Off to Vicksburg and a Quilt Show

Pam, the president of my quilt guild invited me to go to the Vicksburg Quilt Show. Vicksburg, Mississippi, is about three hours away, so we left very early in the morning and got home pretty late. But, oh my, was it worth it!

Pam is a quilt shopper, but I must admit that I pretty much kept up with her. We visited every shop booth and saw every quilt. I took 100 pictures (my phone died) and bought more than I planned. Who's surprised? Me! I'm generally pretty good at self-control, but apparently I lost myself. 

What did I get? Oh, a bit of fabric, a fancy stiletto/seam ripper, a flying geese ruler, and four old wooden thread spools. 

Check out this little pile. My favorite item is the stiletto/seam ripper. Ironically, it's the piece that I hope I don't use too much. I had such a difficult time deciding on the handle color. I finally chose the wooden handle. 



I still have to learn which end is which. The stiletto is gold; the seam ripper is silver. 

But the prettiest part is the wooden handle. I really like the two tone gray and beige.

The four wooden spools are for a fun project once I can get to it--a tuffet pincushion. 

Ha! There are three small pincushions sitting on my worktable waiting for filling and closing.  I'm still hopeful that I'll get to those and now this one. I really want to make a tuffet, so when I saw some mini tuffets in one of the booths, I seriously considered buying a kit. 

It didn't happen. There's no way I can afford to pay those prices, so Richard will have another project to cut the wood for the base. I think I've got all the other items, and I'm fairly sure that I can create a pattern. Now to find the time...

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of the wonderful textual fabrics that I bought. I can't believe that I bought this many fat quarters, even though some were on sale for $1.50 each! Yay! Unfortunately more of them were not on sale. Three yards total. That's not so much, right? 

Wait, a text fabric tuffet would be cute!

Fidget Quilt #4

As you can tell, if you've been reading about the fidget quilts that I've been making (#1 here, #2 here, and #3 here) I have been churning them out!  I've already begun working on four more and will bring a set of ten to the nursing home for their Alzheimer's patients.

I wanted to add lots of color to this one.  I started with two leftover bow tie blocks that were a bit dull, so I dug in my basket of shiny fabrics and found a shiny red sateen.  I intended to add the red borders to all four sides, but that made it too long.

I added a couple of pockets of beads on the edges and decided to add a little ruched flower to the center of one bow tie.  I still need to rip out the white thread.  I didn't trust my ruching skills since it's been a long time since I've used this technique.  I chose to sew the flower in white thread first because it's easier to see for picking out, which I knew I'd have to do.  I've already sewn the flower down in red, so all that's left is removing the white.

I played with the quilting.  I wanted to practice that flower in the upper right corner and then played with hearts that use little stitching lines between each heart.  As you can see, I have some more practicing to do.  

All in all, I'm okay with this little quilt.  I think there's enough texture for tactile discovery and the shiny red adds some visual dimension.   Have you been inspired to make a couple of these little fidget quilt?  

Linking up on Friday with

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Fabric Frenzy Friday for Fourth Worth Fabric Studio

Fidget Quilt #3

I've been on a roll lately.  Making fidget quilts for the nursing home patients who have Alzheimer's Disease is an easy, fast project/fabric buster that I've enjoyed.  It's given me great satisfaction because my mom was an AD patient.  I've wished many times that she had had something like these little quilts to keep her hands busy.  

In fact, I've been calling them "busy hands quilts" because the word fidget is rather illusive to me.  Anyway, I'm up to six quilts but haven't written about them because I wasn't able to take pictures and post them.  (That's a story that you don't want to know.) I'm slowly writing a post on each quilt so that you can see what I've done and maybe be inspired to make a few.

If you need more ideas and inspiration, check out Jenclair's blog at Bayou Quilts and Dolls.  She is my inspiration. Really, her quilts are over the top adorable!  You should run over and see how cute and colorful.  

I have put several ribbon loops and some "hanging pockets" along the edge of this one.  I dropped three small plastic beads in the pockets on the edges.  To make these, I cut two pieces of cotton rectangles (1 1/2 X 2 1/2), sewed the two long sides and one short side closed to form a pocket or closed tube.  Turn it right side out and drop beads in.  Then pin the pocket into the side seam when making the pillowcase-style closure for the quilt.

The original block has a trapunto heart right in the center.  It was left over from a Sunbonnet Sue quilt that I made many years ago.

The labels are not much to speak of--I just hand wrote them on the backs of the quilts using a Sharpie marker with a good point.  I assume that the quilts will be washed often in the large industrial machines that the nursing homes use today, so I don't want loose items any more than necessary.  Since I'm making them in memory of my mom, I thought I'd put that on the backs rather than my name.  Who makes them is not as important as why we're making them.

Linking up with:

Saturday Link-ups

Show Off Saturday at Sew She Can

Sew Darn Crafty at Sew Many Ways 

Tuesday Link-ups

Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts 

Scraptastic Tuesday at She Can Quilt

Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory 

Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings

Fidget Quilt #2

After reading about Fidget Quilts that a bloggy friend has been making, I decided to make a few to donate to local nursing homes, beginning with the nursing home where my mom was a patient.  
Jenclair from Bayou Quilts and Dolls, has been making and writing about Fidget Quilts for a few weeks now and she has really inspired me.  My mom had Alzheimer's, and I feel a special need to pitch in and help others who are suffering from this horrible disease.

 This is the second quilt and it is a bit of a mess, I'll admit.  There is really no rhyme or reason to it.  I just threw fabric onto a small square of left overs from another project in which I'd made scrap fabric.  When it was almost large enough I remembered my idea of using fabric from an old washcloth that should have been tossed.

The washcloth fabric is both soft (because it's so worn) and rough (because it's a terry cloth) so the added texture and bulkiness will a pair of hands something different to fidget with.
  

Some loops along the edges and a piece of purple satin add even more dimension and texture.  And boom!  Another quilt ready to go.  

I do have one concern about all of my little quilts.  A friend had a Catholic bracelet, blessed by a priest, that broke.  I asked her for the bracelet so that I could stitch the individual beads to the quilt.  At our guild meeting a few days ago, someone mentioned that nursing homes would not take quilts with buttons and beads sewn on because they are too rough.  

I haven't called the nursing homes to ask, but I intend to do so.  In the meantime I'm wondering whether anyone else has had a problem or has been able to donate the quilts with buttons and other items sewn on.  Please leave a comment letting me know.  I'm not sewing anything else onto the quilts, just in case I'll need to cut them off, but I'd like some input.

Friday Update ~~ Linking up with

          

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 

Fabric Frenzy Friday for Fourth Worth Fabric Studio

Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday for Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday TGIFF 

Linking up with

Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts 

Scraptastic Tuesday at She Can Quilt

Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory 

Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Fidget Quilt #1

My bloggy friend, Jenclair from Bayou Quilts and Dolls, has been making and writing about the Fidget Quilts she's been making for Alzheimer's patients.  Since my mom had Alzheimer's, I feel a special relationship to other AD patients.  As such, I've begun making a few of these little quilts with the intention of donating them to the nursing home where my mom was a patient.  

This one uses blues left over from "Math Is an Expletive" so there wasn't much sewing to get the quilt ready.  I did make a few seams but in no time the quilt sandwich was ready for quilting.  I decided to add some extra batting in the lower left corner and quilted around it, making a square trapunto area.  

Three buttons and a small loop on another side.

A piece of red cording with heavy knots on the ends to keep it from raveling and to add even more texture.

And sewn into the quilt is an old key.  I was worried that it would be too rough for frail fingers.  

The label is written directly on the quilt backing. 


Linking up with: 

• Crazy Mom Quilts (#138), where Amanda Jean has her beautiful "bright birch trees redux complete"--you've got to see this!
• TGIFF (#41) at Sew Fresh Quilts where Lorna has her equally cute "animal antics for Friday"--a giraffe love quilt that is an original pattern and stunning!