Yes, I still quilt

I sew almost everyday, or quilt, or do something with my hands. I don't like idle hands.

I made this, over sized baby quilt for my sister in law to give as a gift to baby Archie, who was born premature. It turned out too big.  I found the pattern as a picture on pinterest.  I could tell it was made up of all squares. Silly me didn't calculate the final size. But it is, what it is.  He will probably be able to use it on a twin bed when he gets older. 

I pieced this quilt for our Casita, 16 ft fiberglass camper. When the  hubby remodeled the Casita, he picked out new fabric for curtains and I did a matching quilt. 

My friend Cindy of Cindy's Quilting did the machine quilting for me. I think she did a wonderful job picking out a quilting pattern to match the southwest theme. 

She used a cotton and polyester batting which I really like. I like a heavy quilt and not a lot of fluff! 

The center panel was donated to the quilting ladies at church. I took the panel and added borders. We then hand quilted it. I did the binding. It will be auctioned at the August picnic!

This book is copyrighted 2006 so sometime around then I purchased it. I started on the 24 blocks, and got bored. Several times I'd pull it out, sew a little and tuck it back away. Last January it was a project I was going to finish come hell or high water. 

It's twin bed size. I hand quilted it just before Christmas. I love Sun bonnet Sue and Overall Sam!

We have tried to find a sewing machine base for a long time. Our blacksmith friend Mike Gentzsch gave us this one, this past July.

Last week, my blacksmith cleaned the frame up, and extended it about 12 inches. I worked on the gold leafing. 

The blacksmith added a live edge red elm board that we purchased from a Mennonite man at Jacob's Cave Flea market. We decided a shiny polyurethane finish would match the glossy black paint. It is beautiful. I asked for it to be made to use in a spare bedroom for displaying sewing machines.

However when it was finished we both decided it was just to pretty to hide upstairs. So it will reside in our living room. After curing a few days I will add the machines. Of course not all 20, 21, or whatever the count is will fit!

I am currently working on hand quilting a Christmas quilt I put together last year. It's going pretty good.  More on that later.

God is Good  

A little more sewing

This is the quilt I made about a year and a half ago for our Casita Camper. (I can't believe I don't have a picture of it quilted. 

Anyway, we need another quilt in the camper for those chilly nights. So I dug into my stash and found some leftover fabric.

This is what I came up with. I will either use cotton batting or a wool batting and do a lot of practice stitches when machine quilting it. That will be a lot of tugging I'm sure with my Elna Quilter's dream machine.

Next week is the local quilt guild meeting. We are to bring a homemade pin cushion in a brown paper bag. We then will do a swap. I've been looking on Pinterest and Google for weeks now. I came up with one similar to this.  I tried it twice and it didn't work out. So the blacksmith told me how to tweak my seam areas and this came out pretty darn good on the first try. I forgot how much fun it was to cover buttons too!

While I have been doing all the sewing the blacksmith is doing some filing of his own.

A Casita trip (and with the new Casita quilt)

ROAD TRIP!!!

We left Friday morning for Doniphan, Missouri. We would attend a one day blacksmith meeting and then just R and R for another 3 days. Doniphan is a location along the beautiful Current River. It's known for some great float trips, whether by canoe, tube, raft or jet boats. Due to the cool weather, we would just be watching from the bank. 

This is site #23 at KC's on the Current. All sites were available to us except #21, it would be occupied for the weekend.  All 28 sites were empty.

The blacksmith  was anxious to set up and try out our new camp stove/grill. Sure, we have a 2 burner inside the Casita, but there's something about grilling in the outdoors.

Friday night, without internet or TV, we watched a DVD on the laptop. Oh, I love camp life!

I love this Pioneer Log cabin which is next to the Tom Kennon Blacksmith shop. This was the site of the BAM meeting on Saturday.

This old wagon made for a cool picture too.

Saturday afternoon's BBQ lunch was served on the lawn. Blacksmiths always like a good lunch. After a tour of the local Heritage Museum, we returned to our camp site.

Remember I told you we were the only one in the 28 site place. WRONG, someone had moved in NEXT door. WHY?  There were 27 other spaces available.  The couple was nice, very talkative, had a nice almost new camper with all the bells and whistles, outdoor porch carpet, patio lights, outdoor refrigerator, shepherd hook with 2 lamps, BBQ grill and a camp fire already lit at 3 in the afternoon.

This is the bath house on the campground, just about 5 sites away from us. Several weeks ago, Doniphan was flooded. We were told you could take a canoe through the upper part of this bath house and almost touch the top rafters. 

The trees were full of the 13 year cicada's. They were our entertainment in camp!  Well that and the neighbors.

Sunday we went sight seeing, and caught the Current River in several locations.

Sunday afternoon, things got a little hairy, storms moved in. Our daughter, a news producer in Oklahoma City kept us informed of the storms, including the Joplin disaster. We got a call from Kathy, who owns the camp ground, telling us about the sirens in town and where to go in case they went off. We slept with one eye open and one ear tuned to the sky.

Our hearts go out to those effected.

To see more on the Blacksmith meeting check out Osage Bluff  Blacksmith blog.

Having help is a good thing.

Especially when it's your grand daughter and she is so proud of herself.

Now I'm off to do a "Happy Dance" the quilt is done!!!!