Ocean Waves Quilts

Quilt raffle for American Cancer Society.............................

Each year I try to make a quilt to be raffled off to benefit the American Cancer Society's "relay for life". I make it to help my friend Joan with her fund raising efforts. She, as a bone cancer survivor, does a lot of work for relay, as does My "ladie's of the evening" friend Kathie.

    The quilt will fit  on a double bed, or a generous "couch size". The raffle tickets are $5.00 each.(a tax deductible donation) If you wish to buy any, e mail me, and I will send you my snail mail address. All checks need to be made out to "THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY". The drawing will be held at the end of May. The white strip of fabric in the middle of the quilt blocks could be used to embroider wishes of hope, or names of friends, like a signature quilt, if desired ,by the winner!  Thank you in advance, and good luck to the winner! barb

Easter table topper.................

  This is the free table topper pattern that I got from "Quilt Bus.com". It works up quickly, as the center square is 28". The directions didn't call for using batting and quilting it, but I did, as I like the look of it better.  I bought the "Easter" fabric at Joannes, along with the bright yellow to go with it. They are both by  by Debbie Mumm.I used up some fabric that looked like "spring" for the backing. That way, after Easter, I can flip it over, and use it for a longer time! The backing was well aged, I have had it for ages.

    The only project I have going right now is the friendship braid quilt, I am steadily working on that. Let me tell you, a king- sized quilt seems like forever! I can imagine the eye rolling on wednesday night, if I show up at "ladies of the evening" with NO PROJECT to work on, lol! I am sure they will all be tripping over themselves to tell me I can do one of THEIR ufo's. I think i will bring the camera, so I can let you see what they all are wroking on. We are waiting for the snowbirds to come back from Florida........So, stay tuned................... 

Doing a "project"...........................

Whenever granddaughters Raelynn and Riley come to visit, they expect they will do a "project". Sometimes it is as ambitious as them helping to make a wallhanging for their brothers room. Other times, it may be as simple as making a card, or a picture for their parents.

    The girls came to visit the other day, and they made "treasure boxes". I had these cute pink and white little boxes. I had to use what was available to decorate the with, as I had no time to run out to the store that day. Raelynn and Riley cut pictures from some magazines, and then glued them on the top of the box. Raelynn, "the girly girl" wanted to add some heart stick ons. Raelynn must have been getting hungry, as most of her pictures were of food like brownies and fried chicken, lol!

    When they were tired of gluing things on, I mixed some Elmers glue and water, and they sealed the pictures in. These boxes will stay at Gramma's house. Whenever the girls come to visit, they will find a new little treasure. I also told them if they have something special, we will add it to the treasure box. It was a fun project...made from nothing at all:)

The day was finished off with homemade pizza, cupcakes for dessert, and a few rousing games of "Chutes and ladders" It doesn't get any better than that! How lucky I am to spend time with these little girls.

 I did finish the Easter table topper, that I had mentioned to you. It is a free pattern from "Quilt Bus.com" It is very quick and easy. I backed it with some "spring" fabric I had  FOREVER!  I am on a quest to "use it up" in my sewing room. I will post a pic of that soon!  So....stay tuned...............................

Blocks of the month.....

I had decided to make the Bunny Tales blocks of the month into monthly hangings. Here are the February and March Blocks.

 I am  really enjoying making these, as I always have a hand work project to work on. I have been machine quilting them as I go along. I am back to using the fusible batting, with no further problems. It surely makes the machine quilting SO much quicker. I am now out of hand work, and waiting patiently for the April block. Stay tuned.........

Bunny Tales "Block of the month"...................................

I have finally had some time to SEW! I decided to make the Bunny Tales "Block of the Month" into individual wall hangings. I thought it would be fun to have a new one to put up each month. It's also a good way to use some scraps up. Those leftover jelly roll strips can be put to good use as borders, and binding.

     The blocks originally are 8" blocks, I thought these were a bit small, so I enlarged the pieces 30%, making a 10" block. If you add a border or two, it makes a good sized wall hanging.

 Here is the January block, I just love snowmen!  I hand appliqued the block itself, then machine quilted it . February and March wallhangings are almost done, I am just hand sewing the bindings. I also found a really cute and quick free pattern for an Easter table topper @ Debbie Mumm.com. I am almost done with two of those, so I will have more to show you soon! So stay tuned..................

More pictures of "Kwilts and Krafts"...................

Kwilts and Krafts...................

We are so lucky to have this fairly new quilt shop open  so close to my home! This shop is located at 6 Joy street, in South Cape Village, also know as the Roche bros. Plaza. Mashpee, Ma. It is a fairly small quilt shop, but Cynthia has a wonderful array of fabrics. It is one of those shops that you could go in and buy all the fabrics needed to make a quilt. She has a great variety, including baby prints, seasonal, nautical, and even some home  decorating fabrics.

    Every time I go in there, she has some new things. She is starting to add books, and some notions. She also carries my patterns! She also has some really nice craft items that she makes, and some that friends of hers make. If you are looking for a unique gift at a reasonable price, this is a good place to look for those as well. Cynthia is very personable. She always says hello, can I help you? But, she leaves you alone if you just want to browse around! Here are some pictures of her Kwilts and Krafts. Be sure to stop by and see her when you are visiting the cape.

     

Sometimes....I make cakes.....

  One of the gifts I make for family babies, is this "diaper cake". It consists of 50 disposable diapers, shaped into 3 layer cakes. They are held together with elastic bands, and then each layer is stacked on top of each other. A dowel is slipped down between the layers to hold them together.

I added personalized burp cloths, bibs, onesies, pacifiers, t shirts, baby toiletries, and wash cloths. I then cover the elastic bands with pretty matching ribbons.  I then slide the whole thing into a clear basket bag, and tie the top with matching ribbons and a bow! This one was made for my great nephew that will arrive in April! The baby's mom loves monkeys, so I had to top the "cake" with a beanie baby monkey! It makes a cute centerpiece that is also useful.  Later on this weekend, I am going to give you a tour of a fairly new quilt shop that has opened right near my house! Stay tuned.........

St. patrick's Day visitors................... Happy St. Patty's day!

Granddaughter Riley,(3) and her baby brother (4 months) stopped to see me today! Big sister Raelynn was already at school, dressed in her green. Camden is wearing a hat and booties that his great grammma had made, and asked me to put them away for when Jared had children.

After two granddaughters, I was able to give them this set from her!  Sorry about the blurryness of the picture, Camden was so busy wiggling and "talking", it wasn't easy, lol! Happy St. Patty's day everyone!

Busy weekend.............

This weekend was a busy one. We had a birthday dinner for my son, and my niece on friday night. It was so nice to get together with everyone! My sister and her girls were visiting from nantucket, then my brother's girlfriend came over, as we all were going to a baby shower for my nephew.

    We did some shopping on saturday, and went for a good lunch at Red Robin. We all went to the shower for the happy couple. There was a mountain of baby gifts, it looks like the new baby won't be missing much!

    Needless to say, I have been too busy to get any sewing done to show you, but I did finish this table runner! It was  a case of buying the fabric first, and then wonder , hmmm what can I do with this! I love the colors ( of course),lol. I also loved the sea shell print. My friend Mary had sent me a free pattern from "Quilt Bus" for this table runner. I used a white on white batik with it, and a pretty batik in aqua with a touch of lilac for the other squares. The table runner is backed with this batik as well. It can be reversible. It looks quite "summery" on my table! The table runner is not huge, but the directions allow you to just keep adding to make it the size of your choice. This pattern is so adaptable to many different styles. I embroidered a matching shell in the center, but I can see this done for most any season, and fabric. Stay tuned.................