Cool Dudes

I love this picture of my boys from May 2014. Nate wanted to share his glasses with his little brother. I can't believe how little Kyle is here. Nate wanted Kyle to be a Cool Dude.

Celtic Solstice

Wow. I was just checking for blog post drafts and came across a couple of them from May 2014. This was my Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter getting laid out so I could get the backing ready. I may have even posted these pictures before, but they are some of the ones that make me smile.

Here nate is using the measuring tape to help with "Borders". He loves when mommy lets him help, Kyle was still small enough that he's over in the swing. Now if I lay a quilt top on the floor like this he goes and sits in the middle and giggles.

I love this backing. It is just so much fun to see the mixed up backings that come when you use what you have. This quilt has been put to use on our bed. It is way oversized, and should still be usable if/when we finally upgrade to a King Size bed.

One more Star in the Sky.

Sorry for the blurry picture (It looks like the boys have been playing with my phone and touching the camera lense again), but it's all I've got since this quilt has moved on to its new home. This is a quilt I put together for a lady from Church who had an angel baby. I wanted to do something for her. I am very grateful that I am able to make things like this to help others. It has given me some serious thinking time. I quilt to help fight some of my own demons, but it is nice that the results of my fights can go to help other to fight their own demons.

One of my son's favorite movies right now is Robots. It's animated film about the Robot who wants to be an inventor and comes to the big city to fulfill his goal of working as such. There are several good laughable quotes and several very good serious quotes. One of them that has been sticking with me as I try and use more of my stash is "See a Need, Fill a Need." I hope I can help others by trying to fill some of their needs.

For my records this is Finish #5 of 2015.

Friends

We've found we can all for in my blazer. These are my little boys and my best friends' little girl. When we get together to hang out we can just take my car now. It makes it much easier than trying to caravan. The quilt my Nate is using is one that I used for long arm practice at my parents' house before quilting my round robin. It is made out of some of the cheap fabrics I found. We have found that when Nate gets in the car, he can buckle himself if he doesn't have his coat on. So, he gets in the car takes his coat off and buckles, and then we throw the blanket on him. He loves it.

Hubby's hair

We chopped it all off. My hubby has been growing it out and mocking me that his has been longer than mine for some time. He also has thicker hair than I do, so it was fuller than my hair was too. When it got long enough, he decided to cut it all off and donate it. I love that he was willing to help others. I hate to admit it, but I actually enjoyed being able to put it all in the little rubber bands, so that we could salvage as much hair as possible. It was a little shocking to see it all gone.

Bftp Update

I actually managed to get some progress in this week. I decided that I needed to be putting in half an hour of prep time on this everyday to try and get going. I have managed to get these 2 blocks done and will talk about them here at a later date. Today you need to go check out Natalie's blog. So here is today's progress.

See you again soon.

Charity

Puss in the corner blocks with sashing. I have been following ProjectLeasa on Instagram as she has been encouraging us to Sew from our Stashes. The official hashtag is #sewmystash2015. I've not been using the hashtag, but it has been fun that she has been offering challenges with prizes. Her first challenge was to do something with hearts, either in the fabric or in the pattern and gave us about a week to do it. This is what I came up with. The red fabric has some cute hearts and bows. I love how this came out. It looks very traditional to me. I will made it to the size specifications to be a donation quilt for Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. Now to just get to quilting it. I'm just planning some simple straight lines. The gold plaid will be my backing and I'll be using the brown as binding.

Red friendship stars

I'm hard at work on my red and white swap quilt. These finish at 6.5 inches and are going to be part of my final border. I am really enjoying how this is coming out.

Zig zag

This was my sew day project for January. I went to Sew Day with a Layer Cake, Red Yardage, and a pattern. When I came home I had half of it sewn into rows. It was a real quick and easy pattern from Moda Bakeshop. I had gotten this April Showers layer cake when it was on sale and the proceeds went to a charitable cause, that I can't really remember what it was though. I love how it turned out. I have also pulled the fabrics for the backing and love that most of them come from one of my favorite designers.

Grand illusion Part 3

All of my Part 3's for all 3 of my Grand Illusions are done. Pictured here are the ones for my the one I'm labeling as my second one. These are some fun fabrics that I got for about 33 cents a pound. I had found them on Shopgoodwill and bought waaaaay too much. Unfortunately, they are the plastic prints like on t-shirts so I can't press them, but my seam roller and I have become very good friends. At the top of the picture, you can see just the edge of the part 3's for quilt number 3. They are all DS fabrics (Denyse Schmidt).

Finish #4 of 2015

This is for a family friend. It is a flannel quilt for her soon to be baby girl. I love how easy it is to make these. I think the most dangerous part for me was actually in the tying as I kept stabbing myself with the needle.

Dropping the Ball

I'm sure it surprises no one that it is now 10:14PM on TUESDAY, and I just realized that I have not posted the link for the Blocks from the Past Quilt Along. I still have no additional progress to post, but it is nearing the top of my list. I spent most of the last two weeks trying to complete a top faster than I should have because I wanted to be able to show it off at our Guild meeting last Saturday. I got it done, and it will show up on the blog a little later. However, that led to a slight burnout in the quilting realm, and a whole lot of "Well, now what?" Don't worry, now I know what's up on the docket, so progress can resume. But please go check out April's blog for the week 7 update for the Blocks from the Past Quilt Along.

Finish #3 of 2015

It's done. This is my round robin that I did with a few ladies between 2013-2014. I took it home with me when I went to my parents house for an extended Christmas and quilted it on my mom's long arm. I loved doing it. I tried to accent each row without going too elaborate on my quilting. I am very please with how it turned out. I even included each name into the quilting of the big outside border.

Half Square Triangle Sampler

I've begun my HST(half square triangle) sampler. I am using my bonus triangles, and beginning to think this will hardly touch my drawer full of them. When I do my sew and flip corners on things I sew an extra seam about 3/8 of an inch towards the corner as well, which is how this drawer of extra triangles came about. So I acquired Konda's book that shows some different layouts for blocks. And am going to use a bunch of them to make some blocks out of my triangles. This is the first one. I will only use the sets of matching triangles for now. I might save the others for another project. I'm actually thinking this pattern would be fun, if they are the right size.

Red and white applique

I have fallen in love with applique. This is my final 4.5 inch block that I needed for my Red and White Modern Block Swap Quilt, that some of my friends and I participated in last year. We made 1 8.5 inch block for everyone in the group, and 2 4.5 inch blocks for everyone in the group. I have decided on my layout, and still need another 9 8.5 inch blocks, and I'm dragging my feet on it, but I really would like to get this done soon. Hopefully, I'll have more to show soon.

Squirl

This is a red and white block for my Red and White Quilt. It is another 4.5 inch block. I love how it turned out. I almost wish I had switched my thread color when doing it, but not really. I actually kind of like that you can see some of my stitches, to prove I did it myself. And I'm not planning on entering it into Paducah, so I think I'm safe.

First applique

This is my first applique block. It is called Squirl from The Quilter's Cache's Quilt Blocks Galore. I resized it down for one of my 4.5 inch Red and White Swap Quilt Blocks. I had a lot of fun with this one. I'm glad I finally got over my fear of applique.

Tablecloths

I've started planning tablecloths. I've been doing much better of keeping up with the kitchen and getting the rest of the house clean. I admit I'd rather be quilting most of the time. Then you throw in 2 little boys who require CONSTANT VIGILANCE, and the house does not look as nice as it should most days. Anywho, so I decided after having to clean up Kyle's spot at the table one night, that I would prefer tablecloths. This isn't the first time I've thought this, but it was the first time I thought I could successfully make them and use up some of the fabric that has been sitting around for awhile, and is rather dated. Since a single width of fabric would not be enough to cover the table I decided that I would piece some simple tops for it, and then put 2 of them together right sides together and turn them. I also like this option because we have an oblong table, so If I decide I really don't like one of the sides for the table then I can always just turn it into a quilt. I've begun to pull fabrics for some of them, and hope to be able to get to starting on them soon. Of course, since I didn't really need to add another project it may have to wait a little bit.

Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap

My mini came. In this swap, I made a mini quilt for someone and someone made a mini quilt for me. We had no idea who it would be coming from. The lady who received mine said she really liked it. I am absolutely in love with the one I received. This pretty little thing came from Canada. That means it's been to more countries than I have. I love how vibrant and happy these colors are. I love the symmetry of it. I love the way that it is slightly offset. And I love all the goodies that came with it. I have an obsession with notepads, that I know I state in my survey. And you can never go wrong with Chocolate.  I have been known to say on many occasions that the answer is always Chocolate. If you are reading this partner. Thank you again.

Grand illusion part 4

I have all of the pieces cut out for part 4 of my all 3 of Grand Illusion Mystery Quilts. Thanks to the Accuquilt Go I got for Christmas, I was able to get it all done in an afternoon. It was great. Hopefully, they will be sewn up soon. The only problem is, I've been making myself earn my seams to sew, in hopes that it will keep me cleaning more instead of sewing all the time. This is a lot of seams to earn. I guess I better go get to work.

Blocks from the Past Week 6

Go check out this weeks Blocks on Marion's blog. I have no new progress to report on this project this week. I am hoping to soon have put together a sandpaper board to try for all the applique. I have been loving all the applique I've been doing. Which I need to actually take the time and blog about. But for now, got to Marion's blog, and happy quilting.

Upset Rhythm

Hello. So It dawned on me that I had fallen behind on recording my progress on some things. It doesn't help that I have lost contact with my computer (some part of it must sleep with the fishes and we haven't had time to evaluate which part). While I do still have my Chromebook, it can be hard to envision some things still being possible if handled differently. It has felt very odd to be missing my arm (computer). And since I get into certain rhythms as to what is done in which part of the house, or on what computer, sometimes I forget that some of those things can be done in both places (though some things like my games and watching dvds cannot).

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that hopefully tomorrow I can start on sharing some of the finishes and progress and fun things that I have been forgetting to post. More does seem to get done when I'm not stopping to check Facebook all the time.

...And that I probably shouldn't give myself rambling rights after 10 pm.

Please have a happy day.

Blocks from the past week 5

This week I do actually have progress to post. I realized that a lot of my mental hangups on getting started on this quilt along had to do with the applique. I had not done any needle turn applique. So I was feeling especially intimidated. So this weekend after watching several YouTube videos, I finally sat down to start tracing out my pieces. I then did a couple of smaller blocks for another quilt as practice, and am ready to get going on these pieces. For an update on which blocks we are doing this week, go check out Marion's Blog.

Blocks from the Past Quilt Along Weekly Update

I feel I have dropped the ball a little bit this week. I forgot that it was Monday.  I know that never happens to other people, so I'm sorry it happened to me. If you are following along, go check out my friend, Konda's blog to see about this weeks blocks. As for myself, I have copied out the applique pieces, with hopes of getting 1 or more prepped in the next few days.

I also have a few pictures to take of some of the things I have gotten done this week, so I can get them up on here. Many great things, and some harder things have been happening, including some sickness. Kyle has had an icky nose for much of our time in Utah, and I had thought it was possibly teething related until I got it. We also had Spencer come home sick from work one day, and Nate got it just after that. Luckily it wasn't something that stuck around for very long. Also, in the last 2 weeks, Nate has decided that he wants to be a big boy, and no longer uses diapers, and has even being staying dry at night. We are very proud of him.

Anyway, it is after my bedtime now, so I must bid you adieu.

First partial finish of 2015

While this is a finish I am only going to call this a partial finish at this point. Since I'm trying to get myself all the way to bound and labeled with some of my UFOs, bound and labeled will be the only Finishes allowed. I'm also going to be rewarding myself for Full finishes with a fat quarter for each finish every 100 days. The 100 days of not buying fabric will also grant me a fat quarter. This way I will be using my fabric faster than acquiring new fabric.

Anyway. This lovely little house is part of a swap I'm participating in with my mom and some of her quilting friends in Indiana. There are 5 of us and we will be making 10 houses every month. There are few different styles of houses to choose from. They finish at 4.5 inches. i had fun picking out the fabrics for this one, since I had a Curious George print that was the perfect size for the window. They are now packaged and on their way to Indiana.

Finish #2 of 2015

This is my second finish of the year. It is a baby blanket/quilt for a new little guy, the son of a lady from church. It is all flannel. I used 5 inch squares that I randomized using my random number generator app and then sewed together just making sure that the same fabric was not touching itself on either the sides or the corners (until the end where 2 touch on the corners, betcha can't find them :P). I used a low loft batting and sewed, flipped, and topstitched to give it binding-like look. It was the first quilt I tied. I have helped tie some for donations, but this was the first one I did by myself. It's a bit bigger than I realized. It finished at 49 inches square.

Quilt Along Progress

It's another Blocks from the Past Quilt Along Day. Go check out Natalie's blog for the beginning blocks. I have had a few very busy days since returning to Utah, so my blocks are still living as dreams for a little longer.

I had a baby shower last Saturday with another one this Saturday, so a lot of my focusing the past week has been on some blankets/quilts for those. I also have been hard at work on a comfort quilt for a friend. Pictures of all these things will come if I can find some time. I also have been trying to get some blocks ready to mail for a swap I'm in with my mom and a few of the ladies from her guild (in Indiana). And I hope to soon be able to get a little more progress done on Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery. My husband and I have also been enjoying some time together sitting and watching 1-2 episodes of some of the shows that have been waiting patiently for us to start, so my binding is coming along slow and steady on my Round Robin. It is slower some days, since the shows get a little more intense at times.

Hopefully, I will have more to share with you soon.

In an attempt to use what I have, I have not bought fabric in 101 days.

First Finish of 2015

 My first finish for the year is this lovely mini quilt. I chose to participate in Schnitzel & Boo's Mini Quilt Swap: Round Three. We each signed up and gave a little bit of information about our selves, and she very generously paired us all up. We were to make a mini quilt to send to a new friend. A big part of the fun is that we could follow any number of other people on Instagram who were also joining in this swap. But none of us know who is making the quilt that will be coming to us. 

Shipping opened this week for getting them to our partners, so I had to get over my fears of my partner not liking it, and get it quilted. I managed to piece it at my parents' house while I was visiting for a very long Christmas visit. My mom allowed me to search her stash for just the right fabrics and I am quite please with how it went together. I finished it with a bias binding of the same bright square fabric that I used for the back and included a corner label and 2 hanging corners. Once I have settled on what extras I want to include in the package, it will be on to it's new home.

Blocks from the Past Week 2

Hello again dear friends. With another Monday comes another Blocks from the Past Quilt Along update.

This week Natalie is discussing fabric selection and fabric requirements for this project, so go check that out. As for myself, I plan to stick fairly closely to the book in layout, while doing scrappy neutral (or low volume in modern quilt speak) and scrappy colorways, too. Just before heading off to Indiana for 3 months because my dad had a heart attack (and he's doing really well now) I had started to sort my scraps by color. The bags and bags of scraps were just getting to be overwhelming, and needed to have some help in finding a way back into use.

The book is Teach Yourself Blocks from the Past by Marie Henry and, while out of print, copies can still be acquired through Amazon.

Remember to use the #BFTPqal for any progress you post to Instagram.

I am hope to get pictures up soon of some of the other progress I'm making on other projects, including 3 versions of Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery. And an addition 5 more projects I decided I needed to add to my life, yesterday.

Happy crafting.

Blocks from the Past Quilt Along

Welcome to the new year. To get us started off right my friends Marion and Natalie are hosting a quilt along from a wonderful old out-of-print quilting book called Teach Yourself Blocks from the Past over the next several months on their blogs. I have agreed to help out with a few of the blocks and will post about them here on the appropriate days. Each week there will be 1 applique block and 2 pieced blocks. For more information including the schedule, be sure to check out Marion's blogpost with the starting information. Otherwise, I'll see you back here next week.

Grand illusion link up 1

It is Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt time again over at Quiltville. This year it is called Grand Illusion and was inspired by her visit to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Since it was coming during the travel season I made plans with my mom to borrow one of her machines while I was visiting and to borrow my mother-in-law's sewing machine for any parts that may be given while visiting there.

The plan originally for the holidays had me and my boys getting to Indiana to spend a little under a month with my parents this past Monday. But due to unforeseen complications of my dad's double knee replacement surgery (he had a heart attack), we actually got out here around the end of October. That meant I was lucky enough to get to spend an early Thanksgiving at my in-law's and Thanksgiving with my parents. AND I was able to work on the first clue with my mom. We bantered back and forth on who was in the lead. And my mom came out ahead in the end. As you can see from the picture above, we have each pulled fabric for 2 Bonnie sized quilts. Mom's are on the left in Bonnie's colors, and a second one using her Denyse Schmidt fabrics. My two on the right are Bonnie's colors and fabrics from some logo fabrics, that I acquired way too much of and mom so generously picked up from Goodwill and has been holding on to for me. I also have fabrics pulled for another one half sized out of my own collection of Denyse Schmidt, but those were unfortunately forgotten in my rush to get out to Indiana.

We have both completed all the pieces for part 1 in Bonnie's colors, and have been using the second as rewards when my boys manage to give us a few minutes of freedom. I have just a few yellow and black squares still to cut, and my mom is nearly done with her second set.

Now to join the linkie. You can find more crazy fun-loving people's links to their own quilts with the pattern here. I should be around am number 280.

Lozenges

Slowly working my way through my lozenges. I know they were supposed to be leaders and enders originally, but they have become my main project since they require nearly no thinking. That is a mist if you are going to try and sneak in a few minutes here and there.

The boys are getting more and more active everyday. Kyle has been crawling for over a month and has been pulling himself up to standing for a couple of weeks. He seems to want to skip cruising since he keeps trying to just take a step away from whatever he was holding on to. This makes keeping everything craft related picked up when more important.

Happy crafting. I have to remind myself, "5 minutes of progress is still progress."

I'm still alive

This quilt top is now ready for borders. It was started in 2013 at the local quilt show as part of the mystery class. I tried getting it out earlier this year, but that just brought back all of the thoughts of nausea since I was pregnant when I started it. I'm really trying to push to have this ready to quilt soon.

Trying something new

This is something I'm trying to use up little scraps. It is quilt as you go, and raw edge. The batting square started at 10 but has shrink to 9.5. I have a few other things I want to try on the next block, including a glue stick on the pieces so they don't shift.

Celtic solstice

My Celtic Solstice is bound and ready to hear to my local quilt show tomorrow. Pattern was the 2013 mystery by Bonnie Hunter.

Challenge Quilt

Time to trim and bind. Need to get these done this week to go in the Quilt Show next week.

Morning stitching

I have lots of morning stitch time today since Nate decided to come in and fuss about going back to bed. It woke Kyle up, and since I have no laptop with me, I thought I might as well get something done.

Star struck progress

Finally managed to get a few blocks done for a quilt I decided I needed to do because I wasn't seeing any progress on the other. The pattern is Star Struck by Bonnie Hunter and is available on her blog Quiltville. Blogspot.com. The stars will be in a few Bright colors and not all purple.

Table runner

This table runner is completely done: bound and labeled. While I pushed to finish the top and quilting in a day, the binding took a bit longer. Since my current show us not kid friendly, my TV time has been reduced to naptime and the hour between the boys' bedtime and mine.

Kyle

Apparently my stack of rest hammocks looks yummy.

Vomit quilt progress

I'm slowly making progress on my vomit quilt, which was my January goal.

Leader ender challenge: Lozenges

Finally finished cutting my pieces for a lozenge quilt I'm doing for Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender challenge. That is 540 bricks at 3.5" by 6.5" and 2160 2" squares. I gave myself 10 minutes a day to cut them. And my mom sent me nearly 200 bricks.

January goal: revisited

Finally getting myself going on my vomit quilt again. It will be nice to be able to put something else on my design, or at least to have that option again.

Celtic Solstice in Purple and Blue

Well my April goal remains, unworked on. But on the plus side, I was able to start and finish my May goal between mid-February and the first weekend in April. This is Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice 2014 Mystery. This is the second colorway in which I did it. This is the one for my Grandmother-in-law. My oldest loved helping me with the borders, and would continue to measure while I was cutting the next one.

This was my first pieced back. This was caused by necessity. I didn't have time to hunt down a corresponding back because I gave myself a crazy insane deadline to get it done by. I had just finished piecing the back when my longarming friend came to get it. She was kind enough to come pick it up, despite the fact that I was asking to have it back within a week so I could give it to Grandma when I saw her 8 days after I gave it to the longarmer. (Thank again Konda.) I was really glad to have some jelly rolls and fat quarter bundles of these fabrics because I didn't have enough coordinating for the back otherwise. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

I bound it in yellow. And I am absolutely in love with the butterflies it was quilted with. I really like butterflies right now.

Easter

Nate was so excited to look for Easter eggs this year.

We each had a different color to look for. Kyle's was yellow and Nate helped him. Nate's was blue.

Kyle was not sure what to make of it all.

Scrappy Mountain Pinwheels

Made this for my neighbor's new little boy (OK not so new anymore he's older than Kyle) using Bonnie Hunter's pattern Scrappy Mountains Majesty. It was quilted by my friend Konda with lizards and frogs and bugs.