Not bad in a loose, artistic sort of way...

 In a galaxy far, far away....Luke, I am your sister:)  Yep, I have a brother named Luke and I can't think of Star Wars without thinking of him.  Although, my latest quilt is not for Luke.  He can be jelly (jealous, for those of you who don't have a house full of teenagers) if he wants to.  My great-nephew Hayden will be getting this one.

 

Darth and the Millennium Falcon are my favorites!  The patterns are from a free site, Fandom In Stitches.  You should definitely check them out.  They have some really amazing patterns from all your favorite sci-fi movies and cartoons.  I'm also planning  Harry Potter and Twilight quilts based on patterns from this site.  These are paper pieced and I had to double the size to make them 9" blocks!  Then I added borders until they were 12".  I can't imagine doing one of these actual size!!  There were some itsy bitsy pieces.
 

 R2D2 gave me fits!  How do you do this guy justice with fabric?  I had hoped to find white fabric with blue rectangles to make it some what more literal but it just wasn't happening.  So, with the urging of my family, I embroidered some detail on his... head? 

 I was most worried about Yoda in the beginning because I couldn't imagine getting his face right.  But, luckily, my son Hunter is a really good artist.  I had him draw the details and I just traced with thread.  Hunter ends up doing a lot of my artwork for me.  Thank you, honey:)  All in all, I kind of like this one but it only matters if Hayden thinks it's cool.  Fingers crossed.

 When Star Wars was finished, and by finished I mean ready to be quilted, I decided to finish a few projects from Valentines past.  This little Storm At Sea was the Super Bowl mystery last year.  It's been hanging on my railing all year.  I used some of my least favorite fat qtrs that I won at this months guild meeting as backer.  Got it quilted and stalled out when I realized I didn't save anything to bind it in.  Dang It!  So there is sits until I can go shopping again.  Luckily, I think Sweet Annies still has some coordinating fabrics.

Which reminds me, at our guild meeting, I won 39 red/ valentine fat quarters!  SCORE!!  I think I won it last year or the year before in Jan or Feb because I've won pink before.  And, I won the patriotic month once...

Also, last month I won  a free applique book.  I need to stop thinking of myself as never winning anything!

So, then I moved on to Heart Strings.  I made this quilt top a few years ago for Sweet Annies as a store sample.  I always thought it was cute and knew I'd never make another one.  So, when she was done with it, I bought it back and hung it on my railing for a year.  Sunday, I got it quilted.  And, I've got it at work with me to finish the binding.  My awesome new job allows me to work on this kind of stuff while I'm in between phone calls.  Jees, I'm a lucky girl when I think about it!

Happy Stitches everyone!

What the heck? I wanted a less stress New Year!

I have to admit that I've really loved having a 4 day weekend.  There wasn't anywhere for me to taxi the kids to, no holiday to prepare for, just a few days to decompress.  Very nice.  However, the New Year didn't start as stress free as I would have liked.  All the crazy things that were happening on the 1st, (flood in the basement, migraine, Ram's sucking, treadmill broke, car steering going bonkers again), ended up to be non-problems in the long run.  Well, except for Rich having a massive reaction to the cat dander in our treadmill when he tried to take it apart to fix it.  His skin was crawling and his eyes were swelling.  Then he started getting this weird droopy eye thing going.  By the way, the treadmill still only goes 1 or 7.  If I'm going to look on the bright side of things, I can just be grateful for a free excuse not to work out.

In my last blog, I left out a few things I had done in Nov.  The cupcake is from an office baby shower just before Thanksgiving.  I thought they were super cute:)


The quilt is something I made for my niece-in-law in Chicago.  She had a friend that loves Eeyore and needed a birthday gift.  I turned the Y into Eeyore's tail.  I thought it was a stroke of genius, personally.  I hope they liked it as much as I did.


For the life of me, I can't figure out how to move pictures around on this blog so that they look decent.  This is my Twisted Mystery 2011.  I started it last January and we were supposed to meet once a month to make this quilt.  For one reason or another, it seemed like I never got to meet with them or work on the quilt.  I spent several hours finishing the star blocks below the other day. 

I wanted so badly to finish this whole thing.  What can I say, I'm a finisher.  It was like torture for me to sit and work on it.  It's just so repetitive.  So I decided to cut myself some slack and stopped for awhile.  I've still got the Flippin' Flowers and Mist something or another blocks before I can stop.

Above is my latest Quilt of Valor.  All that is left is to have it quilted, bound and labeled.  This took me about 3 or 4 months.  Again, repetitive.  Couldn't handle it for long periods.

Then, just because I could, I started my spool quilt.  A few months ago, my guild had a fabric strip exchange.  I put them to use yesterday & made the spools.  There are about 42, I think.  Each stack has about 6 of the same colored spools.  Now that they're done, I wish I'd had more of the jewel tones.  The green and turquoise are super cool.

And, that is all she wrote.  Happy New Year!

The Carnage Left Behind

These are my Girl Scout blocks.  I was volun-told to come up with the blocks that are to represent our Service Unit in the quilts that are being made for the Girl Scout Birthday.  Personally, I'm embarrassed.  I was at a total loss and under a bunch of stress when I made them.  Several years ago my troop made quilt blocks for me for Leader's Appreciation.  I took the blocks from that project and used them as the appliques for these blocks.  After all, it was supposed to be the girls doing this.

Naturally I felt the need to blog about something I'm embarrassed of.

This one with the tree was drawn by my daughter Bethany.  I think these are from 2005.

Christmas Cookies

 All month I felt like I wasn't doing anything creative and feeling bad about it. Then I realized that I'd been baking every night after work.  So I've decided making Christmas cookies was creative.  I sent trays to Rich's work and sent them to my own as well this year.  Then I sent some to my brother Luke & my step-father Jim & Ethan's teacher, too.  Not to mention the hundreds that were eaten by the kids.  And there were the 2 batches of fudge and 1 batch of butter toffee.  YUM.

 I did manage to finish Rich's Christmas stocking.  I worked on it at all of my breaks while I was at work.  I made the old one (above) 19 years ago.  I messed up on the sequin placement of Santa's white stuff and the train grill.  Then, my room mate at the time stuck her finger in his name before it had dried... The funny thing is that the paint bottle burped when I was writing his name on his new stocking and it messed up in the exact letter as before.  He just can't win:)

These are the last of my Civil War blocks.  Well, except for the one that is going to be posted on New Year's Eve.  I'm so excited that I was able to catch up on Saturday.  I was able to work on them for about 6 hours.  I even think most of them even turned out the right size.  Now to decide how to use them.  It just occurred to me that if I set them the way I want to, I'll end up with a 200 something square inch quilt.  I suppose that means I'll have 2 queen sized quilts in the end.

 This is the carnage left behind.  I'm not cleaning it up until I've got the setting done.  I think that is going to be just as scrappy as the blocks themselves.

Last but certainly not least, my snowflake.  We made these at my last TAS meeting.  During my Harry Potter marathon this weekend, I finished the applique and beaded it.  It took 2 1/2 Harry Potter movies to finish the beading that surrounds the snowflake and borders the binding.  The last applique Civil War block took another 1 1/4 movies.  I'm currently watching Half Blood Prince.  Then I'll have to rent the last 2 to complete the greatness of my weekend.  I guess I'll work on those State blocks while Harry saves the world.  Holy crap, they're about to kill Dumbledore.  This always makes me cry.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Oh, the holidays, I love them so.

 Last week I made this Elenore Burns table runner.  My intentions were to make one for me and one for my Mother-In-Law.  The second one didn't get made and it turns out that she wants the leaf version anyhow.  Perhaps she'll get one for Christmas.

 I made this bag a few weeks ago and forgot to take a picture.  I don't like it and the button is all wrong.

 I only got to 3 Civil War blocks this week.  That's better than none.

 This is the beginning of an Eeyore quilt that my Niece-In-Law needs, stat.  There will be a thick border on top with the little girl's name appliqued & 2 thinner borders down the sides with thick rick-rack.  I'm liking it so far.  I hope to get it done by next weekend.

Last but not least, I started this super cute pin cushion last Saturday at my TAS meeting.  I probably should have taken a closer picture so that you can see better detail.  And for those who were wondering, the top was finished last weekend but I sewed it together this weekend:)


Now to get caught up on my Girl Scout junk!  Hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!  Mine was pretty great!

I Guess It's Been Awhile

So, life has been pretty crazy lately. But, honestly, when isn't it? I was offered a position at Jim's Formal Wear just as I was getting used to my other new job at the middle school. Rich is still in training at his new job that he started back in August. Hunter became a Marine Recruit, against his mother's wishes. The kids had Homecoming. We had Halloween. Which, by the way, I have no photos of. I took pictures. When I went to add them to my computer the next day, they were no longer on my camera:( Bummer, the kids looked great, too! And, believe it or not, I did manage to sew a few stitches in the month or so since my last blog.

Well, it doesn't show very well in the photo but, this (above) is a kid upside down in a pile of leaves. You can see his jeans popping out & he has white tennis shoes on. I made him to put up in my cubicle at work. It's only about 12x13".



Today I started back on my Civil War Block of the Week. I was getting a little nervous because the year is almost over & I was only on week 33. Now I'm only 10 weeks behind. I think if I do 4 a week, I'll be caught up in no time. I would have done more but week 37 looked really complicated & I thought it would be better to start fresh on it. My Indiana Puzzle is about 1 inch too small, so, I'll be revisiting that particular one again later.

I finished Bunny Hill's last, free block of the month, "Henrietta Squirrel". It's invisible, machine applique with hand embroidery. By finished, I mean, the top is done. I do have the back & binding saved & ready to use when I get around to it. I put the two pictures up because the one with Fred, the dog, cracks me up. He heard the camera turn on, came over and stood in front of the quilt. When he heard me take the picture, he left. What a ham:)

This stocking is going to be Rich's new Christmas stocking. I made one for him the year we got married but it's falling apart at this point in our lives. It holds a lot of memories, though. I mixed up some of the colors from the pattern & my room mate touched his name to see if it was dry... it wasn't. I guess you could say it's always been a little ghetto but it was done with love:) So anyway, I'm going to take the kit to work with me & work on it while on my breaks.

I also quilted my Pride & Prejudice quilt. It turned out awful! It's stitched in the ditch and at every intersection the bottom stitches loop like crazy! Now I have to rip out the whole queen sized quilt and try it again. This time I'll just do a random all over pattern that will avoid all the intersections.

I did a little on my State Flowers quilt but didn't take any pictures. It's kinda funny. Yesterday, at Frieden's Quilt Show, I saw a finished one on display. I so badly wanted to unfold it and see what they did for South Carolina. I almost quit doing my quilt because I hate how South Carolina turned out! Sadly, it was in the fold and I didn't get to see it. My theory is that they hated theirs too, and were hiding it:)

Any hoo... I really want to make a second batch of granola. Yesterday's was terrible because I used cheap oats. I'm going to try again before it gets too late. Happy Stitching!

They Say I'll Miss Them When They're Gone

So it started with new tile flooring. Then the oven broke, then the dishwasher. The refrigerator was soon to follow.


Before we knew what was happening, all of our appliances were new. Then Rich decided before he started his new job, he was going to finish remodeling the kitchen. We've hated it since we moved in 7 years ago. Now I also have a new counter top, back splash, range hood, kitchen sink, faucet, microwave and paint! The pictures don't show the color well but it's a really pale celery. Sherwin Williams calls it Heart of Palm. It's brighter than I expected but I LOVE it. It's still one of the smallest kitchens I've ever seen, but it's a WHOLE lot prettier:)
The new curtains will get made next weekend...

It never ceases to amaze me how surprised my children get at the notion of doing their chores every Sunday. For as long as I can remember, we do our chores on Sunday. Everybody is responsible for their own room and each has a variety of other small jobs to do. Sunday comes along, it's the same, week after week. For some reason, it still takes them by surprise that they have to work. Whining, fit throwing, complaining. I won't name, names, but I've got one kid that acts like a 2 year old every time! Boy are they quick to ask for money, though! Well, a certain someone will be quite amazed how quickly I say no the next time I'm asked for cash. I've about come to the end of my rope with this routine.

Anyways, I was just told this week how awful it is when they move out. I'm having a hard time believing it today. Rich & I decided we should take a vacation without them. I thought, we should take that Honeymoon we never had. Ah, to dream. But then, we couldn't agree on where to go...heavy sigh.

Well, I've been pretty busy these past couple of weeks. With sick kids, broken kids, and various dr. appointments and dance classes. But, I did manage to make it into my sewing room once or twice.

The Jack O' Tablerunner, that I wasn't supposed to start until I had other projects completed. I'm so bad at following rules. Especially the ones I set up for myself... but at least I'm ready for Halloween now.
I took a class from Cindy Hagen yesterday and we made these snazzy, swirly table runners. I didn't realize how quick they went together so I didn't buy a backer or binding for it. The edges will eventually be smooth and I think I'll bind it in the white dot print. Or maybe, the red? I don't know what I'll do with it, it doesn't exactly match my Christmas decor but I love it any way!

Hot Cakes for my friend Silvia. Her last day at work is tomorrow & we're all going to miss her:(


The quilt is called Happy Hauntings, I think. It was a block of the month from 2 years ago! The skeleton has 114 bones. And, it's all hand appliqued! It's been done for a couple of weeks but I didn't have a picture to post. I love it! and apparently, so does Fred, he's asleep on it every chance he gets!




These are my latest pincushions, doughnuts. YUM.

I'm getting really bored with these state flowers but I guess there's no deadline to do them. I'm disappointed with how sedate the coloring of the embroidery is.

And, I believe the fat lady is singing, because I need to sleep:) Happy Stitching.