Christmas Piles

 Piles, piles, and more piles. That is how things end up in my room. At the moment, there are several piles of Christmas quilt makings. Maybe I should make myself focus on one until it is completed. But on the other hand, it is nice to look at the piles and know they are almost done. Then in my head, I also say, "Oh, one good day of sewing will finish X's quilt."

Elna is hard at work for sure. With all the fabric she's trying to work with, she keeps reminding me to regularly dust out her bobbin casing, so she can hum again. I love my Elna. Thanks, Mom.

Medallion Quilt

This is my finished center for my Medallion Round Robin. I EPPed (English Paper Piece) the hexagon butterfly, and then I hand-appliqued it to the background. I'm afraid the background has few warps in it now, since it was my first attempt at applique, but hopefully, the borders and quilting will work that back out. Sorry, Annette, for making this harder for you.

These are the inspiration fabrics that I am including in my bag for the ladies to use at will. I figured bright and happy fit me, and since I am in a house filled with boys (husband, son, 2 male rats, 2 male-named fish), I figured if I went with pink it would be less likely to be used by the others.

This is the final post I will do about this Medallion Round Robin until all of the quilts are finished. I will make sure to take pictures of the quilts as I get them and the borders that I do, so that I can do a short series when it's all over. While I would like to post as I finish them, I also know that a few of the ladies in the group follow my blog, so this way I have a guaranteed series later.

Until next time.

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Short Post, Laundry's Awaiting

Sorry I missed my post yesterday. I thought about it off and on all day, but never sat down to do it. Then I went to a friend's graduation celebration dinner, followed by her graduation, and just never remembered again until this morning.

Let's not forget the first setback of the morning. My computer harddrive (that houses windows) finally snapped. It is no more. I must wait for a new harddrive and hope I didn't have anything too serious on it.

When the thought of posting did finally arrive, it was after 3 separate meetings, all of which Nate would not sit still or listen to Mommy during, and just before I finally got Nate down for a nap (2 hours late). At that point, I was soo frazzled, nothing was going to get done.

Now I don't really have time to write much. I have several loads of laundry waiting to be folded, a counter covered in dishes (which my husband kindly pointed out when he got home from work), several movies from Netflix to watch, and not much to report anyway. So I shall humbly bow out for tonight and try again on Saturday night.

May fortune smile upon you.

Handwork

I like rules. And I like to give myself rules (and schedules, but I will save that for another time perhaps).

One of the rules that I have given myself for handwork, is that when I start a new thread I have to baste a hexagon for my 1-Inch Hexagon Quilt. Then if I have everything for the flower, I make the flower.

While this does extend the time it takes to bind or applique, it also insures that I am still working on the hexagons (my first quilt).

Project Organization

My room had gotten out of control again, making it hard to actually get to the projects I knew were nearly done. So I decided to clean up and organize my sewing projects.

As you can see in the day and a half since it was organized, my son's toys have managed to migrate back into my room.

But now I can actually see the projects based on what still needs to be done.

The next goal is to get enough of the loose projects done that I can fit all of the current projects into the bin. When I get too many, I start to have issues with anxiety and difficulty trying to pick which one to work on. Just have to take it one step at a time.

Christmas is Under Way

 Family Christmas gifts have been started. I know it is still early for them, but if the last few years have taught me anything, it's that you never know what will happen between January and December.

The blocks for the first one are done, and waiting to be arranged and sewn together.

 The second is in 3 separate piles...

...but the blocks are starting to come together. I think the chances of getting these done at this point is high.

Though there have been other Christmases where I thought the same thing, and then nothing actually got finished.

Marion's Birthday

 Recently, Marion of My Quilt Diet had a birthday. She has done a lot to help me feel included in this great big quilting world. So when I heard it was her birthday, I had an idea pop in my head as a gift. A fabric flower bouquet.

I wanted to be able to use fat quarters in colors I thought she would like, so that she could use them later in the many, many, many quilts she makes. I tried looking on the web for tutorials on how to do this, and instead kept finding flowers made from strips of fabric that are rolled, twisted, and glued.

Then while trying to get the big flower (bottom right) to a size I could manage, I realized that it was similar to folded cloth napkins. Pinterest showed me how to do the smaller flowers. Put them on kebob sticks and in a pretty vase with glass beads, and the present was completed. Thanks for letting me do this for you, Marion.

Marsha's Baby Girl

My Best Friend had her baby girl this week. This is the one I that received the peach baby blanket. They even included it in their stuff for taking Baby Girl, Kaitlynn, home. I'm still getting used to calling her something other than Baby Girl.

Here the blanket is finished at the baby shower. I didn't have to put a name on it since Marsha knew who had made it.

Marsha tried using it to practice her peekaboo skills with the camera for the first shot.

Here is baby girl all ready to leave the hospital. I think she has some of her Aunt Katie's spunk already, her tongue is most definitely sticking out.

Medallion Round Robin

Some of my quilty lady friends and I are beginning a medallion round robin. We are to provide a center and then it will make it's way around the group and get bigger as it goes. We are to add borders to each of them. Thus making, a friendship quilt. This is the start of my center. It is a butterfly in case you can't tell. I still have to work out a background for the butterfly, and I will be attempting to applique it on. We'll see how well it goes. I will also be adding antenna, I just haven't gotten that done yet. This is English Paper Pieced.

Car Quilt-On Point

This quilt is just another variant of the car quilt I have already pieced. The first one is actually going to go in my husbands car, and I am claiming this one. I couldn't decide when I started if I wanted to do the blocks on point or straight across, so I decided to go with both, which works great since we have two cars.

This is just the beginning of it (bigger blocks on top not included). Much of the organizing (of the randomness) and several of the rows of blocks were pieced at a wonderful sew week hosted by another quilty friend, just after my parents left. It was great to get to sew without having to start acknowledging the fact that my parents were gone again (and that meant cleaning up the bedding and such from their visit). At the end of the week, I was ready to clean up and reclaim my quilt room (it really isn't big enough for 2 quilters).

And I do apologize for the repeat of the picture. If I managed to get more done on this before this posts then I will try to change the picture. Otherwise, this is the only picture I have of this, thus far.

Design Wall

Woot! My design wall is finally completely up. We had the top half up before my parents came to visit. It was nice to have when my mom was working on arranging a quilt. After my parents left, and I'd had time to clean my quilt room back up from the daily whirlwind shopping, and the nighttime quilting, my husband and I put the bottom half up. We made sure to cut out a hole for the light switch and another hole for the electrical outlets, so I didn't have to give up either (would have been hard to sew with no lights).

I love it. It is insulation foam and vinyl tablecloths. This means that almost everything I'm working on will stick to it, and if it doesn't I can pin it to the board. My husband is such a sweetie for helping me with it. After we finished, he informed me he would not put up another one even if we move. We'll just have to see about that, I'm sure he will come around once he sees how much this one will be used, but never fear, neither of us are planning on moving anytime soon, so this may not even matter.

A Castle

 I helped tend my neighbor kids this weekend (4/19) and they have loved playing with these blocks. They organize them for me, and they play with Nate with them. These blocks were Nate's main Christmas present in 2011. (yes he was still super little) He loves them. Especially the longer ones. He holds them up to his ear like a cell phone. For awhile we couldn't even leave the house without him having a block in his hand. We joked that it was his comfort block, since he hasn't really been big on insisting he have anything else when we leave the house.

But this week when the kids were here, Nate happened to still be napping, so they decided they wanted to make a castle. it is complete with a covered drive leading to the castle and little ponds (circles). I loved it and knew I needed to share.

A Wedding

While I'd love to say that the reason my parents were here to visit was because they just wanted to spend time with me. The real reason for the visit was for my older brother's wedding.

It was a lovely little ceremony and dinner. Afterwards during all the pictures the kids were running around outside. Nate had a blast running with the bigger kids in this little side strip of grass. He would chase the big kids back and forth and back and forth.

I really think he is going to love being able to go outside and enjoy the nice weather this year.

Sew Day

 While my parents were here, I decided to host a sew day to introduce some of my quilty friends to my mom (on my dad's birthday). It turned out great. They were generous enough to be my guinea pigs for a new taco soup recipe, which I loved and have now entered into my food rotations, and we got a lot done.

This is sadly the only picture I got that I am allowed to post, since all the ladies said I could not post them. This was Sue's workstation. She was working on a wonderful blue quilt. And in the background you can just make out my best friend and the quilt she's been working on for 6 years. She handpieced all but the sashing and borders, and is in the process of handquilting it. All she has left to do, is to quilt something in her borders (and bind it of course). I can't wait to see it when it's all done, though it may be a bit since this is the friend whose baby girl is due at the end of the month.

My mom worked on a wool applique tablerunner, April worked on a special quilt, and Konda came to visit, too. And little old (young) me worked on cutting more squares for more car quilts for Christmas. We'll see if I can manage to do them.

Back to Quilting

Car Quilt-Straight, is now done. Ok. So it isn't completely done, but the top is completely pieced. I have also managed to pin it and baste around the edges to prepare to quilt it. I have plans for quilting it, I just need to have a quilting foot first. So, for now it is on hold until that magically appears in my quilting room. The left picture is when all the big squares had been placed and it was ready for the final sew together, and the bottom is when I had them all sewn together.

Guinea Pig Cage Liners

While we had guinea pigs it was a constant fight to try to keep the mess and the smell to a minimum. This is not a fight we really won, but we did get it down quite a bit.

We started with pine bedding, which the guinea pigs would kick up out of their cage, every time we walked into the room and they ran for cover.

Then we decided we needed a sturdier bedding that could be washed, and that the guinea pigs little paws could grip. This was accomplished using fleece and terry cloth to make a flat layer bedding sheet for them (fleece and 2 layers of terry cloth). I tried putting some velcro in the corners to hold it to the cage floor, but this didn't work.

This would have worked great if the guinea pigs didn't keep trying to burrow under the edges of the mat. We then added fabric to go up the sides of the cage to keep them from burrowing. And by we, of course, I mean me. To keep them from pulling down the sides we actually used binder clips. This worked really well. Nate thought it was great fun to take the binder clips off. Good thing we watched when he was around the guinea pigs.

Until Next Time.

Guinea Pigs

For a few months, we had guinea pigs. Our first one was a birthday present for me last September. We have since gotten two more and gotten rid of all three. We got rid of them because we could not get their smell under control. It really didn't help that we had to have two cages since two of the boys could not get along.

In the large open cage, we had Odin and Fritz. Odin was the white, black and brown one. His name came because he had the black spot over one eye, which made me think of Odin (also known as Wotan) from Norse mythology, who traded his eye for wisdom. Fritz was mostly black with a tuft of brown on his crown. Having already gotten Odin, I kept thinking of Frigg, his wife. However, I do believe in giving males, male names, so then I said that it looked like he had a spritz of brown on his head, which led to Fritz. Little did we know at the time, how jumpy he would be for the duration of his stay with him. By the end, we joked that Fritz was always on the fritz.

Our third boy was Jack. He was a really pretty dark brown and white, that had a satin sheen to his fur. He was definitely the most friendly of the bunch. He liked to come and see us whenever we walked in the room, while the others ran and hid.

Now that they are gone, I miss them. But I also have to admit I feel much better. Their fur got everywhere, which made my allergies act up. It was most definitely not fun. Having them also led to another project which I will blog about later.

Until Next Time.

Virtual Quilt Along

One of the projects that I have decided to do is the Virtual Quilting Bee that is being run by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter. This is a fabric bundle I found at the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati last year (2012).

So far I've only managed to designate my fabric. Thus far, three of the blocks have been posted on her website. Hopefully, soon I will be able to get to those.

Until later my friends.

My Apologies

Somehow time has gotten away from me again. It appears to have been a week since I last posted, saying that I was too tired to post.

The last 2 weeks have been a tad crazy here at my house. My mom, dad, and youngest brother all came to visit for one of my other brother's weddings. And while they were here, my dad and my youngest brother both decided to have birthdays. My mom and I managed to sandwich in a wedding shower for my new sister-in-law between the THOUSANDS of quilt shop visits. We had a sew day with some of my friends (to celebrate my dad's birthday). Unfortunately, I could not invite all my new quilting friends because of a lack of space. My best friend, whose baby girl we are expecting at the end of April, decided she needed to get herself put on bedrest. We had LDS general conference, and my parents and I worked in a temple trip.

I have a quilt friend who has been hosting sewing days every day this week, except for today. And now I'm up against a deadline for something else. Hopefully, things will settle down in the next little bit, so I can get some things done and posted. Though we will have to see because I already know that I have a baby shower to attend on Saturday.

Until next time.

Busy Day.

Sorry, folks. I have plenty I could write about tonight, but I'm just too tired.

See you on Saturday, hopefully.

Our Angel, Annie

Today marks the 4th anniversary of my late sister-in-law's diagnosis with Leukemia. We miss her dearly.

This picture of her and her oldest son is from my wedding in July of 2009, 3 months after her diagnosis. This is also the last time I got to see her, as she passed in Sept of 2009.

She was always happy and full of life. She was the first sister I had.

When the day of my wedding came around, we weren't sure if she would be able to attend, since she had an doctor's appointment that morning. But her health was still high enough that her appointment was short, and she was there in time for the wedding. It was one of the many precious memories I get to have of her, for which I will be grateful for the rest of my life.

We miss you, Annie.

Nate's Design Wall Pincushion

Welcome, Foolish Mortals.

Since my son loves my pins and watched me put pins into the foam boards that are currently being put up as my design wall, he thought he should be allowed to stick pins into my boards as well. I decided I needed a pincushion on my board that he can play with, and hopefully, preserve the integrity of the board longer.

Thus, we have Nate's Design Wall pincushion now in the works. I went to the internet to find what people recommend for pincushion fillings. Gravity, however, meant I had to be creative.

I decided I wanted it rectangular and that I would use crushed walnut shells. My husband had quite a bit still in the bag from the local pet shop that he'd bought for cleaning his reloading brass.

I utilized what I remembered from a tutorial on how to make a weighted blanket, to make my inner pouches. This created the columns to put the walnut shells into, which will be turned on their sides and actually be rows within the pincushion.

For the inner pouch, I used 3 layers of cheap fabric. I alternated which of the outer layers I sewed to the middle layer, so that I could stagger the columns for the shells, since I was hoping that would allow the shells to be added more evenly instead of having hills of shells with valleys where the stitched rows were. I think it worked out great. I did decide that I wanted it a little thicker (since the pins are longer than the pouch was thick), so I have made 2 inner pouches that will nestle together.

I have started on the outer casing for this pincushion, and plan on adding some fiberfill around to soften it in case my son falls into it. More pictures will follow when I finish it.

Happy Crafting. 

Baby Blankets

I decided this year that I wanted to make a baby blanket for each of the new babies in my church's congregation this year, and one for my best friend. That means I have 5 on my list for now.

This is the one for my best friend. It's a peach color. Her little girl is due April 30th. It is nearly done.

The other 4 are for a girl who was born in January or February, a boy born around March 1st, another girl due at the end of April, and a boy due in February. Hopefully, I will be able to get a picture of each baby wrapped in their blankets to share.

The Mysteries of the Quilt Room

My son has found a spot in my room that he loves. It's the little alcove created by my sewing machine/computer desk and my cutting table. He has found all sorts of interesting things in the drawers and shelves there. His favorite by far has been the bag of buttons...and a few other small containers of buttons that were for other projects, but have now been mixed back in with the other buttons.

He has also loved to play with my pins. At this point I am lucky if he will let me use my pins for anything. He has been known to fuss if I try to take one of the TWO magnetic pin cushions. I also have given him a Christmas tree centerpiece to use as a pincushion.

I do have a picture of him playing with the pins that I would like to share, but I will have to wait and see if I can get it off my phone. Technology can be a great thing, and a big pain in the butt all at the same time. If I can get it on here before posting time I will, but if not, I will try to get it for another day.

The second email attempt came through as I typed that. As you can see he has also managed to work his way out of the corner he started in. I can't seem to keep my floor cleaned up, now that I don't insist on there being a gate in the doorway. I just wish he wouldn't bring soo many toys in, since he's found so many more in my room to play with.

The Great Room Cleaup

Back in January, I decided I'd had enough of my craft room being a mess. It had just gotten out of hand. I had boxes and buckets that had not been gone through in the entire time I'd been married (3.5 years). At first it had been because we lived in a one-bedroom apartment, and then because I had a son. So I said enough was enough (I also wanted to clear space to have a design wall. Pictured to the left is what I was starting with. I worked for a solid 2 days to complete it (ok, there were several short breaks worked in).

By the end of the 2 days I deemed it done enough. I still had a few boxes of papers and such from the period of time since we moved in hidden under my tables, but I had design wall space, and a much more organized room. I felt really good about myself.

Then in the middle of March, I decided that I needed to be fully finished, and that I wanted to be able to get into my whole closet. The left side was blocked by a table holding my sewing machine. I put in another 2 days of cleaning, though Nate was not as cooperative about being a happy calm little boy.

The final picture shows it in all it's organized glory. The fabric on the floor was being auditioned for borders for my Faux Hexagon Table Runner. But now I've created a much better atmosphere for my crafting. The boxes have all been emptied and I can use the underneath of my table for organized space instead of stuffing space.

Only thing left to do at this point is to set up my solid design wall. I'm so happy with it. Ok, I wish I had more table space for cutting, but for now this is what I've got and it works great for me.

Car Quilt-Straight Part 2

I told you I'd come back to this. When we last left our hero she was hanging from a cliff...oops sorry, too much Between the Lions.

I had just gotten to the part in the tale where I was cutting thousands of squares. Yes, it was in fact thousands. At that point, I had calculated that I needed 1872 2" squares and 233 5" squares between the two quilts. I got them all cut and ready to be randomized. Now I think I've mentioned this before but random and I are not good friends. So I used my friend Kendall the Kindle and found myself an app with a random number generator. This got quite the laugh at a recent Quilt Retreat. That generator and I have been good friends, as you can see from the picture.

On Sunday (3/17) I did a big push to finish my 9-patches. I thought I had finished. Then as I started to put them on my newly acquired foam boards I noticed a problem. Somehow it was turn out to be rectangular and only half the size I wanted. So I went back to my original math.

I wanted it 70" by 70" (ish, I think it's going to actually be 72"x72"). This meant a square of 16 blocks by 16 blocks. Since there are 2 blocks that means 8 blocks by 8 blocks of each, right? Well, that was my mistake. I divided both sides by 2, oops. I needed 8 blocks by 16 blocks. That meant I needed another 576 2" squares, and 64 5" squares. After cutting them, I realized my quilt was going to be lopsided (fabricwise) if I did even out the numbers of the 2" squares per fabric, so I had to go through and figure out which 9-patches to move. Luckily my random number generator helped again. Now I'm finally sitting with all of my 9-patches done, and I'm working on placing the 5" squares. My random number generator is helping again. Hopefully soon, I can post that the top is finished. I'm wondering if I should add a border around the outside or not. What do you think? If so, What color would you suggest? Please let me know in the comments.

May Fortune Smile Upon You.

Car Quilt-Straight

This is a quilt I started because I was at a standstill on all of the rest of my quilts, either because I needed my design board to be able to continue, or I needed a hoop for quilting, or I was dreading doing the binding. I decided I needed to do something with all of the fabrics I had acquired from Walmart. Most of the fabrics were acquired for making coin purses, but that project has since fallen by the wayside. I knew a good portion of these fabrics were of rather poor quality, so I immediately called it my car quilt.

I wanted to try something I had never done before, which left a lot of options open since I haven't done much quilting yet. So I sat down with some grid paper and went to town drawing up some options. I settled on a 9-patch option, with a few other designs for something else in the future.

This then had me trying to decide between a straight 9-patch or on point. Doing it on point would give me experience in yet another thing I had not tried yet. So to solve the problem I counted the number of cars we have. 1...2...perfect, I can try both. The Car Quilt-On Point will be blogged about at a later date. You know, once I actually start it.

With this decided, I had to decide on the size. I knew I wanted the finished product to be about 70"x70", so as my family grows it will still be big enough for a picnic in the park (or the backyard). I then took my regular scissors (because it had been instilled in me the difference between regular scissors and fabric scissors since I was a tiny person) and I cut 3 sets of paper examples to finished sizes (1" and 3", 1.5" and 4.5", and 2" and 6") and determined I wanted the 1.5" inch little squares with finished blocks at 4.5". I then spent the next 2 weeks cutting out 2" and 5" squares.

This quilt has lead me on the quite the adventure thusfar, but this is where I will leave you for now, as I really don't wish my posts to get too long.

Nate the Great

 Every once in awhile, I will need to stray from being crafty to focus on the main cause of my ups and downs. The fact that I am a mom. This is my son Nate. He is at times the sweetest little monster and at other times the most formidable angel. Sometimes moments apart from each other, in fact.

In this picture, I had given him fruit snacks just after his nap. He had a ball playing with them for half an hour. I don't think he ate a single one. But he was happy, so I wasn't going to fight it.

This picture is from last Thursday (3/14). The inserted picture shows the time on my stove when this picture was taken. This was the first day we had gone out and played at the park, this year. The weather was so pretty. He loved it. We played a solid hour and then came home to have dinner. This was shortly after dinner. He was so tired already that he kept laying down on the kitchen floor while I cleaned up dinner.

He loves to have his picture taken. I had just picked up my camera off the table to put it away, and he came over to see it. Such a happy boy this time.

These are the moments that make up for nights like last night. He decided he needed to be up at 3AM and again at 7AM. Both times I nearly had him asleep while rocking and as soon as I put him in his bed he screamed his head off. I don't think he ever went back to sleep after the 7 o'clock wakeup (until naptime at 1PM), but I'm pretty sure I dozed off on his floor trying to get him to lay back down. He woke me up by throwing his sippy cup at me a few times. Things did get better, but oh my, did we struggle first thing this morning.

Oh, how I love my little monster.

Until next time, dear friends.

Vomit Quilt

 Starting in September of 2012, the Payson Quilt Guild did a 5" vomit swap. Marion got the idea here. The idea was to bring together the ugliest fabrics we had to make a really scrappy quilt. Hence, the idea of a "vomit" quilt. I loved this idea, but I really wanted to try something that wasn't squares (remember, I like difficult) if I could find something that jumped out at me.

So I was looking through some older quilting magazines my mom sent me, and came across a really pretty blue and yellow pineapple in the October 2005 edition of American Patchwork & Quilting. I loved the colors and planned on doing it in some variant of blues and yellows. I have always been a BIG fan of blue, particularly dark blue. Then I saw the color variation option, and fell in love with the pattern all over again. The way it was done looked like a bunch of X's (as pictured). I thought this could be a really good scrappy quilt if you focus on the X's.

I checked the fabric requirements and found that all of the triangles are made from either 2" squares or 2.5" squares. This meant that I could get 4 out of each 5" square. If each of those 4 squares were placed in a coordinating location I could make the X's out of 5 coordinating large squares. Now to sort out the middles. I worked through the neutral palettes and settled on the most basic connections, black, white and grey. After seeing the variant in the magazine, I thought it would be great to variegate the colors from light to dark. This then left the centers for which I thought black would be just dandy.

Now the project has been started, and after the 1st block I am thrilled to say the colors are looking even better than I had originally hoped. I now have 8 of the 72 blocks done. It was at about block 5 that I realized that some of my block sizes had varied (seems odd to me since I was using the same thread, same foot, and same machine, but hey I think we can fix this). At this point, I think to fix this I will use a black to bring all of the blocks to the same size before piecing them together in the end. But that's still a few blocks off.

More Rat Hammocks

The pictures of the next 10 rat hammocks have been taken. They should be have been edited and posted in the next couple of days. This will add more variety to the ones already available in my shop. Please feel free to check out my shop at any time.

 The new hammocks are found here, and here, with one added to the old post here.

A direct link to the new hammocks will be added with a photo, if I get to the editing before this posts, if not you'll have to check out my shop to see what I'm talking about.