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. 

Rag Quilt Class

I totally forgot to post this yesterday! I think I may have been tired from two days of classes. It really wasn’t bad, and the kids were good. I had mentioned that we had less than usual. I think there were six that were sewing on Friday. Two sisters worked together, and they actually finished their quilt! 

The two oldest did the sewing. The rest of the kids are their brothers and sisters. I may be wrong, but I think they even got their seam allowances snipped. If you are familiar with rag quilts, you know what I am talking about. 

Nevea got all her blocks sewn and two rows out together.

She was catching on well and will be able to finish it on her own. She and her grandmother are planning to join the guild so she can continue to learn more about quilting. 

There were some others that were in various stages of completion and they may or may not get completed. 

I think the makers were starting to lose focus and had wandered off to do other things. 

Yvonne had door prizes and did drawings for them.

She had everyone’s attention at that point! 

On Friday we had more instructors than students, so I took my machine and did quite a bit of sewing when the kids didn’t need my help. 

I was able to get quite a bit done. 

Free Pattern Friday

I was at quilt guild yesterday, and will be there today. We had show and tell yesterday after our business meeting, and someone showed this quilt. 

I asked her the name of it, and she said “Bee Creative”. It was so pretty! When I got home I googled the pattern, and found a place where I can get it free! 

Of course I downloaded it. If you want the pattern, you can find it here. 

We spent the afternoon teaching youth quilters how to make a rag quilt. We didn’t have a lot of kids this time….i think we had 15 last year and less than 10 this year.

The rag quilts are great for the kids because it is simple sewing and, and they don’t need to be quilted. The class will continue today. Hopefully they can finish and start enjoying their quilts!

What I’ve Been Working On

I haven’t really been in a sewing mood, but I finally decided to work on something…anything was better than nothing. I went through my stash and ended up cutting enough 10” squares to do a cute baby quilt.

It’s not very big; I may end up adding a small border. I had made one a few weeks ago from some donated blocks.

I decided I wanted a boy one in addition to this girl one. Each one is 30” x 40”. I think I will add a border to both of them.

After I finished that, I pulled out the one I started on Memorial Day weekend. I used these fat quarters 

and the Honey Bouquet pattern.

It had been set aside and not completed, but once I pulled it out and sat down at the sewing machine, it didn’t take that long. 

Those two pieces on the right are what I am considering for borders. The top is 54” x 60” without borders, and that’s not quite large enough for the places I donate to. Now that I look at the photo, I think I will use the navy for a narrow border, and the red and navy stars for a wider outer border. My original plan was to use a solid cream for the inner border, but I think the navy will look nicer. 

While I was busy sewing on these, I did potato chip blocks as leader and enders and got six more of those finished. 

That makes eight total. LOL. I’m not setting the world on fire with these, but I have until Labor Day to finish the summer challenge, so I’m on schedule. I want to make 30 blocks. If I can get seven more done this week, I’ll be halfway there! 

I did some crochet last night while I was watching American Ninja Warrior. I am working on a new pattern. I’ll show it another day.