On to the next season!

Not one to RUSH things, but I started this Love Notes quilt as a shop model using the cute new Flirtations line of fabrics designed by Sandy Gervais for Moda.  Here is the pattern.  I love Churn Dash blocks, and this one uses cute motifs from a panel in the center blocks.  Adorable.  I've got my longarm quilter committed to doing a rush job on this one as soon as I'm finished so we will have a completed quilt to hang in the shop.  The clock is definitely ticking.  I hope to make good progress on it this weekend.  5 blocks down, only 25 to go!

It wasn't a dream

Nope, not dreaming of a White Christmas, but it came anyway!  It's so unusual to have snow here in western Washington on Christmas day, but it did snow for about 3 hours, prompting all of our dinner guests to arrive early.  Fortunately, that wasn't a hardship and everyone had a good time.  Dinner turned out great after a minor mishap involving my finicky oven.  The roast had been in an hour and I discovered it wasn't cooking.  A trip to the garage to pull out a dusty Nesco roaster, and all was well.

Here's a picture of my dining room table prior to our meal.  A little too small for 8 people, but then again, this is the first time we've needed to seat 8.  The other 7 little bodies sat in the kitchen at the "kid's table."

And a new addition to our decorating scheme this year - I decided I wanted to add a reindeer to the mix, something I don't have.  But I wanted an elegant reindeer, and wasn't able to find one locally.  I thought Fitz & Floyd would have something nice, and not only did I find what I had in mind, but the sale price was unbelieveable.  The huge box arrived on Christmas Eve.  I've had many experiences of ordering online and being disappointed with what actually arrived, but this was not one of those experiences.  The 2 reindeer were more magnificent than I imagined, even better in person, but here is a photo.  I wanted them to grace my table, but they were actually too big, so they are up on the pie safe for now.  Beautiful.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday!  I'm glad that life is getting back to normal.  I really love Christmas, but I'm glad it comes only once a year!

Blended Quilt, Week 3 update

I was finally able to make some progress on my floral quilt. Here is the result of sewing since I got my machine back on Friday - 12 new star blocks! I now have 22 made. The original pattern calls for just 17 and I am going to end up with 29, so I will have to reconfigure to make my quilt larger, but it should all work out perfectly, assuming there are no more stinker blocks.

Check in with Nicole, Perry and Cindy.  to see how their quilts are coming along. It may have been a little nuts to start a challenge project during this busy time of year, but it appears like these gals have met the challenge head on!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family and having a nice celebration. The kids are bouncing off the walls waiting for Santa. I hope they like what he did for them this year. Merry Christmas everyone!

WHEW!

It's 7:09 p.m. on December 21. I just finished wrapping the last Christmas gift, I put all the paper and bows away, and I can finally see the top of my sewing table again!

I braved 2 hours of horrible traffic this afternoon to pick up my sewing machine, which has been in the shop for over 2 weeks. She's purring like she hasn't in years, and I am so relieved to be sewing again. It truly calms my soul to sit and sew. I hope to actually show some progress on my Blended Challenge Quilt come Monday morning!

Now that almost all the holiday prep is done, I can relax and look forward to the Big Day. We'll spend Christmas eve with my brother and his family, then have my in-laws to my house for Christmas dinner. There will be 15 for dinner this year - the biggest crowd ever - but everyone is pitching in and bringing something, so it should be a pretty easy meal. I'm making a Sirloin Tip Roast and Yorkshire Puddings, my husband's family's traditional holiday meal.

I hope everyone else is ready for Santa's visit!

Blended Quilt, Week 2

Ok, this is my week to make zero progress on my quilt.  I have 4 partial star blocks, but really, nothing worthy to show for my week.  Hopefully I will get something accomplished this week, but as a diversionary tactic, let me show you the cute new Annie dolls I got from Nicole of Raggedy Old Annies this week.  The 2 tiny Annies join their sister to sit on my fat quarter shelf, and my daughter is sure the Christmas Annie was made just for her because she has the letter "L" dangling from her arm.  I told her we had to have her with the decorations in the living room, but after the holidays, DD can keep it in her room.  Aren't they cute?

Check in with Nicole, Perry and Cindy.  I'm sure they are farther along on the challenge than I am, and I hope to have something more interesting to post next time!

Breakfast of Champions!

No, this is not what I had for breakfast, but early Sunday morning found me packaging fudge and gingersnap cookies for the office cookie exchange and various other holiday activities. I can't believe I haven't blogged all week, but while I am usually such a homebody, this week I've been quite the social butterfly and have only been home one night during the week, which I spent baking, as you can see. Hopefully the social obligations will settle down and I can get back to sewing and blogging. I did finish nearly all my Christmas shopping, but now I must get busy at the wrapping station.

I must share my grandmother's gingersnap cookie recipe with you - they are my favorite cookie and even DS #1 who won't eat sweets begs me to make these cookies. They are more of what you would term a molasses cookie because they are soft, not "snappy" but that is what we've always called them. They are easy and delicious and freeze well, if you have any left to freeze! I made a triple batch on Friday night and I love that my daughter can now help me roll the balls - what a time saver, plus, some fun bonding time with my baby girl.

GINGERSNAPS



3/4 cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses (I prefer the Brer Rabbit full-flavor type)

One egg, room temperature

2-1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

Melt shortening, cool. Add sugar, molasses and egg - beat. Sift and add to first mixture the flour, soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and salt.

Chill the dough 10 minutes.

Form into 1-inch balls, roll in sugar and place on cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes - do not brown, but cookies should be nicely "cracked" on top.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Blended Quilt, Week 1

Here is my first progress photo for our blended quilt challenge project.   Can you tell that every other block is a Sawtooth Star?  No?  Well, that is the concept behind a blended quilt!  You want to make some blocks that blend into each other and "moosh" the pattern.  I forgot how much fun and also what a challenge it is to pair up florals for these kind of quilts.  I made 2 blocks that were ugly as sin and not pictured here, and I know more of those will happen before this is finished, sometimes that's just the name of the game!

Here are my first 10 star blocks.  The pattern I've chosen has only 17 stars, mixed with other pieced 4-patches, half-square triangles, large and small squares and rectangles.  I have paired up enough fabrics from my floral stash to make about 20 more stars, so I'll either be making my quilt much larger than planned, modify the design a bit, or end up with 2 blended quilts!

Take a look at the blogs belonging to my friends playing along - OKPerisplace (Perry), Sister's Choice Quilts (Nicole) and Too Much Fabric So Little Time (Cindy) and see what they have been up to this week with their florals!

Disaster strikes!

I've been making pretty good progress this week on our blended challenge quilt. On Saturday, the kids and I put up the Christmas decorations and I decided one of my end tables really needed some kind of table topper. A trip to a seldom-visited quilt shop Saturday netted me a fun FQ stack of Christmas fabrics that I had not yet discovered, so I sandwiched 2 of the FQs together with some batting, did a simple channel quilting and started using a third FQ for the binding. Suddenly, my trusty Pfaff started making a horrendous noise, locked up, and now the flywheel will not turn at all!

I have my backup Featherweight, but I've grown dependent on my Pfaff with its built-in dual feed. :(

I guess it's to the shop we go, and Tuesday is the soonest I could take her. I hate spending the $129, especially during this money-draining time of year, but what can you do? At least I am still able to piece using one of my back ups, but there is nothing as comfy as your trusty old favorite machine, is there?

Tune in tomorrow when I post my progress on the blended quilt.

Let's make a Blended Quilt!

Three blog buddies and I have been wracking our brains to come up with a quilt challenge we could do together and this is what we've come up with.  OKPerisplace (Perry), Sister's Choice Quilts (Nicole) and Too Much Fabric So Little Time (Cindy) are my partners in crime, and the Blended Quilts series of books by Marsha McCloskey and Sharon Yenter (sadly, these books are all out of print) provide the inspiration for our challenge.  Pictured here are the fabrics I plan to use in the creation of my quilt.

I have previously made one blended quilt, shown here.  This is the Chintz Variable Star from the first Blended Quilts book.  It was completely out of my comfort zone as I was not a floral person when I made this one, but a trip to the now sadly defunct In the Beginning shop in Seattle provided these beautiful purple and gold floral Japanese fabrics from Yuwa that go together so well.  The border is a very soft, lightweight corduroy fabric, and I really like the different textures in this quilt.

The pattern I've chosen for the challenge is Arabella from the Blended Wall Quilts book.  Perry made one and it is drop-dead gorgeous.  If mine turns out half as pretty as hers, I will be a happy girl.  This time I will have my work cut out for me, I'm afraid, as there is no real theme to these fabrics.  I thought I was heading for something dark and elegant, but looking again at my array of fabrics proves that they are all pretty much the same tone with just a few true darks, so it will be interesting to see if this works!  I already see a couple fabrics that stick out like sore thumbs....

Our challenge will end on January 31.  We will post weekly on Mondays beginning December 10.  Please stop by again to check on our progress!

Chocolate has landed!

I met a package from Minnesota with a little trepidation after having my credit card stolen this summer and jokers sending me nonsense stuff (magazine subscriptions, diet pills, business cards, toner cartridges).  I knew I didn't order anything from Circuits something-or-other in Minnesota.  But wait, didn't my chocolate swap partner live there as well?  Why by golly, she did!  Karen sent me the most wonderful array of chocolately goodness, along with a cute card and sewing themed notepad.  There were chocolate caramel pretzels, a chocolate raspberry bar, peanut butter cups, sunflower seeds, raspberry dipping sauce, peppermint biscotti bites, peppermint bark, and more.  Oh my - so much good stuff!  My kids and I dove right into the little truffle-like things.  DS had Hot Fudge and DD and I had the Raspberry - to die for!  My other son declined - he is not a fan of sweets.  Obviously switched at birth, don't you agree?   Thank you Karen for the nice surprise, and Sharon for hosting this fun swap!

Oh my stars!

I finished the center portion of my Opening Day quilt - 36 8" star blocks. Now I have a bazillion flying geese to make to surround the stars. This may take awhile....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thankgiving celebration. I cooked my very first whole turkey bird (unbelieveable, I know...), but it turned out juicy, delicious and dinner was finished on time. I enjoyed having a nice long weekend to spend with my family, but - back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

Another quilt project challenge is brewing with three fellow bloggers. Tune in on December 1 to see what we're up to.

Brand new, gung-ho quilter!

I consider Rani one of my dearest friends, even though we have never met.  We met on the internet and have known each other now for over 11 years.  Yes, she is my original "Imaginary Friend."  We have been together through trying to get pregnant, the birth of and raising of our children.  We have shared many laughs and tears over the years, she has helped me through some very rough times in my life and I hope that I have been there for her through her rough times as well.

She got me started cross stitching when my boys were babies, and then encouraged me to start knitting again.  I've been working at trying to get her hooked on quilting, and I think now that she is well on her way.  Go to her blog and just look at the gorgeous new quilt she just finished, after recently completing her very first quilt just a few short weeks ago (which is already quilted and bound, to boot)!

I'm so glad you've joined me in this wonderful hobby obession, Rani.  Looks like you are going to be a very talented quilter!

More retreat photos

You've already seen what I accomplished, but I wanted to share some that I took of others' beautiful projects.  This is my design wall, and you might recognize my 4 Roman Holiday stars.  The smaller Ohio Stars to the right are my SIL's and the Log Cabin blocks to the left are fabulous, aren't they?  1/2" logs!   But check out those drop-dead gorgeous feathered stars that Mary Hickey was working on.  She is making an incredibly complicated quilt for each of her children.  I wish she'd adopt me so I could get one of these beauties!

This was a beautiful basket quilt that Judy Pollard was working on.  She designed it using a computer program and it was fascinating to watch all the blocks go up.

One of my favorite parts of retreat is the "walk through" on Saturday morning after breakfast, where you go through the cabins and see what people have displayed on their beds and walls of their rooms, and also what other people are working on in the other work spaces.

Does anyone recognize this pattern?  I was told it was a Buggy Barn pattern, but I contacted them and they said it was not.  I would love to make a Christmas quilt like this with the wonky trees and presents!

And here are some of the other works in progress or finished quilts on display.  I wasn't fast enough to catch a lot of these very prolific ladies as they would finish one and put it away before I thought to snap a photo.  Oh well!

Opening Day

I see that Nicole posted on her blog today about Opening Day using the Roman Holiday fabrics.  This is another project that we agreed to work on together, so I will post my progress as well.  I got a good head start on my blocks at my quilt retreat.

There will be 36 of these center stars, surrounded by a gazillion flying geese and assorted half-square triangles and squares.  I have a favorite method for making accurate flying geese that differs from Nicole's, and I also just discovered I could take even more shortcuts, so I thought I would share my method.

I use the Eleanor Burns Flying Geese ruler, which is available in 2 sizes.  For this project, to make the 2x4 inch finished sized geese, you will need the large ruler.  Carrie Nelson provides alternate cutting directions if you are using this ruler to make your geese.

For each 4 geese, you need one square that is 7" and one that is 5-1/2".  There are instructions, measurements and good diagrams provided with the Flying Geese Ruler.  You will lay the 2 squares right sides together, centering the smaller square on top of the larger square.  The directions tell you to mark diagonally from corner to corner a line that you will sew 1/4 inch on either side of, and then cut on the line.  I discovered I could just put the squares together and cut diagonally, and then sew my 1/4" seam on each triangle, eliminating the extra step of marking.

After sewing, press these pieces and you will have two uneven looking half-square triangles.

Next, you are going to take these 2 squares and put them right sides together, with the light corner of one against the dark corner of the other.  The seams will not match up, but this is what you want, I promise!  The directions will tell you to mark from corner to corner diagonally and sew 1/4" on either side of the marking.  But again, I skip the marking step and go ahead and cut diagonally through the pieces and then sew my 1/4" seam.

It will look like this before you sew the seams.

After pressing these, you will have 2 units that look like this.  Can you see the geese?

Next, lay down the handy-dandy Flying Geese Ruler with the triangle-shaped marking on top of your seam lines, trim with your rotary cutter and voila!  You have 4 matching Flying Geese!  Easy Peasy!

Retreat project

The best laid plans of mice and men, as they say. As you may recall, I intended to work on the purrple and cream quilt that I had spent so many hours cutting out before my retreat. But since I never know what I will feel like working on once I actually get there, I bring several projects and let my whim decide what I will work on. I ended up assembling my Cupcake quilt from the Carrie Nelson class I took this summer with Nicole. Seeing her finished version of the quilt made me want to finish mine as well.

This kind of project is not easy to do at retreat. There are 93 quilters in attendance, over 40 in the lodge where I was assigned to work. There is not a lot of space to lay out an entire quilt, so Cupcake got assembled in sections. As I sewed the rows together, I was cautious of the placement of the browns and blues, but as I got further and further along, I was reluctant to give it too close a look in case I needed to rip something out. I realized on the second day that I had not constructed enough of the border pieces so I would not be able to completely put it together as I had hoped. I also had a fear that I did not have enough of the blue fabric to make the remaining pieces I needed. I emailed Nicole my dilemma and she Express Mailed her blue fabrics to me since she did not use them in her quilt.

Bless you, Nicole - the fabrics were waiting for me when I got home, and I was able to finish the quilt today. I don't think I've ever come back from a 4-day quilt retreat feeling I could not wait to sit down again at my sewing machine. I was piecing last night and this morning to finish my project and - ta da! Here it is.

I discovered up at Camp Huston after I'd sewn together 15 of the 17 rows that I had ONE BLOCK that was turned the wrong way around. I looked hard at the rest of the blocks and decided since it was the only one, that it would stay in as my Humility Block. Can you find it? I figured just 1 out of 289 blocks turned wrong is pretty darn good.

Do you think Carrie Nelson would be proud that I left it in?

After finishing Cupcake, I moved on to another Miss Rosie's pattern - Opening Day - which I am making using Moda's Roman Holiday fabrics. It's gorgeous and I will share a photo of my progress on this second project the next time I post.

Back and exhausted!

I had the most wonderful time at my quilt retreat, but I am exhausted and need to regroup. I will share stories and photos once I have had a chance to get back in the swing of things. I nearly finished one project and made good progress on my second, but my underlying themes for this weekend were Miss Rosie's and leaving vital pieces for my 2 projects at home. I'll fill you in tomorrow. Thank goodness I have a holiday and can recover at home before going back to work!

Fun mail!

I'm somewhat of a fabric junkie (stop laughing, Nicole!).  And I've been manically checking the Internet since the end of Fall Market to get a glimpse at any of the new stuff that is coming soon, especially any Moda fabrics.  I found one website that had some stuff they brought back from Market, and I ordered the Posh FQ bundle (sorry, I got the last one!).  I received the fabrics yesterday and they are SO PRETTY in person! SWOOOOOON!!!!! They remind me very much of Chez Moi, but they are softer spring colors.  I don't know what I will make with these just yet, but I will have to find something fabulous to show them off.

I especially love these 2 mocha prints.  Lacy, paisley, polka dots... all my favorite type of prints!  Yum, yum!

My other fun mail was a box containing 2 more Annies from Raggedy Old Annies - a birthday princess and the Tiny Annie.  Aren't they adorable?   They will look super cute decorating our room at our retreat.  And - wahoo! - we leave tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

A happy girl!

I got my DD's Michael Miller Kids' Toile quilt back from the quilter on Thursday, and gave it to her when I got home from work at the quilt shop that evening.  The quilt gets dragged everywhere in the house with her.  I'm glad she loves it so much!  The quilter used a fun Circle Lord template called Square Dance, although it's hard to see from my photo.  It's concentric off-beat squares and an alternating star.  I thought it might be too geometric with the quilt pattern, but it looks really great and DD gives it 2 thumbs up, and that's what matters!

Only 2 more sleeps until I leave for my quilt retreat!!!!

Pretending

Nicole challenged her blog friends to post pictures of quilts on their beds. Well, I don't happen to have any quilts on my beds, but here is one of my favorites, pretending to reside on my DD's bed because it was the neatest bed in the house at the moment. This quilt is called Cowboy Logic and I made it from cowboy and bandana fabrics I collected for many years before deciding on just the right pattern. I love how this one turned out.

Edited to add: I had a couple questions asking about the pattern and I'm sorry I neglected to name my source. This quilt is the Market Square pattern from Rotary Roundup by Judy Hopkins and Nancy J. Martin.

Ghoul's Night Out

Here's the kids right before I took them out trick or treating.  You can't see the fake blood that circulated through the chest plate of the boys' costumes, but they thought that was pretty cool.  What a mess - when the bottle of "fun blood" was opened, it stained my hands a nice, indelible red.  The costumes are in the garage and I will make sure they don't get anywhere near my carpets or (horrors!) my quilts!

It wasn't too cold and it didn't rain, so we had a nice walk around the neighborhood.

I had no idea!

My twins are in the same 5th grade class, and they have a pair of teachers that each teaches half time.  One teacher's mom recently died and DS #1 took it really hard.  He cried, and he didn't even know her mom, but he got emotional just the same.  And then he relayed the story to his other teacher of how his mom almost died!  Excuse me?  I did?  Apparently, he thought I was on my deathbed when I had strep throat back in March (hmm? does this mean I'm a drama queen?).

I had no clue he was so worried!  Of course, when he told his teacher this story, DS #2 said, "No she didn't!"  Can you imagine if he hadn't been there to clear it up?  Their teacher might have been really worried about my poor son and his nearly dead mother!  Kids really do say the darndest things!

My favorite part!

Yes, I know I have complained a number of times about quilt chores that I don't like - binding, borders, pieced backings.  You're probably wondering why I even BOTHER to quilt!  But let me assure you, there are parts of it that I love and of course the finished product is always well worth it!

My very favorite part of the entire process is cutting!  I love bonding with each fabric as I cut it into pieces for my quilt.  I know it would be faster if I stacked up fabrics and cut multiple layers, but I prefer to work with each fabric individually so I can enjoy it more.  And you know I like to make scrappy quilts, so this cutting process can be quite involved!

This is the beginning stages of cutting for what I'm planning will be my retreat project in less than 2 weeks!  I'm making the Blackberries and Cream quilt that was in the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine a couple of issues ago (it was June 2007--thanks, Carol!).  The large square in the center will be my 30 block centers.  Each of those blocks is framed by squares and half-square triangles of cream and purple.  Each alternating block is composed of HSTs in cream and purple.  Here I've cut a few of the purples I've pulled from stash and purchased for this quilt.  I have about 60 different purples, but there may be more after I shop at a favorite yet seldom visited shop on Saturday.

I will have probably 30 or 40 cream/white fabrics in the quilt as well.  I collect neutral fabrics to use as scrappy backgrounds in my quilts.  Since I tend to lean towards quilts with HSTs, I always cut a strip of each background fabric I buy, cut them into 3-1/2" squares and throw them in a box.  This I have a ready-made stash of squares for my next scrap quilt.

Another one of my favorite things is taking a stack of fabrics, sometimes something that I have had for YEARS and finally finding just the right pattern to make with them (like Cinnamon Stars!)   I love that lightbulb moment when I finally decide!

Musical family

My boys are now in 5th grade and had the opportunity to play an instrument this year.  DS #1 picked the viola (just like his Mom!) and DS #2 chose the clarinet.  They started music classes at school just about 4 weeks ago and I've heard them practice, but last Sunday they gave us a little concert.  DS #1 played Mary Had a Little Lamb on the viola.  It sounded very nice.  Then DS #2 played Jingle Bells, then went on to play Sleigh Ride and then a little ditty that he composed.   I was stunned by how good he was!

This is the boy that wanted to quit after only a week because it was too hard.  He finally figured out how to play actual notes and it finally clicked for him.  Last night he came into the kitchen while I was preparing dinner and played the National Anthem for me twice - with no music in front of him!   Then he went in and asked his brother "Can you play the National Anthem?"  (To which DS #1 responded - "But we're only supposed to go to page 10!")  lol

I asked Squidward if all the clarinets were playing such advanced songs or if he was going on ahead in his lessons and he said he was going ahead.  I was truly blown away.   He's a natural.   My sons - the musicians!  (Oh and DS #1 is also in the choir and sings like an angel...)

Weekend challenge

I worked with my sister-in-law Jan at the quilt shop on Thursday and mentioned to her that I hoped to get 2 quilt backs ready this weekend to mail to our Idaho longarm quilter.  She said she had a quilt she wanted to send and asked if she could include it in the box with mine, so that gave us both a deadline.

I'd planned the entire weekend to work on them, but ended up not getting into my sewing room at all on Saturday.   I woke up Sunday morning to get an early start and immediately ran into a snag.   I discovered the leftover pieces of Chez Moi I was planning to connect for my Granny Squares quilt back were not going to be large enough - not by a long shot.  So what's a girl to do?  I hopped online and searched for an extra wide quilt back that would coordinate.  Good luck.  I ended up with something resembling Aunt Grace that looked vaguely like it would work with a granny square theme and hope it arrives quickly.

Next up was piecing the back of the Cinnamon Stars sampler.  I had two blocks that didn't make the cut for the front of the quilt, but weren't quite pretty enough for pillows and thought it would be fun to use on the back and pieced in the center is the label I made.  I decided to name this quilt Imaginary Friend, as the project was inspired by and I was spurred on to finish it by my no-longer-imaginary friend, Nicole.   Here's a little peek at the back.

I also had time to finish the 9-patches for my Drumbeat/Cupcake quilt from our Carrie Nelson class at the Buggy Barn this August, which Nicole is also working on in a different color combo.  I'm sticking with the blue/caramel combination from the kit for my hourglass blocks.  I'm a blue girl, what can I say?   I have 118 9-patches completed and all the cutting for the hourglass and border pieces is also finished.  Now some serious chain piecing will commence.  Here is the incredible mess on my sewing table.

I also worked on the hand-stitching binding of my orange version of Zuzu's Petals (Nicole suggested the name Kowabunga because of the wild surfboard fabric on the border and - DUDE! - it's perfect!).  I have just one side left and I hope to be able to finish one other quilt's binding before our guild retreat November 7-11.   Oh, did I mention - WE GOT IN!  I just got the email yesterday and I'm so excited!   Space is limited and the retreats are hugely popular, so we're always on pins and needles after we send our registrations until we get the official word.  Now to figure out a project and get the preparation work done - there's not much time!

I've also started a THIRD part-time job (yes, my sanity is in question at this point) and the scope of it seems much bigger than what I originally agreed to, so my sewing time is going to be severely limited until the end of this year at least.  I'll just have to make time because sewing is what makes me truly happy.

Up in the barn!

I know - this looks just like the LAST photo I posted, but I brought the Falling Leaves (Allspice Tapestry Moda U) quilt into the shop yesterday and everyone was so excited about it, they hung it up on the wall immediately.  I think it looks awesome against the red wall of the barn.  It's going to be fun to see it hanging there across from the cutting counter every time I go to work.  I'm either going to be really sick of seeing it, or really excited to finally take it home and get it quilted!  I suspect the latter, as I love the quilt even more now that I can see it from a distance!

Fall All Around

Falling Leaves.  I finished the Moda U kit I was working on for the shop with the Allspice Tapestry fabrics.  I have mixed feelings about this one.  I loved the fabrics before I started, but I saw too many of the prints repeated and it was hard to randomize the blocks while laying it all out.  After I started sewing rows, I started to like it a little better.  And I had zero trouble getting the borders sewn on - that part was a breeze.  This is not a very good picture - maybe I can get a better one of it hanging in the shop.

Fall Decorating.  Just a little behind this year, I pulled out the Halloween decorations yesterday, or "Spookytown" as my kids call it.  They know just where everything was last year - Heaven forbid I want to switch things around!  Here are my 2 main 'scenes' and the last photo shows the great new addition this year - Witchy Poo Annie from Raggedy Old Annies - what a great doll - isn't she adorable?

Falling Behind.  Nicole challenged me to finish binding one quilt by Sunday.  I thought I could handle the challenge with ease, but I only got about half the binding on my orange quilt.  Well, at least I am making progress.  I did get a lot of piecing done for my 9-patch project, and some sewing room organizing was accomplished as well.  With too many projects, it's really hard for me to stay focused....

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Sorry for the boring blog of late - I haven't had a heck of a lot of time to sew, so really there is nothing new to share with you all.  I am halfway through the Allspice Tapestry Moda U quilt I am making for the shop and my goal is to have it completely together by this weekend.  I am also working on getting binding on FIVE quilts that have been waiting for the cooler weather.

I hope to have something quilty to share with you soon, so please stop by again.

Look at that beautiful face!

I show a lot of pictures of my DD because she is such a ham, but not so many of my boys.  Here's one I can't resist sharing.  This is DS #1 after a hard day at Walt Disney World.  Doesn't he look like an angel?  When I showed him this picture, he said "Aw, why did you take a picture of me when I was sleeping?"  And I told him "Because that's when I love you the most!"  lol    He knows I'm kidding.  I think I have the best kids in the world (doesn't every mother?).   My head is swelled from all our relatives and strangers we met at WDW telling me how well behaved my children are.  I feel like their dad and I have done a good job with them - so far at least!

Sampler flimsy!

Getting the borders on was quite the struggle and I may have taken a few shortcuts ( my longarm quilter will probably be tearing her hair out with this one) but - it's done, I love it and now on to the next project!