Monday Madness

Monday mornings with construction in the house is always madness.  The weekends are always so peaceful and then the noise and activity starts for another week.  Another couple of weeks (I think) and I should be able to spend my time cleaning every nook and crevice. 

While I continue to dig up the “oldies” in my sewing haven, I did have fun with a new project this week.  I had a charm pack of Market Road by Windham and loved the colors.  I decided to make a few flying geese and then just started building on them until I got a nice size for the table.  It is 16”x40”. 



I used the rest of the charms for the back.



Now for the oldies……another table runner that I finally quilted and bound.



Remember the fusible grid Happy Jack from my last post?  I finished him AND make another one just like him as a gift.  I really like the way these turned out.



The little ones have all headed back to school for the upcoming year, but we had fun celebrating the end of summer.  Little says summer like watermelon.



Why is it that little girls love to dress up?????



When Benartex had their Christmas in July Blog Hop I was the lucky winner of one of their bundles from My Fabric Relish.  Included in the bundle were two great patterns from Cherry Blossoms Quilting.  I have made several of Cherry’s patterns and they have become some of my favorite projects to display at Christmas.  I’m thinking that this darling Christmas tree skirt might need to be the next addition.  Be sure to check out Cherry’s fantastic designs as they will also become some of your favorites. 



Do you have a fetish for pincushions?  I have way more than I actually use, but they are so addictive.  If you love them as much as I do, please link your pincushion love up at the My Sister Made Me Do It linky party.  It starts on September 2nd and runs through September 9th.

Digging Up the Oldies

Whilst trying to stay out of the way of workmen, I have been spending a lot of time in my secret (and quiet) space.  I’ve been having fun pulling out some of my older projects to finish off. 

I found this cute pattern, Happy Jack, about five years ago.  Each year I say I am going to make it!  Well….it is now underway.



I have always loved Halloween and have been invited to participate in the Halloween Haunts 2015 Blog Hop so I really want to finish this happy fellow off to share.  Have you done any of these projects using the fusible grids?  I love my Santa and snowman that I have done using this technique.

I also pulled out my Little Letters that was a QAL with Temecula Quilt Company.  I needed to finish my last row of letters and get it quilted and bound.   The colors look a bit washed out here, but the letters are more distinguished looking.



Since the colors were kind of marine-ish looking, I chose to piece the back with a whimsical sea scene.



It’s been a busy week with family birthdays and farewell parties for college bound grandchildren.  Tuesday evening we spent at the Hollywood Bowl.  It is such a beautiful place to spend a summer evening.

Sorry for the fuzzy cell phone picture.

The big screen was there because they showed the film 2001- A Space Oddessy while the L.A. Philharmonic played the music.  The music was incredible, but the film was rather strange - in my humble opinion. 

The  weekend is here and I am looking forward to the quiet in the house.  The remainder of the grands return to school next week so I guess that means it really is the end of the summer.  How quickly it went this year!  I’m already missing the extra daylight, but I am looking forward to the winter rains they are forecasting for us.   We just need to finish getting prepared for it – tree trimming, roof checked, drains cleared, etc.  Maybe I should get sandbags!!!  Of course, if we are all ready you know it won’t happen. 

Anything But Square

For years I have had a bag of fabric scraps that came from my paternal grandmother’s home.  In the bag was also a pieced top.  I would assume that it was pieced by my grandmother, but of that I am not certain.  I always thought that I would eventually hand quilt it.  With all of the boxing up of things around here for the remodel, the top popped up once again.  I looked closely at it and came to the realization that hand quilting it would probably not be the best bet for it.  It is anything but square – anywhere!  The fabrics appear to be feedsack fabrics.  So….on second thought, I figured I could hide some of those flaws with an overall panto quilting design. 



The size is odd at 67x90.  I thought of taking it apart and making it square.  If I had more of the fabrics, I would have added one more row to its width.  In the end, I left it as it was and I must say that it turned out pretty well all things considered.  It was an interesting way to construct this star.  Nowadays we would do it as a nine patch, but this looks way more complicated with a center square.  There are several different blue fabrics used in the blocks.





There is even a “make-do” block.



The quilting design is a woven Baptist Fan.



Forth Worth Fabric Studios recently had a Christmas in July blog hop with some great patterns.  I thought the Kate Spain Christmas table topper would make a great project. 



It went together quickly and is about 34” square.  On this one I used a design that picked up the poinsettias in the pattern.

Chaos

I tell you….life is a bit chaotic with workmen all day, dust that is unbelievable and three solid days of jack hammering the concrete slab to move drains.  What happened to my normal life?  Meanwhile, I am trying to keep my distance while still being close enough to answer questions.  It is difficult to try to dig into a good project so I am mostly doing bits and pieces.
 
I have spent some time working on my Nativity cross stitch which, again, has been sadly neglected lately.





The cream border is finished and once I backstitch the kings I get to move over to the final section.  I’m not sure it will be done this year as I have to make Christmas stocking for the newest granddaughter. 

I thought I was done with my Minion beanies, but I got a request for four more.  How could I say “no”?  Two down and two more to go.



I played around with a small project – a pincushion.  It’s about 6 1/2” so it really is a good sized one.  I needed one for my flat head pins and this will work great.  The tutorial can be found here.



The week has been filled with family events too.  Our youngest granddaughter was baptized.



We headed up to Northern CA for a horse championship event for another granddaughter.  It was a national event with riders coming in from as far away as Alaska and New Hampshire WITH THEIR HORSES!!!  That is quite the journey.  This was a two day jumping event for her which always makes me nervous.





Finally….some pictures of the chaos around here.  We have moved from our bedroom as it is a little hard to sleep under plastic with a tub in the middle of the room.



Friday was the end of demolition so this week should bring some construction.  The bathroom looks pretty empty. 



I’ve enjoyed my Sunday with no workmen, but it will all change at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.
All is good.