Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Birthday Fun

Kathryn Grace, darling granddaughter and light of my life, is two years old! How about that for a milestone? The birthday party was Saturday at the park.



The problem with a two-year old's birthday party is getting the birthday girl to hold still long enough to get her picture taken.


Apparently, playing on the playground is more fun than singing Happy Birthday or opening presents.

At least she seemed to enjoy the cake! How big a bite did she put in her mouth?!


Friday, June 5, 2009

What I've Been Working On

I've been busy sewing.....not sure it can be considered quilting though. I got a pattern a few months ago called "Little Glam Bag" and finally got time to try it out. Here's some pics of the five I've made so far.


The one with the cherries is for me (of course!). I really enjoyed making these little bags--each one uses less than a fat quarter quilted to some fusible fleece, and it's a good way to use up some of those little pieces of ribbon and trims that I can't seem to throw away. I also made a set of pillowcases. Sorry the picture's not better--they're already on my bed. I like that novelty fabric with the chocolates on it. Now I can have chocolates on my pillow every night with no calories.
Happy sewing,
Carolyn

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Choices

I recently saw a picture of an old quilt and decided I wanted to figure out how it was made. Before I knew what was happening, I had 24 blocks done! The old quilt in the picture had the blocks set solid without sashing and without borders. I really didn't want to match up all the points on the edges, plus there would be a lot of bulk where the points meet, so I decided to use some sashing. I thought the bright pink would brighten up the blocks which turned out a little more blah than I had envisioned. Of course, the problem I run into when I really have little or no plan is that the planning part of my brain is slow to catch up with the cutting and sewing part! I want to add some cornerstones but can't decide on the color. I thought maybe I could lay out two rows of blocks with a strip of sashing and insert little squares of my two choices and take a picture of it. Sometimes looking at a picture makes it easier to decide--at least for me. Anyhow, I am posting the pictures of both options and asking for opinions. Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know which color cornerstones looks better.


Option 1:



Option 2:



Thanks!
Carolyn

June Block of the Month

Here's the BOM for June. It's a ten-inch block from Quilterscache I really like called Marion's Choice. Here's a link for the instructions:
http://www.quilterscache.com/M/MarionsChoiceBlock.html

It's all 2" squares and half-sqaure triangles so nothing we haven't already been doing. The way they're arranged makes a really nice block. You might want to keep the picture handy while you're sewing the block. I didn't the first time and managed the get the half-square trianges upside down when I made the first row. It was easy to correct

after I looked at the picture. I spressed the rows
with the patches going away from the half-square
triangles, and I pressed the middle row with the
patches going toward the outer patches and
toward the red center patch. Sorry I didn't take a
pic showing how I pressed it, but here's a pic of
the finished block.



Until next time,
Carolyn