April Finishes

Talk about squeezing in under the wire! Just finished the last of the 7 Easter wall hangings! Most of these will go out as Christmas presents, and of course I'll keep one! That takes care of my Christmas present goal for April. As for WISPs, I had drawn these out 3 -4 yrs ago when I decided to make a different wall hanging for each month. Originally I was going to applique the eggs, but that always takes me forever, so after several practice eggs with scraps, I got the size I wanted and went from there. On paper I had the ric rack in between the eggs, but family said the eggs were too plain, so I put the ric rack on the eggs! I used alot of scraps from another project that I'm actually not done with (Whooops) so the holders are different based on the size of the scraps. I had four eggs left at the end, so I made the two little ones last, and now I think I may like that size best!! My charity project this month was the Lucky Stars Quilt of Valor. I was very good this month and did NOT purchase any new fabric, I used 16 3/4 yds of fabric, including 2 bindings for the guild QOVs!! Between planting flowers, my son's play, getting ready for a neighborhood yard sale I think I did o.k. this month. I hope it rains alot in May - we need it,and I need to spend more time at my sewing machine AND my longarm!

Lucky Stars Quilt of Valor

Well, here it is finally, a picture of my quilt of valor that I did from start to finish! I don't know if previously mentioned that it was from Red, white & blue homespun fat quarters that I had collected over the years. I love how it turned out and that's a pretty fat & easy pattern, although you wouldn't know it considering how long I've taken to get it done! We'll see how the next couple go! I have another lapquilt size one cut out from red, white & blue civil war fabrics, and a baby size cut out using fun, bright colors. For the month of May, my goal is to sew at least one of the star blocks together each day. If that gets me into the sewing room for a little bit every day, that will be half the battle! I must run for now, I have some odds and ends to finish up so that I can say that I have some Christmas presents done for this month! (another one of my monthly goals).

Where have I been??

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! I wish I could say I have been sewing up a storm all this time, but that is not the case. Unfortunately I had a nasty virus right before, during and a bit after Easter. Then the kids were off for spring break, Hubby took off a few days and we went to a few local nautical museums etc., tons of walking and the heat was brutal - up in the 90's already! It just wore me out! I was soooooo glad when Monday came and the kids, dear hubby, and the heat WENT!! It's much cooler now, but still so busy. I had Quilt guild on the 9th, I turned in 3 finished quilts of valor (Pictures above). I love how different these quilts can be. The first two are redwork combined with "orphan" blocks that people turn in. the 3rd is a lovely scrap quilt that someone made, the QOV's can be in any color! I also finished my very own quilt of valor. I used Atkinson Designs "Lucky Stars", but ran out of fabric for the pillowcase, so I am looking for that before I actually send it away. I love how the label turned out, I used the clippings from the flying geese to make the pinwheels, then just added the muslin. I even remembered to write down the instructions so I don't have to reinvent the wheel next time! I finished quilting Gram's green & brown quilt, bound it, and it's on it's way to Massachusetts! I also finished the borders for her rail fence and am sewing the backing together today, I would LOVE to have it loaded on the longarm by tonight, so I can quilt it tomorrow - but we'll see! I was asked to be the Co-chair of the Quilt of Valor committee, and of course I couldn't say no, so I've been pretty busy with that! We had a QOV workshop on the 14th, many more signature blocks were completed, backings sewn, tops put together. I have two to quilt, one to bind, and a few to cut the batting for. (I'm in charge of the batting now) Jeepers, it's almost the weekend already?? Arrrggghhh! Better upload some photos and get cracking. Hope you have a great weekend! Ooops, I can't find the photo of my QOV!! just the label! LOL! Instead, here is Gram's quilt, and I guess I'll take a picture and post it later! Silly me!