Blissfull Whirlygigs....in progress

On my design wall (aka flannel taped to wall)

Playing with ric rac after quilting

after binding and ric rack sewn on

stepping away for awhile to enjoy my kids and do some cleaning...

The first steps to this quilt came really fast, however I have to step away and get some stuff done and then at night after people are asleep i will sit on my bed and watch a movie with my needle and thread and hand baste the batting.  It's the most tedious part of the quilt-making process but worth it.

I was sad to see a wrinkle in the backing...however it's solid white with white thread and after washing and drying it I think it will be ok...i really loved this fabric and think i may be buying some more.  It's Moda Bliss that's why it's a blissful whirlygig quilt.

Buckeye Zig Zag

I finished my Buckeye Zig Zag quilt this weekend and it's listed in the shop

It's a Buckeye Beauty Block turned to make zig zags.  I loved this fabric.  Hopefully someone will love this quilt as much as me.

Looking Back Post

I thought I would answer a few of the questions from Sew Mamma Sew's Blog.  It was a very busy sewing year for me.  Most of the sewing was for myself and some for my store/other people.  

Looking back on the sewing scene of 2010, what trends stand out in your mind?  There were alot of black and citrus and brown and aqua (colorwise)  

What were some of your favorite things? (Trends, fabric collections, patterns, blogs? Whatever you really loved.) I really liked all the prints with Owls and fruit/even chairs and objects.  

What was your very favorite fabric collection or print? (If not listed above.)   Hooty Hoot by Riley Blake  having boys i love how many boy prints that are truly beautiful are being made.

What was the best thing you made in 2010? (Be sure to share a photo!)  I think my Green monster maybe not the best thing I made but the most challenging.  The Pattern was sub-par and had to make adjustments/plus i added a few rows to make it a king sized quilt.  I also had it waiting for me most of the year and finally finished quilting on my sewing machine proving that you can quilt a king sized quilt on a small machine.

What is one of the best things you saw that was made by someone else?  My friend Valerie made an awesome Halloween Costume this year.  I am always impressed with creativity and ideas that don't take alot of effort!  

What do you think 2011 has in store? (Again, trends, fabric, patterns, etc.)  I have no clue...hopefully some cute patterns for big girls lol

Anything you’re ready for the sewing world to get over?  The citrus and black thing...

What’s on your sewing agenda for 2011? What are you excited about? What would you like to learn more about?

This year I have a few quilts to finish for my shoppe, and one to finish for a son.  Then I plan on tackling my very large scrap bin.  I think i will cut all my material into 10" squares and then anything smaller into 5" squares and anything else i will throw away.  

burned broccoli....go away

I gotta get back to sewing soon!  There's been a lot of Christmas sewing around here.  I made some aprons and some coffee cozy's for family and not to mention some sewing for my precious niece.

Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents I got two quilting books that I think I will make some stuff from.

fresh quilting

Mindful meandering

while I was opening presents I had my microwave timer set because my oven is possessed.  I didn't hear a beeping noise over all the other noises going on in the house.  So the awesome smell of broccoli and garlic turned into what was called a stink.  When my son said this i ran to the oven and saw the carnage.  

roasted broccoli recipe

What was worse the smell of burnt broccoli and garlic or the smell of garlic on my fingers from slicing it that morning...smelling garlic on your hands is only okay  if there is good food to be had.  I will be buying some broccoli later to make it ...again and stand guard over my oven while it sizzles.  

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

stuck and need to move on

I am quilting this buckeye zig zag quilt and I'm stuck.  I tried a new loopy meander quilting design.  It's not totally familiar to me and I'm not liking it very much.  It's a pretty quilt but it's not very fun to do.  I have an apron and some crayon rolls and some baby clothes to make so i think i will take a break for awhile.  So I am doing what i always do..im packing it up till my mood improves till i can tackle it and finish it properly.

I'm alittle distracted.  I have had a nauseated feeling most of the week.  I think it's all congestion but headaches are really bad too most likely another sinus infection.  The 10th or so this year.  I'm sick of going to the dr to get antibiotics.  Isn't that bad for you?  I am just alittle happier that I am NOT pregnant..or the headaches and stuffiness are ruling that out.   

Also my Grandpa is in poor health and I was told they want to put him in the hospital.  He's 87.  I think it gets harder to say goodbye the more years you have with someone.  I keep thinking of my Big Strong Grandpa who was so macho.  When i go in public and start talking too much and embarrass myself and cringe at how i talked too much or had to talk to complete strangers and joke around with them i know that is my Grandpa and that's just a little gift he's given me.  And when my brother and uncle go around at the holidays and hugs everyone i know that's another one.  And perhaps our hairiness but that's a gift i would gladly give back any time lol.

I just looked at my quilt/picture and realize i only need to quilt 2 blocks then i can move on ...i'm not sure what i was thinking. 

Lulled

 

It's monday morning and i still have a quilt to finish not to mention several little gifts I need to finish up. I am feeling kinda run down. I'm sure alot of it has to do with not eating too well lately. Every day i start with my "menu" and eating super healthy. Then it goes south. Add to that the fact that I can't run or work out like i want to and i am in an anti-zone.

I had a great meeting with my mops friends and it was great but while i was sitting there i started getting sick. I feel like i could throw up any moment. My tongue is super sensitive and i feel nauseated. So i was already planning my flu shot today. I either waited too long and have the flu or our "plans" might have been overruled by the big guy. The tech gave me the preservative free shot just in case.

so stay tuned i'm either in for a terrible time with a flu or we have alot of plans to make over here. Someone even asked me at Mops if I was done and I said emphatically "NO!" I should not say those things.

yeah im doing it...cause i have ZERO people reading!

Finished Quilts and listed in the shop

Just a quick update.  I finished the two lap/baby sized quilts I've been working on.  They are both listed in the shop.  If you want to buy them you can email me with any other offers.  I think we forget sometimes that these people need help listing things.  I am either giving myself too much credit or not enough!

any way you slice it quilt

take 1

take 2

This is the quilt made with Riley Blake All Star 2. I came up with this block using my new quilt design wizard program. I wish i had the EQ but I was cheap. It's helped me see outside my norm. While I can't be totally experimental with the program it's a great starting point. This block is a double 4 patch. I arranged it so many times on my design board and it really made little difference. I'm super excited to quilt this one only I'm debating white thread or brown. The backing is brown. I typically like the thread to not show up too much on the back but by doing that it would really show up on the front. Should be getting rick rack tomorrow thinking of just putting it on the boarder on this one or not at all...it seems to really be a busy quilt!

Sweet Divinity Quilt done

Well I finished a little quilt this weekend and it is so cute.  If i had a baby girl or knew someone that had one i would love this quilt.  I'm thrilled how this turned out and the pattern is a keeper I think. 

I tried a new quilting design and i really liked this one.  I seem to have a little shoulder blade pain but other than that it was super fast to make.\

As soon as rick rack is hand sewn on, i will be listing it in the shop.

sweet baby

I'm actually talking about this quilt. I started it yesterday and I'm already to the quilting stage. This size is so much fun.

I love this little quilt. I was toying with the idea of lace but I really like the ric rac trim on this quilt. there is one block that has the selvedge. I didn't notice it till i was finished. I think I will put some ric rac there.

Riley Blake has some velvet ric rack that i think will be so cute. This is just a spare piece of Wrights Brand rick rack that I had in my stash.

sneaky peeks

I have a sad lonely "etsy" store. It won't be sad for long, hopefully i will have some new quilts in there shortly. I've ordered these bundles and lets say that pictures don't do them justice at all!

I love Riley Blake Fabric. Everything is so cute and their lines are so fast moving! I had my eye on several lines a few months ago now they are gone. It's crazy. They replace them with even cuter stuff though.  All are Riley Blake lines except the 1 Moda set.

1.  All Star II is a beautiful Brown and green and teal colorway. Very boyish I love it.





2.  Moda Bliss is so beautiful with it's aqua, pink and red and even some dark brown and khaki/stone in the medallion print.


3.  Hooty Hoot is the cutest thing I've seen in awhile. It's so masculine but fun! They have other colorways that you could make it less boyish I think. Very cute stuff.

4.  Sweet Divinity is very innocent and feminine and fun.

5.  Love Birds is the last set.  it's beautiful with magenta, pink, aqua, and lime.

I ordered all these sets from Fabric Shoppe.  I have more fabric ordered and batting to get started and of course I have to develop my patterns that are unique to me.  I see so many quilt patterns but these have to be my creations.

I've got to finish my youngest son's quilt before I get started on these crib quilts.

make life /spider quilt

My son wanted a "spider" quilt not a "spiderman" quilt.  I had the quilt already planned when he said this so I planned on getting spiderman material for the backing.  I know good and well that he will forget his obsession for spiders and I want this quilt to be something he takes to college and maybe one day give to his kids.

I appliqued the spider on the back of the quilt and tried to quilt a web...it was sorta harder than i expected.  I wanted to finish it faster so the web is there but the spider is still building it...and yes it's sorta invisible..JUST LIKE A REAL WEB!!

starting something and finishing it

I am the queen of incompletion.  Is that a word?  In an effort to finish things before I start them I am stuck in the quilting mode...I've been quilting several quilts and that's all I'll be doing for along time.  I finished the green monster quilt.  I have 4 quilt tops to quilt now.  I feel no inspiration to do it.

I inherited several sawtooth star quilt blocks from the dear lady that passed away leaving a crazy amount of material that I in turn inherited.  If I had wanted I could have taken several complete quilt sandwiches that she was ripping the messed up quilting stiches out of.  But I did get tons of quilt blocks.  I added a few to it and now I have a full sized quilt that is very pretty and not typically something i would make.

I started quilting this quilt and forgot that once you start a quilt design you must stick with it for every block in that quilt.  So in turn it's taking me alot longer than i like to quilt this quilt that I didn't even piece!

I basically started from each corner and quilted down into the center of each star and added feathers or leaves (whatever they ended up looking like ha).

there it shows up alot more there...  it's not perfect but all together it looks pretty good!

Right now I'm stiching in the ditch down each border i may quilt circles in the small navy squares.

finished green monster

 I finally finished the quilt.  It did fit my bed when I finished with alittle drape even.  I did forget the shrinking aspect.  I am happier with the quilt now that it's been washed and dried.  It's nice and crinkly, but still soft 80/20 batting.

theres some more pics of the top and back.  I had to choose my thread did i want it to really show up on the front or the back...i chose the back cause i can live with that..it's kinda cool looking on the back minus some thread nests.  I gotta find some magic bobbin washers soon.  I think that's the problem. Next machine will have a traditional bobbin case.  I had tension problems all the time.  At the end I figured out that my bobbin was too tight so i loosened it a tad...oila...it worked like a charm.  On the curves of the flowers you really have to keep it slow or you will have tension issues...i tend to go too fast and have tons of breaking etc.  Cotton thread might need to be nixed for the next project.

So now that the big green is finished I can move on.  Yesterday I made the boys some flannel pants.

I enjoyed the whole zipping the flannel through the machine and being done!  I think it took an hour to make 4 pairs of pants.  I used Simplicity 2742.  I've used this pattern for the last two years.  It's very easy.  I did not make pockets on these pants cause they wear them to bed so it was even faster!.  I was able to get two pairs for 2 boys for only 4 yards of fabric...(that was on sale for 2.99/yard at Hancock's (score)).

Next week I plan to start buying the batting and backing for the boy's quilts...plus i need to start my Christmas sewing projects...i really wish i got paid to sew!!

sidetracked

I couldn't find my quilting gloves the other day so i moved on to piecing...I have 5 quilts now that I have to quilt...but I'm having wrist issues.  The first quilt is one I'm making for my oldest.  I used 4 charm packs and 2 yards from the "Make Life"  line.  The blue matches his eyes.  He says he wants a spider back to it..not spiderman, a spider in a web.  So I have some extra charms for some spiders...ummm stay tuned.

I made a dress for my neice Riley.  I have 4 buckets of girl material given to me and this is something I had to make or i wouldn't have enough material.

This is my current piecing project.  I am using 4 charm packs of the Moda Punctuation line.  I did buy an extra yard and the alphabet panel and the border yardage (not enough of it though arrgghh!!!)  so i will be adding another charm pack and a border panel to the outside..this is a very scrappy looking thing...hopefully after quilting it will be prettier...it is busy for sure!

green monster

this is all im doing...for a few hours here and there.... till my arms and shoulders start to hurt then im putting it away...

this isn't very fun..i don't like king sized projects...thinking it will be minimally quilted.  I am only doing the flowers on the green squares and the centers..then i think i will do a meander in a circle and join each circle...then i will be done...i hope anyway wow what a monster