not to buy any fabric right now.... i'm participating in the september fabshophop and i see so many fabrics and patterns and cool tools i want to snag. but i can't. i have to be good so i can spend my money at the international quilt show in 2 1/2 weeks. my hubby and my MIL will be with me this year, so i may get good things from them BUT i may have to limit myself at the same time because of my hubby. ooh. dilemma.
and the inter-gem show is the weekend before the inter-quilt show. shoot! must save...must save... trying to buy house... although, i do have some fabulous bright/deep blue hayunes on lay-a-way with my favorite gem cutter and i plan on picking them up at the october show. too bad they're loose and not set yet so i can't wear them to the mfah's fall bash later that night.
at least i'm doing some xmas fabric stash busting with john's quilt-along. lots o' fabrics that have been taking up storage tub space for 4-5+ years. i'd say it made room for new fabrics at the quilt show, but i've already filled that space. *gasp!!!* i know. i'm bad. i have an addiction i tell ya!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
how do you go?
from this sweet little thing...
to this grown up little man?
7 years old
14 hours old
to this grown up little man?
7 years old happy birthday boo!! your cake decorating skills are fantastic and i love everything you do.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
some of my weekend sewing
can you see what this is? it's done for the cutie below:
cub scout patches. oy vey. i sat there, frustrated and with bent needles for the 100th anniversary patch session, wondering what was worse? boy scout patches or us navy rockers? they're both miserable in their own ways... rockers at least allow you to put pins through them, but i managed to use some ingenuity and got the stinkin' patch on his shirt.
boo had his first pack meeting on friday and has his first den meeting, where he'll meet the rest of his den, tomorrow afternoon. we went shopping today for his uniform and i had to get it ready. what happened to the days of tiger scouts wearing the bright-assed orange tshirt like my brother had in the 80's? oh...they upgraded the tshirt to adult sizes, minus the cool white sleeve stripes, for a whoping $0.99 each. seriously! snappy and i both have one to show our tiger scout pride.
speaking of snappy.... look what my fantastic husband did last night!
i had called him in to flip through my 501 quilt blocks book and pick some out for me to make in addition to my august swap blocks on flickr. in the end, i brought out the sew mini, set the sucker up and almost cursed at the simplicity. so simple there is no light on the machine and the on/off switch is the foot pedal - no speed control!!! that makes for an interesting time of teaching. but, once midnight hit, snappy had completed his "homeward bound" block in red, white & blue as a sailor-made block to go to a fellow sailor in need. fantastic. did i mention the sew mini doesn't have markings either? i had to put masking tape down and measure out 1/4" for snappy.
boo wants to make one too. i just might struggle through teaching him a split rail block. it's easy enough as long as he can follow the line on the masking tape, right? i'm a nervous mother. i don't know when exactly i learned to sew on a machine, but i remember sitting in my mom's room with a pair of wildly flowered shorts that needed a hem repair and learning to handstitch a hem. i must have been 7 or 8 years old at the time. i had my great grandmother's cast iron sewing machine in my room for years - up until i moved out when i got married. i figured it out on my own at some point in time. my mom's "new" machine later was passed down to me, but by then, the singer was already almost 30 years old. it had been top of the line with drop in cassettes for the decorative stitching. the machine just never could do invisible zippers and eventually the timing gear was stripped and the cabinet worth more than the machine.
i almost feel bad that boo has to learn on such a crappy little machine, but my brother is too complicated for him or snappy to use at this point. at least it's not a toy sewing machine, right? it's real. it's just little and weighs less than 5 lbs and has a few stitches to choose from with no extra feet. he shouldn't need them...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
wonky xmas log cabin block
this is my first wonky log cabin block for quilt dad's "wonky log cabin quilt along." i like it. maybe i should have cut it a little more wonky instead of having that left bottom corner be a true corner. i just noticed that looking at the photo. hmm...oh well...
i started on the next two blocks and the one is REALLY wonky so far. more like a parallelogram at this point, so there will be quite a different white sashing on that block. i'll post photos later when i'm done, although it may not be tonight. i've got a boy scout registration meeting tonight for boo and then tomorrow night is boo's school orientation. and i need to grocery shop, but can't with all the meetings after work.
AND my brand new dryer still doesn't work. but after lowe's brought us a replacement new dryer and that one didn't work at my house, but it did in the store, it's been deemed that i have an electrical problem of some sort. of course, the landlord isn't returning phone calls after we had a shower leak two weeks ago. but it was really leaking for a few months and he just didn't respond to our requests until he came to the house wanting to know if we're still interested in purchasing it from him. we are...we know there are quirks and we know we have things to make it ours. we just won't be buying it until he has the electrical issue fixed now. plus, i don't think the VA would really want to lend us money on a house with an electrical issue that causes us not be dry our washed clothes. or quilts.
i started on the next two blocks and the one is REALLY wonky so far. more like a parallelogram at this point, so there will be quite a different white sashing on that block. i'll post photos later when i'm done, although it may not be tonight. i've got a boy scout registration meeting tonight for boo and then tomorrow night is boo's school orientation. and i need to grocery shop, but can't with all the meetings after work.
AND my brand new dryer still doesn't work. but after lowe's brought us a replacement new dryer and that one didn't work at my house, but it did in the store, it's been deemed that i have an electrical problem of some sort. of course, the landlord isn't returning phone calls after we had a shower leak two weeks ago. but it was really leaking for a few months and he just didn't respond to our requests until he came to the house wanting to know if we're still interested in purchasing it from him. we are...we know there are quirks and we know we have things to make it ours. we just won't be buying it until he has the electrical issue fixed now. plus, i don't think the VA would really want to lend us money on a house with an electrical issue that causes us not be dry our washed clothes. or quilts.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
block swaps and other weekend stuff
yesterday was my hubby's birthday and we celebrated pretty much the whole weekend. he's still celebrating in fact...with coworkers now... but i took him out on saturday night to see paolo nutini in concert (whom you should see live - he is just as good live as he is on the recordings).
i resurrected my sparkly gold and multi-colored doc marten's for the concert (they weren't "new shoes" but they're good ones). somehow, snappy had never seen them before. they've been in my closet. right there. i got this pair of limited edition 8-holes my senior year in high school and either wore them or my first pair of birkenstocks every single day from october 10th through the end of school. well...i wore heels twice...or maybe a pair of wooden soled clogs to clunk on the stairs. anyways - i haven't worn them since college but one time. my feet hurt after a standing room only show. i need to remember only wear them when i get to sit down at least part of the time.
in between running to ikea, assembling furniture, going out to the concert, nearly squished by other cars, having migraines and visiting the family, i sewed. yippee! i got all my blocks finished for QBE and started work on my first wonky log cabin for john's quilt along. these are my 3 blocks for september:
for lucyquilts - something to match other blocks she's received
for namawsbuzyquiltin - a black and white block
for lucyquilts - a scrappy log cabin
i resurrected my sparkly gold and multi-colored doc marten's for the concert (they weren't "new shoes" but they're good ones). somehow, snappy had never seen them before. they've been in my closet. right there. i got this pair of limited edition 8-holes my senior year in high school and either wore them or my first pair of birkenstocks every single day from october 10th through the end of school. well...i wore heels twice...or maybe a pair of wooden soled clogs to clunk on the stairs. anyways - i haven't worn them since college but one time. my feet hurt after a standing room only show. i need to remember only wear them when i get to sit down at least part of the time.
in between running to ikea, assembling furniture, going out to the concert, nearly squished by other cars, having migraines and visiting the family, i sewed. yippee! i got all my blocks finished for QBE and started work on my first wonky log cabin for john's quilt along. these are my 3 blocks for september:
for lucyquilts - something to match other blocks she's received
for namawsbuzyquiltin - a black and white blockfor lucyquilts - a scrappy log cabin i hope the ladies like their blocks. i had fun making them again this month, but i haven't signed up for so much that i'm overwhelmed. although, i just started the wonky log cabins.... i might be later. next up to work on - my september STUD mini.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
MIL's mini quilt - WIP
alright folks.... i said i'd post a picture of my first paper piecing experience, so here it is!
originally, it was only supposed to have the skinny black border and the woven border. but my dingbat self trimmed it to finished size instead of adding the seam allowance. i sandwiched it last night and am using the solid green fabric for the backing and will bind it in the same rust-colored leaf print that is the outer border.
should i add a sleeve/pocket for hanging? or just leave it? i have no idea how she'll hang it or do whatever it is that she'll do with it.
one set of my in-laws live in kansas and literally across the street from a farm. it's gorgeous in the snow - all that unspoiled white to look at from your kitchen window. they also live in a flight path to the nearby airport. AND my MIL works for cessna, my FIL retired from there and works contract work for airplane tire companies. they're plane kind of people, so i embroidered a little plane in the sky. my hubby loves that i did that.
speaking of the hubby... snappy is trying to compare my quilting obsession (after i told him i'm joining the quilt-a-long with quilt dad) with his "love" of paintball. how is that a good comparison?! he shoots people, comes home a paint-covered mess and only has hours of cleaning and red welts/bruises to show for it. i, on the other hand, have tangible works of textile art to hold and wrap around me, to comfort the worthy people and servicemembers and make people smile. hmm.... i'm just not seeing it....
originally, it was only supposed to have the skinny black border and the woven border. but my dingbat self trimmed it to finished size instead of adding the seam allowance. i sandwiched it last night and am using the solid green fabric for the backing and will bind it in the same rust-colored leaf print that is the outer border.
should i add a sleeve/pocket for hanging? or just leave it? i have no idea how she'll hang it or do whatever it is that she'll do with it.
one set of my in-laws live in kansas and literally across the street from a farm. it's gorgeous in the snow - all that unspoiled white to look at from your kitchen window. they also live in a flight path to the nearby airport. AND my MIL works for cessna, my FIL retired from there and works contract work for airplane tire companies. they're plane kind of people, so i embroidered a little plane in the sky. my hubby loves that i did that.
speaking of the hubby... snappy is trying to compare my quilting obsession (after i told him i'm joining the quilt-a-long with quilt dad) with his "love" of paintball. how is that a good comparison?! he shoots people, comes home a paint-covered mess and only has hours of cleaning and red welts/bruises to show for it. i, on the other hand, have tangible works of textile art to hold and wrap around me, to comfort the worthy people and servicemembers and make people smile. hmm.... i'm just not seeing it....
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
here i go again
so now i think i'm joining quilt dad's wonky quilt-a-long. am i a glutton for punishment?! do i not already know i cannot do as many block swaps and mini quilt swaps this month due to multiple birthday's in my house (must plan 7 yr old birthday party....) and i have oh let's see....2 current knitting projects...1 QOV started... 2 quilt tops that need backs for myself...1 kid's quilt in hoop and sitting next to living room tv.... 1 mini paper-pieced mini quilt for my MIL*... plus a whole bunch of other things, such as finishing my illustration and getting the items together for my etsy shop.
um. yeah.
but maybe i'll use my christmas fabric that i've had sitting in plastic bins (i have more for various things in my storage unit. note to self: check on said storage unit this week since i forgot to cover items on weekend and there is construction to repair hurricane damage...) for the past 5+ years. i've never known what pattern to make in the first place. i have TONS of the fabrics. they're taking up lots o' space. who needs 4 yards each of two color variations of the same modern tree print? me apparently.
so tonight, i guess i'm pulling out the christmas fabric and taking inventory to see if that's what i'm using. i vow not to buy fabric for this one. unless it's backing or binding and i absolutely positively cannot find SOMETHING in my stash that will work.
*update on this paper-pieced mini... i'm a complete dingbat...when i finished it and went to trim it, seam allowances were not anywhere on the brain. until i made that last cut with the rotary cutter. i trimmed it to the finished size. nice. so now it's getting a third border. pictures later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)