Everyone Gather Round!

I've got photographs!

This is Card Trick, as I mentioned it's Red, white and blue, I'm sure it will make a beautiful quilt.

This one is the Autograph Star that I get to sign, it was mostly just like the stars I put in Jessica's quilt, so I'd say, this one will turn out to be one of the easiest I do for the block challenge. It is covered in "patches" and sewing notions, including a sign I slaved to get in the proper place that says "Sewing Classes Beginner's Welcome".

This one is called Goosecreek, and will go to the wonderful lady who I swapped green fabrics for blue ones. Not my smartest move, but I do hope she likes her block.

Okay these are of a more personal nature. The one with the hearts is the quilt case for keeping Jessica's quilt in when it's finished. As you can see I've appliqued on it, so we will always know her quilt is in there safe from the wood, ect. I'm thinking perhaps it can be put on a pillow when her quilt is on the bed. Who knows, that way I wont have to keep track of it anyway.

Also here you can see the green and brown pinwheel, The center there is the leftover fabric that the directions the Housewife pattern told me to cut, but I didn't need which I post that block you will be able to see my pinwheel spins one way and the one I'm making for the lady spins the other. I put the green on it because it has a tiny bit of Brown swirl in the Batik fabric, so maybe I can tie it together and have it look nice as a pillow (as if I don't have plenty of those) or a throw, maybe in the future when I'm less crazy I'll used it in a Round Robin Challenge instead of a block challenge! And last but not least is Loretta's quilt label. Isn't it nice? DH tried to take a second photo in hopes that you could read it, but I don't think that worked... It says:

Gift from the Heart Quilt
Made Spring 2008
By Elizabeth
For Jessica Celeste
With Special Thanks to
Meghan
Heather
Stephanie
It is completed with two rose buds on each side. That is the label I will be putting on the back of the quilt for my bed, which I fully intend to have as the "up side" from time to time. Jessica's label says exactly the same thing, but I'm doing some hand embroidery, that I'm not telling you about till it's done! :D The label looks small, but really it's not. If I spread my fingers wide apart it's that big.

Yes, I did include the first and last names of everyone who gave me a part of themselves and their children's childhoods in the form of all of those wonderful hand-me-down clothes. I will be forever honored and grateful for your gifts.

Oh and you can see my dirty floor and my husband's toe too. I did not marry the man for his feet, and that's all I'm saying about that! :D

And Good Tidings to you!

Today is a pain in the knee, literally I think I smacked my knee on something. Seems like most every time I turn around something aches. I love being 27 and feeling 72! lol!

These days Jessica is picking out her own clothes. She will more than happily open her drawers as I rummage through the closet for "mom clothes" you know the ones, cotton, cool comfortable, and never ever seen on a fashion anything, except perhaps a fashion don't. Meanwhile Jessica has pulled out something fabulous and is well on her way to being completely dressed.

She's not much of morning person though. Some people have to have their morning coffee, my daughter has to have her cereal and a tv show. Doesn't matter what kind, I imagine I could turn on the history channel and she'd watch it (maybe I'll try that tomorrow). After her meal and her show she is ready for the day. Me? Oh well some days I do alright and other days I'm mom zombie in my mom clothes, that was this morning in fact.

While I tried not to drool in my tea, my husband tells me he's off to go fishing. Seriously it's not even 8 am and he's "off to go fishing!" Okay... When he got back he told me he saw a dolphin, a great big one he said! Seriously a block from my house. Aren't they supposed to be a sign of good luck? I sure hope so! I think it goes back to the days when the fishermen would go out to sea, and if they saw a dolphin that would mean there were fish nearby. My thoughts would be that dolphins are naturally curious and friendly so in theory they might help a man that was overboard. Hey it's a nice theory!

More Block Challenges

Yikes! I fiddled around with the settings so much the last time I was here, I personally did a little double take!

What's new? I'm chewing away at my block challenge blocks, I refuse to let them get the best of me. I currently have redone Buzzard's Roost to be more juvenile, which is completely crazy because someone else has made one nearly exactly the same as my first one, but whatever.

I have also completed Card Trick in red white and blue, and the autograph star in the colors of my choice, a very nice "notions print" with red details, I will be signing that one before it leaves. I am also working on "Housewife" which is brown and tan. I refuse to add my personal opinion of these blocks as it's supposed to be a challenge, and after all it's not for me. I'd imagine other's will be grumpy about my choices too. My only real complaint today (I can't seem to help it) is that the Housewife makes you cut double the fabric you need for the inner pinwheel, which could be used elsewhere or for a different project if only they told you to cut triangles instead of squares. Oh well to late now. Yippie me I get to have a second poop brown pinwheel!

I am working on the pattern for my sister's x-mas quilt hopefully she will love it, and I am seriously considering a pattern called wintergraphix for my mother.

I swapped my first fabric swap, and received two fat 1/3rds (it's a 1/3rd of a yard cut in half crosswise), one which is a lovely random blue, and the other is navy with blue flowers, hopefully both will be used in my sister's quilt.

I received the labels for Jessica's baby clothes quilt back. Bless Loretta, they are lovely and big! In the middle of her efforts her sewing machine decided it had been subjected to to much work, so there is a little embroidery detail I'm going to put in personally (by hand!) on the one that wasn't finished, and put that one on Jessica's quilt, leaving the completely machine embroidered one on to go on mine.

Crazy Weather, Dumb Puns, and Little Girl Cute

Okay, so I was wrong about the log cabin block, it only needs five of each color with a center fabric, for a total of eleven. I've now made both that were required.... One big problem. They should measure 12.5", the first one I made was just over 13" (to big). So I adjusted from a scant 1/4" (1/8" on my machine) to a 1/4". The second one I made is a 12", so it's to little! Now I figure I have to adjust my sewing machine 1/16th of an inch to fix my trouble. Yikes!

We're having CRAZY thunderstorms here. You wake up in the morning to a beautiful day, but there is thunder all around that goes on and on, like an upset stomach! Then after clouding over, it will think about rain, sometimes for hours, eventually pour, and around 1pm we were back to pretty sky and upset stomach! But now it's VERY dark (at 2pm) and heavy rain that came up all the sudden. I can't help but shake my head and think it's the Florida rainy season, as they say don't like the weather wait five minutes.

At least we're not in the north and Midwest with all the flooding! It brings to light (as I sit in the light of the pc it's gotten so dark) what my mom told me once, you have to pick the natural disasters you're willing to live with. We get hurricanes and hot temps, It hasn't snowed since before the hail storm in June when I was pregnant with Jessica in 2005! hehee. oh when it rains it pours. Is that two puns in one paragraph? I have to quilt that (oopps I meant quit that). To much typing about quilts I suppose.

Let's see let's have a different note. I love this state. I do, really I do. I love being in a cold grocery store in June and walk out into the HOT (some would say sweltering heat) of the parking lot and the feeling you get as your nose warms back up. I love that even though I'm not quite warm I'll feel like a lizard on a hot rock by the time I get into that hot car.

LOL, did I mention the thermostat on my air conditioner broke? Yep, it either RUNS,'n,RUNS,'n,RUNS, or it's off. Lovely hu? Lucky for me this crazy weather doesn't have it to hot today, though yesterday before we knew what was wrong with the ac it was up over 87 inside when we were putting Jessica to bed.

Now my daughter is a joy. Just yesterday her daddy was giving her trouble about her wanting help in the bathroom, mostly she just wants you to sit there and make sure everything comes out okay, hand her some tp, etc. A big part of the time she doesn't even want you there, just sometimes, it's a comfort thing. So daddy didn't want to supervise the bathroom, and I was busy with who knows what. So he's razzing her to get her to do it alone, when she interrupts him in the most darling voice and says "Daddy, I'm just a little girl!"

I nearly busted a gut right then and there! It makes me want to squeal with delight over her zest! She has more personality than most adults smushed up in her little body.

Oh but wait! There's more. So her daddy gives in and helps her, and says "yes, honey I know you're a little girl." Finished my daughter walks out of the bathroom and runs to me, "daddy called me a little girl!" Oh my, what a world, what a world!

The pitfalls of learning.

Oh my, oh my... I'm not even sure what to say. I joined a Block Challenge Group, where we have to make 12 quilt blocks. No big deal, right? WRONG, these Blocks are the EXACT color of each member's selection. (for instance I have to make TWO long cabin quilts needing 42 different fabrics!) Not to mention how specific some of these requests are. And in case you didn't catch it above each block is the pattern selection of each individual in our group, so some are no big deal, but most are "oh my are you serious?!?!" My deadline is Jan. 2009 thank goodness!

I made the first one today. The request was to use the Buzzard's Roost Pattern, with a bright juvenile print and two coordinating brights. Now, this photo is my dh's camera phone and it make the colors crazy! That blanket is WHITE AND TEAL, not yellow, and the turtle that looks red is really brown and hardly shows at all. The killer whales look like they have white on them, but it's really all shades of blue, hence the blue and teal (that I spent at least 1/2 an hour last night matching...)


I've been very concerned about the above project, since the realization of just how many fabrics I need to buy... Of course I didn't mention my dh was fired on Father's Day. Yes, horror of my horrors, to have my husband without a job in this awful job market. (sigh) Since I blew up (again) over it this morning, I have been trying very hard to remain calm and pray. (sigh)

Quilt Trivia

I'm now hard wired to the Internet. Less portable than before, but oh so much faster than that silly card!

Hmm, let's see. I made a handkerchief halter top, certainly for beating around the house, not much else, but oh so cool and comfortable! I made another neonatal quilt blankie. That reminds me I have got to get those quilt sizes so I can work on the next bigger size, I didn't want to make the wrong size and have to redo it.

I finished a pillow for Jessica yesterday. One side has the Ohio star quilt block and the other has the heart block. The binding is the backing that will be used on her quilt, which I did swirls and curls all over. She liked it so much she stuck it on her dresser and hasn't touched it since. A good thing? I'm not sure.

The quilt block swap that I'm going to be part of will be putting out information soon. I'm rather excited about that. I can hardly stand to go and pick out fabrics.

I am going to make a blue quilt for my sister for Christmas, I'm not sure what else I will use, but I have begun collecting blue fat quarters and have been considering a kings cross block, if only because I watched a quilting show the other day that told me how to make it with all different fat quarters. What is a "fat quarter"? A fat quarter is also sometimes called a "flat quarter". If you go to the fabric store and tell them you want 1/4 of a yard they cut 1/4 of a yard off the fabric long ways. So you get a piece of fabric that is around 44" X 9". But if you buy a fat quarter you get a piece that is around 22"X18"! How you ask? A fat quarter is a yard cut in half, and then cut in half again the OTHER way. Resulting in rectangle better suited for cutting. There are books galore that utilize fat quarters, because it's little enough to give you a great variety and also allows you to play with the quality of the fabric without going for the entire yard. Lately, I've been buying 1/2 yards and cutting them up the middle and sharing one of the halves. Trust me it's loads of fun to know you don't HAVE TO buy the whole yard. Joann's puts their fat quarters (which they call flat quarters) on sale for $1 each ALL the time, any print. That's only about $4, not a bad deal at all. So why you ask am I paying around $20 a month to be part of a Bali Batik fat quarter club? I'm not really sure... All I can figure is that it's because they are coming so nicely matched?

None of this is to be confused with FAT BACKS fat backs are a trademark name that one simply wonderful store sells. Just one lovely FAT BACK will cover the entire back of your quilt, no piecing required.

So I suppose the simple way to keep it straight, is Fat Quarters for fronts, and Fat Backs for the Backs.

I'm sure that's enough for now. So here's hoping all of you have a Happy Father's Day. I couldn't wake up enough to wish my husband a Happy Father's Day, and of course my father is dead, so I have spent the day fighting the pain in my foot to make a Giant Cookie Cake for my husband. Lucky me I can have this short break during nap time, before I have to pull out all the stops for dh's favorite dinner. Did anyone else see those Blue SuperMan-SuperDad gift bags at Hallmark? DH is getting one of those, filled with goodies.

Moving Right Along...

I have added the third and final border to the second heart quilt. It looks amazing. I am about 3/4 of the way picking out the stabilizer from the second quilt. What a challenge! That leaves me with getting the batting for both quilts (I am seriously considering a flame suppressing batting) and a back for the second quilt.

I have found a longarmer! This lady is wonderful. She wants some personal information about Jessica's babyhood, in order to quilt it into her designs. So far I am very happy with all that she has to say. Perhaps best of all she has lots of experience working with different fabrics so I don't have to worry there either. She is Bev at Quilt Tree

My LAN card got sick of being slammed around and broke into several pieces, DH is promising I'll be back and as good as new come Thursday. We'll see I suppose. So take care and pass the love around.

Yes, more on me...

Hi There Everyone,

Today I wrapped up the sashing for the second heart quilt and started putting the first border on. This quilt will have at least two borders possibly three, I'm not sure yet.

I have three queries out there for having the quilting done on these quilts. The last lady I mentioned before did not pan out, as it has been nearly 2 weeks since I last heard from her. Clearly not someone I want doing my quilting. The three new people are one company who contracts out to Amish ladies to hand quilt them, one who uses a computer guided long arm machine, and last but my current favorite, is a lady who claims to pattern and create based on the quilt itself. Which of course would please me to no end.

The tides are funky tonight so DH wont be getting home until 1AM, pretty bad when you consider he will have to be up and headed back to work at 6AM. So that leaves me to take my box of cut squares of fabric off to bed and work out some pattern for the second border. Hmm, maybe I'll think of something to eat for dinner while I'm at it.

Photo Updates!

I have photos, yep I can hardly believe it myself. Firstly the quilt top is done. It's been done since Friday. Each corner has a applique or patch from Jessica's clothes that didn't quite fit in the quilt. The "daddy's girl" is one, with "if they could just stay little", "our baby", and a super soft polar bear from a snowy white sleeper that I bought make up the other three.

Saturday we went to Wally World to buy fabric for the lady who will be making my quilt label. I wanted to pick up some things to make a nice goodie bag for her and my daughter found POLKA DOTS! I'm sure Walt Disney had no idea what a polka dot revolution he started with Minnie Polka Dotted Dresses. So now, because I'm a sap, and wanted to try my hand at it, I made a sun dress for my daughter. Yes, you see it correctly those are green polka dots on pink. We also bought the shoes that same day, they are the light weight ones that feel like they are made from foam. I'm proud to say the ENTIRE outfit was $10!!!



This is the center of my nine patch the applique heart wreath I think I mentioned. I have no idea what to put in the center I was going to put in a bunny as was in the heart wreath's on my "Bunny" quilt from when I was little, but alas the bunny pattern has been lost, so I will either have to make my own or do something else.



And last but never least, I have two of my perinatal charity quilts done. This is the extra small preemie size, I'll need three like this. I put that satin binding on it, though that stuff is $4 a pack from Wally World, which blew me away, here's hoping the three packs I bought will make all the quilts (somehow I'm doubting it).