What I'm currently working on

I have been quilting, quilting, quilting and now I'm getting another couple of tops ready so I can quilt some more :) I'll be binding later.

The Peanut has been sleeping in the den ever since we brought her home and I really would like to have her move into her room, so I have to quilt some tops as quickly as possible so we can tear down the Voyager to make room for her bed!

Today I am working on a Twisted Mystery Project, so I can't show you what I'm working on.  I have someone's bundle of fabric and I need to make it into a quilt. I have added a bit of fabric, and was cutting some strips to use in the next step:

boring, I know. BUT it gives the fabrics I received star billing, so I am plugging away, happy with the results so far.


Better get back to it, I'd love to load it on the frame later today and don't have the top or back finished yet :)



BTW, the Twisted Mystery is by a group on line. We all send fabrics in to a central location and the host shuffles the bundles and sends them back out, but we have NO IDEA who we are working for :) The reveal comes this fall...

Welcome to the Murphys

Murphy's Law: 
"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". 

Over the weekend, The Peanut graduated from Word of Life Bible Institute. She completed the two year Bible course offered. So, we set plans into motion to go up to see her graduate :)

My parents and my sister planned to come, too. They arrived on Thursday and then we caravan-ed up to Schroon Lake, NY together.

Wednesday...the toilet stopped working.  I reached into the tank (gross!) and found out the chain and the flap thingy were broken.

Thankfully we had purchased a new toilet to match the new sink, so Army Guy replaced the toilet on Thursday, rather than replacing the chain/flap.

I needed to do laundry on Thursday if I was going to be gone over the weekend. So, the washing machine decided to not drain. I got lots of error codes, but not clean clothes. My Army Guy and I worked with it off and on (while taking care of other tasks - see paragraph above and below) and I finally got my clothes clean.

The children were in charge of vacuuming the floors on Thursday (so grandparents could have clean floors to walk on) and the vacuum decided to make nasty, loud, horrible noises. Time out to play with vacuum to see if I can make it work (yes, someone had vacuumed up a zip bag).

Friday was a good start, we stopped at the mall and used our Joann's Fabrics coupons and went to Ollies for other bargains. And then we hit the road :)

Saturday we got on the road in decent time, but half hour up the road the van overheated. We limped off the road and found a place to pull in. My dad and Army Guy went off to find help. *sigh* it might be a cracked head. Nothing can be done on the van on a Saturday and we are not in a metropolitan area. No rental cars available nearby. Army Guy found one an hour and a half away (yeah, right!) and then went with my dad to see if there was on at the airport in the last city we passed through.

FOUR hours later (sitting in a little restaurant with a teenager, a preteen and a young one) we finally got back on the road with a four door sedan rented at the airport. I am SO glad that my parents were along and the guys could take care of issues.

We still have to deal with a minivan sitting many hours away. May it not cost more than we can afford to fix the thing up...our reserves seem to have been eaten up by car repairs over the last couple of months already!

So, we missed having supper with The Peanut. We did see her for a few minutes before her practice, and then later after Baccalaureate. My sister got to see a bit of how campus had changed from her days :)

Sunday, it rained. Graduation had to be held indoors and we couldn't all get tickets, so some had to sit in an overflow location and watch a video feed.

Not only did it rain, the afternoon brought a lovely three hour power outage to the town. Dark clouds and no power in the Inn *sigh*

Monday we all crammed in the four door sedan to make the (long) trek back to our house and our GPS decided to play tricks on us. It took us off and right back on the interstate, so we didn't believe it the next time it tried to get us off the interstate and we went (way) out of our way.

We came home and found that the other toilet was leaking (guess what the Army Guy did today?).

This will be a weekend of family memories to remember...and may we not have a repeat any time soon!

BTW, This Guy really liked the quilt that I made for him :)

Story of a Quilt with a Weird Name

This is a quilt I made a few years back in response to an ArtImage Challenge. Several times during the year a piece of art was chosen and then we were to create a quilt inspired by the original art piece.

American Gothic was our inspiration piece.

I knew that American Gothic was a portrayal of a father and his daughter so that got me thinking about the relationship a father should have with his daughter.

This quilt is named A Father's Relationship with his Daughter. (told you it was kind of a weird name)

I chose to use a flower to portray this. A father should be the one to nurture his daughter, shielding her from what could harm her, giving her a firm foundation so her roots are strong, giving her stability so she can grow up and out and bloom into something beautiful.

I thought Ricky Tims' Caveman Quilting techniques worked well to go with my vision for this quilt, making it more free form as a man does not have full control of how it will all turn out in the relationship, just like this method of piecing!

I free-motion quilted using a flowing crosshatch, swirls, hearts and straight(er) lines in the flower.



I have entered this quilt in an online contest at The Quilting Gallery. The contest starts Friday the 20th, so if you are so inclined, pop over and vote for my little quilt!

Tuesday and my current project is...

ignore the poor color shift *sigh* maybe I shouldn't photograph quilt tops on my living room floor in the evenings...

I have the borders sewn on the White Bag Challenge quilt :)

The close up shot is much closer to the right colors...the snowman print was the inspiration print for the whole quilt...

I still have to finish quilting the ME quilt on the frame...it is not as quick a quilting design as I had thought and it is taking more bobbins than I prepared :P

For more projects by quilters visit: Quilting Gallery Share It Tuesday

What I am currently working on...

I just bought fabric to make borders for the White Bag Challenge that I've been working on, but I really need to get some quilting done as The Peanut comes home from college in two weeks and she is going to want her bedroom back (I have taken it over for my Voyager).

I have this Christmas Quilt on the frame. I love Mary Engelbreit stuff and this jelly roll called me from the shelf last summer...so here it is on the frame in the process of being quilted :)


Check out what more quilters are working one here

Friday suppertime update

Just before supper I got the field sewn together and ironed it :)

In fact, we ate a little bit late...as I was SO close to being done!

Tomorrow I think I'll hit the LQS to get border fabric(s) as I want it still a bit bigger than this. I think I'll get the green snowflake fabric, but I'm not sure until I audition the fabrics.

Aargh! I notice a few places where I didn't do a great job placing blocks *sigh* this is NOT coming apart! I will live with it :)

Now I'm off to the theater. I get to read Molly McGee and assorted other parts during out Radio Theater performances (tonight and tomorrow).

Friday Lunchtime Update

I have completed blocks C and D!

C              D





Now I need to get the Boybarian to clean his reading nest out of the middle of the living room so I can lay the blocks out...my design wall is too tiny for even this quilt *sigh*

As you can see, he has a pillow, a comforter (that he got free from a yard sale yesterday) and at least three books, a magazine (or two) and an Army Times (not all visible in this photo).

I did pull out the DaChintzy Code fabrics and read through the cutting instructions...I might get to cutting some of them later today :)

Supper time update :)

Since I worked past lunchtime getting block A done...I had to cut my afternoon shorter so I can feed the children (you'd think they would feed themselves by now!).

I have 12 of Block B done. In the morning, I should be able to get blocks C and D done...as long as I don't have to frog-stitch!

Another problem I had this morning was during cutting. The Snowman faces FQ was WAY wonky/off grain. So I had to cut them that way or not get enough pieces. And one of the homespun fabrics was too small a FQ, so I had to figure out what to substitute for a couple of pieces. In Block B, I have a few extra snowman faces, Block A has some extra swirl fabrics. I can't remember if C and D have substitutes or not :)

Happy Quilting!

lunch update

Along with making sure The Boybarian stayed on track with school, and giving Princess Sunshine her assignments, I cut out the quilt and sewed the first twelve blocks together...twice. I sewed them backward and had to rip them all out *sigh*

This afternoon, I hope to get all 12 of block B finished.

Not loving the colors...I like most of the fabrics, but it is way too brown for me.

I'll plug away at it and finish it as it is easy...but...it won't be my favorite Christmas quilt (maybe I'll have to gift it to someone this Christmas, eh?).

Quiltathon Days

Today and tomorrow I plan to take part in the Quiltathon over on Patchwork Times. Last night (rather, in the wee hours this morning) I pulled out my white bag challenge fabrics, added a couple more (I want it bigger than the pattern) and set it on the cutting board so I have no choice but to start in on that one this morning :)

If you have been reading my blog, you know that the snowman head print was the inspiration fabric, my aunts, sister, mom and cousin all added FQs and now I have to make something before our get together in October. I chose the Crazy Eights Pattern by Bits and Pieces but want to make a bit larger pattern, so I added a few more FQs last night.

If I get bored with working on this one (the colors are a bit dull), I will start cutting fabrics for a mystery that starts September 1st on the about.com quilting forum. One of the members is leading us in the DaChintzy Code Mystery that she wrote. My fabrics are a bit brighter for this one.

And I can always head upstairs and quilt on the Christmas throw I pieced from a Mary Engelbreit jelly roll (last year).

I also need to help the children keep on task with some schoolwork (we started this week) and go to the theater for a rehearsal for an Old Time Radio Show coming up this weekend...so I hope the time spent with fabrics is QUALITY time ;)

Thursday lunchtime update. 

Thursday suppertime update. 

Friday lunchtime update. 

Friday suppertime update.

Design Wall Monday 08/02/10

My pitiful looking design wall has some blocks that Princess Sunshine is working on. I think I need to take all the extra threads off (how???) or just put up a new flannel backed tablecloth (cut in half, I have a tiny spot to hang it).

Mean mom is "forcing" the children to make quilts. The Boybarian is almost ready to put his quilt on the quilt frame, but Princess Sunshine chose a much larger and more complicated design, so hers is taking much longer. She has four more of these blocks to make and then she gets to work on the stripes that will become the corners of these blocks...it will be gorgeous when she is done!

I have been busy with the Voyager. I finished off two quilts and mailed three (one of them being the purple Spin Cycle quilt) the end of last week (payday being Friday) and loaded This Guy's Quilt that I started a couple weeks back. I've almost finished the quilting and then the binding (my least favorite part).

I am doing a freemotion fleur de lis inspired design that I've been doodling...it is the second quilt I've used it on and I'm feeling more confident on this quilt than the last one. By the time I get to The Boybarian's quilt (that I only have a few blocks for, see last week's design wall) I'll be doing it in my sleep!

Check out Patchwork Times for more Monday Design Wall posts!