A good day!

First of all - before I forget! - I have updated the previous post to include some pictures of my purchases.

Today I got to sew!!! Yay! For about an hour! I got the rest of the nine patches put together and got the alternate blocks pieced. Now to get the rows sewn together. Time for your opinions please. Is this quilt boyish enough? Several of the fabrics have flowers but I don't think they are overly girly. What do you think?

I have been acquiring "ART" lately. This print came from Thea over at Colors on my mind . She of course has an Etsy shop . She had asked for suggestion on some of her jewelry and then gave everyone who made a suggestion a free print. I bought the great shadow box at Ikea.

My next piece of art came from Geninne. This is a print of one of her watercolors called "Neighbors". I thought houses were appropriate since I am married to an architect! Geninne also has an Etsy shop where she sells prints of her great artwork!

This is the fabric for the girly baby quilt for my neighbor. The colors are a little off. The fabric on the left is a soft sagey green and the purple isn't really that bright. I showed April the fabrics and she loves them!

These three fabrics just jumped into my arms when I was picking out the fabrics for April's quilt. They screamed "Buy Me!" How could I say no?

I guess I should feed my children and get them bathed so I can send them to bed! Plus I need to go watch the Gators beat Auburn! Go, go Gators!

Supporting the little (wo)man

Although I haven't got to sew much this past week, I have been busy spending some of my button money on crafty items on ETSY. Their theme is 'Your place to buy and sell all things handmade'. Here are links to my latest finds.

I bought two pieces of vintage fabric from FeminineAddictions. They arrived super quick - all the way from North Dakota. She even included a cute handmade bookmark and a lovely handmade thank you note. You can check out her blog here.




I also ran across this blog and was drawn to it because she (and her twin sister) lived in New York City. DH and I lived there for three years while he went to grad school. How can you not love a blog whose banner features a beautiful picture of her Featherweight? Anyway, she also has an Etsy shop and sells her hand made note cards. I bought two sets - one with magnolia blossoms and one with a great geometric design.




Another one of my favorite daily reads is Craft Apple. She has designed a cool mini-portfolio that holds a 5x8 note pad.

I am working on the quilt for my nephew. I have made 15 out of 20 9-patches. Maybe this weekend I will get to sew some. October is almost here and that means November is just around the corner!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Yes, folks, I have sewn two days in a row!

After a month and and a half of absolutely NO sewing at all, I have spent about a half an hour sewing on each of the past two days! And yesterday I also got to drag a non-quilting friend into a quilt store in Montgomery. I was able to find the fabric for the purple and green quilt I posted about a few days ago. Yesterday in the mail I received my order from The Quilt Asylum , Susan's quilt store in Texas. I ordered several charm packs of Denyse Schmidt's new line of fabric called Katie Jump Rope. This fabric is what I am using for my new nephew's quilt.

This EQ5 drawing gives you the general idea for the quilt. I have got about 6 nine patches made and about 12 more sets of the single rows of the small squares. Did that make any sense? I am hoping to sew a little bit tomorrow. Then on Thursday I am off to the beach for four days - without my family!! Me and some girl friends are the house guests of a friend who is celebrating (mourning) her 40th birthday. Her husband was sweet enough to rent her a huge house on the beach for an entire week and is keeping the two kids at home. Us girl friends are coming in and out at various times this week. Fun for everyone!! OK - whose 40th is next summer? (Nope, not me!)

I haven't forgotten how...

I can't believe a month has passed by with no new post. With the start of school and trying to help hubby get his new office ready to move into, life has been a little crazy. My dad was here for most of three weeks, helping DH with the construction at the new office. I have been busy with PTA, getting kids doing homework, and listing my grandma's button collection on Ebay. I listed the last of the buttons last night. I am thankful for the little bit of money I have made for me and my grandfather, but I am glad to see the end of this project.

Today we got up early and headed over to Atlanta to go to Ikea. We were there for a total of three hours trying to get cabinets for the kitchenette at the office. The kids wanted to do nothing but run around like maniacs or fuss at each other. As I was waiting in the car for Stacy to retrieve the cabinets , I was looking through some old quilting magazines. I came prepared! Anyway - it occurred to me that I have a new nephew that is due to be born in about a month and a half. Time to get busy! Then it hit me that I have three additional baby quilts to make for other friends who are due in February and April.

The quilt shown above is going to be for my sweet neighbor across the street. Her little boy is one of my son's best friends. Their little girl is due in February. Her bedroom is going to be a pale purple. So I am thinking purples and pale greens for the quilt.

Now to go figure out my nephew's quilt. I am thinking maybe 30's repros and some solid blues.

Yes, I do finish a quilt every once in a while!

I managed to get the baby quilt quilted and bound last week in time for the shower on Sunday. The mommy-to-be loved it - along with everyone else in the room. Several future moms said that they wanted a quilt just like it when their time comes! I wanted to keep it for myself! I love the blue and brown together. Very rich looking!

Tonight is meet the teacher night at the kid's school. We already know both of their teachers. Ian has Maddie's first grade teacher - so I am very happy! And Maddie has a girl from church for her third grade teacher. Maddie LOVES Miss Nicole - so it should be a good year. Classes start on Thursday - at which time I am hoping to retrieve my house from it current state of filth! I have not managed to keep ahead of the mess this summer. Maybe with the kids gone for 7 hours each day I can get something productive done. Or maybe not!

Check this out!

My mom is selling treasures from my grandparents' house on ebay for my grandfather. My grandfather worked for an auction house for over 30 years and before that he owned his own antique store. Anything they saw that they thought might someday be collectible, they bought and stored it away. My grandfather has finally decided to let us help him clean out some of these treasures. On my trip to Tennessee, I brought home several popcorn tins and boxes full of vintage buttons. I will be listing these on ebay later this fall.

Right now my mom has a quilter's diary listed. It is from 1877. I looked through it and it was so cool! You can check it out here!

Do you believe in UFOs?

I am just knocking them out around here! This afternoon I pulled out another zip-lock bag with a in-progress project in it and went to work. I had a huge pile of left-over 2 inch blue squares left over from various projects and thought I would make another quilt like this. I had the four patches already made so I put it together with the solid blocks and got six rows put together. I guess it will have to go back into the bag for a while to age some more I gather some more blue scraps for more four-patches. I may have to raid my mom's box of nickel squares while I am at her house next week.
Before we went to the beach last week, I had dug another well-aged project out to work on. These nine-patches are made from fabrics that Maddie had dresses made from when she was little. I made most of the dresses (with lots of help from Nina) - my mom made her a few - and Nina even made her several (with matching ones for Eva!). I am going to use them in a pattern from "The Joy of Quilting". The alternate blocks are a rail fence block (navy and white) and a solid white block. The problem is that I no longer have that book and can't remember the layout! Nina is going to get her mom to send me a picture of the quilt from her copy of the book.
Hhhmmmm.....what else can I find to work on around here? I am running out of UFOs but the pile of "To Be Quilted" tops is growing!