The third bag owner revealed!

Have you visited Down on the Farm blog?  She recently helped my sister and I out in a big way. So I had to make her a thank you gift.

As the old saying goes . . . "A friend in need is a friend in deed!"

PS Most of these bags all feature a vintage hanky and my first attempt at machine embroidery!

2013 Blacksmith conference, with SNOW in May!

Last week was a great week to have a conference, not!  It snowed in Mid-Missouri.  It snowed from 4 AM to 4 PM.   The same time last year we were sweating our butts off and couldn't keep enough bottled water cold. This time it was trying to keep the water hot, to make hot chocolate. One morning alone I made 120 cups of coffee for the group!

 I took this picture of the Casita from the truck in order to keep my camera dry.

At least the roads stayed clear. I blame all this on my friend Nathan. He's from MN and he sent it our way.

I found this awesome machine at an antique shop. I  delivered it the first day of conference, to my friend Phil.  It's a model 301A. He tells me it's called a long bed, as some do have a shorter plate. They are known as short beds. It needed no work. The girls used it the next day to sew sock monkeys.

Here are the monkeys being stuffed.

 Mary Jo McCarty taught basket making once again.  Someday I need to try this.

There were women doing blacksmithing too. Gabby had two broken legs, but she didn't let that stop her!

The blacksmith had a display in the gallery. 

Remember the quilted wall hanging we made?  This is the label I made for the back. The quilt sold for $320 at the auction!!!

My time was spent working the Boutique. Hoodies were the hottest item. Since it went from 82 on Wednesday to 2 inches of snow on Friday, many were unprepared for the weather. 

Despite the weather it was an awesome conference. The Blacksmith Association of Missouri has the best members.  

Busy times

 I really need to get my act together and start blogging a little more regularly.

My husband's niece got married the other day. It was a beautiful spring day in
Mid-Missouri.  The granddaughter did really well in her first of 3 weddings this spring.

Mother embroidered this quilt top several years ago. I set it together and machine quilted it. She will be getting a new Great Grand daughter any day now.

 

I could not make the shower for baby Eden, but I still sent my gift. I wish I would have taken a picture of the backing. It was a beautiful paisley fabric with pale greens and pinks.

 

I have been sewing up gift bags for friends. Here are two . . .well 2 and a third (of which I can't show, it hasn't been delivered yet). These are really easy to make, I just sew on a vintage hankie and add trim. Hobby Lobby has canvas that works well.

What does this pile of work shirts mean?  If I wear one a day for the next days I work, what happens after that????  I'm out of there.  Almost a quarter century at the same job. It's time to retire and relax with the blacksmith! My last day is August 2. I work 2 more days in May, 7 in June, 11 in July, and one in August. Happy Retirement to me!

Batiks

On the previous post, I showed the quilted wall hanging in Batiks. Batiks are very interesting fabric and no two are alike.

Yesterday I was talking to the daughter in law, she said, Brady the oldest grandson was home doing art home work. He was making batik fabric. 

Last night Brady texted me his master piece. Pretty darn awesome for an eleven year old!!!!!!!!

BAM quilt up for auction

Here's the latest quilt we have been working on.  Yes, "we". 

I had seen one similar to this a year ago and knew I wanted to make one as a fundraiser for our up coming blacksmith conference on

May 2 - 5. 

Several months ago, Hoffman Fabrics published a preview of their Bali Pops fabrics. The Red Hots line showed these yellow and red fabrics in Batiks. The only problem was, it wasn't coming out until March. 

I finally received it two weeks ago and immediately went to work. 

For you non-blacksmiths, you must understand that the cold iron starts out black and goes through various colors as the heat increases.  This piece represents these color changes. 

If you click on the picture it will enlarge. There you can see the Blacksmiths Association of Missouri (BAM) logo that my blacksmith cut out for me. I ironed Stitch Witchery on the back of the fabric. He did a reverse tracing of the logo and then cut it out with an Exacto knife. I carefully peeled the paper off and heat set the logo. 

I then even more carefully machine appliqued it. 

Below the anvil I embroidered Est. 1983. This is the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Blacksmith Association of Missouri group.

Together the blacksmith and I came up with the idea of a making a pair of forge tongs for the hanger.  The tongs are really neat, holding the hanger eye between the jaws with the reins of the tongs bent out to hold the quilt. 

This will be displayed in the gallery for the conference. We are then going to donate it to the auction on Saturday night. We are keeping our fingers crossed, that it will bring a tidy sum of money. 

Phyllis's quilts

I lost my friend Phyllis to brain cancer December 2011. She made some beautiful quilts. Whenever a niece would graduate from high school, she would present them with a hand made quilt. Her last niece, Summer will graduate this May.  She too will be presented with an Aunt Phyllis quilt.

I hand quilted this for Phyllis's husband Tom and he will carry the tradition on. Tom found the completed top in the sewing room and asked if I would quilt it for him.

As a result of me quilting Summer's quilt, Tom gave me this Christmas quilt. Phyllis had started it. She did all her quilting in a lap hoop. The entire top was basted together. I wasn't sure if it would work out in my big free standing frame or not. Once I got in pinned in, it worked just fine. So now I too have a Phyllis quilt.

My friend Maggie, gifted me with yards and yards of fabric. In it, I found this preprinted panel. I added the borders and machine quilted it. I have it for sale for $60.

This embroidered quilt top was in a stash of quilts my mother made. I machine quilted it too. Mother will be gifting it to her new great grand daughter due in May.

I have more quilts that I am finishing up, so I will keep you posted.

Can you say Tiny?

Two weeks ago I went to It's a Gatherin'.  It was a quilt show of sorts, with lots of vendors and not many quilts. I found this beautiful necklace and some how it followed me home.  Check out her miniatures at Me and My Stitches.  They stole my heart because my favorite type of quilt piecing is paper piecing.  This tiny square has 33 pieces of paper in it.

So I got to thinking, I had a book on minatures. I also remembered I had two good friends who are in the Missouri River Quilt guild with me and that they needed name tags. (If we don't wear a name tag, we have to pay a fine).

My squares aren't as small as Julie's but I think they are still pretty impressive. 
I finished these two, and then got an email from my cousin who asked if I could make her a name tag too.

So I made this one for her. 

Such fun!  Congratulations girls, think of all the money I will be saving you!