Thankful Thrusday

Taken by my Hubby in June 2005

Today I am thankful for the soaking rain we just got here in Castle Rock. I am hoping this keeps the fire danger down for the fireworks that will be happening this weekend.  My boys and I sat out on our patio and watched the lightening and rain.  These are the memories that will never leave my mind, I love spending time with my family and I am thankful for them each and every day! Thank you Lord for the wonderful rain!!

Country Kitties Quilt Sandwich DONE!

Today I finally got around to making my California King sized quilt into a sandwich.  It is now ready for when my husband has to work a lot of hours and I can take over the kitchen table for days.  The pattern is called Country Kitties (even though there are no cats involved in my quilt...)  I think it was named this because of the fabric print that was used on the pattern.  It is by Holly Daniels.  I got the free patern at http://www.free-quilting.com/detail.html?code=FQ00052&cat_id=1  I check that site every day for what is new--AND FREE!  I modified the pattern to measure 87.5" by 105".

I love the way everything was so nice and smooth!  What a difference Warm and Natural batting makes!  I did my Supernova quilt with a Mountain Mist batting similar to Warm and Natural thinking it would be too thin.  But we love the weight of that quilt and I ended up buying a whole roll at JoAnn's at 50% off.

I usually hate this part of the process, but today it went so smoothly and everything lined up and stayed flat.  Whew.  I was worried about that big quilt.  Hopefully with a pin in the center of all the blocks it won't shift on me.  I'm not sure how to quilt it yet.  I kinda want to try free motion quilting, but I'm still a little hesitant.  Maybe I will quilt a baby quilt that is in the works as a trial before I tackle this big one.

I started to do a pieced back.  The back is a pretty paisley color.  When I started to lay out the back it just looked like I ran out of stuff and didn't have anything planned.  I made another whole row of the diamond in square blocks and was going to run them across the bottom about 3/4 of the way down.  It just didn't match the paisley quite right.  So when this quilt is turned over it is just ALL paisley.  Hopefully I will come up with a good idea of quilting.  Maybe I will do a diagonal grid of just straight line quilting because it is just so big.  Decisions, decisions.

Ahhh.  Taking a deep breath of another stage of a project complete--feels good.

Now that I have this closer to be done I guess I won't feel guilty about starting not one, not two, but THREE more quiltalongs.  LOL.   I'm interested in:

GIVEAWAY!!!

For a chance to win an Accuquilt Baby GO! check out Quilting Along the Gorge at

http://quiltingalongthegorge.blogspot.com/2011/06/giveaway-of-baby-go-and-3-dies.html

Really Random Thursday

It rained yesterday in Fresno. Normally the rain stops in April and we don't see it again until November. But yesterday it was cool and rainy.

It is hard to photograph rain.

But it did make the yard look so cool and refreshing. And yes, we really do have a trombone as a water fountain.

We also have one that I use as a quilt rack.

Yesterday when I posted about the Weekender Bag finally being completed, I added a picture of Courtney, who is the granddaughter of my friend, Candy. She was posing with a bag that Candy had just completed and she looked so cute.

 So naturally I wanted a picture of Charlotte posing with the Weekender. Charlotte thinks it is sweet that I have a friend named Candy. (I think she may have actually said she thought it was "cool" but I think "sweet" is more appropriate.)

When our first grandchild, Caleb, was born and then passed away three days later, some verses kept running through my head. My father was a minister and often closed the service with these words:
"May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." I asked my dad what the scripture passage was and he said it was Numbers 6:22-26. When I looked it up in the Bible, I was shocked to read the verses immediately before, which were: The Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons...." Aaron is our son's name and I knew at that moment that it was no accident these verses were running through my head and giving me peace. My friends, Dave and Debbie, engrave words on rocks, and they made this for my keychain. Isn't it awesome?

The rain stopped by noon and the rest of the day was beautiful. We ate supper outside.

Played baseball.

And ate icecream.

And now the weather will get back to "normal" around here:

I leave for Minnesota a week from today for a quilting retreat. I'm taking my Featherweight, named Bonnie. Mark is used to my penchant for naming things, like quilts and his fused glass creations. For some reason he thinks naming my sewing machine is silly and never calls her by her proper name.

I don't think naming her is silly at all. Her case even has her name on it.

The other night when Mark and I were talking about the things I would need to take along for the retreat and the best way to pack them, I heard these words:

You're taking Bonnie along, right?

There was a moment of silence, and then he said:

I can't believe I just said that.

Score!

Feeling Groovy

Well I've been working like a mad woman on my UFOs. And I'm actually getting some of them completed. Oh how good that feels.

In the last two blog posts I shared a couple of quilts I'm working on. One of those will be a king size quilt for my bed and I finished the piecing of that quilt top this morning. JOY!!! Now I need to purchase some backing fabric and piece that together and then I can hand it off to my long arm quilter. More JOY!

And the dotty quilt is completely pieced together. I need to get a picture of that one yet. Next step for that quilt is to sandwich it and start quilting.

And here are a couple of other projects I've finished. First up is a quilt I had partially finished from a class I taught at my LQS. In the class we used Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow and painted two pieces of fabric. One was to create a gradation, which you can see in the outer borders in the quilt below. And the other painting technique we did was to put rubber bands all over the fabric to create some color patterning (which is my center panels in the quilt below). And finally in the class we created free form quilts that are fused and free motion quilted.

And here is the next project I started and completed today. A composition notebook cover. The Technique of the Month over at 3 Creative Studios right now is free-motion couching taught to us by Leslie Vaskey McNeil. So I thought, since I have this free motion couching foot for my sewing machine, I would give this a try. I had played with this technique briefly when I purchased the presser foot but hadn't gone back to it.

'

Lots of Color

I have lots of birthdays coming up so I am going to make a few cards then start making the birthday cards.  Next birthday is my oldest son, then sons girlfriend, then all the relatives birthdays start rolling in; sometimes too quickly.  There are 6 in October.  

How do you other card makers prepare? in advance? last moment? 

 I would love to hear your ideas for keeping up with the birthday cards. 

 Thanks for dropping by, comments always appreciated, have a wonderful day!  

Linking to Cards & Things Challenge Sketch

Shopping Our Stash Challenge  Scrap Attack/Recycle It

This was an old shirt button and the middle circle of sentiments is old stash.

The Spotlight Challenge  Sentiments as the focus

Midweek Randoms - CRAZY TOWN!!

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I love my son very much. He is one of the many joys in my life. With that said, MY SON HAS ME ON A ONE WAY ROAD TO CRAZY TOWN!!  Let me also preface that with, it is not a very long drive to get me to Crazy Town, I tend to reside half way there all on my own.

For those of you who have younger children let me just prepare you a little. Once you child is around 5 (Ethan started some of this at 4) and/or starting Pre-School they will become a know-it-all. This is a problem in my house only because there is typically only room for one know-it-all in any house and that position is already occupied by ME!  This often makes life tense and my son and I argue quite a bit. I think it is mostly due to the fact that while my son got all his great looks from my husband, he inherited his personality mostly from me, with a little Brian sprinkled in here and there too.  We are very much alike in the way we think and react to situations.

The biggest issue we are having right now is the listening.  He has decided that he does not have to listen to us and he can do what he wants, when he wants.  I am very glad he is a strong person with his own personality but, he really needs to listen. There is only so much reasoning you can actually do with a 5 year-old before he just starts to ignore you.

If there are parents out there who have any ideas, tips, tricks they use I would be very glad to entertain them and report back on whether they worked for us.  The only comfort is that I know I will have friends who will also be driven to Crazy Town and we can all sit around and drink chat with each other.

Going Inward

Since my last post I have found myself in a very introverted mood. I know why, and won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say that the pojagi work, light and airy in nature, and something that requires me to take lots of back and forth trips from sewing machine to iron to cutting table, just wasn't lining up to how quiet, still and inward I have been feeling.


And so I put the pojagi aside and began to work on some very small pieces that allowed me to just naturally go inward.


Something about just being able to sit at the machine, and 'paint' with little bits of fabric feels more in sync with my current state of being.


So for now, this is where I am. Not sure how long this will last, and am well aware at how swiftly my work can change direction depending upon my moods. Having this blog and sharing what I do makes me at times a bit self conscious about my how fickle I can seem about my work. My hat is off to people who can keep their focus on one area for long periods of time. Despite my best intentions, I obviously am not one of them!

Digital Art

Digital Art or Practice.  I am excited. I have been practicing in PSE so here is a little something I made:

I am working on some paper crafting items so I hope everyone is doing well and having a great day. 

Here is addy baby (also know as Adelaide, my dog) just enjoying the day.

Well, back to the craft room.  Until later today.....

Hugs,

Kim

WIP Wednesday

Wow!  Now this is a HUGE block!  It is 21" square (finished size).  It is for my Bluepatch Mystery Quiltalong. http://www.bluepatchquilter.blogspot.com/

I finished the quilt top for my niece that is having a baby in August.  I am still thinking about the pieced back in my head before I move on in this project.  http://new2quilting.blogspot.com/2011/06/jungle-babies-book-quilt.html

I finished two blocks for the block lotto for July -- Sorry, no photo... that's the rules.  It hasn't been released to the block lotto site.  I do say I really like them and they are a lot of fun (but that is true about every month of the block lotto!)

I finished block 2 of the We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler.  I really like my color choices for this quiltalong.

I worked on about eight percent of my 30"x30" quilt for the quilt show in October with our local quilt guild.  The big part of this is that I finally made a decision of what I was going to do and how I was going to do it.  Sorry for no photo of that either.  It's a secret too.  I do have most of the pieces cut.  It's going to be very time consuming and I really want to make it work because it is something that a lot of people will see.

Today I mailed the Sunflower Seeds Quiltalong baby quilt to my friend.  I hope she is excited when she opens the package.  I loved it so much I have to post a pic of it again just in case you didn't see it last week.  It was just soooooooo soft.

So here's the stats:

New Projects:  0 -- Although I am still considering joining Betsy's Kaleidoscope Quiltalong

Completed Projects --  2+  (We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler block) (Blue Patch Mystery Quilt block)  (A couple of the block lotto blocks for July)

Currently in Progress:  7
We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler
Bluepatch Quilter Mystery Quiltalong
Victorianna Fabric Party Quiltalong
30"x30" Quilt for the October quilt show
Block Lotto
Block Swap Adventure
Charity Quilt

Quilt Tops Awaiting backs and to be quilted:  4
(California King - Country Kitties)
(Jungle Babies - Baby quilt)
(Jelly Roll Race - Lap quilt)
(Oh Susannah! Mystery Quiltalong - Queen quilt)

Projects on Hold: 1
Flower Basket Quilt
Charity Quilt #2

Have a great week, everybody!

WIP Wednesday #33: What I am and what I am not

What I am: a quilter. I love cutting fabric into little pieces and then sewing it all back together again.

(My second Supernova block--could have used a better pressing--sorry, Lee. I LOVE these blocks!)

What I am not: a bag lady.

That being said, the Amy Butler Weekender Bag is finally done. Finished. Complete. Never to be done again. At least not by me.

It looks like it is ready for a tropical vacation.

 I know I sure am ready for a vacation after making this bag.
Alternatively, I'll just take one of these.

(NOTE: I cut the tulip fabric straight. The crookedness at the bottom happened during the construction. At this point, I don't know how it happened, nor do I care. And it's not because I had ordered one of those special cafe mochas.)

What I love: The fabric. Jessica Jones' Outside Oslo is gorgeous. You can see the Weekender that her mother sewed here. She was my one-person texting support group throughout the whole process. Hers turned out perfectly. And here is why. She is not a quilter. She is a bag lady. In fact, she just finished this bag. See what I mean? She also knows who she is. Plus she has the perfect little model for her bag.

But I digress. I had one-yard cuts of the entire line (you can order from Marmalade Fabrics) so I ended up using four different fabrics--three for the outside and a different one for the lining.

What I wish I had done differently: other than not starting it in the first place (oops, did I really just say that?), I wish I had made the straps longer so I could use it as a shoulder bag.

I also wish I had done the piping differently. Rather than going to my dad's house and using his industrial sewing machine (he used to do upholstery), I would have used fusible interfacing to fuse the raw edges together, as someone suggested. Ultimately you end up with three lines of stitching, each one getting closer and closer to the cording. Because his machine sewed so closely to the cording itself the first time, it was really hard to cover up that stitching when I assembled the bag.

I previously posted pictures of binder clips needed to hold all the many layers together. Also be prepared for a pile of these totally misshapen pins.

The fun little "surprises" I added: In the picture on the front of the pattern, the bag has an Amy Butler tag. So I decided to do a little "branding" of my own. That's what selvages are for, right?

So, once again, just to be clear:

What I am: a quilter.
What I am not: a bag lady.

I think it's important to know these things about yourself.

Now go see what everyone else has accomplished this week!

Riley Blake Designs Contest

Signs of the Times

Do you ever feel like this?

Or this? (If you have little ones around, start banking some extra money in your ATM. Seriously.)

This was in my fortune cookie yesterday. I think it's telling me that I will have a great time in Minnesota next week when I finally meet some of my friends in person at a quilting retreat in St. Cloud.

And The Weekender keeps taunting me. I should finish it. Then we'll both be happy.