YoYo's

I made all these yoyo's today while at the Dr.s office with my mom for them to check her pacemaker/defibrillator.......it was a long wait as they had to check the amount of battery left and also do a round of blood work and chest x-rays (one of the meds for congestive heart failure can cause scarring on the lungs).....her battery pack is good for another six months then they will have to go in and change it out.......she fell on yesterday and cracked her tailbone so not a fun day for her at all.......but we are happy that she is clear for another six months if all goes well with her heart......so much to be thankful for........so while we waited I worked on these..........54 of them, so this is a good start.....I need 2500 to make a king size with drape over the sides......

 This is the yoyo jar.....they look so nice inside......

Until next time,
Wendy

Another Mug Rug or Two

Another mug rug I have made recently....pic is before the binding was put in place......I so love this one....this is before the quilting was started..........

 And this is the mug rug after the quilting is finished....I used spirals on the peacocks and stippling for the sides.....I love how it turned out......

 It is now finished and ready to use.......here is another one that is in progress......

 I am using variegated green thread on this one.....I am not sure how I like it at this point.....so we will see how the finished mug rug looks before I decide.....

Until next time,
Wendy

Pin Cushion Tutorial

After I hosted a pin cushion swap I was asked to do a tutorial on the one that I made.....I have finally sat down and made a new one and thought to do pics as I went....below is the tutorial......Ruby this is for you.....

This pin cushion is made using a small jelly jar.....you can find these at just about any store.....I picked mine up at Wally World!:).....
Supplies List:
1 small jelly jar with ring lid not solid lid
fabric scraps x 2
circle template or bowl, saucer to trace
thread
scissors
stuffing

The first thing you do is cut out your circles for the yoyo's you will need one large and one small.....the small circle should be about five inches....the larger circle I just used a cereal bowl turned upside down and traced around it......the larger yoyo must be large enough to hold the stuffing and still pull tightly over the inner lid making a closed yoyo...

Next you sew up the yoyo...

It should look like this when finished......

 Now is the time to stuff the yoyo.......really simple....be very generous with the stuffing as you want a really nice lift when you put this together....do not be stingy!

 Be sure and hold the bottom of the fabric over the insert while stuffing or it will slide off......pack the stuffing really tight in there.....once you have your stuffing in close the yoyo around the seal.....pull tight and then sew it shut with a few stitches....next place the smaller yoyo that you have made on top and stitch it into place with a hidden applique stitch.....easy peasy.....press the small yoyo to lay flat....

Next you place the pin cushion into the ring....this takes a little bit of pushing but I promise it will go in there....once you have it pushed through go around and tug gently to bring it up through the ring....do this until you can leave the pin cushion in the ring without it falling out......your done! Easy peasy.....these are so fun to make....if you like you can embellish them.....

 This is the top.....I so love peacocks.......

 After a little embellishing.......

I would love to see yours if you make one using this tutorial......if you have any questions please email me and I will try and answer them as soon as possible....

Until next time,
Wendy

Little Star Quilt Finished

Finished my little star quilt......this was a real learning curve.....(1) I love hand piecing (2) hand piecing is a slow progress, no rushing through here (3) keep plenty of hand lotion ready as your hands and fingers get really sore and this helps...(4) the end product gives much satisfaction to the maker!

 I did add another round of quilting next to the border after taking this pic......that made a world of difference in how it looks......I am so proud of myself.....each little piece was only one and half inches big and was really fiddly.....My larger two inch ones will take a while as it is bed size.....but now I know that I will love the process.....so the bigger quilt will be a slow work in progress to make.....then will come the hand quilting.....this was the first time I used the perle 8 to quilt with and I love how it worked out and the look of it....this will be how I quilt the bigger one when the time comes to finish it up.....

Until next time,
Wendy

Great Mail Day

Today was a very good mail day........my friend Cat sent me these lovely scraps for my diamonds........
thank you so much Cat, I will be using these shortly.....

Next I received this package from Amy in the MMM Summer Swap.......this is the awesome package that she sent out to me.....a mini quilt, a thread catcher, a mug rug, lime green necklace, peacock pin, peacock shrinky dink, and awesome fabric. She even made the card that she sent along......thanks Amy I love all of it....

 Next is was a package from Gina who was my partner in the Tilda Tea Party Swap.....I will post about what I sent out to her when she receives it......a lovely peacock mug rug that is just gorgeous, a tea towel that is awesome and some napkins......thank you so much Gina I love everything you sent!

The above Tim Tam's were included in the box.....oh my goodness! These are the best ever cookies......my son wants me to try and order him some! So far no luck as they would be way expensive......but they are really good! Thanks Gina for that wonderful treat.....

Until next time,
Wendy 

New Mug Rug

Made a new mug rug......I love how it turned out......

Also made a new needle book......

  I have been using the GO to cut out some circles for my yoyo quilt and will be showing those soon......I am gathering fabrics for the apple core die and hopefully will soon be able to start on that as well......

Until next time,
Wendy

How Does Your Garden Grow Sunday

Here is my hexi flower for this week......this is one of those swip (slow works in progress) I am not in a hurry with this one...although I do have more cut out and prepped I am just doing them as I think about it......this is my hexi garden.......

 Next is my diamond garden stars.......I have been working on the mini diamonds this week.....this is what I have so far....these are for a mini doll quilt......I have two more rows to add and then hand quilt it......

I am linking up over at Pigtales and Quilts for Thearica's How Does Your Garden Grow Sunday's.....go on over and check out all the other gardens in bloom......

Until next time,
Wendy

Night Blooming Orchid

My night blooming orchid bloomed last night.....so pretty and smelled heavenly.....usually they take all night to fully open but mine was open around 11:30.....so I walked up the hill to my moms and sure enough hers was blooming also.....had to get her up so she could see......we had been waiting all summer for the blooms to appear......

 Until next time,
Wendy

Gypsy RR Blocks

Here are two more of the gypsy blocks that I have worked on for this rr....the first one is Pegsue's block, I decided to embellish the central silkies on this block......I think she turned out well....I purchased a ring to make the crystal gazing ball......hope she likes what I have added to the block......

Next was Lauri's block, she stated that she liked lots of bling so that is what I gave her......I added silver hearts (these were originally earrings) and then stitched detached chain stitch on top of them....next I added the red sequin applique for more bling to help bring out the wonderful red velvet patch next to it.....then I added an orange/peach butterfly....last I added some vintage 20's ribbon that I had next to the blue patch......hope Lauri likes what I added to her block......

Until next time,
Wendy

First Finish of August

I have finally finished this little quilt.....and let me tell you it was a bear.......I used fleece for the backing because my dgd just loved it.......this will be for her......it moved around a lot while I was quilting it.....this will be the only quilt I ever do this way......it did turn out nice and is what she wanted......I'm just glad that this part is done and I can now mark this as done....yay!!!!

Until next time,
Wendy

This & That

Thank you for all the well wishes.....I have felt much better this week.....the figs are starting to come in and I put up 10 jars of preserves this week so far......yummy!

Next up I had some thimbles left over from this project and decided to make another little quilt using them.....so now I will have two but I am thinking I will use different borders on this one......and I may give this one away.....who knows......

 I have also changed directions in mini quilt I was doing.....I was going to do wonky stars but I could not get the points to do what I wanted them to....working in miniature is not always easy.....since the blocks would finish at two inches, I really needed the spikes on the stars to come out perfect.....well they would not line up for me so I have started over......this is a proto-type of the star I am doing now......each little diamond measures one inch.....the quarter is to show the scale....this star is just a sample as I will be using different fabrics.....I like how it turned out......I do need to stitch closer so the thread will not show through, that is why I did a practice run......

Until next time,

Wendy

How Does Your Garden Grow Sunday/Monday

I should have posted about this on yesterday but I was feeling a little under the weather and did not get to it.....here is my progress on my star garden and flower garden......two stars and one flower with one flower ready to  put together......hopefully I will have better progress next week.....

Until next time,
Wendy