Summertime

Just a quick note to say I'm doing well.. in the full swing of summertime activities with Vacation Bible School, lots of family stuff, and no time for sewing. The weather has been the nicest I can ever remember for a summer, at least I like it! Nice and cool.. like autumn.
The little dutch girl sends greetings and is enjoying her new home after being rescued from the flea market clutter. I have always wanted her to live with me!

Saturday August 1st is the Mennonite Quilt Auction in Kidron.. I will definitely have some things to share about that later. And as soon as I get through with company this week and get my house back to normal, I'll be here again with all sorts of things to share. Until then, I hope you are having a lovely season full of good things.

First Quilt ~ Last Quilt

I hope I'm not to late to join in. These are two blogs that are new to me, but I am definitely adding them to my favorite's list. Camille and Carrie are hosting a fun week parading our first quilt we ever made compared to our most recent one.

This is my first quilt. I made it when I was 13, with my mother's help in the hand quilting section. Very huge large stitches using heavy cotton crochet thread.. my hand got so tired of doing it! But I really concentrated on getting my corners to match up on the blocks.. and made them all by myself.

As you can see it has served it's purpose and then some. I was horrified when I actually found it while cleaning out Mom's house.. it was apparently used as a drop cloth after it had faded.. and then washed again many times. It is falling apart in many places. I'm sure no one ever imagined that I would actually want and cherish this later on.

I thought it would also be fun to show you some of the original fabric laid up next to the faded quilt blocks. I saved some of the scraps that I had made my own clothes with.

These were used for a 4H project one summer when I was 11 or 12. I had made a tote bag and matching head scarf from the blue floral, and a very cute top and shorts set from the brown.

This pink was an Easter dress. I remember totally loving this. Look how badly the fabric faded in the quilt though. So sad.


I know I had something made of this, but can't remember what.

And I can remember not wanting to add this teddy bear fabric. It was so baby-ish! But Mom insisted that I could not be choosy with scraps, and to use all what we had. She said it would look cute once it was mixed in with the others.

This next one was one of my favorites. I had made a "maxi skirt" from this brown swirl when I was in 7th grade. I didn't use a pattern, and thought I was pretty cool coming up with my own design myself. How hard is a skirt with an elastic waist? ha-ha-ha.
As you can see.. some of these are actually extra quilt blocks that never made it into the quilt. The batting was that fluffy stuff that always bunched up!


And THIS fabric is older than me. I noticed a lot of 40's fabrics in this quilt that were probably just in the scrap bag. I WISH I had more of this.. isn't it fabulous? Look how bright it stayed when everything else faded.

Ok.. my most recent quilt I just showed yesterday. But I thought for this post I would show one that I made right before I started blogging. I've shown it before.. "Every Iota". It is in my daughter's room on her bed.

I hand quilted this, but if I would make it again, I would try my newly learned machine quilting skills. ☺

Hmmm. It is a Nine-patch again. And some of those fabrics have a very familiar theme.

Finished for Friday Elephant Quilt

Yay! Done just in time for "Lit&Laundry's "Finished for Friday" All quilted, bond, washed and dried. It is for a baby girl who isn't quite here yet.

Seems like I started this ages ago, but had several interruptions before I could sit down and get it finished. The pattern came from Miri at Milk&Honey Quilts. She will share it with you for free if you just go visit her blog. ☺

I was really excited about this because it was my first time ever to try free-motion machine quilting. I did meandering around the elephants and wavies on the border. Not real smooth yet.. but it was a lot of fun and I think it looks cute. The hearts are hand-quilted. I just could not bring myself to making them so messy.

Here is the back.

These two adorable elephant juvenile prints were in my mother's stash. She always told me she wanted to make some baby quilts for charity with it, and I've been hanging on to it for over 7 years to use in just the right project.

Last post I showed you my vintage "darning spring". This is what I used for the whole quilt, and to my delight, I discovered a girl who sells them! I got to thinking how much I loved this little gadget, because it is simply perfect for me and my old machines and what if I would lose it or bend it? So I searched and found her at The Sew Box. She has a blog too which is very informative if you are into old machines and their attachments.

I'll try and do a little catching up here over the weekends. We are one computer short at this house, so I'm sharing mine part of the time. Yeah.. that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.

pssst.. there is mistake humility block in my elephant quilt, (which btw is a myth). Maybe no one will see it. ☺

New&Improved, and a little MO ☺

I knew I had this around here someplace, but finally came across it the other day while looking for something else..

This little spring-like pressure foot is actually working for free-motion quilting on my old sewing machine that I had no idea if I would ever find an actual darning foot for. Does anyone know what year this would have been?

I am so new to this, and I'm not very good at all. But it's fun.. and growing on me. I am amazed at how fast it's going. Maybe will get this baby quilt done up today yet.

That is if I can keep my hands off this...

Eeeee! It came in the mail today, and I keep peeking inside.. wow! Material Obsession Two by Kathy and Sarah . I hope you all get a chance to own this one. Wish I could make all the quilts in it.. or even one.

Also been thoroughly enjoying my new Ipod Touch. Found this app where they play the top 100 hits of any decade. I am totally stuck in 1969. Doesn't even seem like any time ago. I guess you can actually listen on your computer too, and you don't even have to pay the $1.99 like I did.. unless you want it on your Ipod. It's right here. Anyone else remember these songs? Seems like they were such a real part of my life. I can sing almost every word and hum every rift. I was only 11. Go pick a decade!

ANYways.. I'm sure most of you have nice plans for the weekend.. fireworks and all. Hopefully it's going to be quiet here. And I think I'm gonna like it. ☺