Dee's Doodles

Monday, August 26, 2013

Progress

Progress: forward or onward movement toward a destination

I haven't had much of a chance the last couple of weeks to put as much time into the repurposed linens quilt as I would like.

We have two kids taking college classes this year. They both started their school year last week. One is finishing university and the other, high school.

Our youngest is turning 14 soon and transitioning into 9th grade.

We've finally been able to put our parenting philosophy into words: The journey IS the destination. Right now, I'm sort of flying along the road less travelled of still raising kids full time.

The youngest two started soccer a couple of weeks ago, and while it's awesome to have one drive to practices and class, it seems I've had less "me" time on my hands. To read. To clean. To work in the yard. To sew. To make "progress" on so many things I want to do.

My onward movement is to help my kids navigate their school years forward into adulthood.

I've been doing it for over twenty-one years now, and I know that these next 4-5 years will most times...go very fast.

So I keep parenting them. Grocery shopping. Cooking. Laundry. Dishes. Sweeping. Scheduling appointments. Shuttling hither and yon. Nursing injuries and adolescent angsts. Teaching. Lecturing. Nagging...loving.

And I sit. When I can. When I have time. When I'm yet again waiting on someone else to be ready.

And I add another block to the growing pile.
I fiddle. Rearrange. Squint. Rearrange.

And when I hear, "Mom! I'm ready!", I turn off the iron, hit the light switch and shut the sewing machine down.

And the journey, once again, is full speed ahead.

and

Find me here.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Quiltey Goodness from Generation to Generation

is a plethora of pitfalls for those of us who have QADD.

(Quilter's Attention Deficit Disorder)

Hen House

These caught my eye a few weeks ago while browsing.

Sigh.

I have a lot of embroidered doilies. Some inherited, some gifted and recently, I've begun buying them at thrift and antique stores.

Rescuing ones that have stains and tears and would otherwise languish in the land of crumpled linen limbo.

Case in point.

This lovely had both.

Thanks to "Hen", I had a way to save and repurpose a piece of history and bring it into the modern world of quilting.

Ahhhhhh!

This basket was the center of the stained and torn linen doily. Showcased by some of my favorite scraps from today's designers. I'll add more ala Wonky Log Cabin style to create something that will be used and loved today and tomorrow.

Sew very happy!

Join me in celebrating quiltey creativity this week!

and

Find me here

Monday, August 5, 2013

Pillow Whisperer

Is sort of what I feel like right now!

LOL

The Spring Sprocket Pillow

The Tile Block Pillow

The I Don't Really Have a Name Pillow

And the newest addition, I'm Just Glad To Have Another WIP Off the Pile Pillow!

Ta Da!

This big guy is a supersized take on Camille Roskelley's Flower Girl pattern.

I made his "little sister" last year.

Aren't they sweet together!

LOL

"Big Brother" was made doubling the measurements for "Lil' Sis" with an added machine-sewn, hand appliqued hexagon flower in the center. For quilting, I again chose to mark 1/4" dashes to hand quilt with just plain old embroidery floss. This time, outlining "petals" on the inside as well as the outside.

The back is a pieced collection of purples, greens, grays and blues. I was free piecing last winter and had a large enough section done to use for the back.

How fun is this! There's enough purple there to make even KT jump back on the bandwagon!

LOL

Especially since they're her scraps!

I really need to give myself a kick in the patootie and work on this!

Argh!

Hope this week sees you getting a lot done, smiling plenty and hugging your loved ones as often as you can!

Don't forget to get your quiltey fix at these linky parties!

and

Friday, July 26, 2013

Happy Dance!

Because I finished the Swoon quilt!

Ahem.

Only begun in the fall of 2011.
I do not procrastinate. I believe quilt whimsies need to age to perfection!

Ta da!

A very comfy-cozy sized lap quilt.

Totally from scraps. It's like an I Spy quilt for quilters.

The tutorial for the stripey sashing can be found here:

Sun Rays Quilt Block

The Swoon pattern can be found here:

Camille Roskelley

I straight line quilted on the insides of the outer scrappy ring and star and filled in that space with a meandering stitch. Using a ruler, I marked the white spaces and hand quilted them with 1/4" stitches. Yellow on the yellow block, green on the green...you get it! I love the look of the large hand quilting with machine quilting.

This is the back. Totally crushin' on it! A super soft, vintage sheet with an appliqued patchwork heart. The bunny silhouette is osnaburg and makes me smile. It just came out of the dryer and smells so good!

Another WIP off the pile!

Happy! Happy! Happy!

Another Patchwork of the Crosses block for a different WIP.

You can buy or order the templates from your LQS, or your online source for quilting tools.

Linky parties are great ways to take a peak at what other quilters from around the globe are working on! So mark your calendars for Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week for some awesome eye candy and inspiration!

You can find me on Bloglovin' here:

Dee's Doodles

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Back to work! Back to work!

These ladies aren't exactly Gru, but knowing they're hosting linky parties helps keep me motivated!

LOL

I had several questions about the Swoon quilt I'm working on right now. I love the Swoon blocks I see all over the internet. My obsession began in September of 2011.

Wow! It's been almost two years since I started this quilt top.

I had a hard time choosing a color scheme and once again, let scraps be my choice. Each center block is a fussy cut flower or group of flowers. I had great ambitions of making three more blocks for a larger quilt.

~Sigh~

However, I decided to take the orange and purple blocks off and use the green, yellow, pink and blue ones for a lap quilt. A WIP that will soon be finished and two blocks I can use for table quilts, wall hangings or pillows.

Here it is last week, spray basted. I'm combining machine and hand quilting on it.

Loving the look!

I have a finish for the week too.

My first "Patchwork of the Crosses" aka "Lucy Boston" EPP (English Paper Piecing) block.

Ta Da!

A soccer mom project for sure!

(Baby Swoon...lol)

Don't forget to check out what everyone else is doing this week! So much creativity, encouragement and inspiration!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Fun Finish and A Ready to Quilt

This fun little block became a soft, happy pillow for my bed!

A take on the Cathedral Window block that is super easy!

Hand quilting around the outside of the hexies and I'm in love!

Can't get enough of this back fabric! So cottagey and romantic!

The Scrappy Swoon is now spray basted and ready to quilt!

You can find me now on Bloglovin'.

and

are the best places to be for delicious eye candy!

Hope to see you there!

Monday, July 1, 2013

WIP and Finishes!

Happy Independence Day!

I'm also switching to Bloglovin.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Woo Hoo!

I'm so excited!

After ten days of not feeling well, I was up and at 'em and finished two projects this week!

I made these sweet and yellow cheery blocks in January this year and they grew into this:

...and then sat in the WIP pile until this week.

I'm sorting through my vintage stash and found this bright and happy pillowcase print. It's now the "oh, so soft!" back for a new pillow!

Has anyone else noticed the price of pillow forms lately? Argh! Off to Big Lots to buy a $3 bed pillow that is floofy soft.

I just meandered my way on this one for some quiltey love.

Another finish is my Just the Right Angle table runner.

The first three rectangles...love the summery colors!

Here it is all finished! I used the raspberry Sunkissed fabric for the binding. There's some straight line-quilting and then some free-style wave lines in there. Love, love, love this! It really brightens up our dining room and Jon has asked me to make one for him and Rebecca!

Many, many years ago, a local cross stitch/embroidery/frame shop went out of business and sold off shop samples. I snagged several and have had them hanging around our old house and this house.

One was a vertical wall hanging with a blue tassle on the bottom 9very 90's). It hung in our front hallway, by the door, at our other house.

We moved...and the hanging got put in a drawer and forgotten.

I found it a couple of weeks ago and discovered it had a huge stain on it that no amount of treating would remove!

Such sweet little birdies with cute houses! Love the colors and I know the woman who stitched this put many, many hours of time and love into them!

The hubs doesn't need to read this next part....he hates me "deconstructing" anything to "construct" something new.

I cut out the three stitched pieces and sashed them with this soft and romantic fabric...then sewed them back together horizontally.

I had some osnaburg in my scrap stash and used it to "frame" the block.

I bought a fat quarter bundle last year and haven't known what to do with it...until now.

I'm cruising Pinterest, Flickr and blogs looking for ideas on how to feature the cross stitch block in a quilt using these fabrics.

Ideas are welcome!

Come join me and other bloggers at

and

for linky parties supreme!