Friday Night Sew In - Results

Friday Night Sew In happened last night and i was amazed at some things I  got accomplished. 

Finished putting the pieces together on the Marshmallow Brochette Quilt that I was making for my daughter. I also spent some time getting the back done. I just love making the backs as interesting as the tops!  

 

My beautiful assistants and great view!

 

I also got a TON of cutting done and some BowTie's created for the Scrappy BowTie Block Swap. Ive decided to utilize 5 fabrics and make 5 blocks. Swapping 20 and keeping 5 for myself. I might make more but I'll have to see how far I get!

 

If you want to have fun with the Friday Night Sew In click on the cute button!!  

 

 

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WIP Wednesday #36

Completed: 

Nothing :(

Current projects:
Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along - Just staring. Got the templates all cut out, going to put them to "cardboard" and patiently awaiting the book! will be using the fabrics on previous post and I'm thinking with kona white. Want it to be bright and colorful.

Marshmallow Brochette   Quilt Along (for Angelique) Not much on the progress, did sew some of the strips together...

We can do it! Skill Builder Sampler Quilt-Along - one block behind
Having fun with these blocks using up a stash of batiks and playing with a bit of a rainbow theme. I need a yellow batik though.. hahaha.

No progress:
NuBees {A Block Swap}  - starts in august
Scrappy BowTie Block Swap
Birdie Stitches Block of the Month - still on april
Oldest daughters quilt (using punctuation fabrics)
Habitat Challenge (Front Range Modern Quilt Guild)

This week's stats:
New projects - 5
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 7

Please leave me any suggestions, comments or whatever! See you all next week (if i can remember)!

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Caught the bug ..... Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long

I caught it! and its got me badly!

The farmers wife quilt-a-long hosted by Amanda and Angela, where you make 2 blocks out of the book a week.

A blog posting at Pleasant Home had me super excited. She was so organized about the process that I felt I could totally handle this project!

I sure do hope I can do this! I wont have the book until later this week (shipping ugh). But


But now for my DILEMMA......

I'm thinking of using these fabrics combined with a solid.. maybe white? I don't know what solid to use... Any ideas? White, snow, charcoal, or other?

Kona Snow?

Kona White?

Help me out!!

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Sunday Thought

by smilesdaball

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;

he delivers them from all their troubles.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

A righteous man may have many troubles,

but the LORD delivers him from them all.

Psalm 34:17-19

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Crash not burn

After leading the crafts and activities for VBS camp, Im exhausted! I was incognito for the last two weeks trying to make sure alot of the things were taken care of, my leaders were trained and ready, and that I would survive. It ended up being an AWESOME week with the kiddos, with God giving us many blessings.

On the quilting front, not alot got done. I did cut 100 2" strips of muslim for one of the crafts (the kiddos got to dye the strips and keep them). I did manage to get some fabric shopping in!!

I have no clue who or what this fabric is, but i love the two together:

 What do you think of the yellow, white, grey combo?

I also got a stash of Kona White and Kona Snow... seems im learning these are essential colors to have on hand.

Oh and I did sign up for 2 bees: Scrappy BowTie Swap; and NuBee Bee. Im very excited to give them a chance and see if im cut out for the world of Flickr Bees. 

I have also been working very hard at the Skill Builder Series, and while a new tutorial is up (i havnt done yet) I'm pretty much caught up...

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WIP - #30

Ahhhh... the nice June days...


Finished: Well I did manage to finally finish this quilt!!! Yeah and a month early too!

In Progress:
Birdie Block of the Month   On March and it still looks like this:

Marshmellow Brochette   Quilt Along (for Angelique) on to the next step, made the strips.
 Decided i needed to do some planning for step 3 and did so much math my mind is spinning. However, here is a picture of the pink we chose... what do you think?

New This Week:
  I need to figure out a way to take these old quilt items and make them into a pillow for my mother in law... not sure how to do it or even how to fix the one... any thoughts? ideas?

I also am going to start a quilt with this group:  (fabrics are sort of selected using a ton of 5" charms that are kinda random)

My other daughter has fabrics for a quilt for her.. i need to pick a pattern or idea and get cutting soon. These are her fabrics... Puncuation (i think) and a Robert K solid:

WiP Wednesday #30 Recap:
Last week's total: 3
Finished this week: 1
In progress this week: 2
New this week: 2
This week's total: 4

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A Derby Tale

The morning started out dull. We arrived way to early at the Palmer Lake Kids Fishing Derby. Rather than sit around we helped the people set up. Once 8 am hit we were on our way down the lake with our new poles!

The morning got even rougher with a mom and papa who were trying to remember years ago how to put a pole and line together. After a few funky and very funny attempts at casting, we finally figured it out! But before we could start fishing, we had a few neighbors join us and these little guys swam by to say hello....

Then we were down to business. Each of the girls were told to be patient, quiet and to not give up. The older two were allowed to experiment with casting and learned quite quickly....

Zoey was too little to really trust with the hook, so papa and mom helped her out the best they could. However, when her line came in... she cried out "they took my corn and gave me seeeeeweeeed!" followed by a disgusted look on her face. She did not like that seaweed one bit.

As the day progressed, it was funny to watch what the girls did. Sabryna thought that it would just be easier to sit on the ground... with a perfectly good chair next to her....

The one I worried the most about not liking fishing, is my active and fun child Angelique. I didnt know if she had it in her to be that patient. She handled the day super well, even when she got the hook on her finger! She didnt give up and had such patience! By the end of the day with not a single fish caught, it be came a game of learning how to cast out where they wanted it to be. They  sure did try to perfect their swing and aim!

It was a great weekend... NOW... I need to quilt a good comfy blanket so when we fish again, I can lay back with a good book and let them catch me some DINNER...

Anyone have a suggestion for a quilt for this??

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WIP - #29

Checking in!!


Finished:
Mug rugs for teachers and secretaries. I did not get photos of all of them :( pooh!

This is a photo from the Art Hop where Crafty Laine hosted some of our mug rugs for show from the FrontRangeModernQuiltGuild. Mine are the last two on the right.

In Progress:
Birdie Block of the Month 
Got Feb finished:

March almost....

Robert Kaufman Solid challenge just needs the binding completed:

New This Week:
Marshmellow Brochette   Quilt Along (for Angelique) ran out of blue fabric!!

WiP Wednesday #29 Recap:
Last week's total: Didnt check in!
Finished this week: 5 mug rugs (that counts right?)
In progress this week: 2
New this week: 1
This week's total: 3

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Monday - Updates and "One thousand and More Gifts"

Its been awhile since I blogged. While i determined to blog more often, its not an easy habit to get into. I feel like I only bore you all!

So... I am currently binding up my Rainbow Quilt (see previous posts) and started on the next one. Im doing the
Marshmallow Brochette Quilt Along but with my own nutty choices. I just did rainbow, and dont want to do it again. Angeliques birthday is coming up so she chose these fabrics.

Mix of Robert Kaufman Solids and Central Park by Kate Spain

We did have a blast this weekend, we joined a new group at meetup called the "nonhikers hiking club" and took a few fun pictures. The girls had a blast!

Half way up the trail we stopped on a ledge and took this photo:

 At the very top of the trail (before we looped back) we saw the Siamese Twins. (this was at Garden of the Gods).

When we finished we headed to old colorado city and I got my picture with one of my favorite weather men, Brian Bledsoe (little did i realize the man in the cap near him was my other favorite Branden Borreman!!). Shucks!

I think it was a good week... now to my One thousand and More Gifts:
11. feeling the sunburn on my scalp and being grateful that we even had sun for a weekend.
12. watching the girls learn the value of a good hike
13. seeing the beauty of the area we hiked at and knowing the formations we saw were works of one God.
14. having friends who understand without knowing the details and accept me.
15. realizing that faith is not always an easy thing, but you gotta keep having it.
16. waking up to find a precious little girl sleeping peacefully next to me... she was comforted from a nightmare by just being by me, but let momma sleep.


See you all soon!! Im off to eat potato salad and watch the kids TRY to wash my car!

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We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler

Im joining in on this quilt along. Its a month by month block sampler that's going to make learning certain skills easy for a new quilter like me. I do hope you will join in. Leila has a very awesome program put together and lots of fun in store. Anyone with me?

Oh and cute little blog button to go along with it.

 

Now... to figure out what fabrics I want to use... hmmm. Post on that later!

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Works in Progress - Check In

What a crazy week... heck MAY! That last month of school means a ton of things going on. I feel like I've been spining in a circle.

I did manage to get my RobertK Challenge quilt sandwiched and pinned. I purchased a free motion foot to quilt it but got the WRONG one! ugh. However this Friday I plan on finishing it up. Here is the final look. I ended up adding more black and white around the outside to give it more size. It just felt way to small.

My daughter has been wanting to learn to sew for so long. She really expressed a wish for a sewing machine and fabrics for her birthday, so i finally decided to help her learn (any links, tips, ideas would be great for teaching. I have no clue what I'm doing). She is making a mug rug for her teacher...

Moda Glace by 3 sisters charms

Its not perfect, but shes happy and im sure her teacher will be also!

I have also started making mug rugs for others. After giving Zoey's teacher a mug rug for Teacher Appreciation Week, many others have admired it. So Im going to gift them with some too. These better be finnished by Monday!

Black and White Fabrics are Robert Kaufman, Blue is Central Park... the rest i have no clue.

This one is for a set of ladies who make me smile all the time. They are really 2 peas in a pod... so I'm making semi-coordinating mug rugs for them... the tops:

Completed and awaiting quilting:
Robert Challenge Quilt
2 mug rugs

Trying to do:
Birdie Block of the Month

This week's stats:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 5



I really would like to get thinking about a new quilt... does anyone know of a quilt-a-long that JUST started or is starting soon??

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One Thousand Gifts - 1 to 10

I have been following a blog called "Holy Experiences" and after hearing about the authors personal story, her history, I thought... "Here is someone who has had a past similar to mine". As I discovered more about her, I learned she wrote a book called "One Thousand Gifts"

This inspired me to finally start putting down all the blessings God gives me. I'm going to blog it every Monday (or mess up and throw it on Tuesday) current or blessings i found during the week. If your interested in joining in... browse those links above for more information.

1 - the voice of a 5 year old lifted up in song singing "holy holy holy, is the lord god almighty"
2 - a little tomato struggling for survival with the cold, staying strong and growing in the midst of it all.
3 - child happily sitting and feeling so beautiful because of some hot curlers in her hair.
4 - secret notes left on my bathroom mirror "I hope you dont get sick, i love you"
5 - strength from good friends when i put myself into a ditch of cannot.
6 - warm toes all night long.
7 - reflection on the beauty that God allowed my hands to create.
8 - dewy fog, deep and thick.... then a burst of sun.
9 - gentle nudges when the alarm didnt go off.
10 - someone to call when sadness overwhelmes me, who always tells me the same joke "Why do they put fences around graveyards?...... people are dying to get it" and it always makes me smile!

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Solid Challenge - Progress so far

When I joined the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, there was a challenge just starting. We were given a charm pack of Robert Kaufman' solids and were to make a quilt using only one additional fabric for the top (another for the back and binding if we wish).

 I was so at a loss what to do, all those rainbow colors ... I wanted rainbow fabric. But first I needed a idea of what to do. For my birthday I received this book:

Click on image for link to Author!

See that sewing machine cover? I was so interested in that look that I decided to use it as the basis of my design. But then part of the challenge was that the quilt must be 40x40 inches. I needed much more fabric use than just my little squares. I pulled out some graph paper and began to figure out a fun pattern (oh and the odd number of squares i was ending up with...)

 Ahhh, now that looks better. Some filling (all the same fabric) and some odd squares. I cut the 5" charms into 4- 2 1/2" inch squares. Thus one of the sets of 4 will be used in an random place on the big strips.  Now I have my plan, time to get started!

(FYI - My daughters have realized HOW important MATH is especially FRACTIONS and DECIMALS for mom!!!)

Now ... I spent quite some time on the piecing.... such tedious steps... la .. da... good thing I have good music to listen to while quilting...

And... after another afternoon of over 120 pieces on my bed, I finally figured out what order i wanted the colors in.... im almost done with this step!

So super excited.... the only last dilemma i had was what to use on the backing.... but that's a surprise for later!


 ----Now after i had cut all that black Robert Kaufman fabric into strips.... someone talked to me about how to line up fabric. Im almost glad though that the black and white squares are not perfectly straight, it seems to add fun directions to the overall layout. ----


Comments? ideas? Thoughts?


Please share!!!

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Catching up

A while back i posted a photo of the blocks for the Birdie Stitches BOM Flickr Group but I really didnt get far in finishing the blocks. So... Im catching up! I have January done! and February half way there!

Any comments about the colors used or anything? Im totally new at this.

Also, I bought this fabric and I love it, but I'd like some coordinating pieces from the same line. I have NO clue who the designer is or the line... does anyone recognize?

See you all soon when i can post more blocks finished, or even a sneak peak at a very rainbow-ee quilt im making!

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Easter Gift - Notebook Bags

I saw something like this in a store and resolved to make a bag like that for my girls...

See... in the summer the childrens ministry has a break and the children join the parents for the main service. This is a great opportunity for them, but i have rules for my girls. (told you im a mean mom) In the service the last 2 years they had notebooks where they would either write or draw what they hear from the sermon. The girls actually do a great job, you should see the picture of King Nebuchadnezzar!

Now they can go to church with something fun, and organized. They no longer will have to fight over colors or pencils as they will be totally prepared!

Each girl chose their favorite fabric... I chose the applique i did on them. 2 of the fabrics were from my dear friend!! I know the centers look awful, but i couldnt figure out what to do with them. Progressively each one was better done as I learned about what i was doing! LOL.

Please leave a comment about what you think?

Owl inspired by CED Josh and Megan Collection
flower inspired by STI SS Woodland Applique

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