Christmas Piano Recital

Had my annual Christmas Recital in the recital hall at the music store yesterday.  This is me with a student, Jason, one of 26 who played at the recital.  I have 6 other students who were unable to participate.  This job keeps me busy, and, fortunately, I enjoy it! 

New Ironing Board Cover

Ruined my ironing board cover and easily found instructions on the internet to make a new one.  Michele had given me this perfect fabric of "stacked fabrics".  Love it!

Pink Robes for Christmas

As suggested by their mommy, I made fleece bathrobes for Christmas for my two oldest granddaughters.  Cute, eh?

Another String Quilt...

 I LOVE these gorgeous fabrics!  I think I still have enough scraps for at least one more string quilt like this--maybe two!  Given to Linda T.

Family History Project with Mom

 My mother came and visited for 10 days and we took boxes of old pictures and put together some books of family history starting with her parents and going a few generations back for as many pictures as we had.  It was a wonderful project.  We made about 100 pages!  I am working on adding written histories to the books.  I have a great heritage of faithful ancestors.  This is a small way that I can honor them.

Commission and Strip Batik

 Mom sent me these fabrics and asked me to make a small wallhanging for her bathroom.  The yellow print is her curtain fabric.  Her bathroom walls are yellow.  I think the blue will contrast nicely on the yellow wall.

 Michele gave me a bag of unsorted strips of batik fabrics so I made this strip quilt which I think turned out gorgeous.  Batiks are so beautiful.  I've never purchased any myself because they are so expensive, but I sure appreciate all these wonderful scraps from Michele which challenge my creativity.

A little out of focus, but the pattern is clear enough!  For Lisa and Tyler.

Green Batiks and Penguins

 Another scrap quilt from Michele's fabric.  The outside green border is also the back.  I think these fabrics are very calming, and they are a dream to sew on.  They feel expensive and look beautiful.  For Britt.

 Penguins are not me, but I know someone who might really like this quilt and I plan to give it to her.  The above is a pre-printed panel from Michele's donated scraps.  I pieced the back (below) but didn't have quite enough of the matching fabrics, so it is a genuinely scrappy quilt, but still very cute!  (And FREE, of course!)

Clavinova Festival 2012

These are a few of my piano students who participated in the Clavinova Festival at Welch Music on 27 October 2012.  Back row:  Alyssa, Caleb, Jason; Front row: Grace, Wyatt, Chloe, Lexi, Mia

Finished and on the bed!

Dad's Flannel Shirts

My Dad died in 2009, and I brought home several of his flannel shirts to make a quilt.  I couldn't decide on a pattern until January 2012 when I saw on the Craftsy website a free Block- of-the-Month Quilt Class.  I never knew what the next block was going to be, so it was fun and surprising to see how they turned out.  I learned some new techniques and enjoyed the variety of patterns.  Today I pinned it together and will quilt it with my sewing machine soon. 

 To pin a quilt, I move my area rug and furniture in my living room, masking tape the back of the quilt to the floor, then carefully layer on the batting and the top and safety pin them all together.

 The flannel was a little bit difficult to work with because it stretches.  I hope quilting it on my sewing machine won't be too difficult.  It is heavy and warm and I will be sweating a lot while I work on this one!

September Batik Scrap Quilts for Babies

 My friend Michele gave me some more fabric scraps!  I made two baby quilts.  The back below is a print.  I pieced the above front.  Turned out very nice!   Easy machine quilting around the squares and diagonal.  Given to Lisa M.

 This is quilt number two.  Above is the back--Isn't it lovely?  Just a piece given to me that I had to somehow use.  (I didn't have money to buy fabric, so I tried to make do with what Michele gave me).  She had already cut several 2 1/2 inch squares to which I added many more to make it "match" the back.  "Match" is a stretch of the imagination, but it works for me!  Cost = $0 + a few hours of enjoyable creative energy!  Thanks, Michele, for all the scraps.  I will be making many more quilts from them!  Given to Amy B.

One more that I made in the summer from squares I had already cut from jeans.  I bought a piece for the back for a couple of dollars and then "tailor-tacked" this one instead of quilting.  Too hard to go through that thick fabric with a needle by hand or machine.  I plan to donate this one to charity. 

Hello Dolly!

Saw a quilt in a book I got at the library, Material Obsession.  The quilt had these dolls and some houses.  It was a bit of a stretch for me to fuss with each block and I decided NOT to make the houses.  However, I think my colorful blocks are overwhelming the dolls in the end.  Oh well!  It was fun.  I had to get just a little creative with the hats.  The back is the pink binding fabric.  I might get brave and write girly words in the blocks, but I might not!  Given to Rosa Lee!

Sewing Room Wallhanging

Since I can't draw a stick figure, this is pretty creative for me.

The buttons along the sides and bottom are from my grandpa's underwear!  They are made of bone.  I think they are really cool.  I inherited my grandmother's treadle machine, and I think of her whenever I look at it.

This was fun to make and I love how it looks on the wall of my sewing room!

"Hank's" Room AKA Guest Room

New paint in Hank's room!  Now it's a nice guest room for when he and Micah come to visit!  I am pleased with how it turned out.  I like the color with the quilt.  The landscape painting was in Tim's house where he grew up and needed a new spot.  I think we found the perfect place for it.

Girl Receiving Blankets

I love the cute flannels available for babies.  Got these at Walmart.

These will be given to my two friends - both named Lisa - who are having girls.

3 Pillowcases for Charity

My friend Stacy's young son has leukemia.  Every time he goes to the hospital for chemo treatment or extensive tests, they give him a donated pillowcase.  She said he loves all his pillowcases.  I hope someone will feel a little comfort when they receive these.

Double Pinwheel Baby Quilt

Given to Lynzi Rasmussen.

Bright Baby Girl Scrap Quilt

I sent this one to Saipan to my friend Heather who adopted a baby girl there.

Wedding Quilt

 My third son was recently married and I made this quilt for him and his new bride.  I think this was one of my best quilts ever!  I love how it turned out.  It is the first quilt that I had someone else quilt for me.  My new friend, Amy, inherited a long-arm machine and we bartered work from me for her quilting.  I am pleased at how well it turned out.  I was surprised at how expensive the thread was, but the variegated autumn theme was worth it in the end.  Since I don't own a long-arm quilting machine, I am determined to learn how to do more than just straight lines on my 1979 Bernina.  More to come...

Scrap Baby Quilts

I sent the quilt below to Texas for a nephew's new son.  (It has ducks on the back).

 I tried a new way of machine quilting called "wine glass" that I learned online.  I like the effect.

  One of these was given to Tarlton.

 I used a new quilting tool that I got for Christmas--a Fons and Porter "Easy Diagonal Set Ruler."  This was a cinch to cut the side and corner triangles. The boy quilt below was sent to my nephew for their newborn son named after his grandpa - my oldest brother Micheal.

All of the fabric was given to me by quilters who were cleaning out their stashes.  The only thing I bought was the above polka dot (Walmart--only $3.75!).  My goal is to learn how to do some freestyle machine quilting this year.  I am taking an online course from Craftsy.com to learn. 

Dress for Cana

This is the dress I made for Cana Lily for her first birthday.  I saw the idea in a JoAnn ad and then just figured it out myself.