I like it. He makes all my quilt hangers.

I've gathered quiet the inventory of stuff. Back when I was making stuff like crazy to sell to get another car, I made all kinds of things. Well, needless to stay, not many sold. I've found a solution for that. I'm going to donate it all to my local Children's home. I am going to keep up with all that I've donated, keep a log of sorts, because they will give me a tax form. I'll take all the help I can get.

Quick Update

..as I got up this morning, I debated seeing the Dr. for my knee. My brother's baby was born today, so we headed to the hospital to see him, and with more walking and steps, I knew I had to see my Dr. So, I did. He says I have fluid gathered on and around my knee. He sent me for an x-ray to see if he can see the cause of the fluid. He will draw this fluid off next Monday. In the meantime, he gave me some anti-inflammatory meds to see if that will reduce the swelling any. He said if after he draws the fluid off and it comes back, he'll do an MRI, that will show a clearer picture. He told me, for some reason, women can easily damage their knees. He basically said, I could have tripped on "air" and damaged it. Or stepped the wrong way, anything really. He also stressed the importance of staying off this knee until next Monday. uggghhh....that's going to be tough. However, I'm going to try and follow his orders, as I want this better yesterday. lol My new wii game came today, and I made TJ do it, so I can see what's it's all about. It's a great exercise program and it really worked him out. I can't wait to do it for myself. I got several emails from my bloggy friends, thanks so much for your concerns.

Just a mess........

........that's all I have to show

I'm working on several different projects at one time. I tend to do that. If I get bored with something, I'll go to something else. I guess that's how I get UFO's and WIP's.

It's been pretty low key around here lately. It's brutally cold outside. Like in the teens. We've been staying in. We did venture further up the mountain yesterday for a little shopping, they have snow piles in the parking lots that are as high as the buildings. Amazing!

I've done something to my right knee, it's super swollen and hurts like.....well you know, hurts bad! I must get it taken care of right away. I'm expecting a new Wii game I ordered last week to come tomorrow. Wii Sports Active.....gotta get some exercise to continue my weight loss. I've lost 21lbs....so, only about 200 more to go. lol

My very own sewing machine repair man.

calm down

don't be jealous

about every 3 months (or when we remember) he takes my sewing machine apart and cleans it all out, you've heard of dust bunnies, well my machine houses dust cows, their huge

and he oils everything that needs to be oiled (i have no idea what he oils)

just in case you ever wondered what the inside of your sewing machine "might" look like

you too can have your very own sewing machine repair man

Siggy blocks in process..

I've always been intrigued by siggy blocks. I've even had my fabric for my very own siggy blocks for quite some time. I had Hello Betty by Moda. Love this line. It's 1930's repro. So a few days ago on Rachel's blog from ps i quilt she had a siggy block tutorial. I knew this was my chance to start my own blocks. This tutorial is great, simple and easy. I've made probably 30 blocks so far.

NO, I don't know what I'm going to do with them. I don't really want to be in a swap and get siggy blocks from ten-buck-two signed Bernice. I mean that's nice and all, but who is Bernice? Ya know? Then I thought well, I'll mail them to everyone I want to sign my siggy block. Then postage came to mind, and would the person send it back in a timely manner, would they have the right pen to sign it with? Ya know? What's a girl to do?

So........I think I'll put it together just as if it were a "regular" siggy block quilt and "imagine" all my buddies names are signed to it. How does that sound? haha i crack me up sometimes.

And just in case you got a PSP (portable sony playstation) for Christmas and your not sure how you should sit and play it, see below........

my sweet E (sweet most of the time)

Go see my friend!!

Oh how exciting...my friend Debi from here in town has started a blog. She sews, draws and does photography. Her blog should be booming once she gets it going good with all those hobbies. So, head on over to Debi's Sewing and Stuff and show her some blog love.

A Tutorial of sorts....

........or just a better explanation of yesterday's blog of how I did that sweet baby quilt. This is how I learned to quilt, I know it's not the right way. So, please don't anyone alert the quilt police, cause they would be all over this.

I've said these are my favorite types of quilts to make, and I have several in progress. So, I choose one and this is how it goes.....

in this one, I'm using 1" strips. Jan from the UK so kindly cut all these for me and sent them my way. I love Jan!

I sewed the 7 of the 1" strips together and make a block 7x10

Then I took that block and place some batting behind it and quilted just that block.

Then sew those blocks into row and join them to your quilt already in progress. Here I'm showing you the front and back of the quilt. To make a "back" for the quilt, repeat above steps.

I'm terrible at explaining and teaching. Does this make any more sense? Other than, why in the world would you do it that way? It's just what seemed right to me when I was teaching myself. I do sew some stuff the "right" way of quilting. But, like I said yesterday, I really favor this way more. I can only assume it's because it's what I learned first.

I hope this helped everyone!

The batting I use is 100% Polyester Batting

Soft n Crafty

4oz. Weight

comes on a roll 48"x10yards

An OLD UFO Finished.....

Don't you just love the crinkle yummy-ness? I love a quilt after it's been washed and dried. Before you look to closely at this quilt and think "wow, she did a horrible job on this, and WHAT there's two quilting patterns going on there". This was one of my very first quilts I started 5 years ago. Remember, I said I was self taught. This quilt shows that. This is how I did it....I sewed my blocks together to the desired size I wanted, I made up like 20 blocks, and quilted each block separately. Don't know why I taught myself to do it that way, it just seemed right at the time. Then once I've quilted them all, I start sewing my rows. And, I did the back the same way, so it is quilted as well. Then I stitch in the ditch to have the whole quilt intact. Now, I know this isn't the right way, and if it were to ever be entered into a quilt show they would laugh their butts off at me. But, that's OK.......I love it and it works for me. I have learned how to quilt the right way and do that most of the time. However, I have to be honest and say I like my way much, much more. I don't have to worry that during the quilting process the back of the quilt is going to wrinkle or pucker. And, doing them this way I'm able to make much bigger quilts.

Another win prize has arrived to me....

this is it....I won 3 in a row, this is the final prize. How cute are these gingerbread men? I won this from Anette. And Miss. Anette is Jan's daughter. They are great people. Thanks so much for this prize. And.....Gene Black also won from this giveaway.