Tiffany Sews

Still knitting

2008-09-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

The back of my sweater is starting to take shape. I'm coming along pretty quickly with this...it's not really that hard once you master the cables. I just hope it fits properly when I'm finished.

While I knit, I've been listening to audiobooks on my ipod from here. All of the books are fairly old since they are in the public domain, but there are some good old classics out there. Also, the books are read by volunteers, so that's pretty cool. However, I do prefer the books that are read entirely by the same person, and not a different reader for each chapter.

I also read this yesterday. It was an absolute page turner, and I'm heading out this afternoon to pick up the next book in the series.

Knitting for babies

2008-09-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

I like making things for babies. Babies are small, so their stuff is small. Babies aren't curvy and look cute in anything, so fit isn't much of an issue. And babies are not ungrateful about your handmade gifts. They're not particularly grateful either, but they can't help that. So it makes sense to me, when learning a new craft, to make things for babies... small things that don't have to fit well. Not to mention the fact that I've been attending more baby showers these days, and handmade baby gifts are more in demand. We've been to a lot of weddings over the past several years, so I guess one follows the other.

I recently got my hands on the Mason Dixon Knitting book, and there are several good baby projects in there. (Check out the Mason Dixon Flickr group here.) You may not be able to tell, but this is a bib. It's my first finished knitting project. I'm not sure how I feel about how the variegated pink yarn knitted up, but I suppose it will work for an object that my niece is going to drool and spit up on. Now I just need to find a cute button for it.

Here is another project in progress from the book. It's the baby kimono sweater, a wrap sweater knit in one piece. I plan to make one for my almost-one-year-old niece, but I'm making the newborn size from the book first. I'm using dishcloth cotton yarn from the discount store for this one, but I'm on the hunt for some different yarn to use in the kimono for my niece. I'm looking for a soft, pale pink, but most of the cotton yarns I've seen so far are screaming Barbie pink instead. Luckily, as we now, hunting for the perfect yarn/fabric is half the fun.

hello, blog

2008-09-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been 3 months since I've posted. In case you were wondering, I am alive and well in my new location. I went a few weeks without internet access, and I'm slowly getting things organized around here. I did get some quilting/crafting done during the chaos of moving, so I have lots to show you once I get around to unpacking things and taking their picture.

I have to admit, I may be taking a quilting hiatus for awhile....I've started knitting. Actually, I sort of taught myself to knit a few months ago, but I've been doing a lot more knitting lately. Thanks to my new LYS (local yarn shop), I have a ton of gorgeous new yarns at my disposal, and I'm taking full advantage. Like fabric, they are hard to resist. The sweater I'm working on is the central park hoodie, and the yarn is cascade 220 tweed in icy blue (can't find a link to that particular color... must be really new), if you're curious. If there are any other crocheters/knitters out there, are on ravelry yet? You may already know about it, but I always feel like I'm the last person to find out about these things. Just in case I'm not, there you go.

I do intend to post quite a bit more often now that I'm settled...thanks for sticking with me!

Home Stretch

2008-06-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Don't think I've mentioned this on the blog before, but I am closing the my quilt shop's retail location this Saturday, June 28. (Skip on over to the shop's website and have a look...all internet orders are 30% off.) To make a long story short, I've been busy with the shop, winding things down and tying up loose ends. I may be a little scarce around here for another month or so as I wrap things up at the shop, job hunt, and get moved east a little ways. Never fear, though, I'm still getting some crafting done here and there, and I'll keep you updated.

Now for some eye candy. Our little guild's biannual quilt show was last weekend, and I snapped a few pics. I'm very drawn to the older quilts passed down through the years to the current generation of quilters. These quiltmakers didn't get their panties (or bloomers or whatever) in a twist about perfectly matching fabrics or points. And I love the results.

Sorry, I'm writing this 7 hours after I originally started this post. I'm too lazy to caption these pictures, so just make up your own. It's been a long day, and I'm starting to get a little punchy. Even so, I'm thinking about stopping by the grocery store on my way home and buying a carton of strawberries so I'll have something to eat with my Nutella when I get home. Eh, screw it, I'll just have my Nutella straight up, on a spoon.

No sir, I don't like it.

2008-06-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

I was originally inspired to make a granny afghan by this photo (not the softy...the afghan in the background). And then I saw this. I was completely smitten. But then I had second thoughts. After all, where would I put this masterpiece, assuming I ever finished it? A bright red, green, yellow, and blue afghan would definitely stand out in my current home decor. So then I thought that maybe I should try making a granny afghan in a bit more subdued colors. Here's what I came up with for my first square.

It's okay, but I'm not in love. And if I'm going to crochet that many granny squares, I want to be in love with the project. So I think I've decided to just stick with the color scheme I fell in love with. I'll figure out where to put the darn thing when it's finished.

As for the yarn I used in my test square, maybe it would make a nice ripple afghan.

Belated Happy Father's Day, to my dad, and to yours!

On my coffee table...

2008-06-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

From the bottom, up:
1) The Summer 2008 issue of Interweave Knits, because I can knit now! I'm so excited! Pics to come...
2) June 2008 BHG. Good recipes (I think I'll actually try a couple), lots of decorating inspiration, and a large article on gardening (surprise, surprise) which I probably should put to good use but probably won't.
3) Encyclopedia of Crochet, checked out from my local library. A pretty good selection of stitches, granny squares, etc., but the projects were a little uninspiring. Probably b/c the book was published in 2002.
4) The Crochet Stitch Bible, recent purchase from Amazon. I don't know if I would necessary call it the crochet bible, but it does contain a lot of stitches, granny squares, edgings, and even some tunisian crochet. This is not a project book. It's a stitch book. It's not all-inclusive, but I'm not sure any book could capture every possible crochet stitch. Definitely a handy reference.
5) Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker, checked out from the library. This is one I may have to buy. It's a decent stitch reference guide, and there are several projects I would like to make from this book. As a matter of fact...
6) ...I've already started one. I'll wait until it's done to show you which one I picked.

Flea Market Finds, Episode 1: The Fabric Menace

2008-06-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I mentioned that I'd been to the local flea market. First just let me say that the flea market is a dangerous place for me to visit. I spent entirely too much money. Entirely. I felt the need to "adopt" half of the store. I spent a good hour and a half in there, and when it came to decision time I felt like I was choosing puppies to be saved from euthanization instead of shopping from a multitude of other people's castoffs . However, I'm really happy with what I bought, and like so many other things I want to buy, I have now forgotten about most of what I decided to leave behind.

This is part one of my flea market purchases, "Episode 1", if you will. (Please indulge me the corny Star Wars reference.)

First up is a piece of lightweight Winnie the Pooh fabric hemmed around the edges (it was labeled as a "baby blanket"), and a somewhat wonky quilt block. I'm not sure if the quilt block is salvagable or not as it isn't square and doesn't lay completely flat. That's a project for another day (or year).

And please ignore the wrinkles in anything you see here. I can't be bothered to iron just for pictures. I'll do that when I actually want to use the stuff.

In this photo, from top to bottom:

a bunch (haven't counted) of hand-pieced 4-patches.
over 3 yards of 36" wide pink gingham, which I am totally stoked about since that's the new Tie One On theme.
a large, oval tablecloth. Maybe has a future as a bag.
another table cloth, large & oblong. Love the pattern on this one...could end up as a bag also.
my favorite piece (from this group, anyway) a hand-embroidered baby quilt top. There are 8 embroidered blocks, set together with plain pink squares. Here is some detail of the blocks:

They're just too adorable. I can't decide what to do about this one, but I think I'm going to take it apart and reconstruct a small quilt out of the blocks, squaring things up as I go and probably using a better quality fabric or maybe even some quilt blocks to set it together. And maybe I'll even get ambitious and hand quilt it when I'm finished. I might be getting a little ahead of myself with that one, but it's a thought.

We're forecasted to get some really nasty weather tonight, so if you're reading this from, I don't know, anywhere in the Midwest stay safe. My hubby has requested this for dinner, so I'm going home to fry bacon and either embroider or crochet.

Stay tuned: Flea Market Finds, Episode Two!

Sewing Rule #1

2008-06-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe not #1, but definitely in the top ten:

Don't get in a hurry.

Case in point, my new tote bag.

Looks harmless, doesn't it? And it was... at first. Until I started running out of time and got in a hurry.
Here's the other side of the bag. With a partially attached handle. Why is the handle partially attached, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. The handle is partially attached because as I was sewing I noticed I was sewing the handle on backwards. You can't tell from the picture, but there is a "right" and "wrong" side to the handles. Probably not a mistake anyone would have noticed, but it would have driven me insane. And I'm insane enough as it is, thankyouverymuch.

So I left the bag and the handle for tomorrow, when I'm in less of a hurry.

Playing

2008-06-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

with my new camera.

Lots going on...pics to come now that I have a working camera.

Finished!

2008-05-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

Do you hear it? Trumpets are trumpeting, angels are singing, people are cheering...I finished a project!

This is my finished tiramisu blanket. I don't know how, but this blanket just sort of happened. During American Idol performances I wasn't interested in, commercials, riding in the car, and sitting outside in the evenings with my husband enjoying the gorgeous weather this past week, it happened. I started it on April 21 (on the way to quilt guild in Pittsburg...KS), which means it took me just under a month from start to finish. That has to be some kind of record for me. And I really like how it turned out. The yarn is a bulky weight (Bernat Softee Chunky), so the blanket is nice and thick. I used 5/8" ribbon instead of the 1/2" that the pattern calls for, but it worked out because the yarn doubled over as I wove it around the blanket, so the shiny side of the ribbon shows on both sides. I know I could have been more imaginative with my color choices, but I liked Alicia's version. Plus it will work for either a baby boy or baby girl gift, which is great because we all know I'm not very good at planning ahead for baby showers.

This is the rosebush in my backyard (and my dog guarding the backyard, which she does fabulously until a trespasser actually approaches...then she hightails it to safety). It's absolutely bursting with blooms right now. Now, I don't want you to get the impression that I had anything to do with the number of roses on this bush. Quite the opposite, actually. Shortly before I took this picture, this bush was threatening to take over the yard. But I was feeling a bit frustrated. The city had our water shut off all day. All day. No laundry, no dish washing, no watering the dog, no washing your #%&*@ face or brushing your teeth. No washing your thrift store finds so you can photo them for your blog. So like I said, I was frustrated. So I took out my aggression on the rosebush. Pruning can be very cathartic, you know. So anyway, even though you're not supposed to prune roses in the spring, I pruned my little heart out until the rose tree became more of a bush. Not only do we prune liberally and without regard to the bush's health, but we have yet to feed or water this rosebush. It's invincible. It's also threatening to take over the neighbor's yard, but I figure that's their problem. Sheba and I have enough on our hands defending the territory we've got, be it from trespassers or renegade rosebushes.

One last thing. I have quilt guild tonight, so I'm going to miss the American Idol finale. However, my husband has promised to tape (that's right...tape...as in VCR tape...no DVR for us) it for me, so I can watch it when I get home. I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle the suspense. I finally got my vote in for David Cook last night at 11:07 on the 47th try, but I voted dang it. I get the feeling he needed by vote...I'm just hoping that fact that I couldn't get in for 3 hours is a good sign.

Planting flowers

2008-05-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Sheba and I planted flowers today.

For a minute there I thought she was going to eat them before I could get them in the ground.

But she didn't.

I also went thrifting today, but I'll save that for tomorrow. I can't wait to show you what I nabbed!

Afternoon Adventure to Outer Space

2008-05-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Not too much going on here today. I've been longarm quilting for the last few hours. Here's a quilt I just finished up. I believe the pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs.
I love this focus fabric - too cute!
And the backing fabric is pretty awesome too.I wonder who the lucky little duck is that gets to snuggle up under this quilt. No doubt the munchkin will have dreams of rabbits & rocketships.

What do you know...

2008-05-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Practice really does make perfect. Well, maybe not perfect yet, but definitely improving. This is my "take along" crochet project - one that I don't have to think about too much and that only uses one skein of yarn at a time, making it very portable. (Free pattern here. And if you don't already read her blog, shame on you.)
The reason I'm so impressed with myself is that it's actually staying pretty square. Usually my crochet projects tend to shrink as I go along, forming more of pyramid shape. Or trapezoid, if you want to get technical. But this one is pretty much square. It's only taken what seems like 100,000 hours of crocheting to get to this point, but hey, I've got nothing but time, right?!

Here are some pics of my niece and nephew from our trip to TN.

My nephew loves to drive his car around the yard. Until he saw the neighbor kids buzzing around on 4-wheelers. Then suddenly his car wasn't fast enough.

And here he is after he had just picked everyone a dandelion, explaining that we should save the dandelions for when we get married, and after the wedding keep them and show them to people. I could barely keep a straight face. Where does he come up with this stuff? I didn't have the heart to tell him I was already married.And my niece, who's at the age where she's just happy to be fed and get some attention. This was a rare moment when she wasn't being held. Her momma was just to my left, hence the big smile. And yes, I made that pink & white ripple afghan. I'm so happy she actually uses it.

American Idol results in a few hours. I can't help myself - this is one of the few shows that I get into. It's one of the reasons I've been doing more crocheting in the evenings...it's hard to hear the TV over the sewing machine. I'm pulling for David Cook, but they're all good. Let's just hope that tonight it's not interrupted for severe weather updates. I heard on the radio that the meteorologist got a bunch of hate e-mail for interrupting American Idol last night. Poor guy, he can't help that a funnel cloud decided to form between 7:00 & 8:00! Maybe I should e-mail him again and apologize. Just kidding, people.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

The Mom Test

I was out walking with my 4 year old daughter. She picked up something off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that. 'Why?' my daughter asked. 'Because it's been on the ground, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty, and probably has germs' I replied. At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, 'Momma, how do you know all this stuff, you are so smart.' I was thinking quickly. 'All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mom Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mom.' We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information. 'OH...I get it!' she beamed, 'So if you don't pass the test you have to be the dad.' ''Exactly," I replied back with a big smile on my face.

Memphis

2008-05-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Woa, sorry (once again) for the delay between posts. We went to Tennessee last weekend - to Memphis for our best man's graduation from optometry school, and then on a little further east to visit my family for a few days. We were only in Memphis for a day, but it was an interesting day. If you've ever been to Memphis, you know what I mean. Apparently, we were lucky enough to be in town during "Memphis in May" which, from what I gathered, is a music festival that takes place downtown on Beale Street. Since we gathered at a restaurant on Beale after the graduation ceremonies, we got to witness a few interesting things. Some of these things might be commonplace to you, but for a small town girl like myself, they were a bit out of the norm.

I started the day by slamming my pinkie finger in the car door. Oddly, it hurts worse now than it did when it happened. You don't realize how much you use your pinkie until you injure it. This has nothing to do with Memphis or Beale Street - just another weird thing that happened to me that day.
A very polite and very skinny gentleman on a bike attempted to sing to us for tips while we hid from the rain under the awning as we were leaving the restaurant. Since he only sang two lines of the song (rather poorly, I might add) before he asked for a tip, we decided he didn't deserve one.
Beale Street was gated off, and we were carded as we entered. We were approached by several different religious groups passing out flyers and carrying signs. My favorites were "Ask me why you're going to hell" and another sign that had words randomly written all over it that said things like "Sinner", "Satan Lover", and "Fornicator". I wanted to point at that I'm married and fornicating isn't necessarily a sin for me, but I thought it best not to provoke a conversation. Not to say I don't agree with their message...just not their methods.
A little while later, it started to rain, and the religious demonstrators headed for cover. Most ran using their signs as make-shift umbrellas. One fellow in particular caught our eye - he was running up the street with a cross over his shoulder. We were all marveling at how fast he was going carrying a cross until someone noticed that this was no ordinary cross. This cross was outfitted with a wheel at the base to make it easier to drag around. I bet Jesus wishes he had one of those.
As we watched the procession of retreating demonstrators, sipping our adult beverages and being entertained as one can only be by watching people stranded in the rain, one of my friends called out, "Jesus would have stayed in the rain!" I don't think they heard him, but we thought it was funny.
Having done our part to stimulate the economy on Beale Street, we headed for the "Parking Can Be Fun" parking garage where we had entrusted our cars to the staff for a mere $5 each. On the way, we passed an ambulance and EMT's performing CPR on a girl right there on the sidewalk. Definitely a weird moment. I felt like we ought to be doing something to help, but we couldn't. And I don't think they wanted us watching, so we continued on our way.

Tennessee to be continued.

Intervention, please

2008-05-01T13:12:00.001-07:00

Seriously, people, it's time. I have a problem. I can't stop starting new projects. Typically I don't worry too much about having too many UFO's laying around, but it's really starting to get out of hand. I thought about making a list, sort of like a confession, but I'm not sure I can remember everything, so I'll save that for another day. For now, here's my latest:

It's the Babette blanket (pattern by Kathy Merrick and available from Interweave Crochet). I know I shouldn't have, but can you blame me? Take a look at the flickr group. Who can resist? Not me. Obviously. This picture is from last week...I know have all 50 2-round squares finished along with 20 4-round squares. Lots to go, but I'm making progress. Not that I'll ever finish it, because, ya know, that's not what I do.

More good news. I dropped my cell phone in a sink full of water on Friday, and the phone no longer functions. The good news about that is that I got a new phone. Isn't it pretty? It's called a rockr, which is cool, but I haven't "rocked" with it yet. My sister-in-law is 16...I'll have her figure that part out.
It does have a 2 megapixel camera on it, which I used to take this picture. A little blurry, but I think that's from enlarging it. And because I can't hold the damn thing still. Whatev.
This is my sad little camera. It's 5 or 6 years old, and a few months ago I dropped it and broke the battery cover (hence the scotch tape). I know, I'm hard on electronics. It's about time for a new camera anyway.

Last but not least, I got a new pantograph in the mail today for the longarm, so I decided to try it out.
It's called feathered curls. I'm really liking it. I think it could work on variety of quilts. I'm really digging how it looks on the back of the quilt.

This is a view from underneath the quilt machine. So if you've never sat under a quilt machine, this is what it looks like. Come by some time and I'll let you sit under my machine. It's sort of like sitting under a table covered by a tablecloth. Except when you sit under a table there is less of a chance of sitting on a straight pin. Yes, I've done that.

We're off on a long weekend to a graduation and to visit my folks, so the blog will be quiet until I get back next week. Have good weekend!

Someone bought my quilt!

2008-04-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

Remember when I told you that I was making a quilt for the local community college's scholarship auction? Well, here's the quilt.

And the back. You can't see it very well, but I stitched down the cardinal in red thread, so there's an outline of a red cardinal on the back of the quilt. Cool, huh? (By the way, those white spots are lint...the backing is black flannel.)
And here's the best part....this quilt raised $280 for scholarships! Isn't that great?! I made a quilt for the auction last year, and it was a lot more work but didn't raise nearly as much money. So I was a very happy girl after this year's auction.

Here's something I just decided to do last night. It's a 4-patch stack-n-whack from the pattern 4-Patch Stacked Posies by H.D. Designs. I found the directions a little confusing, but I've done stack-n-whack before so I just went for it. After walking the dog and watching American Idol, I only had time to sew nine 4-patches, but I really like the way they're turning out. I've got the rest cut, so hopefully tonight I can sew them together in between loads of laundry. Oh, and the American Idol results show....can't forget that.

That's not all I've had up my sleeve for the past week or so... more tomorrow!

Look what I got!

2008-04-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night was the end of the year meeting for my quilt guild. Part of the evening was the grand finale of the a quilting-themed scavenger hunt. Everyone who wanted to participate was given a list of items to find - one per month from September to April. So this is what I received... I was so excited. There are some quilting notecards, a yard of white, black & red fabric, a log cabin style pin, a spool of metallic red thread, a sewing machine picture frame, a yard of red fabric from Moda's new Prairie Paisley line (yeah!), another red floral fat quarter, a quilting-themed calender/mouspad combo, a couple of patterns, and of course the container! What a lucky girl I am!

Oh baby

2008-04-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyone I know is having a baby in the next few weeks. Okay, not everyone, but three people. As a result, I have a marathon of baby showers to attend, followed by the actual births, for which I will probably send a gift as well. And me being me, I feel obligated to give something handmade. I know the expectant mothers probably don't expect this (or maybe they do), but nevertheless, I feel like it's something I should do. The problem is, everyone can't get a quilt. It's just not possible, folks. So here's what I came up with. Burp cloths. They're fast, easy, & cute. And they are something that every mom can use. I found the tutorial at ANewChelseaMorning through SMS.

So here are my gifts for shower #1, which was Saturday afternoon. I tried to post on Saturday, but blogger wouldn't let me upload any photos. Three hours before the shower, I just had the two onesies.

Isn't the back of this one cute!

I made these three burp cloths in about an hour, including picking out the fabric and pressing everything. Which was definitely the hardest part. Actually, the hardest part might have been finding cloth diapers in this town (I'm told the dollar store has them...didn't think to look there), but I bought the diapers a couple of months ago.

Here are a few more I'm making for another shower this weekend, for a very stylish & very small young lady. Now I just need to make some for my niece. She's 5 months old, and she has very few handmade gifts from me. She punishes me by drooling and spitting up on me. Hence the need for more burp cloths. I'm a bad crafty aunt.
I try to make up for it in snuggles and kisses when I see her though. At least I don't call her Stinkerella like her daddy does.

The nerdiest way to spend a Friday night

2008-04-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

I'm sure all of you loyal readers out there (all two of you... hi mom!) are dying to know how someone who leads as glamorous a life as I do (yeah, right) spends a typical Friday or Saturday evening. Never one to leave my fans unsatisfied, I now give you the answer to your question.

That's right, I crochet. Or stitch down a binding or possibly hand quilt if I'm feeling chilly & ambitious (see the stuff to the right of the basket). Usually by the time the weekend gets here, I'm too pooped to do anything but sit on the couch, and these projects flow seamlessly into my weekend routine. Typically I will do one of these three activities while watching a Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Star Wars movie - I have a thing for movies (or books) that are part of a series. Love that. And depending on what kind of a day I've had, I might throw a nice adult beverage into the mix. Just one though... two seem to affect the results of my handiwork.

The crochet project I'm currently working I found here at Bella Dia, one of my fave blogs. It's fairly easy - just double crochet until your eyes cross. I did manage to screw it up - I didn't work on it for awhile, and when I picked it back up I couldn't remember exactly how to start a new row. So a few of my rows are a little short, but no worries, I just added stitches in the next couple of rows to even things out. It sort of looks like someone took a little bite out of the side, but I'll be damned if I was going to rip all of that out and start over. A couple of rows of edging crocheted around the whole thing will help camouflage my mistake. Yeah, sounds like a plan.This is my hand quilting project - my very first. I wanted to start with something simple so that I could concentrate on making my stitches even and not worry about quilting through thick seams. So I used a piece of ~~cheater~~ convenience fabric (this one's from Moda's Sanctuary collection by 3 Sisters), basted it together with a batt and backing, and went to town. I was pleasantly surprised that hand quilting is not nearly as time consuming as I thought it would be (atleast not the simple quilting I'm doing), but it definitely isn't quick either. However, as I said before, it's a perfect complement to my couch sitting time. And that's something I definitely don't want to rush.

Playing catch up

2008-04-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, keeping with the theme of only posting sporadically, here I am, over 2 weeks since my last post. Rest assured, it's been a busy 2 weeks or you would have heard from me before now. Alas, very little of it has been crafty, so I have very little to show you. Even so, I'll try to catch you up on what's been going on with me.

Longarm Quilting: Been doing quite a bit of this. Here's a particularly fun but time-consuming project that I finished last week. This is the Rosebud Lane block of the month that I did at the shop, and this busy customer was the first to finish the quilt. The original quilt (from the designers) had trees and animals and all sorts of cute little things quilted into it, so I tried to replicate that type of quilting as best as I could.

Taxes: I've been doing lots of that too, including my own. I'm so glad that April 15 is next week. (By the way, if you haven't done yours yet, I recommend this site. It's free if your income falls within a certain limit, but it's pretty inexpensive even if you fall outside the limit. I don't get a commission or anything for recommending them...I'm just a satisfied customer.)

American Idol: No matter how busy I am, I stop what I'm doing to watch American Idol. I was a little bored with last night's show...I didn't think anyone really picked a very good song. And my usual favorites (Carly, David C.) were just kind of okay. The people that I usually think are just "eh", I thought were a lot better last night. Including Syesha and even (it sort of hurts to say this) Kristy. And what was up with Randy & Simon last night? It was like a "Trading Places" moment. I wish Randy would go back to saying quasi-positive comments and leave the serious criticism to Simon.

Upcoming projects:

I'm working on this quilt for the local community college auction for scholarships. The auction is at the end of the month, so I've got to get going on this.

I've got lots of quilts to finish and several planned quilts that I haven't started yet, but I've been in the mood to crochet lately, so we'll see what happens. I've got a crochet project started already. I wasn't too sure about it, but then my aunt (who doesn't crochet or quilt or anything) came over last week and ooh-ed and aah-ed over it, so now I'm more in love with it. I guess I just needed someone else's stamp of approval (besides my husband's). I'll have pics tomorrow. And yes, I'm writing tomorrow in black and white so-to-speak so that I'll feel more obligated to actually take the d**n photos and post them.

Anniversary

2008-03-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day. First, it's my anniversary! Not my blogiversary or whatever, but my actual wedding anniversary (4 years... that's always the next question). Second, it's the first day of spring (Yeah! And not a moment too soon if you ask me). And last but not least, it's my 1/2 birthday! I know it's silly, but I love pointing that out. It's sort of like an Alice in Wonderland un-birthday. Not my real birthday, but still worth celebrating.

My wedding was also on the first day of spring (it's not always March 20, btw), and I loved wedding flowers. This is possibly my favorite wedding picture, even though there aren't any people in it.

The all red bouquet in the middle was mine, and the mulit-colored ones were the bridesmaids'. If gerbera daises don't say "spring" then I don't what does.

Here's another one of my favorites...my hubby looks like a jack rabbit! When the photographer said "jump", he took that to mean, "Jump as high as you can. Your football coach is hiding in the bushes to meaure your vertical." Men. He hates this picture, so feel free to tease him about it if you ever see him.

Here we are, the happy couple. It always amazes me how young we look. I guess we were, even though it didn't feel like it then. We are high school sweethearts (although I don't really care for that term), so we dated over 6 years before we took the plunge. So for those keeping track, that's over 10 years that we've been together.

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

This and that

2008-03-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the hold up on the pics. I said I would post some during the commercials of American Idol last week, but I chose to eat instead. Sorry. I love blogging, but if I have to choose between blogging and food, food wins hands down.

I was telling you last week that the mail had been good to me, and it has. For instance here's a pic of me and my new bag, purchased from Artsy-Crafty Babe.

Please ignore the dirty mirror and the lotion bottles. I didn't realize the mirror was that dirty. Guess what, it's still like that. Oh well. Anyway, I immediately transferred purses when this little beauty came in the mail, and I love it. Love. A lot. So cute, and just the right size. And did you notice the button pin on the handle? Love these. They are so much cuter in real life than they are in pics. I'm going to have to try some. Check her blog for more info.

And just because I didn't have anything better to do (yeah, right), I started a new quilt. I was straightening up in the shop the other day, and I ran across this pattern from Calico Printworks. I think the pattern has been here literally since the first day I opened the shop, but all of a sudden I was inspired by it. What do you think?

The paisley in the side-setting triangles is a bit overwhelming, but I think once the whole quilt it done it will be good. The quilt is big, queen-sized I think, so there are a lot more blocks than this picture shows. It's coming along rather quickly, and I'm excited to finish it. I have a million other things I should be doing (and other quilts to finish for that matter), but sometimes you just have to sew, ya know? I seriously think I have quilting ADD or something, because I can't stick with one project for too long.

Well, I think that's enough for now...we'll see what tomorrow brings.

My favorite people...

2008-03-11T11:44:00.001-07:00

There isn't a lot of sewing going on at my house lately...I spent last weekend out of town with family. Otherwise, I've been working quite a bit. However, the mail has been very good to me lately, so I'll catch you up on that the next time I have a chance to snap some pictures. I ran the batteries dead on my camera this weekend taking pictures of my adorable niece and nephew (above), but the batteries are on the charger was we speak. American Idol is tonight, and I'm watching it come hell or high water, but maybe I'll take some pictures during the commercials.

So...I'll be back soon.

Bring on Spring!

2008-03-05T13:35:00.001-08:00

It's finally finished! I don't remember when I started piecing this one, and I don't want to know. It's finished, and after a brief tour at the shop, it's going home to be showcased in the guestroom (the only bedroom that visitors at our house get to see).

This quilt is rather large (75" x 93", I think), so it took me several nights to get the binding done. Most quilting books will tell you to use a whip-stitch or blind-stitch to hand sew a binding on a quilt, but I tried out a new stitch on this quilt that I think works much better for really hiding your stitches. It's called the ladder stitch, and I discovered it through Sharon Schamber's video on youtube. I've tried gluing down my binding like she does, but I didn't have my glue bottle rigged up properly, so I wasn't very successful. I think if I took the time to actually do it like she says, it think it would have worked. However, since I don't do that many show quilts, I'm okay with just using binding clips or pins to hold my binding in place while I stitch it down. I'm just not that picky.

I've got more binding to do this evening while I watch Idol. I've been doing lots of machine quilting lately (for customers, not myself) so not much to show on that front. I broke down and made the dreaded trip to Walmart on Monday night. Along with all the shampoo and t.p. and other mundane stuff, some Easter candy found its way into my basket. It was a happy accident that my afternoon snack matched a piece of fabric that was laying around.

I know you can order M&M's in any color you want all year long, but I can never resist buying them on holidays. Easter is definitely my favorite candy-buying holiday.

7 random things

2008-02-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

I've seen these things all over the blogs I read, and at the end the blogger says, "I'm not going to tag anyone, but anyone who wants to join, feel free." So I've never done it, because I sort of thought to myself, no one starts reads blogs to just to read about random people and their quirks. They want to see some friggin' sewing. Or knitting. Or whatever.

However, I was recently tagged by Misplaced Country Girl at Syotha Would Be Proud, and I decided to step up to the meme plate, so to speak. So for MCG and anyone else that might care, here are 7 random things about me. For everyone else, I threw in some pictures.

1. I can't stand to watch the toilet flush. Doesn't matter what's being flushed. Even if it's just the flush to wash down the blue water after you clean the toilet, it just grosses me out. The swirling just makes me want to upchuck. However, I am fascinated by the fact that in the Southern hemisphere, the water swirls in the opposite direction. Weird.

(The quilt that I finally got the borders on and quilted.)

2. I say "weird" a lot. Like something will happen, or I'll read a story on the internet or something, and I say (usually to my husband), "Isn't that weird?" Sometime he agrees, but usually not. A good example of something I might say is, "Isn't it weird that we've lived here for 4 years?" It's not really weird to live somewhere for 4 years. What I mean is that it doesn't seem like it's been 4 years...time flies and all that...but instead, I say that it's weird.

3. My earlobes are different (from each other, not from everyone else's). One is attached and the other is unattached. I never noticed until I was about 9 or 10 years old when my aunt pointed it out. It really made 10th grade biology fun... when we were studying genetics, one of my friends pointed out to the teacher my ~~freakish deformity~~ unique attribute, and she proceeded to point it out to the rest of the class. Word quickly spread throughout the school, and I'll never live it down. My younger sister said she even used me as an example in her biology class, 2 years later. That teacher still teaches, so it's quite possible she's still telling people. I have an odd feeling it could come up at my class reunion (10 years next year...aaaahhhh!).

(back of the quilt, freehand quilted with flowers from the Pajama Quilter Reloaded dvd)

4. I like green vegetables more than any other color vegetable. I don't care much for corn, carrots, or cauliflower, but I love peas, brussel sprounts, okra... just about anything green.

5. I like change. I've painted every room in my house at least twice (we've only lived there 3 years). I've had two different jobs in the last 4 years (tax accountant to quilt shop owner). And we're about to move to a different state. I don't like to eat the same meal twice in a row. That sort of thing.

6. I love to read and watch movies. I love to read pretty much anything. I really like adventure/fantasy type books and movies, not weird ones like on the sci-fi channel, but more mainstream ones like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Especially those two. One of my favorite things to do is put in one of those movies (I own all three LOTR and all five Harry Potters), and do some handwork, like crocheting, embroidery, or hand sewing a binding. I'm currently re-reading the Harry Potter books... I just started #4, Goblet of Fire. I wanted to go a Halloween party as Harry Potter characters last year, in part so I could crochet us some scarves, but my husband wasn't up for it.

(binding for the quilt, cut on the bias)

7. This may come as a shock to some of you, but I don't like cats. I know as a quilter I'm supposed to have 2 or 3 crawling all over my fabric stash, but I just don't like them. They're sort of creepy and slithery, like furry little snakes. Their litter boxes stink up your house, and they seem to spend all day watching you, pretending not to care but secretly forming some sort of plot to take over the house. Everything they do seems premeditated. Remember the movie Cats and Dogs with Jeff Goldblum as the dad? Enough said. Give me a nice, dumb dog any day.

I'm not going to tag anyone, because I think I'm the last person on the planet to do this meme.

It's a gorgeous day here...wish I was outside enjoying it. My husband and I are going to dinner tonight, to a pancake feed in the morning, and ordering pizza to watch the KSU/KU game tomorrow night, which means I don't have to cook for the next 36 hours at least. Add to that some time for sewing and shopping, and it's shaping up to be a pretty good weekend.

Apology to February

2008-02-27T14:38:00.000-08:00

After my last post, I'm sure it's no secret that I tend to get a little blue during the cold weather months. By February, the charm of icicles and snow-covered vistas has worn off, and I find myself gazing longingly at my flip-flops. I got to thinking, and it's not February's fault that the weather is frigid or that I live in Kansas. So as an apology to February, I thought of some positive things about the month. Here goes:

Cold weather is great for using my crockpot, especially for soups.
Valentine's Day
Lots of time in the evenings for sewing.
My sister was born in February.
Driving on the ice is tricky, but I needed a new paint job on my bumper anyway.
It's the end of football season - I get the t.v. back until August!

Okay, I'm spent. I had thought of more positives than that, but I can't remember them now. Just a little interesting fact about February... last year we had a lot of ice and snow in our area, and in October (9 months later) the hospital had a record number of babies delivered. So I guess that's what everyone around here does during bad weather that doesn't know how to sew? Never thought of sewing as birth control before...

Anyway, on to quilting. Here's another quilt I started before Christmas. This quilt was actually my mom's Christmas present, but since I was sick I didn't quite get it done in time. I did have one row done that I wrapped for her to open on Christmas Day. I finally got the borders on today, and now I just have to quilt and bind it. Piece o' cake, right? Well, borders seem to be the biggest quilting hurdle for me, so maybe the rest will go quickly. One can hope.

February sucks

2008-02-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

In Kansas anyway. Today it's cloudy and cold, and there is about an inch or so freezing rain and sleet on the ground. It's getting kind of soupy right now, but after dark it will freeze and form a solid sheet of ice. If it's going to be cold, it should either be Christmas or snowing. Otherwise, I have no use for cold weather...bring on Spring! This weather is also irksome to me today because the bad weather is keeping customers out of the store, so no one has seen me on one of my rare good hair days. Sorry, all of that makes it sound like I'm in a very crabby mood, which I am not. I'd just be happier if the sun were shining... who wouldn't?

The up-side is that I've a full day of longarm quilting with very few distractions. Here is the quilt I just finished...
And here's the back. You can always see the quilting better on the back.

I've been practicing my feathers, so I thought I'd put all that practice to good use. I hope the customer likes it! She lives out of town, so I doubt she'll be picking it up today due to the weather.

My local quilt guild met last night, and for the program everyone brought a project to designate as a (one-month late) new year's resolution. The goal is to finish your project by February 2009 and show it at that month's meeting. It was really fun to see what everyone is working on...one person even had a project that had been started in 1981! We all had a good laugh because I was born in 1980 and that project is almost as old as I am.

Anyway, here's the project I chose.

I bought this Santa fabric and some coordinating pieces in 2005, and I've yet to finish it. So far, I've got these blocks and drawer full of wrinkled strips. I don't have to have it finished for guild until Feb. 09, but I'm hoping to have it done soon enough to use at Christmas. That should be plenty of time, but you just never know with me. You know how I don't like to finish things.

I can hardly contain myself

2008-02-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

Are these not the coolest containers ever?! I saw the Coats & Clark ones at another vendor's booth at the OKC winter quilt show, and I knew I had to order some. I love the vintage look. I have a couple of antique Singer sewing machines in their original cabinets, and these tins look so cool next to the machines. Plus, they're just so useful. I mean, who can't use a container for fat quarters, thread, marking tools, trims... all sorts of stuff. By the way, these are available on the shop website.

And this Disney Cars tin... my nephew's birthday is next month, and he is going to flip when he sees this. I'm going to try to find some small toy tools to put in it. If I can't find any, I might just go with candy. He already has a Cars quilt, or I would roll a quilt up and stuff it inside. I'm getting excited just thinking about him getting excited.

And....what's this.... is that a border? On a quilt of mine? It certainly is. I love this quilt, and I'm determined to finish it by the end of the month. Period. Because if I don't self-impose a deadline, it will never get finished.

On that happy note, I'm off to sew more borders!

My kind of bouqet...

2008-02-14T12:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Apron-y

2008-02-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

I promised you last week that I did some crafting over my extended blog break, so here we go. First off, I made an apron for a Christmas family gift exchange. I actually won it back, which I was quite excited about! Most of the people on that side of the family like country/farm stuff, so I used fabric from Moda's Bunkhouse line. I love the worn-looking "bandanna" prints in this line.

The pattern I used is the Four Corners apron pattern by Vanilla House Designs, which I actually mentioned here in my very first blog post! I love this pattern...I talked about why I love it in my first post. In short, it is very quick and easy, and made a perfect gift (especially since I ended up bringing it back home!).

This apron is pictured in my first blog post, but here I am wearing it at my booth at the Oklahoma City Winter Quilt Show in January. (Not my fave picture of myself...looks like it needs be stretched vertically a bit. And I've had my hair cut off shorter since then. But at least it shows what the apron looks like on an actual person).

And because just about everything is cuter in a smaller size, here's the kids version!

So cute! I especially love it in this "convenience" printed patchwork and oversized polka dot fabric by Loralie Designs. Makes me wish I had a little one to dress up in it...my niece needs to hurry up and grow into it!

I've also been trying to catch up on cutting fabric for quilts I have planned (before all my fabric is gone!). This pile is for the 2007 Kansas City Star block of the month, Borderland in Butternut and Blue. It only calls for 12 fat quarters for the blocks, but I want to have options!

I need to choose fabrics for this year's KC Star block of the month also. If you don't live in the KC area to get the newspaper (the blocks come out on the third Sunday of the month), you can buy the patterns here, or wait for the book to come out in October. Since I missed January, I think I'll wait for the book to come out...I won't get started on the quilt until then anyway!

Pajama quilting

2008-02-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

Where does a week go? I mean, I know where mine went...I heard the flushing sound at the end of last week that cued the slow but inevitable drain of this week down the proverbial toilet. Sunday was the Superbowl, so I was at the shop in the afternoon and then watched the game that night. Monday went okay until my husband and I both came down with the stomach flu, which put me out of commission through Wednesday. Thursday.... that was just yesterday... let's see, what did I do... oh yes, scrambled to catch up from everything that doesn't get done when you're sick. Oh, and I got a mini-makeover! A quilter friend of mine sells Mary Kay, so we went to an "eyes-cream social" and ate ice cream and got eye make-up done...fun! I ordered a facial highlighting pen and a brow definer pencil. These are two items that are currently missing from my makeup repertoire (which is a very fancy word for the 4 or 5 make-up items that I actually use), but I'm very excited to get them. What a difference they make!

Sorry, that was starting to sound a lot like whining until I got to the makeover part, so let's move on to quilting. I've been using any spare moment I've had at the shop lately to longarm quilt. I'm really getting excited about longarm quilting lately. Quilting is just a fact of quilt-making that I never really considered much before. But now that I've been quilting for almost a year (eek!), I'm starting to spread my wings and experiment a bit more. I ordered Dawn Ramirez's new Pajama Quilter Reloaded DVD, and here's what I've done with it so far.

Cindy pieced this top the last time she was in the shop...before she broke her ankle. (Did I forget to mention that? Well, she did - slipped on the ice. I'm afraid I've been a bit self-absorbed lately =)
One of Dawn's basic flowers...
A flower, a ribbon, and some loops....
And more of the same. This is really just part of the basic stuff on her DVD. I really recommend this DVD if you've been wanting to learn some good freehand quilting designs. You don't need to have a longarm machine.. in fact, in the DVD she demos here designs on a whiteboard. Very easily translated to quilting on a domestic sewing machine.

I've got so much more to learn. As Dawn would say, practice and chocolate will get me there eventually. Sounds like a good plan for this evening, actually....

Changes

2008-02-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've made a lot of posts apologizing for long absences, so I won't do that here. I will say that I didn't mean to go without posting for so long, but I've had lots of changes going on in my life lately, and blogging just got pushed to the back seat.

I'll start by telling you the biggest change... my husband and I have decided to move to another city (town?), out of state. As a result, I am closing the quilt shop. I will miss the shop, but I am going to continue to longarm quilt. In a way, I am looking forward to being able to focus on doing one or two things, instead of doing 5 or 6 things very quickly. The good news for all of you is that everything is the shop is priced 20% to 40% off, including books, patterns, and notions. I haven't had a chance to update the prices on the website, but I will apply the discount in the shop before I ship.

Another change that had has a more immediate impact on my life this week is that our dog, Heidi, passed away on Monday. She was only two years old, but we think she had a heart attack or something like that. My husband was there with her, so at least she wasn't alone. He came home for lunch, and he said as he was walking in the back gate, she just fell over. About a minute later, she was gone. I was pretty upset earlier in the week, but it's getting easier as time goes by. Being home is the hardest part...it's so quiet around there. I keep expecting to see her run in, jump up on the couch, and settle in for a nap. Or push the bathroom door open while I'm in the shower. Or maybe chase her tail or bring us her stinky duck toy or rope bone. She loved to go on walks, and I will always think of her when I drive by the park where we walked. She also loved to go in the car. It didn't matter where, and more than once I had to drag her out of my car in the mornings so I could go to work. These are all memories of her that I will cherish. She was good girl, a gentle yet playful soul, and she will be dearly missed.

I have been crafting a little since I posted last (and geez, what a crybaby I was being. Turns out I was pretty sick though), so will catch you all up on that stuff soon. For now, here are some pictures of my sweet little Heidi girl.

Sleep tight, little Heidi. Sleep tight.

My throat is on fire

2007-12-21T00:55:00.000-08:00

And my sinuses feel like they are trying to find an escape route from my cheeks. Or like they've punched me in the face from the inside. Oh yeah, and it's 3 a.m. and I'm not asleep. This is very abnormal for me. Very. Abnormal. In order to explain just how abnormal, I'll tell you a little story. Skip the next paragraph if you don't care.

Here goes. In high school I was a wrestling cheerleader. This involved getting up very early on Saturday mornings and riding a school bus with a bunch of stinky wrestlers to a tournament. I think the minimum travel time was at least an hour. Like nearly towns would call the school and want to schedule a wrestling meet, and they said, "No, sorry, you're too close." So anyway, one particular Saturday, the school bus arrived at the tournament about 2 hours before the tournament began (this was typical, the wrestlers all had to be weighed and checked for ringworm). I had brought my pillow and blanket with me (wrestling is a winter sport, and school buses don't have the best heating systems), so I made a little nest for myself in the bleachers and fell asleep. So, I don't know, about 2 hours and 10 minutes later, I wake up to find the bleachers full of people. Full. Somehow I had slept through the arrival of about 1,000 wrestling fans. It was the regional tournament, afterall.

Long story short, I can usually sleep through just about anything.

Anywho, I'm going to try to go back to sleep. I've got a big day tomorrow (today?), as my goal is to make and quilt two quilts. Yes, you read that right. Two. One is already started, and the other is pretty simple, so we'll see.

Here's a blast from Christmas past. I'm guessing this picture was taken 1985-1987. I'm the third from the left. This picture is actually the inspiration for one of the quilts I plan to make today (tomorrow?). More on that later.

And one last thing, here is a quilt I hope to make in time for Christmas 2008. I think this is from Quiltmaker magazine, Dec. 2001, but I'm not sure. I just saved the pic, not the instructions.

Okay, off to bed!

Procrastination Station

2007-12-17T09:13:00.000-08:00

That's my new nickname for my sewing room. The last few times I've been in there, I've just sort of wandered around, shuffled some papers and fabric, and walked out. Today, however, I finally got the borders on my red & white stack-n-whack quilt.

I really like how it turned out. It finished measurement is 48" x 48", so I'm thinking of using it for a Christmas wall hanging or maybe even a tree skirt for next year. There is no chance it is going to get quilted in time for this Christmas. Not that I have to use it for Christmas. I love red, so I will probably use it all year. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking of making a red & white quilt for our bedroom, so I could hang this stack-n-whack quilt in there. Hmmm.

I'm going to the Little Balkans Quilt Guild meeting in Pittsburg tonight to do a program, so come by if you're in the area. I'll be spending the rest of my afternoon getting ready for that, packing up quilts and merchandise to take with me. I'm having a quick lunch of cheese nips (the official cracker of Major League Soccer, according to the box) and Dr. Pepper, so I should be nice and carb'd up for tonight.

And just in case you need any help procrastinating, check this out. Hilarious and true. So true. I'm enrolling my husband tomorrow.

Perfect place

2007-12-14T10:04:00.000-08:00

for the best hot chocolate ever, period.

These placemats are a Christmas gift. I need to make a couple more...maybe tonight. I got the idea and the measurements from the Bend the Rules Sewing book, but did something a little different for the top. The back is solid red Kona cotton. These went together very quickly. Quickly enough that I may make another set. Or maybe matching napkins. We'll see.

My mom, sister, nephew, & new niece are visiting this week. We went out and had a nice dinner last night (which is such a nice treat every once in a while). The baby slept until we were almost ready to leave, and my 3-year-old nephew stopped making engine noises long enough to behave like a little gentleman, so the adults were able to talk and enjoy themselves. Thank goodness for small miracles.

When we got home, my dinner had digested enough that I was ready for something sweet, so I made hot chocolate. Not just any hot chocolate...according to my husband, "the best hot chocolate I've ever had." Quite the compliment coming from this man. I'm afraid I can't take all of the credit, because this recipe was on the package. But I would like to think my special hot chocolate making technique kicks it up a notch.

The Best Hot Chocolate Ever (according to my husband):

1 pkg hot chocolate mix (or make your own if your just ambitious like that)

milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pour the hot chocolate mix into a mug. Pour enough milk into the mug to just cover the hot chocolate mix. Stir until well-blended. It should be kind of thick at this point...the consistency of cake batter or melted milk chocolate. Add the vanilla (a "plop" of you're not a measurer) and the cinnamon (a sprinkling). Stir. Slowly add more milk, stirring as you go, until the mug is full. Microwave until hot. Enjoy!

Back from the dark side

2007-12-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry about that. I had to take an unintended break from blogging to re-energize and re-group. I'm sure I'm not the first (or the last) person to experience a little drought of creativity, but there for a few weeks I just didn't have it in me. Well, I'm back, and I have the November quilt guild meeting to thank for snapping me out of it. Everyone showed their Underground Railroad quilts, and quite frankly, I was jealous. So the next day, I decided to finish my blocks.

(Sorry for the bad fluorescent lighting at the top of the picture.) Now I just have to decide how to set them together. The book shows quilts in a regular 3 x 4 block grid with sashing and cornerstones, but I'm thinking I want to do something a little different with mine. Something like this maybe? (Gotta love EQ6!)

Also, I've been wanting to learn how to do stack-n-whack properly for months. I did the blocks for this quilt, but I sort of just stumbled through it, not really knowing what I was doing. So another guild member came by the other day and helped me figure it out. Here is what I have to show for my efforts so far... a vast improvement over my previous project in terms of stack-n-whackiness.

Here's what the original fabric looked like before it was whacked:

And last but not least, a christmas gift in progress for a family member that doesn't read this blog (or at least I hope not)!

See, I have been a busy little bee! And that's not all I have to show you... more projects coming soon! So nice to be out of my crafting funk!

post-thanksgiving

2007-11-29T09:36:00.000-08:00

So, how was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was blissfully unproductive. I visited my parents and sister in TN, and I spent the whole weekend snuggled up in my parents house. Even though it's not the house I grew up in (I have to stop and think where to get a glass or plate or silverware), it still sort of feels like home for me.

On Thursday, I alternated between helping my mom fix the big dinner and watching old home movies. My dad bought a dvd recorder, and he is in the process of transferring our VHS tapes to DVD. Unfortunately for him, my sister was quite the entertainer as a child, so he has quite a few hours of dances, piano recitals, and choir performances to watch.

On Friday & Saturday, we slept in, ate leftovers, and put up the Christmas tree. Oh yeah, and my nephew "made me pretty" with VCR sticker labels.

We opted not to hit the shops on Friday, some of which opened at 4 a.m. None of us are really early risers, and dragging everyone out of bed to go to a crowded store before the sun even comes up is not our idea of quality family time.

This is one of my new niece's rare waking moments. I suppose she's like most babies - only wakes up to eat or soil her diaper. But we sure think she's pretty special. I can't remember what she was getting ready to do in this picture, eat or soil.

Not too much happening on the craft front for me right now. I've been spending lots of time catching up on longarm quilting. I do have a few gifts to make before Christmas, so I've got lots to keep me busy. If you are looking for ideas for handmade gifts, hop on over to the Sew Mama Sew blog and check out their Handmade Holidays posts. Lots of good stuff.

It's a girl!

2007-11-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

My new niece, Eva Ryanne (pronounced "Ryan" - it's my sister's middle name as well), was born at 3:50 this morning! Finally! She weighs 8 lbs, 6 ounces, and mom, dad, and baby are all doing well. Tired, but well. I can't wait to see her! However, I do need a few more days to whip up a quilt-y gift or two. I'll be sure and show you what I decide to do.

~~I don't have any pictures yet~~, but here's a dose of cuteness courtesy of my nephew. It's one of my favorite baby pics of him. I'll meet his sister next week when I visit for Thanksgiving. See ya then, my new homegirl!

Of course 5 minutes after I posted this, my dad sent me some pictures. Here she is!

How many UFOs can one girl have?

2007-11-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

Seriously. I must be a glutton for punishment, because I can't seem to stop myself from starting new projects. And to make things worse, I have plans to start even more quilts to give as Christmas gifts. I started mentally counting my UFOs, but I couldn't finish that either. If I had to guess, I would say I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 20 unfinished projects. That includes quilting and crocheting, but I don't think that excuses me from the scolding I've been giving myself.

For instance, exhibit A:

This poor quilt only has borders on three sides. Why? I don't know. I must have been distracted while I was putting the borders on. There is one more border to add after this one, and then this top would be done. It's so pathetic that the only thing standing in the way of this quilt's completion is 5 more strips of fabric and four cornerstones.

Moving on, here we have exhibit B:

A friend of mine brought me a baby afghan book to look at, and I couldn't help starting another afghan. This one is pretty fun to do b/c it isn't just the same stitch over and over. It looks much harder than it really is, which is nice.

Add to the list this afghan, my project for this class, another crochet project, my redwork blocks...you get the idea.

Something I have accomplished over the last few days is longarm quilting this stack of quilts.

There are more tops to quilt where these came from, so I'm going to get back to it. Hopefully I'll have more finished projects to show you very soon!

Frenzied

2007-11-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

That's how I'm feeling right now. With Christmas looming not-so-far in the distance, I'm longarm quilting like crazy and trying to stay on top of my own projects. It doesn't help that I keep starting new ones...I just can't help myself! Every time we get in a new shipment of fabric or a new magazine, I dream up yet another thing to occupy my time. So my goal for the rest of the month is to finish up what I've got before I move on to anything else. We'll see how that goes.

Here's what is going on with all of the red and white circles I appliqued last weekend.

This is my very first stack-n-whack quilt. The stack-n-whack blocks were suprisingly easy to put together. If you look too closely, you'll see that they don't line up perfectly, but you can't tell from a normal viewing distance =). I've got the fabric up on the shop's website, with the kit for this quilt coming soon.

Last week I had to make an impromptu trip to Wichita to have my longarm machine serviced, and I just happened to need some ribbon, so I stopped in Micheal's. While I was there, I took a spin through the yarn aisles and found Lion's new organic cotton yarn. This stuff is sooo soft. There are all kinds of free projects on the Lion website, but I decided to start another afghan.

The pattern is simple enough. It's single crochet, working in the back loops. It's going to be so snuggly when it's finished. However, the yarn was $6.99/skein, and it doesn't go very far. So this one will be snuggly but small. Maybe another afghan for my sister's newest addition to the family (any day now!). The quilt in the background is a Turning Twenty that was done in the Scrappy Dots line from Judy Rothermel...still one of my favorites. I love polka dots. In fact, I just got some new ones in the other day that are a-dorable...more on that in my next post.

Free piecing

2007-11-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

Here's something I finally got a chance to start on. I think I've mentioned before that I'm taking an online class from Tonya on free piecing. I haven't quite decided exactly what I'm going to make, but one of the first assignments was just to practice making letters. So I started with my name. What do you think?

If you want to try this technique, there are lots of tutorials at Tonya's pages at Quiltville.com.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well, here are the Halloween costumes.
This picture wasn't taken until after we had been sitting for a little while, so I'm a little wrinkled, but you get the idea. My dress really went together pretty easily after I got over the initial problems. I put a zipper in the side of the dress, but I failed to make it long enough. Luckily, I could just barely get the darn thing on and off. My husband's costume was pretty easy also. The cape just had to be hemmed at the bottom and pleated a little at the top. His "man skirt," as he calls it, was a wrap around. The only snafu we had there was that the sticky-backed, heavy duty velcro I used for a closure came unstuck towards the end of the night, leaving him standing there momentarily in his boxers. Lucky for him, we had an extra safety pin, and I don't think anyone saw except a few close friends (closer now, I guess) that we were sitting with.

My Saturday evening and Sunday were occupied by hand applique-ing sixteen circles. I used a CD as a template, which worked better than I thought it would. More to come on this project later. I'm also in the process of attaching a scrappy binding to my Afternoon Tea quilt made from Heather Bailey's Freshcut fabric. Lots of hand sewing to do...perfect for a chilly Halloween night!

"If I knew you were comin' I'd a baked a cake..."

2007-10-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yep, I baked. Just a regular ol' cake mix - nothing fancy. The Halloween sprinkles and cupcake papers are to blame. Who can resist sprinkles?

After the sprinkles and cupcake papers made their way into my shopping cart, I got the bright idea to make orange frosting, so I picked up some food coloring. The back of the box said to make orange, use 6 drops of yellow and 2 drops of red. To make a long story short, I would say about 600 yellow drops, 200 red drops, and 30 minutes of stirring later, I finally had orange frosting. I had no idea it was going to be such an ordeal.

I also frosted half of the cupcakes with chocolate, but there was a bit of an incident on the way to the car this morning, and the chocolate-frosted cupcakes are in no shape to have their picture taken.

And because I have nothing better to do (ha!), I started another ripple crochet project. I was going to teach myself how to knit, but I wasn't in the mood on Saturday night to learn anything new. I was, however, in the mood to crochet something, so this is what I started. I had put in some rows in other colors, but after much discussion my husband I decided I should just stick with blue & brown.

I was very excited today when the UPS man brought me this:
It's the new Sew Girls line from Loralie. I can't wait to make a bag or sewing kit or something out of this stuff - I think it's just hilarious. My favorite are the tomato pin-cushion and button bras. They're available in the shop's website, along with the You Golf Girl! panel.

Last but not least, I finished sewing down the binding on a quilt last night during Monday night football! I'm pretty sure I've shown you this quilt before, but that's when it was just a quilt top. I'm usually not a very flowery person, but I love the borders on this one. And the gingham in the star points.

While I was baking up a storm and cursing at the frosting last night, my husband was busy making chicken & wild rice soup. I didn't get a picture because it disappeared so fast. We were hungry, and it was good. I got the recipe from a recipe notebook I got as a wedding gift. Knowing that I'm not much of a cook (although I'm trying), my friend's mom (she's an amazing cook) put together a 3-ring binder of quick & easy recipes for me - everything from appetizers to desserts. So without further ado, here's the soup!

Chicken & Wild Rice soup:
1/2 c. shredded carrots
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 c. half and half
1 c. water
1 10oz. can condensed chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice (I got the kind you just microwave in the bag...it took 90 seconds)
2 tbsp butter or margarine
2-3 cups diced cooked chicken (I'm guessing here... we added this to the recipe).

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, and saute the carrots, celery, green bell pepper, & onion for about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, salt, & pepper. Add the half & half, water, chicken broth, chicken, & rice. Bring to boil. Turn down the heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes. Delicioso!

This recipe says it makes 5 servings, but I would say it's more like 4. We're going to double the recipe next time, because we ended up using half an onion, half of the bell pepper, and (wait for it....) half of the half-and-half. Which felt like a waste. I always make extra anyway so we can have leftovers. I wouldn't want to have to cook two days in a row...

Back to the drawing board

2007-10-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the halloween costume I made for myself. Sorry for the headless photo.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's HUGE. You're supposed to put elastic in the waist, which I haven't done, but it would still be really big. A better "belt" would help, but to me it looks more like a female Star Wars jedi than a Spartan lady. A Spartan lady wouldn't be wearing yellow-toed footie socks either, but I think the socks are the least of the problems with this. I'm very disappointed, because I don't feel like what I made looks anything like the picture on the pattern.

Maybe I'm just missing a cape and some hair extentions.

My husband suggested taking up the "sleeves" (it's supposed to be sleeveless). That helps, but then it gets all bunchy in the chest.

So I decided to just scrap the whole bodice and start over with something I'd done before that is more what I had in mind.

So this is the new bodice that I've made. Now I just have to figure out how to attach it to the back of the costume and take up the skirt about 4 inches. Oh, and put in a zipper or velcro or something because I won't be able to fit the costume over my head once I put this new, more fitted bodice on it.

On a happier, less frustrating note, I declared myself finished with my pink & white ripple afghan. Is it very big? No. It is square? Definitely not. (Although photoing it from the smaller end does make it look more square). Will it keep a baby warm? Certainly. I figure there's no sense it blocking it since it's just going to get washed so much. And I know my sister won't block it. That's just not something a mother of a toddler and a newborn has time for.

The ripple stitch pattern comes from this book. I can't remember exactly which stitch I used (and I don't have the book with me), but it was a crochet stitch shown in red, white, & green. I am definitely planning to make another project from this book sometime in the near future. This time, however, I might try knitting. I downloaded and printed this knitting tutorial the other day. Now all I need are knitting needles and time to practice (ha). There isn't a yarn shop anywhere near here, so I think I'll stop next time I go to visit my parents and get some good needles and yarn. I could order online, but I have no idea what to order. If there is one thing I've learned from crocheting, it's that yarn and fabric have something major in common...you get what you pay for. My Wal-mart yarn shopping is a thing of the past. Some bad habits are easier to break than others =)

Stay tuned...

2007-10-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to post, and blogger won't let me upload pictures right now. So, I'll be posting as soon as I can. I promise!

More Halloween

2007-10-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here is my pumpkin quilt with the borders added. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, but I had a revelation this morning. While I was at the computer eating my cereal and reading blogs, I saw Tonya's latest post and thought to myself, "I should have put letters in the borders." So I think that's what I'm going to do. Inspiration has yet to hit me over the head with an idea for a project in her class, so I'm just going to start making letters with this quilt in mind. I'm not going to take the current borders off, however, until I have new borders ready to put back on it.

We went grocery shopping last night, and I went to a local home dec store this morning to by my mother-in-law and my dad birthday gifts. So I've done quite a bit more shopping than usual in the last 24 hours. Naturally, I picked up some things for myself along the way (I'm really bad about that.)

Clockwise from the left are:

The lastest issue of American Patchwork & Quilting, full of fun Christmas quilts.

Thank you cards that I couldn't resist buying for myself this morning at the home dec store.

Sticky notes (also from the home dec store) that say, "When you're on your third margarita, stay away from the phone. Never mind how I know this." I've never had a bad phone experience after drinking margaritas, but they are my favorite drink, so I had to have this notepad.

Bias tape for my Halloween costume (see #5).

A pattern for my Halloween costume. We have a costume party to go to at the end of the month. I wanted to be Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, but my husband didn't like that idea. We recently saw the movie 300, so he wanted to be Spartans. I grudgingly agreed. So now I'm going to attempt, with my very limited sewing skills, to make myself a Spartan wife costume. I'm going to make the longer one, but without the wrap. I'm thinking I can use bleached muslin for this, but we'll see. If you've never seen the movie, here's a picture of the queen. This is sort of what I'm going for, minus the cleavage.

Notice what the guy in the background is wearing? Yeah, well, we haven't really decided what my husband's costume is going to look like exactly. He doesn't have any leather underwear, and he wouldn't look that that guy in them even if he did, so we're going to improvise a bit. Don't worry, I'll definitely post pictures of us in costume on the big night.

Creative pumpkin juices

2007-10-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Nothing like 15 hours of sleep to help you get over a cold. Overdosing on cold medicine didn't hurt either. (I was taking 2 pills every 4 hours, instead of the recommended dosage of 1 pill, not to exceed 4 pills in a 24 hour period. Oops.) So that's pretty much all I did on Sunday. I also crocheted a little bit, beginning with the pink & white ripple afghan for my yet-to-be-born niece until I ran out of pink yarn, then on a multi-colored afghan I started for myself a loooong time ago. I'll try to remember to take some pics to show you.

Monday was spent catching up. The Kansas Quilters Organization (KQO) had its fall meeting in my town this weekend. Ami Simms was the featured speaker. I really wanted to go to her lectures, but I couldn't leave the shop (ah, the joys of being a shop owner =). I did a trunk show for them on Friday night, and they were a lot of fun. The spring meeting is in McPherson, so I'm hoping to be able to go.

I have so many projects I want to do. So many that I was feeling sort of bogged down and uninspired yesterday. So I just jumped in with something easy to try and get my creative juices flowing. This would be a great project for kids. I felt like I was doing a 1st grade art project. I traced the jack-o-lantern face shapes onto interfacing, roughly cut the shapes, and ironed them onto scraps of black. Then I played with the shapes until I had pumpkin faces I was happy with. I cut the shapes out a little more precisely, ironed them on, and top-stitched around them. The blocks are 10", so even with borders this will just be a wall-hanging. Which I'm okay with. Now I'm debating with myself on what to do for borders (but what else is new?). I do have patterns and fat quarter bundles for this project in the shop. Also, if you receive my newsletter by e-mail, this is the free pattern that came with October's newsletter.

Borders, quilting, and binding are on my agenda for the next couple of days. Not the sexiest part of quilting, but stuff that must be done. I'll keep you posted.

I found this link via Ami's website. Hilarious.

"I would walk 500 miles..."

2007-10-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

Since my parents moved to the great state of TN, that song rings true to me. It's over 450 miles to my folks' new place. With a side trip to Memphis to go shopping, we logged over 1,000 miles on my car this past weekend. But it was a good trip...well worth the gas money (ouch!). And luckily, as we drive through southern Missouri on Hwy 60, we pass through the Ozark mountains, so the views are lovely no matter what time of year it is.

Other then driving, all I've really been able to accomplish that is blog-worthy is longarm quilting. I've been doing lots of paperwork and kit-cutting for the shop, so that's not much fun to tell you about. I did finally get October's newsletter sent out, so you should be receiving it in the next few days (or already if you're signed up by e-mail).

Anyway, on to quilting. This is my local quilt guild's opportunity quilt. It's made from the Quest for a Cure fabric from several years ago called "Say It With Roses." It's a very flowery and feminine quilt. The guild is getting pink t-shirts this year to kind of go along with the whole "Think Pink" theme.

Here's the whole quilt. It's very hard to get a good picture because it's SO big.
And a close up of the quilting on the back...
...and the front.
I really like this quilting pattern. It's a continuous feather pantograph (stencil). So I can longarm quilt feathers without having to learn & practice them first. Someday, I fully intend to explore free-hand longarm quilting a bit more, but for now the pantographs work.

I've managed to catch a bit of a cold, and I'm in that weird phase where I feel hot, but I've got goosebumps on my arms. My hubbie is coming to the rescue with cold medicine on his lunch hour, and I've got enough kleenex to last the rest of the afternoon, so I'll be fine. This weekend I am going to try to catch up in the class I'm taking from Tonya. I'm waaaaay behind, and it's really starting to bother me. Plus, I'm a little jealous of what all of the other students are accomplishing. Nothing like being out-done to light a fire under you, right?

Thread experiment

2007-09-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello. Sorry I've been away for so long, but I've been extremely busy. I managed to make a couple of baby quilts last week to be auctioned off for a local school fundraiser (wouldn't you know that in my rush to get them finished and delivered, I forgot to take pictures!) and then vend at a local quilt guild show on Saturday. Sunday was spent recovering and rearranging the furniture in our bedroom to make room for a tv cabinet from another part of the house. That meant moving a dresser from our bedroom to a different bedroom and (eek!) purging some of our clothes to adjust to decrease in drawer space. It felt good to purge a little though. I have some jeans that I've "grown out of" that I'm going to give my sister to wear after she has her baby, but before she can fit back into her regular size 2 clothes (I know, it's sickening).

Anyway, I got sidetracked a little there. What I really want to tell you about is my thread experiment. First, our local Wal-mart stopped carrying embroidery floss, so I am now carrying it in the shop. But instead of DMC, I'm carrying a brand called Presencia. I had used some of their 100% cotton sewing thread before and loved it (very smooth and very little lint), but had never tried their embroidery floss. The sales rep told me that the quality of Presencia floss is better than DMC - no bleeding, colorfast, and even bleachfast! So what did I do....I did a little experiment to test their claims! Here's what happened...

I cut a skein of color 1906 (sort of a burgundy-ish red) into 4 sections. The first section was my control, meaning I didn't put it through any test. I put the second section in a bowl of lukewarm water and stirred it around a little. The water didn't change color, so I left it for about 10 minutes or so (keep in mind, my testing wasn't very scientific) and came back. The water was still clear. See?
And here's the third section in a bowl of water with a couple tablespoons of laundry detergent stirred in. Once again, I let it soak for 10 minutes or so (while I caught up on some of my blog reading), and once again, no bleeding.
The fourth section got the bleach test. I added two capfuls of bleach to my bowl of water (which I'm guessing was about 2 cups of water), stirred it around, and added the floss.Again, no bleeding.

Here are all of the sections (in order from top to bottom) after they dried. I kept them on the paper towel that I used to blot them dry so that you could see that they didn't bleed on the paper towel either.

As you can see, the colors stayed pretty much the same. The section that was soaked in bleach water faded a little bit, but not much.

Conclusion: I can wash my redwork quilts (assuming I ever finish one) without worrying about the red thread bleeding or fading too badly. Now, the red fabric may be a different story, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Kids & granddogs

2007-09-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

This is what's on my design wall at the moment. I got this new fabric in the shop last week. I really wanted to make the full size quilt from the manufacturer's free project, but I decided that the table runner would get the point across. Now that I have the blocks done though, I'm really thinking this fabric will make the cut into a full size quilt. I love the rich colors. And it just so happens that we have a green couch in a our living room and a couple of pictures on the wall that have this dark red color in them...what a coincidence =)

I switched a couple of fabrics around when I made this, but I'm not going to tell you which ones. It looks just a good this way (and I wasn't about to re-make it), so it's going to stay this way for now. Maybe if I do the full quilt I'll do the "right" way.

My birthday is tomorrow, and I've really been thinking about it a lot. Not that I feel old, certainly not that, but maybe just not young anymore. You know, as in "Wow, I'm definitely not a kid anymore." Also, people are starting to ask about when we're going to have kids - like my biological clock is starting to tick or something. Well, it maybe ticking, but I don't hear it yet. My life is full and happy and just right for now.

After all, we do have a dog, and she's sort of like a kid. Here she is with some of the friends she made when we went to visit my friend, Nicole, and her family.

Our Heidi is the one on the right with her eye half-closed in anticipation of a playful bite from Riley. The cute little stinker in the middle is my friend's son, and the two dogs on the left are Nicole's (yes, there are two dogs there if you look closely). We tease Nicole's mom by calling them her "granddogs." She acts annoyed, but we know she secretly loves it.

And this picture (of a picture) simultaneously makes me want to have five boys and to not have kids at all! These boys are my adorable little nephew and his friends from daycare. They're all too cute, but boy, do they look like trouble or what!

More pink & brown

2007-09-14T15:54:00.001-07:00

Well, I got my embroidery finished....
And here is the quilt!
I just meander quilted it - I wanted the fabrics and the embroidery to take center stage. I really like how it turned out. If my sister likes it, she may just get an identical one for her little bundle of joy that's set to arrive in November. (So, Sister, do you like it?) The binding isn't on yet, but given my track record with attaching binding, I figured I'd better go ahead and show this quilt to you without it.

Also, I have a favor to ask of all of you. If you would, please say this prayer for me:

Dear Lord,
Please help Tiffany as she teaches her beginner class tomorrow. Beginners are fun and it's very rewarding to see their progress, but Tiffany may need a little help from You at certain times. Also, please watch over the students to see that they don't damage their fingers with either the rotary cutter or sewing machine. And lastly, please give her husband the wisdom and good sense not to ask her what she is cooking for dinner when the class is over, and instead take her out for a nice dinner.
Amen. :)

Dear Kellogg corporation,

2007-09-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

I have a bone to pick with you. I have been eating your cereal, Special K with red berries, for breakfast for the past six weeks or so, and I haven't lost any weight. Not even a little bit. Never mind that I've been eating twice the recommended serving of 8 ounces, because come on, who can face the day with just 8 ounces of cereal and a cup of coffee in their stomach? Oh yeah, and I don't use skim milk, because, well, I don't like it. And I may have cheated a couple of times by having cookies for breakfast instead. But other than that, I made a commitment to your product based on the advertising that said I would lose weight, and you're not holding up your end of the bargain.

I would return the unused portion of the product for a full refund, but I like the way it tastes, and it's got to be healther than the cereal I used to eat. However, I'm still upset about not losing any weight.

Sincerely,

Tiffany

Pink & brown

2007-09-11T09:40:00.001-07:00

Remember yesterday how I was dreaming of all the possibilities of embroidery beyond redwork? And how a baby quilt for a friend of mine was on my to-do list? (The friend has since had her baby, and I still haven't finished a quilt.) Well, the light bulb went on yesterday after I posted.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I started a yellow brick road quilt at 4:00 yesterday. The good thing about this quilt is that I had the top done by 7:00. The pattern calls for borders, but I really like the way it looks without them, especially since it's just intended to be a baby quilt. Wondering where the embroidery comes in? In the larger, pink marbled squares, I'm going to embroider the baby's "stats" (for lack of a better word) in brown thread. Ya know, the name, weight, date of birth, etc. I got the idea from a customer's quilt that I quilted, and she said she got the idea from a book but couldn't remember which one. So I can't give proper credit to whoever deserves it, but I think it's a wonderful idea. I haven't started embroidering yet, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Here's a little more pink & brown love from a wedding we attended on Saturday night. I just love the cowboy theme!

I'm off to figure out the best way to mark and embroider on that quilt... wish me luck!

Redwork & cookies

2007-09-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was bad this weekend. First, I didn't sew any binding down on any of the three quilts that are waiting on me for this final step. Instead, I started on my redwork project. I'm doing nine blocks that all have a mother goose, nursery rhyme theme. This first one is little Miss Muffet. I stitched her first because she looked like she was the least amount of work.

And this one is Old Mother Hubbard. Again, I'm stitching in order of difficulty, so she looked like the least amount of work after Miss Muffet.

I'm using three strands of red (DMC 321) embroidery thread on a bleached muslin background. The white background makes it very hard to get a good picture that isn't too shadowy, especially since today is another cloudy one.

On the bright side, this is the first embroidery I've ever done, and I really like it. On the weekends I like to have handwork (usually binding a quilt or crochet) to do while I sit on the couch and relax. Plus, I love the way redwork looks. My head is spinning now with ideas about how to update the redwork a little...turquoise thread on a brown background, white thread on black, pink or light blue on white for a baby quilt... I'm quickly thinking of more ideas for projects than I'll ever be able to complete.

Sunday I slept in and enjoyed every lazy minute of it. I even stayed in bed for 10 minutes or so after I woke up, just enjoying the feeling of slowly waking up instead of hopping out of bed and scurrying around to get ready for work. Grocery shopping couldn't be put off any longer, so I did that too. For supper, I made "To Die For Crockpot Roast" from the recipe on pg. 21 in the latest issue of the Country Register. Cindy tried it first and highly recommended it. And I second her recommendation. It meets the rule of 5's for recipes: no more than five ingredients or five steps.

And because I was already being bad by doing my redwork instead of quilt binding, I figured I might as well go ahead and crush any hopes of weight loss by making oatmeal cookies.

I love Paula Dean, but I tried her oatmeal cookie recipe a few months ago and just wasn't satisfied. I'm sure it was my failure and not hers. Afterwards, I was told by my mother and a co-worker that the recipe on the lid of the Quaker Oats is the best one, so I used that one this time. As you can see, I had much better results =)

Another one bites the dust

2007-09-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've got several new things to show you, but I have made a vow to myself not to photo them until they are done, meaning quilted, bound, and labeled. So this is the first one that I've actually accomplished all of that stuff. I'm a little disappointed with the picture. I had totally envisioned this quilt hanging over the wooden privacy fence in my backyard, lit by the late afternoon sun. Alas, we've had cloudy skies for the last couple of days, with no sunshine forecasted for the rest of the weekend.

Here's a detail shot.

When I did my trunk show last night (which went really well, by the way, I didn't swallow my tongue or sprout hives or anything), it hit me that none of my quilts have labels. And I mean none. So one of my goals for, let's say, the end of the year is to get all of my quilts labeled. But since I don't actually like the idea of making a label and applique-ing (sp?) it onto a quilt, I may just sign some of them, like I did here.
I know it's hard to read since the backing is so busy, but I like the concept. I like seeing someone else's handwriting on a quilt, so I'll probably write out my labels even if I do applique a separate label. I think the handwriting makes the quilter seem more real - seeing a signature on old quilts makes it easier for me to imagine the quiltmaker. And it just seems more genuine than some computer-generated thing (not to say I won't do that on a few). Plus, if you sign the quilt back instead of attaching a label, no one can rip it off.

We woke up this morning at our house to discover we had no water. Not a great start to my day. There was some sort of problem on the city's end, and they are supposed to have it fixed by now. We'll see when I get home. There's a thunderstorm rolling in, so I'm going to snuggle up on the couch and sew binding on a quilt tonight. Maybe I'll watch a Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movie while I sew, especially since our satellite reception will probably be touch and go. And my friend just dropped by some redwork blocks that she marked for me, so maybe I'll start on those when I get bored with binding. This will be my first attempt at embroidery, so wish me luck!

Mission accomplished

2007-09-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

My purse is finished! And I love it! I realize it's a little Spring-y for September, but gee, I just don't care. And I think it's going to be just the right size. I haven't put all of my junk in it yet b/c I want to show if off for a little while before I go messing it up. As I may or may not have mentioned before, the fabrics are from the pink version of the Flea Market Fancy line by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit Fabrics (I'm working on getting this line on the shop website).

For the pockets, I borrowed a fat quarter from Heather Ross' Lightning Bugs line by Free Spirit. Polka dots - am I predictable or what? Here's a look at the inside of the bag. Four pockets total: one for keys, one for my phone, one for lip gloss, and one extra.

One of the last minute projects that got put together before the quilt show last weekend was this table runner. Pardon the shaky photography. This sucker is 56" long and it's very hard to get the whole thing in the picture! What you're not seeing is me barefoot, perched precariously on the edge of the daybed in the shop leaning over as far as I can to try to get a straight shot down at this thing. And here's a closeup of Prancer (or whoever he is).
I good friend of mine put this together for me, so I owe her one. I still need to quilt it and sew around the applique, but realistically I'll be lucky to get that done before Christmas! The pattern is by Mount Redoubt Designs, and we've got patterns and kits in the shop.

I'm visiting a quilt guild tonight. It's my first ever speaking engagement at a guild, and I'm a little nervous. However, I'm doing a "trunk show", so I should be able to talk about my own quilts without too much trouble. We'll see.

Today's output

2007-09-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

This half-finished purse is all I have to show for today's efforts. I'm really excited about getting it finished though, because it's for ME. I've made about a gazillion of these purses (okay, actually probably only 5 or 6), but I've never made one for myself. So I took the opportunity today to start one. I know I was going to work on it this weekend, but it just didn't happen. Candy corn and crochet distracted me. I taught a class today on this bag, and everyone's turned out really cute. I wish I'd thought to take pictures...I never do until they are already gone.

On a happier note, this new fabric called BeBop from P&B came in the other day.
I haven't had the chance to take the plastic off yet, but that's on the list for tomorrow morning. The wheels in my head are already spinning with ideas for this line. Can't wait!

Quilt show

2007-09-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm relaxing my little heart out today, because the last few days have been spent in a whirlwind preparing for and vending at the Little Balkans quilt show. It was a very nice show, and everything went off without a hitch (thanks, in part, to a very late night for me on Friday night cutting kits and taking care of last minute details). Here are just a few of the quilts that I thought to snap pictures of:

It was hard to get a good picture of this one, but it is very pretty. Look at all of that detailed applique. Not my typical taste, but I couldn't help admiring it.

This quilt was right across from my booth. It is an antique Sunbonnet Sue. I don't care much for the peach sashing (which was probably a brighter orange when the quilt was made), but I love how the maker arranged the blocks. She did her best to make the quilt somewhat symmetrical so that either way you're looking at it you see a right-side-up Sue. It is also hand appliqued and hand quilted. Very lucky owner to have this in her family.

And I didn't get a chance to look up the details on this one, but I just love it. It looks very old-fashioned, even though it can't be because of the pictures in some of the blocks. It's scrappy and bright, and it just makes me smile.

And just so no one can say I don't support my local quilt guild, here are my purchases from the boutique. I was so excited to see the Christmas yo-yos already strung together in a yo-yo garland. That's something I wanted to do myself, and now I've got a headstart. I also couldn't pass up the little pouch. The fabric looks like the style that was popular when I was a kid - in fact, it may be vintage fabric (if you want to call early 1980s "vintage"). And with football season getting started this month, the purple batik checkbook cover is just the accessory I need to show my K-State pride.

I also made a dash into Wal-mart the other morning for bottled water, shampoo, and coffee creamer, but this ric-rac somehow made it into my cart also. I've never actually used ric-rac, but I'm very excited about the possibilities. Such fun colors!

And my hands gravitated toward this as I passed the Halloween aisles...

I finished several quilts just in time for the show, but I'll save those for another post. Since today is my day off, I think I'll tinker around with this fabric this afternoon. I'm thinking a purse, but we'll see what happens.

Enjoy your Labor Day!

Starting fresh

2007-08-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

After 8 months or so of blogging on my shop's blog, I've decided to combine that blog and my personal blog. My original thought was to keep the two separate so that I wouldn't confuse customers when I'm working on a personal project (i.e. I don't have the fabric or I'm making this up and no, I don't have a pattern) or bore them with details from my personal life. But quilting is a part of my professional and personal life, and it's just too difficult to keep up with two different blogs. So I'll be using this one from now on. If you arrived here via the shop's blog, welcome!

Our local quilt guild met a couple of weekends ago to make donation quilts - some for the recent flood victims and some just to have on hand. Everyone brought orphan blocks and fabric from their stash, and we got quite a few done! These are the few I managed to snap pictures of (or that I have at the shop to quilt - yikes!).

You can't tell if from this picture, but that's a dog fabric panel with some borders...
Simple squares, but very cute...
Sue's orphan log cabin blocks...
The picture blocks in this one came from a panel I had that made into a fabric book, but this panel was at the end of the bolt and cut so it wasn't a complete panel...
These are some of my oprhan blocks from when I first started quilting. I bought a Kansas City Star pattern book (can't remember which one, but I still have it at home) and some clearance fabric and went to town making blocks. Some of these blocks were my first attempt at using templates. They weren't all the same size, but I just whacked them off. I was so glad I still had some of the blue fabric at home; otherwise that block with the blue in the center would have looked pretty odd...

And a turning twenty made out of a fat quarter pack from P&B called "Beautiful Day."
As I said, there were more that didn't get finished, including one I started that weekend that I'll devote to its own post. For now, I'm off to work on my turtle quilt.

Hello again

2007-04-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

That's the title of a movie with Shelly Long that I used to love to watch when I was a kid. Shelly Long chokes on chicken ball and dies. Seven years later (I think) her eccentric sister performs some spell to bring her back to life, only to find that her husband had married her former best friend. I can't remember what happens for the rest of the movie - only that it turns out happy for her. Maybe I'll add it to my Netflix list and refresh my memory.

Well, lots of time has passed since I last posted. In my defense, I have been posting on my shop's blog with some regularity. But I try to keep that one mostly related to quilting or other things going on at the shop. I really just started this blog as a way to test out the blogging waters, so to speak. And no one reads this (that I know of), so it is really serving more as a diary than a blog.

Not much has changed since I posted last. The weather warmed up and then cooled back down a little. The shop is doing well, continuing to grow. I've taken up longarm quilting, and I am way behind on quilting quilts, for customers and for myself. On a recent doctor's visit (just a routine visit, noothing serious) I learned that I've gained 3 pounds since last year. We knocked out a half-wall in our house and moved our living room into the front of the house, so naturally I now have the urge to repaint the old living room, which is now the dining room. And I think I've finally decided on an idea for a quilt and new paint color for the bedroom.

As I said, nothing much has changed. Ongoing redecorating/remodeling of our home, quilt shop business, just the usual. I'll post again when it occurs to me to do so.

Let it snow

2006-12-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. For one, I've been EXTREMELY busy with the opening of the shop; and two, I forgot my blog account password and had to wait to be able to reset it. So here is what you've missed out on...

First, I want to thank everyone for all of your support while we opened the shop. It's good to know there are people who are on your side. To everyone who sent a plant, they all look gorgeous, and I'm trying my hardest not to use my "black thumb" (as opposed to greeen) on them. Here is a picture of the lovely apple blossom that my parents sent.

And here are a few of the shop...

And last but not least, a few pictures of the 14 inches of snow we received the first weekend in December! These were taken from the shop, and the drifts in the second and third pictures were right outside my shop and came up to my knees. It was 60 degrees this morning, so most of the snow has now melted.

I've got lots of things going on, so I'll be posting again soon!

Shop update

2006-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Well, the store is coming along slowly but surely. The carpet is in, and I am starting to drag all of my fabric out of boxes and get prices on it. Byron is going to start putting up shelving tonight while I'm at quilt guild. My project for today is to put together the floor fabric displays that require quite a bit of assembly. I have a feeling it's going to be like putting together some of the cheap bookcases from Walmart, except much worse. It's probably a good thing I'm doing this little project by myself instead of involving Byron. I'm lucky all of this remodeling hasn't ended in divorce already... I'd better not press my luck by involving him in display rack assembly ("It says attach the front side of part B to the edge of part F using fastener 3...no that's the back... here let me do it... fine, screw it up! You're such an idiot!".... what a nightmare).

Here are few pictures of the store and some pictures that just makes me smile... enjoy!