Children of the Sea Back Completed

Children of the Sea Back

Today I finished the back for Children of the Sea.  On the front side you have the Ocean and some of it's wonderful inhabitants, and then the back side is tropical floral, it is in some ways brighter than the front, and I like that. There is certainly a vibrancy to the backing don't you agree?  The back picks up all the blues, purples, pinks, and teals without repeating them and adds something more, okay a whole lot more.  I added one of the pictures of the front that you've seen before just in case you wanted a reminder.  This quilt certainly gets points for being one of my more difficult to photograph!

Children of the Sea Front

DD's Lunch

On a different note below is a picture of DD's lunch. I know wheat bread would have made the meal a better one but DH has been doing much of our grocery shopping lately, and still it's none to shabby for a nearly 6 year old.  She selected everything about it herself.  I am very blessed that she isn't a picky child.  Now would you believe she didn't want salad dressing?  Nope she likes a dash of balsamic vinegar - if you can believe that.  Granted she wasn't thrilled with the small portion where the vinegar ran to the corner of the bread.  This happened because she ate her salad first, I know what a shock!  And for the record I don't blame her one bit about the vinegar on her sandwich, she let it go after I tore that bit of bread off and set it aside.

Looking at the picture brings up a question.  How do you like your sandwiches?  Whole, cut in half up the middle to make two rectangles or two triangles, or quartered?  I never cut my own sandwich anymore but I will cut a cheeseburger into quarters; as it seems to result in less of my toppings slipping off that way.  DD always wants squares, personally growing up I always wanted triangles.  Triangles were special cut by someone who put thought into cutting the sandwich and perhaps even asked how I wanted it cut.  Squares were the default.  Granted I started making my own by the time I was going into 1st grade...  

No pictures today, just a short post it.  Friday my new Janome 1600P is arriving!  Yippie!  True mine isn't that exact current model, but everything worked out with a friend of a friend.  Now my quilting frame will no longer be lonely - and I need to invest in some UV blocking film for my living room.  Can you recommend any?

Today I cut all the fabrics for my Children of the Sea quilt back so hopefully that one wont have me scratching my head the way Tropical Waves back is. No worries there I think I stumbled onto the answer earlier today when I was stacking the backing fabric.

Tropical Waves Backing Borders

I've been working on the back for Tropical Waves this afternoon, and I thought I'd show you where I'm stopping today.  I'm really not sure about that Amy Butler Fabric at the top and bottom, but I think it will flow better after I have another border or two on.  Currently the back is 42.5" x 81.25" and ideally I need it to be 59"x98" to give me a 2" comfort zone around the outside of my already made Tropical Waves Top, I don't know about you but I'm feeling like a child's book saying "How many borders will it take?  1, 2, 3, 4... over and over.

In the mean time I thought I'd photograph a picture of my "tidy mess" so you can see I'm not crazy and I have to say if you think it's a real mess, I could certainly show you a mess or two.  Mess what mess?  That's how quilts grow isn't it?

Beginning A Back for Tropical Waves

I've been entertaining the notion of a purple batik for the back of my Tropical Waves Quilt.  But I've been unable to find anything that really sparks my fancy, so today the top caught my eye and I started pulling out fabrics that looked like maybe they would match for the back.  One single orphan block later, it started to come together.  I like the way I grew the first block so well that I made a second just the same. I'm not certain where to go from here, but it's nearly dinner time and I have much to do before I call it time to make dinner.

One thought I had was to grow them up side by side like this, but I think perhaps I'd like to spilt them up a bit more like the picture below.  Or maybe I should flip them again this time off point?  Time will tell and hopefully some inspiration will find me in the next 12 hours or so.  I'm not on a deadline, but it sure would be fun to come back to my tidy little mess and work on this a bit more.  Haha, got you with my tidy little mess didn't I?  Pet the pet, and hug the family, okay?

Christmas Quilt-A-Long Year 2 June BOM

This morning I finished up the BOM's for the Christmas Quilt-A-Long for this month.  Now, I know what you're thinking and I'll tell you this much is certain as long as it's completed in the month it was given you're golden.  Or in this case pink and purple.  I liked the star points even though they gave me fits and I tried to cut off the top of my finger with the rotary cutter (and succeeded in sheering off the corner!)  I like the way they "X" into one another, it's intriguing in it's simplicity.  Perhaps I'll revisit these little "X's" in the future.

I have settled on a machine for the Inspira Frame, and hopefully in the near future I'll be saying things like "on the frame".  Now wouldn't that be nice?  As I didn't want to purchase a second stitch regulator, so I was limited to the Janome 1600, the Pfaff Grand Quilter, and the Viking Mega Quilter.  A friend of a friend just happened to have a Janome 1600P so hopefully very soon it will be happily stitching away for me, or perhaps that's better said "stitching with me".  Either way I'm very exited and happy dreaming of threads, backings, and the oodles of batting I'm sure to need.

In preparation I purchased some plain yardage, just right for stitching a whole cloth for practice.  I plan to draw some directly on the fabric, use my pantograph shelf for others, and of course a bit free form practice as well.  After that I'm hoping to load the Baby Clothes Quilt from way back, but time will tell if I'm ready to switch from the 5' size to the longer 10' size by then.  Would you believe I'm hoping to stitch feathers on my sashing for that quilt?  Here's hoping anyway.  I guess I figure I have already completed the first one (and it's been on the bed for two winters now) so I can't mess it up; this quilt is all "extra".  So we'll have to see how that goes.