Thursday, February 3, 2011

What am I up to?!

Hello, friends! I hadn't realized that it has been a whole month since I last made a post! Where did the time go!
Well, let me show you what I've been doing. I started Barbara Brackman's Civil War quilt along. She has been posting a new block once a week on Saturday's. I am only on week 3 since I did not start it right away. I have 2 more to go in order to catch up. I am hand piecing the blocks. Just like my ancestors would have done. :0)
This is a project that I have not begun yet. My youngest daughter will be going to college next year and has asked me to make her a special quilt to bring to school with her. How could I refuse! This is the pattern she chose. I now have everything I need to make it and hope to start it soon.
Here is the Fall 1 1/2 inch strip exchange quilt that I have been working on. ( The top is all together, finally, except for the border) I'm not finished yet so you only get to see a peek of the borders I have been auditioning to see what might work. I think I'm going to go with all three you see in the picture. I hope I have enough fabric to do the last border. If not I will have to devise a plan "B". Stay tuned!
:0) This is something I just whipped up from someone else's caste off! My quilt bee occasionally has a meeting where you bring what you don't want anymore. A sort of "my trash is someone else's treasure"Day. I had picked up three baggies of pre-cut rail fences. It was really easy! I just had to sew the pre-cut strips and ended up with this small lap quilt! I am thinking about adding a border and then finishing it up to give to my daughter who is now living in a college apartment. It will be a perfect throw for her sofa!!
Another baggie I picked up!! Pre cut pyramids! I have been playing around with the pieces on my design wall. This is what I have so far. There were plenty of darks in the baggie but I did have to cut more lights for the background. I'm still moving pieces around yet, so I haven't sewn it together.
Well, here's my story of the day. I have had a book shelf in my sewing room which was made of press board. The bookshelf had been mine as a child. So it was weak and wobbly but I was using it anyway. It had had enough. I have a lot of quilting books. I love my books! I often use them as references for my projects. I think I have more books then fabric.... Uh maybe not. But it sure is close! :0)
Anyway, My bookshelf Kaput! So..... I have two new shelf units that I bought from IKEA called Expedit. I love them! I only bought two to see how I liked them. I will be purchasing another one. Only this time instead of only the four cubes, I will get the bigger one with (I think) it had 12 cubes! I can't wait! My books are currently on the floor in boxes. Our nearest Ikea is about 2 hours away. So it needs to be a planned trip. Maybe I can convince my husband we should go this weekend. ;0)
And last but certainly not least! I did make the little quilt into a pillow!! I am just loving it! I took the two old pillows I had on the sofa, which were falling apart at the seams literally, and cut them open. I reused the poly fill stuffing in them to stuff this one. I love it when I can recycle stuff!!

Have a great day everyone!! :0)

10 comments:

  1. You have been so busy! Making the most beautiful quilts, I might add!! Love how the pillow turned out! Just gorgeous!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You have certainly been up to some fun stuff....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely work in recycling other's projects and in your pillows. The new shelves look great and will do nicely holding all that inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No wonder you haven't had time to blog, you sure have been a busy little sewer. Love your Civil War quilt along, great blocks and great color choices also!
    Wendy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Karen ~ I've been following the Civil War blocks on Barbara's blog and thinking about jumping in late too! You have a great start, and piecing them by hand is cool!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The other day I just about sent you an email to see where you were and got side-tracked from doing it...and ta da here you are with all kinds of show and share!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! You certainly did answer my question, lol, and I am happy to see that you have been busy! Love the little quilt pillows that you made. We use ours a lot. I also like that you are hand piecing the Civil War quilt blocks. Looks like you will be busy for a while! Hope you get to IKEA for those book shelf cubes. :-D

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have seen a lot of bloggers working on the civil war blocks. I like them. Oh, that is going to be a fabulous quilt you are going to make for your daughter.
    Very nice bookshelves.

    ReplyDelete
  9. How busy you've been Karen, such wonderful eye candy. Aren't these Civil War blocks fun, I am always looking forward to the next entry.
    *hugs*
    Tazzie
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love your pillow, it turned out lovely. Your really scored on the blocks, love those pyramids. I have an IKEA wall unit and just love it, isn't IKEA great? Have a safe trip to IKEA and enjoy the shopping.

    ReplyDelete