Strings Attached

Row Robin during Quilting (strings attached)

For the past week I've been working on quilting the row robin.  It seems like each time I try to work on this quilt something else happens to make me upset over it.  First it was to long for the wall that it is supposed to hang on which I didn't discover until after I'd made the back to match.  So I removed one of the rows and made a Christmas valance with it.  Now that I'm quilting I have found two holes in my row.  Yes holes!  It looks like someone put a pin in it and then tried to open the quilt up after sewing without removing the pins and tore to matching holes in it.

Holes

As posting about such things has always helped me find the answer here I am, posting.  The holes are on the block photographed above center bottom of the dark blue fabric and the teal to the left of the seam where I have marked the red circles?

I'm planning on doing echoes around the applique and embroidered blocks and as I'm not certain about the scrappy blocks I haven't quilted them either.

Sunset

This evening I couldn't help but notice the night sky.  Before I went outside the entire sky was covered in clouds like these.  As my feet touched the ground outside I saw first one and then two - a double rainbow - of course by the time I had the camera in my hand all that was left to take photos of were the clouds.  Next time I'll be more prepared. 

I worked on the quilting Christmas Row Robin Quilt today and I should have all the stitch in the ditch that I want to do done either tomorrow or Monday.  After that my other machine will be home from the repair shop (it's third trip in two weeks) so hopefully I'll be able to wrap up the job with a bit of echo freemotion quilting.  Only time will tell of course.

DD had a great birthday and this was by far my favorite photo.  Those little hands are growing up so quickly soon all the of the babyhood left in them will be gone forever. 

Of course some of you might like this jumping for joy photo better, and be certain to check out my great new windows behind her!

It's Today, It's Today!

Yes today is indeed the day. The day my little one turns 5. Her father pointed out that means she's been around for half a decade; of course he said this before any morning caffeine.

Last night I needed a project to put my newly repaired - but as yet still not fixed sewing machine - through so I made another dressing gown. I love these, they go so easy and the gussets are so much easier than gathers. It's of course for the birthday girl. The photo was supposed to have her in it, but she was in such a hurry to get dressed this morning, you'll have to settle.

Then DH, my newly 5 year old little girl, her aunt, and uncles and off they went to see Toy Story 3, I stayed home and basted that Christmas Row Robin. Surely that must be against some sort of Quilter’s Code staying home to baste a quilt, after all I've had the supplies for a long while now. But it was more restful this way and hopefully it will mean (regardless of my spur of the moment quilting choice) I'll have plenty of energy for our little party this afternoon.

Speaking of parties check out the cake I baked. It's Funfetti inside and whipped frosting on the outside. I was able to find the Wilton butterfly pan at Michael's and use a Joann's coupon so the pan was only $7.80 after tax. The sprinkles are mostly all sugar, which are DD's favorite with some palm tree sprinkles on the leading edge of the wings just in case you weren't certain it's hot here.

Now while I was writing to you I realized it's been a while since you've seen Lady Bird, the same cannot be said for us. We've been seeing her nearly everyday and often more than once. DH had to clean out the feeder due to a wasp invasion, which caused Lady Bird some trouble for about a day (no seed in the bottom to eat) but as she seems terrified of wasps I'm certain we've been forgiven the inconvenience.

Good Deeds for the Week

I wanted to take a minute to tell you what I did this morning.  As a long time member of Disney Movie Rewards I donated 100 of my points to their "Family Movie Nights DVD Donation".  By doing this I donated a movie to Gifts in Kind International and as Disney is matching the donation to them right now they get two DVDs with my single donation.  As just one Disney movie comes with a points card in it for 100 points that means I bought one movie and donated two all for the price of one movie! 

Do you have any Disney DVDs?  If so check inside them for the points card all expiration dates have been extended so don't worry if it says it's expired, then just follow the directions on the card.  You can donate trees or DVDs or simply sit on your points a while to see what you can earn.

Sometimes donating is hard, I know I've felt that way; "What can I do?  I'm just one person," but every little bit helps.  I switched all of my Ebay auctions to donate 10% of my sales automatically to the ASPCA, which means at least a $1 from every sale goes to help them. I say take that - you sad commercial with all the weepy puppy dogs and cats that I can't afford to adopt. Truly, I hope next time I see that commercial I can smile at least a little bit instead of cry knowing that I helped out too.

I just received a thank you note from Quilts for Kids in the mail the other day as well. I collect thank you notes that I receive for the quilts I donate. I have this idea that one day I will frame them all and decorate my quilting studio with them. You know- for the day when the Studio moves out of the kitchen.

What have you done lately? Oh I know you've done something nice, a donation of old clothes or a quilt perhaps. I happen to know that everyone who stops by this blog is great at donating things. I know you don't talk about it, but you do it all the same. Maybe you feel you could give more but truly every little thing you do helps someone somewhere. Take a minute and tell me about it.

Tennessee Waltz for Patisserie?

We have a new DVR, which really means that I'll be able to watch quilt shows when I want to and not 8 am when my life is the busiest.  The first program having the honor of being recorded is Eleanor Burns Tennessee Waltz Part 1.   I had no idea what that meant when I told it to start recording but now I do.  This is a 54-40-Fight Star Block coupled with the Snowball block.   Don't you love the way the apparent curves grace this top?  They only look like curves, they aren't really in case you were worried. 

I really wanted to bring out the green in this print, where as dd wanted me to bring in pink and purple.  To be honest I'm not even certain that the print has any purple in it at all, but it does read that way a tiny bit in the areas where the blue trails around the pink.  So when I was finished I added the ribbon border for a bit of whimsy.  I promise by the time I'm done playing with this quilt, no matter what the mock up looks like, all the math will work for a ribbon border.  Is the lilac a bit to light?  I'm not certain.  To keep the chains calm I went with a blue on white version of the Patisserie from the same line.  They have that as a yellow on white, a pink on white, and then the above blue on white.  Don't hesitate to click on it to see it closer, I know I'm going to.

Yes, I have been working on the Quilt Challenge: If you were a quilt what would you look like project.  Above is what it looks like so far.  I'm at the wait and see crossroads for now.  I think the echos should come out off the red center.  Perhaps using more red or even royal purple.  I'm not certain if these echos should be quilting, beadwork, or embroidery.

This next little ditty is a wall hanging for a friend of the family returning from his tour of duty.  The blocks are friendship star and card trick, I selected the patterns and fabrics based on what the US means to me.  The card trick is Las Vegas, the mask fabric is New Orleans, the fireworks are for 4th of July, denim for Levi Straus, the lighthouses are of course for the coasts, and just to be special I selected the layouts from my Quilt Pink for Hope book.  This one won' grow much bigger but I have a winter tree line fabric that I'd like to include.

Give me Your Anything Else

Did you know, if you read other people's blogs you don't have to reflect on your own?  That's what I've been doing the past hour or so and it really helps. 

So just this once, you tell me what's going on at your place.  I'm listening to 80's music, redo-ing my sewing area, and sewing pockets to hang on all my sewing stuff for places to keep things like scissors, and as a family member who was always wonderful to me has recently past away I can't seem to keep focused on any one thing.

So tell me, what are you up to on this beautiful overly hot Saturday?

Better.

After making some adjustments that my friend Vicki suggested, I thought perhaps a quieter quilt was in order, and dug deep for the right combinations.  Please feel free to click on the pattern to see it more easily.  After I finished this I moved on to a simple design for the back.

I feel that the lighter spaces allow room for pretty quilting applique or even a bit of simple embroidery.  Now to calculate quilt yardage.

To Much of a Good Thing

I have created at least 4 or 5 different layouts for that fabric, and I'm still no closer to figuring out an answer to that pretty fabric.

Late last week Lady Bird brought her babies to see us.  Turns out she has three, two boys and a girl, I can't imagine and I'm rather glad they're her babies and not mine. 

Lady Bird's Daughter was not interested in be photographed and hid behind the bird feeder nearly the entire visit.

It was early in the morning when I saw this beauty out my back door.  This is a Gulf Fritillary on one of our Passion Vine Plants.

These guys are called Carolina Chickadees and they have built a next in the tree outside my DD's room.  It's sweet to hear the little ones chattering.  They are so little and so fast that it's hard to capture one of them in a picture let alone the two.

We also have the Tuffed Titmouse showing up with their little ones.

Isn't that picture funny?  It was one of my attempts at the Carolina Chickadees, and the look on the face of that Tuffed Titmouse was so comical at the swift departure of the Carolina Chickadee, I had to show you.

I've been up to this quilt, which I am calling Patisserie Quilt.  I found the floral Patisserie fabric in the Connecting Threads snail mail catalog.  Isn't it great to find something beautiful out of the blue like that?  I wanted a fabric that would really make the fabric pop, without resorting to merely making it a border or the quilt back.  This is the first mock up that I've completed.  Others came into my head and were rejected nearly that fast.  While the print has many pretty colors in it, the question is always which to show off and while to allow to stand alone.  Anyway, this feels a bit busy so I put it to you.  What do you think?  This one will be a real twin size quilt for DD something at least 55"x90".  It's not like she needs another quilt but the fabric is so pretty, I need an excuse to work with it.

My auctions

I'm selling some items on ebay and wanted to host these pictures.

This auction is for a lot of children's gently used clothes. 

Top left: Little Legends Jeans size 24 months with elastic waist in the back.  Slight wear at top edge of pants and bottom seam of ankles.  Top middle Carter's jeans side 3T with adjustable waist band.  Has detail of flower on back pocket (not shown) and has three working snaps on the outside bottom of ankle on each side.  Slight wear at waistband and ankles.  Guess Jeans size 18 months, fold line along the outside of bands is lighter in blue than the rest of the jeans otherwise they look new elastic waist goes all the way around.  Plaid capris bottom left maker unknown 2T great worn condition elastic waist in back polyester/cotton.  Circo black heavier weight leggings with single back pocket.  Good Used condition.  95% cotton, 5% spandex.  Pink Oshkosh 3T front has a snap and a zipper with two faux snaps on top of zipper on fly.  Elastic waist on back.  Bottom Right Arizona Jean Co. size 18 months faux button and fly area.  Elastic waist goes all the way around.  Very minor wear at top edge of waist band and bottom edge of pant leg hem.

One very gently used Circo jacket sized 2T, fully reversible with butterflies flowers and hearts machine embroidered on it.  There are some orange tinged marks on the under sides of the white part of the sleeves, but otherwise this jacket is in great condition.

Dresses:  Pink polo long sleeved dress by Ralph Lauren size 2/2T doesn't have the tie for the waist.  Small spot near wrist of one sleeve.  Black dress with small fushia, blue, and yellow flowers by Cheeroke 4T has buttons down back heavier fall-winter-spring weight 100% cotton looks like faux velvet.  Some wear on edges. Red Dress by Wonder Kids size 24 months, I recall the white netting sticks out of the bottom of the dress, that might just be because dd was a bit big for it the last time it was worn.  Bongo pink camo jumper worn once, size 3T has some spots on faux fly area and upper pocket.  I'm certain these happened while in storage and a good soaking should bring them right out.  Has small sequins sewn on by machine and adjustable straps.

Leopard print long sleeved shirt by the Children's Place size 4T seems to run a bit small, zipper down the back.  Top pink long sleeved shirt with girl appliquéd on front Okedokie size 18 months has three snaps on back of shirt.  Bottom pink long sleeved shirt by HealthTex size 18 months.  Love this top looks like new no matter how many times you wash it.  Has embroidery on neckline and two snaps in back.

Short overalls Koala Kids size 36 months, beautiful machine embroidery and nice jean material snap crotch and adjustable shoulder straps.  Washed but never worn.  Top blue and red gingham cheerleader style skirt by American Baby size 24 months.  Has white bikini brief sewn in with snaps between legs.  Elastic waist band.  Polka Dot skirt size 12 months runs big has a blue bikini lining - I see a couple of popped stitches along the waist which I will happily run a line or two of stay stitching over upon request before shipping.  Polka dots are screen printed and many are cracked where they were printed on the knit doesn't show when being worn.  Flat front finish with elastic in back.  White bloomers with lace trim along the legs size 24 months for wearing under dresses.  Elastic for waist and leg areas.  Green striped pants size 24 months shows a change in color where elastic gathers on waist. Yellow Shorts by Faded Glory size 24 months.  Small spot on left side of back should wash out.  Elastic waist.

Strawberry Shortcake shirt size 18 months has pilling over entire shirt certainly play wear quality.  Flower tank size 24 months Basic Editions.

Like new swimsuit Bikini.  Circo 3T Worn less than 5 times.

JCPenny Toddler Bobby socks I forget who makes these but I loved them because they don't fall down,  Lime Green, Red, Blue, White with pink ribbon bows on ankles, White with purple ribbon bows on ankles, white with small scallops of color on edges, and pink with heart embroidered on ankles.  These are in used condition and if winner doesn't want them simply let me know and I will donate them to Goodwill. 

As always my auctions include a tracking number and insurance so you need not worry about the location of your purchases.  I am always willing to combine shipping to save you money so why not take a look at my other items?  Thanks for looking.

Smoke Free home with two cats in residence.