Welcome to the World Mattie Jean!

 We are so happy to announce the arrival of our second great-granddaughter, Mattie Jean. She arrived on Friday, December 27, 2019. My husband was thrilled because that was his mom's birthday. She passed in 2005 so this makes it really special to us.
 Mom and baby are both doing fine! Ellie was a little overwhelmed, but she is adjusting. 

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 I enjoyed embroidering some things for Ellie and Mattie. Now I will be doubly busy! 
 This is my last post for 2019! I didn't post much. The summer was so overwhelming with my husband being so sick. I didn't get to sew as much as I'd like. I'm praying 2020 will be a better year health wise! 
    Happy New Year to all!

Sewing for Ellie!

 The majority of my sewing this last couple of months has been for our sweet great-granddaughter, Ellie. (My previous post is also things for her.)
 Her mama asked me to make a summer outfit for her to wear in a local pageant - and I couldn't say no!

 We went shopping and found this lemon print fabric at Hobby Lobby along with the yellow gingham. The small pink dot was from Joann's Fabric.
 The pattern is from Violette Field Threads Patterns called the Isobel. The diaper cover is also from there called Ruby. I love the diaper cover. This is my 2nd time to use it. I wasn't crazy about the Isobel - putting it together. I grew up sewing with tissue paper patterns, and directions that seemed easier to follow IMO.  Anyway, it fit good and looked cute on her. I made some modifications with the sash. 

Ellie didn't win, but oh well, you never know with pageants! She is a precious baby girl, and brings us all so much joy.

Catching Up!

 Really, does anyone ever catch up? I know I don't! It's been a busy spring so far. Plus we've had a lot of storms in our area. We've managed to get bypassed by a major tornado so we're very blessed. 

 In between having to shut down the computer, I've embroidered a few shirts and made a romper for our sweet Ellie. She just turned 2 on the 18th along with my granddaughter, Shelby, turning 12. Shelby is just a remarkable kid who wants to be involved in everything! Her school play will be May 2nd, and she has the main lead.  Her teacher asked if I would make 3 more angel gowns like I made at Christmas so I agreed. Plus I have to make Ellie an outfit for a local pageant in May. I'm getting a little stressed along with everything else that is happening. 

 I'll post the pics of the shirts and Ellie. I hope you enjoy. 

 Shelby and Ellie at Ellie's party.

The funny thing is that Ellie's mama put her romper on backwards. It's supposed to button in the back. LOL Oh well, live and learn! 
 I hope all of you have been safe from those awful storms! Come back and visit again!
 

All About Strings!

 Today (March 26) is my day in the blog hop "All About Strings" sponsored by Carla Henton of Creatin' In The Sticks! 
 I'm sure there will be some beautiful and big projects! I know I will enjoy seeing them all. 
 When I was a young girl, my mom taught me how to paper piece quilt blocks. About all we had was newspaper and scraps that her friends would give her. I can say that she never wasted anything! I wish I knew how many quilt tops and quilts she made in her lifetime. Many were pretty simple and were made mostly for warmth. We lived in a cold house so we'd pile on the quilts in wintertime. 
 I pieced one string quilt top when I was in the 8th grade, and I won 1st place in the 4-H craft show.  My mom sold it and many others to buy me school clothes. My dad was a truck farmer so the winter months were pretty tight money wise. 
 Anyway, I've been looking at all of the rag rugs being made so I decided to try a little experiment. I didn't have the jelly roll batting so I used some really thick yarn I had in my stash. Well, it worked ok, but not as good as I'd have liked. It wanted to curl up in places. I started working ironing and laying it flat, and it is much better. I just wanted something by my bed as we have wood floors, and they get pretty cold. 
 My bedroom is sort of shabby chic so these colors work just fine. These are pics of my progress. Of course, it started with a scrap pile!

 Here is the finished rug! I didn't waste anything but time as this was a partial jelly roll I got in a yard sale. 

My other project was to do some paper piecing for a string quilt. I really enjoy this! I used some old Birds and Blooms magazines, and they worked just fine. No rhyme or reason to the piecing - just whatever piece I want to use. I chose to do 6 1/2" blocks as I have a ruler that size which really helps.

 I only have 6 blocks made because I had to stop and do some other projects for a gift. 

 I love these because you can twist and turn them all sorts of ways to get a totally different effect!

 Thanks for coming to visit! 

This is the schedule for the rest of the blog hop! I hope you have time to visit them all!


Tuesday, March 26th

MooseStash Quilting

keepsake moments

Just Sew Quilter

Vroomans Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

Quilted Delights

Life in Scrapatch

Patchouli Moon Studio

   ShirleyC (You're here)


Wednesday, March 27th

Stitchin at Home

Alycia Quilts

Websterquilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Melva Loves Scraps

Words & Stitches

Den syende himmel

Patchwork Breeze

Domestic Felicity

The Quilted Snail


Thursday, March 28th

Cynthia's Creating Ark

The Joyful Quilter

Color Creating and Quilting

PamelaQuilts

Beaquilter

Two Maker Chicks

Days Filled With Joy

Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!

Creatin' in the Sticks

A Work in Progress!

I belong to a sewing forum called Everything Sewing. At the first of the year, we decided to work on a block a month of our choice. Not everyone on the forums quilts, but they all sew. I decided to search and find blocks with printable templates. It's not easy these days since so many use nothing but half-square triangle. 

 I won the quilting software EQ8, but I just recently had time to work with it. I finally figured out how to print templates from the Block Library in the software so that worked perfect for me! Plus I found some others online. 

 I started with some pretty fat quarters I won a while back, and I just love the way they look. I want to use all prints - small, large, dark, and light. I think it will work out! These are all 12 inch blocks.

Every time I make a block, I love it more than the last! It's hard for me to work on different projects because I'm one that likes to finish what I start, but I'm coping. 
 I'm not sure how many I'll make right now. I will just see how it goes!