My day...

.....today has consisted of:

Studying for my big test tomorrow!!  (some of you may remember back in October when I took a big professional exam...well I only passed half of it  :o(  so I go back and take the other half, .....again....., tomorrow)

Business calls and chats with other consultants...  {I really don't know how I would ever survive without that phone...}

And a bit of sewing in between all of the other craziness!!

Ahh, my stress-reliever!

How has your day been??

Always,

A little update

Another day spent in the sewing studio trying to move things along.  I did a bit of cleaning, and then worked my little heart out- sewing, cutting, ironing, sewing, ironing, and so on...

I thought with all the work I've done in there this last week and the new year upon us, I would go ahead a give a little update of my current WIPS and their progress.  So here we go!

~ Christmas 4-Patch Flip:  blocks are all sewn together, now ready for the borders.

One of my favorite blocks in the quilt:

~ Batik 4-Patch Flip:  blocks ready to be sewn together.

~ Batik Grandmother's Flower Garden & Vintage Feedsack Grandmother's Flower Garden:  Continue making hexies and connecting.  These two projects will be going on for quite some time I am sure.

~ Wedding Signature Quilt:  Top in the process of being put together.  Need to get back working on this now that the holidays are over!

~ Christmas Table Topper:  In the quilting process, just need to sit and finish it.

~ Flamingo Quilt:  Top finished, just need to piece the back, layer, quilt, bind and done!

~ Mod Disappearing 9-Patch:  blocks all together, ready to arrange and add sashing.

~ Baby Quilts:  I have two tops currently finished and others in various stages of the process

Let's see, phew!  I think that is the bulk of the WIPS with a few others here and there.  Man, kind of eye-opening to see how many I actually have sitting there waiting to be done.  Some so close...  I just can't resist starting another project when it's staring me right in the face!  I call it "Quilter's disease".  I think there are many of us out there that have it, wouldn't you agree??

Well, I'm back up to get working a bit more before bed.  Hope you all are having a quilty and crafty night!!

Always,

Busy little worker bee

Today was quite a busy, and quick day, thankfully! I finally can say that work has gotten busy again. And I can't tell you how nice it is to say that. Though it may be a bit stressful with deadlines coming quickly and all, but its nice to have work again and not just sit at work.

So with being busy, and productive all day, I decided to continue that at home tonight! I finished all of the quilting on my little projects I've been working on, and am now sewing binding on. I should have them all finished tomorrow! Here's another little sneak peak!


I also spent a little bit of the evening after dinner out on the deck. Ever since I was little, I have always loved watching the clouds, and grew up with a love for storms! (Okay, so maybe not thunder storms in the middle of the night when I was really little...) But I am fascinated with storms, and lightning, and thunder. And I just love different cloud formations and the absolute beauty of them! Its so interesting and intriguing to sit and watch them change as they move across the horizon. We've had some major storms here in the midwest lately (at least 4 tornado touch downs near here yesterday), and this evening was no different. The sky was really dark to the north when I drove home, and this is what I saw when I looked out the deck door after finishing dinner:

Such a beautiful sight! Maybe scary to some, but it all just amazes me!

Okay, so I should probably get to bed here soon if I'm going to get up and get some work done tomorrow! Night and sweet dreams to you all!

Always,

Tuesday Night Sewing Date

I first must say..."Really, it's only Tuesday??" It feels like it should be about Thursday, at least something more towards the end of the week. At least I only have one day of work left for the week! I decided I would take Thursday off for my birthday (a big one!), and I have Friday off already!

Anywho, back to the real matter at hand here, tonight was our Tuesday Night Sewing Date, (and sorry no pictures! I realized I hadn't taken any halfway home) but I was on my own for a little bit. Mom had her book club at her house tonight, so I had a bit of dinner and hung out in the basement working on the 9-patch. After everyone left she came down for a bit before I left. I got the front and back of the quilt done tonight! Now I just need to layer it, machine quilt, and binding! I really, absolutely, positively love, love, love how this quilt is turning out!! I can't wait until it is completely finished and I can show you all!

And once again, I must thank Amanda Jean for doing her little quilt along over there on her blog, or I may have never done this quilt. I am glad I did though, because all of these brights were sitting around in both my and mom's stashes waiting to be made into something!

Alrighty, I'm off to work on my batik flowers, then off to bed for one more day of work. Happy creating!

A full day of Sewing! Happy 9-patch!

The day started off with sewing (after breakfast, of course), and will be ending with sewing, just a bit of handsewing for the night.

I got the white fabric to use for the sashing for my "Summer Fun" 9-Patch quilt today, and worked on it the rest of the day! I ended up with 76 blocks total, so I decided to do a 7 x 9 quilt and was left with 13 to use on the back. I almost have the entire front done! I just have the white inner border, the 2" squares border, and the white outer border left for the front. Then off to put the back together, layer, and quilt! I'm working to finish all the machine work done so that I can finish the hand work on our trip next week. Mom's not so sure I will make it, but I'm determined!


My first block, and still a favorite!


What project do you have going on right now? I'd love to see!

Happy creating!

Sunday Stash #3 and some purdy flowers!

My stash shot today is of some other brights that I picked from mom's closet of fabric. I thought I had enough blocks finished for my "Summer Fun" 9-patch, but after we did some figuring, I need some more blocks to make it the size that I want. So we dug out some others, many that have been used on previous projects and have great memories. I know what I'll be doing tonight!

Today was also garage cleaning day and getting ready for a garage sale, but I snuck away for a couple minutes after cleaning and got these shots of some of mom and dad's gorgeous flowers!

The beautiful climbing rose vine around the front light


Gorgeous white peonies with the fun pink on the edge


And one of the deep pink peonies about ready to open


Hope you had a great weekend! And happy creating!

Finished!

The place mats were finished 3 days before my little deadline! I finished them last night, a little too late to post, so I thought I would post today! All 8 are finished, and just need to be sprayed, then will be ready for use. I love how they turned out, I must say!

Would I ever make another set? Probably, I just wouldn't set them aside as long as this group was! I think 2 years for a small, easy project like these is far too long, but they are finally done!

Next on tabs as far as projects go are:
-My "Stars of Wonder" quilt, almost done with the guilting. I'm hoping to have the binding sewn on so that I can do the hand sewing and finish it on our trip in a couple weeks.

-The Wedding quilt
-"Summer Fun" 9-Patch quilt that will soon be started
-The Batik Flower Garden, in progress
-The Vintage Feedsack Flower Garden, also in progress

Alright, good little break, I'm now up to work on finishing the quilting on the star quilt, and maybe a nap. Why is it we get colds in the summer? Isn't that an oxymoron?? Oh well, off to quilt!

Tuesday Night Sewing Date

Yay for Tuesday! One of my favorite days of the week...why you ask? Because (1) I get to sew, and (2) I get to spend the evening with Mom!

Anywho, back to the matters at hand here. Tonight's project was, you guessed it, the vegetable place mats! And I am soooooo close to being done, I can almost taste it! (no pun intended :o) .) I got the binding sewn onto 5 of the 8, then we realized I wouldn't have quite enough for the last three so Mom is helping with some piecing of binding for me to finish the last ones. So as for tonight, I brought home the 5 that I got the binding sewn on to finish with the hand-sewing.


*photo courtesy of my hubby from over the shoulder (sorry for the not-so-in-focus shot).

I'm working my way through these that I have here, and will probably be heading back to finish the others later this week. Trust me, they will be done by next Tuesday!! And I will be sure to post when I'm all finished, can't wait!

*Edit: Well...it was time to head up to bed, and I thought, 'okay, just 2 more pins and I'll head up." Well...I was on a roll with those 2 pins and just didn't want to stop, so 2 pins turned into 2 sides (you all know how that goes...). And I'm done with one place mat! 1 down and 7 to go...I will for sure finish by next Tuesday now. It's the final stretch! And now I'm really going to bed!*

Happy crafting!

Wonderful but short...

What a wonderful, but short, weekend! The weather was beautiful and quite a bit got done. There was a lot of laying in the sun, some errands run, and some chores finished. And of course, some sewing done!

One of our first chores was to get ready for the drywall guys coming tomorrow afternoon to fix nail pops that have shown up over the last 11 months. Thankfully they are coming back to fix them for free since we moved in just after the town house was built. It kind of makes us laugh though at all of the little post-its that we have all over our walls, I have counted a total of 234 so far...now thats a lot. A new decorating technique maybe??


And then to the sewing at Mom's today, after some sunning, of course! It was another afternoon spent working on the vegetable placemats. The quilting and pressing is all done, finally! All that is left to do is squaring the placemats off, sewing on the binding, and hand-sewing to finish the binding. Most of that will be done (hopefully) during my Tuesday Night Sewing Date with Mom, then the hand sewing (if I can wait) will be done on our trip to see Grandma at the end of this month!


Oh, and exciting! I have decided to voluntary summer hours at work this summer, every other Friday off. So that means a bit of time this summer to get things done that I can't seem to fit in my regular work week. Which includes, sewing, cleaning, tanning, reading, some traveling/camping, and hopefully more time to work on my photography! Can't wait to see what all comes of that!

Well, off to do some of my hexie flowers. Happy crafting all!

Tuesday Night Sewing Date

Tonight I didn't get as much done as I had hoped sewing with Mom. I did, however, work on my Vegetable Placemats, and am about half done with the quilting! She helped me out by cutting strips for my binding. I've decided to use my leftovers from the actual placemat to bind the quilt, so it will have a bit of a scrappy look. Fun, fun! I've never done a scrappy binding! I'm starting to get a bit impatient with that project though...I've had it going on for about 2 years now, and it about time that its done!! But really, ask anyone who knows me, and thats pretty typical for me, the whole impatient part that is. My quote for the longest time has been "God grant me patience, and I want it now!"

I'm off to do a bit of blog reading now, I've been finding so many interesting and inspiring blogs on the net lately!

A new adventure!

Okay, seriously, can I take on another project? I think so! I was just cruising thru the different blogs today, and found a great one, The Selvage Blog! There are so many great projects and ideas on there that people have made from the selvage edge of fabric. I know there are many people out there that just throw it away as trash, but there are some awesome things made of the selvages! I don't really have any as of yet (though I have a bit of fabric I could go ahead and cut them off of...), but I am officially starting to collect! So all of you out there who don't keep them and are looking for a place to give them rather than sending them to the landfills, send them my way!

Back to the thread and needle for a wee bit longer!

A couple more...

WIPs that I have going.......

My Flamingo Quilt: Love these beautiful pink birds! The top is done, now to just layer, quilt and bind!
-Started: July 2007

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Advent Calendar: A Nancy Halvorsen panel my mom found (one for each of us), because I've been looking for one to have at my house. We have to finish the quilting, bind, then embellish! (I forgot to add the hanging pieces, but those are finished as well.)
-Started: November 2008

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Vegetable Placemats: Who doesn't love all of the great vegetable fabrics?!? They are going to be so much fun when they're done...they just have to get done first. Just have to finish quilting and bind them, then they're ready for use!
-Started: Summer 2007

*

Well, these are a few of my older Works in Progress, but they are still needing to be done as much, if not more, than my others! Off to work on one of my lovely WIPs, have a wonderful evening!

How many can you do at once?

I previously listed all of my WIPs (works in progress) that I currently have going, and decided that I would post a few pictures of them. These are just a few, the rest are at mom's house (no worries, I still live near home). So here are the few I have here:













Batik Grandmother's Flower Garden (my modern take on it) - I currently have 43 flowers done, and have started connecting them.
-Started: February 2009


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Vintage Feed Sack Grandmother's Flower Garden - I currently have 11 flowers done.
-Started: March 2009
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"Stars of Wonder" - Stack & Slash technique quilt. I have 1/3 of the quilting left to do, then the binding to put on and it will be done! Now to just sit down and do it...
-Started: January 2009

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A set of hand embroidered monogram pillowcases.
- Started: a couple years ago or so?




I will post some other WIPs once I get some pics of them. I'm ready to go right up and work now that I've looked at these again!!

It's WIP Time!!

There are so many blogs that I love to look at during the week, many of which I have found thru Etsy. Then there is this one that my mom showed me, and I am addicted and inspired! Crazy Mom Quilts always has such cute ideas and projects that it has motivated me lately to keep working at my WIPs (Works In Progress), and create, create, create! So then I started thinking of all of my WIPs that I currently have going...and let me tell you, I almost need more than two hands to count them all. So here they are, not just quilts (I am thinking of trying to get some photos up of them as well):

• Hand embroidered tea towel sets
• Hand embroidered pillow cases
• Flannel star quilt
• Flamingo quilt
• Vegetable placemats
• Advent calendar
• Christmas wall hangings
• Batik grandmother's flower garden
• Vintage feed sack grandmother's flower garden
• Wedding quilt
• Water animals baby quilt
• Harvest table runner

That is not including all of the projects that I have the pattern and fabric/materials for, but haven't yet started! I decided I would just throw that list out there, because I figure then I am putting them all out there and will hopefully look at this, and have the drive to finish them all before starting new projects!! I know some of them will take a while to finish...but some have been going on too long and need to get done!

What is your favorite current WIP that you have going on right now??

Day 12: Another project done!

I am always inspired and motivated to keep going when I finished a project! Today I finished the quilt that I am donating to my work's silent auction, and I couldn't be happier with it! Really, if I didn't already tell a couple people what it looked like...I would maybe keep this one and make a different one for them. Thankfully though, I do still have enough to make another one to put in the closet for when a little one happens to come our way. :o)

And here is the beautiful table runner that I finished earlier this week!

Two projects in one week! I'm on a roll!

What inspired you today??

Day 7: Tuesday Night Sewing Date

*Sorry I didn't get this out last night, was super busy...

My inspiration/motivation for today was nothing too big, so this may be short and sweet. Mom and I had our usual Tuesday night Sewing night, and I always get motivated those nights! We were very productive last night, and I went home and did more sewing, I just didn't want to stop! I have about 4 projects that I am working on/trying to finish right now, and I am so close to being done! I love the finishing them and that sense of accomplishment when they are all done. I will have to post a couple pics on here of them when they are done (hopefully by this weekend!).

What inspired you {yesterday}?

Day 4: Maybe in 60-some years....

...I will have enough different quilts finished to do an old fashion "bed turning" event with friends.

"You might be asking, "What is a bed turning?" "Bed Turnings" were common during the pioneer days when women would lay out all of their handmade quilts on a bed, and then invite their friends and neighbors over to see the quilts they had made. Some women also sold their quilts, just as they might have sold eggs. A bed turning was a great way to display quilts to prospective buyers as well.

Join us as Evelyn presents an “old fashioned bed turning”. Quilters and non-quilters alike will enjoy and be inspired by a presentation of some beautiful quilts that Evelyn has made over the years. Quilts will be layered on the bed in the middle of the store where Evelyn will tell you a story about each quilt; “turning” each quilt back to reveal another beautiful quilt and story. Evelyn will tell you about each of the quilts she has made, the year it was made, and the pattern she used. " -From the Fabric Town website.

And quite an event it was! Evelyn was in her mid-80's, and had to have shown at least 45 quilts to us that she had made herself, many of which were hand quilted and were absolutely exquisite! Going to see her bed turning event was definitely my inspiration and motivation of the day! She even had a "Grandmother's Flower Garden" in the mix, which made me what to go and work on mine even more! So what do you think I'm doing this evening? That's right, making little flowers!

What was your inspiration today??

Day 3: Worried I wouldn't have one.....

So I was sitting here thinking, 'what inspired me today?' I was almost afraid I wouldn't have one for today, nothing stuck out right away! How dissapointing to only be on day 3, and not be inspired... But then I started working on the quilt that I will be donating to my work, and I just wanted to keep going!! I have the back and front both done, but the batting and binding are at mom's house, so I have to wait to finish it. Then I started working on another quilt that I've been working on. I am working on machine quilting it, and got a few more stars done. Then those darn flowers were just calling my name! So here I am, working on the batik flowers, of which I stayed up a little bit too late last night working on (and may tonight as well!).

Oh, and I got a sale today!! Yay! My store only a bit over a month old, and I got my 4th sale! Got it all packed up, and ready to ship in the morning!

What inspired you today? Leave me a comment, I'd love to know!

Day 2: Why I'd love to!

Day number 2, and I was almost afraid I wouldn't have anything to write about! No worries though, I do! I have been inspired :o)

A little back story.....
Last year, a group of us at work spent a couple days donating our hours, and worked with Habitat for Humanity on a build. This year, we weren't able to get the funding from corporate to do a build again, so the committee has decided to do a couple fundraisers, one of which is going to be a silent auction for items made/donated by fellow co-workers. One person on the committee, a very close friend, knew that I sew and such and asked if I would be willing to make something and donate it. Needless to say....I always enjoy a new project! And for it to go to a good cause is always a plus! So then I started coming up with a bunch of ideas, trying to think of what I could come up with from my stash, and my mom's stash, of fabric. I have come up with a few things that I can't wait to get going on! I've decided to make a table runner, baby quilt, and throw in a couple of my wine vests! I will be sure to post a pic or two of what the final product is!

So there is Day 2, what inspired you today??

Hard at work

I know I haven't really posted this week, but it has been a busy one! Work has picked up a bit (thank goodness!!), been busy at home, and busy working on my flowers!! I am so excited to share these with you all!

Last time I posted, I only had 6 done, but I now have 11 done! Only......a lot left to go... Each hexagon of fabric ends up being about 3 inches, so that may help you understand the flower size. And who knew that they had so many great fabrics and patterns that they made the feedsacks in back in the day! I'm telling you, many of these fabrics are utterly gorgeous, and I would have loved to have something made from them if I were living then! They are such a treasure, and I am so incredibly glad I stumbled upon them. I mean, I don't know if there are many people out there my age (mid 20's) that have ever seen feedsack fabric, much less would even know what they were. History fascinates me....