It's Been a Few Days . . .

I kind of let the blog sit silent for a few days. My niece came to visit last week, I had a quilt to load onto the frame (pictures in the near future), we went to a wedding and reception on Saturday, and yesterday was spent sitting on the couch watching TV and crocheting crosses (no, I didn't make all these yesterday!).

These crosses are about 4" high and are given out at the time of baptism, along with the baptism certificate. We have a good supply on hand, but I decided that this year I'd make at least two a month - if the call comes from the church that more are needed, I want to be ready. I hadn't made any in July, so that was yesterday's project. I just finished starching them, and when they're dry, I'll glue on the rose. I just love these!

The wedding was a lovely event. The couple requested that we all wear red, white, and blue and they carried that theme out themselves. Female members of the wedding party wore either red, white, or blue dresses; the reception decorations were all in RW&B; and in keeping with a 4th of July theme, the food was hamburgers, brats, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, etc. It was a wonderful day! The couple is older and they are merging two households. Deciding there was little they needed, I guess, they asked that in lieu of gifts we make a donation to the local food bank. I thought that was a great idea, especially since so many food banks are running low this year.

My next project - before I get back to the quilt on the frame - is to come up with a program for our church circle this month. A few months ago I demo'd the Disappearing 9-Patch and Warm Wishes to show how a simple block can look more complicated than it is. These are patterns I like to use for the quilts I make to be donated to the church or Quilts for Kids or wherever they end up going. We've had programs on binding and on making placemats and table toppers, so I want to find something a little different. Wish me luck!

Thanks for joining me in My Pieceful Corner,

Louise

Happy Saturday!

First, a note about Friday. We had dinner with friends at Kava House in Swisher, Iowa, last night. If you're in the area and haven't been there, please give it a try. They have fabulous sandwiches - and the desserts! Well, we've been known to drive down just for a piece of dessert and cup of coffee. I really should have taken a picture of the pastry cabinet to share with you.


I haven't had anything I didn't like, but I really like the Granny Gobbler (although last night I had a Reuben). Hubby tried the Kava Hot Roast Beef and said it was great. I had to try a taste of the raspberry horseradish that came on his sandwich - good stuff!


So what's on your to-do list today? Whatever it is, I hope you're able to stay cool while doing it! It's another hot one here, but we may be in for a little relief next week (although still no rain). 


I have a quilt ready to be quilted, but I have to add extensions to the backing to give me enough extra to load it onto the quilting machine. That's what I should be doing right now, but I guess I'm procrastinating. It's just one of those pain-in-the-patootie things I don't like to do. 


Instead, I've been looking up recipes on the computer (we're having Baked Parmesan Swai for dinner, in case you're curious), checking Google Reader and Facebook, and generally finding other things to do. 


Maybe I should do laundry. My washer and dryer are in my sewing room, and if I stay in there and sew while doing laundry, I actually get it (the laundry) done in a short period of time. If I leave and do something else, I forget to check to see when a load is done, and it has been known to sit in the washer or dryer for a couple of days. So, if I go do laundry, I might actually get the additional fabric sewn onto the backing. Then I could get it loaded and spend tomorrow quilting. The whole problem is that I wanted to spend today quilting and do laundry tomorrow. 


I think I've talked myself into it! Laundry/sewing room, here I come!


Thanks for stopping by My Pieceful Corner,
Louise

Just Starting Out . . .

I've been thinking about blogging for a while now, but just never moved beyond the thinking stage. Do I really have anything important to say or share? Not really, but I still wanted a venue for sharing my love of quilting. I won't guarantee or promise that my ramblings will be limited to quilting, but you can always skip them if you want. So, with all that being said . . .


As already stated, I do love to quilt. The only part of the whole process I really don't like is basting the three layers together, and that was pretty much eliminated from my life when I was lucky enough to get an APQS quilting machine a few years ago. I don't have a favorite part of quilting - I love the piecing (when it's going smoothly), the quilting, and the binding. And I especially like the part where you get to wrap up in the quilt for the first time!

Since this is my first post, I thought I'd share a couple of recent projects. This first one is a quilt made by Joyce - she made the top and I did the quilting. Joyce is great to work with - she makes a lot of tops, and her instructions for quilting are usually, "Do what you want." It doesn't get much better than that!

This is the back.

And this is the top, of course.

And in this one you can see the quilting design a little better.

This next one was made for my great niece. Sometimes you see a pattern, and you know you have to make the quilt - this was one of those. She had a book about tumbling monkeys that she loved, so this quilt was perfect for her. I hope she uses it until it's threadbare!

Last, but not least, I decided this year was the year to make a table runner or table topper for each season/holiday. Sounds good, right? I missed New Year's/winter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, spring . . . you get the idea! The 4th of July was approaching quickly, and I was running out of time to do any piecing. I needed to finish quilting a couple of pieces for clients, and then I got to work. I spent a couple of afternoons piecing (the block design is based on the Fireworks block from Quilter's Cache), an afternoon quilting, and an evening binding. At 9:56 p.m. on July 3, the runner was on the table! And we'll leave it there all during July!

It looks right at home on my table.

Here's a closeup of my fireworks quilting design.

I guess that's about enough for my first time out. I really do have good intentions of writing something regularly - maybe just to say hi, maybe to show you a WIP, maybe to share some of my knitting and crocheting projects. So I'll leave now, but I'll be back . . .


From My Pieceful Corner, 
Louise