Happy New Year - Final for the Year

Final 3 quilts for the year.  Still need to hand sew the binding down, but in my mind they are close enough to classify as DONE.

I'm calling this one Freshman Diet.  It's all junk food fabric.  Made using a 10" twister ruler.


S'mores, Oreos, Ritz crackers, Hot dogs, Egg McMuffins, pretzels and lots and lots of pizza.


Patriotic Braid using my Accuquilt die.


Turning Twenty pattern with lots of bright bright flowers.




Embroidery for a customer.  She is on top of the wedding stuff - check out the date.  I so wish I could be that ahead of the game on most things.  Alas, I'm a procrastinator.


I hope you have a very Happy New Year.  I can't wait to see what 2014 brings.

Merry Christmas

Embroidery has been keeping me very busy.  I did manage to finish 2 t-shirt quilts that will be picked up later today or tomorrow.  I'm so glad to have those off my list.

All KU shirts from Championship Games.


All Indiana shirts from college.


No matter how hard I tried, I didn't get the back lined up the way I wanted.  I had extra shirts that I cut and felt bad that I couldn't get them on the front.  Don't know that I will try this again.


Thanks for stopping by.  Have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Crazy Busy...

I've been crazy busy.  Just like everyone else I'm sure.  My embroidery has kicked in full time so there really hasn't been much quilting or stitching.

I do have some pictures that I can share.

The Christmas stockings have been leaving my house like crazy.  I've even had some repeat people from last year, meaning I think they bought more new stockings.


Personalizing little outfits has become a common occurrence.


This is an "Indoor Snowball Fight".  The design for the snowballs came from Embroidery Garden.  They were a lot of fun to do.  6 balls in each it.  I've been selling them for $25.




Personalized blankets have been leaving almost as quickly as the stockings.  It's a great gift for the younger crowd.


I'm pretty proud of myself with this Christmas picture.  The design is from Hang to Dry Applique.  I bought stretch burlap at Joann's, removed the staples, stitched my design, and then reassembled.  I think this will make a nice Christmas present.


My neighbor had a baby so I had to make a birth announcement.  I was told her room colors were pink and green, so I ran with it.  Framed it in a big white frame and then gave it as a baby welcoming gift.


I did have one quilt top finish.  This is the braid quilt I started about 2 years ago using my Accuquilt Go cutter.  Just need to get busy and get it quilted.




More blankets.  These are just a fill stitch rather than applique.  Again great with the kids and tweens.


I hope 2014 will allow more quilting, but who knows.  I also hope I can be a better blogger in 2014.

Happy Stitching!

Some Stitching

I did some stitching this weekend, but it wasn't in the form of quilts or quilting. I revved up the embroidery machine and got creative.

First up is a banner that I made for a friend for a parade she was going to be in. She has miniature horses that she shows in parades or takes to peoples houses for birthday parties.  I made 2 banners, but just took a picture of one of them.  Anyhow she called and was excited because people could see the lettering from the street which is what she wanted.


Next up are some shirts for a little friend.  She entered 3rd grade this year and asked if I could make her some new shirts.  I'm only a month behind the start of school.  Oh well, better late than never.


Really?  Makes me feel old. 


I embroidered some names and initials on other things, but I didn't think they warranted a picture.

Have a great day!

Where is the Love?

I'm not feeling it that's for sure.  This project is one of those love it or hate it kind of projects.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it either.  I wanted to finish it by September 15th.  It seems that it's going to live on the UFO shelf for a while.  Oh well.



There isn't enough color change or something.  I think it's actually one color in both faces that is to too dark for me.

If you are wondering who the guys are, it's 2 of the brothers from the band Hanson (Isaac and Taylor).  The 3rd guy, Zac, is still on the design wall and is pretty much only hair.

New Obsession

I have a new obsession and really think it could lead to a very big problem. Ok, not big, but large problem.  I say large because it requires making a quilt.  Even though the blocks will be small, the overall quilt will be large.

I'm obsessed with pixel quilts. Have you seen any of them? Have you taken a look at the class on Craftsy?

Craftsy is where my problem started.  I have a lot of problems and I think it's good to get back to the root of those problems.  I enrolled in a free mini class and that's where it all started.  One of the people that took the class made a pixel quilt of Gibbs from NCIS.  I really hope the link works.

Then I found a bunch of pictures on Flickr which really made my problem more significant.

This is from Candy Coated Quilts who blogs here.  Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek.  How AWESOME!!


She also made this TOTALLY AWESOME Sheldon Cooper Quilt.  BAZINGA for sure!!


Nancy (website linked) made this one.  I love the close up as well.




Gavin Downey made a quilt of Jesus


Katy, who blogs at I'm a Ginger Monkey made this awesome Hello Kitty quilt.


Kristy Daum made a Doctor Who Quilt.  (click the link - seriously, you want to see this quilt).

Seriously can you understand my problem now?  Because the obsession keeps growing and I growing, I decided to start my own.  I haven't gotten very far.  I'm hoping to get part of the 2nd head done this weekend.  There will be 3 people in this quilt.  It's going to be very LONG.  I think over 12 feet.



I'm sorry I can't reveal yet who my quilt is because I need to get a bit further along on it.

Thanks for letting me share one of my MANY problems with it.  Definitely much easier through pictures.

Happy Stitching!!  (That's where I'm heading)

     

Wordless Wednesday

Medallion QAL

I finished my top today for the Medallion QAL that Jenny at Sew Kind of Wonderful hosted.  I was really afraid of curves.  Because of how gentle the curve is, they don't scare me quite as bad anymore.  The top was supposed to be 16 blocks, but I had so much fun I made 30.  I have 6 more that I will probably add to the back of the quilt when I'm ready to quilt it.





The cancer quilt I made, made it to it's new home.  The recipient was very happy and sent me a really nice note. Yesterday evening I found out that he got some bad news.  He's made it through 4 chemo treatments and has been feeling a bit better.  Since he's at the 4 of 8 mark, it was time for an assessment.  The tumor has not shrunk at all and now there is another spot that was detected.  Tomorrow will bring yet another MRI to assess what's going on.

I can't stop thinking about him and what he's going through. I can't stop thinking about his family and extended family and what they are going through.

Frame of mind is very important when fighting cancer.  I get that, but how do you stay positive all the time?  He mentioned that it's hard to keep that positive view and not have the negative thoughts slip in.

I guess this just me typing and thinking and wanting it off my chest for a bit.  Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts.

Have a great night!  I'm off to book club shortly.  This month we read The Round House by Louise Edrich.  I'm not sure I would recommend it.  Definitely not something I would have picked on my own to read.

A Few Finishes

I'm way behind on posting and pictures, basically way behind on everything. Oh well.

First up is a quilt that I made as a graduation present for my best friend's son. He is going to Illinois State in 2 weeks. The pattern is the original Turning Twenty. I love the pattern because it allowed me to put the school t-shirt in and was just the right size. It is quick to sew together too.

 

This same friend has several brothers and the oldest was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer recently.  It really hit me hard because he's only 10 years older than us (me and my friend).  My mom also died when I was 7 of pancreatic cancer.  It's a horrible disease and very very painful.  Since I don't live close sending food wouldn't be a good idea.  Plus I'm a horrible cook and he's already sick, so no need to make his nausea worse.  Instead I decided to send a quilt to let him know that I'm thinking about him and praying for him and his family.

 
I cut out way to many blocks for the graduation quilt, so I thought why not use the same color scheme, cut out a few more and then do some embroidery.  I used the sayings "What Cancer Cannot Do" that I found on the Block Party Studios website.



I have made a bit of progress on my Medallion QAL project.  The idea was to make 16 blocks for the quilt top.  I've been having so much fun, I've got 21 done and shooting for another 15.



Well, I think that's all I have to share for now.  I'm off to work on quilting a top that I started on this weekend.  Hopefully I can finish it up tonight and possibly load another.  I'm on a mission to get some stuff finished up.  Soccer season is just around the corner, so it's nice to have something to sit and stitch on during practices.

Have a great night!!

 

Sad Realization

I had a sad age related realization last night.  I sat down to sew a label on a baby quilt and couldn't see to thread the needle.  Turning up the light didn't help, moving the needle closer to my face didn't help. 

I finally had to break down and put the reading glasses on order to see the thread and eye of the needle. 

Aging isn't all that it's cracked up to be.  But according to my Dad, it's better than the alternative.

Have a great day!!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Flimsy and Another Start

Since it seems that I need to have a million projects all going at the same time, I started another.

Jenny over at Sew Kind of Wonderful is doing a QAL using her Quick Curve Ruler.  The blocks looked fun and I have PLENTY of fabric to cut up.

Here are my blocks so far.  I'm using Lark from Amy Butler.  The colors are really bright, so it's making it a lot of to work on the blocks.



I was able to take some time off work this week with the holiday, so I was able to finish up some projects that I had started.

This is Urban Birthday, also from Sew Kind of Wonderful.  The curves are really gentle, so it makes the piecing a lot of fun.  No pinning needed.  I always swore I would never do curves, but not anymore.



The fabric is a line called Urban Angel. I bought enough to make about 3 quilt tops.  This is my 2nd one.  The grey is a Kona cotton.  Who knows when I will get this one quilted. For now it will just hang nicely folded in my quilt closet. 

Have a great day!