More BOM

I managed to snap a couple pics of the final woolly flower block. I will be honest, it is not my favorite. But, it is staying as is, because I want to finish this quilt soon.

I am a little sad to be finished with the class. It was really nice having my own personal teacher. Thanks Caroll, you were great!

She helped me pick out some fabrics for the sashes and border during the last class. After auditioning many different fabrics and color combinations, I eventually ventured out of my comfort zone and chose a couple of blue fabrics. Here is a little peek for you.

And speaking of peeks, I will show you my progress from yesterday. Sadly, the top is not finished. Silly me, I answered the phone and ended up running errands for my hubby. I should know better by now. Still, I managed to get something done. :)

After the deep purple side borders are added, I still have another two borders to add- another narrow light purple one and a wider pieced border.

BOM progress

It is good to be able to say that I have completed all of the blocks for two of my block of the month projects. And I am in the process of making the last block of a third one. Yes! That leaves two that are still in the works, but only because they started later in the year and there are more months to wait. I only have photos from one of the finished block projects today, but hopefully I will be able to share the other tomorrow.

These are the last of my Patchwork Panache blocks.

I have the setting fabrics all cut out, and I will head to my sewing room shortly to start stitching the top together. I made some changes to the layout they have provided at Block Central, but those of you who know me probably already assumed that. You know I always have to do something to make a pattern my own. Anyways, I will post a photo of the top when it is assembled.

I am also sharing the latest completed block from the Garden Favorites BOM. There is only one more block for this one. I will be making some changes to that block, as it has appliqued flowers on it that look too difficult to do without using a fusible web. I will change the flowers to suit my needs.

Have a great day my friends! I'm off to do some stitching. :)

It's a mystery

Yesterday I participated in an on-line quilting mystery. If you have never done one before, they are hosted by quilt shops on the internet. They provide instructions for the construction of a quilt top, but they break the pattern down into steps and post only one step at a time at specific intervals. The design of the quilt is not known to us until we are done with the piecing at the end of the day. (That is the mystery.)

Fabric requirements were posted on-line in advance, as well as cutting instructions to allow quilters to be prepared for a day of quilting. And I was all set. I pulled some fabrics from my stash and had my fabric washed, pressed and cut according to directions given. I was really excited about a day of sewing as well as the opportunity to try something unknown.

Everything started out great. The first few steps went by quickly. Everything was fitting together nicely and no unsewing needed to be done. Sure wish I could say that was true for the entire day. But alas, there were some errors in the directions, possibly just the orientation of some blocks in a diagram, but boy did they create havoc on my quilt! I ripped and restitched and ripped some more and restitched and kept comparing my top to the diagrams and things just weren't working out right. Agh!

Finally I chucked the diagrams and instructions and just layed everything out on the floor until I liked the way it looked. I'm not really sure what it was supposed to look like, but mine looks like this.

True Confessions

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to skip the black Friday sales and stay home and sew instead. Well, I feel the need to confess that I did indeed go out to a store this morning.

It started out innocently enough. I needed to go to the bank today. And since the bank was only a couple blocks from the Target store, I figured I would just pop in and try to pick up a couple things. EH, it was after 8:30 AM- all the crazies would be long gone already, right? Well, I definitely underestimated how many shoppers would be at Target so long after the mad opening in the wee hours this morning. Had to park in BFE. But I did manage to snag a set of king sized 600 thread count sheets for $29.00. :) The other item I wanted, a vaaccum cleaner, was gone already. But I did get a rain check, so all is good.

Except that while I was gone, I managed to miss taking my son to get some stitches out. OOPS! I forgot all about that appointment. No harm done though, as the receptionist at the Oral surgeon's office was quite understanding and sympathetic after I explained how I got drawn in by the evil sales. I swear it really is a sickness. Anyhoo, my son now has his stitched removed and I am safely home and snuggly nestled into my sewing room. (Where I hope to remain for the rest of the day.)

Done and on the wall

It is finally finished! Today I hung my completed ostrich round robin quilt in it's new home on my dining room wall. I am so happy to have it done. I think it adds some life to the room that was missing before. I apologize for the quality of the photo. It was taken early this morning when I was not fully awake and functioning. (I'm not really much of a morning person.)

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am avoiding the stores tomorrow. To be honest, I usually hit the day after Thanksgiving sales. I love a good bargain, and the challenge of dealing with the crowds for this one special day. But I have no idea what I am shopping for this year, so I am taking the day off from shopping. Instead, I plan on hiding away in my sewing room. I have so many unfinished projects. With a bit of luck maybe I will make some progress on a couple of them.

Wind up Wednesday

Today I had intended on finishing my ostrich round robin. I have the binding partially stitched on. I was hand stitching the binding down when my daughter called. She is trying to get plans finalized on her June wedding. She still has alot to arrange. For example, her dress.


We have been out a couple times shopping for "the dress" this past week. We started at a store that we knew little about. They had a few dresses that we liked, but they did not have much in my daughter's size. It was so hard to tell what would work and what wouldn't in all of those too-small gowns. After the first store we were all ready to stop for a drink (or two). So we tried again another day. The second store had nothing that was suitable, and by the time we left we were getting discouraged. But today we took off at the spur of the moment for a bridal shop about an hour away.


This shop was worth the drive. They had a great selection and the service was wonderful. We showed up without an appointment and they still went out of their way to help us. In fact, after trying on several dresses, we got it narrowed down to a couple dresses. And before we left, my daughter had made her decision! :) In fact, we took it home with us.


Nope, in case you were wondering, this is not "the one".


So, while I had intended this day to be my chance to wind up a project, instead it was a day to wind up a loose end in my daughter's wedding preparations. She has her dress! That is a much more important accomplishment. And I am determined to finish that binding tonight too.

R.I.P....ped

On my very first blog post, I mentioned a quilt that I had made for my son years ago. It had fallen into disrepair from the use and abuse of my son. I posted a picture of the quilt I had just completed to replace that quilt as my son went off to college.

Today I thought I would share some photos of that early quilt in it's present state. Brace yourself because it is shocking and not at all pretty.

I tried to warn you! As bad as this quilt is, I just cannot make myself dispose of it. Clearly it was well loved. I sure wish I had known then what I know now about quilt making. For instance, I did not place any quilting lines inside of any of the borders. I had only quilted in the ditch between them. Maybe the borders would have remained attached if I had quilted in them.

Can you see the little fish appliqued on the block? That was a patch from the early days of the quilt. That little hole seems pretty insignificant now. Yup, that is the backing of the quilt we are looking at just below the fish patch.

Another thing I regret is not putting a double thickness binding on this quilt. Instead, I turned fabric over from the backing and used it as the outermost border. That gave the outer edge only one thickness of fabric. And this is what it looks like now.

I am going to continue this in another post, as I want to be able to add more pics. Please continue reading.

Ok, to continue on, let me say this. I did not use quilt shop quality fabrics in this quilt. I bought what was cheap, as that is what I could afford. And I did not know any better. I do now. I would like to strongly encourage all of you to purchase the best quality fabric you can afford for making your quilts. If you are going to put the effort into making a quilt, you will want it to last.



As for what I did right about this quilt, well, I like the color combination. And I made it! That in itself was a huge accomplishment. At the time I had three kids between the ages of seven and three and I was also running a daycare in my home. So I was a busy woman.



And the reason I know that the above information is true leads us to another thing I did right. I personalized it with a label of sorts. Since I put the year on my label, I know how old this quilt is.

And if you are curious but can't make it out it says:

For Kyle

I love you.

-Mom

JAB 1992

Which I will admit is nothing too fancy, but not too bad for my second quilt ever.

I just found this on another blog , Paris Bebe fabrics, and thought I would share it with you. She is giving away some fat quarters of her "In Your Dreams" fabrics to someone who leaves her a comment. Could it be you?



I have been having fun with the Handmade Holidays event on SewMamaSew's blog. I posted about this a couple days ago. So far I have made some fabric grocery sacks and a pincushion. But there are other ideas I still want to try, if I get the time.


I can't believe it is already Friday. Hubby and son will be gone all day tomorrow to make preparations for opening day of firearm deer season. That give me an entire day to do what I want. Hmmm, I should make some plans. ;) Maybe I'll sew...or maybe I'll shop! I win either way. :)

Wooly Flower progress

I have finished another of the Wooly Flower blocks. That leaves me with only one more, and I am in the process of stitching the pieces down on that block. WOOHOO! I am excited at the prospect of putting this quilt together. At my next class we will lay all the blocks out and choose some fabric for the sashing between the blocks. Plus I plan on adding an additional border, so that will be chosen as well.

I am overwhelmed

I am lucky enough to have a room of my own set up as my sewing studio. It is my sanctuary. I spend countless hours in this room. It is almost always a mess because I am always working on something. But right now it is such a mess I am overwhelmed by it all. There are so many things I would like to work on, but I simply cannot stand to spend any length of time in my horrible messy room. I guess I need to dedicate some time to get it all cleaned up and reorganized. Soon. Anyone want to come help?

Do you sew for the holidays?

I love sewing and doing crafty things. And if I can incorporate my crafts into a gift for someone, all the better. I love the idea of giving homemade gifts for Christmas , but the reality for me is usually store bought. This year, I hope to make a few things. I have found some inspiration here. They are featuring thirty days of gifts to make, just in time for the holidays.