Nora's quilt, 2011
Orphan Block Sampler, 2011
Grandma's Hankies, 2008
A Work of Heart, 2007
Gathered Hearts, 2006
Mackenzie's Quilt, 2005
Scrappy Valentine, 2005
Haley's Quilt, 2004
Brooke's Quilt, 2003
The photo quality gets worse and worse, the further back you go. Wish I'd had a better camera back then! But I guess a bad picture is better than no picture at all. They still bring back lots of fond memories. :o)
Happy Valentine's Day, all!
Sometime around Christmas, she asked if she could hire me to make another one for a friend of hers who is expecting in March. Of course, I said yes! So a couple of weeks ago, I received a package in the mail with the fabrics she had chosen for the quilt. Here's what I have finished so far:
Piecing that bubbly chenille has been a bit of a challenge. It tends to creep around while you're sewing, so lots of pinning is required, but it seems to be working out okay. I think the overall effect will be awesome with the varying textures, not to mention how soft and cuddly it will be for the baby! I just wish these pictures did justice to the chocolaty richness of the fabric.
This week I hope to get the borders on and prepare for quilting. The red gingham will be the border fabric:
The aqua/red floral print you can see in the hearts is also the backing fabric. I'm really excited to get this finished and see the end result. Since I've never really pieced a top with such varied types of fabrics, it's been hard for me to visualize, but I'm liking it more and more each step of the way. It's always fun to try new things!
(Be sure to stop by Design Wall Monday at the Patchwork Times today and see what everyone else is working on!)
Thought I got lost in that basement mess, didn't ya? LoL I've spent an awful lot of time down there, for sure. Between that, working on a custom quilt order, and doing some major computer overhauling, it's been a hectic couple of weeks (and I have the overflowing inbox to prove it -- I'm SO behind!). But I thought it was time for a little project update on my basement rec room, so I put together a few "before" and "progress so far" pictures.
The first thing you'll notice is how bright the room is now (aside from the wall color)! My hubby and I went shopping for some much-needed new fluorescent light fixtures on day one, and he had them all installed that night. That improvement alone was like night and day -- literally!
Looking better! The blue Hoosier cabinet you can barely see in the before pic has been moved to our upstairs entryway. I have plans for it later... Lots of junk has been moved out of the way, and now you can really see how bad the painted cement floor looks. We priced vinyl flooring and it looks like about a $500-$600 improvement that won't be happening any time soon. Repainting is more likely, but there won't be time for that this month.
Next view...
The pool table is still buried, but at least you can see that it's there! There was a refrigerator on the right (now moved to the utility room) and a big blue bookshelf that I cleared off and moved into the storage room. Each of these moves involved shifting a whole lot of other stuff, so it's been quite time consuming. But worth it!
Next view...
Loads of stuff have gone out the door, and I'm not finished yet. We have a truckload ready to go to the dump, multiple electronics to be recycled, several bags of trash already gone, and a pile of stuff to be donated next week. My son's girlfriend located a family in need of a twin bed, and that was picked up on Thursday. The room keeps getting bigger and bigger!
The entertainment center was the first thing I tackled after my husband got the lights installed. It was too small for the TV, so some alterations were in order. Here's how it looked before:
And after:
That new drill I got for Christmas is coming in handy! I still need to attach a support/brace piece across the back, but it's holding together fine for now. Just don't try to move it! LoL
When my husband came home that night he said, "Huh, that's a perfect fit. I thought the TV would be way too big." He didn't even notice I had taken the whole thing apart and removed half the shelves. Sheesh!
So that's where things stand as of today. I'm just itching to finish a few small areas that need drywall, and it would be really fun to re-paint, but there's still more clearing out to do and I feel this month slipping away. Bare minimum, I want all the excess stuff gone and the floor mopped before I call it quits. And if I can get that far by the end of next week... then drywall and painting is still a possibility. ;o)
February is here -- time for a new Home Challenge! Did you finish your project for January? If you made any progress at all (even if you didn't quite get it all done), give yourself a pat on the back. Progress is what it's all about! If you've blogged about your January project, remember to link up at the end of this post so we can all come and see what you've accomplished. :o)
As for February, the lucky number is.... number 10!
On my list, that's the basement rec room. Heaven help me. I was really hoping to get out of the basement this month, but that's the luck of the draw. And after making the guest room over, it would be nice for guests to get there without first walking through the technicolor junkyard. Wondering what that looks like? Beware. It's not pretty. Here come the "befores" ...
The view as you come down the stairs:
Turn to the right, and there's the guest room, straight ahead.
So far, not too overwhelming... until you turn back around to face this:
I know, it's getting scary... but go a little further and look to the left...
Walk on through, and here's what you find on the other end of the room.
I knew there was a pool table in there somewhere! Heading back now...
And we're at the stairs again.
Like I said, heaven help me!
There is so much work to be done in this area, but the obvious place to start is with de-cluttering! I don't expect to have the same dramatic end result here as in my last room, but I know I can make a dent in the mess and make this area into a functional game room for the kids. I'll say it again (and I'll be reminding myself all month), progress is what it's all about!
Link up here to show us your January progress!
I have enough bug jar blocks for two baby quilts, and started sewing some rows together last week and auditioning fabrics for the "shelf." So far, I'm really liking the brights with these:
Working with those inspired me to make some fruit jars, too, so one evening last week I made these. I may set them aside for awhile until I get a better variety of fruit prints... and I'm not sure I like the gold jar lids, either...
I recently had almost six yards of Nascar fabric randomly "call to me" from my stash. Someone had given it to me several years ago, and I thought, "What will I ever do with Nascar fabric?" I thought about it for awhile and almost tucked it back away, but then I remembered Margaret's Hope Chest and the "Wrapped in Hope" project. Sure enough, on the 2012 birthday list there was one little Nascar-loving boy still in need of a quilt. So this will be a quilt for Bobby, who will be 11 years old on December 25th. Seems like randomly pulling that Nascar fabric out wasn't so random at all... I love knowing that God has a hand in my quilting. :o)
(And it's not just Nascar fabric. It's "Bobby Labonte" fabric. For Bobby. That part kind of gave me chills.)
These hourglass blocks will be a quilt for another young man I know who loves sports, and who will be turning 13 this year. The blue print is for the back.
This next one is a baby quilt I started last year for Judy's Monochromatic Challenge at Patchwork Times (obviously, the color that month was brown), which wound up in the UFO pile instead. I recently bought some Cuddle Bubble minky-like fabric for the back, so I'm once again inspired to get going and finish it up. I'm not sure how well that backing will quilt, but it is so darned soft and cuddly, I've really been wanting to give it a try on a baby quilt.
Finally, this is a baby quilt I haven't started yet, but I did buy some fabric for it recently, so I'm anxious to get it under way. I think the airplane blocks will be different colors/prints, with the cloud background if I have enough. If I run short, I have the solid blue to alternate. I may or may not use the big airplane print for the back. It's still in the planning stages.
Once again, I have amassed a healthy batch of works-in-progress. There's no chance I'll ever know the meaning of the word "bored." (Was there ever any doubt?) Now I just need to decide where to start and get busy!
(Added Friday, February 3: As busy as I was this week, turns out this is my only finish, so I'm linking up this post today with Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday and TGIFF at Missy Mac Creations.)
While they were away, I had a fun night of sewing with my son's girlfriend. Her mom has been planning an outfit for her to dance in a powwow at the end of March, and they want to applique a Lone Star on the back of the dance shawl. Would I mind helping her with it? LoL Silly girl.
It was my first attempt at a Lone Star, and I usually avoid sewing diamonds altogether, so I'll admit I was a little nervous about how it would turn out. Still, it couldn't hurt to try.
We started out with this photo for inspiration. We both really liked the swirly layout of the colors, even though it would make the assembly a bit trickier. A little more Googling brought us to "The Challenge of a Lone Star Quilt," an excellent tutorial (though slightly intimidating with repeated dire warnings about accurate 1/4" seams!)
Completely unsure if we were up to the task (at least I was unsure) -- we started a plan anyway. Tessa drew up and colored a diagram for the layout. (This would not be just a challenge, it would be a MEGA Challenge. LoL)
A quick trip to the fabric store, a stop at Subway for dinner, and we were back home cutting up fabric. Tessa laid out the units per her diagram.
Ta-daaah! Ready to sew.
The piecing went surprisingly well, though I'll admit my seam ripper got lots of use! The process went really fast with me sewing and Tessa ironing. Before long we had half of the units together:
So of course, we had to keep on going...
By 1:00 a.m. we were done (not to mention tired and silly!)
What is that random purple diamond doing in the middle? And those blues in the green row? We almost missed the two rows that were sewn in backwards. I think I wore that seam ripper out by the time we were done, but it's all fixed now. And finished!
A few rough spots here and there (curse those inaccurate 1/4" seams!), but not bad at all for a first try. It lays flat, so we're happy. LoL
Since I have never been to a powwow, I couldn't quite envision what the shawl would look like, so I did some more Googling this morning and found lots of info at the Crazy Crow Trading Post site, including this video from the Gathering of Nations Powwow:
Aren't those shawls beautiful? I'm excited to see Tessa's all finished -- and to see her dance!
It seems that the quilting won out. For the past ten years, I’ve been learning and playing and experimenting and creating art in a whole new medium – and loving it. I do so little writing these days, I can’t honestly call myself a writer anymore.
At the same time, I’m considering a whole new endeavor. Could I actually make an income selling the things I love to create? Should I open an Etsy shop? Are people willing to pay what I feel my time is worth? Will I still have time to sew for charity? For gifts? Just for fun?
And if I do this, will I ever get back to writing? Should I get back to writing? Is it even possible to do both? (Aren't you glad you don't live in my head? LoL)
With all of these thoughts rattling my brain this morning, I decided on a whim to look up Sunday Scribblings, one of my old favorite sources for writing prompts. I’m definitely rusty, but it couldn’t hurt to get back in practice. The topic for the week was:
I don’t believe in coincidence. It’s been over a year since I’ve looked at Sunday Scribblings, so what prompted me to go there today? I’ll be honest, it took some time for me to get the big picture. (I’m not always the sharpest crayon in the box.)
I could go into a long list of all my hopes and dreams, past, present and future, but the answer is the same for all of them. With willingness, determination and faith, anything is possible.
“… with God, all things are possible.” ~ Matthew 19:26
And the answer to all those questions rambling around in my head? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s all possible.
Needles AND Pens is possible.
