No Quilts but Darling Raggedy Ann and Andy are Done!

Just finished up with the minute details on this pair of 15 inch traditional Raggedy Ann and Andy!

 They are for a friend and actually the Executive Director of an entity that I do accounting and administrative work for. Hopefully she will not visit my blog before sending them to her.

We have been working together for about 16 years. She actually commissioned me to make them for her granddaughter. I just can't find my way to charge her when she has given me shoes, clothes and jobs. 

I love the idea of gifting them to her. She doesn't know it yet. I am just going to pack them up and send them to her in Winston-Salem. 

 


Anyways for years I have been following the McCalls' version when making these dolls.Then I started looking at storybook versions of them and realized Ann usually was in a blue dress with flowers and Andy had a white collar on his shirt. McCalls' pattern shows Ann wearing a red dress and Andy's shirt collar the same fabric as the shirt. 

I have another 15 inch set (modern) that I put in My Etsy Shop this evening. Now I will have sets in 3 different sizes - 15", 20" and 25". I have a pattern for 10". Making the 15" especially the clothes had a degree of difficulty due to the smallness. Can't imagine going any smaller. So what do you think?

Here's modern Andy flirting and

 letting you know how much he loves you!
Every Ann and Andy has a heart
that says "I Love You"
 embroidered on them.

Well looky here Andy is working his arm around Ann. And look he is smiling about it too. Ann looks quite pleased about it, wouldn't you say?

This is the set that is now listed in "My Etsy Shop." Just click on the tab above or the hyper linked words. Great ideas for Christmas presents.

Also newly listed is the St. Louis 16 Patch quilt.

This is the first time in a long while that I don't have anything on my design board quilt wise. Hopefully I can rectify that tomorrow if time allows for it. I have 3 quilts that I want to begin of which one I would love to ideally have completed by Christmas.

I began washing the fabric for it. I had the nicest surprise when opening up the package of Kona Cotton this morning that I had ordered from JoAnn Fabrics online. I received almost another yard free of cost because it was slightly less than one yard! If I were in the store they would have offered it to me for 50% off.

Another nice little surprise was when I visited my local quilt store about one week ago. The quilt store owner said, "Oh I was going to call you today. You won the prize for guessing my age several weeks ago." She was celebrating her birthday. So what did I win. Seamingly Scrappy Quilt Book. You can look inside Seaming Scrappy at Amazon.com here.

Another Tah Dah!

I amazed myself by finishing a second quilt in the same week. The big Tah Dah! is the St. Louis 16 Patch. More about the development of this quilt can be found here and here.

I love making this quilt because it is a quick pattern to make. The blocks are 14 inch blocks. A friend of mine saw the quilt and pattern and is now organizing 100 quilts to be made and delivered to hospice. He has always led the way in making charity quilts. He most likely will be following the Sew with Sass's tutorial and setting the blocks horizontal versus mine that are on point.

I quilted with a meandering design all over the quilt. In most of the blocks I blended the thread with the block colors. The fabric is quite busy so the meandering quilt design was perfect.

The binding is blue and yellow with lilac flowers. .

There was plenty of the blue and yellow lilac flowers to use on the back of the quilt too along with other leafy like and flower prints.

This quilt will be going in My Etsy Shop soon.

After this big finish I spent the weekend reorganizing my quilting studio. It was utter chaos.

Hubby said you don't have anymore banister left to hang quilts not knowing that I had already had a remedy for that.

I made a trip to my attic and retrieved a couple of decorator fabric rolls. I wrapped a couple of quilts on each one and tied it with a strip of fabric with a bow. Now they look pretty sitting in my corner. 

I have seen where some have used noodles for wrapping their quilts around. I am not sure I will find too many of them available this time of year since it's beginning to show some signs of winter. 

Today was a much slower paced day, a day to rest. I started out by making oatmeal flour and whole wheat flour pancakes with raisins, apple and cinnamon. Since I was in the kitchen I also made a large kettle of homemade spaghetti sauce. After cooking I came upstairs to deal with a malware that was driving me crazy. Anyone getting a popup in a tab from Australian Brewing Company? I think it has been eradicated using MalWare Bytes Anti Malware.

The rest of the day has been spent watching several shows of Doc Martin ( I love this show) while making Raggedy Ann's outfit for a 15" doll. It's so cute! I hope I can get 2 sets done this week. The dolls themselves are coming along fine and I have outfits completed for one set which will go in My Etsy Shop.  One set is for a custom order for a Christmas present for a friend's granddaughter.

Oh yes! don't forget to sign up for the upcoming Blog Hop Party! It is a great time to meet new quilters, see what wonderful creations are being made and an opportunity to win some giveaways. I always look forward to them.

Below is a blurb for the upcoming Blog Hop Party. You won't want to miss this! So get right over to the Quilting Gallery and register with Michele.

"These parties are lots of fun and a great opportunity for you to gain new followers for your blog, thank your regular blog readers, make some new quilting friends and tell site visitors about any FUN events you have planned on your blog. 

For quilting bloggers: Host a give-away on your blog starting November 21st and lasting until November 26th. What you choose to give-away and how you wish to run the give-away, is totally up to you. However, give-aways that require visitors to make a purchase before being entered in the give-away are not appropriate for this blog hop party. I’ll organize the list of participating bloggers and publish the list on November 21st (in the late afternoon."

 

The WIPS are Growing!

Yesterday was a great day meeting the F.LA.W.s (former ladies at work) for a long lunch and catch up. We met at the SouthPark Cheesecake Factory. No, I didn't have any cheesecake but did have a wonderful lunch combo of soup, sandwich and salad.  We shared a couple appetizers of Samosa, a first for me. Yum!

One of the gals that joined us for lunch is home on leave from the mission field, Lesotho, a landlocked country in South Africa. It is always such a joy catching up with her and the happenings in Africa.  She claims "I love Africa and feel so blessed to have been led there."  Discussion even led up to maybe, possibly a trip to Africa for me someday! We will see! At least I know I would have a place to stay. I think it would be amazing to pet a baby lion, see the giraffes, cheetahs and elephants in their natural habitat.

Needless to say there wasn't any sewing or quilting yesterday. But on Monday with a little help from my friend, Cassie and NetFlix watching a couple shows of Doc Martin, we got the St. Louis 16 Patch quilt sandwiched and pinned shown above. It has a 1" sash with setting triangles and corners. Bonnie Hunter has the calculations for the setting triangles and corners on her website HERE. 

Fabric used for the setting corners and triangles is a pretty soft yellow! I just love how it turned out! It just calls me to want to cuddle under this prettiness while reading a good book. I kept with a theme of blooming and leafy, an inspiration from a Kaffe Fasset quilt I found in one of his books. Yes! I know it is a far cry from one of his quilts, but I was so happy to use the floral and leafy stash that has been lingering for a long time. In fact the yellow calico like was intended to make a blue and yellow quilt for my daughter-in-law. I didn't get it made up fast enough as she changed her colors. Here is another snapshot in hopes that it reveals the colors better. Photo was taken in the evening and you know how evening snapshots in the home after dark are usually not the best ones to capture true colors.

The back is pieced again with more leafy and blooming fabrics. Oh I am so happy to use up some of this stash as this back definitely was a stash buster for some of the larger yardages.

And would you believe Monday evening I also made the binding as well? Now to get this baby quilted. I haven't decided on the quilting design. I am leaning toward meandering. Will revisit this idea later though by checking out some of the other designs I have in a neat little packet.

While going through more stash I came across some orphan blocks. There is enough to make a baby quilt. So when I have a few minutes here and there I have been stitching them together. This morning FireFox was doing its updates so I just started pinning and matching seams. They are all ready for some chain stitching and just in time to get back online.

There are a couple other orphan blocks too as you can see. The top one is a practice piece tubing. I need to redo it to get a better design. This maybe another future stash buster for me.

The other one was an extra block that was intended for the Fall Blue Ridge table runner. I realized that my table runner was going to be larger than my table which is now minus one less center block. It really is a pretty block. This picture doesn't even begin to justify it. Now to find a home for this pretty fall block.

And the Raggedy Anns and Andys are still in progress. The couple shown here I took with me to share with the F.L.A.W.S. Their response touched me because they too love their sweet faces as much as I do!

My sewing room looks like a Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls and outft factory!  Now to get some of these completed and in My Etsy Shop!

I have to share a funny on My Etsy Shop. I received several inquiries from moms with babies wondering if the little outfits will fit their baby. In all honesty I don't know if they will. I love making quilts and don't mind making up a few of these dolls, especially since I had many pre- made legs from years ago when selling these sweet babies at craft fairs. I really don't want to venture in to making baby clothes again, and at this time even though there are so many darling ideas.

Oh I just have to share a picture my oldest son sent me. I love this picture of him! He looks quite happy with his catch! He wrote, "Went to Bellhaven last weekend for a work trip. We had a sales contest and I got to ride along. Had an executive chef to cook our meals and went fishing in the inter coastal water way. Stayed in a mansion that has been converted to a huge bed and breakfast." Sounds like a nice trip doesn't it? Sounds like a great place to have a quilting retreat until we think how much that would cost. Happy Quilting! I am linking up with: