changed my mind... again

It seems my quilts never really look like i planned them to look when i started. I have been working on the postage stamp quilt for bridgette... and maybe its because im bored with just sewing little 2 1/2 in squares together... or maybe its because i have been drawn to pinwheels lately, even made a couple today with no purpose in mind that will probably end up being potholders or something... but I was reading blogs and came across this... and thought!! THATS IT! so... my postage stamp is changing.

I really like mary's blog but im not sure how to follow it since shes not on blogger.... hmmm...

postage stamp

wow... its a  lot of little squares! I keep cutting squares out of my stash because i think i have enough 2 1/2 inch little buggers and then wow... i dont have very many again! lol... i am the only quilter alive that doesn't have enough scraps!

But i am between 1/3 and 1/2 done... here is a preview... the picture is actually sideways, and i had to take them here at zippys on a cloudy day... but you get the idea.

I can tell as i go along, my skills are improving and my seams are more uniform and are matching up... i guess its what i needed to sew straight!

I still haven't finished the twins quilt... but here is the fabric i bought for the back of one of them.



The hold up on finishing these is buying the batting to do it! It seems like everytime we have the money to go to town to get it, we cant because we are then rushing home to feed horses before it gets dark, (and once were home... were staying put.. and the few times we could go to center to buy what i need, we have had cash flow problems and there wasn't the money to do it right then!

oh well... i will get them done and even if they are late, i will send them!

another start??

Trevor and Landon are 4 year old (yes they are both 4) step brother grandbabies that share a room so i want to make them matching quilts. One birthday is in May the other isn't until september.... so i was going to do them both in may. I also knew i wanted to do something with the red and blue plaid shirts... trevor was the first BOY grandbaby of ralphs and i wanted to make his out the plaid shirts... so last night, an ad in a magazine caught my eye... not even sure what it was an ad for... but this is what im making the boys

cute plaid X's with 3 1/2" squares! This is the third "test" i have done with ideas... i think this one is it!! Im going to call it "paw paw sugars" little X's (kisses) from their paw paw.

ralph must have liked the idea because this morning he gave me two more of his old shirts (one has stains and one has a collar he hates) to use for it...

Phew... it took me 2 days to post a blog entry. I only have internet at work these days and we have been really busy slinging pizza! (thats a good thing, the holidays are always slow!) The other problem is i am ALWAYS working right now. We had two employees that we should have fired and replaced weeks ago... but for some reason we hate letting them go. We finally fired them both the other day, means were short staffed and im working 6 shifts instead of 5... but at least now i KNOW when im going to have to be here and i can plan. i swear every day i had off where i looked forward to sewing, one of them would call in sick and i had to work. it got to where ralph and i were pulling doubles constantly AND working on our day off. It was driving me insane. Tomorrow will be my first day off in what seems like weeks!

3 am idea

i wasn't that excited about the double irish chain because there wasn't enough contrast between the white and the scraps.. and it was too scrappy. So... ive decided that it needs something to be dominant in it. I have decided to make it smaller than planned, add a solid border, a border of flying geese, and more of the solid border. I am not sure what i will use. I have a dark teal sheet i could use but im not in love with it either... i may buy something. But this idea came to me as i was sitting there staring at it at 3 am when i couldn't sleep the other night. Once i decided what i was going to do i went back to bed!

I bought the fabric for the back of one of the twin quilts yesterday... its pink with peace symbols on it. It was one of the better quality fabrics at walmarts marked down to 2.00 per yard. Because of the direction of the fabric i have to piece it longways and i should have alot of scraps from it.

this morning ralph is horseshoeing, he brought me to work early so that i could open... so i have a couple hours to surf quilting blogs... yeah!!!

design wall monday

I have noticed that others kinda have a routine of posting... design wall monday, wip wednesday... i like that idea. Usually im a rebel and refuse to follow anyone and maybe thats a sign of being old... im able to admit when someone else has a good idea... but dont tell ralph that... he will wonder why i never admit when his are good... and that is just plain stubborness.

anyways honsetly there isn't anything on my design wall right now. It is actually a flanell lined tablecloth hung on my hallway wall (the onlyplace i had room at the time) But when we walk by, we blow things off of it so i usually dont leave things on it long.

What was on it when i woke up is the double irish chain im making for Sharons birthday present (April) I only have 15 more chain blocks to make and about 25 4 corner blocks and it will be finished!

i can honestly say im not all that excited about this quilt. It is scrappy and i like scrappy but i think it needs to come together some more before i can fall in love with it. I keep putting it up on the wall... and eh... its ok.

finally pictures!!

Well here it is... Birthday Present number 1!! finished only 4 days late!!

you can see its already on our bed, and ralph wasn't too happy that i was taking pictures of it while he was still in bed... but he got over it! I love it! Its out of plaid shirts, most of them were ralphs. Its just the right amount of warm that we can use it year round.

I wasn't creative on the back. The new walmart in Many LA has muslin backing 108X108 for about 15 and i just bought that! The binding is from some pieces that I had sewn together to use on the back, I cut them into strips and used them for binding, and i did cheat and didn't hand stitch the back... i just sewed it.

I finally have pictures of my other recent finish! The quilt from the scraps that someone gave me. It is being donated to the VA hospital in Houston.

Even the backing and binding were in the box of scraps she gave me.

here are some previews of the fun to come:

how fun... little 9 patch out of 1 1/2 in squares!

and a scrappy double irish chain with 2 1/2 inch squares.

I have been growling at my quilt!

I am new to this machine quilting thing... im not liking it very much at the moment.

First... i cant sew a straight line... on the other one it was easier going from corner to corner because the corners were closer together... on this one im eyeballing it and well... those lines, i meant for them to be curvy! lol.

secondly... my arms hurt from moving the thing around on the table! slide it that way, slide it this way... i was wore out after an hour of that!

third... if that wasn't enough, i had to slide sammy cat around with it... i could NOT keep him off of the thing and half the time i was kicking emma (the dog) off the bottom that was on the floor... they didn't make it any easier.

BUT... i have about 20 min left of sewing and Ralphs Birthday present will be quilted and i will just have to bind it. I am hoping to finish by tuesday... lol... then it will only bee 1 week late!

today im working a double... tomorrow just in the morning then i have saturday off... hopefully i can find the time to finish over the next couple days...

I ordered the battery for the camera and I should get it tomorrow or saturday... i cant wait to take pics!