Button, buttons and more buttons

 

 

Someone mentioned loving buttons on facebook the other day. There are probably LOADS of button savers out there.

My grandmother started me out as a child with my love of collecting these beauties. She would give us her button tin to play with... a good way to keep us busy and quiet. I still have her tin of buttons plus my own and now jars and jars of buttons.

The box on the left belonged to grandmas also. She kept her card buttons in this box. This was the SERIOUS button box. We'd dig through this one for our blouses, pjs, jumpers... whatever. The button tin was the ODD buttons.. the ones she would take off old clothing before cutting up the clothes for utility quilts....the single buttons and a few other odds & ends. She also had a button hook, some thimbles, googly eyes... just fun odd things. Lots of good memories in that tin!

This quilt is one of those utility quilts (or camping quilts) that she made from the cut up clothing. It's falling apart but I'm not going to fix it. I want it to be just like she made it. If you look in the lower right hand corner, you can see a peek of the old blanket she used as "batting". She didn't waste a thing.

"Found" quilt top

My sister found this quilt top at an estate sale in a bag of fabric... she didn't realize it was in there. It's between a lap and a twin. I added the border, quilted it for her and am now binding it. She doesn't know I'm doing that (well, she didn't but if she reads this she will). Going to surprise her with it when I get back downstate in a few days.

Al and I are up north for a few days ...he needs to catch up on some work and I needed to pack Xmas away and clean. We'll be heading back down to be with Mom soon. She's in a nursing home and is pretty stable but still on a vent. We'd love to get her back home.

Aunt Grace's Garden Party for mom

This is the Aunt Grace's Garden Party Block of the Month quilt I did a while back as a shop sample and class. I'm giving it to mom as a Christmas present. She saw it when I was just about done with the top and loved the colors. 

Lately I've been neglecting this blog but mom has been pretty sick and I'm staying downstate with dad so that I can be with mom at the hospital. She was just moved to a rehab nursing home. Now it's time to head home for a few days to celebrate Christmas with Al and our girls (and my new son-in-law). Mom is stable now after a very scary week. She's a super strong lady... been through so much and just keeps going and fighting. I have complete confidence that she will get past this set back. My brothers from CA are in to stay and visit for a bit... that's cheering up both mom and dad.

Hope all of you out there have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas projects, pillowcases and more

This is a Christmas quilt that I just started working on... it's been in my TO DO box for quite a while.

         

 

In 2008 I did a swap with some online friends and received the cornerstones which are foundation pieced ornaments. The in 2009 I participated in a stocking swap and finally in 2010, I won a drawing we did on a forum which gave me the red and green pieced blocks.

 

This year I decided to put all of them together in one quilt. The greens are different from each other and so are the reds plus there are white backgrounds, cream backgounds and some that are an in-between color.

 

 

Sashing it with a red dot keeps the blocks separated enough that this color difference doesn't seem to matter, and to incorporate the ornaments, I either had to put a bunch together to make a block or make my sashing wide enough to use the for cornerstones... I decided on the latter or course.

 

The more I work on this, the more I like it. If it gets done this year or next doesn't matter to me... I just want to get it going. This will be a very special quilt for me... has the dates, signatures and location of many quilters that I've swapped with over the years... lots of memories, you know?

 

 

Now this is what I'm MOSTLY working on... the Marmalade Spools quilt... I love playing with this one. The colors are bright and cheerful.

 

I picked up this aqua polka dot at the quilt shop today. After checking the pattern to see the finished size of this quilt I thought it could use a border going around it to bring it up to a twin size. So that's what the dot is for... I'll probably use the aqua floral for the back...maybe...

 

 

And finally, this cute snowman fabric below is for a pillowcase. Instead of the regular size, I'm making it king sized. I just use a full yard for the main part instead of the usual 3/4 of a yard. It's for a twin bed that has a king size pillow on it. Isn't it cute?

Worth it's weight in GOLD :)

We were chatting this morning on Facebook about the time we put into our quilts and crafts and it brought to mind this tablecloth I bought a while back at a Goodwill. I paid about $4 for it. It's a full sized cloth, fits my table perfectly, but I don't use it ...EVER. There is a TON of work into it and I know I could never replace it if it should get stained.

What really gets me is that someone took this treasure and donated it. After all the work that was put into it! I'm not sure if a family member made it or if it was brought back from Japan during the war, or what BUT someone put hours and hours into it.

I took a couple of close-ups so you could see the work. There are designs all ove this cloth, plus there's a matching card table sized cloth with it.

Check out the bridge... it's all done as pulled stitches (not sure what this type of stitching is called). And under the bridge there are some lines of pulled stitches. Then the cloth wasn't just hemmed, it has more stitching all the way around, pulled stitches again. Just amazing.

Christmas Block Frenzy

We do a "Block Frenzy" at Hearts to Holly... it's a drawing every month and a half. You make a 12" finished size block using the selected fabric line and for every block you make, your name goes into the pot.. make any block you like. If your name is pulled you win all the blocks.

Well, on Saturday Cassidy won the Santa blocks. I made her one extra... I didn't have mine done in time for the draw but finished it today. Congrats, Cassidy!

Two finished quilts this week

This week saw TWO finishes! The quilt above is for Al's friend that lives in Colorado. Al says he'll go nuts for it. His whole log cabin is decorated with moose, bear and wildlife pictures and statues. This is a large lap or a small twin.

And this is a baby quilt that I made as a sample for Hearts to Holly Quilt shop. They have this cute flannel in Take Five kits.... it's all pre-cut pieces so all you have to do is start stitching. It went together very quickly. I used Fig Tree minky on the back... a very soft and pretty cream. This should be nice for a future grandchild.

Christmas Ornament Mug Rug

This is my newest pattern and its FREE (don't you just love that word).... A Christmas Ornament Mug Rug Instructions.

 

And here's the template you'll need..

 

Ornament Template 

These are quilt as you go... no binding and no handsewing :)

I'm going to be posting a tutorial online later today. They're super easy. They're wonderful to decorate with also. My bathroom shower curtian looks so much more festive with this that I'm going to make a few more to hang on it.

Get a ribbon and string one on a door handle, tuck a magnet into the top, topstitch around the gold top piece to keep the magnet in place and then hang on the fridge. 

They're also good to add onto a present... write a nice message on the back... AND if you have an embroidery machine, how about stitching Merry Christmas on the front piece before adding it in!

I added a metal loop to mine but if you get a little bit of gold elastic or cording, you could catch it in the top seam and have the same look :) Enjoy!!

Green projects and EASY pillow backs

While working on my civil war lone stars, I noticed I was getting quite a pile of triangular scraps. I decided to put some together in a crazy quilt block... minus the embroidery. This is the pillow below...very easy... just 6" blocks, sashed and quilted... then made into a pillow.

 

Putting zippers into pillows doesnt really bother me, but I found that using old shirts is quicker and much more GREEN.

 The shirts have been cut up (they're all cotton) and put away in my box of plaid scraps but the center of the shirt, the button area, usually ends up in the garbage.

With the civil war quilt, I picked a dark green and cream plaid, left about an 1-1/2" after the buttons and button holes, cut two pieces of coordinating solid and attached it to the shirt button area. Then I cut it into a square, the same size as my front piece. Stitched it to the front (right sides together), all the way around (used 1/2" seam) and the pillow was done... EASY!

 

For the challenge project in Hearts to Holly's spring challenge, I made this cat pillow. Usually when I'm at a resale shop I'll keep an eye out for linen or other really nice fabric. They had an xxl dress on the markdown rack (for about 1.99) that was all linen. This gave me the front AND the back for the challenge pillow.

 

 

The dress buttoned all the way up from the hem to the neck so it was a perfect back. And the back of the dress was just one HUGE piece of linen... I still have loads left over to make a few more projects.

Chain stitching Log Cabin blocks for a border

Today I had a chance to work on all three of my current projects. Did some applique until, as usual, my hands starting acting up. Well, what to do but get working on the sewing machine.

 
The quilt that I'm making for Al's Colorado friend needed 22 log cabin blocks around the center, as a border. These were easy to chain stitch and so were finished pretty quickly... yes, that's a sangria next to my sewing machine... maybe that's why the time flew... hehe, hope my stitching looks as good to me tomorrow as it does today :)

Only one more border to go... a plain beige one... and it'll be ready for me to baste and quilt.  

Cranberry centerpiece

 You ever have a party or big get-together and just before everyone is supposed to arrive you decide to throw together a fast decoration? Well, I wanted to have a candle in the middle of the island where I was serving food. Checking out PINTEREST, I found some nice ideas using dried beans, peas, nuts, cranberries, etc surrounding a candle. Figuring this is a super quick and easy project, I got my pie weight dried peas, some dried northern beans and a bag of cranberries.

Well, when I turned my back for JUST A SECOND, the bag of dried pies dumped itself ALL over the kitchen floor... this was just minutes before the first guest arrived. I'm probably going to be finding dried peas everywhere. Glad I did it though, most of my guests loved this centerpiece. This is good for Christmas since it's red, white and green.

Nothing to post this time about quilting, today was all about cooking, cleaning and baking. Yesterday, I did do a little stitching, made three quick 10-minute table runners for the party....just didn't get a picture of them. Hearts to Holly has quite a few of these kits and they really are 10 minute sewing projects.