Free Pattern Friday

I’ve been on a placemat kick lately. I make a lot of placemats from oddball orphan blocks or random scraps and donate them to Meals on Wheels. I try to donate about 25 per year. Sometimes I hit that goal and sometimes not. Either way, they are happy to receive them, and they are fast and easy to make.

Sometimes I get tired of random scraps and start looking for patterns I can use to make matched sets. I found another free pattern that I tried out yesterday.

The pattern is called “But First Coffee”, and you can find it here. I don’t have any of the coffee fabric, but I had a yard of bee fabric I thought was really cute. 

I’m pretty sure the bee fabric was from Walmart; the brown and the honeycomb print are from Hobby Lobby. I changed the dimensions of the placemats so the honeycomb border would show up better. I’m not so sure that was the right decision. If I bind it with the dark brown, I think it will look better. 

It didn’t take very long to get a set of four made. 

Depending how much fabric I have left, I want to get another set or two made. I think I will try to follow the pattern as it is written and see what I think. Oooh, I just had an idea. What if I put the bees on the left and the honeycomb on the right and use a beige or gold for the border? Something to consider! I plan to donate these for our church craft sale. Any that are left over can be donated to Meals on Wheels, but right now I have plenty for them. 

After my exercise class this morning I am going to drive to Stafford for the Coastal Prairie quilt show. I used to go to it when I lived in Lake Jackson, and it was always a good show. I texted Betty to see if she wanted to ride along, and she said yes. It’s always more fun to go with a friend! I will take some pictures while I’m there. Have a great Friday!

Another Finish

I was able to get the borders put on the top I started on Memorial Day weekend. I was sort of stalled out on the borders, but I finally decided to go ahead and get it done. It only took from Memorial Day to Independence Day to get in the mood to get it finished. LOL.

I am anxious to get it quilted and bound. I will bind it with the navy I used for the inner border. I already have the binding made. Here’s a better picture of the border. 

I think the colors show up better in the closeups. I already have a fabric picked out for the back, so it’s just a matter of it waiting for its turn on the frame. 

I didn’t get my placemats finished, but I went ahead and got all the small components sewn together so I can get them done soon. 

It continues to be outrageously hot! There is a chance of rain on Friday, and I hope we at least get some. It most likely won’t be a lot. The desert rose now has two blooms, and it’s loving the heat. 

The orange and yellow lantana is starting to bloom too. 

This color is the native one, and it is also drought resistant. I do need to water the flower beds tomorrow evening; I don’t want to wait for the rain chance on Friday, and then take a chance we don’t get any. The dogs have a doggy door and usually spend quite a bit of time outside during the day. Yesterday I came home to find dog toys all over the floor. 

These are their favorites. I’m guessing they stayed indoors because of the heat and ended up raiding the toy basket. It’s on a shelf, but they can reach it if they jump. I went outside around 7:30 pm, and threw a ball for them until the mosquitoes started getting bad. Hopefully that relieved some of the boredom. 

Weekend Update

It was a quiet weekend. Busy but quiet. I didn’t have a lot of human interaction, other than Sunday. I went to church, then went out to eat with my church friends. One of the sales ladies from Dillard had called me on Saturday to let me know they were having one of their semi-annual Lancôme sales. Spend $75 and get the free gifts. Okay, I do like the free gifts! I don’t use much makeup, but I use quite a bit of the skin care. The free ones are the perfect travel size! Anyway, I went to Dillards after lunch on Sunday to spend $75 and reserve my free gift. 

The picture says Macy’s but the offer is the same at Dillard’s. 

My daughter and her family were out of town for the weekend so I had dog duties. They don’t have a doggie door so I have to make several trips a day to let the dogs out. My friends Alan and Dave left for Alabama so I also had cat duties at their house. The cats don’t need much; they have a feeder, but I do have to make sure they have clean water. At some point I will need to deal with the cat litter, but not yet. 

As far as sewing, I was able to work on the table runner and placemats from the pattern in my last post. I got the table runner pieced.

It’s cute, but I think the blue I chose may be too light. I’m think of making it again with a navy blue. I only got one of the placemats made. 

I have all of the stars made, but I just couldn’t find the motivation to finish the other three placemats. Hopefully this week. 

When I was at my daughters feeding dogs, the dogs were having a barking fit. Their  back yard faces the golf course.

Five young deer plus one straggler.

They were pretty much ignoring the dogs. 

Today I need to get my head back in the game and get back on track. The holiday weekend was a nice break, but it’s time to recalibrate.

Happy Fourth and Another Free Pattern

 Happy 250th Birthday America! My fervent prayer is that all Americans can put aside their differences and their conflicting political opinions and just celebrate how lucky we are to live in a country where freedom and democracy has been celebrated for 250 years. I pray we have many more years of the same! 

I have no major plans for today; there is a parade going on downtown, but the heat is outrageous, and I really don't enjoy parades that much, so I am planning to stay home and sew. 

There is a super cute pattern I found for a patriotic runner plus matching placemats. I have pulled all my fabrics from my stash and hope to work on it today.

You can get the pattern here. I won't finish it today, at least not the quilting and binding, but it's pretty easy to make, so I think I can get it pieced if I get busy!

This cat makes himself at home everywhere.

When I drive up to my shop, he is waiting for me and runs in the door as soon as I open it. I am going to have to clean off the top of the desk because he gets up here and kicks everything off! That's okay; it is due to be cleaned anyway. 7

Free Pattern Friday

I was browsing different websites looking for layer cake patterns. I have some I have had a while that need to be used. I tend to like the Robert Kauffman patterns. They are easy, but they are also eye-catching. This one caught my interest:

It would be perfect for squares you don’t want to chop up too much. I was thinking about my Kaffe Fasset squares. The only thing I’m not liking is that the quilt finishes 40” x 50”. To me, that’s a little small. Anyway, the pattern is here. I like the graphic appeal of the pattern, but it needs to be bigger. 

I went to the funeral home yesterday to pay my respects, and I got choked up when I saw two of the quilts I quilted and bound hanging behind the casket. It was very emotional for me. 

Good news—my desert rose is finally blooming. 

The heat is miserable right now with no letting up for a while. I try to stick with plants that can withstand our South Texas weather, and the desert rose and the lantana thrive in it. The yellow lantana is flowering right now; the orange native lantana isn’t. I’m not sure why. I’m just glad something can tolerate this heat!

RIP Joycelynn

Today I will go by Rosewood Funeral Chapel and pay my respects. One of my favorite customers lost her battle with cancer last week. Visitation is at 10 and the funeral is at 11. I am going to go at 10 and sign the book and offer my condolences to her family. I had looked up the obituary on line last week as I was planning to send flowers. The obituary said in lieu of flowers, donations to VCAM (Victoria Christian Assistance Ministry) would be appreciated. Joycelynn volunteered at VCAM. I will go by VCAM when I leave the funeral home and make a donation in honor of her.

I made a collage of some of the quilts I quilted for her.

I don’t think that is all of them, and I may have added one or two that weren’t hers. I’m not sure. I also quilt for her sister Marian, and they often came to the quilt shop together, and their taste was very similar, so I could have included one or two of Marian’s quilts in the collage. I can’t find a picture of Joycelynn’s fist quilt. It was an autumn panel she won at a quilt show, and she was determined to finish it even though she hadn’t made a quilt before. 

The last three I did for her were for her children and her grandson. I was able to get them quilted and bound in time for her to give them to the recipients. 

Unfortunately, Joycelynn was diagnosed with liver cancer about two months ago. By the time she was diagnosed, it was stage four and untreatable. She actually went to the doctor for shoulder pain. I recently found out that is a symptom of liver cancer, but I never knew that previously. It seems the tumor in the liver can get large enough to irritate the diaphragm which results in shoulder pain. Cancer is a horrible disease. I absolutely hate it.

It’s Been a While….

…since I used a satin binding on a quilt. When I started quilting (around 1980), a lot of people used the wide satin binding on their quilts. I used it myself on some baby quilts I made. Of course, we also used that thick polyester batting. I have some customers that still want the thick poly binding, but no one had asked for satin binding until a few weeks ago when one of my customers brought two baby quilts for me to do. 

She brought some wide ribbon for the binding but I couldn’t make it work. I was able to find some of the blanket binding at Walmart. 

I had remembered it being really hard to work with, but it really wasn’t bad at all. I used the dual feed feature on my machine, and it didn’t give me any problems. 

It took a little longer to do the binding on these, but that may have been because it wasn’t the method I usually use. 

Oh by the way, I went and got my shingles shot. 

Our exercise instructor had to cancel a couple of days last week because of shingles, and when she came back and told us how horribly painful it was, well you don’t have to tell me twice. I went straight to CVS and got vaccinated. My arm is still bruised and sore. That’s okay. I’m sure shingles is worse! I will have to go back in a few months and get the second shot.