Chuggin' Chuggin' Along...

Well, Gramma Todd's Quilt is now a quilt center. You know what that means, don't you? I get to go shopping! I have nothing in my very limited stash that will work for borders so I get to go to the quilt shop and fondle fabrics! YIPPEE for me!!

Moving Right Along....

Bonnie Hunter's site is essentially what got me hooked on quilting. I'm constantly in awe of her patterns and ability to take a handful of scraps and make something beautiful! Its my goal to make one of everything on her site! I chose the Pinapple Blossom pattern for my DH's grandmother's birthday/Mother's Day gift.




Here are four finished block's from Gramma Todd's quilt. We go away with DH's family one weekend each Spring to celebrate Mother's Day and Gramma's Birthday. Its usually a weekend in May, however his aunt and uncle will be out of country this year until late May, so we're going the first weekend in June - gives me a little extra time to finish this quilt! : p It wasn't until about an hour after I took this picture that I discovered that one of the blocks was put together wrong. The one on the lower right corner had the second row of logs sewed on backwards.....Thankfully that was the only one....

Here are the rest of the blocks...looking good!

You Could Win This Quilt!

As I was drinking my coffee this morning I logged onto my Google Reader Account (just like every morning) and I was greeted with this beautiful picture on Joanna's blog. As I read futher, she explained how to win this quilt - it was a good morning! Camille is hosting a giveaway and the quilt is the prize!! If you leave a comment on her blog, you are entered to win. If you post about it on your blog, you get more entries and if you tell her you heard about it from me, I get more entries!! How fun is this?! This is the link to the giveaway. Please tell her I sent you! Here is where I would normally say "Good Luck" - but I want all of the luck for myself! Have a Happy Wednesday everyone!

Sashings Quilt Top - DONE!

Ben's Rag Quilt - DONE! (although in this picture it hadn't been washed yet, so the seams aren't that "ragged")

UFO Update

I haven't been around much, I've been busy working on UFO's! Also, my amazing husband finally came home (he'd been out of town for 12 days!). He's home now and will be here until May 5th!!! He's 100% ours and I plan to use up every minute of it! So, I might not be here everyday, but I'll post updates periodically. Now, on to the UFO Marathon. I finished the Sashings Top and I've finished Ben's Rag Quilt. I started piecing Grandma Todd's Quilt. I haven't worked on Ainsley's Quilt much, but I'd already made a lot of progress on it before I started the marathon. Now that Jason's home, I'll be able to be a lot more productive. For some reason, blogger isn't letting me upload pictures right now, but I'll get them up as soon as I'm able! Cheers!

The Quilt that didn't want to be....finally IS!!!

Its a center, at least! I'm adding a 5 1/2" (cut) red dotted minky border, with four more patches in the corners. However, I have to move my sewing machine to the dining room table to add the borders. The quilt is getting too big for my little sewing desk. So the borders will have to wait for a few days.

The picture looks like the bottom left corner has been cut off, but its just the door jam (I had to lay the quilt over the back of the couch and then stand in our bedroom to take the picture).

Does this look comfortable to you?

This is our dog, Curry. He's 3 1/2 years old and he's the goofiest thing. He loves his crate. We've tried to take it down several times and it just stresses him out. So we leave it in the middle of the living room, door is always wide open and its usually where we can find him. Watching him sleep like this just hurts my back - but he seems to be comfortable. He was like that for about two hours! Goofy pooch!

Ben's Rag Quilt

Ben has been asking for a quilt for almost a year now. About 6 months ago we went to the local quilt shop and he picked out several different flannel fabrics and requested a rag quilt. These quilts are easy as can be (espeically because I didn't put any batting in the squares because we wanted it more lightweight) I should have finished it months ago. My little angel has been so patient with me! This morning I gave him all of the squares and told him to arrange them any way he wanted. There are all kinds of different fabrics and they don't really match, but he loves them and he's so proud of his quilt! So, I've promised myself tonight that I'll finish it for him. The boys go to bed around 7pm and Numb3rs (I love FBI shows) doesn't start until 10pm. That should give me plenty of time to get the top together and I can snip the edges while watching TV. I'll toss it in the washer and it'll be all ready for him when he wakes up tomorrow. What a great way to start your weekend - with a brand new snugglie quilt! (and then I can cross something off my UFO list!!)

We Have a Winner!!

I had my son pick the winner for my giveaway. Drumroll, please...............Its Annie!!! I sent her an email and once I hear back from her, I'll send the calendar off. Thanks to everyone that participated and Congratulations to Annie!

UFO Marathon - Care to Join Me?

I was taking inventory of my UFO's this evening and I realized that I have FIVE UFO's that need to be completed by June 1. aaahhhh!!!! I have several more on top of that. So here's my solution: I'm going on a UFO Marathon. I am going to see how many I can finish by June 1. I am not permitted to start anything new (although I'm sure I'll be tempted) until June. Does anyone care to join in the fun? I'll keep a running list of my projects in the side bar and I'll give regular updates on my progress. Please post a comment if you are planning on joining so I can peek at your progress as well! Here is a list of my current UFO's. The ones in bold are the ones that need to be finished by June 1.

• Sashings Quilt Top
• Bricks & Blocks
• Grandma Todd's Birthday Quilt
• Ainsley's Quilt
• Lemonade Stand Doll Quilt
• Ben's Rag Quilt
• Barney's Blocks
• String X
• My first rails

Quilter's to your Mark, Get Set, SEW!!!!!!!

The Quilt That Doesn't Want to Be

So, here is the quilt I've been struggling with. Do you get why I'm dragging my feet? Its boring!!

I've been working on this quilt for months - it shouldn't have taken any more than a week, even with my limited quilting time.

I seem to only be able to add 3-4 sashing strips at a sitting. After that I get stir crazy. I have 5 strips left that need sashings and then I'll assemble the whole thing and add borders. Snap the picture I need and throw it in the closet! What's really irriated me about it is that I promised myself I won't work on anything else until its done. So, I sewed a few sashings tonight, got bored and had to turn off my machine and walk away. It probably would've been better if I had worked on a different project for a bit and then come back to this one...but that's apparently not how my brain works. Jason's been out of town for the last week and won't be back for another week. Once he's here to hang out while I sit and sew I think it'll be less boring - let's hope so!!

A New Favorite.

This is my new favorite cookbook! My friend introduced it to me and I LOVE it! You can read more about it here.

**Disclaimer, I am in no way affiliated with the authors of this cookbook - I simply like to share my new treasures with my friends** :)

I'm in a Quilt Swap!

I've entered the Lemonade Stand Doll Quilt Swap. Its my first swap and I'm really excited about it! I'm pretty sure I know what pattern I'm going to make...stay tuned for pictures of my progress!

I need your opinions, please!

Good Morning Blogland People! By the end of the week I will hopefully be finishing up that quilt top that has become a pain in my you-know-what. I have to repress & attach 9 sashing strips. Then I'll be able to sew the rows together and I'm adding a dotted minky border (as if this quilt hasn't been causing me enough problems already....I decided to go "out of the box" on the border!).

This weekend I'll be starting a quilt for DH's grandmother that is to be her birthday/mother's day gift (we'll be celebrating the first weekend in June. I need to get a move on!). Her living room decor is mostly mauve. I will be making the Pineapple Blossom pattern from Bonnie's website.





Do I make the quilt with just greens and use the borders to incorporate the pinky/mauves?

Or do I use the pinky/mauves & the greens in the quilt center and go find a border that ties it all in?

You can click on the picturs to get a larger view. Thanks in advance for your help!

Jessica

Calendar Drawing Update

WOW!! I have had lots of responses for my calendar giveway. If you haven't entered your name yet, there is still time! I plan to draw a name this weekend and then ship it off next week. Good Luck to everyone! :)
Jessica

No more nap time.....really?

So Carter tells me that he's a big boy now "No night night naps, I big boy". Ok, fine.......This was our "no nap" Friday (notice the grilled cheese sandwich still in his hand....)

We had another "no nap" day on Sunday (this time is a juice cup in his hand and a T-Rex on his head)

And yes....again on Monday. He did manage to stay awake all day today - we'll see what tomorrow brings for my big boy that doesn't need naps anymore!

On a quilting note, I finally got all of the sashings strips done that I needed for my quilt top. When I went to start sewing them to the rows I discovered that I had pressed all of my seams the wrong way. AAAAHHHH!!! Its like this quilt just doesn't even want to get done. I spent last night repressing and sewing on 4 out of the 13 sashing strips...hopefully I'll get them done tomorrow night

Just a note about the giveaway...

If you'd like to be considered for my calendar giveaway, please make sure I have a way to reach you. I don't mind anyonymous comments, but I need to have an email address to reach you. Thanks!

What I've been working on...

I made three more sashings strips last night and then I ran out of bricks. I'll have to cut more tonight. I'm just having a hard time finishing this quilt top. I think its because it'll only ever be a quilt top. It is a demo quilt for my website (we're going live later this month, I can't wait to blog about it!) and all we need is a top. I'll probably keep it in a closet and use it to practice on when I get my long arm.


Since I ran out of pieces for that quilt, I decided to play with my crumbs. I think I'll trim all of these up into 6 1/2" squares and put them in a nine patch with some soft pink fabric for the alternate squares. I'll put a border around it and it'll make a sweet quilt for a preemie little girl.

There is enough pieced crumbs right now to cut 6 squares. I'll keep crumbing until I get enough for two preemie quilts...I think I'll call them Sugar Cookie quilts because they are made out of the sweetest little crumbs.

My first giveaway!

I'm hosting my first giveaway! Its a desk calendar. You can see the amazon description here. I just have so many calendars and I really don't have any extra room to spare on my desk. If you'd like a chance at winning it, please leave a comment on this post and I'll add your name to the drawing!

Testing Links

Ok, so I think I've figured out how to post a link....I'm going to make your mouth water as I test it out! Here goes.....

This is one of my family's favorite desserts (my son just requested it in the form of cupcakes for his birthday). The recipe is in this book.

It worked!! It worked!!! I have a link!!!! (and I bet I've made everyone hungry, too!)....hhhmm I seem to be craving cake. :p

Jessica

Not very productive this week

I've been trying to figure out why I just couldn't seem to make myself sit down at the sewing machine this week - and then I realized that nap time was more than recharge time for Carter, it was recharge time for Mommy. I'm grieving the loss of naptime! Since we've switched him to a big boy bed earlier this week naptime has flown out the window. He did take two naps this week, both in the car - not much help to me.

Not only did I often use naptime to sew, but it would give me some quiet time to recharge my batteries as well, and I'd sit down in the evenings and sew some more. Since nap time is gone, once the boys are in bed for the night I rarely get up off of the couch until I go to bed!

This is all I've accomplished this week: I sewed six sashing strips together WOW!!!! :) (do you see my "helper"? He was pretending to take his own picture)

Thank You Everyone

I just wanted to tell everyone THANK YOU for the warm welcomes I've received. You guys have made Blog World seem not so scary! I have lots to learn, but I'm having lots of fun and look forward to having lots more fun!
Jessica

Bob the Builder is HERE!!

We're having our roof redone so we've had workers/cars/trucks/etc...coming and going since Monday. However, this morning we had a HUGE truck with a conveyer belt pull right up next to the house. The boys are going nuts! Carter has been running through the house yelling "Bob the Builder is here! Bob the Builder is here!" (although it sounds more like "Babo Bubur here!") And I thought today was going to be boring.....

Free Sewing Machine!

I managed to snag a free sewing machine today on Freecycle! I know nothing about it other than the fact that as of two years ago it worked and that its located about 35 minutes from my house. The boys and I will go for a drive tomorrow and pick it up and see what I come up with!

It may go straight into the goodwill pile, or it may find a new home in my sewing room - stay tuned for pics tomorrow!!

Jessica

Not much going on today....

I don't have much to report today. The only sewing I did yesterday was to make some sashing/cornerstone strips for a quilt top I'm trying to finsh - not very exciting! The only plans I have today is to clean the house - even less exciting! I'll leave some eye candy, though....

I made this quilt for Carter - he's crazy for dinosaurs. Its just a top in this picture, I didn't take a picture after it was quilted and I can't get it out of his hands long enough to take one now! I put a super soft chenille bright yellow on the back. The boarders aren't wavy as they appear in the picture - its just the way its hanging. I really need to find a better place to take pictures of my quilts! :)

Signing off for now, I'll try to come back and post more later!

Jessica