New Year's Eve

I spent yesterday and today quilting Denny's log cabin quilt, trying to finish it in time to meet the 3 UFO challenge deadline....and I did! Yippee!!! it turned out nice and he likes it.

After Christmas

It is after Christmas and I spent Friday and Saturday sewing. I needed to get a wedding present quilted first. The top was done before Christmas and the wedding was on the 27th. Here's the finished product. Gift was given this morning and was appreciated.
After getting that done I decided to catch up on a few things. First the block I need to send for the Birthday Block Swap for December. Terri Sent yellow background fabric and requested yellow and blue blocks. I used the Green Mountain Star pattern that was the November block for the Scrap Quilting Forum's Participants Mystery Quilt.
Then I did the December block for the PMQ...Martha Washington Star:
I feel almost caught up on things. My sewing room was somewhat cleaned up before Christmas, because the kids needed to hide Denny's present (large, roll around toolbox) in the closet, which necessitated having a path clear and room in the closet. So I cleaned up some. I still need to do a major reorganization of fabric and sewing supplies. I have several clothing projects I'd like to do (PJ's for the boys I didn't get done for Christmas). But next thing I need to do is get my log Cabin Quilt for Denny quilted....by the 31st for the 3 UFO Challenge deadline. I did finish the quilt for Serenity for Christmas:
The kit came with 12 blocks to embroider, but I realized that would not be done by Christmas , so I went with the blocks I had done, framed them with 1930's repro solid colors, and the 4 patch 1930's repro's I swapped this fall. I think it turned out cute, and Serenity and Jackie both seemed to like it when They unwrapped it.

Where I'm At

Here is what I presently have done on Jamie's NYB graduation quilt.
I've already told him it won't be done in time (graduation party December 20). Now I need to decide if I should set it aside for a while and work on other things (Serenity's quilt, wedding present for John and Debbie, sewing clothes for RoseE). I think I have to leave it on the design wall or it will become a long term UFO. Maybe I can manage a few blocks a week. There are 24 blocks left to go and then borders.... End of the school year would be a reasonable goal for being done (Why'd he have to graduate in December anyway? LOL)

Catching up again...

It seems that's all I do! Anyway after going to Houston for IQF and then immediately to New Jersey the babysit and help Krsti getting ready to move, I have spent a lot of time catching up around the house. And right before I went to Houston, "Jannie's Wedding Rings" came back from the quilter...so I had to get that binding on and stitched down by hand....and I forgot to get a picture of the final product. They took it home on Thanksgiving, and werefighting over it (LOL). Jamie will be leaving for a job in January and Annie won't be able to move until the end of the schoolyear as she is a teacher. The job is with Haliburton, in Burns Flats, OK, but they's probably live in Weatherford.

Kristi and the boys flew in on Monday evening before Thanksgiving, and we had a nice visit. Victor drove up on Wednesday. The older kids banished me and the little ones from the house on Wednesday, as is the recent tradition. They baked 9 pies (4 pumpkin, 2 cherry, 2 apple, and a chocolate pecan) and cleaned up the house. Kristi and I took the kids to the OKC Zoo (free admission!). It was a lovely day. the only bad part of the day was Ginger had to stay home because she was sick. Here's a picture of the kids: RoseE (DD), Tony(DGS), Ski(DGS), Johnny(DS), and Gianni(DGS) down below.
Thanksgiving day, has got to be the calmest holiday ever. The house was neat, dinner was ready easily, and it was an altogether pleasant day! Friday we played games and I did a bit of laundry. Saturday morning K&V and the boys left, Denny took the kids to town. The boys went to friend's house, the girls went to visit Jamie and Annie,and Mimi had to go back to St. Greg's and to work. Then Deny had to go back to town to pick everyone up. They arrived home around 6 pm. Meanwhile I had the whole day and the whole house to myself. I did do 3 loads of laundry and also hung Mom's bedding out on my clothesline, but the rest of the day I spent catching up on quilty things. First I needed to make a block for a quilt for the outgoing guild president. Then I needed to get the November birthday swap block done. I thought I had the needed fabric (red, orange and purpole batiks) bu found that my batiks are not those colors....and me home without a car. hat to do? Easy! Walk across the drive to Mom's house and raid her extensive stash. I knew she had batiks and hoped she'd fill in the missing colors. She did, and I designed and made the block below. Margaret had requested 8" New York Beauty blocks with flying geese included in one arc.


After getting that done, I decided to get caught up with my blocks for the scrap quilting forum Participants Mystery Quilt. I hadn't done either October or November's blocks. I did get them done.
After getting these done I cleaned up a bit , sewing some crumb blocks. I've been doing those occasionally, either as leader/ender pieces or just to do some mindless sewing, and stashing the blocks in a drawer....I counted yesterday and I have about 90 blocks now.

I need to get back to work on Jamie's graduation quilt (NYB) and also get Serenity's quilt done (2 blocks left to embroider). Hopefully I'll get it done for Cristmas, but if not,maybe her 1st birthday (Jan. 7). And Denny told me last week John and Debbie are getting married Dec. 27, and a quilt would be a good gift since , combining 2 households they don't need anything.....I think I'll use the set of log cabin blocks that I was going to use for Denny!

Fruitful day!

What I accomplished today: 4 loads of laundry, a clean kitchen sink, 10,000steps walking, gave 5 haircuts, and made 2 more NYB blocks for Jamie's graduation quilt. So here are what's done so far:

I think I may need to find a few additional fabrics....probably a few more teal blues and greens and maybe some rusty oranges. Picking which fabrics to use together and which block style are the hardest part for me. The paper piecig is easy for me, and the curves are improving as I go along...practice makes perfect?

September 13, 2008

When did I blog last? Too long ago.
I have Jannie's wedding rings ready to take to Hubert Madole to quilt, just as soon as I get the batting. I ordered Warm and Natural from Overstock.com and it is supposed to arrive Monday.



I joined the 3 UFO challenge which ended Agust 31. I completed Jannie's Wedding rings top, a Quilt for Laurie G. and finally quilted my Scotty Dogs (and gave it to Katy).






























In addition I made a mini quilt for a swap. machine pieced, hand quilted, my own design. Blocks are 2.25". I sent it to Karen G. and she loves it!

I joine the UFO Challenge again, end date 12-31-2008. This time I'm really ambitious....or maybe a little crazy? I listed as my UFO's quilting my log cabin swap blocks (make into a quilt for Denny for Christmas). the OKC Winter Quilt Show challenge fabric (design, make and enter a quilt this time instead of just buyiong the challenge fabric and not using it!), and get Jamie's graduation quilt done before his December graduation. I promised him a New York Beauty quilt when he graduates college, and started collecting fabrics when he started college seminary 5 years ago. SO this week I pulled out the fabric collected and the Karen Stone NYB pattern book and got started. The first 4 of 36 blocks are done!

Before we started homeschool back up on Sept 2, I did a big push to finish some swaps and lotto blocks I wanted to do just for fun....now my sewing time is a bit more limited.

Ginger is beginning 1st grade this year, a year ahead of her age, but she wants to do it and is not having any problem grasping the concepts, so we are going ahead with it...Math, Reading, and religion. The rest of the kids just picked up where we left off at the beginning of the summer, and the first two weeks have gone pretty good. After we get used to the routine I may add some more activities for the older kids.

Katy started an additional job, and opted to wait to go to college until she can get some money together, and figure out what she wants to study.
Mimi is back at St. Gregory's. They had auditions for the fall production of Neil Simon's "Rumors", and she did not get cast in a role, but has been assigned to be stage manager, which means she has to attend every rehearsal!
Nick and Jackie moved to Virginia, and are getting settled in. I hear Serenity is getting big, but am waiting to see up to date pictures.
And speaking of pictures, Jamie and Annie gave us 2 cd's worth of wedding pictures, which I haven't found time to look at yet, let alone pick some out to share in albums.

The morning and my alone time are almost over and I haven't made it to the sewing machine yet....time to get off the computer!!

They're Married!

Jamie and Annie have been married for just over 2 weeks. The wedding was June 20. I didn't get their quilt finished, but it's ready for the borders.

I did make Ginger's flower girl dress and basket, and the ring bearer pillow. Here Ginger is posing before the wedding.


And here is a pic of Denny and I with Jamie, prior to the Wedding Mass.
Here is Annie before the ceremony. She was a beautiful bride!

And Johnny waiting for picture taking after the wedding.

Now that the wedding is past, and we have been on vacation, I have nothing on my calendar for a while. I intend to spend a lot of time sewing...Quilts and clothes. I am signed up for a couple of swaps and I need to get the borders on Jannie's wedding rings. And I want to start making some more clothes for myself.

A UFO no longer!

I've had this quilt top sitting on a shelf for a year or two. When I found out my best friend will soon be moving 7 hours away I wanted to make a quilt for her, but really didn't have time. Then I remembered this. I found a nice, 60" wide floral fabric on sale at Fabric.com that seemed perfect to go with the top. So Tuesday I pinned the layers and yesterday I quilted and bound the quilt. I decided to do a scrappy green binding. Now I need to get back to work on Jannie's Wedding Rings (blocks are 3/8 done, wedding is June 20th, and no it will not be finished by then!)

January Lotto Strings Quilt ....Finished!!!!

Although I dropped out off the Stashbuster's list due to time constraints keeping up with all the messages, I am still trying to get some of my UFO's finished. First there was the Crown of Thorns quilt. Then a Challenge was issued by the About.com February Lotto block winners for previous block winners to get those blocks turned into finished quilts. So of course I took the challenge. After all I need to do "spring cleaning", get Jannie's wedding quilt done, and get my quilt show plans done, so this would be a great way to procrastinate! How long could it take to sew together 48 blocks that I won in January....layout decision took a few hours and making another block to add to the mix after sleeping on it. Then the top went together quite quickly. Oh Gee!! How long could it take to do some simple straight line /walking foot quilting? Only a couple of hours, but then I discovered a construction flaw on one block that left some raw edges of a couple of strips loose in places....too late to take it out and replace with another block (because I despise un-sewing!) so how about just stitching over those loose edges with decorative stitches, crazy quilt style....well that would work, but it would draw attention to the flawed block....but not if I added some decorative stitches to all the blocks.....I love how it turned out, but it would have been faster to un-sew and make a replacement block! LOL!! Like I said I despise frog stitching. Besides this gave me a chance to play with some of the fancy stitches on my machine and explore their design possibilities for quilts. Last night I finished sewing on the binding. Another UFO is history! BTW I've decided to keep this one for myself.

Alleluia! Crown of Thorns

Easter is here, and I finished my Crown of thorns quilt, started a couple of years ago. It all began when DS Jamie asked me for a piece of fabric to use to wipe the excess stain from a scroll sawn picture. I found a piece of a coarse woven polyester blend that I would "never use in a quilt" and thought nothing of it until he came back in the house and handed the fabric back to me with a picture on it. Instead of wadding up the fabric and wiping the stain off he carefully laid the fabric over the picture and pressed on it to absorb the stain. So i couldn't just throw the fabric away....I washed it a few times to get rid of the smell of the stain and put it away in my scrap drawer to maybe use someday in a quilt. Then a few months later I made a some crown of thorns blocks for something...I really cannot remember what! Anyway when I ran across that block it hit me that it would be perfect to use with the printed block of Christ carrying the cross. I tried to choose fabrics from my stash that would pick up the reddish brown color of the stain. Gold to frame the central block and square it up the same size as the Crown of Thorns blocks. I cut all the fabrics and sewed a few blocks before life got busy with gotta do projects and this was packed away for a while. Last Lent I pulled it back out and finished piecing it, and started hand quilting on the picture block, intending to hand quilt the whole thing.....yeah right!!! I do not know how to hand quilt (maybe someday I'll take a class and learn the right way to do it) and it is a very slow process using a stab stitch. The stitches are uneven, and i would never enter this in a judged show. When I wasn't finished last easter, the project was once again shelved as more urgent projects grabbed my attention. Then Palm Sunday I decided to just sit and watch a movie with the family and do some hand work. I pulled this project out and finished the handquilting of the center block and decided the rest would be machine quilted. I decided to try to finish by Easter and I accomplished that..... Now I need to get back into working on Jannie's Wedding Quilt. Less than 3 months until the wedding!

Jannie's wedding quilt....Block#1 done

Here it is, the first block for Jannie's wedding quilt. It came together nicely and once I get pieces all cut to size I'll start the other 63 blocks (10" blocks)

OKC Winter Quilt Show Pictures

I finally did something with my pictures from the winter quilt show....started a new Webshots album. My personal choice won the viewer's choice award this year. I always have a hard time choosing one favorite from among so many wonderful quilts. Here it is: Oklahoma Rising

To see other quilts go to my Webshots and choose the OKC Winter Quilt Show 2008 album

OKC Winter Quilt Show

Yesterday I spent the day as a volunteer helping with the quilt hanging at the convention center for the OKC Winter Quilt show which runs today through Saturday. I had a great time, learned a bit and got a few ideas for the NAQG Show, and I got plenty of exercise. I walked 20,000 steps yesterday!!! Tomorrow Mom and I will go to the show. You don't really get to look at the quilts while hanging them, more at the overall setup, balance, etc between quilts. Since I was given complimentary show and lecture tickets in appreciation for a long days work, I'll go back on Saturday for the lectures and a bit more looking on my own. I find quilt shows to be great inspiration and motivation for getting to work on my own quilts.

Wedding Quilt Progress Report

I have managed to spend a few hours working on the quilt. Now I have a bin of 1.5" strips in blues and browns. 5500 inches of strips of each! Also I've cut 768 light blue and 1144 beige print 1.5" squares needed. Next step...I'll sew a test block!

Serenity

I have a new Granddaughter!

Serenity Autumn was born yesterday afternoon at 3:54 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs.. SHe's 19" long and I think she's cute as can be! Her parents are my son Nick and his wife Jackie.

January Lotto string blocks done!

I'm still feeling a bit blah, but I did get into the sewing room and make 8 string blocks for the About.com BOM Lotto. 4 pairs of one dark and one light block per pair. I do like string quilts...maybe I should make one to keep for myself! Last one I did was for NAQG Community Projects...I took a bag of strings"no one wanted to mess with", sewed strips together and cut squares from the resulting fabric. Added some HST's and a somewhat off the wall layout. The colors were not anything I would have thought wold work together...strings of pinks,teals, rusts and HST of a minty green print and red with grey dots. Sounds bad, but I like the way it all worked out. The backing was from the guild stash...a huge poly blend calla lily print that had the colors from the top in it and a dark blue background. What a happy coincidence!

Happy New Year....a bit late!

Well, I finished my Christmas sewing at 9 p.m. Christmas Eve...2 skirts, 2 jumpers, one tote bag, and one vest done in 2 days time. The great news is they all fit and were liked by their recipients! Bad news...I didn't take pictures :-( Then I came down with a nasty cold that had me pretty well wiped out on Christmas day and the day after. I was starting to feel better by Thursday, and we got a call that DH's uncle had died, so DH and I made a trip to KY for the funeral. Left home Thursday evening and got back late Sunday. Then I caught a stomach bug for New Years and slept most of the day. Yesterday was my first day to be back to normal and we went to get bridesmaids dresses ordered. Today I actually made it into the sewing room, cleared off the cutting mat (not the whole table, but room to work), and put borders on a quillow top I'm doing for Mimi to give to her BF Matt. She wanted a pieced top for the quillow and I had these rows from the First row robin swap I did. My theme was orphan blocks. I had almost completely forgotten about these and found them when Mimi asked if I had any blocks she could use (although I am the one doing the sewing!) Anyway for the swap I asked for swappers to use their orphan blocks or if they didn't have any (!) they just make random sized blocks and then use filler blocks to put into a row 12" x 48". I sent along various scraps for the fabric they could use if they wanted. Now that I have the rows sewn together, I wonder why I didn't finish this sooner...I like how it looks. I hope Matt does!! I also got all the fabrics for Jannie's Wedding Rings quilt washed and dried. Tomorrow I start cutting!