My first needle turn applique.

I have always wanted to try to hand appliqué. Just recently a group from our quilt guild formed a appliqué club. Our first project was needle turn, something I thought I would never try. However, I think I may like it. We were given a piece of green bias to use for the stem and a piece of pre-marked purple, it looks blue in the picture, for our flower. After I got it appliquéd to the background piece I wanted to do something with it since it was after all my first needle turn project. I added a few leaves and a piece of brown for dirt. I bordered it and made it into a pocket for a canvas bag I had. BTW I also tried my hand at my first quilting. My stitches are not even like they are supposed to be. We will be introduced to several other hand appliqué methods in our next meeting






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I wanted to practice the needle turn applique a little more and made this mini-runner.

A finished project

I finally found some time to do some sewing for myself.  Most of the fabrics in these placematts and table runner are fabrics I received as a gift from Cyndi at  http://bluebirdswing.blogspot.com/.  Thanks Cyndi.  The pattern is

Deck the Halls -- Triplets by Chloe Anderson & Colleen Reale of Toadusew.  It is in this months Quilter's World.

This is a close up.

 

Quilts for the Veterans

Today was a heartwarming day for me and members of our Quilt Guild.  Our Guild, Missouri River Quilt Guild along with the help of 7 other local guild made over 100 quilts to be donated to the residents at the Harry S Truman Hospital..  This is a picture of just a few of the quilts we had.

Another GO Giveaway

Lavender Ridge   http://lavenderridge.blogspot.com/2010/11/go-giveaway.html#comment-form is hosting a GO Giveaway.  Hop on over to check it out.

Shop Hop Trip and more...

Look at this beautiful batik fabric that was exclusive to the 11 shops on our  Country Shop Hop. Hoffman Fabrics printed a beautiful  dogwood batik just for the shops in the Country Shop Hop.  Look close and you should see the dogwood blossom in the design.  The dogwood is Missouri's state  tree.  There where 11 shops in this hop and I hit all of them yesterday.  I  went on a bus trip with 30 other ladies.  What a blast we had.  Each shop had a free pattern for us, they also used this pattern to have the item made for display in their shop.  Our last stop all the ladies were wearing aprons made with this fabric.  Some stores were already sold out of this special fabric. 

Thanks to Hofffman Fabric's for designing this great print for us.

Now for the more...



I belong to a small group of fun ladies, the Quiltin' Chicks, we meet once a month to visit, have demos and of course show and tell.  I suggested a Chicken challenge a few months ago and to have them ready for our

October meeting.  We had some cute items come in.  I made a few prizes for the event.  Here are two of them.

 This Chick was so fun to make.  I think I found this pattern on someone's blog months ago.  Sorry I don't remember who it was. 

This is a flour sack dish towel with of course a Chick on it. Also gave away a Chicken egg timer, didn't get a picture of it.

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For my challange I made an entire set of the dish towels.  One for each day of the week. Also made a wall hanging for my newly painted kitchen.

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HELP... I need your help blogging friends

I made a few of these little bags, very tiny, a few months ago from a pattern I purchased at the Kansas City Sewing Expo last October.  Now I want to make more and I cannot find my pattern.  It is hiding from me somewhere in my sewing room.  I did a little putting away etc last week and you guessed it.  I must have put it away too good.  So if there is anyone out there that can tell me what the name of this pattern is maybe I can get another one.

Thanks.

"Raggedy and Friends.

I have finished the first three blocks of Kaaren Johnston's "Raggedy and Friends" BOM. They are so fun to do. I always look forward to the 20th of the month for the next block. Thanks again Kaaren for sharing these patterns with the blog world.

Another GO Giveaway

There is another chance to win a GO. Hop on over to Jane's Fabric and Quilts to enter her giveaway. Check our her blog while you are there.
http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com/2010/09/its-go-for-giveaway.html

You never know this may be your lucky entry.

Stockings for charity.

This is what I have been working on the past few days. Christmas stockings of all kinds. These stockings will be donated to local food pantrys for a silent acution to rasie money for their needs in assisting the ones in need of a little help during these hard times.

I had fun with these two, it is Harly Davidson fabric. You know bikers believe in Santa too.

I did not want to leave out the Missouri Tiger fans and the local John Deere fans.

Then there are a few traditional Christmas stockings as well.

And one for the good ole USA.

It has arrived...

My gaveaway winnings from Rae Ann at Stash Manicure arrived at my front door today. I plan to make the witches hat however it will not be finished for this halloween season. I love the selection of black fabrics included in the package. The pen is so fun and the magnet is great. I think I may need to use the scissor charm for a zipper pull on one of my bags, at least thru October.

THANKS Rae Ann.

Please visit Stash manicure to see a great blog.http://stashmanicure.blogspot.com/

Look how much I have grown...

Wanted to share with you the growth of my caster beans. They have become huge.


First picture is from early July. The other one was taken minutes ago. I am thinking that they may reach the gutters.

Another Chance at a GO Giveaway

Can you believe this? Paulette is giving us another chance to win a GO at Sweet Pea Quilting and Creations. http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-go-time-good-luck.html

Another GO Giveaway

If you are interested in a chance to win a GO you need to go to Canton Village and register, http://cvquiltworks.blogspot.com/

Charity Quilt Finished

Our quilt guild is making bed sized quilts for our local VA hospital. My almost 90 year old mother pieced this quilt in just a few days from scraps in her stash. I have an HQ16 quiliting machine and still learning the technique. I decided this would be a good one to practice on. Not something I would want in an heirloom quilt but I think it will be fine for a donated quilt to charity. The quilt still needs binding which I plan to pass this task on to some quild members that have offered to bind quilts for the VA project.

Close up of quilt and back side.

Applique Project

Got in some sewing today. I purchased this as a kit last week while on a 3 day bus trip thru Illinois, Indiania and Kentucky. We stopped at nine different stories so I am not sure where I purchased this kit but think it was Loose Threads in Seymour, In.

I am wanting to do more applique and thought this would be something small and fairly easy to start with.

Now I have to decide which project to start next. I have many...

My complied BOM for July

I have finished the first Annie and Andy BOM that Kaaren at http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/ is hosting. I decided to use 30's fabrics because a had all of this in my stash. I am happy with the results, If you are interested in this BOM I have a link to it on my side bar. Thank you Karen for this fun project.

Look what I received in the mail yesterday.

I received my fat quater bundle plus a few extras from Cyndi at http://www.bluebirdswing.blogspot.com/





Cyndi hosted a very generous giveaway recently with several winners. I was one of the lucky ones. Sorry Cyndi H and Gerry, better luck next time. :-) I have not yet decided what to use the FG's for but I will think of something with a little time. I love the cherry note pad and pen.

Thank you very much Cyndi. You are the best...

Recieved my Giveaway.

More flowers for you to enjoy...

Most of my sewing has been for gifts that I don't want to share yet. Therefore I will share picuturs of more of my flowers and plants.

I will have another cactus blooming in just a day or two.





These are some of my star gazer lillies that are in full bloom. I have four stalks like this. They smell so nice.




These are castor bean plants. They should still get much taller and produce beans that are poison the we plan to use to get rid of the pesky moles that have done a lot of damage to the yard this summer.





This is a Cleome in bloom. The common name is spider plant or Grandfather's whiskers. These re-seed themselves every year. They are pretty however they do not have a nice fragrance.

This is a Liatris, somethimes referred to as Blazing Star or Gay Feather. As you can see the bees love this plant.

Check this out

Stash Manicure is having a nice giveaway. Hop on over to http://stashmanicure.blogspot.com to check it out.

Flowering Cactus

Look what I found on my Cactus last night. The one on the left is in full bloom, the one on the right is as it was opening.

I have been told this is a Echinopsis Eyresii. Commenly referred to as the Pink Easter Lily Cactus.

It is a beautiful flower but the bloom only last one night. I brought it indoors so it may last an extra day. I h ave had this plant for a long time and has bloomed once every year for the past ten years

Summer Flowers

I have not had much time to sew this week so I will share some picturs of my flowers that are in bloom.

My lillies have done very well this year.

Toiletrie Pouch "Sew Along"

Just finished part four of the "Sew Along" The Toiletrie Pouch will go with the bag I finished last week. Stay tuned for part five next week.

Sew Along Project

I am doing the Make a Bag Sew Along project that Kelly is doing at http://kellyrachel.com/blog/2010/05/25/make-a-bag-sew-along-introduction/

I just finished part three which completed the bag. I used charm squares, "Californ" by Mark Lipinski.

Look at what I won.

The Missouri River Quilt Guild held a quilt show this weekend. I am a member of this guild and I must say it was a lot of work but a REALLY BIG show. We had 301 quilts on display. We received a lot of positive comments about the quilts and displays. We had members donate gift baskets etc for a raffle drawing. Guess what? I was the lucky winner of a very nice chair painted by one of our very talented members.

I LOVE IT...

I may post more pictures in a few days.

Beach Bag

I spent the day making this tropical looking beach bag for a friend. Also made a small zipper bag for small items.

I used white pet screen for the body. That is a pocket on the front, also put one on the other side as well and one on the inside. You can never have too many pockets.

Finished Project

Just finished this table runner. Pattern was a freebie from HomeSpun Heart they offered a few months ago. It was something different for me to do, it was a fun one to do.

Garage Sale Find

I finally stopped at a garage sale and found some nice vintage crocheted items. I kept some for myself and gave some to special friends. I am showing the reverse side in the second picture.

Aprons for Mothers Day

I had time for some sewing yesterday so I decided to make Mom a few aprons. They are nothing real fancy but I know Mom will enjoy them. Last time Mom was over I was wearing an apron and she commented that she was going to have to make one for herself. This gave me the idea as to what to give her for Mother's Day.

These are from the same pattern with different pockets. The first one has some gathering at the bottom to make the pocket stand open a little. I fussy cut some of the cans from the fabric and machine appliqued them on the pocket for a little extra touch.