New project to add to the list

I'm weak....

While browsing around on fabric sites, I spotted this project and my credit card suddenly started to vibrate which meant that I *had* to buy it. What I'll do with the wall hanging afterwards, I have no idea but I'm sure it will find a home.

I saw 2 of these quilts stitched up at the Dallas Quilt show - one in red and one in blue. I purchased the kit to do the red version. They are cute and the motifs can be used on other things. I'm not sure I will set it together the same was as illustrated but probably will. It is redwork so will stitch out quickly.




The machine embroidery designs and the fabric were purchased from Lollipops Designer Bindings. This company packages their premade quilt binding as a "lollipop" that is very creative and cute.

You can see a better picture of the project here.

I've not accomplished much in the past 2 days - maybe the weekend will spark my creativity :)

till later ~~ Dene

Roof Kitty

This month we celebrate the 14th year of living in our home in the woods NW of Houston. When we bought this house and the surrounding 4+ acres, our family consisted of 2 adults, 2 kids (12 and 15 years old) and a dog, Abby. The lady selling the house had 2 outside cats that she couldn't take with her so we inherited them with the stipulation that the owner have the cats tested for leukemia and vaccinated. One of the cats was positive and the owner chose to have it put down (it was aged) and the other, Sylvester, came to live with us.

I had 2 cats when we married in 1975 - my beloved Rigel and Deneb. Perceus joined us within months. After the last of these loves passed on, my dh declared that there would be no more cats in our house. Having Sylvester, though, opened that door and what an opening that became.

Within a month, we obtained Tweety. My son and I were buying catfood one afternoon and there was a lady outside with a box full of kittens. The typical "Mom! I'll feed it! It can stay in my room! You won't have to do anything!!" arguments followed and a little, yellow striped girl kitten came home with us. Well, of course the kitten didn't live in my son's room and I ended up feeding it and changing the litter boxes but a new member of the family was welcomed. She was an inside/outside cat and got along well with Sylvester.

After Tweety came to live with us, Goofy, Stella, Sandy, etc. along with a parade of other animals including Sugar the horse, Curly the dog, Daffy the duck, Oreo the pig, Frisky2 the hampster (don't ask about Frisky1) etc. came to reside at our abode. Over the years, all these animals have either disappeared (in the case of most of the outside cats) or passed on... except for Curly the dog. And the other group called the foo-foo kitties joined us starting in 1997 - I started raising and showing Birman cats. After 4 years, I stopped but still have 4 Birmans as inside pets.

So recapping, we now have in this house 2 adults, no kids (yeah!), 13 yr old dog Curly, 4 inside Birmans and believe it or not, Tweety the little orange cat that is now 14 years old. After the show cats came to live in the house, she moved perminantly outside. How she survived being attacked by all the critters in these woods can be summed up in one phrase - she became a "roof kitty".

Whenever the weather is not too terribly hot or cold, you can usually find her on the roof of our house. There is a tree growing along side that she is very adapt at climbing and that is how she gets up there. From the loft, I can access the roof over the den and she is usually there next to one of the skylights. She loves for me to open the window and give her a good scratching. We do feed her in the garage and leave it open for really cold weather but this little scrapper of a cat is our sole survivor of all the outside cats. Love this little girl. The last picture of her was taken a couple of days ago at age 14.

till later ~~ Dene

Klutz and Christmas Pillows

I was such a klutz last week. The day after I sliced off a bit of my thumb I got my middle finger of the same hand caught in the bobbin of my machine.... don't ask ... dumb mistake. Anyway, I had 2 fingers bandaged and then singed a third on that hand using the pressing sheet with the iron.

Did I give up? NO! (call me stubborn!)

Result of the last 4 days of sewing (and also don't ask why I'm doing Christmas in March/April!)

These pillows are designs from the "Star of Wonder" embroidery set by Nancy Halvorsen of Art to Heart. They are put out by OESD but I've not been able to find them on the internet. They were available at my local sewing store It's a Stitch.







Close ups:

Bethlehem - the first and probably the hardest one to do in my megahoop due to the constant repositioning of the hoop during stitch out.







Wise Men - I had a little trouble on the color of the final camel. The design called for Isacord thread but because of a delay in shipment by a company that won't be named, I had to use my collection of Medeira thread. The software converted the colors but somehow the final camel translated into a not-so-lovely green color. I had to change him back to brown.





Shepherds - this was by far my favorite of the pillows - wonder if it is because I love sheep?








Nativity. So sweet with the cow and sheep :) Joseph turned out a bit greener than I wanted though.











Gloria - can't have a heavenly event without at least one angel. There are 2 more in the set but 5 pillows is probably enough to round out a set.









I have more fabric and may do some more pillows for gifts once my Isacord thread arrives. It will be interesting to compare the stitch translations between the 2 brands.

I've been learning more and more about the embroidery machine as I use it. I had to laugh because at one point, I set up my Bernina 153 machine and was sewing pillows together as the 730 stitched out designs. It was quite a production.

I stitched out a "Welcome" bouquet design that was part of a class - will photograph once I get it made into either a pillow or a small quilt.

till later ~~ Dene

Attack of the rotary cutter

In my many, many years of quilting ... after using a rotary cutter since they were first introduced (in 1979), I've finally had my first serious accident. Envision a new sharp blade, a distracting podcast, a tired quilter who had spent the morning doing a software lesson, and ... well, you get it. I'm very lucky that I only sliced the very tip of my thumb off and won't have any permanent damage. It is hard to sew now, though. I've not tried knitting.

The project was a digitizing exercise using the applique tools on my Designer software. I was finishing the project when the accident happened. Here is were it is at the moment - binding to be added tomorrow.

Now, after looking at the design carefully, I've decided my "leaf" is so misshapen that it actually looks like a thumb - Freudian slip? Not sure how or if I will fix it :)

Anyway, this was one of those learning projects and I think I learned more than just the program - like KEEP YOUR BODY PARTS AWAY FROM RAZORS!

till later ~~ Dene

Life is too short ....

To read all the blogs I subscribe to ... ACK!!@@@!!!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

I just checked my Bloglines feed and found I'm subscribed to 123 blogs and have 1,625 unread posts. This is split between several categories (and I know it doesn't add up but I'm not counting again)

Knitting blogs: 78
Quilting/embroidery blogs: 12
Church blogs: 5
Travel/Technology/ Misc blogs: 17
Cooking blogs: 8
Photo albums: 2 (family)

The only reason there are more knitting blogs is that I've been following knitters longer than any other category. I find I'm adding more quilting and embroidery blogs lately and taking some of the knitting ones off.

But *REALLY* - do I have time to read all these?

till later ~~ Dene

Done Dogs

The embroidery on the Calico Dogs quilt is done. I still have to put the back on both and quilt. I'm glad to get the embroidery behind me as that was the time consuming part.

Notice that one little doggie got turned around :)

till later ~~ Dene

Keeping the Past Warm

I've been working hard on getting 2 quilts done for babies that are now 8 and 6 months old. I won't talk about the one that is 2 1/2 years old and still doesn't have her quilt. All it lacks is some handwork to tack down the binding.

Anyway, I finished up piecing the 2 tops while waiting on this:

And after they both were pieced, I marked the blocks for embroidery. I need the chalk lines to be able to center the designs in the embroidery hoop - not an easy process since the tops will already have the batting in place.

Oh, and why wait on the box? Inside was the thread I needed to do the embroidery. Behold the lusciousness of thread (all you non-sewers can be excused now).


After 3 days of embroidery, I have the Sunbonnet Sue's embroidered in place and the top is ready to back and do the quilting. (click to embiggen)

And I've started on the calico dog quilt - the sample motif is pinned over the top to give me an idea of what it will look like. At the time I was taking pictures, I hadn't started the actual embroidery but now have 5 done. More pictures later.


And yes, I know it was suppose to be the gingham dog (vs. calico cat) but I don't have any gingham scraps and I'm trying hard not to buy extra fabric. So the kid will be scarred for life for having calico dogs :) I love the 30's reproduction fabric and these projects have reduced my stash of this type of fabric by a little over half. I still have 2 more quilts to make using this fabric.

I'm trying to get all my embroidery out of the way so that I can take my machine in for an overdue spa treatment and firmware update at my Bernina dealer later this week. I'm heading up to Dallas on Thursday to attend the Dallas Quilt show so wanted to have the machine in before I leave. I can do the quilting part on my backup machine.

Till later ~~ Dene

Delectable Mountains Quilt

Project details
Pattern: Delectable Mountains (Quilt in a Day publisher) by Eleanor Burns
Size: 68 inches square
Fabric: various cotton prints
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom 80/20
Details: Free motion machine quilted in a rose pattern with a leaf border design. The rose design was chalked on using a stencil before quilting.


This was a "languishing" project from about 2-3 years ago. Originally, this was to be a shop sampler for a now out-of-business quilt shop. The top was easy to cut and assemble using Eleanor's special ruler and there wasn't much challenge to the piecing. The quilt has actually been almost done for about a year - I just needed to get the binding on it which is what I just completed. I used a rose print in the center for extra interest. Detail (click to embiggen)


I used the top to do a test run on a friend's HandiQuilter 16 sit-down machine that was on loan to me for a year. This is a small long arm machine that sits flush in a table and you move the quilt under the needle for the stitching. Although it did a nice job, I don't think I'll be purchasing the machine in the future. I'm just too spoiled by stitch regulators which it lacked. I'm not real happy with my freemotion skills and my inexperience shows in the quilting on this project.

I think this quilt will end up on our living room wall for now. I need to put a hanging sleeve and a label on it first.

Till later ~~ Dene

Embroidered Table Runner - Class Project

I took a class at It's a Stitch to learn how to embroider on quilts using my Bernina. Although I already knew the basic concepts, the class was fun and it was great to interface with other quilt and embroidery fans. The project was to piece a 3 block table runner and then use the embroidery module to do the 'quilting' part of the project You can't really see the design in the blue section of the piece but the blue contrasting thread on the yellow turned out nice. The thread was King Tut 40 wt which I purchased at the Houston Quilt Festival at the Superior Threads booth. The fabric was from my stash. Overall, a fun class and I actually FINISHED something!

Till later ~~ Dene

Hankie Blankie Pets

The Bernina Dealer (It's a Stitch - Champions) had several of the Hankie Blankie pets made up as store samples and I fell in love!


The fabric is Minkee which is a super soft, cuddly knit that make perfect baby items. I wish you could feel how soft this mini-blankie is. The face and lettering were done on my Bernina 730e.

Not having any grandkids (yet), I made one for my niece's baby Ian. I also have a kit for another that I plan on making for a friend at church. I think I'll do the dog next time.

till later ~~ Dene