it's december already?

i looked at my last post date...mid-november...sorry about that...

i've been really busy - honest! i made all sorts of bee blocks:

for xerxia in the scrapBEElooza bee

for namasbuzyquiltin in bee pieceful bee

finished my grandmother's birthday quilt:

and had a car drive up on my lawn and neighbor's lawn, taking my mailbox with them at 4am on a saturday:

i completed a few blocks for the QBE exchange, and my round robin round for the HMQG. oh! speaking of the HMQG!! we had our monthly meeting the same day as the car vs. mailbox incident and snappy's first ANG drill. at the meeting, we held our elections for the upcoming year and i was elected president of the guild. how about that!?! i have no idea what i'm going to do or what they want me to do other than just keep on doing what i've been doing... i did try to nominate boo for the position, but i was the only one who voted for someone other than myself. i didn't ask for it, but it looks like the group thinks i'm the right person for the job. i hope i live up to their expectations.

other than that, i've been plugging away at QOV quilt tops and christmas presents. i received a QOV back from the quilter 2 weeks ago and i need to finish the binding before i take pictures. that and there needs to be daylight a little longer... the scrappy string QOV top was sent off to the longarm quilter this week and i'm hoping to have it back before the end of the month so i can send these two off to D.C. there are 4 more to make to fulfill the navy's request and i've just about run out of ideas. anyone have suggestions?

pictures of christmas presents will just have to wait a little longer. there are some truly cute things being made, but not as many as i had hoped. i just don't have all the time in the world to sew, but wouldn't that be fabulous?

and... as boo said to me this morning: "happy 1st day of advent!"

power's blankie

do you see this?

i walked into my living room yesterday morning to see my dog all covered up by a fleece blanket while on his bed. that dog did not want to move out from under that blanket either...he even stuck his nose under it so only his big brown eyes showed.

and jeez.... i need to finish my ironing and put the board away...

putting some projects on hold

for others...

while this picture is now "out-dated" because it represents 33 of the 56 string blocks and i've finished them...

i wanted to show some progress. i really have been working on projects...honest! in fact, the blocks have all been laid out and arranged, sewn into rows and are in the progress of being pinned for the final assembly. then i can request the longarmmer from QOVF and get this scrappy string QOV on it's way.

what i have been working for almost the past week is this:

[K] and i decided last thursday to make a quilt to donate towards a silent auction fundraiser for a local family. it's an incredibly sad story and we want to help out in the way that quilters do... make a quilt. several guys from [K]'s husband's office were on scene to assist in the search and rescue. on top of losing her daughters, while this woman's husband was fighting for his life in the hospital, someone broke into their home and robbed them of their possessions.

[K] and i have been plugging away on this quilt since thursday night, taking only saturday off for the international quilt festival. i guess i'll post on that later too. last night, i finished quilting this bright purple quilt and all that is left is trimming and binding. it can then go to the USCG office for delivery to the fundraiser people. even though this woman is not getting the quilt itself, i hope someone can find warmth and comfort in the quilt and in the knowledge that they are helping her pick up the pieces in preparation for a new life.

NSH commission complete!

ok...so not 100% completed... it needs the label still, but that's made and ready to be sewn on the back tonight.

my idea was that it be more like a seascape painting combined with a flag blowing in the wind. since safe harbor takes care of our sailors and coasties, the water seemed appropriate. there are bits of red and white "woven" through the blue layers along with a little orange to represent the navy and USCG, as well as the american flag. i have the safe harbor logo of the lighthouse appearing from a wave crest, as a lighthouse appears on the horizon to a sailor out at sea.

it's been a month since i completed the top and showed it to the HMQG. how time seems to fly so quickly because it doesn't feel like it's been a month has passed! i've been working steadily on the wallhanging since mid-late august and i will send it off to washington, d.c. either tomorrow or monday. hubby has been gone the last 3 weeks and i'd like him to see it all finished up with label.

the logo design is new to safe harbor and they wanted to have it used in their wallhanging. i think it works perfectly in the design. the logo is hand embroidered, usually done during my lunch breaks at work, and is a slightly darker blue than the actual design they sent me. hopefully they won't mind that part.

i used a variety of quilting stitches in the quilt. stippled meandering for all of the red sections and for the camo seen in detail above. (do you see the little USN logo peeking through the camo? i had to make sure i got some of that in this quilt). all blue and white wave sections were quilted in a fashion that makes me think of ripples in the water. i did stipple the "sky" to merge the light blue solid with the USCG uniform pieces together.

uniform pieces you say? yes! just like the camo above, which truly did come from a pair of navy-issued NWU's donated to the quilt, there are bits and pieces of uniforms worked into the quilt.

the white in the bottom left comes from a pair of my hubby's dress white pants. this white wave runs across the upper portion of the quilt and there's a little piece towards the left middle as well. if you look at the light blue section in this picture, you'll see two different blues pieced together. the lighter and more transparent blue comes from a "trops" shirt donated to me by a USCG officer.

so not only are the men and women of the navy and coast guard represented in spirit within this quilt, they are physically present within the cloth and stitches.

and because it looks really cool.... the back!

when you see the entire back, it just flows like the water does. in all directions, around objects in the water and barriers. looking at this photo, the quilt back looks like it puckers, but it doesn't really. must be the light and shadows caused from not hanging perfectly straight. phooey.

but this is what i've been busy with for the last 2 months. my heart and soul were put into the quilt and i think it shows. making this one has been nerve-wracking for me, but worth it so far. now the true test comes when they see it complete...they've only seen a rough sketch and a tiny sampling of the quilt top via email...

some finishes this week

ok.... so i said i'd blog about all my finishes... and i'm going to make good on that. although i don't remember if i blogged about the round robin i did, so i'm going to include it now and edit later if necessary.

first the smaller projects - bee blocks!

a little house for "bee pieceful"

this is the first of hopefully 2 blocks for sweetteamom. and i need to mass produce some little house blocks for the FB group this month. oh...i'm behind in schedule with all the QOVs!

little trees for the "scrapBEElooza" bee

greenink requested little trees for our october blocks. she is going to have a great little forest once october is over! i just might have to make tree blocks for me one day after i make all the zillion other projects.

and since i'm just going to post it now - the round robin for HMQG.

at our meeting last month, we did the first round of swapping our rows and center blocks for whichever robin we chose. i didn't blog about this now, did i? oops. i chose fi's tree center because it's brightly colored with fun prints and i knew i wanted this one first. there are infinite possibilities on what to make for a border and that just doesn't help me make decisions any easier. so for fi's block, i separated the initial block with a bold blue and then all the little HSTs to play on the leaves she appliqued. i really love this so far.

and last, but definitely not least.... a QOV top finish!!



you might remember previous postings of [k] and i working together on a QOV during monthly HMQG meetings. well folks, the quilt top is finished and i've put in the request for our longarm quilter! this QOV is a combo of civil war reproductions (the beige background and the blue border) and very modern prints and batiks (all the red). the pattern is "endless chain" from quilter's cache and i adore how it looks when all the blocks are put together. for some reason, the final look just hadn't entered my mind.

today has been fairly productive, even though i thought i'd finish most of this last night. kiddo is sick, which slowed me down yesterday, but after being home half the day today, i made up lost time. poor boo. his throat is completely swollen shut and the pediatrician tried to convince boo to have a shot of antibiotic instead of regular oral meds to get it working. boo did not go for it, so 10 days of medication it is.

yippie doodle!

i just got this email!!

"Hello Jennifer,
Your package from Heather Ross is on its way. You can track it online using this tracking number."

yeah! yippie! my studio sale package is finally shipping and on it's way to a very good home. i'm nervous and excited at the same time to see what she's packed up for me. i requested anything from fabric from certain lines, illustrations, wrapping paper (yes, she found wrapping paper in her studio she forgot she made) and other goodies.

i've been busy in my own studio the last few weeks. really i have! so busy that i'm working on too many things at once and almost finished with several of them. it's like crafter/quilter's ADD. i've finished up a couple items and there should be a few finishes tonight and tomorrow, so after i get pictures, i'll post them all for you.

belated posts...

boy... i'm late in posting, aren't i? sorry folks!

i have been incredibly busy in both my sewing/quilty life and at work and home the last few weeks. the NSH wallhanging is moving along at a beautiful speed. in fact, i finished the quilting on it yesterday morning and attached the binding to it in the afternoon.

here's the completed top:

i quilted it in a pretty cool fashion - at least i think so... the back looks really cool from the quilting. of course, i have to get pictures of it finished for you.

we also had an important birthday in our house... boo turned 8 a week ago yesterday.

his absolute favorite food in the world is a peanut butter sandwich. so he got a really big one for his cake. it's made from a cream cheese pound cake shaped like sliced bread and a peanut butter frosting between the "bread." boo could not have been happier about his cake. there was to be no jelly on it. just the way i eat my sandwiches and how he eats his half the time.

his birthday celebration started out with LEGO!

a group of his friends gathered on a sunday morning at the local lego store at our mall and got to play. they earned their official lego builder cards and got to fill boxes with random and various lego pieces and blocks to take home. i think that's the best goody-bag a kid can have. and i loaded them up with sugar in the form of ice cream before they all had lunch. :-P

other than that, we had a baptism and a first communion in our house on sunday. i'm very proud of my guys and have such a joy in my heart from it. i developed quilting/sewing ADD yesterday after i finished the last bit of quilting...i attached a rod pocket to the quilt, then started sewing the first border on to a round robin square for HMQG bee, made some HSTs for the round robin, started making even bigger HSTs for my grandmother's birthday quilt (due next month), pulled out fabrics to make little trees for the scrapBEElooza bee and other little plans spinning round and round in my head. i think the sewing will be put on hold tonight - pizza and wine with a friend at my house. yum.