Thursday, November 11, 2010

Scrapping Fun

This week has been filled with medical appointments. For a person who seldom went to the doctor, this is definitely a new way of life. But things are going well and I'm so grateful for wonderful medical professionals who treat me with such kindness and skill. Family and friends who continue to keep me in their prayers are such blessings!

With all this coming and going, I needed to work on something that would allow a lot of stopping and starting. What better than scrap quilting. As the grandchild of pioneers (my quilting grandma came to Indian Territory in a covered wagon), I grew up thinking all quilts were made of scrap fabrics saved from family sewing and feedsacks. This is one of my favorite scrap quilts made by my grandma.
My scrap project right now is a string quilt. I found the instructions here. Sewing these squares is addictive and I keep thinking "I'll do just one more." I stopped to realize I learned to sew in early junior high so that means I've been sewing for half a century (oh, my!!!) and I have saved fabric scraps for much of that time. I don't have scraps from newer fabric lines...mine are REALLY SCRAPS...which makes the blocks very ecletic :) I'm using some of the "less pretty" scraps I have too. Here's some of what I have accomplished.


I think I'll also start some Spiderweb blocks with scraps as well like the ones shown here. One added benefit is that I'm getting all my scraps organized :)


Hope your day is filled with happy stitching.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

October was gone before I knew it. I love autumn and we are having a glorious one this year. Most of October was filled with warm days and cool nights and the air seemed to have a golden haze. Now the trees are beginning to lose their leaves and the nights are getting colder.


Going to chemo treatments keeps me busy but I have few side effects so it's not really difficult. Those days I usually come home and sit and sew. I did finish several projects in October. Here is the table topper I made for my older daughter who absolutely loves the Halloween season. I fell in love with this fabric panel!! I also made this quilt for my younger daughter but the quilting took longer than I expected so it wasn't ready for Halloween. I machine quilted the spiderweb pattern on the plain blocks and the other blocks are disappearing nine-patch made from charm squares. She will enjoy it for next Halloween especially since it has her favorite bright colors!!!


I made a couple of fall table toppers as well. When I got out the big plastic bin with all my Halloween and fall fabrics, I found these little hour glass and half-square triangles blocks I had left over from a table runner I had made a couple of years before. I got carried away with the fun of sewing these little fall blocks and made more than I needed for the project. So I tucked them in the bin and forgot about them until this fall. It was neat to pull them out and make these table toppers. This is the one I made for my sister-in-law.














And the one I made for our dining room table...it still needs to be quilted. I'll get that done before Thanksgiving.



















So October was a productive sewing and quilting month. I have plans for a few gift projects in November as well as some much-loved scrap quilting.


I'll close with pictures of our granddogs celebrating Halloween.

This is Virginia who lives in North Carolina.






















And this is Violet (on the left) and Honey May (on the right) who live in Oklahoma not far from us.


















They are all three adorable and very dear to us.

I'm off to fix spaghetti and salad for supper. That sounds so good for a chilly fall night.

Happy stitching!