One happy gal

A few months ago my mother found some fabric in a grab bag for her church's yard sale.  She bought the bag for me and in it were several yards of cotton, tone on tone white fabric.  I washed and ironed it and put it away...and then forgot about it until I was digging around the studio for some white kona cotton for my red & white quilt.  I cut it up this morning and had enough to match up with the red blocks.

Here's my first run of HSTs

I don't know why I am so excited about this quilt but I am!

Already missed my first deadline

I signed up to do "Make a gift on the 25th" on Sew Many Ways.  Well, the 25th of July has come and gone with not a lick of work being done by me.  I am going to work on something this weekend.  I think I am going to make an infinity scarf like Karen did.  Sadly, I am not above playing "copy cat"!

I'm seeing red

and white!

I participated in a 5" red and white fabric swap.  My squares arrived over the weekend.  After seeing some of the red and white quilts that were on display a few months ago in New York, I was really excited about this swap.

I am thinking about a zig zag quilt. Some of the squares won't make it into my quilt.  Some are just too orange and some have other colors mixed in.  Most everyone understood the idea of red & white, some didn't.  I now have to cull, count all the squares and figure out how big the quilt will be.

There are not many duplicates and that is really nice.  There are some that are whimsical, some that are very graphic and some are simply gorgeous.

Now I have to decide if I am going to be REALLY lazy and just buy packs of Moda Bella White charm packs or cut all the white squares.  I don't like cutting but I am also not sure if any local shops carry the solid charm packs. I really want to get started on this quilt!

Well, somebody has been sewing...

I have not been able to sit at my sewing machine much in the past 10 days.  Someone else has been using it!

My granddaughter, Emily, has been making Christmas gifts for friends and family.  It has been so hot that we brought the machine down to the first floor and she has been sewing in the dining room.  Em loves my Brother sewing machine and has been trying to convince me that I need to send it home with her!   I have been told not to "hover" when she is sewing.  She really needs very little advice or supervision at this point.  I am finding it difficult to stay back but I am doing my best to only approach when asked.

So far Emily has made 5 pillow covers and has plans to make a few more.  She just finished free motion quilting one and did a beautiful job.  I would show you except that is for someone special and she doesn't want to take the chance that he might see it on my blog!

Here are some that she has finished.  I think she is doing a fantastic job picking out fabrics and putting these together.

My sister was kind enough to allow Emily to do some machine embroidery.  Now it looks like I will have to buy a machine that has that feature!

I hope to have the opportunity to sew tomorrow.  I have a couple of commissioned pieces that have to be completed and I have a quilt project of my own that I want to start.  Now if I can just get the kid away from my machine...!
 

This morning

I have been neglecting my blog...again.  I honestly have not been sewing much.  I made a beach bag for a customer and have orders for a few more.  I also made curtains for a co-worker.  I hope I don't lose my mind and do anything like that again!

This morning I decided to sit out on the patio with a cup of coffee and start hand quilting the front of a pillow cover.

I have not hand quilted in a very long time and thought I would like to try using perle cotton.  It is a much more forgiving method of quilting.  Living in this area, good quilters strive for a minimum of 8 stitches per inch when hand quilting.  I am NOT a good hand quilter.  I think I will enjoy this process and I know I am enjoying the new patio!