A Quilty Christmas 2014

 Here is all the family posing for another Packer Christmas photo.  Only person missing is Christopher (my nephew) who was sleeping hard and would not wake up!  We did all go in the bedroom and pose with him so he wouldn't be left out!

See, here we all are nodding off with him between fits of laughter.  He slept through it all!

 Mac, Hannah and Coleman also each got their Quiltville quilts!  Mac has Scrappy Mountain Majesties, Hannah has My Blue (Purple) Heaven and Coleman has the flimsy for Moth in the Window--I need to add a few more rows and get it quilted, but Coleman didn't mind waiting for it a bit longer.

I have really enjoyed having all three kids here for Christmas this year!  They have turned into such amazing people and it has been fun catching up with them in real time!

 Kathy surprised me with this Go Baby...now to order a few dies so I can use it!  So happy that Terri upgraded and Kathy decided we needed one!

 Yesterday we took a road trip and along with way I wound up at Love it Again in Prescott.  They were having a buy one get one free sale and their prices are great anyway since it is a second hand shop.  I got all of this fabric (over ten yards) for $35.00!  I also got a 5 dollar "coin" to use like cash when I go up for quilt camp!

 Finally came home tonight and was itching to get sewing.  I haven't started clue 5 for Grand Illusion, but my brain is so tired I decided to wait on that.  I put together one of the little "Christmas Past and Presents" mini mystery quilts from Temecula Quilt Company I added sashing all around because I like it better that way.  Love it, one more to go!

A Green Machine, A Repair, and a Few Bindings!

 My friend Barb saw that we bought a vintage machine the other day and offered up this vintage Singer 185J to me for a price I could not pass up.  She came home with me and Kathy is sewing on her until we get hers up and running.  She thinks we should call her Mrs. Hulk, but I am open to better suggestions!
I still don't have my laptop and this old one moves the curser constantly when I type so I will keep the words to a minimum, ugh!

My sister's great dane ate her quilt.  I did not want to repair it.  It has been at my house for a good long time.  I decided to gift her the repair for Christmas.  I am wrapping this one up again!

 I did the best I could--was able to match but my quilting sucks!  From afar it isn't too bad!

 I made and attached binding on both My Purple Heaven for Hannah and Scrappy Mountain Majesties for Mac.  I still need to sew more blocks for Coleman's Moth in the Window.

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I have also worked some on Grand Illusion clue two.  Here are forty done..I have ten more that need one more seam and press, then I will be half way through clue two.  We are off to go hiking shortly and I will be sewing again tonight.  First I have to cut that other half!  Slow and steady!

My Blue (Purple) Heaven!



 Ros just posted she finished quilting My Purple Heaven!  Pattern is at Quiltville (My Blue Heaven) for free.  My daughter Hannah will be getting this one since purple is her favorite color and she doesn't mind a bit when I gift her with a quilt.  I started it for Coleman's fiance but then they split up.  They are sort of back together again but meanwhile I reassigned this quilt.  Oh well!  Maybe she will get one one day. 

 Ros does the most fantastic job quilting my quilts, I am so thankful I found her!  She even adds a label right on the backing for me now!  So nice to have that and the number of the quilt it is (252) for all those who find it in the future! 

She even credits Bonnie Hunter, thanks Ros! 

Hodge Podge and Red!

 I made the backing and a matching pillowcase for Lexi to go with her Purple Heaven Quilt this morning.  I also drooled over this modern BOM coming up soon.  I am so tempted to order the kit and make this, though I need to play with the fabric I have!

 I did make a few lozenge leaders and enders in red so I can link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

 I made another Wild and Goosey block (I think I am one behind still on my goal of one a week--hoping to get that in this weekend!  Funny how little goals like that really do help move a project along!)

 Kathy took my quilt out to take pictures for me.  She cut off the borders, didn't take the pictures on the rocks, etc.  I give her credit for trying since it is 110 out there and really bright so she couldn't even see the pictures on her phone but I will be doing this again later today or tomorrow.  I have been sewing in my pj's all day and I need to work out before I shower and at this rate the sun may be down by the time I am decent!

Two Flimsy's Together!

 Randy got back from visiting Rachel (my honorary daughter) in Norway.  He took her a few books from me for baby Leon and some handmade dishcloths and a candle for Rachel.  In turn, they sent home some Indian food (chicken mahkani--delicious in a box, why oh why don't we have it here in the USA?) and some fabric.  They discovered if they go to the secondhand store they can find fabric for semi decent prices (everything in Norway is EXPENSIVE to use Americans).  So I got a pillow case, a curtain and two large chunks of fabric.  Really nice Winnie the Pooh stuff!  The other sort of looks like a toile.  All of it will wind up used again.

 It has been a crazy week and both Kathy and I finally got a chance to come up and sew the borders on our flimsies at about 9 PM tonight!  We will take better pictures outside tomorrow but here are the indoor photos.  Kathy's is above and is for her great nephew Noah who is eight and lives in New York.  He needs a big boy quilt so this is it.  Kathy is planning to quilt it herself--it will be the first big quilt she tries to do on the domestic machine, but Noah will not mind if it isn't perfect!

 Meanwhile, I had to take off the border I hastily put on the other day (pin, always pin!).  I had forgotten that I didn't quite make this as large as Bonnie's but I made my borders the same size as Bonnie's.  So um, ya some unsewing and resewing was going on tonight.  I will say that somehow three of the four sides perfectly fit my borders but the first one which I unsewed needed about a half inch extra fabric to make it all come together.  I am over the moon that it is finally made (started this one at Bonnie's My Blue Heaven workshop in Tuscon in February!) and Lexi is happy with it too.

 Here are the backing fabrics.  Will get that together tomorrow and get it bagged up for Ros when she gets back to town.  I know she will put the final amazing finishing touches on it!

I am so looking forward to two days of sewing!  I need to get started on my Santa Swap Sack partner's sack and gifts.  They need to be mailed around Thanksgiving and it will be here before I know it!  I have a list of cool things I can make but if you have any fab suggestions (or links to tutorials) on stuff you would love if you were my swapper comment them to me please!

Sunday Sewing

 Still a block behind on my make a wild and goosey each week goal, but here is one more.  I am sewing on the Viking Husqvarna machine and it isn't nuts for paper piecing (or I don't know how to set it so it is) so I made it through one block before doing some quilting studio cleaning.

 After serious dusting, wiping, sweeping and lunch I decided I really needed to get to cutting out the purples for my final border on My Blue/Purple Heaven quilt.  I had some already cut and it took forever to get those sewn together so I took Bonnie's advice and cut with the fabric right sides together (in a stack of four fabrics) and they went through the machine so much faster when I didn't have to stop and match up triangles first!

 So here is the stack of some ironed, some not (none trimmed) and hopefully they total the 86 blocks I need for the pieced borders.  I hope to get that done this week or next weekend, then I can whip up the backing and binding and get this one off to Ros for quilting!

I have really enjoyed lots of sewing time this weekend, now I need to get on my elliptical and treadmill and get some steps in--it is 4 PM and I have 243.  Sewing does not burn calories!

My Blue/Purple Heaven Gets a Border

I got the first border on today.  I still have lots of the outer border to cut and make, saving that for another day!

Kathy and I also decided to remake our ipod cases (Coleman was happy to have my other one, his ipod fit perfectly!) and I liked my fabrics so much I used the same ones.  It fits great now after adding an inch on to the length of the pattern and a half inch to the flap.
Downloaded tons of music to my ipod today, because I borrowed some of Randy's CD's to do so.  I have ABBA on there now and that is some great music to exercise too.  I did another thirty minutes on the bike and twenty on the elliptical before taking a bath and now I am all worn out early!

Productive Sewing Saturday!

I finally got the center together for My Blue/Purple Heaven!  It is 7x9.  I need to get borders on it next!  I am really happy with how it looks and Lexi loves it too!

 Kathy whipped up this little quilt for AZ Quilts for Kids.  She brought home a few kits again and this is the first.  Cannot go wrong with all that purple!

 I decided I should try to get back on doing a few Wild and Goosey blocks each month so that I can continue to make progress on that quilt.  I have tons of little scraps to choose from...the cut off parts from the lozenges fit many of these spots perfectly, so each month I am getting more colors to pic from!

 Yesterday we picked up the 35th Ave. Traditions BOM.  Last night while watching movies (Diary of Anne Frank--Kathy had never seen it! and some shipwreck documentaries) I cut and sewed my block.  Not much contrast in some of it, but it is what it is!

And to round out my productive sewing day I also made quite a few green lozenges.  I have lots more green to go!
Well, I have already biked for thirty minutes and am ready to get back to sewing.  This week I lost 2.8 pounds for a total of 30 lost!  Trying to take it day by day, lately it seems harder than it was!

My Purple Heaven and an Ipod Case!

 I added a few more rows to My Blue/Purple Heaven!  I also finished the rest of the star blocks!  They still need pressing and trimming and to be put into rows and added, but I imagine I can get that done this week!
Kathy and I decided to try making ourselves an ipod case tonight too.  I found one I really liked on etsy, but I didn't want to spend 23 dollars on it when I knew I could make one.  So I searched the web and found a cool blog at Dog Named Banjo with a free tutorial.  She had lots of great pictures so even I could follow along.  Her ipod is a titch smaller than mine so I should have made it a little bigger, but didn't realize til it was too late.  I may make another later on bigger, but for now I am happy to have a case for free!

Sewing and Knitting with Becky!

Becky came over tonight for a few hours and we did some gabbing and watched some DIY network.  I seem to get into that every Spring for awhile.  Becky was knitting and finished up a pretty scarf that is more intricate than I would try.
I worked on My Blue (Purple) Heaven.  I made enough star blocks to add two more rows.  I also cut and sewed more parts for the last twelve star blocks I need to make.  I am SO happy that I have gotten back to this one.
I see Angela has posted a few more purple blocks so I plan to hit those in the morning before getting right back to this!

Purple Marches On!

I have been rather stalled on My Blue (Purple) Heaven from the Bonnie Hunter workshop last February.  Pattern is here:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/my-blue-heaven.html so I thought I should just start putting the blocks I had done into a quilt top so that I might be further motivated to finish up the twenty something stars I need to sew!  Bug jumped right on for a photo too!

 I caught up on the last two Quilt Cam's that I missed which was fun!  Bonnie even mentioned me on the second one, though I was working and not playing with her as I prefer to do!  I looked around my messy of stack of stuff and thought I needed to cut more of the larger purple triangles before i could do any more blocks.  So as you see on the computer above I cut a bunch.  Then I promptly found this stack below--all cut and sewn together for centers for all the rest of the blocks I need.  HA, I should not leave projects half done without leaving myself a note!

 I made a few more stars...

And lots of lozenges.  Kathy piled up a bunch of stuff but that is how we roll.  I am almost out of purple lozenges...good thing since we are almost to the next color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! I will be linking up when I get a chance with SoScrappy!

And one more row is on--tomorrow is charity sewing all day but I hope to get back to star blocks in the late afternoon and maybe, just maybe move this quilt along!  OOOOH happy accident, I just looked at the borders for this quilt and I will be using those extra triangles I cut tonight--WHOOT WHOOT!

In other news, I lost 3.6 pounds this week for a total of 27. something!  My fitbit really helps keep me moving and I even made it to 11,000 something steps yesterday for a new record!  Kathy has also lost 25 pounds, and now my sewing friend Becky has joined up and she has already lost 12!  Hope your weekend is quilty!

My Blue--Purple--Heaven Makes a Reappearance!

 After sewing up my four aqua/teal blocks and doing a bit of strip cutting I finally got out "My Purple Heaven" which has been hanging out since the Tuscon workshop awhile back patiently waiting for me to get back to it.  This one is for Lexi (Coleman's fiance).  I only made a few more blocks, did some more cutting and made some parts.

This is where I stopped off for the evening to watch "The Wolf of Wall Street."  It would not work in our DVD player in the quilting studio, but works in the bedroom.  So time to put my feet up!  I am excited that the color for April's Rainbow Scrap Challenge is purple, so I will do my best to get this quilt done in addition to my other purples.  Pretty sure I have decided to stop making the Trash to Treasure blocks....I have made three and they aren't uniform enough for me..I don't like them!  So they will go in a backing or something and I will just keep on with the other RSC stuff I have going on for now.

I also added another border to the modern medallion quiltalong.  It is now 35.5 inches square.  No idea what to do next, have been thinking on it all day with still no real idea!  Feel free to leave me suggestions!