Cotton, Cotton, Everywhere!

I've been busier than a one armed paper hanger in a wind storm,  as they say.

I seem to have every conceivable cotton project in the works:

Table runners:  A Grandmother's Flower Garden block in the works for a fall runner.

Plus I'm working on some table runners as Christmas gifts  ~   tee-hee

Lap quilts:   Here's the beginnings of a black and orange Granny Square.  These blocks, along with eight others will be sewn together to make a nice sized lap quilt.  I love black as an anchor color!

I also have a Sunflower lap quilt in the works.  It is left over from last fall. ("Slow and steady wins the race.", I say.)  The only thing holding me back on this one is whether or not to go bigger. 

Then there's sofa cushion covers and covers for benches.  I don't have any pictures of those at this moment in time.  But, that's okay.  My plate is full so I will add them when I go back for seconds!

 And I am helping one of my Aaron/Hur team make lap quilts from her Papa's old shirts.  I'm not sure who's more excited, me or her!

She has the first of three tops done!  Now she has to choose how to quilt and bind it.  I must say, it is much larger than I had anticipated!  That was a very wonderful surprise!  The other two should go together lickity-split! !   The first of anything is always a nerve wrecking endeavor, but she's doing a spectacular job!

Well, I guess I had better get back to my Lovely Loads of Laundry that are awaiting me.  When those are done I, (me, myself) am going to play with cotton!  Oh, yes. Yes indeed.

Sew until next time,
Lovely Daydreams From the Land of Cotton!

Time for Tea

I love tea kettles. 

I love mugs and tea cups.

I love the color black.

I love quilting table runners.

And I especially love giving them as gifts!

 

 

This is for my niece, Bekah-Boo.

She likes aquas, blues and black.

She drinks tea..

 

 

 



 

A perfect fit.

 

It was a little "house warming" gift.  I have one more "house warming" surprise to make.

I'm sure I will be notified before this post gets cold.

 

I guess I had better get crackin' on that!

 

 

Sew, Until next time

Sweet Dreams From the Land of Cotton

A Quilt For Our "Moonbeam"

There's probably nothing more exciting than making a quilt for one of your children, grandchildren or great grandchildren unless, of course, it's for a BeBe!

 

I made this particular one for our Little Moonbeam:

 

 

There are no "cut out" pics of it.  Just the sewn together quilt,

pin basted and waiting to be quilted.

 

 

Here we are!  All done and ready to send with lots of "hugs and kisses":

 

Our Little Guy received it back in June.  I had forgotten to take pictures for posterity, so I had my Lady Love send me some.  There are more of the quilt with her Little Moonbeam perched on it over on my other blog. 

Visit him and all his cuteness there!  Then tell me how you just can't fall in love with him.  I dare you!

Sew, Until next time,
Lovely Daydreams From the Land of Cotton

Finally!

Finally ~ the whole quilting thing that started Sarah Sponda on her journey in The Land of Cotton!
The.  Rag.  Quilt.

As I said before, she cut out all her squares, minus the back and batting, when she was here last year.
Her main objective was to finish this quilt.  We all know how that works in the World of Quilting.
One project leads to hundreds more.  That's when you know you're hooked!  No different for her.

So let's get this thing done (in the midst of 3-4 other projects she managed to start while she was here).

Assemble the rows

 (after cutting back and backing).  Goldilocks was eager to help with this:

 

 

 

I think Sarah had to "re-do" a couple rows.  ;)

 

Sewin' 'er up!

Ask Sarah and she will tell you how much she loves "Angie Baby". 

That's the name she gave the sewing machine

 

All sewn, ready to clip!

This is going to be one large lap quilt!

 

 

 

Now, the ever so painful and tedious job of clipping the seams:

 

 

Can we say our hands were blistered and cramped?

(Yep, she drug me into allowed me to help in the clipping process)

 

Bind this Baby up!

 Sarah chose to do the self binding method.

How sweet . . . . I had she allowed me to do the binding. 

She wanted no parts of hand stitching.

 

She did make sure all edges were secure before

the binding was done.

 

Here we go!  Don't look at the hair or T-shirt.  I had previously

made a date with L'Oreal.  But quilting took precedence.

 

 

All done!

 

She did a splendid job!  I love the color combo.

This thing weighed a ton!

The front is flannel. It has a cotton batting and small whale corduroy on the back.

She will certainly stay toasty under it this winter.

She hated rag quilting said she would never do another one.

It was more work took longer than she anticipated.

 

 

With her leftover fabric she made an adorable pillow case.

The best thing about this was the fact that I didn't have to baby-sit her

I just told her what to do and she ran with it!

 

I love this too!  I want one. (hint, hint)

 

All in all she had a very exciting quilting journey while she was here.

She is very teachable ~ a little head strong at times ~ but teachable non-the-less.

 

 

Sew 'til we meet again,

Lovely Daydreams from the Land of Cotton

 

The Baby Blanket

During Sarah Sponda's visit she raided the cedar chest in the pink room.  Good Gravy Marie!  She found some of her Mama's treasures.  One being Jenny Wren's baby blanket.  It was literally thread bare and all the "silky" had been worn off.  It was held together by a breath and a prayer.

Sarah, being Sarah, decided it needed to be rescued and returned to its rightful owner.  (Insert skepticism here).  I couldn't change her mind.  When she told me what she wanted to do I was on board ~ but only after the "deer in the headlights" reaction.  Sometimes it takes a moment for creativity to sink in.  Especially if its not my own.

So off we go a shoppin'.  To find just the right fixes for her treasure.  She, like me, isn't patient when you have to shop the coupon/sale way.  We have to tag team the clerks at Hob Lob, 'cause, for whatever reason, you can only use ONE coupon at a time.  You can't even make two separate purchases back to back. N. O. they said.  Pft.

 

 

 

So, here we go!  Since the blanket was so thin she wanted to line and back it with flannel.  She also wanted to put a silky binding back on it.  Pretty ambitious I thought.  But, she has surprised me before with her skills!  She layered the three pieces together ~ blanket , yellow flannel and pretty gender neutral print on the back.  So far, so good.

 

Off to the machine we go to put the first two layer together. Have I ever mentioned her relationship with Susie Singer?  No?  Well, that's a story for another day.

 

 

Ahh, a cake walk she's thinking!  Okay.  Movin' on.  Since putting a silky binding all the way around was going to be a little more costly than she wanted, she opted for a thin ribbon sewn into the binding.  Sounds simple enough.  So let's do it!

 

Looks easy.  But don't ask her if it was!  Um, I can't tell you how many times I heard her call my name.  Sometimes I would come.  Sometimes I felt she would figure it out.  Sometimes I had a dozen other kidlings calling for me.  I felt like I was on a roller coaster!  I also can't tell you how many times that poor girl ripped out the seams.  She threatened to quit.  She would get angry with me (tee-hee) and she would walk away only to come back  Signs of a good quilter!

But, alas, she got it sewn! She purchased a cute variegated yarn to tie it with.  It was not a candidate for traditional quilting.  She did an awesome job for a spur of the moment quilt.  Even if she had several meltdowns!

The last thing she had to do was put a label on it and wash it up!

 

 

To Mom

Your baby blanket

Love, Sarah

Jul 2015

 

I am extremely proud of her!

 

 

 

Sew, until next time,

Lovely Daydreams From the Land of Cotton!

 

 

Hexie Fever

I know this a long time coming, but Summer has swept past me like I was standing still.  School will start here in just about 3 weeks or so. 

Sarah Sponda did quite well (cough, cough) ~ for the most part ~ on her hexies!  Once she married the vintage fabrics she found in my stash and created her first two "Flower" blocks it was on like Donkey Kong! 

 

 

Keep in mind, now, this was not her original intent.  Her original project was a rag quilt she started last year.  That took back seat to the Grandmother's Flower Garden she had planted in her head. With that said, off we went to collect more "blossoms".   She wanted a vintage vibe with a new look.  Okie dokie. No argument here.

The flower with the bright pink center has vintage fabrics on the outer two rings.  Can't seem to get away from it.  That's okay by me. 

I decided to teach her how to sew them the way I learned.  I know most people tend to "paper piece" hexies, but, honestly, that intimidates me.  Sewing using 1/4" seams is easy enough providing you have cut your hexies correctly and you use the same seam allowance all the way through.  We had a bit of an "issue" on a couple.  Nothing a little patience and help from the teacher couldn't fix though. 
She managed to get six done with several more cut out for the next visit.  They are quite large ~ which is good for a beginner.  She used a four inch hexie.  I must admit, I really like the size!  I can't wait until she gets them all done and put together!  Oh, what a beautiful garden that will be!


Sew, until next time,
Lovely Daydreams From the Land of Cotton!

"So This is Quilting. . . ."

My Young Kindred is here for a few weeks for Summer visit.  She, like me, has an affection for Cotton.  We stroke cotton like a soft kitten.  We pair it with it's soul mates.  We ooooh and ahhhh over it like a newborn babe.  We are:  Just. That. Smitten.  I have a Younger Kindred ~ Goldilocks ~ who seems to be following in our footsteps.  Makes my heart skip a beat.  And flutter.  And burst.  All at one time!

I know my Young Kindred ~Sarah Sponda ~  is hooked, hooked like in "hook, line and sinker".  She's a keeper.  No throwing this one back!

Last summer she started her hunt and mostly completed her cast for her rag quilt.  School and a rebellious sewing machine kept her from completing the script. So when it came time for summer vacation this year, she sent the cast ahead (no room in her luggage for them)  and upon her arrival started the exciting task of assigning lines!

But, there's always a but, it hit her.  The quilt bug.  She discovered two other "quilting" projects she wants to do before she leaves.  Let's see now, she came with one in hand, composed two more. Hm.

She didn't have enough batting to start her rag quilt and she was chomping at the bit to get started on something.  I could feel it in her body language, so I finally asked her if she wanted to do a quilt block.  She jumped at the opportunity. Um, did I just hear the Cotton Angels sing?  But (there it is again) not just a simple block mind  you.  Nope. She had seen a lady re-purpose an old "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt and that's what she wanted to do ~ make a Grandmother Flower block. Keep in mind now, we are at project "FOUR" and only two days into her vacation!  She scoured my vintage goodies and came up with some fabric to do two blocks.

Wiping the sweat from my brow (hexies could be a daunting undertaking for a newbie), I printed a hexie, she traced it to cardboard, then traced it to fabric and finally here we are:

 

Sewing it all together!

 

She looks at me and says:  "So this is quilting."   Doing the Happy Dance.  She got!  The concept and the sewing!

 

 

Ta-Da! !

 

One beautiful flower block!  One happy girl.  One proud Mom-mom! ! !

And then it was to Hob Lob looking for more fabric for more blocks.  She's addicted.  I can't help her. 

I unashamedly admit,  I'm an enabler.

 

With that said,  I will leave you with this:

 

So this is quilting

What have we done

Four projects later

She's not finished one.

 

So this is quilting

What have we here

Look at that fabric

Isn't it dear

 

So, happy, happy quilting

And fabric shopping too

Let's continue the love here

Bring in the old and the new!

 



 

Sew Until Next Time,

Lovely Daydreams From the Land of Cotton

 

 

Christmas

I could say ~ in truth~ that I am slow way behind, but I'd rather say ~ I'm way behind getting a jump start on next year!

I started these little things well enough in advance to be finished before Christmas decorating began.

 But, alas, life plays her silly little jokes on me.  I made a new friend right after Thanksgiving.  His name is Dr. Dawson.  He is a dentist.  Seems  the stress of the holidays isn't enough for me.  I got the privilege of hosting an abscessed tooth.  In turn my new friend, Dr. Dawson, arranged for me to make another new friend.  No need to hoard all that friendliness, now is there?  Dr. Seidel was his name.  He is an oral surgeon.  I don't know about  you, but the words oral and surgeon should not be used in the same sentence, let alone side by side.  I was more terrified of being given laughing gas and making a fool of myself than the actual procedure.  My boy drove me so hubby wouldn't have to miss work.  Said boy came prepared to video any nonsense his mom might throw out there while under the influence of that funny stuff.  All I can say is I wanted to kiss that dentist when he gave me Novocaine instead!.  Well enough of ranting about this.  It did put a damper on my sewing, threw all my shopping out the window and basically pushed me to the wire for Christmas. 

So I finished these for next year.  I am just a little ahead of the game ~ for now at least.  They are gifts for two of my Lovies.  I have a request for one from one of my Aaron/Hur team players.  I should not tarry on that. 

For the record ~ these are NOT my block creations.  I cut them, sewed them and quilted them, but the idea came from a number of Pinterest pins.  What would we do without that site?  Spend tons of money on books and patterns only to use little of them I suppose.

I am currently working on Valentine's table runners.  I shouldn't tarry on those, either.  And of course, I have rag quilts to get done for my grandies (and great-grandies).  I think I need a bona-fide sewing room.  And ~ a maid ~  tee-hee

Sew, until we meet again,
Lovely Dreams From the Land of Cotton