Verna, LOVE

Well, I didn't get a call from school asking me to pick up my daughter yesterday, but I did get one asking me to pick up my son!  This was right smack in the middle of the day.  Then I remembered other obligations... the Book Fair, strings rehearsal, doctor's appointments, etc.

Needless to say, the LOVE quilt still isn't completely quilted....{sigh}

I forgot to show you the yummy Chocolate Lollipop backing fabric.

In between supervising homework and dinner, I added to some old Verna blocks I had on hand.  Hmmm...maybe some mug rugs...or the start of a tablerunner?

Have an amazing day!!!  I'm off to my "chauffeuring" job and then to do some quilting.

Rough Morning

This morning was a rough one.  After two weeks of no school (at least for my daughter), it was difficult to get up and going, but get up and go we did.  I ignored my daughter's complaints of her stomach hurting.  I sure hope I don't get a call from school;-)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with a house full of people (18!!!) including my mom and her husband who drove all the way from Mississippi!  Unfortunately, we were missing my oldest.  He lives in a small town a few hours from Seattle, and the icy roads from that freaky "blizzard" prevented him from getting to the airport.  At least he had a safe Thanksgiving and celebrated the holiday with friends.

You probably know by now that I am a procrastinator.  I planned to finish quilting the LOVE quilt over the Thanksgiving break so my son could take it with him (girlfriend's Christmas gift).  Since he didn't come home, this is as far as I got with the quilt ;-)  However, I plan to finish it today!

Amy Butler 

I stay away from the malls the day after Thanksgiving...luckily for me, The Sewing Studio is not near a mall...ha ha!!!!!

It's a Hoot

My Mom and I took advantage of their Black Friday sale...30% off everything!

Soft corduroys and fun fat quarters

I went without a list since I really didn't need anything, but once I got there, I realized there was quite a bit I "needed";-)

Solids

My order of solids was waiting for me when I returned home.  Guess I need to stop procrastinating and get to work on my son's quilt!

Have an amazing day!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

See you next Monday....

Random Ramblings

Monday was a play day. Saw HP7 for the second time.  Awesome!

Received my prize in the mail for playing along with Cara and others during Talkin' Tuesday:  a charm pack of Sandy Gervais' Adoring donated by Natalia at PieceNQuilt.  Yeah!!!  Need to add another Christmas project to my list ;-)  Tonight is another Talkin' Tuesday and I hear there will be fabulous prizes donated by Fat Quarter Shop!

Ordered missing solids needed for Quilt #1.  Preliminary layout is shown on the left.  Details coming soon.  As you can see, my design wall is still in the closet.

Monday was also a work day as I cleared out some boxes from the garage by dropping them off to Goodwill; bought all the ingredients for a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner; prepared the house for guests; and put a dent in my growing number of Inbox email messages.

I'm hoping today will be even more productive.

Have an amazing day!!!

Sew Day

for me was Cut Day instead!  The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild had their monthly Sew Day on Saturday...seven hours of quilty fun.

I packed up my entire stash of solid fabrics (except for whites, blacks and grays) with plans to cut rectangles/strips for three new quilts.

It was extremely difficult to cut into my stash of solids, especially these latest additions of  Kaffe shot cottons and Moda grunge fabrics.  Next to these, my "normal" solids look blah.

But with the moral support and encouragement (not to mention advice on the most efficient method of cutting) from my friends, cut I did!  Look at the colorful selvages and thin strips that resulted.  I'm not sure if these can be used, but you know I saved them just in case ;-)

By the end of Sew Day, I had three piles of strips.  The first pile has 50 different 4 x 6 inch blocks for Quilt #1.  There are no duplicate fabrics for this quilt.  The second pile for Quilt #2 has approximately 160 strips - half are 1.75 x 7.5 and half are 3.5 x 7.5.  The third and largest pile of strips is for Quilt #3 and has too many strips to count!

The good new is that even after all that cutting, I still have plenty of solids remaining!  Whew, what a relief!  

The bad news is that I still need more solids for Quilt #1...stay tuned for more "Adventures in Solids" ;-)

Have an amazing day!!!!

Other Blogs

Do you follow any non-quilting related blogs?  I know they must be out there, but I can barely keep up with my quilting blogs, so I have stayed away.  I am easily distracted ;-)  {Technically I follow The Pioneer Woman, think she is great, but I am overwhelmed by the huge amount of information on her blog and rarely visit.  However, I thoroughly enjoy following her on Twitter....she cracks me up!}

Thanksgiving Turkey

I mention this because the subject came up last night when I was picking up my daughter at the airport.  I was chatting with another mom, discussing how quiet the house was the four days our sixth graders were away, talking about how we missed them, and commiserating about the fact that they will be off to college before we know it.  (Actually, I do know a little something about that since my oldest has already left home and my middlest is a high school senior so will be heading off to college soon.)  Susan joked about how we need to get a hobby, and I am sure you can imagine how the conversation progressed from there ;-) 

Unfortunately for me, Susan isn't a quilter, but come to find out, she is a blogger!  I had no idea....she lives right down the street from me and I never knew.  Imagine the conversations we have missed!  She blogs about food at Sauce and Sensibility.  I checked it out this morning, and I found myself getting extremely hungry ;-)  There are some yummy looking recipes on her site along with  fantastic photos (taken by her husband).  With the holidays approaching, I figured this is a good time to try new recipes and an opportunity to explore and discover some food blogs.

Are there any non-quilt related blogs you have discovered?

This quilt needs to be quilted this weekend so my son can take it back with him...it will be his girlfriend's Christmas present.

Have an amazing weekend!!!  I'm going to hug my "long lost" daughter now ;-)

Solids...lots of them

Remember how I had a hard time deciding on a quilt for my daughter?  Well, when it comes to selecting a quilt to make for my oldest son, it's Deja Vu.  I've already made two quilts for him.  You can see them here and here if you'd like.  Now he lives far, far away in a place that's really, really cold, but his quilts still live with me ;-)

My collection of solid fabrics has grown...there is actually another stack behind this one.  I want to make a quilt for him using only solids.  

My first idea was a wonky snowball quilt.  I practiced making several snowball blocks.

These four have been hanging out on my design wall for a while now.  I'm not really crazy about them. 

Occasionally I will stalk Flickr searching various quilt pools for inspiration.  There were several quilts that caught my eye .... all the same pattern but made with various colorways.  After researching more, I discovered the pattern was Plain Spoken from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr's The Modern Quilt Workshop.  Furthermore, I already have this book!  

I really need to move my design wall OUT of my closet!

So, I went to work cutting strips and making a  Maquette. ( "Maquette is a French word that describes an artistic prototype.  Maquettes are useful when trying to test color combinations, viewing proportions of color or form, and making general design decisions." See page 83 of their book.)

The true colors aren't clear in the photographs.  Basically, it is a rainbow of colors.  I like it, but what I'd really like is to a make an entire quilt similar to this pieced quilt backing.....I've played with an idea for weeks months now.  

I even went to my LHS (local hardware store...hehe) and grabbed sample paint color cards.  I've drawn out several quilt layouts...I'll save you the pictures of those...maybe I do need EQ7 ;-)  If it was mac compatible I would have it by now...but that's a whole other story.

I showed my other son both ideas on Flickr to get his opinion.  He kept asking "this is for Alex, right?" He must have asked me that three or four times.  That got me thinking...maybe he'd like a quilt for Christmas too....or maybe he was just double checking that I wasn't making it for him...ha ha.  This is from the son who will soon be graduating high school and who said he didn't want a graduation quilt, so who knows.  

I made the decision to make a Plain Spoken quilt AND a color card/artist palette quilt...so they each will receive a quilt.  You know what means....my daughter will need a quilt for Christmas too!  Then, since I have so many solids (or maybe not), I think I'll make another coin quilt too.  

...and that's how I added three (or more) quilts to my Christmas list!

Have an amazing day!!!  I need to get sewing!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Goodies in the mail!!!

Couldn't wait for Christmas!  When I heard Pink Chalk had more Kona Color Cards in stock, I hurried right over!

I knew I wouldn't win this book in any of the wonderful giveaways going on in Blogland, so I ordered my own!  

Have an amazing day!!!  I'm going to spend mine locked in my studio....I hope ;-)

Bunch of Blocks and a Tablerunner

I'm waiting for some fabric to arrive before I get started on my son's quilt which meant I had time to continue my Christmas blocks.

Working with leftover strips, I made this fun Christmas tree.

Just playing around with more scraps produced these three Christmas blocks.

Three of the blocks became this Christmas table runner top.  The backing fabric is beneath the runner and is yardage from Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas.  I may try a scrappy binding on this one.

Nine patches in progress from some cute Riley Blake charm squares.  I have some leftover charm squares from Swanky and Posh that I may throw in there.  This will go on my daughter's bed...eventually...since I'm not crazy about the quilt I just finished for her.

Another nine patch in progress from some old baby themed charm pack I had on hand.  This one will be a future charity quilt.

Those who know me may say I am PROCRASTINATING quilting the LOVE quilt and the Ugly challenge quilt top because that's not my favorite thing to do, starting my son's quilt because I'm afraid to mess it up, getting my house ready for Thanksgiving because I don't know where to start, making phone calls and doing laundry because it's just not fun....and you would be right!

Have an amazing day!!!!  I'm going to stop procrastinating now ;-)

Not My Idea of Sewing

This morning I dropped my baby off at the airport for a four day school trip.  She is super excited, and I'm trying to be.  She's a true Florida girl who prefers shorts to jeans and tank tops to long sleeves.  However, for this trip jeans, long sleeves and jackets are required.   We hit the mall this weekend in search of jeans that fit.  I don't know who "they" make jeans for, but it's not my daughter.  

Since I waited until the last minute (big surprise), I had to alter the jeans myself.  Luckily, I do own a denim needle and went to work hemming several pairs of jeans.  I didn't stress too much as I knew my daughter planned to tuck the jeans into her boots.  Thank goodness for that.  {I planned to take a cute picture of her wearing the jeans tucked into her boots, but my brain wasn't functioning that early in the morning.}

 I've been spending a lot of time thinking of a quilt to make for my oldest son for Christmas.  I think I finally have a quilt design in mind but can't decide on colors.  During this time, not much sewing was getting done so I pulled out my Christmas fabric and played.  This is the kind of sewing I prefer!

I made two log cabin blocks using a mixture of Figgy Pudding, 12 Days of Christmas and a couple of other Christmas fabrics from my stash.  These will probably be used in a table runner.

I finally made a maverick/wonky star!  It has been on my list of blocks to try for a while now.  I have two charms packs of Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas, and it was hard to cut into them.  I knew I should have bought more!

I'm off to cut fabrics for my son's quilt.  Have an amazing day!!!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Here in central Florida, we are experiencing glorious weather!  Hope you are too!

I've shown this picture numerous times.  I can't help it as it is one of my favorites.  I find myself staring at it contemplating how to make its likeness into a quilt.  Maybe one day I'll have an answer.

In the meantime, have an amazing day!!!