African violets and milk glass

Last year I was in need of some new pots for my African violets.  I really enjoy starting new plants from the original plant that my mother-in-law gifted me.  I have always loved knobby milk glass so why not put the two together.  They have become some of my favorite things!

Back to my Applique

After several weeks away from working on my red and green quilt,  I am ready to dive back into working on blocks.  I find it very relaxing to stitch away on these blocks. I am trying to incorporate blocks that have meaning in my life. The block I am currently working on is a tulip block. There is a dutch heritage on my husbands side of the family, and I love to garden so it is a very fitting block.  I am currently working on the leaves,  I can't wait to get to the actually flowers to add some color to this block.

Ugly Potholders!

I decided this week that my potholders are ugly.  The sad part is I remember purchasing them some time back and I wasn't  really happy with my choices but desperately needed some new ones so I made the purchase.  Yesterday, I remembered downloading Priscilla Hewitt's Scalloped Potholder Pattern.  I also had some leftover cotton yarn from a dish cloth knit-a-thon I had last summer.  So last night, I located the pattern and got out my crochet hook.  Cleaning and organizing my sewing room last summer, made this task possible.  I had to add that tidbit, cause it has made such a difference in finding things when I need them and being able to get projects done in a timely manner.

The potholder has two sides which makes it very thick.  I finished the project up this morning and am so pleased with the results.  First off, it is so pretty and secondly it fits so comfortably in my hand and feels so soft.  I can't wait to pick up some more yarn so I can make a few more.  Instead of having a drawer full of ugly potholders I will be able to open my drawer to a wonderful flower garden of potholders, that I know will make me smile.  Now back to my quilting!

Sunflowers

I started this wall hanging about ten years ago.  Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries is the designer.  It is always such a great feeling to finally finish something.

In my sewing room

I am so excited that I accomplished my goal of finishing another twenty klosjes while on a road trip last week.  I actually almost have a second set of twenty more done, so that means I am nearing the sixty mark.
Once I reach 100 klosjes big decisions will need to be made on the background fabrics.  All of the klojes are in shades of pink, and I am leaning to using browns for the background.

As for this week, I hope to finish hand quilting a wall hanging that I machine appliqued close to a decade ago.  The pattern is from a Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries. I love sunflowers and I was very happy with how it turned out. It is great  that my hand quilting abilities have finally caught up so now I can finish this project.

Wonky Nine Patch

When I first started to quilt, my dream was to be able to machine quilt.  There was a day when machine quilting was frowned at, but in recent years it is acceptable.  There are many talented long armers that do wonderful and breath taking work.  I know I will never be one of them, since my first attempts at machine quilting were quite disappointing.  I still wanted to create quilts, so I set out to learn to hand quilt.  Not to my surprise it is my favorite part of quilting.  I have mentioned before that hand quilting is relaxing and therapeutic for me.

 Hand quilting takes time and patience and I didn't have either when I started this quilt.  So, I decided that I would attempt to machine quilt this one. My first attempt was aweful, and I spent an afternoon picking out the stitches.  I thought about big stitching it, but my heart wasn't into that either. I have really never done big stitching and this being a baby quilt, I didn't want to chance little toes or fingers get caught up in the stitches.

Time was running out and I decided to try my hand at machine quilting.  I  tried to break it down to something that would make this manageable for me. So I came up with idea to stitch a motif on each wonky nine patch and if I could master one block then I should be able to finish the quilt eventually.  So what better than wonky five pointed stars on wonky nine patches.  I am happy with the results.  I may try something like this on a top I made several years ago our of scraps.  It is hard to hand quilt over a lot of seams so this may be the solution.

Klosjes

Hand quilting and hand stitching is therapy for me, so over the Memorial Day weekend I took along precut pieces to stitch on the trip to Texas.  I plan to do the same for the next trip we take in July to TN.  It is nice to have something to keep my fingers busy on the long trips.
These klosjes will be appliqued onto 6.5 in blocks which will then be stitched together to make a quilt top.  I am using all pink fabrics for the actual spools, but I haven't decided about what I will use for the background block. I have thought about browns or may just go scrappy. Time will tell, and it will be awhile before I get enough of these together to make a quilt top.

Grandkids

Not sure where the time goes, but somehow it escapes me. My husband and I spent the weekend in Texas visiting our children and their families.  I brought my camera along to get some updated photos of grand kids, but I must admit I didn't do very well, but that is ok, I was busy enjoying them.  I did capture the two youngest in their kiddie pool in Austin.  They are so very  busy at this age, they kept me hopping.  I really enjoyed playing with play dough that Grandpa helped make, splashing in the pool and of course the many many pictures we drew on the patio with side walk chalk.