I gave up...

I gave up looking for more of that brown fabric. several people found it for me - in other colors. One even found it online in the right color - in California. When I called the store on Sunday afternoon to make sure it was really the right thing (the picture on-line was tiny and could not be enlarged) - the poor sales lady could not find the fabric anywhere. So close!

So this morning after finishing up the second red, white and blue table runner, I gave up and pieced together all the leftover brown scraps and came up with enough for the borders. Hopefully all the seams won't be that noticeable after it is quilted.

I have some fabric picked out to make one for my MIL. Right now I have to go rescue the kitchen so thanksgiving dinner details can get started! Have a great weekend!

Naomi - no peeking!

Now it is my sister's turn not to peek. I think I am safe because I don't think she checks this blog very often.

Here is her table runner. I have the pieces for its' twin all cut out and the pieced blocks are pieced. So maybe that one will get pieced tonight! Two more things made entirely from the stash!! Thanks to Judy for encouraging us to use up our cherished stashes!


Time to get my act together and hit the grocery store - trying to beat the crowds. I am probably too late for that! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am thankful for all of my new quilting friends that I have met through blogging!

Mom - you'd better not be peeking!

I have warned my mom not to peek at my blog until after Christmas. So if you see her peeking around here, please notify the authorities!

Here is the latest table runner. And yes, it is for you-know-who! Don't tell.

I am thinking about trying a square table topper in this same pattern. My sister has a huge square dining room table. Now I just have to find out what color her dining room is - she just moved into a new house.

How are every one's Christmas goodies coming?

Help!!!

Help!!! Anyone out there recognize this fabric? It is chocolate brown with darker brown leaves and stems. The leaves are a little less than 1/4 inch. I need about 1/2 a yard to finish up the second table topper. I have enough that I could piece together a couple of the sides but I don't have enough for all four sides.

If anyone knows the brand of the fabric, let me know. Or if you even have half a yard you could part with, I would be willing to pay for it or send you some fabric in trade! Thanks for the help!

A good math day!

This morning I was sitting on the couch, surfing the net as usual, when I was struck with the idea of making some table runners as gifts for my SILs and maybe my MIL. I found this pattern online and set about to figure out the math. I had the whole top pieced in about an hour and a half. And it's all from my stash! Do you think the color combination is alright?

Found it!

In case anyone else is looking for some great home-made gift ideas (besides quilts of course), here is a link to the page I was looking for earlier!

More Denyse Schmidt

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am a big fan of Denyse Schmidt. I love her fabrics as well as her quilt designs. I used her fabrics for my nephew's baby quilt. Susan was kind enough to send me a quilt top she had made using Denyse's fabric - she had somehow fallen out of love with it! Good luck for me! This is one of my favorite quilts! It is on my couch right now, being cuddled under my my son. I have also made wall hangings for my sister and for me using her fabric.

Anyway, the point of this link-heavy post was to say that I found another quilt to fall in love with. It even uses the same fabrics from my nephew's quilt.

The kids have no school today for Veteran's Day. We are in the middle of being very lazy! I am hoping to get to quilt some later. How did it get to the middle of November already? Next week is Thanksgiving. How did this happen?

On to the next baby quilt!

Here is a small preview of the next baby quilt I am working on. (The colors are much more accurate in the top picture.) It is for my sweet neighbor across the street. Unfortunately her baby shower was last Sunday and of course the quilt was not done. Oh well - it will be done before Mackenzie arrives in February.

April was telling me the other day that she doesn't think she go all the way to February. Her son was born - supposedly a month early - and weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces. The doctor induced her because he was worried about the baby getting so big! I think someone was a lot off on their dates! So maybe I should plan on getting this quilt done by early January!

Tired of looking at those EQ quilts

It is time for a new post, if for no other reason than I am tired of looking at those challenge quilts I drew up in EQ. I haven't been quilting much lately - life has gotten in the way. My husband is an architect and has been renovating his new office since July. They were able to move in at the beginning of October, but lots of details were still not done. He finally got around to planning an open house for last Tuesday. So for the last two weeks we have been working non-stop to get everything in order. We were up there every night until about 8. Last Saturday we were there all day. Every thing finally came together on Tuesday morning -about an hour before the guests arrived! Here is a picture of one part of the space:




The space behind the wall where the printouts are hanging is a closet. Then comes a small kitchenette. And then on the end is the bathroom. I keep thinking this would make a great space for a quilt store. Actually there is another space, right next store that is about 500 square feet larger! A girl can dream, can't she?

While I haven't been getting much time to sew, I have been adding to my list of quilts I need to make! We found out on Tuesday that Maddie's teacher is expecting her first baby in June. While this wouldn't normally require me to make a quilt, we also go to church with her and her husband, so now she gets added to the list. After I finish up my nephew's quilt (who made his appearance on Monday!) - then it will be three baby girl quilts and then this newest addition to the list.

My in-laws are coming new weekend to see the new office. That means that some serious house cleaning is in store for me this week.

What are you up to?

Judy's challenge

Here are a couple designs I was playing around with in EQ5. Two Christmasy ones and two patriotic ones. I ran out of time before I got to adding fancy borders.

Smile!

Shelina has been kind enough to nominate me as one of her choices for a "You Make Me Smile" award.

Bridget over at "and miles to go before we sleep" created this award and wrote the following ......
The thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading their blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell and I am grateful every day for each person that I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with.I wanted to create something special for the top ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement.Although there are MANY people I want to give this award to at this very moment, I am going to choose ten bloggers:Please grab your badge and wear it proudly, and pass it on because you inspire and encourage me, thank you."

Complying with Bridget's wishes, Shelina presented me this award. And, in turn I would like to pass the award along to the following who have touched me in so many ways, lifted me up and made me a smile. Thank you Shelina!! I am going to cut my list down to 5.

My dear Nina - you inspire me to be a better me.

Ree - a modern day pioneer woman with a camera and a awesome sense of humor.

Judy - I love your machine quilting and your quilt patterns!

Heather - never fails to make me smile (or think!)

Geninne - beautiful artwork - makes me want to learn to paint!

Have you made someone smile today?

A good day!

First of all - before I forget! - I have updated the previous post to include some pictures of my purchases.

Today I got to sew!!! Yay! For about an hour! I got the rest of the nine patches put together and got the alternate blocks pieced. Now to get the rows sewn together. Time for your opinions please. Is this quilt boyish enough? Several of the fabrics have flowers but I don't think they are overly girly. What do you think?

I have been acquiring "ART" lately. This print came from Thea over at Colors on my mind . She of course has an Etsy shop . She had asked for suggestion on some of her jewelry and then gave everyone who made a suggestion a free print. I bought the great shadow box at Ikea.

My next piece of art came from Geninne. This is a print of one of her watercolors called "Neighbors". I thought houses were appropriate since I am married to an architect! Geninne also has an Etsy shop where she sells prints of her great artwork!

This is the fabric for the girly baby quilt for my neighbor. The colors are a little off. The fabric on the left is a soft sagey green and the purple isn't really that bright. I showed April the fabrics and she loves them!

These three fabrics just jumped into my arms when I was picking out the fabrics for April's quilt. They screamed "Buy Me!" How could I say no?

I guess I should feed my children and get them bathed so I can send them to bed! Plus I need to go watch the Gators beat Auburn! Go, go Gators!

Supporting the little (wo)man

Although I haven't got to sew much this past week, I have been busy spending some of my button money on crafty items on ETSY. Their theme is 'Your place to buy and sell all things handmade'. Here are links to my latest finds.

I bought two pieces of vintage fabric from FeminineAddictions. They arrived super quick - all the way from North Dakota. She even included a cute handmade bookmark and a lovely handmade thank you note. You can check out her blog here.




I also ran across this blog and was drawn to it because she (and her twin sister) lived in New York City. DH and I lived there for three years while he went to grad school. How can you not love a blog whose banner features a beautiful picture of her Featherweight? Anyway, she also has an Etsy shop and sells her hand made note cards. I bought two sets - one with magnolia blossoms and one with a great geometric design.




Another one of my favorite daily reads is Craft Apple. She has designed a cool mini-portfolio that holds a 5x8 note pad.

I am working on the quilt for my nephew. I have made 15 out of 20 9-patches. Maybe this weekend I will get to sew some. October is almost here and that means November is just around the corner!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Yes, folks, I have sewn two days in a row!

After a month and and a half of absolutely NO sewing at all, I have spent about a half an hour sewing on each of the past two days! And yesterday I also got to drag a non-quilting friend into a quilt store in Montgomery. I was able to find the fabric for the purple and green quilt I posted about a few days ago. Yesterday in the mail I received my order from The Quilt Asylum , Susan's quilt store in Texas. I ordered several charm packs of Denyse Schmidt's new line of fabric called Katie Jump Rope. This fabric is what I am using for my new nephew's quilt.

This EQ5 drawing gives you the general idea for the quilt. I have got about 6 nine patches made and about 12 more sets of the single rows of the small squares. Did that make any sense? I am hoping to sew a little bit tomorrow. Then on Thursday I am off to the beach for four days - without my family!! Me and some girl friends are the house guests of a friend who is celebrating (mourning) her 40th birthday. Her husband was sweet enough to rent her a huge house on the beach for an entire week and is keeping the two kids at home. Us girl friends are coming in and out at various times this week. Fun for everyone!! OK - whose 40th is next summer? (Nope, not me!)

I haven't forgotten how...

I can't believe a month has passed by with no new post. With the start of school and trying to help hubby get his new office ready to move into, life has been a little crazy. My dad was here for most of three weeks, helping DH with the construction at the new office. I have been busy with PTA, getting kids doing homework, and listing my grandma's button collection on Ebay. I listed the last of the buttons last night. I am thankful for the little bit of money I have made for me and my grandfather, but I am glad to see the end of this project.

Today we got up early and headed over to Atlanta to go to Ikea. We were there for a total of three hours trying to get cabinets for the kitchenette at the office. The kids wanted to do nothing but run around like maniacs or fuss at each other. As I was waiting in the car for Stacy to retrieve the cabinets , I was looking through some old quilting magazines. I came prepared! Anyway - it occurred to me that I have a new nephew that is due to be born in about a month and a half. Time to get busy! Then it hit me that I have three additional baby quilts to make for other friends who are due in February and April.

The quilt shown above is going to be for my sweet neighbor across the street. Her little boy is one of my son's best friends. Their little girl is due in February. Her bedroom is going to be a pale purple. So I am thinking purples and pale greens for the quilt.

Now to go figure out my nephew's quilt. I am thinking maybe 30's repros and some solid blues.

Yes, I do finish a quilt every once in a while!

I managed to get the baby quilt quilted and bound last week in time for the shower on Sunday. The mommy-to-be loved it - along with everyone else in the room. Several future moms said that they wanted a quilt just like it when their time comes! I wanted to keep it for myself! I love the blue and brown together. Very rich looking!

Tonight is meet the teacher night at the kid's school. We already know both of their teachers. Ian has Maddie's first grade teacher - so I am very happy! And Maddie has a girl from church for her third grade teacher. Maddie LOVES Miss Nicole - so it should be a good year. Classes start on Thursday - at which time I am hoping to retrieve my house from it current state of filth! I have not managed to keep ahead of the mess this summer. Maybe with the kids gone for 7 hours each day I can get something productive done. Or maybe not!

Check this out!

My mom is selling treasures from my grandparents' house on ebay for my grandfather. My grandfather worked for an auction house for over 30 years and before that he owned his own antique store. Anything they saw that they thought might someday be collectible, they bought and stored it away. My grandfather has finally decided to let us help him clean out some of these treasures. On my trip to Tennessee, I brought home several popcorn tins and boxes full of vintage buttons. I will be listing these on ebay later this fall.

Right now my mom has a quilter's diary listed. It is from 1877. I looked through it and it was so cool! You can check it out here!

Do you believe in UFOs?

I am just knocking them out around here! This afternoon I pulled out another zip-lock bag with a in-progress project in it and went to work. I had a huge pile of left-over 2 inch blue squares left over from various projects and thought I would make another quilt like this. I had the four patches already made so I put it together with the solid blocks and got six rows put together. I guess it will have to go back into the bag for a while to age some more I gather some more blue scraps for more four-patches. I may have to raid my mom's box of nickel squares while I am at her house next week.
Before we went to the beach last week, I had dug another well-aged project out to work on. These nine-patches are made from fabrics that Maddie had dresses made from when she was little. I made most of the dresses (with lots of help from Nina) - my mom made her a few - and Nina even made her several (with matching ones for Eva!). I am going to use them in a pattern from "The Joy of Quilting". The alternate blocks are a rail fence block (navy and white) and a solid white block. The problem is that I no longer have that book and can't remember the layout! Nina is going to get her mom to send me a picture of the quilt from her copy of the book.
Hhhmmmm.....what else can I find to work on around here? I am running out of UFOs but the pile of "To Be Quilted" tops is growing!

Finishing up some UFO's

I have been in the mood to finish up some unfinished projects. Tonight I dragged out the box that had all my orphan blocks in it. Not as many as I had thought. Surprisingly (haha) most of the blocks contained blue and yellow! Right now this piece is about 50 inches square. I am going to put a wide border around it to make it into a lap size throw. I have got plenty more of the blue and white floral fabric that I used in the large vertical block in the center.

This is another UFO I finished this week. I had pieced nine patches out of the leftovers from the quilt I made for my sister for Christmas. I was bored with the nine patches so I cut them in half in both directions and came up with this. A little bit busy, no? But I still like it. It is about 35 inches square.


We are headed to Tennessee on Monday for another quick visit with my family before school starts back on August 9th. Where did the summer go?

Staying up waaaaayyyyyyy to late!

Sunday afternoon a couple of friends had their new house burn down...to the ground. They were supposed to move in today. They had crews out there refinishing the floor and most of the workers were smokers. They are thinking that maybe one of the workers threw a cigarette butt into the grass and the dry brush caught fire. As dry as it has been here it quickly spread. When it hit the house, it burned quickly because of all the fresh polyurethane on the floors. The fire department was supposed to come out to investigate yesterday. Thankfully no one was hurt and their personal belongings were not yet at the house. But it is still a huge loss for them.

So I was laying in bed at around midnight on Sunday night thinking about all of this and how horrible I felt for Sheryl. What to do, what to do. In my head, I went through all of the quilts I have sitting around here and of course couldn't part with any of them. So then I started thinking about what quilt tops I had sitting here waiting to be quilted. I remembered this green yellow brick road quilt - made with the leftovers from this quilt. I got up and went to the sewing room. Found some backing fabric. Got everything pinned on and started quilting. It is amazing how few interruptions there are from midnight to 3:30 in the morning! I got the quilt quilted and got the binding made before collapsing. The next morning I got up and put the binding and the label on. I think it turned out really cute. I quilted it doing big loopy-loops and leaves. Most of the fabrics had leaves on them so I thought it was appropriate.

I delivered it to Sheryl yesterday morning. She was so surprised and loved it. Her 3 year old immediately climbed up on the chair where we had it spread out and wanted to be wrapped up in it!

I am so glad that I was able to give a friend lots of quilty hugs!