Jewelry, flags and CWLL

Another quick post today.  Here are a few of our newest pins...

My latest project is flags...lots of flags!  Which is a great thing, because they are for an order from the Paducah Quilt Museum!  I'm very excited about that - wish I could deliver them in person!

And a few more of my CWLL blocks for you to see...

Now I better get back to my flags!

Have a great day...

Still more Civil War Love Letter blocks

Good Morning!  Can you believe it is snowing again?  I'm sure it will be gone in a couple of hours, but you would think Mother Nature would play nice one of these days.

This is going to be a quick post just to show you a couple more of my CWLL blocks:

Yikes...this one is a little bit busy!

That's all for now! 

Have a great day!!!

Spring?

Even though Mother Nature isn't giving us spring weather quite yet (snow in the forecast tomorrow!) - I thought I would do my part and give you a little bit of spring...

 These are a few pendants that we finished yesterday.  Right now these are the only tulips at my house!  If you want a little spring for yourself, these will be posted on my website this morning.

Here is another finish.  I would like to tell you that it is a recent finish, but it's not!  I bought this kit at the AQS show in Des Moines a year and half ago.  I think I made it right away, but as usual...it's not quilted yet.  I was working on my quilt journal this weekend and realized that I had not taken a picture of this one...

I love the colors - red, black and tan and baskets are one of my favorite quilt patterns - right up there with log cabins.  I'll get this quilted one of these days!

I also wanted to share a beautiful stained glass window that my Mom made for us several years ago.  When she made it, she was sneaky and measured our windows to make it to fit perfectly.  When we tore down the old house and re-built - we made sure that we had a window that same size to put it back in.  I love it...

It looks striped with the blind closed behind it, but I thought that would be less distracting than having it open.  As you can see, lots of bevels - very nice!

Below, look at Ozzie - in the basket, looking like he is ready for a nice, long nap.

Oh, but here comes some trouble - look who's stalking him...

Not nice!  All he wants to do is take a nap for heaven's sake!  She tormented him forever until finally...

he decided to forget about the nap.  But she wouldn't let up and leave him alone...

Oh no, I think he is contemplating ending it all!

No Ozzie!!!  Don't do it!  Don't jump!  It will be ok, she will grow up some day!!!!!

She looks satisfied, doesn't she?  She finally pushed him over the edge (literally).  She doesn't need to be so happy about it.
And look who is sitting by idly, minding her own business like usual...

That's right...Little Miss CC.  You would have thought she could help poor Ozzie, but I think she was remembering all those times when he chased her around the house.

Poor Ozzie.  But wait...

There he is.  Fat and sassy.  He must have just used one of his 9 lives to scare Callie into leaving him alone.  Do you think it worked? 

So much drama!  More Civil War Love Letter blocks tomorrow.

Have a great day...

Be sure to vote!

Have you seen the Golden Quilting Awards?  Go to SewCalGal's website to check it out, and be sure to vote!  There's only a few days left - voting closes March 31st.  Some of the categories are difficult to decide on just ONE recipient.  Be sure to check out all of the online shops - and you will notice that Sew Unique Creations is on the list!  And Kelly from I Have a Notion - lots of great choices in all of the categories.  I can't wait to see the results. 

Just a couple quick Civil War Love Letter blocks for you...

I've been really busy making new jewelry the last few days....stay tuned for that!

Have a great weekend (what's left of it)...

Spring has not sprung!

I don't think Mother Nature is quite ready to give us Spring weather - it is snowing here this morning!  I'm sure it won't amount to much, but it's really coming down right now. 

I wanted to share some more of my Civil War Love Letter blocks with you:

I made a few more blocks yesterday, which means I won't run out of things to show you for awhile.  But for now, I better get back to making jewelry!

Have a great day!

Civil War Love Letters

Are any of you making the Civil War Love Letter quilt?  I just love these books by Rosemary Youngs.  I've had the CWLL and the Civil War Diary quilt books for a long time, and also purchased the software a couple of years ago.  In my opinion, if you are going to make the blocks, you HAVE to buy the software!  I just don't like the drafting part, but I know that some people love that piece of the process - so if you are one of those people, you just have at it!  Of course, you have to also have EQ to run the software, so it could get expensive if you don't already own EQ. The books are interesting to read, and the blocks really are fun to make.  I started working on CWLL blocks a couple of years ago.  I usually just make a few in between projects.  Sometimes, if I have been making lots of jewelry and need a change, I will make a few blocks.  In the book, the finished block size is 6", but I decided to make mine a little smaller (shocking, I know) - mine are going to finish at 5".  Yesterday I decided to make a few of these blocks, then thought I would take pictures of all of them that I have finished so far - there are more than I thought. There are 121 blocks in the book and I have 82 finished!  It will take me awhile to show you all of them, and those of you non-quilters will probably be bored out of your mind.  I will spread them out over time - even you quilters would be bored if you had to look at 82 of them in a sitting!  First...the book:

Now some blocks...

This one always reminds me of an owl

I think when I started these (it's been so long ago, I don't remember!) I was just using whatever colors struck me at the time.  But, when I do that, it seems that I end up with a lot of pink and brown, and a lot of red and black!  So, at some point, I started following the color scheme that Rosemary used in the book.  I knew if I did that, then I should be able to distribute color somewhat evenly throughout the quilt.  That's all for today - not too boring, I hope!

Have a great day!

Count it as a finish!

I have made an executive decision.  Each project gets 2 finishes.  The first finish will be when I am done piecing it.  The second finish will be when the last stitch is sewn on the binding.  Sound fair?  There could be a huge amount of time in between those finishes - so much time, in fact, that you may forget you ever saw it to begin with.  Yesterday as I was trying to FINISH the Lori Smith quilt (yes, I know, you are all tired of hearing about it) I discovered part of the reason it takes me so long to do anything...

They seem to think that my tape measure is their new toy.  It took forever to get them out of my way and get the top measured.  The next time I measured I pinned the top to my design wall, but then they just want to jump up at the tape measure.  Well, Ozzie doesn't really do much jumping - he is far too lazy for that (kind of like me), but he does show his curiosity.  The world is their toy!  Notice that CC is not bothering things - she is minding her manners like a good kitty.  So....drum roll please....here it is - borders and all!!!!

Yippee!!  I really like it - not sure what I will do about quilting.  I will probably have it machine quilted - which means it will have a much quicker 2nd finish!  That is CC standing innocently off to the side, just watching - not causing trouble.  She is a good kitty.

Here are a couple of pictures of jewelry that I posted on my website yesterday...

I have sold a ton of flags, but these are the new ones with tan stripes, instead of white - I made a batch before, but they sold out in a day or two.  I love the little starburst.  The heart is cute on a scissor fob (it's only 1") or as a pendant.  Of course, I had to have one sideways picture - I just don't get why it has to be that way!  These earrings have been popular too - they are only 3/4" and have pins and pendants that match.  It's kind of hard to tell from this picture (I am such a crappy photograper!), but they are black and tan with a star in the center - the background of the star is red.  Check them all out on my website - Me & My Stitches.

Hope you all have a "finish" in your day!

Whew...technology is hard work!

You all know that I am technically challenged, right?  I have been trying to put all of the new scissor fobs on my website for HOURS!!!!  GRRRRRR!!!!!!!!  The editing program decided not to work anymore, so we (the husband) had to buy and download a new one.  That took forever, then to learn how to use it, then to edit all the pictures, and on and on.  I'm not sure that I like how the pictures are coming out - take a look and let me know what you think.  But, the good news is, all the new scissor fobs are listed, and so is the new, darker flag! 

The Party is Over...

Well, the party is over and all of the secrets are out!  The biggest secret was that my Dad called me a couple of weeks ago and wanted me to meet him at the jewelry store to pick out something for Mom for their anniversary.  Now, if any of you know my dad, you know that I had to pick myself up off the floor when 1.  he called me and 2.  he wanted to buy jewelry and it was all HIS idea!  Way to go Dad!!!!  At the jewelry store we looked at a ring and at a necklace - he decided on the ring - good choice, in my opinion!  I wish I would have taken a picture of it to show you, but I didn't.  I did take a lot of other pictures - here is one of us all together...

Pretty good of all of us, except my brother, Johnny - I have no idea what he is doing.  He is usually making faces and making Mom mad (yes, he still acts like he is 8)!

The next secret was what I have been working on.  I thought for months (actually for the last 5 years) of what the heck to do for their 50th anniversary.  I finally decided on this memory quilt (actually just a wall hanging)...

I had some pictures of Mom and Dad's wedding day (which I love!), but didn't have a lot of others.  I finally made up some big lie to mom so she would bring me a bunch of her old pictures.  I think I told her that I was going to make something for my sister-in-law.  But, I got the pictures and finally got it all put together.  So that is another finish, right?!?!?!  Yay me!  Here is a picture of Mom and Dad checking it all out...

I also made Mom a pin from those same fabrics.  These are the fabrics I used for the quilt that I made for them a year or so ago - these are definitely Mom's colors - I'm sure you noticed they are outside the box for me! 

I'm off to fill some orders - hope you all have a great Monday!

One FINISHED - can you believe it?

Since I started my jewelry business, it seems that I have finished very few quilts!  I still start them occasionally, but don't seem to get many completely done.  This week...ONE FINISHED!!!!!

I love this quilt.  It was designed by Jo Morton, and is in one of her books. I really, really wanted to make it, but I have not done much applique, and didn't think it was a good idea to start on this.  Then, all of a sudden, I had a brilliant idea!! (I'm sure you can hardly wait to hear this.)  It was almost 2 years ago, and everyone was coming to our house for Easter - including Aunt Nancy and Larry.  That shows how much they love me, they drove 4 hours for Easter dinner - and even hit a deer on the way home, but we don't want to remind Larry of that one.  Anyway - Aunt Nancy likes hand work and has done applique. Hmmmmmm....bribery?????  Why not ask (beg, plead, cry, kick, scream) her to make 2 centers and I would make all of the pieced blocks - one set for her and one for me.  I didn't know if she would go for it or not, but she did!  We went to my stash and each picked out the fabrics we liked - we both love the Civil War pink and brown repros, and of course, I have a few of them in my closet.  She quickly finished the centers, and I finished up all of the other blocks.  I knew that I was going to visit her in Minnesota that summer, so I was a nice niece and hand quilted hers and even got the binding put on it, and delivered it to her that August.  Not bad, huh?  Of course, mine didn't get done that fast!  I put it together, but the hand quilting went very slowly - that's what happens when you don't work on it!  I had just been busy (you know, drinking coffee and reading blogs) and hadn't been doing any hand quilting.  When Aunt Nancy decided to come and stay for a week, I decided that I better get this finished up - I didn't have hardly any quilting left to go - I think it took a whole half hour!  I made the binding and got it put on, and passed it off to good ol' binding woman (that also would be Aunt Nancy - she likes to do binding and is very fast at it!)  I'm so excited that it is finally finished!!

The other finish of the week are these cool scissor fobs...

I had sold almost all of my fobs, and thought I better get some more made up - these will be on the website later today or tomorrow.

Gotta go - we have Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary party today!  Lots of surprises (but don't tell Dad - he hates surprises)...

Family Fun Day

Yesterday Mom and Aunt Nancy came over and spent the day.  We all had our projects that we were working on.  Mom is not a quilter - she has a stained glass studio - but road tripping has made her a quilting wanna be.  In the day (before she found stained glass!) she was an excellent seamstress, but never a  quilter.  When we were in the shop in Macomb, IL this week, some braided bookmarks and bags caught her eye and she gave in to the pressure and bought the rulers:

They are called Double Diamond rulers.  They did a demo at the shop, and it's really easy to do. Mom got on a roll yesterday and made about a dozen bookmarks:

Aren't they cool?  She used some fabric I had left over from their quilt that I made a few years ago, and also some Red Hat Society fabrics that I used to make her a bag.

I think they are pretty neat, and after she made the first one, she really whipped them out in a hurry.  At the quilt shop, they had made a bag that had a row of these double diamonds across the front of the it.  The pattern also shows using it in a border.  So...that was Mom's project of the day.

Aunt Nancy's project was the Itty Bitty Pinwheel by Primitive Gatherings that I talked about the other day. Since this was my pattern, she wanted to make it before she went home.  She picked fabrics out of my scrap bowl and this is the almost-finished project:

She didn't quite get it finished, but far enough that she could easily pick it up and take it home to sew the rows together.  Isn't it awesome?  I love it.  I still want to make one of my own.  Too bad she didn't accidentally leave it here - I told her that I would finish it for her, but she knows me well enough to know that she would never get it back!

They hubby even had a project (not quilt-related!)

See the fancy "down spout"?  Isn't it cool?  Even Boomer thinks so, he had to check it out.  When Jessica got married at Honey Creek Resort last year, they had these for their downspouts and the Hub was checking them out.  He put this one outside of my sewing room so I can see it - isn't he nice?  I get to see the fancy stuff!

My project for the day was making more jewelry!  No pictures of that this time.  Oh, and we can't forget Callie's project of the day...

She was napping.  Looks like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed in this picture - she's got those ears laid back like she is annoyed!  Don't you just love the trim in my house?!?!?!  NOT!  Gotta love contractors - it was supposed to be done before Christmas.  Guess we didn't specify WHICH Christmas!

 Better get busy - Happy Quilting Day to everyone!