Smile if you like your haircut!! 
Side view of Emily's new layered look. I realize we're about 25 years behind the times. That's the way we like it!
Oh, is this a blog about QUILTS? Well, looky, looky at what I finished today. It's now ready to welcome all comers in my foyer.
Thanks for stopping by!~Joan
I've had very little sewing time this week, and I'm developing a twitch in my right eye because of it. I miss sewing! What little time I had I devoted to finishing this so I can get it up on the wall.
In addition to little time, I squeezed in one Pay It Forward gift. Turned out really cute, too. I'll post about that after the recipient receives it! I need one more participant for the PIF challenge. Write today!
This apple quilt is a pattern from an old Fons & Porter book. I think the book is called Quick Quilts. It was one of the first quilt books I owned. I made 4 of the quilts in it! I made one of these years ago and gave it to our pastor's wife. She decorates with apples in her kitchen. Anyway, my daughter made a set of blocks, intending to sell the top on eBay. I decided I needed to replace my other apple quilt, so I confiscated them. But the original (with 18 blocks) was too large. I made the other 5 blocks into a smaller top to sell.
This one was machine quilted in the cream and in the outer border. For the ultra curious like myself, I used invisible thread in the outer border and a variegated cream in the cream.
At that point I set it aside because I wanted to hand quilt apples in the setting triangles like I did in my original quilt. So I am in the process of doing that. This is about 39" square.
In this quilt, the top left apple and the 2 in the second row have not been quilted with seeds. Only a few setting triangles are quilted.
Here is my template for the apples...it was the pattern from the quilt book. I traced it on the setting triangles (only a few are stitched in the picture above) and am hand quilting with dark brown thread. The pencil I use is a "General's Pastel Chalk" in a light grey. It brushes off easily with no trace, but stays put enough to do the quilting.
Below is my "seed template". The apples were too puffy, but I didn't want to heavily quilt them because of all the seams. So I used a piece of a plastic folder and drew the seeds below. The dot is where the intersection of the 9-patch seams are, and the straight line is where the template lines up with the edge of the apple. After I do the right side (designated by the R), I flip it over and mark the left side. The scratched out line is the line I drew by mistake. Very professional, huh? It works for me. I laid the template on a (clean) facial tissue so you could see it in the picture.
I'll post about the Seeds of Kindness booboo and further updates later~Joan
One of my new blogger friends has dubbed me Joanie Appleseed. That cracks me up. My childhood acquaintances all call me Joanie. Kind of takes me back...
I am sewing less and less. There are other things that need my attention. I am trying to do the right thing. I will have quilty projects to share here and there, but the volume will no doubt be greatly decreasing.
I'm teaching Rachel (10) how to piece. I do all the cutting, but she is doing all the sewing and pressing. She is an eager student, to put it mildly. She is making a Scrappy Stars quilt. 
Also on the sewing/quilting front, I'm going to make a template for my apple seeds (isn't that what Joanie Appleseed should do?) for my apple quilt that I showed you a couple days ago. I am going to quilt seeds in the apples and apples in the triangles in the border. I made this exact quilt years ago, but it lives at our pastor's house now. That one was all hand-quilted. I still have the paper apple that I used for a template, so I'll reuse that.
I have the binding prepared, so I'll at least sew the sleeve and binding on today. The hand work will wait until later.
~Joan
Above is a quilt top I've had put together for some time. I started quilting it today. Wal-mart had a variegated YLI thread that I used in the cream areas. I used invisible thread in the outer border. I'm going to hand quilt apple seeds in the red side triangles and perhaps on the apples. They are poofing out because around them is somewhat tightly quilted. 
