I have finally finished the last two embroidered blocks of my Hocuspocusville quilt!  I now need to press them and trim them all down to size.

 

 

 

These are the nine-patch  blocks that go in the center of the quilt. I have my solid blocks and borders cut and ready to sew together.

 

 

 

I chose the Rest in Pieces fabric at Connecting Threads for my nine-patch block, these are a few of the prints.

 

This is the fabric I chose for the back of the quilt

 

 

 

Can't wait to get this all put together so I can start quilting!  I do need to buy a new quilting hoop though.  Any recommendation on what kind of hoop to buy?

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Quilting

   

Today was very cold outside so I spent the day inside working on my brother's quilt.  My dog Molly looked at me with sad eyes, disappointed that we didn't take a walk (gave her a rawhide bone instead), but I had fun working on this quilt.   Don't have too much of a plan with this quilt, kind of figuring it out as I go.  I have one row sewn together.   Hoping the white part will look like snow when it's all finished.  Think I will make 3 more rows like this one with various cabins.  Still not sure how I'm going to fit the deer in yet.

 

 

 

Think my little log cabin turned out okay, still need to stitch the chimney down.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Slow Stitching Sunday

It was a productive day for me.  I finished this Hocuspocusville  block and traced the last four blocks.

 

 

These blocks are some that my brother's mother-in-law started for him and he asked if I could put them together in a small throw quilt for him.  They are laying on a dark blue print that I chose to use as a night sky. 

 

 

I'm thinking of putting a white tone on tone beneath the deer to make it look like they are walking through snow.

 

And I added the dark blue and the white to the tree blocks, hoping this will look like a night sky and snow.  Also thinking of adding a few house blocks in among the trees that hopefully will look like log cabins.

 

 

This is a new quilt book I purchased online.  (Added it to a purchase I made at Amazon so I would get free shipping.)  It isn't quite what I thought it would be, but it has some good ideas in it.  There are a few borders I would like to use in future quilts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't believe it has been 3 months since I have posted anything.  Not a lot of quilting done, but I got half my garden boxes done, I always forget to take pictures, but the space is going to be nice once I'm done.

I didn't plant much, but what I did plant went kind of wild

I used old fence boards for my pathways between the boxes

In the main pathway I used boards and rock

Squash blossom after a nice soaking rain

 

I also had my front porch enclosed for a future room, but after all this work I made the decision to leave Idaho for the winter.  So on September 16th I packed up my car (mostly quilting supplies and books and my dog) and drove from Idaho to the northeast corner of Kansas.  I'll be spending the winter with my brother and visiting with my almost 94 year old mother. 

 

I didn't get my sewing machine fixed, I sold it for parts.  It needed a new motor ($325.00).  I decided I would rather put the money into a new machine.  So I will have to start looking into a new machine.  My brother has my grandmother's old machine, so I will be able to use that while I'm here. 

 

I did finish my purple cat quilt.

I used white pearl cotton to stitch this little mouse in the border

 

...and I also stitched the words Meow and Purr in the border

 

 

I miss my fellow quilters in Idaho and am hoping to find quilters here in Kansas.

Slow Stitching Sunday.....

A while back I cut out all of these strips for a log cabin quilt.

I started to sew them together by machine last week, but my sewing machine started to make a funny noise, so I thought I better stop sewing until I could have it looked at.  It's over 30 years old and done miles and miles of stitching.  I was in a quilt shop a year or so ago and saw the same machine as mine displayed among other old Bernina's-- it must be considered an antique!

Anyway, I decided that I would hand piece the quilt.  I'm not glad about my machine making funny noises, but I'm glad because I am really enjoying piecing this quilt by hand.

Link up at Kathy's Quilts for more Slow Sunday Stitiching

Quilt Show.............

Friday a couple quilting buddies, my granddaughter and I went to the North Idaho Quilters Quilt Show. We had such fun.  Love going to quilt shows, so much talent and inspiration! I gave the camera to my granddaughter to take pictures.  There were over 200 quilts, but thought I would post a few.


                                          These are from the Hoffman Challenge

I like the layout of this log cabin

Love the embellishments!  Little charms and embroidered flowers

This one was called Dancing With the Stars

Postage Stamp

There were a lot of nice art quilts

A lot of work went into this crazy quilt!

Pineapple quilt--this is a pattern that is on my to-do list

And I came home with two new quilting books.  They are by Michele Crawford at Flower Box Quilts  

flowerboxquilts.com

Wordless Wednesday...

Wordless Wednesday...

Slow Stitching Sunday.......

I have had a lot of fun this week blog hopping on Celebrate Hand Quilting.  So many beautiful quilts, wonderful ideas and useful tips.  Sundays have always been my slow down, quiet days and when I came across Kathy's Quilts Slow Stitching Sunday's I wanted to participate.  I like having a lot of projects going so that I can work on each a little here and little there.  Today, it's cloudy, cool and rain in the forecast so I decided to work on my HocusPocusville quilt blocks.

So wonder on over to Kathy's Quilts and check out the Slow Sunday Stitching!

Celebrate Hand Quilting Blog Hop Tomorrow

I love hand quilting and tomorrow Celebrate Hand Quilting Blog Hop starts--excited to do some hopping!

I  myself haven't been getting much quilting time in.  We had a burst of unseasonably warm weather, so took advantage of it to get some yard work done.  But I have made some progress on my purple cat quilt.  I only have 6 more cats to quilt before I get started on the borders.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the major project I've been working on in the yard.  It was a sloped area of the yard that I decided to do into two tiers. It looks a mess right now, but I have visions of it turning into something nice and also (hopefully) easy to maintain.  It's taking me a lot longer than I anticipated, finding that my 60-year-old body can't do as much as it used to.  Hope to get two 4x4 garden boxes built soon so I can at least get something planted on the lower tier this year.   

 

 

The dogs aren't much help!

 This bottom tier is about 7'x12'