Happy Easter!

Have a Blessed Easter!

Take care,

Missie

 

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New Pattern, Aged Glory...

And to finish what I showed you yesterday, here is one of my new patterns, called Aged Glory.

This is a small wool and cotton quilt, 22" square. It has a cotton background and wool stars. (The picture isn't too good because I forgot my good camera at my daughter's house! )

I stained my homespun cotton background to give it that old look...nice and aged looking.
This quilt is quick and easy to make!  Thanks!
Take care,
Missie

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Sharp Points With Wool

Good Day! I have been stitching quite a bit with wool these days with the launch of my new pattern series, Little Woolies. I don't have to tell you all how great it is to appliqué with wool...no seams to fret with, easy stitching and beautiful texture! One thing I have been perfecting as I stitch along is getting sharp points when using the buttonhole stitch on wool. If you have an inner or outer sharp point that you don't want rounded, here is a tip that helps...

For the inner corners, come up for the buttonhole stitch right at the corner point. Continue stitching all around the shape.

When you get to the next inner corner, take an extra stitch through the background up through the last loop you stitched. Continue stitching around the shape.

When you get to a sharp outer point, take the stitch right off the tip of the point.

As you pull the stitch, be sure to hold the thread in place right where you want it to land in the end. Doing this now, will help it stay where you want the thread to lay.

Take an extra little stitch through the background and up through the loop you just made.

Continue to control the thread on the next stitch. This will help the side stitch stay nice and straight, not rounded so much.

When you get around to your starting point, take an extra stitch through the very first stitch without catching the base fabric.

Then go straight down into the background and knot on the back. This will hide the beginning and blend the stitches so that you can not find the beginning and end as well as make the shape of that inner corner sharp and crisp.

 

See these nice points? See the inner corner on the left side of that picture? See how the stitch is not up next to the wool? I left off that extra stitch to show you how it helps to take the extra stitch. Now I will go back and fix it so it looks nice and straight, tucked into that sharp corner! You can also see the larger point peeking in on the side of the photo. See how it is rounded? I left that extra stitch off of that one too so you could see the difference. Now I will go back and fix that one too! I want my points nice and sharp on this quilt. If the design needs to keep the points and corners nice and sharp the steps above will help you out!

Take care,

Missie

 

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From Spring Sunrise to a spring winter Storm!

We've been traveling a bit and went from this...

To this...

In a time span of a day! First we drove from Des Moines to Augusta in two days...spent the night in Paducah. Wasn't it nice of my hubs to plan that stop for me so I could shop in the quilt stores? Only problem was that the stores closed at 3:00 on Saturday afternoon...what a Tease! We did enjoy an evening strolling through downtown Paducah. The streets were empty and I know in a few weeks that will not be the case when the city fills up with all those quilters attending the big quilt show!

Our stay in Augusta was full of excitement. We had a huge storm which knocked out the power so we had a little fun playing cards by candlelight!

 

Then we drove to Folly Beach and enjoyed some nice sunshine! My nephew Aiden loved digging for shells. He had a few pounds worth when he left at the end of our stay! Isn't he a handsome young man! Such a cutie and full of well behaved energy! We are proud of how he is maturing!

His little sis, MaKenna, is also a doll ! So happy to let anyone hold her and get some sugar! We all took turns holding her and loved seeing how much she's grown since we saw her in December.

These two kept us entertained while we were indoors...

Charelston was a beautiful historic city to explore! The girls wanted to climb on this old tree for a snapshot. My family is growing up! We missed my son-in-law this fine day as he joined us the next day.

Drove through rain and sunshine, then snow as we made our way home. It was so bad in St. Louis, my hubs decided to take a break from driving and watch the big basketball game...Ohio State, where he went to college, vs. Iowa State, where my middle daughter currently attends! We got out of the heavy sleet and snow and ate at AppleBee's to watch the second half of the game. The snow was so bad, the TV's would not work...so we ran out to the car to get the iPad and finished watching the close game! This is what other diners witnessed for an hour as the game was a nail biter! It could have been anyone's game...but Ohio State won in the last few seconds. Nothing like a good basketball game during March Maddness! We also celebrated my youngest's 17th b'day! She had a surprise cake and ice cream after the game was finished! Happy Birthday Katie!

The snow was about 6" deep by now on unplowed roads so we decided to stay the night and drive in safer conditions today. A good decision as the roads were cleared for the most part and we don't have the fear of sliding off the road today. Traveling at 25 mph for 400 miles was not a good outlook yesterday so travel is much better today at a normal pace! Another hour and we should be home safe and sound!

I have been stitchin' when the roads are smooth enough and have read two and a half great books to keep me entertained while hubs does the driving! Vacation is good, but we'll be glad to get home safe and sound! I'll show pics of my stitching in the next post!

Take care,

Missie

 

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New Pattern! Woolie Welcome...

This is the first in a new series of small quilts I've been working on called Little Woolies! Woolie Welcome is 22" square and has cotton backgrounds and wool appliqué. The applique is so easy with wool! The stars, pineapples and sashing are all easy applique stitched on a basic machine pieced background. It's a quick little project and would be perfect for a table topper or a wall hanging!

I've also been playing with those wool garments again. I got my crock pot out again and did my best to fix some of the wools I dyed the first time I tried this. They were blotchy and colorful, but not quite what I was looking for. This time I used more packs of Kool-Ade for a deeper color. It worked great! The colors are a bit brighter in this picture, but I am really happy with them. I was told that this type of dying would wash out, but I found out it is permanent when I tried to wash some out...so I know it will be ok to use these in a project that may be washed in the future. I might try washing one more time with a piece of white fabric to see if it bleeds. So far I'm having fun! Will cook a little more wool today since I have a few more packets of that sweet smelling colored powder!

Now that's an odd picture, but I've put the wool away and don't have time to rearrange again for a new picture! It does show the colors pretty well though, so I'll leave it up for now!

Take Care,
Missie

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What a Fun Few Days!!

Swaps are so fun out here in Blogland! You never know what you might get in the mail to make your day full of sunshine! I joined in on Terry's Treasures PIF=Pay It Forward fun and she sent me a little goodie which arrived last Friday. I didn't know when this little goodie would arrive so I was quite surprised when I opened the mysterious padded envelope last week! Look at this darling little quilt along with some floss and a cute fat quarter! The springy flowered card is just what I needed on the cold and blustery day we had last Friday! I'll be sure to enjoy this cute little Twister quilt up through St. patty's Day and on into Spring!

Thank you so much Terry!

Soooo, part of the Pay It Forward is that when I get something fun I get to pay it forward to 3 others who want to play along too! You have to promise to Pay It Forward to 3 others and post about it on your blog. You will have a year to pay it Forward. I will do my best to do it sooner than later so I don't forget!! Leave a comment to let me know if you want me to PIF to you! If I have more than 3 by Friday, I will draw names.

Another fun Swap I joined in on was a Pinkeep Swap with Wendy of Ravenwood Whimzies. It was another fun day when the mail came on Monday! Once again, I wasn't quite expecting it just yet and it was such a surprise to open the box to find a darling pin keep! He's such a cute little Pinpuss as his tag says...how cute is that pincushion!! She also sent a cute card, some little prim Easter tags and some candy! Such fun. I sent hers last week so she should be posting it soon so check it out! She has really gotten some darling pin keeps.

 

A while back, I got this from Julierose of julierosequilts blog. She was kind enough to send me this cute funny pattern and these reproduction fabrics as a thank you for me sending her a start of my clematis that I posted about! We are crossing our fingers it will become green and grow well this spring!

Swaps are such fun and it's another excuse to get to know another blogger! If you see a swap or a see a reason to swap, be sure to join in on the fun! It's great to make someone's day a little brighter and sure is great to have your own day brightened too!

Take care Friends,

Missie

 

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