Indecisive Me! Please Advise!

So this is the quilt top that I made to go with a vintage piece of 1950's nursery rhyme fabric that I found.  You know the one that my daughter thought was creepy?  Yes, I can see her point, but I have always been fascinated by past designs and motifs in spite of their creep factor.

Here is the "creepy" fabric I will be putting on the back of it.  

I will be donating this quilt to our church for an upcoming auction.

Anyway, as is very common with me I can't decide how I should quilt this.  I am thinking I will keep the thread color white or off white but what design?  Stipple?    I have taken work off today and tomorrow to be able to work on projects like this so I hope one of you jump starts me with just the perfect idea.  

GUESS WHAT?

I finished sewing together my king size log cabin quilt that I have been making for our bedroom!  I don't make big quilts and I don't finish very many so this is huge huge huge for me!  It is at the long arm quilters right now.  There is no way I could quilt this one on my DSM.  I guess it can be done as I've read about others who do, but I have no desire.  UGH!  Wrestling is not my favorite.  I can't wait to show you.  She said it will be 5-6 weeks. 

DRESDEN BLOCKS

I have never made a Dresden block before so have been fiddling around with a ruler I just bought.  The flower petal part of the Dresden goes together really quickly.   I need to decide on a center for this one.

Same for this one.  I am auditioning this pink polka dot but not sure if it's too bright with the rest of these colors.

I'm not so sure about the next part.  Sewing it down onto a square.  I'm definitely open to hearing any tips you may have about sewing a Dresden!

Another project I have been playing with is a QAL being led by Lori at Humble Quilts.  It's going to be a very small mini quilt.  She named it Fifty Shades of Brown.  So far it is a checkerboard of brown four patches and 2 1/2 inch brown squares in between those.  I don't think I'm very good at picking out fabrics for this one because it looks like a hot mess!  She advised us to put four squares of pink and two of blue (or whatever colors we wanted) mixed in with them.  So I did, but it still just hasn't grabbed me yet.  I haven't sewn anything together because I might redo some of the blocks.  I am hoping whatever we are supposed to do with the borders is going to tame this down a bit!

In studying this a bit I think one of my problems is that I have included several fabrics that are mostly brown but do have other colors in them as well.  I might need to eliminate those.  I also noticed that my solid squares are a lot busier than Lori's so I might need to rethink those too.  I sure would like to see the inspiration quilt to get a better idea what this is supposed to look like.

Anyway, quilting ideas for my creepy quilt.  I'd love to hear them!!   

Linking to:

Midweek Makers
Needle and Thread Thursday

Rustic Shed

There is a reason the word "creating" is in my blog title.  Because I like to show the creative things my family has done besides just my quilting.  Today's post is featuring my talented husband!

We recently planted pasture grass and then put up a fence around it to keep the goats in.  A pasture is nice and all, but there are no trees and no buildings so those poor goats have no shade when its hot and no shelter when the weather is nasty.  Until now . . .

My hubby and I both love historical buildings and vintage things so we decided we wanted to build the goat shed to look old!  So here is the progress so far!  The wood is still brown, but when it gets weathered, it will all turn gray and look like every other old building around here.  Actually, some of the wood IS old as we recycled it from some of the old buildings and corrals that were originally on our property.

Here is the view before the Dutch doors with giant hinges were installed.

These HUGE hinges we salvaged from some of the corral gates and reused them on the Dutch doors for this shed.  We had to paint the shiny new bolts a rust color so they wouldn't look out of place with the old hinges.  This land has been farmed since the 1920's, maybe earlier.

The reason we know that is because the original house (really it's a 16 x 16 foot shack with a wood stove in one corner) is still standing.  I love that old building.  (see below) We moved it to another part of the property and are using it for storage.  Anyway, some of the insulation for that building was newspaper from the 1920's.  My son who works for our construction company built shelves inside it to make better use of the space for storing stuff.  Can you imagine someone actually living in this with no plumbing or running water?  We are so blessed and spoiled.

In other news, my hubby also recently developed an interest in bee keeping.  We harvested our first batch of honey today!  Over 2 gallons worth!  This wasn't even all of the boards from one hive and we have three hives.  Boy howdee!  Talk about a messy job!  This was our first time doing it and we didn't really know what to expect so next time we'll be better prepared.  

Well, it's been a long weekend and between getting the auction going and helping put up the honey, I didn't get any sewing done but it will keep!  

Don't forget to check out the auction and please, please let me know if you have any quilts you would be willing to donate and contact me for details.  We have committed to sending $6000 to this feeding program and right now we've raised a little over $2000.  We will get there!

Tomorrow it's back to the real world of stressed out college students trying to get their financial aid squared away!  Wish me luck!

Do You Like 1930's Reproduction Fabric?

 If you like 1930's reproduction feedsack fabric come bid on a lot of fabric I just put up in our hunger relief auction!  I just added the fabric items so you will have to scroll through all the other items to get to the fabric goodies.  There are over 75 pieces of fabric in this lot.  Each piece is at least 8 x 10 inches, but many are bigger than that.

Click here to view the auction being run on Facebook and be sure to bookmark it!  If there is enough interest, I may be adding some more fabric and I think there will be some bargains to be had!  No reserves!  If it sells for $5, it sells for $5!   

By the way, I should have asked this before but if there is anyone out there that has any completed quilts they would like to donate for this auction, please let me know!    

You won't even need to mail it to me, all I need is a few good pictures of your item and if anyone bids on it, I'll send you the money for postage and where to send it.  Any takers out there?  I could just kick myself that I have two quilt tops done but didn't get them quilted in time.

Our auction will run all week and bidding closes this coming Saturday at noon.  I'd love it if I got to send this fabric to one of my quilting buddies!

Vintage Nursery Rhyme Fabric & A Finish!

Many thanks to all of you who shared ideas for what to do with my vintage nursery rhyme fabric that I found!  I really loved reading all of the ideas.  I have decided to keep the fabric intact as is and use it for a back of a baby quilt.   It is very soft feeling, not quite as soft as flannel but close!

One of the things that helped me make that decision was when I started looking in my stash to see what I had that would go well with it and could not believe my eyes when I found the PERFECT jelly roll to use in making this quilt.  What do you think?

It is a line of fabric called Charlotte designed by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit.  Very pastel greens, pinks, aquas and grays.   with lots of polka dots and gingham.   So sweet.  I am determined to use up fabric that I already own and there is no sense in keeping things laying around here.

I have a plan and hopefully it will go together fairly quickly.  I can't wait to show you!  I need to buy a little bit of background fabric first to complement the jelly roll.

I can't remember if I ever mentioned this on my blog before, but I used to be an avid antique perfume bottle collector.  I still have many of them but am slowly selling them off and only keeping the ones I really love or that were meaningful gifts from loved ones.  So whenever I am out and about looking for vintage treasures, I ALWAYS look for them even though I'm not really buying them for myself anymore.  This week, I scored!  I found this!  

This atomizer (rubber bulb is missing) is over 100 years old and most likely comes from Bohemia or Czechosovakia.  It was made in the early 1900's and is hand painted in enamel and gold.   I'll be adding it to my Etsy store.  I sell mostly vintage and out of print fabric there and I just can't keep up!  All the best prints get snatched up almost as soon as I list them.  It has been fun.

Here's a tidbit for those of you who enjoy learning a bit of history.  When you unscrew an atomizer so you can actually see the drawtube that the perfume comes up through, there are three main materials used on those tubes.  The most recent being plastic (1950's to present), earlier models used glass (20's to 40's) , and pre-1920's used metal.  This one is metal.  So it is definitely 100 years old or more.

If any of you have old perfume bottles that you'd love to know more about, please feel free to ask me!  I have lots of reference material and old auction books to help in identification.  I love talking vintage perfume bottles so don't feel like it would be an imposition.   I have heard the most lovely stories about a cherished perfume bottle that a mom or grandmother or aunt had owned and how any time they smell a certain scent it immediately brings back memories of that person.

OH!  I did get my cowboy quilt done!  

One of my friends bought this for her first grandson.  We are trying to decide whether we should bring it to them or they are going to come get it.  We live about 9 hours apart.  Maybe we should meet halfway somewhere!  😉

What are YOU making this weekend?  I've love to hear!

Linking to:

Midweek Makers
My Quilt Infatuation
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
From Bolt to Beauty
Peacock Party
Finished or Not Friday

Finishes, Instagram and Auctions!

Look Monica!  I'm almost done with your quilt! 

 Just binding and only half left to do!  

Here is the full length picture of just the flimsy.  I found some vintage cowboy fabric to put on the back of it.

I had to go look back in the archives of my blog to find out how long ago I started this quilt.  It was 2016!  Here are a few closeups of the fabrics.  So cute for a little buckaroo!  I just quilted it with loop de loops similar to what a rope might look like

Monica, a friend of mine who has the cutest little grandson asked if she could buy it from me even though it was just a flimsy.  OF COURSE!  I only have granddaughters right now and I can always make another one if I need to.  So that kind of gives me some incentive to finish!

I want to tell you about something fun.  My daughter, the entrepreneur.  She loves to thrift shop!  She buys all her clothes at thrift stores and you would never know it.  She always looks so put together and cute.  I'm jealous.  Anyway, since she loves thrifting so much, she decided to start a little part time business on Instagram selling cute things she has found at thrift stores.  She uses herself and her friends as models and she's doing pretty well for just starting out! You can view her little shop on Instagram at hellohappythrifts.  She also threw in a little bit of crafting into the mix by hand embroidering  these cutoff's.  Cute!

Although this item isn't for sale I had to show you.  She hand embroidered the flowers above the pocket of a $2 denim jacket to give it a little pizzaz.

In other news, I have volunteered to organize an online auction fundraiser.  Our church has partnered with a church in the Philippines to help buy food for their hunger relief program.  Ever since Covid struck, the people hardest hit are the poorest families who have no way to provide for themselves when their country is locked down.  This church has been feeding hundreds of people and we want to continue helping them.  One of the first items donated for our auction is a quilt made by Eula Dunn.  Eula is a quilting machine!  She is wheelchair bound but does not let that stop her! She has made more quilts than I can even count!   Here is the quilt she made for our auction and  I hope it gets lots of bids.

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The auction will take place on Saturday, August 15 on our church Facebook page.  I wish I could finish things as fast as Eula but there is no way I can get one done by the 15th.  So instead, I will be gathering donations.  So far, we have a quilt, a kayak and a table and chairs. Yikes!   I need smaller stuff!  Those larger items will have to sell to local people only but I'm hoping to get more donations of things that are shippable.  We'll see!  Wish me luck!  

Oh, I almost forgot to share my latest chicken block!  She is one fancy chicken!

Linking to:

Monday Making

Main Crush Monday