Thursday, May 30, 2013

Say It With Flowers,on My Birthday!

Hello!  Happy Birthday To Me!
 
It is my day on this great Blog Hop!  Aren't all the spring flowers we are seeing on this blog hop lovely? For us, because our spring has been soooo late, our trees are just finishing getting their leaves. 

I see some people are showing past projects with flowers, I have just one to show you.


I made this quilt awhile ago, it is made with a jelly roll into strip sets, then the strip cut into blocks and laid in this pattern.  It is sitting on a blow-up bed, in what was my sewing room and is now our 4th bedroom in our home.  I thought if I dismantled my sewing room, it would help with selling.  I had shelving with my plastic containers on them in the same space as the bed takes up!


So, I was making these for the April Showers blog hop when this blog hop was announced.  To me, my project looked like and evening, or early morning flower garden. 


The Dresden petals remind me of the setting or rising sun!  I machine appliqued and quilted with a rayon yellow thread, using machine blanket stitching.  The fabrics are by Tula Pink from a few years ago.  The white fabric I used in my borders and the black background fabrics have some of the flowers laminated and there is lots of glitter on them to make the flowers gleam in the moonlight!


Yes, there are 2 mug mats, leave me a comment and I will draw 2 winner!
(I am sorry for these blurry pictures, they looked ok before I posted them!)

Please stop by today and see all these wonderful projects
May 31st
Les Quilts  That would be me!

A very special thank you to Madamme Samm and Carol our hostess for looking after us this time!

Have a wonderful day, the weekend is here!
Take care, Leslie
 

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Some Finishes!

Hello!
I'm going to milk this for all the link up's I can LOL
I haven't been posting much, I have lots of good reasons....
as you know, we are selling our home, so getting it ready and keeping it ready for showings, as you know, is a full time job.
I have my own full time job, which is almost 1.25 full time jobs....
Then, I have my neck and arm pain, that is about a half-time job to control....
then, with my want to keep the men in our home organized, need I say more.
Then, what is left, is my sewing slash quilting time, not much time left over is there?

So, I have been busy over the past few months sewing.  I redecorated our bedroom for showings.

We have this summer weight quilt I made a few years ago, called Marriage.  A little bit of both our favourite colours, hence the name.


 I had 4 blocks and some fabric left over (yes, I guess they are scraps...), I have been wanting to make shams for our bed for at least 2 years.  Guess, what, I got them done!

Next, I wanted to change out the drapes and curtain valance on the window over our bed. 

Boy, in  a small town, it sure is difficult a challenge to find some drapes to fit the rod, in the right size, in the right colour at the right price!
I had to think about a valance for over the bed to match the drapes....
eventually, I arrived at Plan D, I had a shower curtain panel in the right colour.  It may have been in the back of the Linen Closet, I think.  So, I had to cut that up, sew it together in a wide width.  Of course, it was tooooo long.  So, back to the drawing board, I decided to just cut off the bottom, to the right length, sew a simple hem.

I found a set of brocade drapes on clearance, of course not enough to cover the entire width of the garden doors.  So I found some lace panels, again not wide enough either. 

But I had a brain wave, to sew them together, lace panels to the middle.  After taking all the headers apart, sewing the lace to the brocade panels (unsewing one set as they didn't go together correctly... shesh...), then sewing the rod pocket gussets at the same height. 

Then, I realized, the lace panels wouldn't have any backing on them and it would be difficult to sleep in on the weekend....
So, I found a number of shower curtain panels, all the same, for $1 each at a clearance sale!
I sewed them together, and then to the back of the drapes below the casement seam line.


(I guess I couldn't get a picture of the drapes together, due to the direction of the sun coming thru the windows!)

I think I finished all these the night before our 1st Open House.

So, to say the least, with sewing for blog hops, etc, this all took me about 2 months to finish!!!!
Yahoo!  Three Cheers, and all that!

I think they all look pretty nice.  Not modern, not the newest colours, but traditional. yes, probably conservative too, but so is the budget.

In the past 2 days, I have dismantled my sewing room, turned it back into a bedroom, all but the sewing machine and table.  Thank goodness, I was using 2 sets of drawer chests to keep my stuff in, at least I don't have to change that up!  Pictures to come after I cover some cushions for the bed.

So, I will be linking up all week with this post.
I will be relaxing this May long weekend in Canada, raining all weekend, so no gardening or playing in the flower beds.
PS:  I'll  be doing lots of link ups this week, starting with Show and Tell Tuesday with Randi .

Have a great week,
Take care,
Leslie


Thursday, May 9, 2013

It's For The Birds! Welcome to my Day!

 
Happy Birthday Linda!
 
 
Welcome to my day!  Well, as usual, I had all kinds of ideas, but none seemed to be right.
 
Then, I found a pattern on Moda Bakeshop, and a few ideas came together.
 
But a story first.  A long time ago, I bought a fat quarter set and a panel of ladies going to a quilt retreat.  I'm sure you have seen it.  A short time later, our guild had a mini sale and swap, with the proceeds going to the guild and I donated the same fat quarter package.  My friend Linda was just learning to quilt, Moi being her tutor, and I suggested she should buy the package for a minimal amount.  Of course she did!  She asked what she could make with it, and I replied whatever she would like.  In a quilting magazine, she found a pattern for a curtain for over the window in her quilting room.  It turned out so cute and she did an amazing job!
 
 
If you click on the picture, you can see the cute pictures of all the quilters!
So, when I found Crystal Hendrix's this pattern at Moda Bakeshop, I had a plan!
You see, Linda loves birds!  All birds!
I asked her if she had any bright fabric scraps left, like she used for her window topper.  She included some  blocks from the panels too!
Unfortunately, this isn't finished, but I think you will get the idea.
I apologize to everyone, but I had a busy week this week and did my best.
So I made 6 birds, like in Crystal's pattern, 3 black, 3 green and 3 orange. 
Two of each.  Lots of piecing in those birds!  They are 8.5 inches unfinished.
 


 
You will also see a panel block
So, there are birds above and below the panel block
 
 
It's a sewing machine cover!  Or will be....
So far it is 22 x 26 inches. 
There are more panel blocks and fabrics, I could put on the reverse side,
Linda can make the next few sets of decisions and then yes, I will finish it.
The yellow isn't sooo bright, but the lighting late last night at 11 pm, it is, what it is!
 
Linda's birthday is next week, but she will be away,  so here is an early birthday present!
Sorry for the funny stories Linda, but I wanted it to be a surprise!
 
Many thanks to Mary and Samm for your ideas and coaching!
Here are some of my friends for today's postings!
 
 
Enjoy the blog hop!
Take care, Leslie