UFO # 8 (Quilted)

Did I have you waiting with baited breath? On pins and needles??

The connection between the gum and UFO #8 is the crazy zebras. I saw the fabric, who knows where, and had to have it because it reminded me of the Fruit Stripe gum I chewed as a child.

You see the resemblance right?

OK, here is the finished quilt.

Dwirling is the quilting pattern I used. The Pajama Quilter (Dawn Rameriz) does a segment on her DVD on dwirling. It's an all over pattern that's more just to give the quilt texture. I thought it could look like the lines you see on a zebra. OK, so it's a little much for this quilt, but it was fun. Practice, practice, practice for me using this pattern. There are areas where I wasn't very consistent with my spacing in between passes. Oh well, I'm rather pleased with my efforts.

And a closer look...

Sissy just couldn't stay out of the picture. She couldn't wait for me to take the quilt off the rail so she could take a little nap on it.

Fruit Stripe Gum

What does my next UFO have in common with this picture of fruit strip gum???? My goal is to show you in a couple of hours.

Stay tuned!

Creating a Monster and Guild Show

Dr. Frankenstein...no, that's not me. I'm really not creating a monster. Just had to share a couple pictures of Grace. The first is a picture I found while looking for some old quilt pictures. I completely forgot that my husband took it. Hope it makes you smile like it did me! Grace was about 10 months old. I can't remember the reason for all the fabric being out. I think it was one of my missions to cut scraps into strips. Who knows.

The picture below was taken Wednesday night. Grace always wants to sew with me. In the beginning she was happy to sit on my lap and not reach or grab for anything. Eventually it moved to her putting her hand on top of mine and helping me feed the fabric. Lately, she doesn't even want me sitting near her. She just wants to SEW!!! I had to pick up my Singer from the shop the other day and saw the mini machine on the counter. I really hoped it would work, but as expected it's a POS (piece of crap). Grace loves it though. For the last 2 mornings, she has gotten up at 6:30 AM rambling about wanting to sew. Getting ready in the morning is always a battle. Not the last 2 days. She's happy to dress, comb hair and brush teeth - no arguing. Then get the heck out of her way as she RUNS to get to the fabric and HER machine.

After work / school today, we (Grace, Grandma and me) went to the Olathe Quilt Guild Show. There was fabric for sale, so the child was HAPPY!!! She found a gallon Ziploc bag stuffed for for $1 and just HAD to have it. Everyone near the checkout got the pleasure of hearing about the new machine and how she was going home to sew her new fabric. Below is a collage of some of the pictures that Grace took. Not too bad. I'm going to blame her dad for giving her the "picture" bug.


The show seemed smaller to me than usual. I expected to see quilts from some of the people that were there when I belonged, but there weren't any. Lots of pretty ones to look at though. I will apologize for not getting names or pattern names.

The one story I can share is of the Quilt Pink Quilt in the middle of the collage. The owner said they bought on eBay when the Quilt Pink auction was going on. I thought that was pretty cool.

Signature

I keep noticing signatures on the bottom of the blogs. Seems a little more personal, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm so glad it's Friday. My hope is to have some quilt show pictures and project updates to share over the weekend.

CBS News Video

I finally got out to the CBS website today to see the video that aired on March 16th. Definitely worth the time to watch. Click here to check it out.


It's great to hear the media talk about quilter's as a great group of people. If they only could comprehend how great and how connected we really are. I have made some of the most wonderful friends via my quilting efforts.

UFO #7 (Quilted)

This week got away from me. Seems like there was a lot going on, but there really wasn't. I did finish UFO #7. YIPPEE. The fabric is Spring Fling from Moda. In typical Becky fashion, I bought a jelly roll and made 2 tops from it. I quilted a free hand flower on it in pink thread. I thought the quilting would stand out more. Again, pleased with my efforts. My friend Pam is going to help me with some quilting lessons next weekend. Hopefully her efforts will help me get a few quilt tops completed.

This morning I spent some time perusing magazines. I'm addicted to quilt magazines. Actually that addiction is almost as bad as the fabric one. The magazine aisle at the grocery store, Target, Walmart, Lowes is a must. I think I'm going to try to put a couple quick tops together, so that I have some more practice tops for next Saturday. I think the Simply Strippy (Easy Quilts Magazine, Fons & Porter) will help me use up some stash and will allow me to have lines follow.

Next weekend is the the Quilt Shop Hop here in Kansas City. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to hit some of the stores or lay low. It's also Charm School at Harper's, so I might just have to get out for a little bit. Oh the dilemmas that I face.
Edit: I'm a week ahead. Shop Hop is April 3-6, not this next weekend. Oops

Happy Easter to Everyone!!!

Egg Salad Anyone?

I see a whole lot of egg salad in my near future. Maybe some deviled eggs. Or some tuna salad with egg. Or even potato salad. I don't think we should eat 2 dozen boring hard boiled eggs.

We had fun coloring eggs tonight. Not at all quilt related, but fun none the less.

Check out the surgeon wanna-be. Grace was following her dad, who didn't want to get his fingers dirty.


Notice the shirt - wrong holiday - oh well, at least it doesn't show the dye that hit her shirt.

And last but not least, cheese ball in the making. She is such a ham when the camera comes out. Oh how I love digital.

Another Finish

UFO #6 finished.

What I thought would be an easy finished, wasn't so easy after all. I put the top on the frame and started it. All was going well and then the thread breaks started. I adjusted, threaded the machine again and even took a break. While on break, I thought that chocolate might be order. Chocolate definitely helped change the frame of mind I was in. Finally after entering the chocolate induced haze, I headed down to finish.

I put another quilt on the frame. Hopefully I can get to it later tonight (or tomorrow). I don't normally float the top, but I was feeling daring when I loaded it. Hopefully I won't regret that decision. I made 2 quilt tops from this jelly roll (Moda Celebrate Spring).

We Need Spring, Warm Weather, Etc.

This is how my day went. One sick 4 year old. Shiner staying close by to keep an eye on her. I so want warm weather to get here. My hope is maybe that will kill the germs that seem to be living in the day care that Grace goes to. This winter has been one endless cold and it's getting OLD. Whine Whine Whine!!!!

My birthday present came in the mail today and boy oh boy did my honey out do himself this year. I happened to be perusing ETSY and ran across some fabric that I thought was really cool. I thought he would think it was cool too because it looks like cool stuff you can do in PhotoShop and I know he loves playing with that program. Anyhow, check out my goodies. There are pieces that I didn't post because the pictures didn't turn out that great and well I'm too lazy to walk downstairs and take some more.

I also got 2 pieces of hand dyed fabric. One is a teal color and the other is red/orange. My honey was beaming when I was looking at these 2 pieces. He announced he no earthly idea how much to buy so he bought it all. I got 1 1/4 yards of teal and about 7 yards of the red/orange. I can hardly wait to get busy doing something with my beauties. I might have to hang them on the design wall and oogle for awhile.

Check out the other fabrics this textile artist (Jacqueline Beck) is selling on ETSY.

I've become rather addicted to reading blogs and looking at all of the wonderful quilt pictures. I told my sewing friend Pam about the blogs I've been looking at and all the information I'm finding online. Her ears perked up. Low and behold, she has decided to join the Land of Blogs. Check her Pam's blog.

A Must Share

Grace drew a family picture and it's too good not to share with the world. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

I even updated my profile with her very round rendition of me.

The funny thing about the pictures is that Grandma Patty had an "owwie" on her lip when she visited. It looked very painful. If you look very close at Grandma Patty's face, Grace made sure to include the "owwie". Very observant that child of mine.

Reading

I spent the entire weekend completely stuck in a new book. Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult (my favorite) author came out on Tuesday. I'm finished - I couldn't put it down. As usual, Jodi put in a couple twists that I so didn't see coming. There were definitely questions / statements made through out the book that really got me thinking...religion, capital punishment, a mother's love. Needless to say, NO sewing done this weekend.

I did make it to Harper's today to pick up my fabric from Strip Club. I was a little disappointed with the pattern, but I should have figured out the theme based on the fabric. Oh well, it will be pretty when finished.

This week I hope to accomplish:
1. Bags for the photographer
2. A quilt on the frame and quilted
3. Starting a small quilt for one of my husband's coworkers.

New Marcus Fabric

How fun!!!

I just checked my email and received a note from Marcus Fabrics about the new fabric that will hit the market soon. The exciting part of the email was regarding Kansas City local Jeanne Poore and her new line of fabric. I can officially say I knew her and took classes from her before she it it "BIG". The best part is two, count them 2, FREE patterns for that line of fabric. Makes me want to run home and start sewing with my new patterns.

Previously, I mentioned Jeanne previously in this post.

Happy Birthday and March is Machine Quilting Month, Too

Today is my birthday. ARG - 42. I don't know why, but that number just seems way tooooo high. I know it's not, it's just me being crazy. I will get a call from my dad tonight wishing me Happy Birthday. In his mind, I'm still 7. To him, I haven't progressed in age at all. (High school & college graduations along with a marriage and birth of a child were rather difficult for him to fathom). A happy medium between the two numbers would be good. Oh well, it's better than the alternatives.

Grace was very excited this morning to tell everyone that today was my birthday. It was very entertaining to have 8 little kids running around me SCREAMING happy birthday Gracie's Mommy (because I have no first name other than Gracie's mommy). I'm good with that though.

To celebrate tonight, I think we will partake of some Sheridan's custard cake. For those of you not in the KC area, you don't know what you are missing. It's the BOMB baby! The Weight Watchers program will start tomorrow. :-)

On the quilting front, I've decided that March will be declared machine quilting month just like I did for February. I managed to get some quilts done and out of the box of UFOs, but I don't feel like I put a big enough dent in the pile. So, I'm hoping to get about 4 or 5 more tops completed. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I can provide some photos.

Hmmm, what am I thinking???? Saturday is my 17th Anniversary. That's another crazy number. Funny how when you get married, you think it will be all wine and roses and then you hit the first bump in the road... Well I'm happy to say we have had some bumps, dips and HUGE potholes, but we have managed to weather them all and learn from each. In this day and age where the divorce rate is out this world, I'm happy to say that we have made it to year number 17.

I would much rather be at home sewing today, but I must get busy! Have a good day!!!

Checking In

Wow, what a whirlwind week it's been. My MIL came in from Modesto CA on Wednesday night LATE. Grace, MIL and I want to the mall on Thursday to ride the infamous Merry-Go-Round. Thankfully MIL was very accommodating and rode the Merry so I didn't have to. Sad to say, but riding in circles like that makes me horribly motion sick. Then there was the run into the Disney store, Libby Lu's and Build a Bear. OMG - the kid was in heaven because Grandma just couldn't say NO.

Thursday and Friday brought trips downtown for me to the DAX convention that's here in KC. I'm very much interested in starting my own embroidery business. My ultimate goal is to be able to work from the house while Grace is in school and be here when she gets home. It's those old fashion values of parenting kicking in. Anyhow, the convention was a great opportunity to stare and compare and touch those big embroidery machines. I was also able to pick up catalogs and find vendors very happy and willing to accept my business. I'm hoping to get working now on funding and getting the business and resale license in order.

The weather here in Kansas City is supposed to be spring like today. I think we are going to hit the sidewalks with the purple bike and go cruising. Grace can hardly stand it. Up at 7 AM this morning asking if she could go out and play. I guess the kid has spring fever just as bad as us big people.

I'm hoping to hit Harper's Quilt shop today for Charm School. Since the last pattern was so cute and went together so easily, I can't help myself. I must go check it out.

All for now. One last note - spell checker is fixed. YIPPPEEEE!!!!!