Hotel Quilting

It seems like I'm on the road at least once a month. When I drive instead of fly, I most always bring my sewing machine and a project or two to work on depending how long I'm staying. This trip is only supposed to be one night, however, there is a winter storm warning in effect starting tonight with 6 to 9 inches of snow possible. It could easily turn into a two night stay. I have to be prepared!

Tonight I wanted to keep things simple so I just worked on half square triangles. I'm happy with my progress and that's all that matters!

I wonder how many other quilters out there bring projects on the road with them? I know there are others out there! Are you a hotel quilter? 

Thanksgiving Memories

It's no secret in my family that Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday. Christmas is way too commercialized. Halloween is getting that way as well. Thanksgiving is all about eating and being thankful. I've hosted my family's Thanksgiving for about the past ten years. I usually put on a pretty good spread of appetizers before we even eat the main meal. I always have pickle wraps, little smokies, a meat and cheese tray along with buffalo chicken dip, a veggie tray and mushrooms. The list goes on and on! 

Reflecting on my life, I am truly blessed. I am thankful for my family, friends,  job, and health, I am also thankful for my ability to make quilts. This year I wanted to give my family something special. I gave everyone who came to Thanksgiving this year a quilt. I had everyone draw numbers and started with number one. The rules were simple: No stealing and if you didn't want one, you could give your number to someone else. 

I really thought that it would take a while for everyone to choose their quilts. I was wrong! I spread them out on the floor and it seemed like they had an idea of what they wanted when their number came up.

Most everyone took their quilts out to their cars right away! I told them there was no stealing! Even my dad wasn't going to take the chance.

I gave away twenty quilts to my family today. It was nice to be able to give some of my nieces and nephews a quilt since they didn't have one yet. I know there are a few family members out there who don't have a quilt yet. I will have to do something else some other time. In the mean time, I better get back to quilting!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My New Quilting Buddy

I haven't got much quilting done lately. It seems like every time I turn around, I have something going on. This weekend was no exception. I've been thinking about getting another cat for a while now. My 18 year old cat, BoBo, passed away in February and it hasn't been the same without a four legged friend in the house. One of the girls at work knew of someone who was looking for a home for about ten cats from two different litters. I drove two hours yesterday morning to Denver, Iowa to meet this guy. After about a half an hour of meeting him and a few of the other cats, I knew he was the one for me. 

I loaded him up in the cat carrier and made my way back home. I can honestly say he did pretty good in the car. He cried a little initially, but once we got going, he settled down until the final twenty minutes of the trip.

 Once we were back, he made himself right at home. He found his water, food and litter box. He even found a carboard box lid to chill in! I decided to let my daughter name him. She came over after she got off work with cat toys for him. She liked the names Oliver and Weasley. Since we are Harry Potter fans, we thought he should be a Weasley since he is part ginger. We came up with Weasley Oliver for a name. My mom thought we should call him Ollie for short. We will see what happens!

He tried to help me with my string blocks earlier today. He seemed really confused with what I was doing. He will get used to it! Hopefully I can get some quilting done next weekend. I have a lot of projects that I want get going on and finish!

Happy Quilting!

Vintage Sewing Machine Finds!

I didn't think I would be hauling home three old sewing machines this week, but here I am! I stopped at the Family Quilt Shop yesterday to talk to the ladies and three sewing machines were sitting there, taking up space. Two of them were in cabinets. I asked Cindy what was going on with them. She said that someone had dropped them off and just wanted to find a home for them. There were originally four, but someone took one by the time I stopped in. I wasn't really sure if I wanted one so I decided to think on it last night. I figured that someone would have at least taken one, but when I stopped by the quilt shop today, all three of them were still there. I finally decided to take all of them. I think I will work on them when I get time. There is no hurry or timelines to meet so they can just sit there in the house. 

This Morse 600 is my favorite of the three. It is in serious need of a cleaning and the belt is cracked. I love the color. I will probably try to get this one working first.

The Singer Model 500A is a great machine to look at. I couldn't resist taking it home. This is the only one that didn't have a cabinet. 

The Free Westinghouse is another great machine to look at. I'm going to have to do some research on it to see how old it is. 

Speaking of free, all of these machines didn't cost me a thing! At least for now, until I take them somewhere to get them looked at, cleaned and running. Maybe I will get lucky and they won't need much work. We will see what happens!

Vintage Nine Patch and 54 40 or Fight Quilt Complete

These two quilts have been finished for over two weeks now, so I thought I would get them posted before I forgot again. I had them done for the quilt show. I had been so busy, that I never got around to making a post.  The vintage nine patch was a top I inherited when my daughter's great grand mother passed away several years ago. It sat in a bag the entire time. It was one of those projects that I thought about doing, but something always seemed to take priority. I gave the quilt to my daughter last night. I hope that she enjoys it for years to come. 

I also finished my 54 40 or Fight Quilt while we were setting up for the quilt show. I had to finish the binding on it, so I ran home to do that while we were waiting for the stands and curtains to show up. There were over two hours late getting there which gave me the time to finish this one up. I'm glad I was able to show this one. It will be going on my bed! 

I am happy to announce that I finally got done sorting all of the scraps from the scrap dive. It took two weeks and I am very happy with the variety and amount of what I ended up with. I am in the process of figuring out what to make first. So many choices!

Happy Quilting!

The Scrap Sorting Continues

Well, it's been over a week since I brought all of the leftover scraps home from the scrap dive. I really thought I would have been done by now, but sadly this is not the case. I have two overflowing laundry baskets left to sort. I know that I could probably start sewing, but I really like to sort everything down to the smallest scrap to see what I have. I keep finding surprises. Tonight, I found a fat quarter hiding. I thought I got them all out the other day!

I'm sure every scrap quilter has a certain way of sorting their scraps. Some quilters probably don't even bother. For me, its worth the time. I will know exactly what I have to work with and it will save me time later on when I am working with certain size strips or pieces.

My process is pretty simple. First I dump all of the scraps out onto the floor. From there, I pull out all the bigger pieces. This year I got quite a bit of yardage. I sorted these bigger pieces into solids and prints. In the mean time, I start different piles. I have piles of  1 1/2, 2 and 2 1/2 inch strips and squares. I also have a pile for any strips less than 1 1/2 inches and a pile for strips that are in between the three sizes of strips. These will more than likely be cut down to one of these three sizes. 

Other piles that I have are squares and rectangles. These squares range anywhere from 3 inches to 6 1/2 inches. I also have a pile for scrap binding. For some reason, I have quite a bit more than I had two years ago. I'm guessing I have enough for four or five quilts, maybe more. 

I do have a pile of selvages and will add to that piles as I work on cutting. I've been wanting to make a selvage quilt and this will be the year to do it. 

I have a tote of orphan blocks. I probably have twice the amount I did two years ago. Orphan block quilts are a lot of fun!

The last two piles I have are panels/cheaters and fabric other than cotton. There is some flannel, jean, minky and few other odds and ends that I have to figure out what to do with. 

So, that is pretty much what I do. I had used up some of my stash last year which freed up some empty totes and boxes. I am using those to store these new scraps. 

Hopefully I can finish sorting so I can start sewing. I have a list of ideas and it will be fun to see what all of these scraps will become!