Ready to quilt!!

My batik quilt top is completed. It finished at approximatly 64 inches x 64 inches. I will probably do the dark blue for the binding to tie the colors all together. It will be a nice throw size quilt for using in the living room on the couch.

Here's another picture, with two things I "made" . Which do you think I'm proudest of? :)

Year of Quilting

I was working on putting the final border on my batik quilt, when I realized that if I can really hustle and get this one quilted .... then I'll have done 3 quilts this year! My first year of learning to quilt. I think that's great!

I don't have any unfinished quilts or projects lurking in the closet. I do, though, have a bag full of polka dot fabrics that I'll keep adding too and then I'll make a bulls eye quilt with that material. I also have started a great stash collection that is organized into strips, squares and bricks ( http://www.quiltville.com/)

Another planned project is to make a full size or queen sized quilt for Case that has lots of stars all over it. I'm not sure the exact pattern, becuase there are so many out there with stars! I think I want a fairly simply quilt ... not too many colors... just a dark and light contrast maybe.

Here are some pictures of the quilts I've done this year!

Conversation with a Two Year Old

While putting away dishes from the dishwasher, I had an interesting conversation with my almost two year old son. It went something like this:

Case was reaching for a plate, and squeezed out a loud Toot!

Mommy says "Case, you tooted, Please say excuse me."

Case continues trying to pilfer in the dishwasher and ignores me.

Mommy says "Case. Say Excuse me."

Case looks at Mommy with his big brown eyes and very graciously said, "Excuse you Mommy!"

:)

Miss Michelle and the Fabric Store

Well, if I'm going to be the oldest (well, third oldest) person at work .... and they do call me Miss Michelle....(which is what I call older people!) ... then I'm going to relish it.

:) So Miss Michelle went to the fabric store today. Hancocks has Kona Cotton (which I love to use for quilting) on 40% off sale. So I got a nice red and blue solid to use for the border for my batik quilt.

I still need to decide how wide the two different borders will be. I'm thinking of a thinner blue border, and a wider red border and hopefully will have enough blue left over to use as binding.

Living life

It's been a while since I updated my blog. Just been busy living life..working three jobs (two from home and one 4 nights/week at a retail store) and volunteering for the American Cancer Society.

Here's a few things I've learned lately:

1. The difference between me and girls in their early 20's is only skin deep.... you see.... the tops of my feet are hairy and theirs are smooth. I dont know if I'm so old that I grow hair where I never did before ... or if I'm just so old I dont care if there's hair on my feet!! Needless to say, after I noticed that ... I came home and got out the weedeater and whacked that offending hair off the top of my feet!

2. My legs aren't as young as they use to be. I've worked retail before. I wasn't this tired after working retail in my 20's. Now I have comfy shoes that aren't cool, and my feet still hurt. I come home after work, take 2 advil and play on the computer for a bit and hit the sack. I swear, those girls at work are going out after working and wearing cute shoes all the time! ha!

3. The crock pot is my best friend. yep. Sorry girls. You've been replaced. :) As long as Hubby doesn't get tired of having pot roast once a week, he's getting it. I actually put a pot roast in the crock pot this morning too. It's good. It's healthy. It's easy. And we all get a hot meal without me having to cook for an hour before I go to work retail and hurt my legs and hairy feet. :)

4. Working three jobs makes it hard to quilt or paint! But I really am just waiting on a first check so that I can go and buy some border fabric for my batik throw quilt. :)

I have to give a Memorial Speech this coming Sunday. I'm nervous. Do you think I could just ask them to all shut their eyes and pretend I'm not there? Or could I just post a blog on the presentation screen and let them all read my speech instead? :)

Later!
M

Snot and Rain

Last week Happy got a Cold. This week Happy still has the cold, but now it's rainy and cold outside .... so that's double yucky!


I really dont know how one little boy can have so much snot. When his nose starts getting snotty, he'll say "Towel! Towel" and I'll get him a kleenex or a paper towel to wipe his nose with. Now if I can teach him to blow his nose, we'll be going in the right direction!



I've been curious to know what they use to use as quilt batting a long time ago. I noticed that the old quilts of my grandmother's are very thick and heavy, which I happen to like very much. My quilts are fairly thin, which my Mom happens to like very much.


When I washed a quilt of my grandmother's the other day, I could see what was in the middle. :) I didnt ruin the quilt, but there are some very thin spots or spots where the fabric/seams have come apart. It looks like wadded up cotton, like what you'd stuff pillow forms with ... but really soft cotton. I think I need to mend this quit, because I really like it. I'd love to use it in our camper ... but we dont have a camper yet. :)


Here's some artwork I've been working on this week. I'm thinking about trying to sell again on ebay.

Time

I was reading Parent magazine today, and it had an article on getting your kids ready for the time change. GULP. Time change. I dread that!

Just when Happy is sleeping sooooo goood .... I mean, good as in 8:00 in the morning good! And as soon as that time changes, we'll all be out of whack with our sleep. And to put another hitch in the whole thing, we're thinking of taking the side of his crib off this weekend and turning it into a toddler bed.

So now, we'll not only have the time change coming sometime soon .... but we'll also have a free 2 year old boy jumping OUT of bed! We'll see how it goes. Worst case scenario is that I'll have to just keep putting him back to bed until he finally realizes that I'm serious. I'll have to put on my Serious Mommy Face that first weekend ..... would be nice if it was Halloween and that could be my costume!

On the crafty, quilter side of life ... I'm still waiting to get fabric to use as a border on the batik quilt top that I finished recently. And I have two of the old quilt tops of my grandmother's to get backing fabric for and get quilted.

I have managed to acquire a stack of scrap fabric from the three quilts I've done. And I found this wonderful website: http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml that describes a great way to organize scrap fabrics so that it's easier to use them into making a new quilt. I love the theory, and now all my scraps are organized into strips, squares and bricks!

Ahh, it takes so little to make me happy! :)

Newest quilt top almost finished

I've finished the main part of my new quilt, mostly batik fabrics. The finished quilt will be about 60 in x 60 in. I still have to put on a 6 inch border all around. It will be a solid color, but I've not picked a fabric for that yet. I'm thinking that light shade of green would be cool ... or maybe red!

I'm not afraid of color, that's for sure!

Of course, with that phrase in mind you would assume that my house is full of colorful walls. Nope! I have paint samples all over my guest bathroom (sorry Shawn!!!ha!). All of the walls are still "builders beige."

After we moved here we found out we were pregnant, but unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. Then the next year we found out we were pregnant again, and we were being very careful.... so no painting!

And then we found out that our daughter had a brain tumor, medulloblastoma, and it was an aggressive cancer. After fighting that tumor for 9 months, we lost our sweet 5 year old daughter to Cancer. And we had a 6 month old son by that time too. This summer marked a year since she's been gone, and three since we've been in this house, and our son is now going to be 2 in January. There's been no time for fixing up things around here!

One would think that with all the "retail therapy" I did after we lost Katie, that I would have really jazzed up the house and painted like crazy. Not so. I started to quilt, though. And it's been an excellent source of calm, comfort, and a constructive activity for my mind.

Maybe it's a need to feel like I'm creating some sort of lasting legacy for my son, because I know our own mortality is inevitable. Maybe it's the fulfillment that I can create something useful with my hands and my time. Maybe it's just fun to quilt. But for now, the house will remain builders beige, and my quilts will dance with color.

Enjoy life!

Cars and Quilts!

It's amazing how much sewing can get done while the movie, Cars, is playing! My almost two year old son has become completely enthused with that movie and would watch it ALL day long if I let him. But instead I hold out until we're BOTH bored and then I turn it on. He makes the BEST car noises I've ever heard!

Our kitchen area is partially open to the living room. So I can sit at the bar and sew, and watch him in the living room watching the movie. He usually takes little breaks and sits at the bar with me and he "colors" beside me. I dug out some old crafts that was his big sisters, and threw out the things that weren't age appropriate. He's fascinated by the big clear plastic box with all the crayons in it. I'm thinking that maybe he likes color like his Mama does!

As idyllic as this sounds ... watching him watch a movie, coloring with him and me sewing along the whole time .... it only works for snippits of time. Sometimes I feel guilty for sewing while he's watching a movie and probably rotting his brain ..... other times I just feel, well, guilty! So I sew when I can, and play more than I sew. Seems to be working out well!

Thank goodness he's suddenly enthralled with the Doodlebops! Hellloooooo sewing machine! :)

The picture is another quilt from the stack at my mom's house. This quilt was given to her by my aunt, but I'm not sure who made it. It's a very pretty nine patch!

Closet Treasure Hunting!

I was at my parent's house today, and my Mom and I decided to dig through her closet and look at some old quilts that she had been given through the years.

It was interesting to spread the quilts out on the bed and touch them, and look at the hand stitching work and see the old material. Some of the quilts were made with feedsack material for the backing. They came from a variety of places, such as both sets of grandmother's and an Aunt.

This quilt (blue with pinkish sashing) was just a quilt top. It is hand pieced, and in fairly good condition. There are a few places that the seams are coming apart, but that would be any easy fix.

We estimated that this quilt was made by my grandmother (who is no longer alive) somewhere between 30-50 years ago.

What should be done with an heirloom like this? I have never hand quilted, so I dont think I could do it justice like that. I can rent time on the Gammill long-arm quilting machine at the local quilt store....but would that be appropriate?

I'd love some feedback on what to do with these quilt tops. Leave it alone? Learn to hand quilt and do that? Quilt it myself with the long arm machine?

This picture is also of another quilt top that we found today. I dont know the names of the patterns either.

I fell in love with this star quilt with red sashing. It is very simply quilted, but I love the star pattern and the material used. It may be a quilt that I go back and take home with me! Or, I'll sneak into the closet and pin my name on that quilt for the future!!! haha...

I love this big star quilt too!

All out of gas!

Well, I've reached the sewing equivilant of running out of gas ..... no more thread! I started working on my batik quilt this afternoon, and got a good bit done ... then ran out of thread. Nothing will stop you sewing more than that! Here are some pictures from this afternoons brief sewing time!

Here is some chain piecing that I was doing this afternoon.

Here are a stack of pieces that I needed to press open.



And this is the stack that I pressed open. Then I ran out of thread. So here is where I am stuck at!

Ahhhhh, comfy

Well, the quilt was none the worse for the wear after a good machine washing! I opened the lid of the washing machine with one eye closed and the other eye squinted .... I was afraid that in the washing machine would only be a mess of ravelled thread, and frayed fabric. But I guess my work was good enough, it all held together beautifully and looks nice and soft and worn.

The quilt is back on the bed, at least until it gets colder. Then I may put a regular comforter (ugh, an old floral from five years ago) on there, and put the quilt at the foot of the bed.

Today or tomorrow will be grocery day. I'm hoping to avoid the store with the self check isle. :)

Wash and Wear

After having my new king sized quilt on our bed for a few days, I've reached a decision. I love the quilt.....Hate it on my bed! I guess I love the look of a nice fluffy, high thread count (or silk!) comforter. Unfortunately I can't afford that right now. I also couldnt stand the feel of the quilt because it was needing that first good wash!

I'm hoping that the quilt will wash and wear beautifully. It's on low delicate in cold water in the washing machine, and then I may let it low tumble in the dryer for a little bit before I lay it out to dry. I'll try and remember to take a picture of it once it's dry. For now, though, here's a picture of the outer border of the quilt before it was washed.

I wonder if other people worry about the first wash of a quilt they've made? I can just picture it unraveling, puckering, fading, colors running and shrinking in various fabrics all over. Nice picture, huh! My fingers are crossed that it comes out looking nice and well worn.

Thanks Grandma!

My grandmother had a saying that she liked to tell every so often. The older I get the more it seems true! I probably dont have the saying down exactly as she said it but it goes something like this:

If you want something done and you dont care how it gets done, ask your children to do it.
If you want something done, and you dont care when it gets done, ask you husband to do it.
If you want something done now and done right .... do it yourself!


Am I the only one that hates going through the self checkout lane? I swear my husband thinks that if he's the one doing the checkout that it HAS to be quicker. Notice, though, that it's called self check ... not EXPRESS check. It's named that for a reason. I've resigned myself to just lean on the grocery cart and twiddle my thumbs until we're finally done checking out. I mean, seriously .... he picks up a bag of lettuce. "What kind of lettuce is this?"..... I reply "Green Leaf Lettuce" .... to which i hear "Oh" and then way too many buttons being pushed on the screen. Next comes a pumpkin. I swear if he asked me what it was I would scream. Instead I hear "Is there a scanner bar on this?".... "Yes dear... right there. That sticker didnt grow on the pumpkin." Question. Buttons. Beep. Over and over ... and over.

But I look around ... and lo and behold.... there's men galore at this darn self check section. They're all SLOWLY picking up items, turning them over and over to look for a barcode, get a beep and do it all over.

The darndest thing, they all looked so proud of themselves when the walked out of the grocery store. Guess they conquered that piece of equipment. :)

Next time, though, I'm using my Grandmother's advice .... I'll do it myself and go through the express lane. After all, it is named that for a reason.

... and the picture has nothing to do with anything. I just like it. It's a picture I took of the Arkansas River at Spadra Park.

Dreams and Stars

Maybe I should have had this quilt on my bed yesterday for naptime, and I wouldnt have dreamed crazy dreams. It's bright, happy and cheery .... three words that dont describe the way I felt when I woke up from a dream infused nap.

I love Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupons. I decided I needed a little retail therapy today, so I printed out a coupon and took off for town. I live in town, but I still get in the car and go to town. Maybe it's a country thing... not sure. :0

I bought a new quilt magazine. It has several quilts with instructions that I'm interested in trying to make sometime soon. Case is mesmerized by Stars. If he sees one, you'll know it ... because he'll say 'Tars!!!!" Tars!!!!" I'll be sad when he grows a little more and actually says that the right way. :) So I'd like to make him a full sized quilt that he'll always have with him that has stars on it. But I want it to be a good color scheme to grow with him.

I'm sure I'll need more retail therapy soon ... hopefully Hobby Lobby will have another coupon next week.

Two blocks down, seven to go

It's football season, so what better way to describe my quilting endeavors than football'ish terms!! ha ha .. Don't you know every football man fan would cringe if they heard the word "footballish" and quilts in the same sentence!

But seriously, I've got two blocks down and only seven to go. I swear, when I get them all done ... I may run through the house with my hands held above my head screaming "TOUCHDOWN! QUILT COMPLETE!" and then I can throw down my seam ripper and do a little funky dance just like the boys do. Naaaaaaahhhh, I'll just quietly snap some pictures and post them on my blog and call my Mom. :)

Not only is quilting addictive, but apparently it can be contagious! My mom has sworn that she was NOT going to make a quilt. She was not interested in it at all. Yet, she would enjoy seeing what I was working on as I was learning to quilt. Then, the next stage in her contagious quilting sickness was that one day she wanted to borrow all my quilt magazines! tteehhheee... I knew she had the fever then. The next step was that all the sudden I realized that she was buying her OWN quilt magazines and sharing them with ME! I've heard a vicious rumor that she's got a quilt pattern picked out, and is patiently waiting on payday and some free time to escape to the quilt store to get some fabric and get started.

Of course, it's only fair that I can infect her with this quilt fever. You see, not long ago I was asking to borrow her Beading magazines .... and had previously sworn that I was not interested in beading/jewelry. Now I happen to have the cutest collection of beaded bracelets and necklaces that you could imagine ..... and I let my mom borrow my Bead magazines.

Be careful out there ... you never know what you'll catch next!

Sew Delicious!!

I rented time at our local quilt store on the Gammill quilt machine today, and worked on my king size Wash Day Stars quilt. The quilting is complete, and all that is left is to attach the yellow binding strips. I'll get a close up picture of the quilt tomorrow.

I'm very tickled to have gotten this so close to being finished! It's only the second quilt that I've done. You can see my first quilt here. I have the best intentions to not leave quilt projects half done. It's affordable to rent the Gammill quilt machine ($20/hr) and I have the self satisfaction of knowing that I completed the quilt completely by myself..... machine pieced and quilted by lil' ole' me! (well, little'r)

Here is a picture of my quilt top attached to the quilting machine.

I am really excited about having such a wonderful quilt store so close. Of course, it probably is bad news for my checking account! I figure, though, we all have our hobbies ..... my husband loves his motorcycle and is intently looking for an "around town work truck" to buy. How much harm can I be with doing a little quilting here and there. At least it's made in the U.S.A!

<------ This was made in the U.S.A.

hahaha.. I just couldn't resist saying that. Actually, I should check to see where the material was made at, but the block was assembled by cheap southern labor. :) It's a shame to call oneself cheap, isn't it? I should change that to frugal southern workforce.... hahaaa.

This is a new quilt that I've started this week. The picture is of one block, and I only have 8 more to put together! This will be a nice throw size quilt, approximately 60in x 60in. I've had quite a bit of trouble with the angles and pieces matching up point to point .... but I quickly got over being anal retentive and just dived right into placing colors and sewing. It's not perfect, obviously, but I'm tickled with it overall and I think that the finished quilt will be interesting. Nothing to enter into the State Fair, of course, but nifty to me!

Thursday I'll use the longarm quilting machine at the local quilt store and quilt my the king sized quilt top that I finished recently. I can't wait to snuggle up under it this winter! I'll post a picture of it when I'm done.

I did some research and found that a lot of Step2 products/toys are manufactured in the U.S.A. Good thing to know!

This is a picture taken by some friends on their trip to Cozumel this summer. I'd like to be laying on that beach with a nice, cheesy romance to read, a glass of Dr. Pepper or a chilly Mojito (if I want a nap!).

So Christmas isn't that far away. I know you're thinking that it's only September, we have plenty of time to worry about Christmas! But nooooo..... if 80% of toys are made in China and they keep having these massive recalls on toys from China because of lead .... then what are the other 20% of toys that are available that I feel safe buying for an almost 2 year old boy?! I need more time than I have to solve this problem. I mean, if he didn't put everything single thing he plays with in his mouth, I wouldn't be so concerned about where the toy was made at. But, he does .... and I am concerned. This is probably some sort of conspiracy against the U.S. for the Chinese to kill us off one by one or to turn us toxic. Do they let their kids in China play with lead infested toys?? Where is our salmonella infested spinach...I've got somewhere I'd like to send it. Okay, that was overboard..and I'm merely being dramatic. I'd never send salmonella infested spinach anywhere ... unless I have PMS and then no one is safe. :)

At least I know that Case likes trucks and tractors....and I could get him a little Ford Truck to drive around the back yard. Surely he won't attempt to eat a truck ......

And yes, he can only get a Ford truck. :)

I've decided I should post on my blog more often. It feels good to rant about anything I want to and not worry that people will think I'm nuts. :)

No Peeking!

Every time I would go work out at the fitness center, I would semi-obsess over what I was going to wear. I would do a 360 turn in front of the mirror to check and make sure that my t-shirt was long enough to cover my hiney in any position my frumpy body ended up in. So a nice, big, 3X shirt and some workout pants would be my normal workout attire. Now, why in the world I thought I had to check myself out and obsess over what i was wearing, when I always wore the same thing is silly! But hey, it's me.





Now that we have a weight set in the garage, I'm all ready to start working out at home. I'm thrilled that I could actually wear a tank top or a sports bra and shorts while I work out! Those 3X shirts were HOT! (and, by the way, I shrunk enough to need only a 2X!).





So, I'll work out in my garage ... imagining that I'm slim and trim .... wearing much less clothing that I would normally ...... so noone needs to peek in the garage door window unannounced! I'm not responsible for any lack of vision you might suffer from seeing what you may see!!!