Nettie Sews and Lucky Quilts: 2023

Monday, December 4, 2023

Cookies and Quilts - what could get any better?

The Virtual Cookie Exchange is here. I will start off with the cookies, Yum! I love the Sugar Cookies recipe that a friend from work gave to me. I made one batch. They are a soft cookie with cream cheese icing.

Christmas Cookie Cutter Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups confection sugar 2 1/ C flour

1 C butter, softened 1 tsp baking soda

1 egg 1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond flavoring

Cream sugar and butter. Mix in egg and flavorings. Blend in dry ingredients. Refrigerate 2-3 hours. Divide dough in half and roll out on floured surface to desired thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes and place on lightly-greased baking sheet. Bake until delicately golden - baking time depends on thickness of cookie. Approximately 8 minutes. Can sprinkle sugar on before baking. Or let cool and ice with cream cheese icing.

I have had this tea towel with a Sugar Cookie recipe on it for quite a while. It has not been used and needed some prettying up. The tea towel started out like this. Just rather large and not so fun or delicious-looking.

I trimmed it down to a smaller size and added some 2 1/2" squares - well, just because... It now looks like this. I probably won't use this too often to dry the dishes because once it gets used, it will quickly become not-so-pretty. This should brighten up my kitchen a little just by hanging it over my oven handle.

On to my quilt project. I received the fabric and pattern from The Sweetwater Company for this table topper. I really just loved how the pattern had all of these Christmas trees on it. The rectangles are from a charm pack, plus some are cut from yardage. I made a plastic template from the tree pattern and cut them all out.

Christmas tree table topper

The Christmas trees are appliqued onto the rectangles. I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine. The white fabric has little dots of snow on it, which I liked. It's hard to see in the photos, but some of the fabric in the charm packs, like this black-colored one, have snow, also.

The back is some Christmas fabric that I had purchased as a bolt end. It was good to be able to just cut a piece off and use it. It's a little time-saving when you don't have to piece a quilt back. This quilt is approximately 35" x 35" so it worked out good using the width of fabric.

In addition to my quilt, I made some Lined drawstring bags to use for wrapping gifts. I wanted to use these panels for the bags so they are a larger-sized bag. I had framed the panels and then followed the directions.

Thanks for joining along on my Virtual Cookie Exchange. Please visit all of the bloggers shown below. I'm sure there are many wonderful cookie recipes and Christmas quilts!

Thanks to Carol at Just Let Me Quilt for hosting this great Blog Hop.

Monday, November 13, 2023

A Fall Pillow is now complete for The Turkey Trot.

I have been following many of the Blog Hops that Joan and Carol have throughout the year. They are always so much fun. They indicated that there were spots available for the Turkey Trot and Virtual Cookie Exchange so I asked that I be added to the list.

I seem to have accumulated an endless amount of projects and I'm sure some of them may fit with each topic. I have had this pillow kit from Sew Lux Fabric lingering in my dresser drawer for quite a while.

I have always had issues with sewing this Economy Block the traditional way. I end up not having a 1/4" seam on all sides. Probably because my accuracy is not too swift when sewing the triangles to the side. So I nabbed this 6 1/2" Paper-piecing block . I guess paper-piecing does use a little more fabric than the traditional method. But that's fine, I have plenty of stash sitting around. I added another block or two. It worked out fine.

Once the blocks were completed, Lucky helped to lay out the blocks in a pleasing manner.

Both the front and back are pieced with the Economy blocks. I quilted the front and back with orange thread. It has an orange zipper on the bottom. This pillow will be a nice addition to my couch for the Fall season.

Pillow front

Pillow back

I do have a turkey (er chicken) to use as a doorstop, also. I sewed this crazy birdbrain quite a few years ago. She is filled with scraps and has a cardboard bottom so she sits pretty good.

I hope you have enjoyed my little Turkey Trot. Please check out all of the other wonderful bloggers in this Fun Fall Blog Hop.

Monday November 13

Tuesday November 14

Karrin’s Crazy World

Just Because Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Domestic Felicity

Nettie Sews and Lucky Quilts

Wednesday November 15

Thursday November 16

Monday, October 23, 2023

Gifts for my sister's 60th Birthday.

When considering gifts for my sister's birthday this year, I looked through the quilt tops that I had completed. Most of them were seasonal or whatever, not really a nice throw-size quilt top. So I did decide on a top that I had sewn from Rollin' Along. I had sewn the cover quilt sometime through this past year. I was pleased with how it came out and it did need to be quilted and finished up.

Sometime while finishing this quilt, I decided to sew a gift bag to hold the quilt. I have made quite a few of these Lined drawstring bags. The laundry bag size fits a throw-size quilt very well. It probably can fit a queen-sized quilt. I wouldn't necessarily do this much piecing on a bag for myself, because it did become a little bit tedious. For a gift, though, it is fun. Plus I used up quite a bit more jelly roll strips. My sister can store the quilt in this bag and put it in the closet when not using it.

In addition, the thought came to me to make a mini quilt with a cupcake for her birthday. I like how the cupcake came out, too. I think I managed to hurry up and zap this out in a day. This cupcake quilt block was in one of my magazines from when Quiltmaker put out the 100 Quilt Blocks magazine.

I do enjoy these labels that I purchase from Sweetwater . I receive monthly labels with my name to label my quilts. This Happy Birthday one was purchased separately. I thought it added a nice touch.

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Diatom Quilt top completed

I completed my quilt top for the Diatom Quilt Along hosted by Quilting Jet Girl. There are quite a few quilt tops completed already.

With mine, I just kind of pulled from my stash as the Quilt Along progressed. I did have fat quarters of Rifle Paper Company so I kind of just mixed and matched those. The background and blue star points are Kona solids. I enjoy pulling from my stash now for quilt alongs because I do have quite a variety of fat quarters accumulated.

Thank you, Yvonne for this fantastic pattern. I like that the blocks are 18". That's a good size to sew some smaller projects.

I sewed these 2 blocks as the quilt along was proceeding. I thought I could add another block down the road for a table runner.

Monday, June 5, 2023

Fantastic - Fast & Fun Finish!

I had previously purchased the Fast & Fun Lap Quilts book, but I had not sewn a quilt from the book . So, I figured, why not join the Quilt Along. I started to sew my blocks around the 2nd week into the Fast & Fun Quilt Along. But I was able to keep up with the weekly blocks because you can do a lot of chain piecing. Thank you Melissa at Happy Quilting for having this Quilt Along.

I did not have 2 layer cakes so I just started picking through my stash. I had fat quarters, plus some pieces of fabric that were left over from smaller projects. I kind of went for a "light, muted colors" look. This quilt will work fine for me to use on my bed in the Summer.

This Fast & Fun Sampler quilt is a nice bed size - 92" X 92". I just did my lovely straight-line quilting to get it done. I did actually sew the binding together before the end of the quilt along, so that would it was already organized. The sampler quilt used extra sections left from the layer cake for a scrappy binding which is great, too. A number of quilts in the book use strips from the 10" squares to make a scrappy binding, too. That way your fabric is mostly all used for the quilts.

I love how the backing was this pieced section with the Merry-Go-Round blocks. And then I just had to add yardage to the top and bottom. Sometimes I get held up getting backings organized because I don't want to piece it together. This went together so nice and easy.

It was awesome that I won a Layer Cake from Lou Lou's Fabric Shop. I have not broken into it yet, but I'm sure that I will soon. By participating in this quilt along, I got to sew each of the blocks in the book. Maybe I'll sew Treasured or Keystone Corners next with my Layer Cake. Thank you to all of the sponsors for this Fast & Fun Quilt Along - it really does keep you moving along to keep up with the quilt top.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

A Bokeh for a Wedding Anniversary gift

I finally finished my Bokeh Quilt from when I participated in the Bokeh Quilt Along at Quilting JetGirl in 2021. My husband's brother and his wife celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on May 12, 2023. Their 2 sons were having a family get together for the event.

I asked my husband if he wanted me to finish one of my quilt tops for a gift for them. I have over 1/2 dozen quilt tops completed but not quilted. He picked out the Bokeh quilt top because Nanci, my sister-in-law, likes purple.

I just quilted a crosshatch because that is the fastest for me. Down the road, I really want to learn free-motion quilting but I need to practice on some smaller items first.

This quilt is laying on our camper bed. The finished size is 60" X 60".

The backing fabric gave me issues. I prewashed the backing and by washing it, it was pulled way off grain. It is a cotton sateen and I think that is part of the problem. While spray-basting, I took the backing off 3 times to try to reposition it. My husband even helped 1 more time.

When the quilting was done I did not like it at all. It would have been fine for me, but I did not want to give it as a gift. My husband kept saying to add some "patches". In the end, I did decide to try to cover up the most obvious crooked section. On the below left side, 2 of those "little dots" ended right in the middle of where the binding was. This made the whole thing look messy and crooked. So I covered up the dots with this embroidered panel.

I ended up calling a local quilt shop to see if someone could embroider a quilt label for me. One nice lady agreed to do it for me. I needed it to be about 5" tall and about 20" long. I think it came out fine. It does help to cover up the very obvious bad section. She made me one for each side. This is the right side, this side did not look as crooked.

The lady at the quilt shop said that really just covering up the left side made the difference.That the rest of the back of the quilt seemed ok to her. Homestly, I am glad to have this quilt done and it has been gifted. I am linking my completed Bokeh quilt to The Little Mushroom Cap Friday Finish.

Saturday, February 18, 2023

The Cat's Meow

My brother always buys me "cat items" because, of course, I am a cat-lover. He purchased this "Compleat Cat" book a good while back for me. They're just really cute stories. Three volumes in one.

I decided to sew the Cosy Cat Placemat for my entry into Challenge 14.4 - A Novel Project.

I think it turned out cute, but it seems like it's a little small for a big plate and silverware. Probably great for a bowl of soup, though. I can use it for a cup of tea on the table beside my couch. It was very quick to sew and I had plenty of small scraps to use that were left over from other projects.

Cosy Cat Placemat with mice and butterflies

Cats stretching

My Cat, Lucky

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Laundry is fun!

For the Project Quilting Challenge #14.3 , I looked up the Generations quilt block, for my 54-40 or Fight block. I used their paper-piecing pattern which worked out good. Then I decided to add the block to this Laundry bag.

I have made quite of few of these Lined drawstring bags. This one will work out good for storing a whole quilt. When we go camping, I may bring it along for packing the dirty clothes. I used scraps leftover from this quilt.

Threadology Front

Completed back

Completed in 2020. Clearly, I still used the 2019 label.

I do use this quilt quite a bit on my couch. It is a good size that I can just throw over myself if I get cold. Couch quilts are a necessity.

It was awesome that I won a drawing for the 2nd challenge. I won these fabrics from Electric Needle.

They also gave me a 3 pins. I always enjoy some sarcasm.

Thanks for the challenge. We do not know what Challenge 14.4 will be.

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Pleasantly Plump, Predominately Pink Pillow

I decided to work on Challenge #2: Pink Tint this week. I was able to finish this Predominantly Pink Pillow just in time.

This is a pattern/kit from Sew Lux Fabric. I have had this kit since last January 2022. And, of course, it was not completed. So I pulled it out and started on it at the beginning of this week. I now have a pillow to use for Valentine's Day this year. I have completed quite a few of pillow kits from Sew Lux and I do enjoy using them throughout the year.