Quilty Goodness

 

Finally finished my Square Polka Quilt.  Wish I had binded it in black, but I used the red and yellow that was in my stash instead. 

Speaking of binding a quilt… that’s the part I dislike the most.  I finally just zig zagged it on and got finished with it.  It isnt perfect, but its complete!

Time Flies

Time has flown by since I last posted. Our summer and early fall have been full of fun!






Like ... camping ...

And ... county fairs .. (my son and my dad are on the top of the ferris wheel!)

and ... motorcycle bike rally with my hubby...

And more camping ... with great friends in a different state!

Just this week, I've gotten some quilt work done ... and have half of my polka dot quilt quilted one direction. I hope I can finishi this week and post pictures!

I'm eager to see what fall /winter will bring!

Yikes!

Wow, summer is busy and I never blog! Who would have thought that I'd be too busy to write/talk!! ha!

We got a pop up camper at the beginning of summer. We've taken it out on one trip, and then summer got HOT and we just dont enjoy camping in 100 degree weather! So we're planning and anticipating camping a lot in early fall through about November! We love the camper, it's a Starcraft 2108 ... with an air conditioner, bathroom, shower, sink, small refrigerator, and small stove. It's got all that we need! It doesnt have a lot of floor space, but that's okay with just the 3 of us!

I have lots of goals for the summer.

1. I finally worked out how to free motion quilt on my old Singer sewing machine. Having the embrodery or darning foot made all the difference! Now I dont get a nasty mess of thread underneath my quilt sandwich. So I plan on practicing and practicing and practicing free motion quilting so that I can do full size quilts at home!

2. Working on a bed quilt for Happy. I'm using lots of blues, reds, greens, yellows... and also using some of his 100% cotton shirts/shorts. some of them I could cut out the perfect size piece with a shirt pocket in the middle! It will be SO dadgum cute when it's all together. I'm doing Vestibule pattern ... stars for the little star in my life!

3. Quilt the Polka Squares Quilt.

4. Continue to lose weight. I lost about 50 pounds over the past 3 years, but lately I've slacked off and stayed at the same weight. I'm ready to put myself back into gear and lose the next 50! I've gone from wearing 3x shirts to a 1X, and I've recently bought a pair of pants in the regular size department instead of plus size! Wahhooo... now to get down to a nice small, REGULAR size!

Here's some pictures of my sewing room ...

Cutting board, and stacks of white squares for Happy's Quilt.

My sewing table ... complete with a mess!

Swans

I've always wanted to see swans in the wild. I always figured they just didnt look all that natural in a zoo setting. And recently I went with my Mom and Happy to see some swans that migrate each year to a lake north of us. It was a great day with my Mom and Happy, and we saw so many beautiful swans!
I've got a ton of photo's from our day trip. There are several that I'd like to do a watercolor painting of. One of these days, I'll have time!

I have started on Happy's bed quilt. It's going to be a vestibule pattern (or morning star). I'm still in the cutting stage ... lots of rectangles, squares! I'll show picture progress soon.

Pet Peeves

1. Clean your children's finger nails and toe nails. Seriously. If they are under 5 , then chances are that their childcare provider sees the dirty, long nails and it's gross. And it looks unkept. And it's gross.

2. If you have a child that naps at school/day care ... please do not send them there wearing shoes that light up when they stomp. At naptime, they will want to stomp to see the shoes light up. Same thing about the new shirts that light up when they move ... its distracting and gets inthe way of settling down for nap.

3. If you have a child that wears pull-ups ... please only send the kind to school that have the velcro sides. If you send the kind that dont have velco sides, then we have to take off pants, and shoes every time your child needs a pull up changed ... it is annoying!

4. Dont send your child to school carrying loose change, because they think it's cool to have money. It's a choking hazard and it's dirty.

5. If you are a parent dropping off your child to school or day care .... keep it simple, and quick! The longer you stay and comfort, the harder it is when you leave. If you kiss, hug and reassure that you'll be back later .. and leave ... they are almost always better within 5 minutes!

Okay. I feel better.

:)

Long time .. no blog!

I dont know what has happened with my inability to post a new blog. I have lots of ideas ... lots of pictures ... but no time. :) Well, okay .. ... since I last posted I have become addicted to Facebook. Sigh. It's true. And, my son has become enamoured with Lego video games (okay, okay .. me too .. i love Lego Indiana Jones).

So here's some pictures and an update .. and I'm going to cut back my Facebook time!

There's always a tell-tell sign that spring is coming .... when my kitchen window ledge looks like this: A fresh picked daffodil, the "mapple" tree seedling, a violet and a rose root cutting from the early fall.

This is my pitiful little sewing space ... it's messy and unorganized. But I sure love my space. It's a dedicated space for sewing, and I can leave things out and stop and go and not have to worry about my sewing stuff being all over the kitchen table! I'll reorganize and show a picture soon!

Here are some quilts (and tops) that are draped over a headboard that we're not using right now. My goal is to finish the tops this year!

Life is good! I'll start posting more!

First quilt of the year

I'm so excited that I finished my first quilt of the year, on January 1st! I had the top finished for ages and it just layed around folded up. Lately, I'm just freezing cold at night watching TV and I wanted to use THIS quilt as a snuggly couch quilt. So, by golly, I decided I would do what my grandmothers and those before us did ..... if you want a quilt, quilt it! I realized I didnt have to wait to rent time on the longarm to do fancy quilting on this lap quilt. I realized I could do like ages before have done ... just utilitarian quilt it on my machine at home.

My sweet Mom came over and helped me lay out the backing, the quilt batting (bamboo!) and my quilt top. And we spray basted it together. The spray baste worked great! We were able to smooth the quilt, reposition it if necessary and it still stayed basted together. And after I wallered and folded and rolled the quilt to get it through my little 13 year old Singer machine ... it was STILL basted together!

I did a straight divided line pattern for quilting. My seams are all wavy and not straight, but I love it like that. I've washed the quilt and dried it, and it's nice and wrinkly and soft now.

It's the perfect couch, snuggly, throw quilt. Ahhh... Thanks for helping Mom!

:)

And I feel like I can do more like this at home and love them all! I have one more quilt top that is finished that needs quilted ... and then two old quilt tops that were my grandmother's that I want to finish as well. Then I need to work on doing Happy's quilt .. and get one made for my sweet nephew too.

The year has just begun!