Mary Janes Farm is in!

I was so pleased when the new Mary Janes Farm came in today. Have you seen this publication yet? If you're a farm girl or wanna be farm girl, this is for you. This issue is dedicated to preserving the harvest, what to do with all that corn, everyone can have a root cellar...I could go on. Mary Jane is organic all the way. The magazine sells for $5.99.

I bet you would like free shipping too...ok, done deal! I have a few copies of Jun-July magazines left, same price, same freeby shipping. This free shipping deal ends on the 4th of July. First come, first served. Send me an email to echristian851@gmail.com and I'll get back to you.

Check out Maryjanesfarm.com at a look back at last months issue or this months.

This sweet quilt top is from the quilt along from Old Red Barn Co. Even my little corners turned out cool! Very cute pattern and fun to do. Run over there for the Janome 6600 giveaway, yep, a real machine. Now I just have to quilt it.






Go quilt something, Elaine

Cactus Quilts giveaway

Check out this cool giveaway http://cactus-needle.blogspot.com/ for 5 days total. I just now found it so wanted to let you guys know. Have a good one, Elaine

The baby quilt

My daughter called me 3 1/2 years ago and informed me she was having a baby boy, wow, her first baby. Needless to say, this mawmaw was very excited!

I poured over books, magazines and patterns and just couldn't find the right pattern. So I started cutting up fabric and began sewing by hand. I enjoyed the entire process, very relaxing and fullfilling.

Since he was born in July...he had to have a patriotic quilt. Pieced, quilted and then started on the binding. I was so proud...key word here, WAS.

The phone rang and I laid it (masterpiece quilt, lol) and came back to find a soggy hole near the side of the quilt. Geeze, I had only 20" to go to finish the entire quilt.

My son's dog, Kuma, was very happy to share his remodeling skills to grammy by chewing a hole large enough for a grapefruit to fall through. Omg, this dog is Weird, now what to do.

I cut a patch for the front shaped like a bone, wrote a few lines on it and appliqued it on. For the back I choose another patch, this time a round one, wrote a few lines and appliqued it on.

After little angel was born I told my daughter...she laughed and said she didn't know, just thought I was being my ecentric self.

Oh...and Kuma...I told him he was evil, he licked my hand and went about his dog business.

What have you done to disguise a problem? Just wondering...Elaine

Texas blues

This is a king sized quilt in blues...Texas Bluebonnets, blue swirly batiks, funky bluesy geometrics...all for an Army member and his wife who are from Texas. Machine quilted by my friend Trudy...Elaine



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~God Bless the USA and our troops~~~~~~~~~~

Penny Rug Tutorial

On to the pennies for a penny rug. I am not an expert nor do I profess to know everything about wool applique. The tutorial is for those of you that have avoided felted wool applique thinking it too hard or tedious. The opinions here are simply my perspective. (always find the laziest girl you know to find the easy way out, lol). I don't like tracing around round objects...always manage to get the lines off a bit. So I tried running a circular object on the ink pad and stamping on the wool. Huge disaster, ink runs with steam, a duhhhhhhh moment.




Hmm, how about stamping the object, stamping on the freezer paper dull side and ironing on to the wool.



OMG, it works! Ta dahhhhhh!!!
I started searching around the kitchen, bathroom and "junk" drawer and found lots of goodies. I used a shot glass, rocks glass, lid for a pill bottle, etc. I have been known to hit the thrift store for the "right" circular object. I use cookie cutters too. Just remember if you use those, turn them over and use the non-sharp side as it will give a better line to see.




The freezer paper also has advantages of being used more then a few times. I have also found that the circular object, when inked up, will stamp from 2-5 times between stamping. Very cool!







I Cut the circles out and staple them in place ready for embroidery. I hope this makes your life easier and encourages you to give felted wool applique a try. I enjoy it and welcome any and all questions.

Felted Wool Applique Tutorial

I love the tutorials that I have found on blogger. Just when I think I know the "best" way to do something...there is a better way.









I love felted wool applique. I first viewed one in a popular quilting catalog and nearly died when I saw the price...omg, for real...$75. big ones! I am a big cheapskate and had to find a cheaper way to do it. I bought a ton of wool clothing, blankets and other "stuff", brought it home and felted myself.

I checked out the library and online for the history behind felted wool. I am not going to infringe on anyones' toes here and since I never wrote those authors names down, check for yourself on google or other friendly sites. It was a few years ago and now I can't remember, darn it. Anyway, take the seams out, remove the buttons (and add to your button jar) wash in hot water, rinse in cold and dry in a super hot dryer. Remove lint often or you'll have a problem. (I am a lint saver...I stuff the pin cushions with it!) Press the wool with a hot steam iron and get ready to sew!

I draw on the dull side of freezer paper with a pen, rough cut out and press on the side you WANT to be side seen. Cut out on the lines.

Arrange it on the background and staple in place. Stapling is cool. No pins to catch on your floss! After stitching down with floss, remove the staples. Wool is forgiving and a natural fiber. It goes back into place easily.




If you have dogs (like I do) and get hair or lint on your piece, use the new pledge lint remover or the paper rolled lint remover.



You can wash these but probably won't. If it gets nasty from too much lint or fibers, you can vacuum it.



My sIL doesn't sew or quilt but did make herself a pincushion using one of my kits and loved it. I will post some on my etsy shop tomorrow.









Any questions???



Wait until you see what I did to make the pennies for penny rugs...way to much fun!



Have a great week, Elaine

More on my etsy shop

Now that I have high speed to play with....I am out of control! Not much, but for me, well lets say I am.

I put some blankies up for the baby carseats or carriers. My friend dreaminbohemian.com, aka adrienne, inspired me to get creative. Speaking of creative, you really need to check out her website! I have NEVER met anyone who just be artistic without a thought. At least that is how I perceive her to be. I like to think she pulls her abilities out of her sleeve. I only wish I could do what she does. Have a good one...off to hunt down a decent machine that lowers it's feeddogs, just like the quilting diva on oldredbarn. I love this project she is working on. Anyone have any thoughts on a machine?

I love to applique by hand...so applique by machine is a waste.
Embroidery by hand, ditto...embroidery by machine waste also.
Lower feeddogs...yeppers!
Start dinner...lol!

Any what...any suggestions out there? Would love to hear them. Thanks, Elaine

Newly posted on my Etsy shop

Have you tried out the SideWinder yet? They came out a few years ago and I am shamelessly ga-ga over mine. I have sold out all but one white one, like the bottom pic, but now have a few of the pink ones. Ok, fine, more then a few, he,he,he!

One of my biggest pet peeves is stopping my rhythm in sewing and re-winding my bobbin. So I did what any rational quilter would do...went out and bought @ 3 dozen bobbins for my little featherweight and had my dh make me a spool holder for a huge spool of thread....manic laughing ensues here....and loaded those bad little bobbins. Now I am happy! Check em out...,Elaine

wahoooooo!!!

I am beyond giddy...life is so good! There are a couple guys in the backyard putting up a tower for my highspeed internet!

My bff Lolo bought me a cute little box to sleep with while listening to my favorite music! I have wanted one forever. (oh my God, everyone is going to know that I have no earthly idea what the heck I am talking about, he,he,he!) I think it's an mp3 thingy. You can load 900 songs...ok, I don't think I KNOW 900 songs, lol.

What else...oh, that's right, I am in the middle of making Lemon Sour Cream pies, taking one to work for the doc. Our regular doctor, (I will be struck dead for calling him a "regular") is off for the weekend, the day nurses each baked different cookies for him, tons of Dr.Peppers flowing to him, I'm taking lemon pie and Lolo is bringing chocolate donuts for him. Does anyone see something kind of strange here? Yep, the above giddy applies to this one as well. Long story, not comfortable sharing why we look forward to weekends.

Oh, the new book just came in to the shop, can hardly wait to upload it to etsy. Have a great weekend, giddily (is that a word?) Elaine

My baby boy in his wedding kilt!

My sweet little Woodrow, I am missing you

This is Woodrow. An incredible dog. He was only 14 months old.

He went to live with God early this morning after a brief illness. It just wasn't long enough, there was not enough time to love him.

Woodrow, I will see you again, love and hugs, mommy