I did it!  I finished the quilting on not one but two twin sized quilts!  I need to bind them yet, but I have to say that I am beyond thrilled to have them all quilted.  This month has been crazy busy, school activities, soccer, football games, church, last minute vacation preparations, an attempt to give myself stitches with my own sewing machine (that didn't turn out so well, the needle broke off in my finger and in true fashion the needle broke in 3 pieces, 2 in my finger and then the piece that stayed in the machine.  So a trip to the doctor to have the small piece that was in left in my finger that I couldn't get out removed)  All is good though and I will spare you the photos of the needle incident.

Once upon a time...Ok to be exact it was somewhere late February early March of 2013 that a friend sent me a package of blocks and fabrics that her Granny had started making a quilt from.  My original post can be seen here.

Well for the past 18 months or so I have worked on these blocks off and on and FINALLY, just this week I have made it to the point of being able to start the quilting process.



I have 2 'twin-ish' sized quilts.  I am really excited to be this far along with them.   Sorry that the pictures are blurry cell phone pictures.  I have no idea what my husband had done with the camera when I needed to to take them.  I'm guessing he needed for a project at work.  I keep telling him his work needs to buy a camera just so they can do what they need to get done (aka remember how something goes back together).

I am linking up again this month with Melissa and the A Lovely Year of Finishes with the goal of getting  both of these quilted.   With kids activities 5 of 7 nights during the week and with me working everyday I may be burning the midnight oil at the end of the month.  

I hope everyone is doing well.  I can't wait to get these quilts finished up.  I have a special baby quilt to get done by November, and then a T-shirt quilt commission that is a Christmas gift to get done.   I am foreseeing lots of goals in my future.   Have a great month everyone.  I will try to be better about checking in with progress or even life updates.

I hope everyone had a great month.  Summer went by way too fast here, the kids go back to school on August 4.  I'm ready for them to go, but feel bad for them, it has been a pretty cool summer here and they have been swimming twice.



I am excited to say that I was able to finish my ALYoF goal and finished all the hand stitching on the last 3 Sun Bonnet Sue blocks.   I even sewed on some of the borders and cornerstones to complete 9 blocks and have half of the borders sewn onto some of the other blocks.

Ok, as a quilter you don't need an excuse to buy it, you need the excuse when it arrives on your doorstep or your spouse finds the bill.  Well I have the perfect excuse "It was on sale!"

Through July 18, at the Fat Quarter Shop ALL Moda Fabric is 25% off.   What a great reason to shop.


While you are there be sure to check out the Deal of the day!

Happy Shopping!



25% Moda fabrics ends July 18, 2014 at 11:59pm CST

I'm terrible with post titles so I'm not going to even try to be witty with them.  

I have lots of things I NEED to finish up this month, ok, ok, a couple of them are this week.   When they kids stayed with my parents back at the end of May, I brought home a couple of quilts my mom had made and told her I would bind them for her.  Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, except, I decided on Friday that I was going to take the kids up to their house for a visit on Wednesday of this week.  When I told mom of my plans she had some excitement in her voice and said 'oh you got my quilts done'.  I chuckled and said 'well not quite'.   Yesterday I pulled them out of the bag that I brought them home in and trimmed the excess off them.

Mom actually had the binding for the smaller one (85"x85") so I just had to sew it on and I got that far on the smaller quilt.  That one I will be sewing the binding to the back by hand.



The larger of the two quilts (85"x101") she didn't have the binding done, she did send some fabric for binding and I told her I was going to do "magic binding" on it.    I should finish most of that today.  I cut all the strips for it yesterday afternoon as well, I just need to sew them together and all that goes with the binding making process.


My kids have staked their claim on each of the above quilts.  My mom will be happy to know they are loved and the kids will be requesting to use these quilts when they go and stay at her house.
Now what seems like a project I started forever ago is going to be my ALYoF goal for July.  I started working on in April of 2013 and it has been a slow process and I made the most progress this past fall while sitting and waiting on my daughter at gymnastics.  I am down to the hand work on the last 3 Sun Bonnet Sue blocks before I start the quilting process.


I picked a small goal this month for the ALYoF because I will be running the kids everywhere visiting grand parents and getting ready for back to school.     

Wow, what a hectic month it was.  I barely finished my goals for the month, but I managed to get them all done.  I had my doubts last Thursday when my machine started acting up.  It started with a broken darning/free motion quilting foot that had cracked and my needle went through part of the foot.   That led to the cracked bobbin case, which led to the timing being messed up on my machine.  When it rains it pours.  I picked up my machine on Thursday from the repair shop.   I'm happy it is fixed and I was able to finish everything up.

 The lighting here today hasn't been the best for taking pictures.  The is the top all quilted, even though you can't see any of the quilting.

I am very pleased with how it turned out.  It is not perfect by any means, but it is my quilt and I have to live with it.

My other 2 goals for the month were to finish up my mystery quilt clues for May and June and I did.

For May, we ended up with these pretty little chevron strips.


And for June We have 20 of these blocks.


Now I want to know what happened to June.  It was gone in a flash!  Tomorrow is July 1st which means my kids have 35 days before they go back to school, and of course then I have to go back to work as well.

Yes, I said goals as in more than one.  I actually have 3 goals for this month.  They are all pretty big goals, but if I can get the kids to cooperate I think it is totally possible.

Goal #1 is to get the quilting finished on my Circles of Hope quilt.  Yes, I had this same goal back in September 2013, but wasn't decided on how I was going to do the quilting.  I think I have a plan now.



Goal #2

I started a Mystery quilt last month and didn't get my May clue completed due to working and being thoroughly exhausted.  I have 304 HST's to get squared up and sewn together.

Goal #3

This goal sort of goes along with #2, but it is the June Mystery Quilt clue/step that I want to have finished up by the end of the month or at least very close to being done.

Here are the fabrics I have chosen for the mystery quilt.  I know the brown kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, but if you look close in the print it is there and I wanted to pull that out a bit.    I will  post pictures as I make progress on the the quilt.


I'm linking up to the ALYoF monthly party over at Sew Bittersweet Designs.   

I scored a few points this month with my son for his birthday surprise.




I did a lot of free motion quilting and even added a few basketballs on the court panel.




I also made him a pillow case to match the center of the stars on the front of the quilt.

The quilt was my May goal for ALYoF and I was so excited to get it finished up.

A few weeks ago, I told about a commission that was working on.  I finished and the recipient LOVED IT!   Commissions can be really difficult when you are given the ok to just run with your gut.  This time I got lucky.

 This picture is un-edited because I love the washed out effect of the morning sun and shadows of the trees on it. The lovely green place I chose to take the picture at was one of the local golf courses.


For this I used some batik charm squares and Kona white on the front.  I quilted it in a circular pattern, and used a rainbow batik for the backing and binding.   The finished size was 64"x64".

I am jumping back in again this month with the ALYoF (A lovely year of finishes) I completely missed last month, but did a ton of sewing, and this month my goal is simple for me (I hope).  My son's bithday is  this month and I hope to have this quilted and bound for his birthday.  









Before I can start on my son's quilt I must finish the binding on my commission quilt.  I finished the quilting on it on Sunday afternoon.  I will post more details on this quilt later.  










I can't believe it is May already!  I am enjoying our warmer temps here.  It was almost 80 yesterday and the forecast is above 80 the next 2-3 days.   Today is election day here, so  my kids are home from school since a few schools in our district are polling places (where people go to vote).  I am going to enjoy my day off work and see if I can get caught up on some of my sewing.

I can't seem to find time to blog on  a regular basis anymore,  I'm really need to work on that.  I have a hard time coming up with things to say.  I honestly don't talk much to anyone, I have a hard time opening up and just chatting away with people.  On the other hand I have been sewing up a storm.  Here are a few things that I have made in the past month or so.  The quilts aren't quilted, but I'm going to get started on the white one tomorrow hopefully.  Both of the quilts have to be done by the middle of May so I need to get moving on them.  

First up, the basket ball court quilt: This is for my son, he will be 8 next month and he loves basketball.  He is growing up way too fast.   I picked up this kit at the local quilt show at the beginning of March, and then put the top together while the kids were away to the grandparents over spring break.


Next up, a commissioned dress.  I was approached by a parent in my son's class about making this dress for her daughter to wear as part of her costume for her dance at the Native American Pow-Wow.

Hey everyone, contrary to popular belief I am still alive.  My life has changed a bit in the past few weeks as I have started working outside the home.  I am still trying to find the balance of working and playing (sewing) and keeping up with the families activities.  

I didn't finish my ALYoF goal for last month and 6 days into April and I am still working on the hem.  I should be stitching away on that right now instead of blogging, but alas, I hate not blogging.  

Spring break for my minions was about 3 weeks ago and while my kids spent a couple of nights with my in-laws, I snuck in some sewing on a special gift for my son for his 8th birthday that is coming up in May.    I don't have any good pictures of it.  Hopefully the rain will hold off tomorrow and I can get some taken after I get off work and before the kids get home from school.  

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend and will be blessed with great weather this week.  I am so glad that winter here is finally over.   

I'm changing it up this month for the ALYoF party.  I am going to make a dress.   I was approached by one of the moms that helps out in my son's class (she has a son in there too) to make a dance dress for her daughter for their Pow-Wow's where the daughter does some dance.    The pattern makers aren't nice when it comes to these things so there is some combining of patterns involved and some pattern alterations as well. I'm always game for a good challenge.



I will be adding sleeves to this dress and it will be made out of a black satin.  

Happy Birthday Mom, enjoy your day!

I finished the quilt for my sister over the weekend.  I am so in love with it.  The colors are just stunning.  Even though I had my doubts about a few of the fabrics they really paired up well in the end.

In case you don't remember, here is what I started with.


The quilt will be making its way to Kansas later this week.  I February ALYoF goal is to make a purse for my mom.  Her birthday is on the 26th, so I am trying to make her day extra special for her with a squishy package.  I've already ordered flowers for her to be delivered that day.  They have had lots of snow where they live this winter and I am hoping to brighten her day.  

We all have one.  It can be as simple as your home or somewhere you have traveled.

Being at the boat dock at sunset.



Or the watching the sky after a storm.


We all have storms in our lives and as they always pass, they sometimes leave darkness behind.


But, even as much as I don't like snow, it has a calming effect. If you live in a snowy area the next time it snows, sit at the window for 5 minutes and watch the flakes as they gently make their way to the ground.  They are so soft and delicate that they can bring just as much peace as watching waves crash into the beach.



Even if there is snow on the ground and the temperature is beyond blustery cold God's beauty is always to be seen.

One of my favorite Bible verses when I am feeling stressed out in life is found in Psalms.

"Be still and know, that I am God" Psalm 46:10


If you are wondering where I took my pictures:
1. The Virgin River, Zion National Park, Utah
2. Lake Monroe, Bloomington, Indiana
3.  I made my husband stop on the side of the Highway on a Sunday evening to capture the beautiful sun rays.
4. Riding down the Highway 37 North  Between Bedford and Bloomington, Indiana.
5. This is Clear Creek.  I believe I am standing under the Clear Creek Bridge, Clear Creek, Indiana.

I really have 2 goals for February, but my main goal for this month is to make a purse for my Mom.  She was really thinking that she was getting one for Christmas and I fooled her and gave her a quilt instead.  I have had the fabric for her purse for quite some time but I just haven't made it.



I love the look it gives on the back.


Then for the two narrow borders, I did the basic 1/4" as well.  I like the simplicity of it with the busyness of the zig-zags.


In addition the borders and binding, I have a gazillion threads to bury.  

The end of January has crept up on me already.  Thankfully I completed my goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.