Wow! It's been over a month since I last posted.
I won't apologize, for if I had posted anything, it would have been very boring indeed!!

My little granddaughter, Evie had her first birthday last week, but no party for her.

Instead, we were all visiting my son, Andy in the hospital. He broke his left leg in three places when he crashed a motorcycle. After eight days in the hospital, he is now staying with us at our house. Since he also messed up his right foot, he is in a wheelchair until he can graduate to crutches in a few weeks.  I am pretty much his mode of transportation!!
I have been able to make a few notebooks that I am slowly listing on Etsy.

More Baby Quilts Finished

With no baby to watch these last few days, I was able to finish up two more baby quilts. These are repeats of a couple of quilts that sold pretty quickly before. But heck, what's a girl to do with a gazillion half-square triangles?? You can see more photos here and here.

Sleepless in O'side

It's almost 3 am and I can't sleep. But look what I found while Stumbling. These are all made of carved wood. They are fantastic. They sure fooled me.

Check List- Baby Quilt- Done!

I finished this little baby quilt this morning. I love the flower print.

Two Projects on the Wall

Why can't I finish something before I start with a new project???

As I was working on this little baby quilt,  

I got inspired to make another Loose Diamonds.

Ahhh!! Where did that come from!!

Who knows? 

But I am getting ready to release my Loose Diamonds in a PDF format on Etsy. 

So I guess it has been in the back of mind. What else is there?

I didn't have to buy any new fabric for the Loose Diamonds......all from my stash. 

That's what I like about this pattern.

I will show them both again when I finish.

All Things Felted

I just created this Treasury List in Etsy.

This is a craft I could get interested in!

New Baby Quilt

Just minutes after I listed a baby quilt on Etsy, someone added it to their Treasury.
Always great free advertising!

Half-Square Triangles Again

Just in case you think I had fallen 

off the face of the earth....

Here is proof that I am still around.

I have been working on two baby quilts using the Half-Square triangles I make at quilt shows.

 I have a ton of quilts to make, 'cause I made a ton of HST's using my Stitching Lines at the two back-to-back quilt shows I vended at in the last two weeks.

I found this really pretty bird fabric at Joann's. 

You know, the fabric that is really priced way too high!! 

I fell for it and bought a bunch. 

All the HST's use fabric from my stash, 

which doesn't seem to get any smaller. 

What's up with that!!!

I rearranged the HST's to make diamonds.  Had to do something different.

Here is  a second quilt using a floral fabric from Joann's.

 I just loved it.

 Again, not a dent in my fabric stash!

Now, I need to get some backing fabric for both. 

Why is that always a challenge?

Clipping the Binding

Once I finished making the scrappy binding for this little wiener dog quilt, I tried something new.

I know, I know, this is an old technique. It's been around for years. 

But I never tried it. I guess I am sometimes slow to try things out. 

And now since I have a little baby crawling around, I didn't want to take the chance of dropping straight pins on the floor in the family room. I always bind in front of the television, don't you?

I figure I can keep count of 12 clips. Unlike pins, if I drop one, I will know it.

And the clips work great. I should have tried this years ago. 

By the way. isn't the backing perfect for this quilt?

Sewing Binding Strips Together With Stitching Lines

Today, I made a scrappy binding for this little baby quilt.

I sewed the different sections of binding together using my Stitching Lines. 

As you can see, I can use each piece of Stitching Lines three times. 

 

OK, this is the last time I can use it.

Then I trimmed away the fabric, making a 1/4" seam allowance.

I pressed the seams open. 

I use to press them to one side, but I think there is too much bulk that way.

Now it is time to sew the binding on. Lets hope I finish today.

Baby Bird Quilt

I finished up the little birdy quilt and got it added to my Etsy shop. I think it came out very cheery. I especially like the black and white gingham checked binding and the white and black backing fabric. Of course, I also like the top.




I quilted it with a diagonal serpentine stitch. Stitching it that way ensures that I have quilted over each intersection, something I like to do. Knowing this quilt will be washed over and over again, I like the seams to be really secure!



I love that bird print. I just had a little left over from the Spanish Tile quilt I made last year. You can read about my Spanish Tile quilt.

Notebooks and Pin Cushions

I have been busy the last few months watching my sweet little grandaughter, Evie Jo. But today I had the day off and spent it finishing up a ton of little things.

Here are just a few of the items I finished up today.

I make padded covers for small notebooks that I sell at quilt shows along with my patterns and Stitching Lines. Actually, lest you think I am Superwoman, I finished these the other day along with about eight others! But I did finally photograph them today!!
That, in itself, is an accomplishment!
I also sell them on my Etsy shop. There is a link on the right side of my blog for my Etsy shop.



I finished up more pincushions and started taking photos of all. These are just a few that I made.





I also finished another baby quilt top today.



My next show is at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA the end of this month. And then the next weekend will be a show in Camarillo, CA. So there is no time in between the two shows to make anything new.

Another Quilt Show

Off to another quilt show tomorrow. Going to Henderson, Nevada again. It was a good little show last year. Hope for a repeat this year!
Thought I should check my laptop and little receipt printer before I packed tonight. Good thing I did. The roll of receipt paper was just about gone. Neither Staples nor Office Depot carries the size of thermal paper roll that the machine takes............OF COURSE, I find this out at the last minute!!
So I bought a size that is just 1/8" narrower. Seems to have screwed the printer up. So I can't use my great little POS program that Andy designed. Good thing I kept my old fashioned register. I found the key for the register...............in my money bag that was already packed in the hidden compartment of my car...........had to unpack quite a bit to get to it..............All in all........not a good evening.
Ahh, SLEEP, where are you!!

Squaring Up a Quilt With Binding

I don't know if I do this different from other quilters, but I have a method for squaring up my quilts after they are quilted.



I don't have much of a problem with out-of-square tops after I put them together, but things can change after I wash the quilt.



I like to wash my quilts after I quilt them. I love the look of a crinkled up quilt. Sometimes, though, after I quilt an all-over meandering stitch, the top can get a little longer or shorter on a side or two. In the shrinking process, one side might shrink up more than the other, because of a little more quilting, or who knows what. Anyway, I don't put binding on until after I wash the quilt. Then I use the binding as an evener-upper. If one side is a tiny bit longer than the other, I just ease the quilt to the binding. It doesn't take much, just a little stretching of the binding before sewing it down.

Even though I almost always wash my fabric first before cutting, I like to put the binding fabric in the wash, again, along with the quilt, so I am sure that most of the fabric shrinkage has taken place before I sew it on the quilt.

Snowball Corners Equal a Bunch of Triangles

Here's what I am working on.
Super simple, super fast.
But made simpler and faster with my Stitching Lines.


Just a bunch of large snowball corners.




I think I have become addicted!

Pressing Half-Square Triangles

To answer Joyful Quilter's question in my last blog: With the pink and green baby quilt, I laid out all the blocks,and then sewed the half-square triangles into four patches, removed the last few stitches in the second seam within the seam-allowance and then pressed in a spiral fashion. That really helps to eliminate bulk. I do this with a lot of blocks. Not only does it reduce bulk, but it lets me turn the block in whatever direction I think looks best.




And then I wanted to make the whole thing a little wider and a little longer, so I sewed the extra rows together, pressing in whatever direction I needed to to make them nestle up with the first section.

In the Blue and Green baby quilt, I skipped all that, and sewed the half-square triangles into rows, pressing all in the same direction. I struggled with the pressing!

It works much better the first way, although, it takes more time. But, I think it is worth the extra trouble.

Another Doll Quilt With Leftover Half Square Triangles

What can I say. Just too much fun to make!