Sunday, June 30, 2013

Willow Weave

I thought I would take a little break from arranging things in my new sewing room and show you my Willow Weave quilt top. I made it from a jelly roll sew along hosted by Doreen. I really like this design and I don't think I am going to put a border on it. I am linking up my finished top to Doreen's blog. Just in case you are interested she is going to do another sew along in August.
Back to work for me. I can't believe how much stuff I have accumulated. I am taking some time to go through some of the stuff to see what I can donate. I will be back tomorrow to share what UFOs I am going to work on in July. I will also announce the winner of the this months giveaway. You still have time to link up here. I will take time tomorrow to read and reply to your comments on yesterday and today's posts. Thanks for stopping by.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Quilting Hoop

What would you do with a hand quilting hoop that you never use? I have decided that when I hand quilt I would rather do it without a hoop. It might not be the proper way to hand quilt but that is the way I like to do it.
 I decided to make this Welcome sign to hand in my new sewing room.
 I used some of my vintage plastic buttons for the flowers. Aren't they cute?
I got this pattern from the summer 2012 Stitch/Craft Create magazine. It is loaded with great craft ideas.
My room is almost ready for me to start moving my things into it. Mr. P. is working on the 1/4 round molding as I write. It would be long before I will share my new space with you. I am excited!

Don't forget to link up your UFOs if you finished some for the month of June on the previous post. I will be announcing the winner July 1 of the giveaway.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Working Night and Day!

 Well, not really! but that is what it feels like lately. So much going on at this time. First let me show you what I worked on this month, which was very little. Remember this sneak peek? I was asked to teach an applique class for a local shop so I wanted to make something new.
 Here is my little quilt all done. It will fit in my wire table top quilt hanger. Not sure when I will teach a class but I am ready. I really like how it turned out.
 This is how I got started with a design. I pulled out this book which is so much fun to look through.
 I really liked these love apples.
 Then I thought about all my Quiltmaker 100 blocks magazines. Look what I found! So this also helped me create a block. Mine is a little different. I had to include some circles because that is something that is important to learn in an applique class.
 I did make some green hexagons and got four attached to the top. I did not accomplish much when it comes to my UFOs but if you got some of your UFOs done this month be sure to link up at the bottom of this post. I know Sheila finished her three that she listed at the beginning of the month. Way to go! Sheila.
 I have been spending a lot of time in the garden. If you have a garden you know it is a lot of work but very satisfying work. When I was working out in the garden the other day I notices some tomatoes and a few tomatillos.
 I harvested some more onions, carrots, potatoes, lettuce and some very pretty zinnias. I was very disappointed with the potatoes. I had planted two beds but when I started digging I noticed that voles had been eating the potatoes. I think that is where most of them ended up, in their bellies instead of mine! When we (Mr. P & I ) built more beds this spring we put hardware cloth in the bottom to keep the moles and voles out. Hopefully it will work because we have planted sweet potatoes in some of those beds.
 I thought I would share some photos of the pollinators on some of the flowers around the house and in the garden.
This is one of the entrances to the garden. It is hard to tell what is what but everything is growing really well and I will be planting some pumpkin and pinto bean seeds today.
 So Mr. P. has finally been able to start laying the laminate in my future sewing room. He said doing the closet was a pain!
 One thing I did not mention is that we plan to do the whole house in the laminate except for our living room which has carpet that is only a few years old. That room is not used much so  the carpet still looks like new. After living in this house for seventeen years it is time to update. My kitchen is full of theses boxes. We have taken up the carpet in the other bedroom and I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint. I still have to put a second coat on some of the trim. So the master bedroom is full of stuff from that bedroom. The house is a little out of sorts and I am trying to keep some order among the changes going on at this time.
So the hours are going to be filled up again this week with working in the garden and the house. I just made up my mind to sit at the sewing machine yesterday just to keep my sanity. I made some progress on the blocks for Doreen's sew along.

I am probably not going to do any blog posts the rest of the week but if I get some more sewing done I will be sure to share.

Be sure to link up your finished UFOs if you signed up at the beginning of the month. I look forward to seeing what you accomplished this month. I apologize for taking so long to reply to your comments from last week. I will warn you that it might take me a while to get around to replying to any comments you leave this week too. Have a great week.

With Passion,
Carrie P.




Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Chain Piecing

I finished chain piecing parts of my blocks yesterday. It looks like a big mess at this point.
 I am trying to catch up for the next step in Doreen's jelly roll sew along! Not having electricity put me behind.  I hope to get the blocks put together today. Lots of pressing first!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

From a Finish

 Every month I have been entering one UFO in A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Melissa and Shanna. I was one of the lucky winners. I won this package of Aurifil thread for finishing my bowl wall hanging last month. The purple spool is wool thread which will be nice to use when I get around to working on wool again.
  Melissa and Shanna have gotten some great sponsors. You can join in next month. Here is where you can read about the guidelines to enter your UFO next month. Thanks Melissa and Shanna for hosting and to Aurifil for being a great sponsor.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Getting Back to Normal

After two and half days of life not being "normal", things are finally returning to the way I like them. The day the storm hit the temperature went up to 92* and very humid. I was on my way home from the post office when I saw the menacing black clouds. I was hoping I could beat the storm home but I saw it closing in from my car rear view mirror. Next thing I knew I was being pummeled by rain and wind. Driving home, which was within 7 miles from the post office, was like driving through a maze. Trees were down every where. There are three ways to get to my house. Two were blocked by downed trees and power lines. Finally, I made it home safe and sound with no damage to our home or downed trees.
 The next day was gorgeous with no humidity and temperatures in the low 80's. I spent most of my time outside watching the garden and lavender grow. :0) I was very grateful that the weather was so great.
 With no power we loaded all our food from the refrigerator in ice chests left over from our tent camping days. I had to go up to the store each day to buy more ice. I also had to buy bottled water because we use water from a well and our house is total electric. We used buckets filled with water from the rain barrels to flush the toilets. We drove over to #2 son's house to take showers. This time was not bad living with out power because it only last the 2 1/2 days. One winter we went seven days. Now that was rough.
 I picked some peas and carrots which we cooked on our gas grill.
 I also harvested some Walla Walla Washington onions. Thanks Candace!
 While sitting outside I watched Mr. P. work on getting a spot ready for our
 1100 gallon water tank. This will hold water so that I can water the garden with a hose instead of carrying watering cans up to the garden. I am getting to old to carry gallons of water up to the garden.
 While watching Mr. P. work I was pretty much a lady of leisure. I worked on hexagons and
 embroidered the newest block from Red Brolly.
So today this lady of leisure has been working at getting the house cleaned, clothes washed, and cooking dinner. Maybe tomorrow I can use my sewing machine to work on some blocks from Doreen's sew along.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

BlogLovin

I am claiming this blog as mine. I have been seeing many say that you need to do this. I am new to bloglovin and I am adding the button so you can follow my blog when google reader shuts down. This seems to be a very important part of joining bloglovin.

Click on the bloglovin' button on my left sidebar to follow my blog.

A really bad storm came through our area last Thursday afternoon. Thousands were without power. We were one of those thousands. We finally got power last night around 10pm. I am at my #2 son's house to celebrate Father's Day. So hopefully tomorrow things will be back to "normal."

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday,
With Passion,
Carrie P.


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

My Presidency Over

Monday night was my last time serving as president of my guild. In between working on UFOs I was busy sewing each of my board members and 
committee chairpersons a zippered pouch and little thread catcher to thank them volunteering with me this year. I emailed each person to ask them their two favorite colors. I have had these done for a while but some of the members read my blog so I did not want to
let the cat out of the bag! Here they all are in their colorful bags.
 The guild members usually make the outgoing president a quilt. I told my vice-president I did not need a big quilt. So I was presented this Christmas wall hanging. Not the best picture, I know. I have it hanging on my refrigerator because my design wall is full of stuff. I will definitely show it off when I get it machine quilted.
Just in case your were wondering the little thread catcher was a free pattern from Primitive Gatherings blog a few years ago. My VP did tell me that the wall hanging pattern is from an old Australian magazine. I don't have any idea which one.
So now I can sit back and enjoy the meetings. It was a good year and I had great help from my board and committee chairpersons. Thank you all.
Here is an update on my sewing room-to-be. I have finally gotten it all painted and Mr. P. is planning to start laying the laminate flooring this weekend. He has Fridays off for the summer now so that means he can get done sooner. :0)

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Unwrapping the Goodness!

I have these four jelly rolls that have just been sitting on my shelf. What should I do with them? Well, I decided I needed "a start something new" fix! I know I am just supposed to be working on UFOs but when I saw that Doreen is having a jelly roll sew along I decided to join in.
So I unwrapped this Cinnamon Spice jelly roll. 
 Just one jelly roll and some background fabric is all you need to make a 60" x 72" quilt. I have all my pieces cut out and I am ready for the next set of instructions. Join in if you have a jelly roll that has been just sitting on your shelf waiting for you to unwrap its goodness!
 I just have to show this photo too. Sorry it is blurry looking. It was taken through the window screen. That is a big hawk sitting on the bluebird house. No bluebirds have made their home in it yet but I am sure if they had the parents would be swooping down at that big old bird.
With Passion,
Carrie P.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Hexie Friday

I sewed three more flowers to my hexagon quilt. One thing I did not mention the last time I shared this quilt was that this is a charm quilt. That means that each hexagon uses a different fabric. No two fabrics will be alike.
 Even the green hexagons will use a different fabrics.

 My growing garden.
 Last week I linked up to A Quilting Reader's Garden. ANudge was having a giveaway for this magazine and I won. Isn't that quilt on the cover fabulous? Maybe one day I will make something similar. Thanks ANudge! Check out the other hexagon projects on her blog. I am linking up again.
With Passion,
Carrie P.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Last Quilt Bound

Here is the fourth UFO quilt all bound and ready to be donated. Some of you might recognize these blocks because you did them last year too. These blocks are from the Bloggers BOM hosted by Jackie of Canton Village Quilt Works.
 Here are some details of the quilting done by the amazing Laura! Thanks Laura for doing all these quilts for me.
 Every time I would sit down to work on the binding of each quilt I would think, "I want to keep this quilt for myself." Laura just made these quilts extra special. I will not keep any them, of course, because my original plan was to donate them. Where I am donating them? I am donating them to Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS-Lou Gehrig's disease. I don't know anyone with this disease but for some reason it really touches my heart. The quilts are given to ALS patients or used to raise awareness.  This challenge is put on by Quilters Dream batting. I have donated quilts to this cause for several years. There are prizes but that is not why I donate. I just want to share some quilts with patients.
 So as I was going through my sewing room getting ready to move to my new space I found two more quilts that I am going to share. This one was made from all kinds of blocks which was just placed in a random setting.
This was one of my first quilts I made. Maybe you have some quilts you would like to donate. The minimum size is 35" x 44 or larger. 
 So I will put these quilts in the mail after I share them at our guild meeting next Monday night. I am linking up the Blogger's BOM on the June finishes linky party at Such a Sew and Sew.

There is still time to link up your "Nothing but UFOs" for this month here.

June FinishesWith Passion,
                     Carrie P.