Under cover

The weather has been warm and the trees are budding.

A tree behind my house

Today, I noticed the small steno book I use was a little ratty around the edges so I made a cover for it.

I started with two small blocks I had pieced earlier. I folded each piece around the front and back cover of the notebook and pinned.

Then, using an upholstery needle, I whip stitched the seams using a contrasting color.

The two pieces were stitched together to create a binding around the spiral of the little book.  Now the small steno books I have can be put in my handbag and be protected from wear and tear.

Sonia

Overcoming a glitch...

The first signs of our veggie garden are beginning to show.  My husband started seeds for the garden and today we noticed they are up and have vented the top of the seed starter tray.

We have cabbage and iceberg lettuce.

The beets and basil have started too.

I think they will do well.

I was needing a single vase a week or two ago and didn't have one.  I was at a flea market last week and found this pretty vintage milk glass bud vase.  It is diamond cut in the pineapple pattern.  

I finally finished one of the small quilts I've been working on.  It didn't happen without a glitch though.  Here's the quilt finished.

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Here's the glitch.  I had to stop and have some repair done on my machine.  I was sewing along and then the casing that holds the needle just dropped out of the machine.  

Thankfully my needle was not broke or bent, amazingly.

So that's Monday for me.  It started good, had a glitch, then ended good.  

Isn't that how life goes?

Everything is going along good, then a glitch happens.  How you overcome that glitch depends on how you face it.  In the case of my sewing machine, I turned to my husband.  I have never had my machine do anything like it.  He repaired it, and showed me what I need to do if it ever happens again.  I am now prepared  with the knowledge and the tool to take care of it next time.   

But what about bigger things in life?  How do you overcome glitches then?  I personally rely on my relationship with God.  I search my heart and pray asking God to reveal what I should do, and at some point, either through discernment or Scripture, I know what needs to be done or what to expect next.  These verses sum it up nicely.

Psalm 16:8-11 (NIV) 

I keep my eyes always on the LORD.  With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will You let Your faithful one see decay.  You make known to me the path of life, You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

Hugs, 

Sonia

More UFO's

Hi, hope all is going well.

After taking care of some business this morning, then taking a nap this afternoon I decided to work on another quilt top today.

This one is a simple 16 patch to begin with.  I will border it with the darker fabric shown and back it with the lighter one.   The blocks were found in the same hatbox I found the "Farmer's Daughter" blocks in.  They were 7" cut squares and finished 6 1/2".  I'm not sure where they came from, but I think they must have been left over blocks from another project because there were only 19 blocks, an odd number.  I don't remember doing a previous quilt using these blocks, so they must have been given to me or were in a set of blocks I found at a flea market or something.

I also decided on a backing for the "Farmer's Daughter" blocks quilt top.  I've decided to back it with a white fabric.

I plan to get both of these finished and quilted by the end of the week.  I feel like I will get one done tomorrow.

Until next time,
Sonia

UFOs...

I've been trying to catch up on some UFOs I've had waiting to be finished for some time.

 I finished this wall hanging today. The heart blocks are made from members of the quilt guild I belong to.  We use to have a block challenge each month, then in the next meeting we would all put our blocks in a bag and the person who's block was picked won them all.  These blocks are part of a bag full of blocks I won several years ago.

Then I went through my hat box full of vintage, some antique and other blocks I've acquired over the years.

I found several "Farmer's Daughter" quilt blocks.  This pattern was an original pattern in the Kansas Star paper on March 20, 1935.

The blocks I have are all hand pieced and scrappy, with a finished size of 10".  You can see by the fabrics they have been around for a while.  I pieced them together to make a small quilt top.  I trying to decide if  I want to put borders on it or not.  If I decide to, then I have to figure out what color to use...  I'm leaning toward no border, just binding after I quilt it.  If I just bind it, with no additional border, it will finish at 30" X 40".

 

Hugs,
Sonia

Blending colors...

It's a beautiful day, today.  There are wispy clouds highlighted against the beautiful blue of the sky.

It's a little nippy outside, so I decided to finish up a small afghan I've been working on little by little as I've had time this week.  

 It is 28" x 32" in size.

I used a size Q (16 mm) hook and two strands of yarn for each stitch.

It's made up of alternating two rows of single crochet and one row of double crochet through out.

I changed colors, adding one color to a previous color, making it so that the colors blend as they go up and still have a color block definition too.  Each color combo had 8 - 10 rows, depending on when I wanted to change colors.

Here are the colors/color combinations I used.

• Dusty rose with light pink
• Light pink with bright pink 
• Bright pink with hot pink 
• Hot pink with dark purple 
• Dark purple with medium purple 

It's a great way to use up yarn if you find your yarn stash overflowing.


Hugs,
Sonia

Free

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. ~ Psalm 118:24

My weekend end started out great, though I'm still trying to get over a major sinus cold.  I haven't felt as good as I do, spiritually and emotionally, in a very long time.    One word to describe how I feel.... FREE.

I've been able to catch up on some things. 

Here's the butterfly wall hanging.  I finished it today and practiced my free motion quilting on it.

My free motion quilting isn't pretty, but the more I do it, the better I will get.

We have cold weather moving in Tuesday night and the black birds have been gathering in droves.

Seeing all those birds prepping for the cold, made me want to bake.  I guess you can say I've been doing a little nesting of my own.  Anyway I baked some cookies.  Lemon cookies to be exact.  The recipe was on the side of a lemon cake mix.  They are yummy with a lemony drizzle on top.

One of the challenges I have set for myself this year is taking the antique and vintage blocks I have collected over the years and put them together into quilts or wall hangings, depending on how many blocks are in each set.   Here are the latest blocks I have acquired.  They are octagon in shape.  These blocks were all hand pieced and scrappy.

I have searched for this block on the internet and have had no luck on the name for it.  Tomorrow I will look through two books I have that document quilt blocks from the 1800's forward.  I hope to find it in one of them.

Do you know what it's called?

Sonia