Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

...this week is all about instant gratification.  Microwave quick piecing, quilting and binding.  Pick it out, cut it out, piece it, sandwich it, quilt it and bind it in a just a few hours (while doing laundry, dishes and parenting).

This was such a nice break after working on large projects for a long time.

When Javi was a little boy, this was his placemat.  When he was done with it, I stashed it back because I hated to see it's usefulness be over.  When we got our dog, Lady, I thought it would be a neat thing to use for her dishmat (plus helping me see a reminder of my oldest's toddlerhood).

Needless to say, it's seen better days and I finally threw it away after having it for almost 19 years.

LOL

Yes, I've seen the show "Hoarders" and yes, we're working on it!

(love that owl scowl!)

I searched through my pink scraps to add with some black and white doggie fabric and prints.

The whole time I worked on this, I kept thinking, "What's black and white and pink all over?"  Lady!

She's a black and white Peagle (Pointer and Beagle mix) we adopted from her former owner.

She's my buddy.

Hubby sweets and the boys went with "Dad" (hubby's dad) to a woodworking show late last year.  Christmas morning, this was gifted to me by the men in my family.  This looks almost exactly like Lady.  I need to have it framed.  A man made this carving on softwood and it's just incredible!

By late morning I had a quilt sandwich and was ready for basting.  Have you ever tried curved basting pins?  Totally recommend them!

I just left my 1/4" foot on and sewed straight lines where I felt like sewing them.  Many of these scraps are gifts from my quilting sis. 

The finished dishmat ready for use.

I used to wonder about pet owners who would make mats, beds, quilts, etc for their pets.  I always thought to myself, "Boy, they have waaaaay too much time on their hands."

LOL

But now I get why some projects might be made.  This one was a simple, let your mind wander while your hands are sewing something small, fun, bright and able to be seen every day project.
For a very important part of the family!

Here she is already using the mat for her lunch.  I'm not sure how much she appreciates it, but I sure do love that doggie!

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.  I just cannot tell you how inspirational these stories are.  And fun.  And sometimes sad.  What an awesome idea for a blog!  Grab your beverage of choice this morning and head on over!

Hope today treats you kindly!

Sack o' Scraps

Right now, you might be questioning my sanity.  I know I'm questioning my resolve, self-control and self-discipline.

This is a large sack o' scraps.

This is a large sack o' scraps so tightly compacted, a vacuum has almost been created.

LOL

I went to a LQS Monday and for $12.95 you get to root through their scrap bin and take home as many scraps as can be fit in a baggie and still be closed.

Yes.  Those are reds in there too.

We're trying to get better acquainted.

Also found were these lovelies.  Same Kaffe Fassett and Patricia Bravo and I'm ashamed to say I didn't happen to catch the names of the other two.  I'm trying to bring gray into my color palette too.

"Have you seen the little piggies...?"

Picked these up for a splash of sunshine.

They are now playing nicely with some Lecien Flower Sugar and waiting for inspiration to hit.

Yummy!

Some yellow and gold to help me pretend it's sunny outside on a gray, wintry day.

Another LQS is new to me.  The French Seam apparently opened up about seven months ago and it's taken me all this time to find it?  The IMQG is having their January meeting there and I found out about the store from our blog.  Sweet!

While I was there, I spied their clearance basket.  Um...yeah.  These are all generous cuts with bitty, bitty prices.  I think the most I paid was for the bottom one.  Thank you.

Now...I just need to go buy more time.  Can you do that?  Kinda like carbon credits?  You know, time credits.  I'd like just an extra two hous, totally free, non crammed with everyone else's business but my own, sit and sew for longer than five minutes at a time, actually accomplish something...time.

I know it's out there somewhere.  Where does your time come from?  Do you squeeze it in between work and home, home and home, school and home?  Steal it while your children are napping?  Hubby already hit the hay?  Lunch break?  Weekends?

I just need more of it for me!

LOL

A book (I think the first of many, sorry honey hubs!) came Monday while I was out  shopping  making sure my child has life enriching experiences paging at the State House. I'm thinking a lot about colors. Color wheels. Combinations. Likes. Dislikes. Loves. You need a color scheme for fabric and I'm gathering ideas.

I'm sketching.  For the first time in a long time, I'm seriously sketching.

And I'm loving it!

And I have a partner in crime now.

Thank you for all the encouragement!  I'd like to be able to share as much of this experience with you.

I pulled these together a while ago and snapped them to remember the combinations that appealed to me. 

There's a lot of advice out there on choosing colors for your wardrobe, home, and quilts.

Lots to learn.

Here is a mosaic I've made of fabrics in a goldish/yellowish color from Hawthorne Threads.  They have a handy little little color grid you can use.  From their website: 

If you are looking for a particular color, this grid is an excellent way to narrow your search. Simply click on the color of your choice to see all of the prints from our shop featuring that shade.

You will then be able to further modify your your search by looking for prints that have a high or low dominance of that color, as well as whether they are very close or only somewhat close to your chosen hue.

This tool is particularly great when trying to mix and match different designers and collections by allowing you to explore different pairing possibilities. You'll be amazed with the different combinations that turn up and we hope you'll find some inspiration for your next project!

 

Erin McMorris, Patricia Bravo, Darlene Zimmerman, and Michael Miller all together for one project.  How fun would this be to play with!

Hope today treats you kindly!



Swoonaholic

WoW!

That's a mouthful, but I'm going ahead and posting on Amandajean's blog to get in my first "finish" for 2012.

I am a Swoonaholic.  Addicted, in love and probably overly obsessed with this block.  Dittoes for scraps and scrappy quilts.

Can't get enough of them.

I'm in the process of making scrappy, large Swoon blocks in pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and purples and not quite liking a plain, white sashing between the blocks.

Sisters Jennifer and Jessica over at Twin Fibers have this awesome tutorial on a Sun Ray Quilt Block that can as scrappy as you like.  Which I do.

Thought that type of sashing would look great with the Swoon blocks.

This Swoon Blue is the first block I've gotten completely sashed.  The tutorial is super easy to follow and well written.  It just takes a little bit of time to get a strip of scraps long enough to frame this Big Boy.  The finished block is 24.5" square.

It was nice to have college boy home to help me with pictures too!  See him widdle finners!

Thanks Javi!

My personal assistant...ahem...informed me a package had arrived for me.

For me?

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

I just ordered this Tuesday and it's here already!

Long before I thought of getting my Ph.D in domesticity and all things parenting, I was an Art Education major.  I love color, light, shape, form, curves and art.  It's history, it's evolution and it's impact on the world we live in.

A resolution for 2012 is to get up off my tushy and take a stab at designing fabric.  This is the second step for me in ordering this book.  I haven't even opened it yet.  Saving it for a time for intense concentration.

Another package should be arriving any day that is part of the first step to realizing this goal.

Can't wait!

Please stop over at Crazy Mom Quilts and check out the other Finish It Up Friday posts and don't forget to swing by Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday and then there's  Lee's WIP at Freshly Pieced.  Maybe leave a comment or two, or three, or four or more!  lol  You never know what encouragement and inspiration you're leaving for another quilter--and what encouragement and inspiration you'll came away with!

Christmas in South Carolina

Ahhhhh.

Two kids still sleeping and one totally engrossed in an XBox game.

Hubby back to work.

Laundry piled up higher than it has any right to be.

Turtles still on the kitchen counter (good friend helped take care of them and the cats while Lady was enjoying the week at Mimi's).

Boxes and detritis everywhere.

I'm still in my jammies and it's almost 10:00 in the am.

Must be the holiday aftermath.

LOL

I can now share why the blogging vacation...a real life vacation with the family.

We started off the last day of school on the 16th by driving down to Knoxville, TN to spend the night.  We got up Saturday morning and headed into the Smokey Mountains.

Among beautiful vistas at overlooks, waterfalls on the side of the road, and icicles in the higher elevations, we saw a mama Black Bear and three cubs.  We've decided we probably were less than a hundred yards from them!  Truly a once in a lifetime experience.  We decided to stay in Gatlinburg on our return trip which saw us getting home about 10:30 Christmas Eve.  Quick wrapping up of gifts, buying some milk for breakfast and waking up in our own beds Christmas morning.  I didn't put up any Christmas decorations, put a minimal emphasis on gift buying and we are sending out Happy New Year cards instead of Christmas cards.

We continued driving until late Saturday night's arrival on Hilton Head, SC.  Let me tell you, five people packed into a Honda Civic for that long is nothing short of miraculous and tedious!  But it was well worth it.

The sunrise outside our window.

The sunset on the beach.

It was a little too cold to swim in the Atlantic, but we waded a little here and there as the temperatures rose through the week.

We hit all the highlights on Hilton Head.  I think we visited every beach and shopped and ate until we were almost too tired to go out at night and watch shooting stars out over the ocean.  While hubs and I were stargazing, the boys took their flashlights (no worries, turtles are nowhere near HH right now) to look for shells and shark teeth during low tide.

This picture appears on hub's Facebook page with the text: Bait.

Thankfully, we saw no alligators on our little nature trail walk.

This year's unofficial theme for homeschool coop has been all about US history.  Right now, the senior high kids are studying the early history of the US and were reading about and learning about the Revolutionary War before we left.  This part of the country is just full of stories, historical sites and remembrances of these times.

We learned about several massacres and ambushes on the island and visited a small cemetary at the end of the road our condo was on.

I have lived in the Midwest almost all my life and was just in awe of the age of some of the sites we visited.  The joke was that other families do touristy type things on their vacations and we visit cemetaries.  LOL  We probably went through 4-5 throughout the trip.  We learned life in early America was often harsh and ended young for far too many.  Lots of graves of infants, young children and mothers.  Makes you really appreciate the times we live in with modern medical diagnosis and treatment.

We journeyed through Beaufort, SC which has the distinction of being the second landing site of Europeans in this area in 1514.  St. Augustine is older by only a year.

One of the cannons guarding the harbor.

A beautiful home in Beaufort decorated for Christmas.

Hubs caught site of this church as we were driving through the local area.  So we backtracked, parked and walked out to the ruin and...of course...the cemetary.

Old Sheldon Church has its beginnings in the 1740's and was burned by the British and Sherman. 

William Bull was born in 1683 and died in 1755.  Such a small testament to what reads as a very long and full life.

Another day was spent in Savannah, Georgia.  We took a trolley tour around the historic squares and along the river.

Forsyth Fountain created in 1858.

Inside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

The oldest house in Savannah which was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Here in corn country, we don't see many street vendors and hawkers.  We did buy Palmetto Roses and Bean was serenaded with an "ole negro spiritual" by someone looking suspiciously a lot like Santa on vacation before Christmas.

Our chocoholic was tempted to just bury his face in a barrel of candy kisses at a candy shoppe housed in one of the city's old cotten market offices along the river.

Some gratituous beach pictures.

I can't even begin to tell you how much we all needed this vacation.  Bean has been having issues with some bullies in his class at school, Middleman has had a tough schedule so far in his sophomore year, Javi has been taking more than a full load of classes the last three semesters and hubs and I have had our fair share of difficult times this last year.  That sounds bad.  LOL  Not with each other, just in some of the struggles and challenges we each face at work, school and being part of a family.  We're not sure when the next family vacation will be.  2012 will see both older boys working through the summer (maybe away from home and/or out of the country) and as our family grows up...we never know how much time we have left with all of us still at home and able to vacation together.  We cherished this time together and the thought of not having this time again helped get us through the inevitable squabbles that come with having three boys.

Thanks for sharing in our family vacation.

And from our family to yours:

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I was visiting Nanette at her blog, Freda's Hive, and came across this picture she took.

I'm going on a blogging vacation for a week or two to enjoy time with my hubby sweets and children three.

Dear friends and family,

May your days be merry and bright and filled with all of God's deepest and richest blessings.

I know that I am blessed by what you say and share with me here.

What rays of sunshine and happiness you all are in my corner of the world.

Thank you.

Merry Christmas to all!

Jack's Chain Fabric Tuesday

Well!

I was just blown away when I clicked on Sandi Henderson's blog and saw this

as a giveaway. 

Do you know what pattern that is?

LOL

Yup!

Jack's Chain.

How weird and cool is that!  I'm so excited to find another picture of a completed project using this pattern.  And this is just beautiful!  Beautiful!  I found a bag of way cool fabric for $1 at our LQS yesterday and decided I like it with the Hunky Dory colors I have....hmmmmm.

Also found this softly lovely by Hazel.  The story behind this piece celebrating renewal is breathtaking and inspiring.

I love being able to read through blogs and make a connection with the authors not only on a quiltey level, but on a deeper level as well.  What a privilege when stories, hearts, emotions and histories are shared.  From all over the world, women speaking a common language using needle and thread...and their love of quilting.

This week I've working on more nine patch blocks for the Jack's Chain I'm making.  I originally found the pattern at Quilter's Cache.  I thought QC's instructions were fairly simple and easy to follow, but I wouldn't mind taking a look at the Quilter's Club book to see their instructions. 

I started with 1 1/2" wide strips from a jelly roll of Moda's Hunky Dory and 1 1/2" wide strips of white.  Using a 1/4" seam, I sewed two white strips to one of the Hunky Dory strips, and sewed two of the Hunky Dory strips to a white one so cutting and sewing the nine patches needed would be easier.

Here is what your new strips should look like.  The one that has the two Hunky Dory strips on the outside will be the outside units of the nine patch and the strip with two white pices will be the center unit of the nine patch.  Careful pressing keeping the seams as straight as possible will help keep the nine patches from being wonky later on.

Go ahead and true up one side of the newly sewn strip so you're rotary cutting will be even.

Now cut 1 1/2" wide units from the strip.  You need to make sure your horizontal seams and vertical cuts are right on the money with your ruler or you'll have wonky nine patch units.  Not recommended!  LOL 

Here are your strips cut into units you will use to make the nine patch. 

Lay out your units to make the nine patch and sew together, again with a 1/4" seam.  Carefully press the nine patch keeping the block as evenly square as possible.

Now you need to square up your nine patch block with your ruler and rotary cutter to 3 1/2".

Next time I'll be working on adding these new nine patch blocks with a triangle and hexagon to the quilt.

Today I'm linking up with Heather and Megan at Quilt Story for my very first Fabric Tuesday.  Through the winter here in Indiana...it can get really dark, gray and depressing.  I love the linky parties that let me have snippets of sunshine peak through with all the bright, happy and cheerful projects other quilters share!

I'm also linking up with Kimberlee for my first Finished It Friday so there's lots to so and see when you follow the links and see all the other beautiful projects!