funky brady bunch quilt

 There's a story of man named brady...yeah i don't want to do that.  But I made a really cute quilt in the last few weeks.  It's a twin sized quilt and yes I did the classic meandering quilt pattern.  Michael Miller Brady Bunch fabrics were very bright and colorful...had to frame it with white...no other way around that one.  It's about the biggest quilt I can handle on my little machine.  See the random placement of the blocks?  Well it's by putting them in order...i know it's odd to talk about you want people to just think you pull the fabric out of a bag...but i have to plan random or it'll look very confusing.

And the back...not a pieced modern looking quilt back..just a back...and wow...how i love cotton batting.

This week is a busy one over here.  We have my daddy's birthday this weekend (and officially tomorrow) and enrolling my baby in prek. Wow...hopefully they'll overlook the fact that he is still not potty trained.

Mamma gotta brand new bag...

and i will never sew this one again.  It's really cute now that it's done.  There are a lot of imperfections...I'm it's mom though so I still love it.  It doesn't close completely easy, it's a little crooked on the back seam but i was worried about my other more important thing--my sewing machine.

Anyway here are the pics


The inside is extra fun...just like me :)














Two Raves!!!  Some people ask where I get my fabric.  Fabric.com and Connecting Threads and Etsy.  Etsy retailers are great.  They usually offer really good prices on fabrics and are really fast shippers!  Fabric.com has the best customer service I've ever had.  Seriously.  They always offer free shipping over 35 dollars and a lot of times they send little free gifts and coupons.  They have great sales and often have coupon codes if you type in Fabric.com coupon codes in your search engine.  Recently I found the line of fabrics that I ordered on Etsy on Fabric.com.  The 1/2 hard is the smallest cut you can get with Fabric.com so I ordered a few extra that weren't in my pack.  I hit enter to buy and saw out of the corner of my eye MY MOM'S ADDRESS!!!
I immediately emailed them the correction and the lady misunderstood my correction emailed me the next day that she changed the city only.  That would be crazy if I had the same street address as my mom but alas no.  However I called and they corrected it.  Fabric.com  yards are 37" and sometimes you get another little bit.

Connecting Threads has raised their prices on their solid fabric.  It used to be 3.95/yd now it's 4.95/yd.  I was  feeling a little slighted and just figured I can buy Kona and use my 1/2 off coupon at Jo-Ann's.  I did order some for the current project I am working on.  I washed and dried my fabric and seriously folks it was the softest thing ever!  I have since made a point to order from them.  Their solids really are beautiful and they offer lots of options and fabric lines.  You can order as little as a charm from them.  They sell Hobbs Batting and have a great collection of threads/tools.  Their Quilter's Pro Cones are awesome and last forever (with the adapter).  I ordered a little something for myself the last time I got fabric and i was so surprised when I opened it up.  A fat eighths sampler in cool and warm colors.  It was like the new box of crayons.

anticipation

Anticipation is making me wait...keeping me waay ya ya ya yating...

I've been waiting on my fabric.  I have so much to do...so many quilts to make....but i am waiting on UPS/USPS etc.  while I'm waiting I finally finished my little girl quilt.  It's really pretty and soft.  The backing was so forgiving!  I had to go in and sew my little girls on better and the back you can't even see the seams.

All i can say about my upcoming quilts is "i can't believe i'm being paid to make these beauties!"  I love both fabric lines so much.  All I can hope is that i have a few squares left over when all is said and done.

rhythms

Here I am at 12:50 am on a Sunday still awake. These snow days have allowed me to sleep in and in turn stay up late where my mind gets all busy and creative.  Sleeping in I've realized I dream a lot more later in the morning.

I am working on a quilt this weekend.  I ordered a whole "lotta" pink and realized white is the best thing to tone down some really far out prints.  It's really going to be beautiful and I'm excited to be making it.  

The main thing I've been pondering lately is my life and what i'm going to be when i grow up.  I got my SSI info the other day and that is really depressing.  Not having money (of my own) is depressing.  Having my stay at home status be such an issue in my marriage is depressing (and more than a little frustrating).  I am making quilts to try to get a little spending money for myself.  This in no way can support me and I know this.  But I want to do something that I love and I want to get out of the house.

But this is why i do it...and i'll never regret it...not once...

wheels and being stranded

Since Mother nature has intervened in my life we have been hibernating.  We got around 16 inches and it was fun the first day...now it's enough.  It's like summer vacation EXCEPT the inability to leave the house or send my boys outside without a crazy amount of clothing/covering.  All outings end with crying over hands that are too cold.  We are Oklahomans we don't make a priority of buying snow boots and snow gear!  Oh and did you notice my yard stick?  That's what happens when you have little boys.  You will be sewing away and one runs in and grabs the stick and starts playing swords.  This always ends in a broken yard stick.  I'm cheap though and just tape it back.

I did make a small quilt in my spare time using Riley Blake Wheels.  This is the quilt I would have made my youngest son if i was a quilter when he was born.  Can you believe that???  he's 3 and a half and i just finished my first quilt when he was a baby.  As it is it will be a nice cuddle quilt and decoration for my living room .  I had some tension problems with this quilting design.  I used a pattern in my "Mindful Meandering"  book.  I like it but i couldn't get into a rhythm and it didn't look very even and pretty in my opinion.  With a long arm quilter and perhaps turned upside down where you could see the pattern perhaps.

How good does that look???

I am also tackling my scrap stash.  Anything ugly or less than a yard I am slashing .  Making things manageable, that's what this does.  I am cutting all scraps into 10", 5"  and 2.5" strips.  After I'm done I will sort into color groups and either sew up some scrap quilts or donate the scraps to the quilting guild in town that makes charity quilts.