Sunday, April 29, 2012

Jubilee quilt, and borders in (on) the pink!

 Hi Y'all!  Well, I have been working on my Jubilee quilt!  This quilt will be a celebration of my 50th year here on planet earth.  I have chosen the Civil War Bride's quilt for my celebration quilt, and am doing Karen Mowrey's variation, A Bountiful Life.  Above is the second block, the Missing Groom.  In the original quilt, the groom is missing, so Karen designed the above block...the groom is now found! This is made from wool applique, and I am all ready to start hand stitching on this one.
 And this one!  This is the first block...but you know, I just love that groom's block the best so far!!
 The pink quilt got it's border.  I really love it, although a family member told me flatly "it's too small"...that took the wind right out of my sails, and I will hang it in the closet until I can feel better about it.  It is about 60x70 inches, lap sized.
 The flowers are blooming at my house!!  Hydrangeas, I think...
 Tomatoes are turning red...
And Star Gazer lilies are blooming and oh so fragrant!!

Hope you have a great day, all!!

Julie

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

IN the Pink!!

 Well, It is back to work for me!  I did laundry, cleaned all the bathrooms, helped mow the lawn, swept and mopped, vacuumed...and still have to dust.  But in between all that, I played in the pinks!  I had,  some years ago, cut a strip from all my pink fabrics ( I did all my reds, too), and today?  This little quilt came into being!  The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple blossom pattern, on the Quiltville website.  I like this pattern so much!
My favorite thing about this pattern?  You get a whole bunch of bonus half square triangles!!  Whoop!!!  Now these, I have a plan for...they will be the border of this quilt. So, I am not adding to my pile of hoarded half squares...



Hope y'all have a wonderful day!

Julie

Monday, April 23, 2012

Working on this and that...and a big surprise!

 Hi Y'all!  OK, I am getting used to the new blogger, so here goes!  I may have shown you the above little quilt...made of leftover triangles and hand quilted.  Seems I just cannot throw away those little pieces!   Now what to do with these little quilts???
 You could have knocked me over with a feather...my friend Mary, a nurse at work, brought in an enormous bag of goodies...for me! Mary is just a really nice person!  I was so excited I could hardly give report to the next shift!  There are fancy rulers, a new iron (a fancy one too), a cutting and pressing mat, (already in heavy use), Marti Mitchell templates, a seam guide...I just love them all!  Thank you Mary...and guess what?  Mary has started a quilt blog!  Please go visit her HERE, and say howdy!
 You know all those corners we save from the flip and sew method?   Well, I have been saving my extra 1/2 square triangles faithfully...and have a metric ton of them!  What are we going to do with these, ladies?  I know you may have been saving yours too...so, above, I made a little table runner with one little baggie of them.  Problem is, I have about 20 little baggies, so I am thinking about what to do with them all.   Should they go into (GASP)!!  the garbage???
 I know you must be sick of seeing this quilt, but I put all the pieces together into rows.  I still need to finish the applique, but at least the pieces and parts will not be scattered to the winds, waiting for me to get a-round-tuit.  Do you know where I can find one of those?
 Baskets...I think I may be a bit enamored with them!  This one is 2 inches finished, and I made a pin of it, for my badge at work.  I love to connect with the little old lady patients who come into the hospital, who are quilters...gives us something to talk about!
I had a bunch of baskets left over, so I made this little quilt too.  I just cannot throw stuff away, so the fabric food chain means that the big pieces get used, then the smaller ones, then littler and littler stuff gets made until it is all used up.  So there!!




*****************Nurse's notes*********************

Nurses:  I just want to say that I work with some fine nurses.  The new, timid ones, scared but oh, so smart and willing...the old seasoned and peppery veterans, these are the ones you want with you in a code...and the intellectual, really, really smart ones who know every answer, stat!!  Some have master's degrees...some are working on them...one is working on her PHD. I have to say, I really miss each and every one when they leave.  I bet you can relate, you nurses, you!!


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I hope each of you has a wonderful day today!  Thank you so much for your visit...you are so important to me, and I really value your friendship!




Julie

Monday, April 16, 2012

Now what to do about borders??




OK! This top will look like this when it is completed...wow, that yellow sure sticks out there like a sore thumb!! I may replace it...then again, maybe not. Now, help...what should I do about borders? A plain border? Or a pieced one, and if so, what pattern? What to do??








I am working on the second string quilt, big stitch quilting, and loving it! I wish I could do this all day long...unfortunately, I work and clean house and generally live life, so cannot big stitch all day long, LOL!! I clip all my threads at the end, so you will always see a mess of threads on my quilts, until the very end.








Here is the whole quilt...I have the binding on, and need to hand stitch it down, and am working on the border quilting...yummy!!







I hope you all have a great day!

Julie

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Works in progress




Good Morning! I have been working a lot...lots! Which is a good thing, but sure cuts into my quilting time, LOL! I am still working on the basket quilt...these are the sashing pieces I came up with. These baskets are taking quite a while, and I am still not done appliqueing basket handles down, so it will be a slow quilt.




These are the pinks that I traded Lori at Humble Quilts for...she needed cowboy fabrics, and I just love pinks, so we traded! The four patches are from my 2 inch bin. I don't know where I am going with this, yet...






And these reds! I cut a 2.5 strip of red from every red fabric I own...and when the pieces spoke, they wanted to become these blocks. So, 1.5 inch white squares, and 2.5 inch red squares, and I think you can figure out the rest, LOL!!






*******************Nurse's Notes**************


Work is challenging lately. We float out about every second or third shift, so I may be on Tele, or ICU or CVICU, or neuro tele, or could be cancelled. It is troubling. I wish we would have an influx of heart surgeries...for the next 10 years!! But, indeed it is a great thing that more and more people are able to be fixed up with stents instead of a major heart surgery...a great thing!!


We had a hypothermia protocol patient, this means after cardiac arrest, people are cooled to protect their brain and other organs, ( now keep in mind, I change a lot of details so you can't tell who this is...and it may have been in the far past!!) She was so very young, younger than I am, and the protocol did nothing to save her. She seized, and seized and just had constant seizures no matter what we did for her. She went to hospice...so very sad.

A darling lady, 85 years young, who drives a little red sports car, likes chocolate ice cream, and good looking men...in that order, she says!! She is waiting, waiting for a heart valve...and is just getting sicker and sicker. She is a darling girl!!! I hope I have as much joy in life as she does, if I make it to 85!!


Patients, young and old, all with a story, a life...touch my heart and pulls at those heart strings...I really love the patients and families in my job so much! That is what really brings me joy in my job...the charting? NOT SO MUCH!!



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Have a great day, all!!


Julie

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Turtle tracks!!




Alrighty then! The UF-OLDIE is complete! At least the top is all in one piece. The border is the only piece I had big enough for a green border, so it will do...and I am glad to have a twenty year old quilt in the making...made!! Pressing? What is that???




I have also been hand quilting on my string quilt...I do love this so much. It is a blast to do big stitches with Perle cotton, just a blast. I can highly recommend it for fun, fun, fun! Can you see my wiggles quilting in the cream parts, and straight stitching in the strings? I do not mark any of this, just take off and wiggle!




Here is the whole quilt...it is one of my favorites that I have made for sure. Soft and cuddly, right out of the washer and dryer...I like!

Have a great day, all!

Julie

Puffins and purples!!

I was tempted by Puffins...a squirrelly breed!!  LOL!  This fabric was shared with me, and I have been loved these bright, candy corn colors...