Love my featherweight!

Today's been a relatively quiet, yet productive, day. Had my last insurance-paid therapy this morning.  :( I will miss the therapy, but I will miss my new friends more. We all had so much fun (why should physical therapy be miserable?).

Cut fabric for the July fabric swap at Goodtime Quilters in Circleville. Cut the July mystery quilt for Always In Stitches. Then I brought out the little Singer Featherweight I just bought from a friend. It's SO cute! Nothing fancy. Only does straight stitch. But it's small and lightweight, making it easy to tote to sewing events. Got it all cleaned up (it really needed it!) and started working on a quilt.

Then prepared Homemade Gourmet Skillet Lasagna for dinner. Didn't have everything it called for so made lots of substitutions. It's tasty. Tom and I are sitting and eating it now. [Deep, contented sigh] Can you feel the relaxation and satisfaction?

Prize Winning Student!

CONGRATULATIONS to Kay Melvin, who took a first place ribbon at the Pickaway County Fair on her bag from the Felted Tote class at Always in Stitches! (Along with several other ribbons on items she made!!) Good job, Kay!

Quilting Can Be Therapy Too!

As you read in my previous post, I had a wonderful "quilting weekend." Granted, most of the sewing was done on the machine, but I had a lot of "fine motor skill" practice on the quilt pictured on the previous post.

On Monday, some friends came to my house to sew and we had a lot of fun! I did not use my machine yesterday. I did hand-sewing. I had to finish the binding on another jelly roll quilt. This quilt was done in scarlet and gray fabric, with a little white and black thrown in for good measure. I made it for the brother of one of my therapists, John. Joe, who is currently in the hospital with Stage IV cancer, is also an OSU fan. John, on the other hand, is a Michigan fan. So I had double the fun making it!

Sewing the binding on did  require fine motor skills with my left (sore) hand. With the quilt being approximately 68x50, I got lots of therapeutic practice (with plenty of breaks).

As you can see in one of these pictures, I also quilted in a cancer ribbon in one corner. The others are of John receiving, and proudly displaying, Joe's folded quilt.

Thank you, Heirloom Quilters of West Jeff

A friend invited me to join a weekend quilt retreat in Piketon, Ohio. Her mother is a member of Heirloom Quilters of West Jefferson, Ohio, and the guild had opened up their retreat to other quilters. There were a couple members from the Mt. Sterling guild there, and my daughter-in-law, Mary, went with me. These women are lovely people and they were each-and-every-one making beautiful quilts. Mary and I were made to feel very welcome and we had a wonderful time.

Before my surgery in March I had started a Fun and Done quilt named Easy Diamonds. This pattern is, indeed, an easy and fun quilt  to make. Basically, you quilt-as-you-go, sash-as-you-go, and self-bind. When you are done, well, you are done! Having said that, I didn't get it finished before surgery. I took it to the retreat with me this weekend and it is DONE!  YAY!

None of these pictures show the colors at all well. I used 3 shades of gray and 3 shades of red. The sashing/binding/backing is a dark charcoal.

Thank you, ladies, for a wonderful weekend and for new friendships.

New Project from 1 Choice 4 Quilting

1Choice4Quilting has a Quilting Book Club. Basically, they pick 3-4 projects from the book and you have a month to complete each project.  This month's selection is  Posie Patch from Modern Basics. Here is mine - ready to be quilted by next week It's not a great picture and SO doesn't show the colors at all well. But it's the best I can do right now.

Little Wallet

Always In Stitches just got in a new pattern - a sewing card - for the Little Wallet. It's so darned cute! They made up about 20 kits. I had some scrap fabric with me so I made one out of my scraps. Now it matches my Kindle cover that I made and it will hold my Bluetooth that I keep misplacing. The picture on the left is the inside, or "opened up" view. On the right is the closed or outside view.

Physical Therapy (aka Pink Ribbon) Socks Finished!

Here are the socks I've been working on! John got a preview of them on Tuesday before I was finished putting the pink ribbons on, but I will give them to him tomorrow. I had a lot of fun designing and making them. Excited that I can knit a little, though not up to my usual standard. But it's progress!!!  (Doing the happy dance!)

Something Old, Something New

I mentioned in an earlier post about making a pair of white socks with pink ribbons for the mother of one of my physical therapists. My hand hasn't healed enough for me to get the tension correct to knit the ribbons in the socks, so am using the duplicate stitch to add the ribbons. Work like this goes much more smoothly, and easier, if you use a darning egg. I remembered the one my grandmother used - doesn't look like an "egg" at all, but is perfect for this project.

My grandmother was born in the late 1800's and died in the early 1970's. So that gives you an idea how old this "egg" is. At first, all I could think of was how pleased my mom would be to know I am using it. Indeed, I wanted to call and tell her! I still have many moments like that. But I am sure she knows anyway. :-) Don't you?

Great New Giveaway

1 Choice 4 Quilting is another getaway! Go to their blog for all the details and to see their great new line of fabrics and new notions.