Here is the Jelly Roll top!

Okay, it took me longer than the 35 minutes  the races winner did it in, but I did it in 3 sittings - interrupted by life.  I am very pleased with the results.... Here's the picture....
Pretty, huh.  It reminds me of the Dutch fields of tulips. (I haven't ironed it yet, either, and it still looks this good.)  Thank you again, Sheila. (Click on her name to see her blog.) You picked some really good fabrics.  Page down to see the other pictures I took during the sewing.
(I linked this up to A Creative Princess at a later date!)

This is the start, just after rearranging the Jelly roll. ( To see the excellent Jelly Roll that Sheila sent me go to #70)  Sew the strips together like you would for binding. I did this in a quick way by taking the end not yet sewn and facing it up then adding the next strip over the top and sewing with right sides together.  I only had to rip out one seam!  I messed up and sewed the wrong side to the right side.  After all these years of sewing!!!

 Here's the pile after the first long seam. You'll want to keep track of the two ends!!!

Here I'm coming up on one of those pesky places where the seam allowance is going to bunch up when sewn over.  Anyway, I used my invention.  See the next picture.

I just hold a piece of paper over the seam allowance and sew.  Rip off the paper, and you have a really smooth seam crossing.  Nothing that's going to save the world, but it will save you some frustration.

Here I'm showing that I rip it right away, so I have the paper for the next seam crossing. Try it for yourself. 

The big news today is that I am back on Blogger.  This morning I tried to read blogs, and couldn't get onto my dashboard. I read blogs off the list on the blog, and that worked, but it would have kept me from writing any new posts.  Luckily it corrected itself about lunchtime.  And I'm sorry to say I took off the "Views of Butterflies" and the "Mother Theresa quotes" because they kept putting ads on with them ~ just didn't like that.  If I could choose the ads - maybe.

Sew that is the news for today.  Thanks for stopping by.

Terri

a card and little plant progress and links to the Jelly Roll Races!

Hi Friends,
I took a picture of a card - again - I know...   So lets go right to the pictures, shall we.

This is the lower left on the envelope... I know he's a grown man, but he likes Harry Potter, too, and shouldn't the joy of childhood continue into adulthood?  Lets allow ourselves some fun.

Here's the card.  I figured anybody could use a little Felix Felicis, even if they are lucky enough to be having another birthday.  This is the block I showed on yesterday's post. Dolls up nicely... You wouldn't believe how long it took me to put it all together.

 Now to the plants!  These two tiny sprouts will be massive Elm trees some day. Our trip to Colousa was wonderfully productive. There are two others, too, that sprouted.  We will have to make that trip again next year.

This is one of the nicer Catalpa trees  I started last year for the trick or treaters.  Most of them were not chosen because by the time Halloween comes around they've dropped their leaves, and it looks like the batty old witch is trying to give away dead plants.  I want one in my yard, but the hobby doesn't want to mow around it.  Guess I'll just get it a bigger pot.

I promised another blogger that I would help them find the Jelly Roll Quilt directions on line, so I'll do that and come back with that info.... Just talk amongst yourselves.

And here it is a link to the site with a You Tube video of the races on it.

http://blog.heirloomcreations.net/?p=1897

This should show you how to make a quicky jelly roll quilt, and if you buy the right colored JR you can have your gift done in no time.

"Well, I'm off" - as my hobby sez every time he leaves the house.  He's good at giving me all the straight lines I can handle.   I'm going to do some laundry now... ho, hum.  Then I'll hit the sewing room for some excitement.  Maybe I'll work on my jelly roll from Sheila's Pay It Forward. It's been calling to me.

              

                                          Come back to see how it works out.

Terri

Good Luck

Hi Friends,
Today I finished the Felix Felicis block today, and a lucky thing, too.  I have a belated birthday card to send to my brother in law.  (For those of you who don't know the Harry Potter reference, Felix Felicis is the good luck potion.) Here's a picture of it with the Howler I had made and just found the other day.  I guess I could send a card with the Howler, but that's usually for a berating type letter... not right in this case.  So here's the picture.

I like to leave them shaggy if I'm putting them into a card. They get matted, so the more outer edge the better the hold onto the mat.  If you want to make some Harry Potter paper pieced patterns, you can find them on this site  and on this site . Remember they are copyrighted patterns.
    Sew enjoy your day, and I'll try to remember to take a picture of the card... if it turns out well, and show it tomorrow.
Hugs,
Terri

Garden Color

A quick line today to show you this striking color combo I saw in my yard this afternoon...

 Isn't the lime green and the reddish purple gorgeous together?

And here I'm showing you the little seeds ripening on the Japanese Maple. (There's one in the high center of the picture - going brown!)  I'm watching that tree like a hawk!  I want some seeds to start some little trees for Halloween.  They are very desirable trees around here.  Some people downtown were robbed of theirs.  Someone just dug the tree right out of their front yard!!  They are quite expensive, and I don't know why. Some of them have red leaves year round, and those must be the more desirable.  Ours is green until very late in the fall and then for a week or so the leaves are a gorgeous red and then they all fall off pretty much at one time... like the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter. 

My hobby came with to the Open House at the Project Linus coordinator's house this afternoon.  He was more diligent than I was at looking at all the quilts and afghans.  It was a much nicer show this year because we made more pastel quilts.  Otherwise so many make everything brown.... what kid wants a brown blankie?  We got a cute little notebook for stopping in... every spot along the roads in the neighborhood were parked full of cars. It was a very successful show.

Then I went to Michael's with the very generous gift card I got from my son and daughter  who live in AK.  (She works at the Michael's there, so I had a hunch that's what I might get for my birthday and Mom's Day.)  Anyway, this time I got a truck load of things I've been needing, new pins, spray adhesive for fabric, sewing machine needles, some fabric - I really needed that, sure,  but it was pretty pinks and light reds - oooo lots of stuff.  It was fun to shop for a change. Thank you Michelle and Scot!!!!

I had a lot of fun yesterday getting my quilt onto the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'm new enough to blogging that it was a new experience linking up to another's blog.  I may try that again....

As always, thank you for stopping here.  Please leave a comment.
Hugs to you all,
Terri

Bloggerfest

Others in the Blogger Fest can be found at Amy's Creative SideSo here I am trying something new, again.  I really don't know if I'm doing this right, but I'm trying.  Here's the quilt I'd like to show...

Well, talk about learning things on a quilt.  I made this one from patterns found on the Internet.  Had to be bunnies for a Greatgrand Niece who's Mom and Grandmom are bunny raisers and they show prize winning bunnies, too.  So for the new baby the quilt had to have bunnies.  These are paper pieced, and the second batch I made for this quilt, since the first batch were turned pink buy the backing.  I'd never made a quilt with white before, and didn't know the backing would "bleed" through. I tried to paint the bunnies, but ICK.  That just looked more awful.  So I started over.  I covered over the white bunnies on the back with added white fabric squares before I quilted.  My Grandniece was very pleased with the results.  Here is the carrot pocket I made for the back of the quilt.  The whole quilt is quilted with carrot shapes.  I like a little humor in my blankies.

So that's it for today. I still need to figure out how to get it onto the linky party... I'm at the bottom of this learning curve.  

Have a wonderful weekend. I'm going to Project Linus Open House.  There was a challenge to make a pastel quilt, and I entered. (My entry is on a previous post.) Tomorrow I get to see how I stack up.

Love you all, and thanks for your patience. I scanned in these photos, and whenever I do that Blogger puts a really big light blue area around the picture... it won't go any bigger.  We'll see how it turns out, won't we.

Love to you all - especially my followers... I am prejudiced, you see.
Terri

#70

This is my 70th post... not  a giveaway type blogiversary or anything, but a nice round number. Thanks for stopping by.

Today I proclaim how lucky I am.... again!  My friend, Sheila, from Sew Cook and Travel sent me a Pay It Forward gift!  It is so awesome!
Well, here's a thousand words...

What she did was wash, iron and cut fabrics into 2 1/2"  widths for me to have this rainbow jelly roll. I am so impressed with her generosity!  And there are instructions for a quilt along with it.  It is called the Jelly Roll 1600 quilt, and some places call it a Race Quilt.  You can find out how to make one at www.heirloomcreations.net.  It is an ingenious technique. (I had to use the search on that site to find it, and don't remember really how I got there, but once you are there you'll find a YouTube video to watch and see them being made and modeled afterwards.)  Anyway, I thought I might just make one like it... sounds easy and quick, and I have been considering making something like it since I made binding last time. I love the look of the diagonal seam and with the lovely rainbow colors Sheila made up for me it'll be gorgeous!  Thank you Sheila!!!!
   Now, I can't promise such a lovely gift as Sheila gave me, but I would still love to keep up my side of the bargain and give 3 participants a gift each, too.  If you would like to receive a mystery gift in the snail mail and then Pay It Forward to 3 lucky recipients, just let me know.  I have a year to get you something, and you have a year after receiving a gift from me to send something to your recipients.
Write me a comment saying you would like to do this.  Everybody likes to get a package in the mail!

Other pictures...
 
 This is a close up of a hug - as close as I can get to you~  I wanted to show you the "background" of the Hugs and Kisses Quilt that I'm still "working" on.  I put working in quotes cause I'm fooling around a bit now. I got a gift and card off to my daughter in time for her birthday this week, and I'm rewarding myself by playing. I needed a break from the XXXs and OOOs. I'm working on a Felix Felicious block from the Harry Potter patterns.  They are free from Sewhooked and friends Here and Here. I'm thinking that for THE movie coming out in July - the last one - I'm going to use one of the paper pieced patterns and apply it to a T-shirt for me. That way I'll be in style for the show. I just don't know which of the patterns.  I have a Whomping Willow already done and since my #1 grandgirl used to call me Grandma Willow, from Pocahontas movie, that could be appropriate. There are just so many patterns from which to choose! (Gotta use the good grammar in case my daughter reads this.)

These two pictures (above and below)  are of my "card" to my DD.  (She doesn't read this blog all that often, so she will probably get it before she sees it here.  The little flags are diamond shapes cut from decorative papers, and the letters on them are from a sheet of Scrabble letters that I've had for eons.  I just happened to have some lovely waxed linen in her favorite color for the string and voila! a card.  Magic. (Who says I'm not a witch.)  It says Happy Birthday and her name, but she can turn it around and use it year round for a little joy.  (As you can see the little trees and stars are still living on the design wall.  I just haven't put them together yet.  You run out of steam after a while.  I think it's going to be a UFO before too long.)

And what post of mine would be complete without a few pictures from the garden?

The chives are blooming again... this one has a Lady Bug on it!

They planted themselves from a potted plant on the patio, and have been doing better here than ever they did there.  They are smack up next to my yellow rose, which looks terrible right now.  We had a lot of rain the past few days, and the roses all are showing the signs.  The sun beats on the beads of water, and burns the roses, and of course the rain and hail beat off most of the petals.  And here to prove me wrong...

 are the dead roses.  Thought you'd like to see all the blooms.  When you get near  they buzzzzzzz.  The bees are enjoying!  I'm just happy we have them around!

And here below is a close-up. Smile pretty!

So that wraps it up for me....

Don't forget to leave a comment saying you want to Pay It Forward.

Hugs,

Terri

V's block, plant update and OXes

Welcome to an update of the latest growth spurts... mine and the plants'.
Here come the pictures... (Remember you can make the picture larger by clicking on it.)

This is the block I made for Victoria's signature block quilt.  She's taking donations HERE, if you'd like to make one for her also. I hope she likes it... it is a bit different than her others collected to date.

Here's the OXes.  A bit red even for me.  I do love red, and I'm enjoying the sewing... Maybe I'll pepper it with some other colors.  What do you think? Maybe some orange and yellow?  Ha ha!

Okay, I'm a granny that never gets to see her grands - distance and financial restraints... so this is my PRIDE AND JOY.  The Baby Ginkgo started from a pit!  You can see on this picture and the next that she or he is getting real leaves!!!!!!!!!!  Those cute little fan shaped leaves are so ....

identifying.  Smile pretty for the camera.

Here is an update of the oak I started from an acorn.  Seems like all the seeds, pits and acorns I plant all decide which ONE will sprout.  (This is an evergreen oak we in CA call a Live Oak.  They are live all year.) In the background are mullet seed pods... and the boxes are free from Costco - going to be used to keep the little plants all together so the wind doesn't blow them over.

And here is the ONE Maple that come up - out of maybe 10 seeds that were planted.  God is testing me, see if I can part myself from the little ones.  Can I give away the little sprouts to the Trick or Treaters?  Maybe the Oak and Maple, but that Ginkgo... no!   Isn't it sweet how the leaves are just miniatures?

And finally a houseplant.  My Easter Cactus... a pinch off of a dear friend's plant - about 30 years ago. Stunning, isn't it? It's amazing how much water these type of plants demand... of course, we live in a very dry climate, and that is a West facing window.  It gets plenty of afternoon sunlight.

So now I'm off to do the taxes... we didn't make enough to have to pay anything, so I procrastinate.  We aren't getting a return check either.  Just something that has to be done.

Love to you all... and some prayers for ARB and her Mommy.

Terri

Hugs and Kisses

Howdy Friends,
I've got some new rose pictures and 2 new blocks.  Not much, but I've been planting little cuttings and more ginkgo pits.  Keeps me out of mischief. (While I was out back I saw a pair of doves having a tryst in the bushes!  It's that season again.)

Here are the pics.

The orange rose - so pretty, it has yellow on it, too.

Closer look at the yellow and orange rose. My fav.

This rose in the foreground has two tone petals.  White on the outside and red on the inside.  It has a tendency to have long stems. This is the row of roses that was here when we moved in, but I've added 2 yellows and that orange/yellow on the end.

These are the three bush roses that my #1 son brought home dead... so confident that his mummy could rejuvenate them! I guess his confidence in my green thumb was not unfounded.  He  brought them home and dug the holes.  We powdered the roots with growing hormone (the secret of my success) and we planted and watered.  They came back from the grave and have massive flowers all summer long.  Now they've gotten too big, and we are going to trim them back seriously next fall and he'll dig them out, and take them to his own house.  (The pecan tree (that stick there with the roses) will have to stay.  He planted that, too, but it's mine now. Bwaaahaaahaaa!  You can try, but it doesn't work to dig up a tap root tree. They die.)

These are Princess Dianna roses.  They really like this location. I started them from cuttings from the main bush out front.  I didn't take pictures of the roses out front.  I rarely go out front without my hobby being home.  Just a little uneasy out by myself.

This is a miniature pink rose - okay, I hear you wondering what is wrong with this woman... she's got roses all around the house. I like them, and when they can't figure out something else  my family gives me potted roses for gifts.  Wait til I show you the Joseph Coats and the Double Delights in the front areas.  Anyway, the bigger plant here is a pink geranium.  So easy to grow, but it has to be located under the overhang of the roof.  It will freeze! It literally turns to mush.  Makes good little plants for the Halloweeners. 

And here is the newest pair.  The first ones got made into a card for my daughter.  (I lose more quilt blocks that way.)  I'm thinking all the hugs and kisses will be different reds.  Got them all washed and ironed.  I love red, it's my favorite color.  What's yours?

So that's the news here.  What's new at your house?

Kisses and Hugs,

Terri

broken window, applique, 2 blocks done

Hi Friends,
You will never guess who broke our dinette window... a dove.  They have flown into that window many times before, and left dust impressions of themselves.  This time there was a gaping hole!  Well, take a look for yourself...

The poor bird left feathers everywhere in that room and through to the back sliding door.  Luckily, it wasn't that scared - if you know what I mean!  She was let out the door, and we started the clean up and called in the glass man, who got there early and was done within 3 hours of the initial event.  $140.00!  Just when you think you are getting ahead.... That's not all!  The other side of the window was flown into while we ate breakfast there just a half hour after the first window crasher... Guess we will have to keep the blinds down all the time or we will be bombarded.  Birds!  Can't live with them, can't enjoy life without them.

I decorated this T shirt many years ago, but I promised Donatella of http://inspirationrealisation.blogspot.com/ that I'd show it on the blog.  Here's my shirt!  I started with a $2 "on sale" shirt from Michael's... you know their 5 for $10 shirt sales, the sale they used to have before gas prices skyrocketed. I never like to let that sale pass. Anyway, I had these shorts I bought for which I had no shirt to wear with them. (WOW, the grammar police should lock me up after that sentence.) This color looks great with the shorts, and the flowers I made with eyelet white fabric and the aqua thread to match the flowers on my shorts.  Originally I only had 3 on the shirt, but then they turned out so nicely that I arranged 4 more.  Total of 7, is the number of grandkids I have... and they are arranged to show that one lives in FL - over on my right shoulder, 4 live in WA (in the midsection) and the 2 on the left coast are in AK - everywhere but here!  Anyway, the way the flowers don't fray is to daub the edges with Fray Check, a product by Dritz.  It works! The flowers are still nicely soft, too. (I'd say it's  been 5 years!)

Here's the outfit, and the picture below shows a section with the white and aqua flowers that are now quite faded on the shorts.

Below are the two blocks I have done on the Kisses and Hugs quilt, so far.  Promised this to the Houseelf of  Houseelf Doings.  Have you seen my Harry Potter blocks? They're on a few posts back... well, just click HERE and scroll down to the bottom. I've made lots of different ones.  I like the Hedwig for cards, and Fawkes, the phoenix, for get well cards.  That site will give you a link to the free patterns. They are free, but they cannot be used for commercial quilts. That means if you make them into anything you cannot sell it.  They are copyrighted patterns.  But they are still fun to make! Okay for family, friends or charity quilts.

I just realized that my Hug and Kiss look more like ox.... oh, well. They will be accompanied by more oxes.

That's it for today, Dear Ones.  Come again another day!

(Sorry if anyone was looking for the binding tutorial... didn't get it done yet. Keep checking back.)

Hugs & Kisses (or ox, for short),

Terri

...

A tiny Ginkgo, old car, a finish, next one up

Hi Friends,
Glad you could stop by.  I've got a pretty mixed bag for you today. Lets get started with some pictures, shall we?
Let's start with the finish.  I've finally got the little baby quilt done for Project Linus Open House.
It's 31x37 1/2 inches.

These are 2 cars at the old car show we stumbled upon this weekend. I think they look like us talking at the same time. (We really aren't as old as the cars, but today I do feel that old.  Must be some weather coming!)

Here is the Baby Ginkgo!  I am so proud.

An here is an aerial view. Cute, huh.

Now that I'm done with the quilt.  I'm thinking of making one like this.  This is a Kisses and Hugs quilt.  The picture is from QuiltMaker Magazine, Jan/Feb 2004. It's made with a paper piecing pattern that looks really easy, and I'm going to use a polka dot for the background.

I have a tutorial on binding coming up next time.  I started in the middle, and have to go back to the beginning and take some pictures for you. I've figured out how not to have a bulky ending... maybe you all know how to do this already, but I'm going to show it anyway.

Stop by again, and leave a comment.  I love hearing from you!
Terri