Shifts

So I started a new new blog a while back, anticipating doing a lot of charity work that I didn't necessarily want to show off about to the whole world of people who know me in real life.  Since quilting for everyone BUT me has pretty much taken over, I don't really post here anymore.  I feel kind of weird "polluting" this blog which was meant to be a journal of my first quilting experience for my mom anyway, so I think I'm going to let this one rest and make the move completely.  Obviously, this one won't be deleted or anything, but I just won't keep trying to post here anymore.  You can find me at

http://momimadethemaquilt.blogspot.com

Aren't I so clever?  :-)

work in progress

but there is progress! sorry it's sideways, I'll fix that in the morning. for now, it's a bouquet. ish.

everybody say oooh ahhh

check it out, a new style of flower! me gusta.

Success and Failure

That's my quilt!!  That teeny tiny little thing is completely SWAMPED by it, but that's the quilt I made for him!  It says his name on it!  That's Levi!  She really did bring it with her to the hospital!  I'm so flattered!!

And then there was this:

Yikes.  It looks like something a kindergärtner would laugh at.  Miserable.  That's my first attempt at an Ohio Star, and my first time using a real Jelly Roll.  This is Martinique from Moda.  Might be 3 sisters, I can't remember.  This is supposed to be for the new room...it's kind of a miserable train wreck though.

It looked so pretty on the floor...what the heck happened???  I guess if it looks good on the floor, something's amiss.  I need to work my measurements backwards from the jelly roll.  That's probably what I'll be doing tomorrow since it's my last day at TMW and I have literally nothing to do except turn my fob in.

Southwestern Strings

I finally got all the blocks for Alishia's string quilt done.  Gotta say...strings might not be my favorite kind of quilt.  Man they take a long time.

I tried a few layouts and sent her pictures, and in the end she picked small diamonds.  Here were the options:

The Big X.

The Big Diamond.

The Little Diamonds.

Maybe I'll call this Alishia's Stringy Diamonds.  Or maybe something less stupid.  In any case, that's what I'm working on tonight.

I also got 3 more QFK kits in the mail.  Pictures to come.

**** Quick Update ****

Here's the top as of the end of the night.  The middle is all sewn together, but the borders aren't on yet. I am LOVING how the border fabric ties everything in so nicely.  Click for a bigger image...it's teal flowers on a brown background.  I couldn't have designed a better fabric!

Friday Fave Five

Phew, another week gone by already??  The days are getting longer, so how can these weeks keep getting shorter??  It's been a great week though.  I'm pretty sure it rained Monday, but the past couple of days the weather has been so great that I honestly don't remember if it did or not.

On that note, my Friday Fave Five:

1. Summer beer.  God bless the Germans, they know their beer and they know what to do with it.  This lovely little concoction is half UFO (Hefeweizen) and half lemonade.  That's right, lemonade.  Any white beer works, but the unfiltered kinds tend to work best I think.  It tastes like summer.  I had one glass last night and just wanted to jump in Helen and drive. (Wendy, Helen is the van.  Yes, that VW beauty is our van...she's our first child, for all intents and purposes.  She needs a lotta lovin' and some new tires, but she's pretty badass.  She made it all the way up to Newfoundland and back last summer, with only a few small mishaps along the way.  You'll hear plenty more about Helen in the coming weeks though, I'm sure.  I'm going to need to fix up her canvas by hand, so there will be reports.)

Anyways, don't judge me on the glass...MOTU doesn't have a dishwasher, so it's sort of the dish equivalent of laundry day right now.  Good thing he's working from home today and has sworn to do it before I get there...I HATE doing dishes by hand.  HATE IT.

2. Project success!  I decided to make my cousin (who just had a baby) a diaper bag instead of a stuffed animal of some sort, and it came out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself!

I won't lie though...I cut out double the pieces and plan on making one more of these.  I'll send her the better one and keep the other one for myself.  Maybe I'll get more fabrics and turn this into my giveaway prize. I love the colors on this though.  The butterflies is light courderoy (fine bumps) and the pink is coarse courderoy (big bumps).  The gray is just thick lineny material I found...I really dig it as the inside of the bag though, it's nice and heavy but still washable.  The whole thing is machine washable actually.

3. My kitty.  He is just so...special.  Thursday night, I was making dinner and heard him making the same noise he made when Shelby ate his food the first time...this long, low howl that kind of raises the hairs on the back of my neck.  It's eerie.  I went to find him, and he was looking out the storm door to the back yard.  It was after dark, so I figured he'd been conversing with another kitty outside.  I didn't see one run away, so I flipped the porch light on...nothing.  Grisgris stopped howling and started sniffing at the door, but didn't see his friend anymore so he started purring.  I turned the light back off and went to walk away, but as soon as I turned back around Grisgris started howling again.  I went over to see what he was looking at and realized...he was howling at his shadow on the ground outside!!!  It looked like a black kitty and kept moving around (because he did), so he thought there was an intruder who wouldn't talk to him!  I about fell on the floor I was laughing so hard.

He reminds me a lot of Alex the Lion from Madagascar. Pretty boy, kinda slow, goes completely wild sometimes, but all in all he means well.

He jumped out a window (first floor) yesterday to get outside, then hid under the trailer every time I tried to get him back in.  He's a little punk.  But I love him dearly.

4. One more week!  I have to say, every time I make the commute in or out now, I am a little more excited about not making it ever again.  Even on the good days, it still takes 45 minutes plus each way and I'm just so over that.  I can't wait until I can bike to work again too.  And have time in the evenings to run, cook, AND sew.

5. Spring skimpies!  This is what MOTU calls it.  At first, I was sort of offended (or at least annoyed) by both the term and the attention, but let's face it...it's a seasonal rite of passage.  What woman doesn't love that first day where it's technically still a little cool out, but darn it, it's been months since your shoulders have seen the sun so it's time for a tank top?  Apparently the boys love this time of year as well...the first day that women suddenly *aren't* wearing hoodies and parkas and jeans...some of us opt for the hoodie and shorts, some opt for tank top and jeans.  Personally, I know my legs glow in the dark so I'm all for jeans.  What's your spring skimpy style?

Addendum:

Another fave for this Friday?  The Friday Night Sew-In, of course!!

I'll have another post later to organize my thoughts for tonight.  I know I'm going to make another bag, and I'll probably put the top together for Emily's Matilda's baby blanket.  It's a pink/green/white rail fence, nothing spectacular.  I think I'll call it Fencing Matilda.

Also, I need to start doing labels for my quilts.  The QFK ones came with labels, but I didn't put one on Abby's Road.  I thought about it and sort of meant to, but then got excited about sending it to her and forgot entirely.  Mom made a great post about this in her blog this week, which is funny since I'd meant to ask her when we talked the other day anyways.  Great minds and all that.  :-)  

Design (Table) Monday

Here's what I've been working with:

You see the washer/dryer in the background there?  That's my ironing board.  No, it is not at all effective.  Especially not when the iron's steam feature goes haywire and sprays everywhere.  Nope.

Here's my "stash".  It's pretty sad, huh?  Sigh.

Here's a picture I like though.  Everything I completed this weekend, and a pair of socks.  They're clean, don't worry.

3 Finishes!!!

See what happens when my machine actually works??  Check these puppies out:

First up, three of my four Quilts for Kids:

That's (top to bottom) "The Robots Win", "Treasure Everywhere", and "Ninjas Kick Butt!"

The label close up of "The Robots Win".

Notice the top border?  I was using the backing as border fabric, got done with 3 sides, then realized there was not even close to enough to finish out the quilt...I was about 6 inches shy!  Fortunately, I had what you see of the green stuff from "Treasure Everywhere", so I ripped out everything back around to the top, added the green as the top border, continued along, and now I have about 18 inches of the red stuff left.  Oh well, you can't win them all.  :-)  I'm saving all my scraps from these to make some kind of "Scraps for Kids" quilt once I've got enough.  The mini pinwheel will definitely be part of it.

"Treasure Everywhere"

Label closeup for "Treasure Everywhere".  I think the picture above this is more representative of the actual colors in this. 

I always scoffed at my mom when she said "make sure you change your needle every time you hit a pin."  I was like "pshaw, who hits pins??"  I do, that's who.  Wowee.  This sucker snapped off, hit me in the cheek (I feel like I should be wearing safety goggles!), and landed on the quilt.  I had a heck of a time getting the basting pin off.  Can you see the hole the needle punched in it??  Yikes.  Needless to say, I changed my needle. 

Scariest part to me...washing everything.  I put it on the meanest cycle (hot/cold, longest wash) to make sure they could all take it.  They came out fine (see first picture).  Even the waves held up...phew!

Of course, Grisgris was helpful, as ever. 

And now...are you ready for this? 

Presenting, for the first time...ABBY'S ROAD!!!  

He was so much cuter on there like 5 seconds before, but the batteries died in my camera and MOTU was asleep so I couldn't ask where he'd put the spares.  Oh well, you get the idea.  He likes it, so it must be ok, right?  :-)

Here it is, folded with a glimpse of the backing fabric.  The whole thing feels so much friendlier now that it's washed.  This one, too, survived the wash (I held my breath all night lol).

And finally, the finished pile.  I'll be shipping everything either today or tomorrow, depending on how nasty the weather is...so far it's looking like it's gonna be tomorrow (it's pouring and in the mid-30's...blech).  That might change if I get cabin-crazy though lol.

teeny tiny scrappy little pinwheel

from the ends I cut last night from the borders for the qfk quilts. thinking one of these days I'll have a "scraps for kids" quilt.

What a great day!!!

What a great day!  Work flew by (partially thanks to good Indian food with good friends), then I came home and checked my mail for the first time in a week...look! 

How stinkin' cute is this pin cushion???  SO much better than the tube o' fluff I call a pincushion right now!  And Verna!!  I have no idea what I'm gonna do with those...any ideas?  It seems like a cruel joke to give you just one small square of each of the beautiful fabrics!  

And the back...thanks, Heidi!!!  The card totally made my day, too!!! 

THEN, I got home, got a call from my best friend, Jimmy, who totally NAILED his interview today (and whose girlfriend I adore, which is great since they live in MD which is close to Quantico).  AND THEN!!  I got the best news of the day, in email form!  The worst part of my day is the fact that I'm not yet at liberty to talk about the contents of that email!!!  Suffice it to say though, if that email is followed by the phone call I'm hoping for, the next couple of days could be pivotal...literally life-changing!  We're talking big, big, big changes here.  (Ok, maybe not like "you're pregnant" life changes, but still...big enough!)

In any case, I'll keep you posted! 

Tonight I'll be putting some binding on those QFK quilts.  After watching the video posted here, I'm way more inspired to get these puppies out the door!

Pizza in the oven smells done and MOTU just got home so I should get off his computer now!  Ciao ladies (and gents)!

have box, will travel

what you're seeing is the makings for 4 quilts, crammed into a box so I don't have to watch tv all weekend. this is 2 QFK quilts and abby's road, basted, then a third QFK kit, and the completed QFK quilt. so I was wrong...5 quilts.

tumbleweeds

it's so empty and sad. I found myself apologizing (yes, out loud) to the fabrics and threads I left behind.

how freaking cute is this???

this came in the mail today! I'm using it for my wrapped in hope quilt...thinking maybe cutting out the squares and putting extra borders around them so they're 6 inches finished. theyr 3 inches right now

magical binding

I could bind this sucker 3 or 4 times over with what I prepared. oops. it looks like a magician's scarf trick :)

fnsi #1

the beginning state of me sewing room last night. these pix are gonna come one at a time, sorry

fnsi #2

he steals my spot every time I get up. don't let the comfy pose fool you, he barely got up there because I barely left.

fnsi#3

my attempt at creating a kitty corner

fnsi#4

he left and sulked on my bed for a while then wandered back in a while later

fnsi#5

I took a quick break to make myself a pin cushion. nothing fancy.

fnsi#6

I think I'm calling this one "treasure everywhere". it's quilts for kids #3 and the first top finish for the night.