September?

September is practically gone, hard to believe how fast time is flying by. In some ways we were greatful that this month went by quickly, although I wish I had gotten more quilting done. I was forced to be a single parent for a little over 3 weeks, as my husband had to go to Iraq with several others from his office. We appreciated the fact that it was only 3 weeks instead of a year or more like so many others must do, but we were not happy with the fact that he was out and about visiting various locations while he was there. He arrived safely home Monday night so we are all so happy and relieved! I finished two more cell phone cases from the 2 fat quarters I had quilted, plus I made 2 water bottle identifiers. I have just enough scraps left to make a little credit card holder, but got side tracked before I could finish it. My Niece's friends held a make up baby shower for her, but I could not attend as the children are in school and she is 10 hrs away. I made a black, white & red "play" quilt for Gus, and a simple little jungle print batik quilt for him. I used soft minke-like fabric on the back of both of them. I didn't use batting for the jungle/batik one, so it is lightweight and supple. I doubled 3 oz poly for the play quilt, so it is very, very thick, it's more for him to lay on, and later play on, not so much to use for cover. My husband took the camera to Iraq, so I took photos of the play quilt with my phone. I had quilted two quilts for my Gram, that she made for Gus, and I was in such a hurry to send them off that I forgot to take a photo of the Jungle quilt, as I sent it along with Gram's quilts. I did not make any Christmas presents this month, that makes two months in a row, so now I am falling behind in that ! I sewed together 4 backings and 2 bindings for Quilts of Valor but I need to start longarming some more of those. I have a lot of that to do too! BTW, the play quilt is my own design, and it was a kind of "make it up as you go along" type of thing, it was a lot of fun to make, I tried different techniques, and thought of new ideas as I went along. I have 4 more of these cut out, but with slight variations, I am going to make 1 for each of my children - well then, I guess for my future grandchildren, in case my hands are too useless when that time comes. I used fabrics from my stash, except for the red square and binding I had purchased while at my grams this summer. Boy is my stash count, In and Out way off, it's going to take me a day to figure that out! Let's just hope October is more productive!

August Finishes

I just cannot believe that summer is almost over, and that school is just about to start. This has truly been the shortest summer ever, and of course the busiest! I have hardly spent any time in my quilting room or even near my machine! I didn't even have a backlog of binding I could have worked through. I did get much accomplished at my Gram's house. We went through her stash, and WISP's and she was able to complete SEVEN quilt tops! She had one entirely done when I arrived, so I ended up bringing back eight quilt tops to longarm for her! I have not loaded even one, as of yet. I was able to run up to Maine with my brother to visit My niece, her husband, and bitty baby Gus. How precious is he! He was still in the NICU, although he finally went home a few weeks ago. He is now 6 lbs 12 oz and two months old! Just gorgeous, I will have to add a photo soon. We have since attended two wonderful weddings, adding vacation days to them to enjoy additional sight seeing. We made it home in time for dd to attend 1 week of skating camp and ds to endure 2 1/2 weeks of band camp! During that time I worked on some blocks for my next lucky stars quilt and I did another Giraffe door doodle, this one for bitty baby Gus. The incubator he was in was called a Giraffe, so his parents have adopted that theme for him. My daughter being a HUGE fan of all things Giraffe, made this an easy task for me! I also made 4 cellphone cases out of two fat quarters that I had quilted together to test a freehand quilting design. I have some left over, I need to use those up before Wednesday so that I can at least say that I used 2 fat quarters from my stash this month. (pretty pathetic!) Well, I'll load a couple of photos, then I need to take ds to the barbers for a haircut and do some shopping.

July Finishes

The summer is going so quickly - can't believe it is the 12th already!! Finished the binding on this QOV just in time for guild, and that will be my charity project this month due to being so busy. Also, finished two patriotic wall hangings which were truly WISPS. I had started these, oh at least 4 years ago in Wisconsin. I had a patriotic charm pack and saw the cutest hangers at my LQS and so designed these little wall hangings to go on them. I was able to make many, many (I can't remember how many in all) of these, and some I just did three stars. Well, at our guild we have had a fabric drive these last two months, requesting patriotic fabric for backings and borders. For every yard of fabric, the members could put their name in for a raffle prize. As one of the Co-chairs I wanted to make something for the raffle so I figured if I finished these two it would be appropriate! I finished them in time and I only have enough charm squares left for one more three star one, I'd like to get that done before the end of the year and then, that'll be it for that whole project! I don't have any idea what I'll be making for a Christmas present this month as I will have little time to sew for myself. We are off for Massachusetts tomorrow, and Gram is already itching to finish another quilt for baby Gus (my niece's tiny baby boy) She apparently already has a flannel quilt done for him (he wasn't due until September) but now she wants to do a summer one as well. She also has plans for me to do alot of matching & cutting for her, so I am looking forward to "playing fabric" with Gram for the next week. I hope to steal away to Maine to meet my GREAT nephew, we'll see how that goes! He is doing better! The valve in his heart closed, thank the Lord, so now that surgery is not necessary!! He is still taking oxygen via nose, and has a feeding tube, he just has to keep growing!! Well, back to packing - Happy Quilting!!

Back from Wisconsin!!

Arrived safely home from our too quick trip to Wisconsin. Spent two days at MT. Olympus water park which was lots of fun and the weather was terrific! Went to Sparta and spent time with former neighbors, spent not nearly enough time at favorite quilt store, Quilt Corner, (actually spent more than time at Quilt Corner, as one can imagine!!) met with friends and was able to go to the farewell party for our favorite pastor who is leaving for another congregation. On the drive home (20 hrs split into two days) I received a phone call from my formerly pregnant niece. Yes, that's right, FORMERLY pregnant niece She wasn't due until September 4th!! They were camping in Maine when her water broke! She was airlifted to Bangor, Maine where she delivered a 3 lb 7 oz, 17" long boy!! He is doing pretty well, considering he is 9 1/2 weeks early! He has a feeding tube, and is on a respirator, but they may be able to remove that in a day or so. What a shock to us all! They live in Massachusetts, so it was an 8 hr trip for my brother and SIL to run up there and see them, they may be able to move the baby to a closer NICU in a couple of weeks, but we'll have to play it by ear until then. I finished binding the Charity Kitty quilt on the way to Wisconsin, but noticed that the stitches on the last two feathers I had done on the border were very loose and the stitching on the back was all loopy - I remember being at the very end of the bobbin, but didn't notice any difference in the feel of it. So I did not present it to the Cat Shelter, I ripped out the stitches and then pinned it back on to the machine and did the feathers again. It took longer to pin it on than it did to do the feathers Crazy! I will just have to send it to them, but it still counts as my charity project completed for this month as well as 8 1/3 yds out for stash reduction! I have not updated my stash in, you know how it is, lots of laundry to catch up on, Twilight Saga marathon movie session to attend, dusty house to clean! Actually I have not been able to bring my self to count it all up, and one of the kits doesn't count, as I will wrap it up as a birthday present for myself. Here are a few pictures of all of my yummy new goodies!! The bolt of fabric I purchased at a reduced cost and is for QOV backings - does that count?? Oh well, all things considering - I am very happy with the amount of finishes I have for such a busy month! Happy Quilting!!

Packing!

I'm finishing up packing for Wisconsin, last night I finished quilting the kitty quilt, and this morning I sewed the binding together and on to the quilt, so I will bind it as we drive. Well, when it's DH's turn to drive and I am not sleeping! It's usually a 22 hr drive, this year we plan on stopping somewhere along the way instead of our usual marathon drive. The kids are pretty good about it, they each have their electronic devices, snacks and their pillows to keep them entertained! I have been so good this year, most of the fabric I have purchased is also in the fabric out column or well on its way. So needless to say, I am really anticipating doing some serious damage at my friends quilt store! I will TRY to keep in mind specific projects and not just go crazy . . . or not!! I do need a few backings, and while that adds up, it also goes out quickly too! Here are some photos of the kitty quilt. It is going to be given to the Associated Society Animal Protection (ASAP) Cat Shelter in Sparta WI, for their annual fall fund drive, intended as one of the raffle prizes. It is a wonderful no-kill shelter from where we adopted two of our kitties, Samantha and Hermione. I will have to add their pictures and stories to my side bar sometime soon. Samantha has an amazing story, and she is a very special and amazing kitty! I made a quilt quite similar to this one for a neighbor who always watched our kitties when we went on vacation, and they would never accept any kind of payment. I had tons of fabric left over and always had in mind to make this quilt for the shelter, and so now it's done! O.K. well, it will be once it's bound. I still have enough fabric left over to make another one - an even bigger one I think. This one is 62" X 67", I use 5 oz poly to make it nice and thick, and provide alot of definition during the quilting. I hope they like it! Well, better finish up, I'll be back late on the 28th, just in time to enjoy Twilight, The Eclipse! Happy

Quilting!

Baby quilt bound!

I finished binding the baby quilt on Friday night. I helped my niece make it last summer when she came to visit, she had never made a quilt before, but she is very creative and crafty and did very well! Her husband is an artist, and he designed the pantograph pattern that I used. Unfortunately, the thread she chose doesn't show that quilting very well, but I will quilt the panto using dark thread on muslin so you can see it. It is really pretty, I will have to ask him to come up with a name for it. He sent me the design on a 8 1/2 X 11" paper and then I enlarged it and taped it together and brought it to office max and had it run off until it was really long. I look forward to doing it on a large quilt! I should have had my head on straight and mailed the quilt to my niece on Saturday, but didn't even think of it until the post office had closed. Very busy getting ready for our upcoming trip to Wisconsin, surprised DD and on last day of school we went to the local spa and we each had a pedicure! It felt great and was alot of fun! She was especially thrilled since she and her DD were going to a Father/Daughter Cotillion the following evening. While they went to that DS and I watched movies together. I pinned on the kitty quilt and then went to pin on the backing and realized that the backing was WAY too small - what was I thinking? So I had to go back to the LQS and picked up two more yards, I'll have extra but I can make a pillowcase or a bag of some kind. We went to the beach today, DH's choice, then came home and had steak, scallops, burgers and other yummy foods to celebrate Father's day. We leave Wednesday morning, so I'll be quilting the kitty quilt first think in the morning. Ooops, it is morning!! I have a feeling it's going to be a crazy next couple of days!

Poodle Door Doodle!!

Here it is! I was able to get a picture of DD & her Favorite teacher with the Poodle Door Doodle!

My DH & DS asked what the Giraffe thingy was - wall hanging ??? I said "well, it can be, but it also can be hung over a door knob" So once the Poodle one was done, the name Poodle Door Doodle just came to me! So I changed the Giraffe thingy to Giraffe door doodle on my list of finishes. I think it sounds better! DD's teacher was very impressed that she sewed it herself, on the back I had her do a little label with her name and date. I finished binding the Citrus Lucky Star quilt last night - another finish and there's 7 1/8 yds gone from my stash!! I was so thrilled to not have bought an inch of fabric for this quilt. For the binding I used leftover green from the scooby dooby doo quilt that was my first finish this year. I quilted the baby quilt yesterday and sewed the binding on, tonight I will start binding it. Only three more days left of school, and they are half days at that! Need to pin on the kitty quilt so I can get my charity project for the month done! Not bad for 1/2 month left! Happy quilting!