Fabric for Pillowcases.

Just cut the fabric for two pillowcases.  They will be Christmas presents.

The Donation Quilt is Quilted

The Donation Quilt is back from the longarm quilter.  It is beautiful.  Betty did a wonderful job.  Now I just need to trim it and sew on the binding, which is one of my favorite parts.

Dinner and Gift Exchange

The Monday Night Divas Bee met for Dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse and our annual Gift Exchange.  Getting eleven ladies together during the holidays is difficult, so we opted for January.  Good food and laughter with friends is always time well spent.

These are the gift bags that I gave to each Diva.  

Each one contains a fat quarter, a notebook that I made and a wax fabric marker.

I, also, created the flowers from book pages and spray ink.

DIVA'S BLOCK EXCHANGE CONTINUES

This is my last five months of our Block Exchange.

August Block

September Block

October Block

November Block

December Block

Diva's Block Exchange

I belong to a Quilting Bee called "The Monday Night Divas".  In the past, we have exchanged 2 1/2" strips twice, so we got brave and decided to exchange blocks.
 The block is scrappy.  The only rules are each block must contain a piece of burgundy fabric and no obvious holiday fabrics.
We will exchange April - December.  Each Diva should end up with 99 blocks.  We are turning in extra blocks to be used in a charity quilt for our Quilt Guild.

 Below are the blocks that I turned in.

April Block

May Block

June Block

July Blocks

I finally remembered to take a photo before I turned them in.

Diva Tina suggested this exchange and got her idea from this youtube video.

How to Make a True Scrappy Quilt by SewVeryEasy

Monopoly Quilt Top Finished

The Monopoly Quilt top is finished.  I planned on sewing the two borders on at our Saturday sew-in, but I ran into a problem with the large blue border.  The second one that I sewed on was about an inch too short.  I thought all four borders were the same length, but evidently not.  I had to get the old seam ripper out.  This was a UFO , a bag of squares, blue borders and five yards of fabric for the backing.  I am so glad that I finished it.  It is simple, but still makes me smile.  Now I just need to seam up the backing and get it quilted.

66" x 83"

Quilting in the New Year.

We woke up to 20 degrees weather yesterday (Saturday) morning in South Texas.  So, I pulled out my coat, scarf, and gloves that only get used about 4 or 5 times a year. Seriously, we are expecting 78 degrees by Wednesday.

The Bee that I belong to has a Sew-In on the first Saturday of each month.  We have 11 members and 8 were able to attend.  That is good for us.  One was sick and one was working and I did not hear from the third absentee.

I chose to put borders on a Monopoly Quilt that I started last year from a UFO package of cut up squares.  It is shaping up into a real cute quilt.

I thought my hair looked better than that when I left the house.  I think that my coat hood did a number on it.

I added the small black border and the wider blue border at the sew-in.

Katelin's Quilt

This quilt requires 6 half yard pieces of fabric.  I chose the fabric with flowers first and then pulled 5 of the colors to coordinate.

I made this quilt for my future daughter-in-law, Katelin.  Since we both like Blue, I had fun putting this together for her.

The back is a beautiful blue with gold touches.

The quilt is 54" x 72".

This is what my family calls a personal or couch quilt.  We are all 5'8" tall and over.  Katelin fits right in.

As you can tell by the Christmas decorations in the background, this was her 2015 Christmas Gift.  I am very behind in my blog postings.  

Eclectic Mail Part 3

I decided which flap should go with each envelope and marked each block with a number.
There are 30 blocks.  Five blocks across and six blocks down.

Now to sew the blocks together.

All six rows are together.

Row 1 & 2, 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 are together.

Eclectic Mail Part 2

The envelope pieces are on the design wall (flannel back tablecloth).  Now to decide what flap will look good with what envelope.

Eclectic Mail Part 1

I have decided to name my quilt, "Eclectic Mail".  I mulled over a few other names, but decided on that one.

The pattern that I am using is from a video at "Missouri Star Quilt" website.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8safSWU3DSk&list=PLD5EF21A981F69C28&feature=share&index=15

In the video, she uses two layer cakes and charm packs for the border.  I had purchased yardage of  fabric, so I had to cut my own 10" squares and 2 1/2" strips.

 I cut thirty - 10" squares from "Eclectic Elements" and thirty - 10" squares of background fabric.  I placed one of each, right sides together and sewed all four sides at 1/4".   I found that chain sewing one side, and then the opposite side, worked best.  Then chaining one end and then the other.  When I tried sewing all four sides of one square, without stopping, I would end up with extra fabric on the last side.  Sewing opposite sides first, seemed to fix this problem.   Then I sliced each square from point to point, making four half square triangles.

Four HSTs form one open envelope.

 

 



 

I could not wait to see how the keyboard border would look, so I had to sew four of the 2 1/2" strips together.  I think that I should cut the others in half, before sewing, to make for a better mix in the end.  The background strips in the picture will go on before the keyboard border.

 



Tim Holtz's Eclectic Elements Fabric

Woo Hoo!!! I finally got my hands on Tim Holtz's new fabric.  It is called, "Eclectic Elements".  You will recognize the name if you enjoy art journaling and mixed media.  My second passion.

All twelve of these AWESOME fabrics will be in my next quilt.  I already have a plan.  Let the cutting begin.  Watch for progress reports.