Creative Homemaker

Some people have an affinity for animal rescue. That's wonderful for them. There are many poor pets that need a loving home and someone to be their advocate. I appreciate the work and the services they provide. I, however, have a heart for unloved, abused quilts. At every yard sale I visit I keep a keen eye out for poor unloved fragments of fabric. Every once in a while I find a treasure worthy of rescue. Today was that sort of a day. I stopped just down the road, not thinking I would find anything, browsed a few tables, walked around a corner and saw this beauty. It was marked $22, which was a steal of a deal for the vintage fabric and hand sewing involved. I quickly and discreetly scanned the bills in my purse and was about to walk away, but the "yard sale manager" said she would consider all offers. I quickly said that I only had $13, would that be OK. She hemmed and hawed, then caved! YES!! This vintage Double Wedding Ring was poor, unloved and abused. It was once a l...

I finished sewing the binding on last night while I watched "Blind Side." I thought this would be an appropriate movie since I was doing the "Bind Side" of the quilt, haha! Great movie. Great actors. But no one to watch it with. I hate watching good movies without my Bear....but I digress. Back to Beary Wonky Cabins by the Lake. In keeping with the scrappy look of the quilt, I did a scrappy binding too and pulled all my reds and blues out of the binding drawer and pieced them all together. I love hand sewing a binding on a bed size quilt. I'll do a machine stitched one on wall hangings and table toppers, but I prefer the old fashioned way on a full-size quilt for some reason. A quilting friend of mine said that I was backwards in my opinion on this, that I should do it faster on a bigger quilt, and take my time on a quilt that didn't take so long to finish. I don't know. I guess I'm just weird like that. I'll be sending a picture of the finished ...

I've had this top unquilted for a while now. It's a crumb chaos block which you can find tutorials for here and here . Beware, if you try these, they are addicting. You just whip along mindlessly sewing, and streaming out the backside of your machine come these lovely wonky things. I love wonky these days, ever since I did my wonky houses for Jennifer . So, yesterday, I really wanted to stipple. Just to meander around the quilt and not really think about what I was doing. So, I sandwiched this top with batting and backing, and went to town, or rather went to the Lake. (I really did label the quilt with my name, but I don't post that sort of stuff on the web.) My boys have bunk beds, so this will be for one bunk and the other bunk may get its covering soon, I'm such a fan of wonky blocks, I have to do more. I still have to bind it, but couldn't wait to show you. So, what have you finished lately?

My new Elna Quilting Queen and my Elna 8200 Experience Embroidery machines are here!! I'm unpacking them now. Later I'll be sewing, and after that, more sewing, and after the sewing, I think I'll be...yep, sewing. I may come out from under in a few days!! Don't expect to see me until the newness wears off, maybe in say about 10 years!! (I will post pictures in a little while as soon as they are all unpacked and pretty.)

Alright, it's not what you think! A honey bun is a sweet rolled up bundle of fabric strips! They are 1 & 1/2 inches wide and come in the most luscious colors! I'm entering the giveaway here. I'm also in an online quilting bee with this talented crafter! Seriously, she is a crafting maniac! Christy makes the coolest things out of "stuff" the sort of stuff that other people would throw away! She's my kind of frugal gal that way! So, hop on over, follow her instructions and you can have a chance at a honey bun too!

Hi dear readers. I think there may be two of you... I'm working on a new layout and a post to go with it. I'll be under construction for a bit, so please bear with me. It'll be good, I promise. See you soon...

According to the IRS, our income tax return will be deposited tomorrow. I am so thankful! With it, we are retiring some debt, paying off a personal loan and catching up on a few things that have been pushed to the back burner during Bear's most recent stretch of unemployment. First and foremost, we are paying off my truck. We currently owe more than it is worth, but we have determined that we will not be buying another vehicle for quite a long time, so we are making this one our primary concern. My suburban was repossessed last summer and we were literally crippled without it. When there are 7 in your immediate family, you can't really go anywhere in a two passenger pickup. Paying off the truck is first so that it will never get taken away from us again. While I do not fault the bank or the repo company, as they were just doing their job, it is certainly frustrating, and a bit scary to walk outside and wonder where is your vehicle. Second on our list, is to pay back a person...