Recent Projects

Ah-h-h! Another steaming hot summer June day in Tennessee! It is too hot to do anything but stay inside. And what better place to stay than in my sewing room! We have had quite a few 90+ degree days recently, so I've been stitching away quite a lot. Thought I'd show you some recent projects that I've been working on. The quilts are just the tops as I've not ventured down to Spring Creek yet to get them quilted..(did I mention it was hot? Too hot to do anything? Even go to the quilt shop?) Good thing I have plenty of projects waiting to be started! I think I could go for at least 6 months without "really" needing to buy anymore fabric! So, because of the heat, I've decided to just stay in and work on them.

I'll start with a picture or two of a Log Cabin quilt that I started at a quilt class in May down at Spring Creek. I've made it for my bed and made some extra blocks so it is somewhat longer than normal full size would be. Also added strips with appliqued flowers between the blocks to tone down the dark mahogany fabric of the final "log" in each block. This was the pattern from Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day book.

I have also made a little pillow that will go on the bed when I get this top quilted. It was a pattern from Bunny Hill Designs called Flowers for Emma. It was so easy! And I just love how it came out!

I can't wait to see it when it all gets quilted and put together. I have a few extra blocks that I may make pillow shams with. Not sure yet.

Another easy project that I recently did was a little wallhanging for my kitchen. I "flew by the seat of my pants' on this one and didn't purchase a pattern, just looked closely at the pictures on Anne Sutton's website at Bunny Hill. She called it Posy Time . I used charm squares from

Susan Branch's collection Martha's Vineyard . It went together really fast!

This one also has yet to be quilted! But I love the Yo-yo flowers! And the bright colors are just so cheery! Another Anne Sutton "quilt" I finished recently is from the pattern Taffy Treats. I started it at a class I took in March or April. But, had never got it finished until this week. I shouldn't say "finished" as it really isn't. It needs to be quilted yet and a scalloped edge needs to be put on. But, because they're so back-logged at the quilt shop, I knew I wouldn't get it back til nearly the end of the summer and I wanted it for a tablecloth in my kitchen...so, I just put it on the way it is and covered it with a clear vinyl top to keep it clean. Sophie seems to like it!!
The most recent finished (although that is a relative term throughout this post!) projects are a couple of placemats I made for my dear DIL, Bethany. I used the Daydreams fabrics designed by Deb Strain for Moda for the majority of the patterns. Though I kind of concocted the designs myself. The butterfly is taken from the panel in that collection. I still want to make her a few more in the weeks to come.

I really like the "dots" and it makes it look trendy to me. Here is the reverse side so she can use it either way...She really seemed to like this one...

I've got some ideas for the next couple I'll make, but just have to sit down and do it. Guess I need to get started!

"Enchanted Cottage" is finished!

A few weeks ago, before the Shop Hop, I pulled a project bag off my shelves that has been waiting to be done for about a year. I love the fabrics in this quilt, designed by Kaye England. It is called Enchanted Cottage. My friend Kathy at Spring Creek Quilts off of Hwy. 111 between Livingston and Cookeville did the quilting for me. She did a fantastic job and I just love it! Here are some pics for you to see.I'll move in a little closer so you can see the lovely quilting that was done on this...

I love the "feathering" that she did! Also, notice the echo quilting around the corner flowers. Sorry it's kind of blurry. I also have made a table runner for the chest that is in front of the sofa...It is made from the same Kaye's Cottage fabric line.

Here is a close up of it:

This is kind of blurry, too! Sorry! Anyway, with the addition of this quilt and the table runner my living room is really looking like Spring!

In my last post, I spoke of the Upper Cumberland Shop Hop. Just thought you might like to see the gorgeous Shop Hop Quilts! I don't have pics of all the shops' particular designs as I forgot my camera on one of the days! I'm so sorry not to have the quilt pics of The Country Quilt Shop in Watertown and Country Patchworks design in Cookeville. But, I do have pics of most of them. It is so hard to choose which shop's finishing kit to go with as they will ALL fit with my color scheme. Oh, decisions, decisions! The first quilt was done by Becky's Quilt Shop in Smithville, TN. It is based on a Log Cabin design. (The quilt blocks chosen for the Shop Hop were from a Thangles Sampler Quilt and the fabric chosen is called Fuchsia II by Maywood. )Beautiful, isn't it?

This second one was done by Simply Southern Quilts in Sparta, TN. It is a really unique design. I love the center of it. It stands out so well....really pops!

Next, is one that was done by The Most Amazing Quilt Shop in Cookeville. They really aren't offering a finishing kit per se...you just purchase the fabric necessary to make the lattice and the borders for theirs.

This last one is one of my favorites and comes from my favorite quilt shop, Spring Creek...Kathy Dishman designed it and I absolutely love the applique touches!

I'll get you closer up to see...She also quilted it with a sweet heart-shaped ivy design.

So cute!

Well, that's all for now! Sweet quilting dreams!

A Couple of Purses Plus....

Look at this gorgeous amaryllis that my loving daughter gave me ! It came into full bloom a few weeks ago. What a lovely way to usher in the season on spring. Since it was so bright red, I had to put it in the only room in the house that is willing to accept red-the kitchen! So, it got to grace the side of the refrigerator with its beauty.But that way we enjoyed it every single day of its short blooming life. Thank you, M_e for your thoughtfulness! It just made me smile everytime I came into the kitchen to do my chores. I hope your bulb gave you some blooms, too!

I know I said in my last post that I would share a few of the projects that I've been working on. But, before I do, I thought I would show you the other side of the "sporty" Appalachian State bag that I made for my DIL. that I showed you in my previous post. I left the big A off one side so that she could just wear it any old time by carrying it on this side. (By the way, my dear sister, S, made the "A" with her embroidery machine as a BIG favor to me. Thanks so much, S_y! It wouldn't have been the same without the A!)

Also, here is the bottom of the bag...just couldn't keep away from the black/white/yellow combo!

One day in February as I did my civil duty by going to vote in the primaries, a lady saw my winter Charm Party Tote (which is the basic pattern that most of these are from) and wanted to know if I would make her one. She loved mine so much, she was willing to pay me to make her one! I agreed, she called a few days later and we discussed fabric choices. She wanted something Spring-y and with yellow. The first thing that came to mind was Sunshine by April Cornell of Moda Fabrics. You know I've done so much with it for M, and it surely is a beautiful fabric line. Here is the finished purse.I also added pockets to the inside. This is one of the two that are inside. I like this size to hold my keys handy. The pocket on the other side I made longer and thinner with pen/pencil size compartments.

She really liked it when I delivered it to her and I was so pleased to make some extra $. What fun! To get paid for what you love to do!

I found a cute pattern on the internet for this little bag...

It is called Vintage Violets.I had some leftover purple/violets fabrics from a wallhanging I made last year so thought I'd try it. Believe me when I say it is little! More child size I would say. I tried to carry it one day. By the time I put my keys and my checkbook in it, it was full! It will be great for the grandgirls. But, I have to make a few more little ones for the other girls so they all can have a purse from Grandma B...but not there yet. I think I'll make a different pattern than this. Although it's really cute, it was just more time consuming than the Charm Party tote.

Last week, my dear "2nd sister", S came down from Ohio and we went ShopHopping! What a fun time we had. Her hubby D came too, and helped L_r in the nursery while we went gallivanting all over the Cumberland Plateau, getting lost, eating at quaint little tea rooms and just generally having a blast! So, now...here are the results of my visits to "candy land"! Take a look at these treasures!

It remains to be seen what I will do with all this scrumptious fabric, but I do have a few projects in mind...my mind just keeps seeing new ideas popping up all over! But, nothing will happen unless I get off the computer and get to my sewing machine! !!

Springing Back to Life!

Here it is the 2nd week of April and I have been absent from this blog for too many months. Rest assured, I have been alive and well all these many days. . . just very busy! Isn't spring the most marvelous of seasons? I absolutely love to see the green creeping into the trees day by day. Hearing the happy chirping of the birds as they busy themselves making their sticks and straw homes. The colors of the blossoming trees..the frosty pears, the cheery redbuds, and the sweet dogwoods.And what about the smell of the fragrant lilacs?

Who could dare not to smile when they look upon the sunny daffodils?Oh, I love the spring!

I will try to post more regularly. I guess most all bloggers go in cycles. At least it seems that way as I read the various authors of my favorite blogs(probably my most favorite is Anne Sutton's blog, Bunny Tales. She seems to be somewhat like me, in that she loves whimsy, cuteness, is usually running behind, extremely honest about herself, and has absolutely wonderful links to other great blogs! I admit that I am very side-tracked and I suppose that is a vice that I've not yet overcome.

I have spent many of my days of absence from this blog working in my little sewing room. It has become such a place of refuge for me. I got a new computer at Christmas and have it sitting close by my sewing machine and I am surrounded by many of my favorite things...fabrics,

whimsical characters,

Amish pictures, quilts, good music, charm packs, fat quarters, buttons, fabric-oh, did I say that already?---well, you get the picture!
I've also been tutoring (online)quite a few hours every week. It's a job I like most of the time as the kids are pretty polite and want to learn-but every once in a while, I get one that just thinks it is such a waste of time and is anything BUT polite. That's when I have to remind myself that I am not doing this job for myself-but for One greater than I. Perhaps I am the only kind word that this troubled child will hear today. I certainly have no way of knowing the kind of world he or she lives in and maybe, in some small way, I can make a difference to that student. In this amazing world of technology who would ever think that I could actually be teaching a child in South Dakota, California, or Puerto Rico from a rural farm in Tennessee? Can you imagine what my Grandma or even my mom would have thought had we been able to see into the future when I was a child? They would have not been able to believe it whatsoever! Little Sue, who used to read books to the younger neighborhoood children in the glider swing on the front porch during the hot and hazy days of summer, would one day be helping children from every corner of America to learn how to break a word down into syllables, choose the best synonym, or implied main idea from a paragraph--even, if you can believe it--help them with math! Adding and subtracting mixed numbers, determining mean, mode, and range, finding the unknown in an algebraic equation! Wow!! Only God knows the impact a person can make on another-even one I will never see face to face, but still we connect through the magic of the internet voice to voice. Isn't it amazing? It still boggles my mind even though I do it effortlessly, from my sewing room several times a week. Who would ever think?????

Speaking of thinking....I've just been thinking about some of the things that have happened since my long ago last post. We have 2 new members of the family! Our son B and daughter-in-law, J, brought a beautiful baby girl named Payton into the world in November. isn't she an angel? And she's growing so fast. Wish we lived closer! It's just not fair to have so many miles between us!Our second new family member came as a result of the loss of our dog, Rocky, last summer, and in the fall we got ourselves a new puppy. We thought we got a girl, then decided it was a boy...only to find a few weeks later, that SHE was indeed a girl! But, too late, the puppy had the name of Charlie and we just couldn't change it as that's who "she" was! We just love her. She has gotten bigger since this picture was taken, but she still has that adorable little face with longer legs! She and Sophie (the "queen") get along pretty well I must say.

I mentioned earlier that I had been busy. Guess what I've been doing (besides tutoring)? Sewing/quilting of course! Here are some of my latest projects: Here is my dear hubby holding little E and a table runner I made for M to match the Sunshine Quilt I had made for her last year.

I also made some purses for birthday gifts for friends and family. Here is one: This was made for DIL, J, for her birthday. She is a big Appalachina State fan, since son, B (her hubby) graduated from there. So, I used the school colors, and their "big A" to make it kind of sporty. She seems to really like it. And Ihave to admit, I think it came out pretty cute!This was a fall (autumn) bag I made for dear friend, N, and it really is beautiful fabric line called Madeira by 3 Sisters by Moda.
I'll load some more pictures of other projects and activities on another day. Time to hit the hay! And, I promise, I'll be back soon.