Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Opinions requested !


Do you like this final border? I can't decide. Please give me your honest opinion. I realize I am missing two borders!

Too, too pink, part two

Yesterday in my mailbox was a package from my three and a half year old niece, Abigail. My sister was showing her pictures of the quilts on my blog and Abby fell in love with the too, too pink one. So she called and asked her dear Aunt Yaya if I would make her one too. How can I resist her sweet little voice? So my sister took her to JoAnn's to pick out the fabric (knowing I am still on my no-buying resolution!). When they got to Joann's, Naomi put Abby in the seat of the shopping cart and started walking. Abby tells her "We've been here before!" My sister says yes. When they get to the quilting section and the aisle where the pinks and reds are, Naomi taps on Abby's shoulder and points for her to turn around and look. Abby turns around and gasps! All that pink and red fabric!!! She was in her own little nirvana! I may have found another quilting junkie in the making!!!! For some reason she thinks she has to narrow it down to just one fabric and is of course having a hard time choosing. She is so happy when Naomi tells her they can choose EIGHT different fabrics. I think she did a great job of picking out different values and lots of different prints. I was expecting a pile of all hot pink fabric!

When she got them home, she carried them around like a baby doll. (Obviously a girl after my own heart!) She asked her daddy if he wanted to see her fabrics so he sat there patiently while she carefully showed him each piece, making sure he noticed the finer points of each one. At the end of the process, she asked if he wanted to see them again!

When my sister took her to the post office to mail them to me, she asked Abby if she wanted to show them to Grams first. Abby said no. They got all the way to the post office and were getting out of the car before Abby changed her mind. I think my mom took her back the next day after "the viewing"!

I only hope I can live up to her expectations! I am thinking of doing it as a YBR, which will leave the fabric in good sized chunks for her to enjoy!

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Saturday's show and tell !


I feel like I have been missing in action all week. We have had a gospel meeting at church this week so that means all our evenings are occupied. That requires getting Maddie to get her homework done as soon as she walks in the door. That's always fun! We had two couples over for dinner on Thursday so I was running around all day, cleaning house and cooking. Finally Saturday is here! AAAHHHH! The kids are playing outside and hubby is working on the spec house next door. I have the house to myself! So far today I have sewn for three hours straight! And talked on the phone to everyone I know, including Nines! She is having a restful or spiteful time in West Virginia!! Which is it?

Let's get to the show and tell part, o.k.?

Quilt top #1 -


I keep finding 2 yard pieces of fabric that are very girlie prints. All I can figure out is that I bought them several years ago, intending to make DD dresses out of it, and then got over that idea! Now that I need to consider making her dresses again, she is too old for these prints! So they are getting made into baby quilts for, you guessed it, Project Linus! If I had been slightly more energetic, I would have fussy cut this fabric so I could center the little figures in the alternate blocks. But that would have wasted ALOT of fabric and would have been a pain to do. So this is what I ended up with. I like how the nine patches look like they are floating on the background fabric, kind of like I appliqued them onto the background. Yeah, right!
Here is a close-up of the fabric so you can see how cute it really is.

Quilt top # 2 -

I was getting a little tired of nine-patches, so I decided on some rail fence blocks, but I had so much of the floral fabric, I decided to do some alternate blocks. Not sure what I think of this one, but it is done! This floral fabric was also supposed to be a dress, I think.

Quilt top #3:

I know I said I was tired of nine-patches, but I am entitled to change my mind! They came about because when I cut the rail fence blocks from the previous quilt I would have about 9 inches left over - the blocks were 11 inches. So I made them into 4 inch strips and then made the yellow/blue/yellow strips for the center. Again, I like the floating nine patch effect.


Monday, January 23, 2006

Another soggy day

I got complaints from the management (aka my sister and mom) that the picture I showed of Abby was not the cutest they had ever seen. So, is this any better? Here she is being kissed by my son. Truly kissing cousins. They are so sweet with each other, always hugging and kissing. We have a similar picture of the older two - Isaac is whispering something into Maddie's ear. If the management will send me that picture, I will post it too.


Today I got the binding put on the four patch. It is skinny binding. I found I had just enough (5) 2 inch strips in my scraps box. Usually I use 2.5 inch strips. I like the skinny look.

I also started on a new baby quilt top. Not much to show for it yet. Made lots of 9 patches today. Not quite as tiny as Bonnie's and Nine's, but they were on the smaller side. They will finish at 4.5 inches.

Need to go finish dinner. Yummy special chicken with orzo. The sauce the chicken is cook in is made with cream of chicken soup, mayo, sour cream, white wine, and grated cheddar cheese. It is one of my favorites. Hopefully it will be done soon!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

# 3 finished!


Here is the last of the bright quilts, done! I still need to put the binding on the blue and white four-patch but hopefully that will be done tomorrow. I love all these little baby quilts. They are so fast and fun and most of them have been colors I wouldn't use.

My three-year old niece, Abby, called me last night. She wanted to know if I would make her a "
too, too pink" quilt. I asked if she would like it for her b-day (in July) and she said no, she would like it for Christmas! I told her that her birthday comes before Christmas and then she said oh, ok. My sister is going to take her shopping for the pink fabrics (since I can't buy anything!). How can I resist a face like this?

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Another soggy Saturday in Alabama

Today started off foggy and drizzly. Gray. This did not slow my kids down from wanting to go outside! I will admit it was nice and warm - probably about 70 degrees - but very humid! I sat down and finished binding the second bright quilt and put labels onto both of them. Yeah - 2 out of 4 done. Gathered everything up and headed out to run errands - without the kids!!!!!! Peace! I dropped off the pillow. Wanted it out of my hands as soon as possible. She loved it - thankfully! I was worried she would think I ruined her little remembrance of her daughters' childhoods. But she thought it was great! She paid me nicely and is insisting on taking me out to lunch next week.

Then I dropped off the two finished quilts at the sewing center and bought a little more red fabric for the binding on the third bright quilt. I also bought some batting. Speaking of the acceptable B's, me and my mom had a funny conversation about them the other day. I was saying that I was going to have to take Nines to the Stitcher's Garden in Franklin, Tennessee when we have our mini-retreat in June for our b-days. We are meeting at my mom's for a few days of sewing, shopping, eating, and gabbing. My mom has volunteered to watch the kids. Nina is still debating which of hers will make the trip. Anyway, if any of you have ever been to the Stitcher's Garden, you will be able to back me up when I say it is overwhelming. Fabric piled everywhere - barely enough room to pass in the aisles. But the staff seems to know exactly where to find anything you may want. I was saying that I didn't know if I would be able to go there and stick to my no-buy resolution. My mom said she would be shocked if I made it that long. Thanks for the vote of confidence! Then it hit me - B's are free purchases, right? Batting, backing, backgrounds, borders. This little retreat will be for our birthdays. Surely a Birthday fling is a freebie, right? OK, somebody agree with me please ! Come on! Birthday starts with B! If I make it all the way to June without buying anything, I may have to take a mini-retreat from my resolution! Especially if I get birthday money!!!

Nina always laughs at me when we have one of these girl's day out, because I tend to over plan them. Nina just sits back and relaxes because she knows I have googled everything, Mapquested it all, and have the day all planned out. One time I even googled quilt stores for Nines when she was going on a family vacation in north Georgia. I just figure why spend our day wandering around a strange town, getting lost, when we could look up a map, get to the stores quicker and have more time to shop! I have already started looking for "THE BEST CHINESE BUFFET IN NASHVILLE" for us to eat at in June. Chinese food or a nice little tea room with yummy chicken salad sandwiches is always a requirement for a girl's day out.

Since Nines shared the remains of her antique nine-patch, I wanted to share one of the ornaments she made for me using part of the quilt. She is right - the nine patches are tiny. Nines made me 5 or 6 of these - but this was the only one I could lay my hands on.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Another Friday afternoon

Where has this week gone? I think I spent most of my week in the car, running errands, going to the doctor, going to meetings. Today I have not left the house! This morning I sat down and put the binding on one of the loud colored baby quilts. Three more to go!

I just got off the phone with Nina. She had sent me a email saying she had laughed her head off at my pillow experience, so I called her to see if she was still laughing. She was in the middle of sewing something, which I am sure she will share later! Anyway, I got my whole kitchen cleaned while talking to her - a task I had been avoiding all week. Now it is all nice and clean - just in time for dinner! I am hoping DH will make pad thai for us. If you have never had pad thai and you like spicy food, you should give it a try. Stacy makes it with rice noodles and chicken. Yummy!


I was telling Nines about this cute colorwheel that Maddie painted at school last week. I am thinking of framing it and hanging it in my sewing room - to remind me that there are more colors out there than blue and yellow!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Did I accomplish anything or not?

Yesterday afternoon I went out to run errands. I try to combine trips into town when at all possible. It is only about three miles into town but it gets old after a while. So first we went to the post office to mail some envelopes and a small present for Nina. The line is out the door - literally. No problem - I can use the computer kiosk thing to mail the package. I go hunting for one of the flat rate priority mail boxes to put the present in. None to be found - without standing in the mile long line, that is. So I get one of the regular priority boxes - but that wants almost 7 dollars postage - more than the present costs! So we leave without mailing the box. Sorry Nines - we will try again today!

On to the library - which has called to tell me that "Pride and Prejudice" is ready for me to pick up. I get there and find out that the movie comes on 2 DVDs and they only have the second half for me. When you reserve it, it does not automatically reserve both halves - nor can you pick which half it does reserve. Talk about stupid! So now I have the second half of the movie sitting at my house, waiting for the first half to be returned. It is due back today, so I will keep my fingers crossed. I did check out the first DVD of "Horatio Hornblower", another A&E miniseries. We first discovered it late one night or early one morning when I was up nursing Maddie nearly 7 years ago. It is a really well done story about a sailor in the English Navy around 1800. We watched about an hour of it last night and discovered it was one we had not seen before.

I did manage to get a pot roast made for dinner last night. This is one of the few meals that everyone in my family loves. I am raising the world's pickiest eaters, Maddie much more so than Ian. Ian will eat just about anything if you call it steak - so most meat in our house is "steak"! Neither one likes veggies, but me and DH are very particular about which veggies we like. Maddie does LOVE tomatoes - which is strange because neither me nor DH like them. For me it is a consistency issue. The slimy stuff in the middle grosses me out!

Enough rambling about the oddities of my family's eating habits! Hope everyone has a great day!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

The Saga of the Pillow

This is the story of what happens to people that can't say no! This story can also be called "How to make a pillow in 100 easy steps!

Step 1: Take the needlepoint out of the hoop (see yesterday's photo). Notice that needlepoint fabric is too small to be the front of the pillow. Lisa had provided a 12 inch pillow form. The fabric was about 7 inches at its widest point.

Step 2: Make several frantic phone calls to Nina (at work!) and my mom. Needed ideas on how to expand the front to cover the front of the pillow. Got suggestions ranging from applique it on a bigger circle (Yeah, right!) , add strips around the outside (this is what I did)or to do 4 pieces like Drunkard's Path blocks around the outside to make it bigger.

Here is what I ended up with -

Step 3: Make 2 (yes, 2) ruffles - each about 100 inches long to start with. Here I am sewing down the green accent ruffle.


Doesn't look too bad , does it?

Step 4: When trying to make the ruffle out of the pink plaid fabric, decide that it is too thick. Now you get to put in little quarter inch pleats all the way around.
Step 5 - After sewing the pleated ruffle to the back circle, sew the front to the back. Yes you will be sewing through 6 layers of fabric. Can your machine handle it? Look pleased with your self when you turn it right side out and it looks cute!

Step 6 - Put the provided pillow form through the opening into the pillowcase. Please remember to have left an opening! Shockingly, I did remember!

Step 7 - Be even more shocked when your carefully pieced pillow case is too big, instead of too small like you were expecting! Now what do you do?

Step 8 - Get in your car and drive to Walmart only to discover that they do not carry pillow round forms. Get back in your car and drive to the sewing center, where they cheerfully exchange your wrong sized pillow form for a slightly too big pillow form. Wrestle to get the pillow form in to the pillowcase.

Step 9 - Go home. Sew up the opening by hand.

Step 10 - Take a nap.

Monday, January 16, 2006

How do I get myself into these things?

CALLING ALL PILLOW MAKING EXPERTS! I NEED HELP!!!! A sweet lady came up to me at church about a month ago and said, "Sarah, I hear that you sew." This phrase has never led to anything good. It never turns out that someone wants to learn to quilt. It is usually that they need something mended. Anyway, Lisa says she has this needlepoint thing she made when her oldest daughter was just a baby (about 25 years ago) and it used to hang in her nursery. She wanted to turn it into a pillow. Lisa is the mom of Peter, who I gave this quilt to. Peter was diagnosed with cancer right after we moved to Auburn and I thought he needed a quilt to cuddle up under. From all reports, he loves it and won't let anyone else touch it! So this bag of stuff has been sitting here staring at me for over a month now. The pink plaid is for the back and the main ruffle and the green plaid is for an accent ruffle. My only question is how well the heavy fabric is going to make a ruffle or if it is going to have to be more like pleats. Does that make any sense? If anyone has any suggestions, I would be glad to hear them!

Today I did manage to finish quilting baby quilts #3 and #4. I am in love with the blue and white quilt. I see more two color quilts in my future. The white just makes the blues pop. Unfortunately the white was the only white in my whole stash.

Speaking of stash, today is day 16 of my no-buy resolution!

I am off to watch "The Wedding Date". I went on-line last night and reserved "Pride and Prejudice" (Colin Firth version) and "Sense and Sensibility" from our library. And "The Christmas Quilt" from the Elm Creek Quilts series. And a quilting book I hadn't seen before - I think a 2004 yearbook from American Quilting and Patchwork. Aren't libraries great?

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Sunday night


Today I wanted to share this sweet baby quilt that Nina made for my baby #2. We didn't know it would be Ian when she started it, but I think the colors work for a boy or a girl. She will have to explain how this pattern worked. All I remember is that she told me that you don't cut the threads between the chain stitched pieces until the top is all done. Does that make any sense? Maybe she can explain it better than that. Anyway, this was before we had our long-arm machine - so she started to hand quilt it! Because she loves me so much! After Ian was born, Nina mentions how slow the quilting is going and I tell her that my mom was looking for something to work on during the three weeks they stayed with us to help out. So my mom volunteered to finish the quilting. So now I (or more properly, Ian) has a quilt made by Nina and his Grams! I treasure this quilt.

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped to yesterday. I got one baby quilt quilted and another one about half done. I finished the second one this afternoon and started piecing the backing for the third. There is no school tomorrow but we have a busy day planned. We are moving Stacy into his new office space. Yeah! Now he can't complain that he has no where to work. And then at lunch time we have a birthday party for a little girl from church. I am hoping to get some more quilting done in the afternoon.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I am off to sew for a few minutes while the kids watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Saturday morning


Ahhhh! Saturday morning! Too bad hubby can never seem to sleep later than 7 am. So he is dressed and waiting for our friend to show up to work on the spec house next door. Wandering aimlessly through the house. I tell him "You can hang up my little curtain rod in my sewing room, if you need something to do." So he does! Now I can hang some of my cute little quilts right over my sewing table.

The quilt there right now is actually more of a wall hanging - how appropriate! I started making these stars blocks out of Sally Schneider's Scrap Frenzy book. She calls these stars "Bard of Avon". I love the stars but they take FOREVER to piece - I would guess maybe an hour and a half each. Much too long for my taste! So the quilt ended after 4 blocks. It makes a cute little wall hanging or table topper. Each block is about 15 inches square. And of course, it is blue and yellow, so what is not to love? When I was quilting this piece, Nina and her mom both tried to convince me that I really DID want to make it into a bigger quilt - but neither one of them bothered to volunteer help piece the stars!

Today I am trying to get as many of the baby quilts quilted as I can. Stacy (DH) made me stop the machine while he was hanging up the curtain rod. He thinks it is way too noisy. I think it just drowns out the rest of the ruckus going on in our house! Kind of peaceful! The kids are going to a b-day party this afternoon so I will have a couple hours of uninterrupted quilting time!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Friday, January 13, 2006

The fabric that wouldn't end


Yes, I have already made two baby quilts out of these same fabrics, but I had leftovers...still. The fabric would not be used up. It kept growing and growing. I think the little 4 inch squares were reproducing at night. This top finally used up the last of the bright yellow print. It has no rhyme or reason but it is bright and I think some kid will like it. I hope!

Now I have four baby quilt tops sitting here, taunting me. They are saying "Where did all your good intentions go?" They know I have to clean up my end-of-the-year paperwork mess before I can get around to quilting them. My sewing room/office is tiny. The huge Hinterberg quilting machine with its ten foot table takes up over half the room. And then there's the sewing table and my desk and the computer. You get the picture. I started to organize all of our 2005 paperwork to make room for the 2006 stuff. But I didn't quite get it all put away. So - I guess I know what I should be doing this afternoon!

What's everyone else up to?

Thursday, January 12, 2006

The Giant quilt that ate my bed

Here is the promised picture of my huge quilt! At the foot of the bed it hangs to the bottom side of the mattress where the side rails of the bed frame are. At the head of the bed it is folded back about 18 inches. On BOTH sides, it hangs all the way to the floor. And we have a pillow top mattress - padding on both sides - so it is extra, extra thick. My husband is beginning to wonder if I am capable of making a quilt that actually fits our bed. They are usually about 6 inches too short in width. Or like this one, way too huge. This would be the perfect quilt to have to share with someone who hogs the covers! No way they could steal this whole thing away from you!

Never a dull moment!

Last night Ian had a run-in (literally) with another little boy at church. The other boy ended up with a big knot on his forehead. Ian's lip started bleeding again - which freaked the other little boy out! I had to assure him and his mom that Ian has been previously wounded! Later last night I was talking to Ian, when I noticed his front tooth is suddenly back where it belongs, instead of pointed backwards. I made him let me feel it and it was loose! UGH! So I spent the whole night tossing and turning, worried that he was going to have that tooth pulled. Back we went to the dentist office this morning. He took another x-ray and said that everything still looked o.k. He said he would not be surprised if the tooth turned dark. The tooth seemed a little more stable this morning so he said we should just watch it for a few weeks. I am thinking about buying Ian a football helmet with one of those mouth guard things! Do you think he would wear it 24 hours a day to make me happy?




I managed to make another baby quilt yesterday. Nice and bright! I have enough of the four-patches made to make another one the same size.

I am going to make myself work on rescuing my bedroom from the piles of laundry which seem to be multiplying daily. If I can get it all cleaned up, I will take a picture of the huge quilt on my bed. It is quite comical!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Update on Ian


We took Ian back to see the dentist this morning. The swelling on his lip is down from yesterday but still looks bad. The dentist did an x-ray of the tooth roots that got knocked out of place. He said he did not see anything broken! Yeah! He also said they seemed to still be firmly attached so they probably won't fall out on their own. If the pain lasts for more than a couple (!) of weeks, he said to come back and he would check Ian out again. He also put him on some antibiotics just to be safe.

Poor Ian hasn't been willing to eat much of anything. He ate some ice cream Monday night. Yesterday he ate a snack bag of Doritoes, broken into TINY little bites. And he ate several bowls of Jello. Last night he ate a huge serving of mac-n-cheese. This morning we went to the store and stocked up on ice cream, mac-n-cheese, yogurt, and noodles. Ian doesn't have any body fat he can spare so I hope the pain subsides quickly so he will start eating more.



I got the borders put on the four patch baby quilt. The blue isn't exactly the right color - but it is close enough! And I didn't have to go buy anything for this quilt! YEAH! Hey - I have made it 11 whole days with no buying! And I haven't had any withdrawl symptoms!

Monday, January 9, 2006

A little about my day...

Today was a "boys will be boys" kind of day. Actually more like "Boys will trip over anything available and hurt themselves." I know Nina has a lot of those days around her house! She has already been witness to one of Ian's lip busting events! When he was two he bit through his lip and through the skin below his lip. He has a cute little scar right below his lip. Today he tripped over who know what and whacked his mouth on the seat of a dining room chair. UGH - so much blood! He knocked two of his top teeth backwards - but not out. The dentist looked at them and said to bring him back in a few days when his lip isn't so swollen and he will x-ray them to see what he did to the roots. He said if they develop an abcess he will have to pull them. He may have to sedate both me and Ian for that! Poor little guy has a HUGE swollen lip. Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow.

I also got my four patch top put together. It is not quite as big as I was expecting. It will need a big wide border to be a useable size but I think it turned out really cute!

Ok, off to bed for this weary mama!

Sunday, January 8, 2006

For lack of anything better to share....

Over on DebR's blog, she shared this meme to day. In case you don't read her blog regularly, she is TOO funny.

Here goes:

Four Jobs You've Had:
1. Loan Officer at a large credit union in Tampa
2. Accounting officer for School of Architecture at an IVY league school
3. Accounts Payable department (yes I was the whole department) at a large medical clinic in Seattle.
4. Mama to two sweet kids. (Can you tell what my favorite job is?)

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
This one is kind of hard to narrow down to just four.
1. Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Gross Pointe Blanke
3. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
4. Serendipity

Four Places You've Lived: (Again, hard to narrow down! These are not necessarily my favorites.)
1. Rockford, IL
2. Gainesville, FL
3. New York City
4. Seattle, WA

Four TV Shows you love to Watch:
1. CSI - the original
2. House
3. Numbers
4. Clean Sweep, Clean House, etc....

Four Places You've Been on Vacation:
1. Montreal
2. London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Pisa, Bern, and Paris (all in one 3-week long trip)
3. All the Laura Ingalls Wilder hot spots (with my family when I was 14)
4. Columbia River Gorge in Oregon/Washington (with my parents right before I got pregnant with DD.)

Four Websites You Visit Every Day:
Besides all of my favorite blogs I also hit these sites -
1.
USA Today
2.
JigZone
3. Some random on-line quilt store to look at things I don't need!
4.
Auburn University

Four Of Your Favorite Foods:
1. Shrimp
2. Cheesecake
3. Strawberries
4. fresh pineapple

Four Places You'd Rather Be:
1. asleep
2. out of debt
3. lighter, weight wise
4. Quilting

Four Albums You Can't Live Without:
1. Toby Keith's "Unleashed"
2. The Very Best of Sting & the Police
3. Dixie Chicks - "Fly"
4. Billy Joel's greatest hits

Four People You'll Pass This On To:
1. you
2. yes, I am talking to you.
3. no, don't look behind you
4. yes we really are interested in your answers!

OK, I have bored you enough for one night. I am off to sew for a few minutes before heading off to bed.

Saturday, January 7, 2006

Alive and better in Alabama

I heard from my one loyal blog reader (my sister!) today that she thought I must be dead since I had not posted in a few days. Friday I woke up with a headache and no voice. I got up, picked out school clothes for DD, packed her lunch, and went back to bed. DH got up and got her ready and took her to school for me. I stayed in bed ALL day, sleeping for most of it. I woke up this morning feeling much better. The funny thing was last night DH walks into our bedroom and asks whats for dinner and tells me that I didn't take anything out to thaw! He nearly got beaten to death - if I had felt just a little bit better!

Thursday I got the binding put on the blue trip around the world quilt and got it half put on the hot pink quilt. So this morning I finished putting on that binding, put on the label, and delivered them to the sewing center.

I spent about an hour last night trying to organize the boxes in my sewing table. Spent some time cutting scraps down to Bonnie's suggested sizes. Came across a gallon size ziplock bag full of 3 inch squares leftover from this quilt. I am making the left over squares into four patches which I will alternate with a solid white square. I'll show a picture when I get the top together.

I also decided that I no longer have any interest in this quilt. So I am going to cut my losses and finish it up into something maybe lap sized instead of bed sized. I already have enough of the pinwheel blocks made to finish it up. I had put this away in August because I got tired of it. I found the pieces in the bottom of my scrap box yesterday and decided that I am still tired of it! Anyone else have UFO's out there that they just can't face?

Well, I need to go get DD out of my tub before she floods my bathroom and get DS into the tub to soak off a few days dirt! How does one little boy get so dirty? Don't bother to answer that! I know its because of the lovely yard full of beautiful red mud in the lot next door. I can't wait for that sod to go down - hopefully in the next week or so! Yeah!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Can you handle this much pink?

Growing up with bright red hair made me have an aversion to certain colors. We have already discussed my avoidance of all things orange. Now I am admitting my aversion to pink. And red, for that matter. I do not own a single piece of red clothing. The only thing I own that is pink is such a pale pink I would barely call it pink. How many times can I use pink in one sentence?
This is all to say that this is a very "Maverick" piece for me. Way out of my comfort zone. Notice I had to put some blue in there to be able to get through it. Being pink AND such wild prints was a real departure from my usual comfort zone. Yes, blue and yellow. yada yada yada.


Anyway, this is the last Project Linus top sitting here, so now I get to get pieceing again! Yeah! First I am going to make myself get the binding put on these two so I can take them in and drop them off.

Right now, its time for lunch and a nap. I told Maddie she needed to take a nap today because we have bible class tonight and then when we get home she wants to watch "Mythbusters". And then she has to get up early to go back to school tomorrow. She, at almost 7, is addicted to science shows. On New Year's Eve, they were running a Mythbusters marathon and she loved it! She also loves to watch Zoom on PBS as soon as she gets home from school.

Monday, January 2, 2006

First quilt of the new year!

Today I got this quilt loaded on the machine and quilted. It is going to the Project Linus contest at the sewing store. The contest ends February 18th. I know my chances are slim to win the new machine but it is fun to make baby quilts. They are quick and easy. If I try something new and don't like it, it doesn't take that long to finish! I also loaded the hot pink top onto the machine and got the backing pieced for it. I am hoping to get that one quilted tomorrow. Then maybe I can whip out a couple more tops before February 18th.

I have given up hope of getting the house perfectly clean while everyone is home from school. Maddie goes back on Thursday and DH starts again on Monday. He has been home for a month. The classes he teaches (architecture) do not have final exams, so when classes are over, he's done. So he has been home since December 6th, asking me "what's for lunch?". Go open the frig and see what you can find! I do enjoy having him around more than usual but I am ready for a little quiet time!

Time for bed!

Sunday, January 1, 2006

My brilliant husband

Thanks to my brilliant DH, here is a simulated picture of what the whole quilt will look like. He was able to take the photo of the quarter of the top, play with it for about 3 minutes in photoshop, and produce a picture of the entire top. Cool! I knew I kept him around for a reason! I like it better than I expected. What do you all think?

Too pink, even for a tutu!

I found a picture of a baby quilt I liked on-line and then replicated it in EQ5. The picture above is 1/4 of the top. Not sure if there is enough contrast between the floral print and the lightest pink (looks almost white in the picture). Not sure if I am going to like it or not. If I don't, it can become a Project Linus quilt and I can start over! I wanted to use the dark pink where I am using the floral print, but I didn't have enough. I'll show you the whole thing when I get it done.

What is everyone else up to?

One day down - and no purchases! (no laughing please!)