Finishes

Christmas quilt that should have been finished last July. Finally done.


Horrible picture, but I snapped it when Grace was explaining her artwork to her dad.

Design Wall & Creative Munchkin

Can I first say that I'm sick of cold and snow and I'm really ready for spring.

With that said here are a couple pictures of Grace. Since she hasn't been to school this week and has decided to get creative with fabric. I helped with the sewing but she did all the fabric picking and arranging, etc. and created her own little quilt top.







The thread kept breaking so we didn't get very far tonight. I think it's probably because she's moving the machine so slllllooooooowwwww and I turned the speed down. I think when we go back at it tomorrow I will turn the speed up a bit. Crazy thing is, she gets it. She made a flower on one of the first blocks. I asked what she was doing and she said Well making a flower of course. Such attitude.  :-)

On the design wall is another t-shirt quilt, which I will spare you pictures of. I'm working on a "I Spy" top. I used my Go cutter hexagon and triangle dies. So have I mentioned that I LOVE my Go cutter? I love working with the shapes that I wouldn't normally cut myself. Hexagons definitely on that list.



The top has grown since I took the picture.  The hexagons are cut from 6" blocks that I cut from the remains of other baby quilts and just threw in a box. That's a perfect size to put on the die and not have a lot of waste.

School has been cancelled already for tomorrow.  I suspect we will finish quilting a quilt top and have pictures to show.

Have a great night.

Poor Dog

You will have to click on the picture to see it in full size view. The story behind the picture is that Grace decided to take Buddy for a walk around the yard. When I agreed, I didn't realize it meant she would be driving the Barbie Jeep and Buddy walking beside. The picture is what I saw when I looked out the bedroom window.

I love my little girl. There is never a dull moment with her.

My story for tonight is that I got her into bed. She really doesn't like being in her room by herself. I've been working really hard to keep her out of our bed. She announced that I should spend the night with her in her room. I said I thought that would be acceptable. The next comment was what made me smile. Well Mom, how about Tuesday? Does that work for you?

Have a great night!

Dresses

Alas, another project finished. Sad to be reminded by a 4-year old that I had dresses to finish for her. There are now 3 new sundresses to wear to preschool and someone is very excited.

I also made binding and binding and more binding last night. Extent of the evening.

My hope is get another quilt on the frame tonight and possibly start it.

Have a great day!!

P.S. - Thanks Pam for the purple fairy fabric. It's definitely the favorite.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!!

Snow Day

This is what we woke up to this morning. It rained all night and then turned to snow at some point. Now it's just wet and yucky outside.

In attempt to find something to do that didn't involve a movie or TV, I fused some fabric and decided we were going to make "art quilts" that were sunny and flowery. The best part is that the fabric came from Laura Wasilowski.

When in Chicago last, the munchkin and I hit the Mancuso quilt show and the vendor mall. Laura was selling some of her remnants. Grace (aka the munchkin) couldn't stand it and had to have a bag of fabric. Who am I to tell her no?

Anyhow, this is what we made this morning.

Pretty darn good for a 4 year old. I did the cutting with the rotary cutter and Grace did the picking and placing. She announced that she had to have a bird house. I made the pieces, but didn't realize her intent was for a 2 story house. So I made another square and VOILA!!! I also did the ironing, although it was somewhat of a fight to keep her from trying to help with that.

This is my rendition.

I will just need to do some quilting on both of them and then we will have 2 "springy" quilts to look at.

This will sound corny I'm sure, but I think I'm going to hang them in our guest bathroom. There is nothing in the bathroom that adds any kind of interest to the walls. I think if I put both of our pieces of art in there, then there will definitely be something interesting to look at.

Just have to share this picture too, because it makes me smile. I pulled out the big blocks and was trying to figure out what to do with them. I want to get the crazy top finished and quilted so that I can strike another thing off my list. Grace decided she wanted to help with the arranging. This is her rendition of what the quilt top should look like. (I placed the high pieces, she did the rest) I think it might be a bit wide and short if I keep it according to her plan. Oh well, budding artist in the making.

Busy Busy

We had crazy weather here today. When I left the house for work it was 52*. By the time I made it to work and was heading in, I heard the DJ say the temp was 21*. I was only in the car for 1/2 an hour. Then on top of the cold front that moved in, we had Chicago type wind and blowing snow. Would have been a GREAT day to stay in and sew.

Tonight I was busy busy busy. I finished UFO #3 (top) Jelly Roll (Moda - Celebrate Spring) baby quilt. It's very similar to one I posted previously. I must have something for wrinkles. Seems that there is one in almost every picture - oh well.

I also made a bag for my 4 year old. She saw the exact purse and pattern when we went to Quiltfest in Chicago in November. Quiltsmart was the booth we got the pattern at. Very slick. The idea was to take the thinking and measuring out of making the bag and they succeeded. They provided printed interfacing and all you do is fuse the chosen fat quarters, cut and sew. Very very simple. I think it took me all of 1/2 an hour to make the complete bag. The worst part was trying to turn the handles right side out. I'm always challenged by that though.

Modeled by the Bag Model (acting goofy)

Tomorrow night I'm going to try and get the other 2 bags done that I committed to.