Sunflower Welcome

 It is hot and I don't know about anyone else but I am trying to think cool . So Fall comes to mind.  I hate to wish my life away and with this heat, I had to think of something.  So I am thinking Fall, cool breezes, brightly colored leaves, etc.

So I drew this small wall hanging to hang in an entrance way, on a door, on a window, etc.

I then dug into my scraps to see what colors I could come up with.  I made my patterns, used  the Steam-a-Steam fusible webbing and press my pieces and cut them out.
I made 7  -  3 ½” X 3 ½” squares out of assorted fall colors, one for each letter.  Then sewed them in a row.  Next I placed my letters in the center of each square and pressed them in place.
I then sewed the middle panes to the row of blocks with the letters, arranged my sunflowers the way I liked them and pressed them in place.  After that, proceeded to machine applique using the blanket stitch and monofilament thread.

After all my pieces were appliqued on, I layered, machine quilted around the flower and in the ditch of the letters.  Then I hand sewn a dark brown binding on.

To embellish, I used  fine paint pens to accent the sunflowers and pumpkins.  For the vines on the pumpkins, I used dimensional paint to bring them out to be noticed.

                                 
 
This is it my:   "SUNFLOWER WELCOME"



I hope everyone is keeping cool in this hot weather we are having.  I myself, go out in the evenings when it is cooler.  To all,  have a great week!!

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Freezer Pickles

Ahhh, Summertime, the sound of birds singing, butterfly's flying all over, beautiful flowers everywhere and fresh produce.  With this wet spring that we had and the heat this summer, the gardens are in full bloom also.  It is the time of year that we also gather our food for winter.  I made a lot of preserves the other week.  This week it is time to work on my cucumbers and freeze some corn and beans.   I made a big batch of Bread and Butter Pickles and put them away.  The ones that I plan on giving out as gifts I decorate with some fabric.

These taste so good when you get them out in the winter and eat them with sandwiches.  Plus they go good in Gift Baskets with homemade Jams and Jellys for friends.  But today I must do something with all these cucumbers before they go bad.  

I am going to make Freezer Pickles out of them.  Those of you that don't know or never heard about Freezer Pickles....when they are defrosted they taste just like the regular Cucumber Salad.  I know they don't have the same ingredients...but believe me.  They are soooo good!  Just follow the recipe accordingly, (for this many cucumbers, I am doubling the recipe.  Now, don't worry, when defrosted, the cucumbers do not get mushy, that is why you soak them in salt first,  And they do not taste salty.



                                            FREEZER PICKLES


1.   Mix together 2 quarts unpeeled sliced cucumbers, 2 sliced onions, and 2 Tablespoons salt.
      Let stand for 2 hours.

2.    Mix 1 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup vinegar (use the apple cider vinegar)
       Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar.  Let cool till room temperature. This is your syrup.

3.    Drain cucumbers and squeeze out as much water as possible.  Put them in plastic freezer containers,
       (keeping 1 inch from top for expansion)

4.    Pour syrup over cucumbers, cover with lid and freeze.




When I make mine, I make my syrup right away after slicing my cucumbers and onion. Then after the 2 hours both my cucumbers and syrup are ready.

Tomorrow, back to quilting,  and I am thinking Fall.... With a cool crisp air, falling colored leaves, Pumpkins, gourds ,etc.   Well, I don't know about you but I think this hot weather has got to go........ 

Hope everyone has a Great Week!

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My Scrunchies

Yesterday, I decided to take a brake from quilting.  No I am not sick!  I just wanted to do something different for a day.  But still sew something.  So I decided to make Scrunchies.  With all this heat we have been having.  I have been styling my hair up or pulled back somehow.  I have different ties, but my scrunchies that I a have are really old and tattered looking.  My problem is that I am too cheap to buy my new ones.

Today, i am making my own.  I started by cutting a 4" X 24" piece of material.  Then turned under 1/4 inch on the one end.  (this will make it easy to connect when I have it all together)  Next I folded it in half long ways with right sides together.  I then sewed 1/4 inch along the edge.  After that it got turned right side out.  Next I cut a 7 1/2 inch piece of elastic and fished it through the tube of material.

Then holding the 2 ends of the elastic together, I over lapped them about 3/8 inch or so and sewed it real good.  Then put your material all around the elastic.  With the end that you turned under, carefully put it out over the other end and hand sew using the blanket stitch to hide your stitches.

I made all kinds, in blue, green white, cotton, silk. It was a great way to get rid of some of my scrap material 

Then I decided to make one for a little girl I know. She has long thick blond hair.  I tried something a little different.  I cut exactly like the others but this one I cut a crochet piece of blue, pink and yellow, lace.   I cut this the same length as my material, 24".  Check the diagram carefully and you will see how I placed it in.

OK, I got some done today, I made extra for myself and for friends.  They are so east to do, and fast too.  I sew them all, then sit and relax on my swing on the front porch and enjoy the day, hand sewing them all together.   Here are just a few that are completed.

I did a few variations (which I just love to experiment)  The first one is of dark blue velvet material, the the next two are made of cotton, the bottom white is silk, then the one I made for the little girl, and the last....well, I made that one 3 inch wide strip instead of the original 4 inch wide strip.  That a difference, too much material for me.

Hope you enjoyed my new adventure, and tomorrow I am off and running to see what I can get into next.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!   Keep cool!!!

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The Perennial Garden

I have finished my Perennial quilt.  It was well worth waiting for my machine to come and get set up.  I practiced on the machine before attaching the quilt to the frame and all was well.  I think this machine is working good, (knock on wood)  I decided to call this one  "My Perennial Garden".  It sure was time consuming, but well worth it.  I really like this one.  I pinned the quilt, batting and backing onto my frame,and started quilting.

When finished, I removed it from the frame and trimmed the sides.  I already had my binding cut and press ready to go.  So all I did was pin it to the quilt and then sewed it on by hand using the back stitch.

SO HERE IT IS.....MY PERENNIAL GARDEN....

.

I made a sleeve for the back and used some scrap material that was left over from the top, and made a label for the back.  Sewn them on by hand and it is now complete and hanging in my living room above the sofa.  The finished size is:  45 1/2" X 45 1/2".

If anyone is interested in applique blocks, let me know.  I will try to help you.  Have a Great Day.



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Hibiscus

I have completed the Hibiscus project and wanted to share with all.  It was an easy decision with the pictures that I have taken.  I decided to keep it just the way it was, in the pot in the front of my porch.

I drew my picture, added 2 ducks, 2 butterflys and a Humminbird.  Then decided how big to make it and made my patterns.  For the Hibiscus flowers, I made a few different patterns, we all know that flowers do not grown the same.  Then cut my material, machine appliqued onto blue and green background.  I cut my boarders, add then to the quilt applique panel and then machine quilted it.  I just quilted around the appliques then in the ditch around the brown boarder.  In the larger boarder I did a simple rope design.  I added the binding and  WALAH!......It is completed.

                                   


The finished size is:   24 1/2"  X  22 1/2"

Anyone interested in the wall hanging please go to the store on my site and it will be in the "Quilts for Sale".  If you would like the pattern, let me know and I will e-mail it to you.  Hope everyone has a Great Day.

A day sewing is like a day without sunshine.


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My Hibiscus

 I found that Bali fabrics are a lot of fun to use in a quilt of any kind.  They can make a bold statement or emphasize a specific design block, or just be the quilt.  I use them a lot in my quilts and appliques.  I feel no matter how they are used, they make your quilt look great.  These are some of the Bali colors that I have right now:

So I am now trying to get ideas as to what to make next.  With the busy summer we are having, getting my site up and running, learning to blog and tweet, plus my garden.  I haven't had as much time to sew as I usually do.  Well, my husband bought me a beautiful Hibiscus, this past spring.  It was small so we just put it in a large pot and placed it at the edge of our sidewalk to the front porch.  That was I could watch it bloom in the house.  The hummingbirds just love it, there are always around. (except when you want to take a picture)

Anyway, to make a long story short, I took some pictures of it for our personal album and my husband stated, that it would make a nice quilt..............So, off for my tablet I ran, should I make a Table Topper, Wall Hanging....hmmmmmm, the colors are perfect and I got all the material.  Just need to decide how big, what boarder, should I add blocks,  So today I am going to draw exactly what I want, make patterns, find the material I will use.  Get it started......

                                                                             

                            SO MANY IDEAS, SO LITTLE TIME........

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My New Long Arm Quilter

I am just so excited  I just got my Long Arm Quilter delivered!!!  Yes, it finally came and I am all ready to go. 


I have both my Perennial and my Kaleidoscope quilt tops, press, backings pressed, and batting cut.  I just don't know which ones I will do first.  


Right now I must wait for my husband to set it up for me.  It is large and heavy.  He must take my old one off the frame and set this one on.  He has been so helpful through all of this.  See, the machine that I had started making loud noises and tensions were giving me lots of problems.  He checked it out and said that the timing on the machine was off.  So he called the manufacturer for me and got them to send me a new one.  
         YEAH!!        
He is busy right now, so when he can, he will set this one up and make sure it is working good.   THEN IT WILL BE UP TO ME!!!


My audience is all excited and waiting for me to start:

She just cannot control herself she is so excited. 


OK,   I know I will have to practice first, put my thread on and make some bobbins etc.  But if I get up early tomorrow....... I can at least get it ready to sew and one quilt on the frame ready to quilt.  Then  




                                 LOOK OUT!!!  




I plan on hiding myself in my room and quilting.  Well, me and my audience.  She follows me around the house where ever I go.  She even has a bed in each room.  What a life!!!   


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My Flag

It is Independence day today and I want to wish everyone out there a Safe and Happy 4th of July.  I hope everyone is having a Great time this weekend, and celebrating the Holiday.

This week I played Betsy Ross and made the American Flag.  Let me explain.....I found this article in one of my many magazines and it had the American Flag as a small Wall hanging.  It was sewn together by hand and made with assorted scrap of red, white and blue material.  When I seen this picture, I just had to make it.  Did you ever just see a picture of a quilt and you said "That one I must make"?  Well, I do ever so often and this was one.  I had 3 real good reasons to make it.

     1.  I wanted to make something for the 4th with my patriot material that I had purchased at the Quilt show in Paducah, KY.  But I was running out of time.  (It was already June 26th when I seen this article)

     2.  The pattern had curves on two sides which made it more interesting to me, more of a challenge

.

     3.  Since they needed to be sewn by hand, meant that I could sew them anywhere I wanted.  I prefer sitting on my swing watching the birds and the fish in my pond.  Talk about relaxing!

Anyway, after I got all the pieces hand sewn together.  I had 7 strips of 7 pieces.  These I did by machine for they were straight pieces and running out of time.  I then layered and quilted by my machine.  The binding, well, I did not put any on, I cut the batting a little shorter than the quilt top, then rolled both the front and the back together inside to the batting, pinned, and did a slip stitch all the way around.

After I had it all completed I hand sewn to little strips on either side on the back to hang it up.  I wanted to hang it in front of my chest in our living room.

Finished size is:  21" X 13".  This was a lot of fun to make......now on to the next project!

I am still waiting for my long arm, so still have the Perennial quilt top and the Kaleidoscope quilt top to quilt. But that won't keep me waiting....for I have 126,345,678,980,987,654,323,456,789050,987,654 more ideas.

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