A Prayer Quilt

Recently, a co-worker has had a serious health issue. I wanted to let her know I was thinking and praying for her. I thought I would whip up a simple quilt and add ties to knot for a reminder of all the people that have said a prayer for her. I shopped my stash first and came across these 6 inch squares that I didn't use in this project. To tell the truth, I didn't know I had them. lol There were just enough squares pre-cut that I didn't have to cut or buy anymore. Prefect! Plus, I know her, but not well enough to say what her favorite color(s) are and I figured, I've never heard anyone say they don't like rainbows, so a rainbow color scheme was as good as any!
The quilt seamed a little small, even for a lab quilt, so I still had extra of the fabrics I had used, cut to about 3-5 inches in width and the length of a fat quarter. All these fabrics were each a fat quarter at one time. The boarders added just enough to make it a nice sized lap quilt and not too heavy for her to take with her to treatments.

The finished quilt top.

 

For the batting I used warm and natural cotton batting. I had a piece laying around that I barley had to cut. The backing fabric is something I've had for years and it was just enough to make the backing and binding. Then I did some research and found the color blue would have special meaning for her. I search through my embroidery floss and low and behold, blue embroidery floss! I was beginning to think "someone" was helping me along with this quilt with having just enough fabric to complete everything and not having to buy anything for the quilt. I started this quilt last Friday night gathering fabrics and sewing Saturday and Sunday, then finishing burying threads and pulling the ties through on Monday night. As I put the ties in and knotted them I said a different prayer for her for each knot. I left the rest of the tie loose and put in her card to have her family, friends, doctors and nurses say a prayer and tie a knot. Then when all the ties are full of knots, she can feel all the prayers that have been said for her.

Sorry these are not the best pictures, I took them with my ipod not my good camera.

 



Tuesday morning I handed off the quilt to her daughter. Wednesday I heard back that my co-worker LOVED it! Her whole family thought it was such a wonderful idea with saying a prayer and putting a knot in the ties.

On a side note: I have been really enjoying learning my new job but it's hard to squeeze in sewing when my brain has been spinning all afternoon. I hope to try to squeeze in more sewing/blogging as I get into more of a routine at work and at home.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

Thanks for Reading!
Hollie-Just a Mom who Sews

Spiral Flannel Quilt

I finished up hand binding this quilt on Thursday. After getting two sides finished at my sewing club on Wednesday night. I probably could have gotten it done, but that would have left no time for visiting everyone else's projects. =)

 

It's been sitting like this since early December when I basted this quilt and my Manly Stripes quilt in the same day.

This is actually a friend's UFO that I took over to finished for her. She had already sewn two pieces of flannel together to get one huge piece of flannel. She did this for the front and back of the quilt. I just had to baste it, quilt it and bind it. This is what friends do for other friends when they get UFOs that need to be finished. I "convinced" her that a nice spiral quilting would be a great way to finish off this quilt. Plus, I wanted to get a little more practice with this quilting style. We decided that just wrapping the binding over to one side would be the prefect way to finish off this quilt because it wouldn't require anymore fabric. She really likes the blue plaid flannel side and that side will be the front of the quilt for her.

(See the feet of one of my helpers with taking pictures last night)

I didn't like the way the pink flowered print looked with the blue plaid so I put the binding to the back of the quilt. The blue plaid looks much better on the edge of the pink flower print.

This is me holding up the quilt and my oldest crazything taking pictures.

My tallest helper was feeling under the weather, so we made do with what we had.

She actually did a good job taking the pictures. 

 

This quilt finishes at 73" x 73". I'm thinking that is would be a great quilt for having picnics outside on. Or laying back and watching fireworks in the summer. Yup, I'm ready for the cold weather to leave. Highs of 12 degrees is cold, cold, cold. We will be having a heat wave of 40 degrees today. Ya! This is also another finish on my 1st Quarter Finish-Along. I believe you can still jot down a list and post it to the Finish-Along being hosted over at On the Windy Side with Adrianne. The prizes are great incentives for finishing all those WIPs or UFOs this year. Bonus, there is no repercussions for not getting anything done on your list. So go ahead, dream big like I did!

Linking up to Finish it Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts. Checkout the links to some amazing projects!

Thanks for reading!
Hollie

As promised...

As promised I braved the cold and snow to take pictures of my Manly Stripes quilt. This was a very quick and easy quilt for my nephew based off of his favorite shirt. I wasn't sure how to quilt this one at first, then it called out for circuit board stippling. I haven't quilted many quilts thus far, but this one "told" me where to go and what to do. I wish all of them did that. ;) About halfway through, I thought that I had quilted it too densely. By that point, there was no unpicking it. I just kept going, hoping that it would turn out great. It did! I quilted it with a variegated thread of red and white. Much better then the grey I had initially picked out. I just love the way the eye keeps moving from one section to another. I really could just look at this one all day! Now for the photos!

Don't worry, any white specs are snow. It happens when your background is snow and it's blowing.

 Ha! I didn't even know I had taken this one while I was trying to hold the quilt down. But I love it!

This is what the quilt looked like most of the time I was taking pictures. Very windy, but it's sunny. So braving the wind chill advisory I went! I just couldn't get a full view picture. =(

 

 

Linking up with NNT over at My Quilt Infatuation and Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom quilts. Take a look around at all the eye candy. There are very creative people out there!

 

Thanks for reading!

Hollie

Teaching Little Ones to Sew Lesson 2- The zigzag stitch and joining fabric together

Note: This is a series of posts about how I am teaching one of my crazythings to sew. You can find the previous one and any other ones I will post under the tab, Little Ones' Sewing Lessons

Lesson 2: Zigzag and sewing two fabrics together (20 mins)

Tonight's lesson started off with a reminder of the basics. How to thread the bobbin and put in the bobbin. Along with threading the needle and what a presser foot is verses the foot pedal. (It was a close one with the needle tonight) Then reviewing hand placement on the machine while sewing.

I knew tonight's lesson had to be short and something interesting to keep my her interest. Let's face it, it's Sunday night, the last night of winter break and we had had a busy day. I let her pick any two fabrics that she wanted to go together. Of course she picked her favorite two purple fairy fabrics. I showed her how to line them up on the edges and off and sewing we were. She was so happy to finally join two pieces of fabrics together. (One step closer to making a quilt in her eyes)

The one edge slipped a little, but it's joined. I also did not let her use pins, I did explain how pins could have helped. 

She was pretty much happy with that as the lesson but I convinced her to try out the zigzag stitch. I cut a chunk of this floral fabric, from my Grandmother's stash she gifted to me, drew two chalk lines and had her adjust the machine to a zigzag stitch. (a big moment of the night for her) I first had her do a long and wide zigzag. Then I said, Let's change the size if the stitch and she was very confused. So I adjusted the width and length to a smaller zigzag. She didn't even notice a difference until after she had completed the line. Then she was blown away by the concept of changing the length and width will change the stitch. We ended the lesson then with me being a cool Mom for knowing all this "sewing stuff."

1st Finish of 2015

What a great way to start of the new year with a quick start and finish. I've had this scarf on the to do list since September. I knew it was going to be quick, but sometimes it's just not what I wanted to work on. Once I put it on my 1st Quarter To Do list, I felt more urgency to get it done. The 20 degree weather had absolutely nothing to do with it. (wink, wink) This replaces my old scarf that I've had for the past five years. It has done a great job, but it is starting to look worn and a bit ragged. Sorry, for the horrible pictures. It's dark, cloudy and waaaaayyyy to cold out for this girlie to stand outside for pictures. Also if it's going to be cold, at least it could snow! Then maybe I would have stood outside for a picture.

For those of you that are wondering if I'm really that short or if my doors are extremely tall, it's neither. I'm kneeling to get a better picture in my "outfit" mirror. 

I also started the new year quilting this flannel quilt. It's also on the quarterly to do list. I decided to spiral quilt it. Practice, practice, practice new techniques, they say. This one is still giving me a bit of trouble. I seem to have a jump of the thread every time I stop and start to move the presser foot. I keep the needle down and even hold the fabric tight to start again. Oh well, I know it will get better with practice. Getting stuff done is such a great feeling, now if I can just keep this momentum going... 

One of the great parts of sewing yesterday was listening/rocking out to my new Brad Paisley CD on my new CD player. Yup, I'm that wild and crazy. lol I can't wait to listen to my Michael Buble` CD. I think it will sound much better then through the computer, which is how I used to listen to music.

What is your favorite songs/singers to listen to while sewing? Mine defiantly change with my mood and project. From Frozen songs (there in my head from listening to the crazythings sing them over and over and over) to Country to Broadway play soundtracks.

Linking up at Finish it Friday!

Thanks for Reading!
Hollie