4-patch top is done

Hello everyone,

I finally got some pictures of my 4patch top for you.

I don't think it's big enough though, still, for a nice lap top.

It's 42x58, what do you think? Should it be bigger?

 

And if so, should I take the borders off and add more to the top? Or add another border? Or should I just leave it alone?

I'm thinking without the pieced border, it would be a great size for a crib quilt. And would look darling in some cute baby fabrics.

Speaking of baby fabrics, I was following along the Henry Glass Summer party last month, and I won a cute FQ bundle!

This is a  flannel set, the line is Buttercup Babies by Beth Logan of ArtStuff Ltd.

It will be fun to come up with a pattern for these lovelies....another quilt to keep Isaiah warm this winter :)

The Henry Glass blog is fun to follow. The have fun blog hops, designer tid bits,fabric news,  and of course, giveaways. 

Hope you have a great Labor day weekend!

I'm linking up with Jenna today.

A wild week

It's been a wild week here on our Ridge. Saturday, August 18th, my second sons 8th birthday. We had to make a trip to town for some groceries, and on our way back home we saw that  a fire had started down at the bottom end of our canyon.

there is actually a canyon beyond these trees in front, the smoke is on the other side of it

The fire headed North and destructed one of our favorite places, the tiny town of Manton. Lots of wonderful memories of this place. My dh and I lived here on and off for the first few years of our marriage. My dh spent many grow up years here. It's so sad to see such a beautiful area burned.

again, there is a canyon between us and that other ridge

Then the winds turned and the starting spot of the fire took off up our canyon. It jumped the creek and headed right for us.

The fire crews were so very wonderful. I want to thank all of them. Especially Mognus Johnson, who saved our house and property.

Our property has changed, new roads have been put it, fire lines around the place, lots of brushed cleared by the CAT crews, lots of sweat and work went into saving our house. And I am so very thankful.

This picture is taken right outside my kitchen window. When the CATs first started working, see the fire truck in the background?!

 

Here is a picture taken in almost the same spot as the one above, showing the road the CAT made that goes around our house to the right and to the Hwy to the left of the trees.

The fire went raging  up the canyon to the East. This is the fourth big fire in our area, this past month.

this picture shows gray spots on the opposite ridge there, where the fire had burned

Here are some before and after pictures.

The first two are of some of the brush/trees on the down slope of our ridge, heading into the canyon, taken a year or so ago.

Here is some of that same land after the CAT had made a fire line.

Here's the ridge on the other side of the canyon, a year or so ago.

 

And here it is now.

Below our fire line the CATs made, there is burned brush. The fire came right up to the fire line, but it was slow burning and didn't hurt many trees.

As of this morning, this fire is 74% contained. One of the others fires is complete out, another is only 55% contained, I'm not sure about the 4th one.

I am hoping to get back to some sewing, now that the excitement and stress are all over with.
I have my 4square quilt top to take a picture of and show you.
I also have some quilt Auntie blocks I'm making and sending out to the piecer.

Hope all is well with you.

Bucket hat

Hello Everyone,

This little guy keeps me pretty busy.

His favorite thing to do.... be outside with the bigger kids. Whether it's sitting in the dirt with the Tonka vehicles....he's very serious while 'working'...., sitting on the tractor, looking at chains and tools hanging in the shop,  or sitting in my lap watching the big kids play, he just wants to be outside 'doing' something. Even inspect the veggies....

With his almost bald little head, I decided he needed one of these ultra darling bucket hats from Oliver+S company.... free patterns here. They are so easy to make, and fairly quick too.

He makes it hard to do a lot of quilting though....But I'm not complaining :) My poor 4-patch quilt is still sitting unattended. Although I do have a few pictures of another way to make quick 4-patches. This time with jelly rolls or strips you've cut from yardage.

Lay two strips right sides together. And sew down one long side.

Press open.

Now cut strips the same width as your original strips. I started off with 2.5" strips, so that's what I am cutting.

Put two of these new strips right sides together, opposite colors facing each other and sew.

Open and press. Easy as that. And you can get quite a few out of one jelly roll strip.

I'm hoping to get back to my 4-patch today.

How about you? What are you working on?

More 4 patches

Hello Everyone,

I got my little lap quilt all pieced and decided I wanted it bigger. It's the perfect size right now for a baby quilt. Done up in baby fabrics, it would be adorable.

But I want it bigger. So am going to put a solid white border first, then add more 4 patches. These are the fabrics I dug out of my stash. They go pretty well with the shades of same color in the top.

This weekend I am distracted by the Mystery quilt going on over on the forum. Here are the fabrics I choose to make mine with. It's going quite fast too. Can't wait to see what the top looks like when done!

I'm sorry, I wont be showing you the finished mystery top though. That would ruin it for anyone who wants to do it :)

 Have a great day!

Trimming..... and a Mystery.

Hello Everyone,


Ugh, I am finally finished with the trimming. Of small blocks that is.

I hate this part of the quilting process. But I know that it's a necessary evil. lol.

Now all my 4 squares and HST's are ready to be sewn together into a lovely little lap quilt.

~~~~~~~
This weekend, July 28-29th, is another great Mystery quilt weekend over at the Q&N. You all know how I love Jess's mystery patterns. She always does an amazing job.

Her kits are on sale now. You can find them here. And you can buy just the pattern here. As always, you can also purchase all four mystery patterns (she does four a year) for a reduced price, here.

I know what I'll be doing next weekend :)

Have a great day!


 

Easy 4 patches

Hello everyone, I hope you all are staying cool. It's a scorcher out there!

I got this lovely charm pack of Flora by Lauren and Jessi Jung, for my birthday. I'm pairing it up with some white tone on tone. ( I had a lovely picture of my charm pack with the whites... and what did I do? I deleted it from my camera... before I could use it. LOL. So this pic will have to do.)

I'm making some easy 4 patches with some of them. Here's how.

 Using a print and a white, match right sides together. And mark a line at the halfway point of the square.

Sew a 1/4" line on both sides of line.

Cut apart on drawn line and press open.

 Right sides together again, making sure your white of one patch is lined up with the print of the other patch. (I'm switching to a darker color, so it's easier to see.)

Mark a line at the halfway point. And sew 1/4" on both sides of it.

Cut apart on the drawn line and press open.

Ta-da! Two easy four patches, with a perfect matched seam ;)

I'm also doing HST's. Which are easy too. I mark my lines for both the 4 patch and the HST's, then take both stacks to the machine and chain piece. It's goes pretty quickly.

I'll show you what I'm doing with these at a later date ;)

Happy Fourth, and a finish...

Happy Fourth of July to my American readers! I hope you have a fantastic day and enjoy some fireworks.

image found here:www.metrolic.com/4th-of-july-fashion-3092/

Now that my little guy is 3 months old, it's getting a little easier to get some sewing time in. He's happy hanging out with  a brother or sister for a bit. And he's finding it easier to nap in his crib, instead of on Me :)

Here is my Butterfly quilt.

I backed it with some soft fleece and had fun with the sewing. I didn't mark any lines, so they are a bit wavy and uneven... but that just adds some whimsy to the quilt, yes?? LOL

Can you see my big mistake??

I put that one piece on backwards, and didn't even realize it. It says I 'heart' Mommy, I 'heart' Daddy...but you need a mirror to read it ;)

Here are a close up of the quilting... I'm getting better.

If you missed it, my free tutorial for this quilt is listed on the left hand side of my blog, along with others I've done for the Sew We Quilt blog.

 I hope you are all enjoying some Summer sewing. And keeping cool, those of you in the hot States right now.

A little applique

For the past 3 or 4 years, I've been having a nerve issue with my right hand. And as I'm right handed, this made it so I wasn't able to do any hand quilting or hand work of any sort.

When I got pregnant, this condition got worse. But now that my son is here. I have discovered that I can do some hand work for 15 or 20 minutes at a time, without having any issues with my nerves! I am not sure why, buy I am not questioning it too closely ;) just enjoying it. lol

So I started this little table runner. I have a little bit of batting, not enough for any of my quilt tops, so I thought I needed to make something small to use it up :) lol.

I love purple and yellow together. And I love these Moda Marbles!

Can you see the flower on this print? That's what I designed my flowers after. Just some simple, needle turn applique. That's how I learn to do it, and I haven't had any desire to use glues or other newfangled ways of applique.

It feels SO good to do some hand work again.

What are you working on this Summer? Have you joined Ellison's Summer Sewing Contest?

I was going to. But my little hasn't given me enough time to finish my butterfly quilt.

I backed it with some soft flannel, no batting. You can see I still can't use my walking foot. I was misinformed when I bought it. I was told it would fit ALL low shank machines, including my treadle (I specifically asked). I have THREE low shank machines, all pre-1940's, and it fits NONE of them!!!

So what do I do? I use an open toe foot and put up with the little puckers. And then decide to quilt this one in a much closer quilting pattern than usual. LOL

So really, it's ok that I couldn't join the fun in the Sewing contest... I mean, how am I supposed to compete with the extreme talent of someone like Melissa of Happy Quilting??? And her beautiful dresden plate quilt! LOL

Good luck all who have entered.

Have a great day.

My tutorial...

Good morning all,

My tutorial for a sweet butterfly quilt is now posted over at Sew We Quilt!


Here's the quilt.

For the tutorial I did it in these colors.

Roses

I love roses.

These bushes were all here when we moved in a few years ago. This is my favorite one.
Isn't it beautiful!?

As is with most roses, these were grafted on an old heirloom variety. I think it's a rugosa (I love roses, I just can't remember all the facts about them... like what they are called or what species they are. LOL). We had a cold snap last week, that got these.

Anyways, you see this beautiful white and pink rose. Two Summers ago it was pure white. Last Summer it started turning pink. This year, there is even more pink on it.

I have no idea why this is happening. But I think it's because of this.

The red roses you see are roses that are shooting up from the root stock, the rose the white/pink one was grafted onto!

I know that I should probably cut these and not let them grow. But it's fun to have a multi-colored rose bush :)

On this big yellow bush, there is also a few roses with a tinge of orange on them. This rose is next to the coral rose at the top of the screen, and it has no root stock roses growing on it. So I really don't know why they are picking up other colors from other roses. Interesting, yes?

Have a great day.