Feathered Star Quilting!

The Feathered Star Baby Quilt went into the sewing machine today!  I've completed all of the machine quilting for the center of the quilt and I'm now working on the borders. I made a beautiful pieced flannel backing, but the camera is out of juice so that will have to wait until the quilting is done.

Spouse Q&A

It seems fellow bloggers have a Q&A going around, and you know me I had to participate.

♥ What are your middle names
Ann & Edward

♥ How long have you been together?
8 years

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We were introduced in 1996 and worked together from July 2000 through Sept 2001 before thinking about dating.

♥ Who asked who out
Offically I did.

♥ How old are each of you?
29 and 39

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
mine

♥ Do you have any children together?
yes, 1

♥ What about pets?
two cats two birds and a slew of fish

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
I have no idea maybe it was the Hurricanes in '04, or unemployment from  in '07-'08, or maybe it's my disability.  In retrospect as long as we have each other the hard parts slip away.

♥ Did you go to the same school?
nope

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Where I lived as a baby was a block from where DH lived as a child.

♥ Who is the smartest?
Mathwise and Science is DH, English Language is me

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
Rob

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Caposey's

♥ Who has the worst temper?
Rob

♥ Who does the cooking?
Me.

♥ Who is more social?
Oddly Rob

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
me

♥ Who is the more stubborn?
Rob

♥ Who hogs the bed?
Me

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Rob

♥Where was your first date?
Officially Melting Pot, unoffically Chili's

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Me

♥ Do you get flowers often?
Isn't that what my Rose Garden is for?

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
Together, once we ran away with Jessica to our favorite hotel for Thanksgiving.

♥ Who is more jealous?
LOL!  Neither

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Second date?

♥ Who eats more?
Rob

♥ Who does/did the laundry?
I think it's split 60% me - 40% Rob

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Me but he's more patient

Lounge around

This morning I made the pants to match the top I made for Jessica a week or two ago.  The front has one breast pocket where as the back has two little heart pockets.  Both the top and the bottom is made using only french seams, I'm keeping at this because I really like the weight of the finished garment when sewed this way, not to mention one day I'll buy silk for those lounge pants DH wants, and when I sew those I'll only get one shot, so they better be right! 

Since most of these clothes will be Christmas gifts I find myself in a catch 22, when Jessica is at school I can make her things, but when Rob is home I can not work on his stuff. I have 1 yard of Barbie logo print that I'll be using to make something for Jessica, I'm not certain just what, and I have two or three more things to make for my husband.

Holiday Greetings from your Local Toilet?

When I was little my Grandmother had a cornucopia on the back of her toilet. Every Thanksgiving she would fill it with Thanksgiving type things, I recall leaves and squash but I'm certain there was more and the rest of the time it had little guest towels in it. Well Grandma must have been sitting on my shoulder today, as I began to wish for one of my own, a table runner of sorts to spread over my table this Thanksgiving. I had a pattern from my "Quilt for All Seasons" book, but oddly I didn't have any orange fabric. Orange was my Grandmother's favorite color, or so she told me (perhaps to get me to use the orange crayon) so I'm rather partial orange fabric when I'm feeling sentimental.

So no Orange Fabric?!?!  What is a girl to do?  I've been meaning to use crayons in a child themed quilt but hadn't gotten around to it, so this was the perfect time to try.  I used the applique pattern pieces and traced them through onto unbleached muslin, but the color detailing and layout is all me.  Must have been all those college art classes I took.

Before I could bring myself to iron my work, I colored up a sample, which I'm certain to use in something.  Isn't it great when things set just how you wish they would?

I think it's time for a Stormy Update as well. This is by far this is the closest color match to what Stormy really looks like. It was taken AFTER the sun had set - with me back to my yellow living room light. That's certainly not what I read up on how to take a photo. Go figure.

Best Hiding Spot

Today I made two pairs of Lounge Pants.  The pair above will be headed over to my mom's house to live with my brother.  Aren't those Monkeys silly?  I also made a blue pair, you can see the teal blue fabric that I used in the post below, just look for the fabric to the left of my daughter's head that looks like a teal blue blender.  (Not the water fabric on the right that's a different project)

I think I'm pretty smart with those, I put the finished pants right back in my "fabric for current projects" pile.  Somehow I don't think my dear husband will notice that it's not fabric sitting there. 

Still Me

Yes it's still me.  I thought it was high time I too had a nice pretty quilt in my header.  What do you think?  That's my very first double sided quilt, which I made for my sister for Christmas last year.  The back is a two color quilt and the front is pieced and embroidered. 

I have a confession.  I've been trying to make some headway on my to do list.  Do you know what happens when you do that?  Your brain keeps comming up with more projects and more things to do!  Why is that a confession?  Well some of you put away preserves this time of year and for that I give you two thumbs up.  Not me though...  I've been hoarding fabric!  I'm quite ashamed now that I've cleaned up a bit and I can really see the bulk of my hoarding.  Most all of the fabrics are targeted at a project even (instead of stash purchases).  I'm certain when I placed the first big order as my birthday present, my husband thought I'd be done for a while. 

When my neighbor cleaned her own stash I was over the moon.  Then when she brough me two bags that had been donated to the Hospice where she volunteers I was on cloud nine.  Then there was a huge fabric sale...  Now I'm just another victim of fabric overdose and I want even more still...

Stormy's Beginnings

I have a new knitting project. Which I'm calling Stormy. No it's nothing inspirational just the name of the wonderful yarn that I'm using. This thick yarn has sucked in all of my knit stitches so both the front and the back look like rows and rows of pearl stitches. I think it's rather pretty, what do you think? This scarf will be headed off to Shelly, so I'll be updating here as I work on it for all to see.

The Back for the Apple Quilt is done. I'm so glad. It was touch and go with this one for a while. It's a bit more "folk art" than I usually like. The entire Apple Quilt was a self challenge for me to put colors together that I wouldn't have selected to work with under other circumstances. This quilt started out life as a Jelly Roll. My first one in fact. To have come so far on just one Jelly Roll must be some sort of testament.

Shelly has generously offered to quilt this one on her Lizzie, so I left plenty of extra fabric all around.  I've never had anything longarmed before, so I'm a little nervous!  Here's hoping she wont curse me to much while this one is with her!

Does anyone have any thoughts why all my photos today have lines running through them?  I even used different settings.  Maybe the batteries are getting low?

Autumn Has Arrived!

Here is the quilt back I'm working on for the apple quilt.  It's a bit bigger than I need it to be, so the gray and plaid borders will need a bit of adjusting in size.  I started with the Apple Tree and hope to move on to the pirate ship this afternoon.

This year for Halloween I envisioned my family working together for the good of the family pumpkin.  Oddly that didn't happen and my attempts to get the three of us together to work on it fell flat.  Kudos to those of you with older children and bigger families, I don't know how you do it.  So last night I hauled the pumpkin out of where it had been banished and started working on it after Jessica went to bed.  Before to long my husband pitched in which was good.

We don't carve our pumpkins as you can see.  This year I'm hoping to gut it and turn it into pumpkin pie right after Halloween.  My cousin swears it can be done with a normal pumpin so we shall see.  Because of the way we made the Princess Pumpkin's hair we were able to have a two faced pumpkin this year, which hubby really enjoyed creating.

 

That's all folks hope you have a great fun filled day!

Fish or Food?

Here are the Almond Clusters. When I was photographing them they reminded me of koi. You know the really big goldfish? There is a restaurant in Orlando called Ming Court and they have huge Koi that will come completely out of the water to have a bite of the fish food that tourists can buy for change. I'm not sure if these will find their way off to the bake sale, as they might just have to say home with me.

Friday I sewed up this cute flannel top.  I'm planning matching pants with pockets on the back using the same cat fabric from the front.  I'd also like to have the cuffs in the same cat fabric, but as I only have scraps of the cat print I'm not certain I'll have enough.

Good Blogger, Bad Blogger

Seriously what makes good bloggers vs. bad bloggers? Is it our ability to stick to whatever subject that our blog is about? Because if that's the case I'd still be talking about my 2 year old and not quilting at all. Thank goodness I'm a bad blogger. Because I really like what comes out of my sewing machine. Not to mention I love it when others share a bit about themselves while sharing their choosen medium.

What sets us apart? Is it great photos? (because you're not getting any today I feel like my allergies hit me right on my honker) Is it how often we blog? Our giveaways? When I don't blog for a while I think gee "bad blogger me", yet it's our lives that make our blogs interesting...

Or perhaps it's just that it's an outlet for others like us to find each other in our own creative environments? If that's the case then I'm as happy as a lark.

I have an opps of the week. I'm certain if it was a contest I'd win this week. The Student Council at Jessica's school is having their first bake sale. I wanted to contribute (and baking sounded like fun) so I pulled out the best Sugar Cookie Recipe I have (I've perfected dozens and dozens of cookie batches - believe me or not). This time I made three batches. I was certain all of my cookies would be gone as they were especially cute pumpkins, ghosts, and leaves. Then when I was 90% baking all of them I tasted one of the first. Something was not right at all.

Jessica loved them and ate 4 the first day... But still I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with them. Around dinner time it hit me. I FORGOT to put sugar in. Oh yes the only sugar in them is the sugar on top of them. So much for that. Rob is out buying nuts so we can make cashew clusters and peanut brittle as I'm burned out on cookies for the time being.  At least Jessica thinks they're great.

Keep that Gal Sewing!

I love the patterning DH did on the scarf he made.  I'm glad it was his project not mine.

I have the best news the third scarf is done!  I finished it last night, I just need to weave in the bits of yarn sticking out.  DH started another one blur crochet this time.  That will bring out donated scarves to four.  Not bad.

This is the one I made.  It was 80 rows garter knit, 11 rows of pearl, repeat. UGH way to much counting!

Jessica made off with the bolster, just like she does with all the good stuff.

AS for today I've spent most of the day sewing, I've been working on cutting down the two bags of fabric my neighbor gave me.  I made a blue bolster pillow for a Christmas gift (shhh) and capri's for me (out of this amazing fabric that breathes!)  There is an ugly Charmeuse Polyester in that I haven't decided if it will become pants for my husband or not.  Aren't I a kind and considerate wife to take this time and concern over ugly fabric?   I also have 3 yards of an amazing bottom weight fabric (that DH has already complimented on) which I have great plans to turn into a godet skirt, I'll do that just as soon as I can get my hands on a bit of black for detailing work.

 My favorite part of these pants is the zigzag detail!

QUILTS?!?!?!  Well I'll tell you about quilts. 

1.  That Cat Quilt is the one at the top of my pile right now and while I keep playing with layouts, I don't know what to do about it.  I'd really like butterflies in it somehow...

2.  I've decided that the Spring Sampler MUST have a border to bring the quilt together.

3.  My pile of quilts to be quilted is getting scary big.  I found a darning foot that I'm hoping DH can alter a bit to fit the Brother machine so that I can try my hand at free motion.

Magic Seeds Grow a Magic Cactus

Earlier this afternoon my daughter said something that I just had to share.  She told me that if we had magic beans we could grow a magic cactus that would reach all the way up into the clouds and then we climb it all the way up to heaven.

The top photo is what our cactus looks like now.  Not really Magic, but it does grow pretty fast.  This second photo is of the "trunk".  The entire plant could have fit into this photograph when we first bought our house.

While Jessica's creative mind is a bit different than what is traditional, there are times I very much wish I could climb a cactus if only for a visit.  Our cactus is pretty much thorn free with the tiny "2mm" thorns mostly only found on the new growth, but I still wouldn't let Jessica touch it for the photo.

What Would You do, without a Router?

Yesterday I must have been having to much fun because our router burned up.  Something about the ac/dc converter box.  Pain in the rear is what I'd call it.  It was working and then all of the sudden with no warning zip gone. 

While my DH is still in the process of installing the new one I'm back and raring to go.  While I was away from the Internet I FINALLY pieced together the blocks for the Spring Sampler.  It looks differently than I intended but that's okay as it contains only stash busting fabrics.  It's a twin quilt measuring in at 90" x 55"  I'll be pulling out the quilt I made for my daughter to measure before I decide if I'll be adding a border or not.

As always you can click on the photos to see them better.

Fall Quilt Festival 2009

Welcome to Sand and Sunshine, where you get a bit of both.  I'm so excited about this Fall Quilt Festival.  Amy gave out hints so I was able to give some thought to which quilt I would enter and here it is.

I try to make all of my quilts double sided especially baby quilts like this one.

My dearly beloved sister loves to put of buying baby shower gifts to the very last minute.  She also loves to have me make quilts for her to give away.  I try very hard to find the best quality softest flannel so maybe that's the appeal.  I haven't been able to say no to my sister yet, but this one was by far my favorite. 

My sister was the teacher's aid at a local elementary school last year and the teacher she was helping was expecting a little boy over this past summer.  I just had to include the embroidered letters and the pretty greens.

ABC's at 26 letters don't divide to make good dimensions for a baby quilt, so after hoping around looking at baby quilt photos on other blogs I made these stars.  Each expressing words of hope that parents have for each and all of their children.

When the quilt was finished I felt it was perhaps more of a toddler quilt for the years to come so I added this little receiving blanket too.

I asked my sister the other day how the mom and baby were doing and she told me she hasn't seen the mom since she gave her the quilts. So my two quilts are out there, hopefully keeping a little boy warm and safe. I like to think these two quilts are loved with every fiber they are made of. I'd rather seen it worn to tatters than hidden away for years.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fairy Wishes

Yesterday, a long time near and dear friend of mine went in for Surgery.  I'm assuming no news is good news at this point, but still I thought I would send her some fairy wishes in the form of the Fairy I painted at the Mum's the Word Party my sister and I hosted for our mom this past Spring.

From the Seat Cushion scraps I had had just enough fleece to make three hair ties.  One for my mom, my sister, and one to keep.  I have no idea how well the fleece will hold in my hair, but I think it will be cute on game days and the like.

Stadium Seat Cushions with Matching Tote

Ever feel like time slows down a bit for you to enjoy it and then everything has to speed back up again because you took it easy for a while?  Today I had a wonderful chat for nearly the entire morning with my neighbor.

Meanwhile my husband had left the fabric purchased I'd requested by my sewing machine. That meant washing and then sewing. Rob and I both wanted the cushions done so we could deliver them to Jessica's classroom tomorrow morning. The time line forced us to work quickly and to be quite honest it made a job I would have otherwise relished quite tedious. But long story short it's all done.

I will provide directions upon request. Don't like to sew? I'm willing to make them for you. The nice thing about these (other than the memory foam) is that the covers are removable for washing which means if you're a big sports fan you could have multiple covers and totes and just switch out the teams depending on where you were headed. I'm hoping it will bring in more donations, to make our raffle harder to resist.

Jessica and I had a visitor last night. This "big ole' spider" scurried across the floor while I was reading. UGH! We kept calling it "she" most likely a subconscious Charlotte's web thing. She's in the bottom of a pickle jar here, yes, you understand now, BIG spider. Rob discovered it's a variety of Wolf Spider (sorry I wasn't in the mood for looking at spiders last night) and then set her free away from the house.   

Cat 1 - Pants 0

Today's afternoon project was pajama bottoms for Jessica.  She most likely needs shirts more than pants, but I wanted to make pants so here they are.

Being covered in the fresh scent of laundry they were noticed by the general right away.

The pants did not resist being searched.

But Tiny knew they were down to no good.

Things were so intense the pants were even used as a bunker at one point.

But when it came right down to it.  They just weren't good enough.

The pants lie here awaiting the awakening of their one true savior.  So that they can be look forward to being washed another day.

Feathered Star Flimsy Done

I added the last border around the Feathered Star Quilt yesterday.  I'm not pleased with the way the photos of this quilt are turning out.  It's a pretty quilt I promise!

My daughter's class is collecting Buccaneers Tailgating items for a raffle they are going to have at the end of the month. After two weeks of collecting they have a brand new charcoal grill complete with charcoal and a BBQ Grill Set as well as other items that I can't attest to because I looked at the piles instead of checking the list.

My family is donating 2 Buccaneer's Seat Cushions and a matching bag.  I'm making them with Tempurpedic foam so I have high hopes that they'll be great.  Joann's has a sale starting tomorrow on their NFL fleece.  Be sure to check back as I post my progress on these.  I think they'll be wonderful.

I suppose I should have started with this.  When our ceiling fan started making noises two days ago my husband promised he would take a look at it today.  This is him cleaning off the fan before taking everything apart.  Why in the world am I mentioning it?  Well my husband found that the negative wire had rubbed clean through the insulation.  I'm just glad we agreed to keep the fan off until he could look at it today.

Whoa, Big Bird!

I believe this to be a juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk Buteo lineatus, I saw something out of the corner of my eye jumped and then reached for the camera to take the shot.  I was allowed just one photo of this beauty, no retakes.

Today is a day for collecting my thoughts and gathering things up for a weekend with my daughter. I missed her yesterday, instead of taking a nap she elected to play in her room and wouldn't come out until dinner! It was lonely, but I quilted.

This is a rare sight indeed.  Showing off that beautiful white belly always means our Gal Tiny wants to play.  I was allowed four takes for this one and it was a good thing too because the camera was on the wrong setting for the first two photos.

Thanks Heather over at Miracles Momma Designs for the blog award.

The terms of this blog are to list five things I'm addicted to and to pass it along to five other fabulous blogs.

1.  I am addicted to my husband making me a cup of coffee.  Each morning since the beginning of summer my husband makes me a cup of coffee, he'll then bring it to me or leave it by my elbow.  I love that he cares to do that.  I think I would drink pond scum for the joy of having him bring it to me.

2.  I am addicted to making people laugh.  I love to hear their joy ring through the air.  It's like Christmas only you get to spread the joy around multiple times a day.

3.  I am addicted to sewing things.  It's like my sewing machine haunts me, always there waiting for me to work on something.  Calling me to it, any project is okay as long as I'm putting fabric into the machine.

4.  Luckily for you I'm addicted to the computer.  Each morning I sit down and turn it on.  Used to be that I could take it or leave it, not turning it on until everything I wanted to accomplish that day was done.  Now turning on the computer is automatic.

(geez, these get harder as you go)

5.  Lastly I'm addicted to my family.  I love each and every member with every fiber of my being.  I love seeing them, be they furred, feathered, or human I love them all.  They are a part of me of who I am, and I'd rather not think about life without them.

Five Fabulous Blogs: 

Shelly's Blog Shelly for you persistance, I am amazed by it no matter what that sewing machine pulls you back, and when it does then I get to hear from you.

StitchinPenny Penny your words speak to me deeply in a way few understand

 Felines and Fiber Arts Vicki the way you mix fabric and colors together with what seems like bottomless patience I'm always happy to drool over your blog - good thing the drooling stays here at my place.

 Based on a True Story I don't think Heather at Based on a True Story has been here to Sand and Sunshine, still I find her writing a joy, who knows maybe she'll grace us with a book someday.

 Scrappy Angel Quilts Gwen was and is my first Quilting friend EVER, okay my first quilting friend when I was a quilter.  As she is both a teacher and a mom her projects inspire me to do more and reach futher.

Now feel free to pick up your award or not, pass it on or not, but know one thing. I picked the five of you because there is something fabulous about each of you.

Feathered Star

For the past two days I've been working on this Feathered Star Quilt.  It started with the desire to do something with the leftover fabrics from Jessica's baby clothes quilts.  I'm going to add another single row of those baby clothes squares around the outside and then when the time comes binding it in gray.

This is the one and I believe only Feathered Star that I'll be making.  You can find the pattern at Quilter's Cache under 20"+ blocks.  I didn't have quite enough of the hand dyed fabric to make the block 2 colors and added in the gray, which I think works nicely throughout.

When I look at this photograph I'm surprised.  The squares are all shades of purple.  Sort of makes you say "hu" over the things a photograph can do.