Well.... Daisy has a friend! These little weiner dogs are addicting!
Allie has a baby sister, Emilee, and it would not be fair if mawmaw made Allie something special and not make one for Emilee as well. And since Emilee is only 4 1/2 months old, she cannot have a button for an eye so I drew them on. I am no artist, so don't judge them too critically. lol
Meet Pinkie.... I think Miss Emilee is going to squeal with delight! :)
I had forgotten just how fun it was to have a youngster in the house! Allie has been here for almost a month and we have had the best time! We went upstairs this afternoon and sewed together. I bought her a learning to sew kit and while I machine embroidered a retreat bag, she sat in her chair and diligently worked on her cat and heart. I took the first 2 stitches while she watched and then handed it to her and she finished both pieces all by herself!... even the stuffing! I would smile too if I had done such a fantastic job!
We bought a weiner dog kit when she first came to our house and we finally got around to sewing him up today. I made him for Allie while the machine was embroidering and while she was sewing. He went together so easily! I wanted to make myself one out of canvas but mine will wait for another day. Although it went together easily, it was time consuming!! I think Daisy is really cute and so does Allie! Although she is still confused as to why it is a one-sided doggie! ha!
And this is the retreat bag that I worked on while we were upstairs. I have a plan in mind for this one and more but we shall see if the plan pans out. Time will be the determining factor. :)
I found this design at Embroidery Library. I do have to say, I really LOVE how their designs stitch out! There is no thread waste whatsoever!!
So, that was our afternoon! What did you accomplish today?
3 links is a charm! Linking... HERE! HERE! and HERE!
I have my granddaughter Allie here with me for a month long summer visit! We still have 10 days before she goes home so we took this Saturday to teach her to make a quilt. She really surprised me! But then again, not really because she is very smart for her age of 7! She will be 8 in October but you better not tell her that because she will tell you right quick that she is only 7! ha!
My friend Marie and I took Allie on a quilt shopping spree about a week ago and bought her a beginners quilt pattern. This pumpkin wallhanging caught her eye and she said that she wanted to make it for her mommy. So, we put it in the cart and she smiled all the way to the check out!
She has been after me hot and heavy about sewing it together ever since we brought it in the house. Butch took today off and needed to relax so I thought it was a perfect day to give him the downstairs all to himself. So up the stairs Allie went to learn to quilt!
We opened up her pattern and put all of the fabrics in order of how we would have to cut them out!
Then Allie got busy ironing! Yes, she had to iron her own fabric.. (with close supervision).... She actually can handle an iron quite well and did not burn herself at all during the entire class. She told me while ironing the fabric that "If you do it too much you might burn it"... uh huh... smarter than her mawmaw already!
Once she got all of the fabrics ironed we had to cut out the pieces. I let her use the rotary cutter under extreme close supervision, but she did not have enough strength to cut all the way through, so after her first pass, mawmaw had to cut it a 2nd time to get it apart...but that was ok she said... hmmm....Here she is with her rectangles all cut for the background of her wallhanging.. she was tickled pink to get this far and actually be so hands on...
Next we went over to the machine to sew the rectangles together... I showed her about having the right side up on the bottom rectangle and right side down on the top one. I tried to confuse her twice but she caught it before beginning to sew... She said " Mawmaw, now you know that is not right!"... ha!! She knows her stuff!
She sewed kind of slow and when I told her she could speed up a little she informed me that she was sewing slow so that she didn't sew her hand to it. lol.. You have GOT to love this child!
We finally got all of the rectangles sewed together and then we had to press the seams open. I showed her how to do it on one seam and then she took over with the iron. I was really proud of her for not being afraid of the iron!
We started over to the rotary cutter when Allie spied a mistake! OH NO! One of the white fabrics had gotten turned the wrong way during sewing. I promise I did not turn it upside down to see if she would catch it. I really didn't. But neither of us saw it so you know what that means... YEP!! Miss Allie was introduced to one of my friends... Mr. Seam Ripper!! ha!
I really didn't make her take that out... I did it for her and resewed it back... :)
We then returned to the rotary cutter to cut the rectangle strips into 3 inch sections. As before, she made the first pass, followed up by mawmaw for the 2nd. She then had to pin all of the seams together so we could sew the strip pieces together to create the background. I showed her how to butt her seams together and she pinned every last seam herself! I explained how easy it would make it to keep her seam intersections so sharp and precise. She asked me what the word precise meant! ok..ok.. yea... I know... That was a big word.. :)
I filmed her actually doing the sewing so you wouldn't think I felt sorry for her and did it myself.. ha! I did help her guide the fabric but she was hands on with both hands and she was the one who worked the presser foot. She actually did a fantastic job! She stopped just short of each pin and removed it before sewing on. If she were a little older, I would have shown her how to sew slowly over the pin so the intersections would be even sharper!
She took her background to the ironing board and proceeded to iron the seams as I showed her before. But look at this... Even removing the pins instead of sewing over them, she did a fantastic job for her first try! Remember, she pinned them herself and with just a little guidance from my hands, she did her own sewing!! Isn't this fantastic!!
Now it is time to prepare the pumpkin pieces with fusible so we can build our pumpkin man! She ironed the fusible to the fabric by herself and then allowed me to cut the pieces out. She helped to pull off the paper backing from the fabric.
We managed to get all of our pieces laid down like we wanted them and then she proceeded to iron her pumpkin man down. She was tickled pink that she had made a quilt mostly by herself!! She said she is going to give it to her mommy and that she will like it, really like it. She also said we would have to tell her mommy that even though it can be used like a flag, it can't get wet. She informed me that it takes certain kinds of fabric to use outside when it is raining.
She proceeded to tell me that if you bake the seeds from a pumpkin that they tasted really good. Boy, is this kid smart as a whip or what! :)
She wanted to quilt it today but I told her it would have to wait a few days because I had customer work on the frame. She took a deep breath and informed me that she did not see why we couldn't quilt it, with it being so small and all!! Alright Miss Allie! :)
By the way... She and Butch went to get pizza while I wrote this story... She came in here from the kitchen and informed me that she had eaten 6 pieces of pizza!! We bought her a cheese pizza to herself... I had to go in to the kitchen just to see if she was pulling my leg!! NOPE!!! She had 2 small pieces left!! She is a little oinker!!! Making quilts sure worked up an appetite on her! ha! :)
So, what do you think about this happy little quilter and her very first quilt! Didn't she do a terrific job!! BTW: Notice her pigtails since lunch??? Very fitting for my blog wouldn't you say?? :)
As I have stated many times on my blog, I am a very active member of the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum! We are one big family drawn together through a common love of all types of quilting, sewing and needlework! We share in a lot of swaps, challenges, pj parties, charity projects... the list of all the fun we have over on the forum could go on and on!
I am always thinking up a few fun things for the ladies. I have been told by some, that I need to let my brain rest but it seems that when I try, it keeps coming up with things to do. ha!
Over the course of the past few months I have had several of the women on the forum busy making a quilt to portray this photo. It was photographed by Leona, one of our members over at HGTV. She gave me permission to use it for this challenge.
There were no rules or boundaries that the ladies had to follow while creating their pieces. They were given complete free reign! Isn't that the best way to work?
I would love to show you what remarkable pieces the following 9 forum members presented for judging at the end of the challenge!
I called upon 5 of my friends and asked them if they would consider judging the quilts once the challenge was over and they graciously agreed. At this time I want to recognize each of them and say Thank You! once again!
Please give a big shout out to our judges!! We really appreciate them for taking the time to do this for us!
I wanted to have some great prizes for 1st - 3rd place winners and also award honorable mention. I called on some of my good friends to help me out with prizes and they came through with some amazing sponsorships!
This quilt left the studio yesterday with a smiling owner! I was really glad to get this one finished and back to her. I have another one on the frame that should come off by tonight and then she has another one that I am really excited about quilting later this month for an upcoming show!!
I will be happier to get a few more quilts behind me and under my belt. I have not been able to work much for the past 3 years and I feel so rusty!!
