Goings on

Much has been happening around here but not much sewing. I worked hard to get my house pretty cleaned and organized for all the company to arrive. Spent Friday cooking and then chaos descended!

My sister, my BIL, my niece and her friend and their dog arrived followed a little later by our daughter and two grandkids so when you add in hubby, me and our other daughter we had 10 here for dinner and overnight. The next morning my sister's oldest daughter arrived and in the afternoon my brother's son and daughter came for dinner and birthday celebration. During the course of Saturday I baked a no sugar carrot cake, a devil's food cake and a yellow cake. The carrot cake got a simple no sugar cream cheese frosting and the other two got decorated. You can see them here and here and here.
Also on Saturday and Sunday, hubby and BIL made considerable progress on our daughter's little house while she was at work:

Ou grandson was very busy working on the project also.

Can't forget a picture of the baby!

Sunday afternoon my sister, niece and I whipped up a denim quilt top and this week I hope to get at least two quilt quilted and bound! That might be a bit ambitious considering I have my 3 1/2" year old grandson here for the week! If you want to see more pictures of our weekend you can find them here and here.

Long Time, No Post

I have been doing lots of rearranging of furniture and tidying of various areas of the house so not much sewing has been done. I have been cutting a lot of denim in preparation for 10-20 or more denim quilts.

Today, my husband made new seat inserts for two of our unmatched antique dining chairs so I got busy and got them upholstered. I used an old futon cover that we aren't using anymore and set to work. The great thing was, I managed to use up a bunch of small batting pieces from my closet!

Here they are all in a row! The two on the right and the second from the left originally had caned seats but were either severely damaged or gone when we bought the chairs so they needed inserts. The other two were originally upholstered and had both been reupholstered at some point but were pretty dirty so they all got new seats and will look great when we have a houseful of company next weekend.

A different kind of sampler

This 'sampler' quilt is made from two books of decorating fabric samples. I trimmed them all to 8" and then put them together with some wine colored Kona that I had on hand.
I still plan to add a wine colored border to the quilt. Since the fabric is teflon coated it would be great for a table cloth or picnic quilt. I think it will be a charity drawing quilt but we will see.

Not just lounging

I have gotten some sewing done too.Though, truth be told, I did have this one done before I hurt my foot. This is the group scrap quilt I put together a couple of weeks ago and I finally got the border on it. Tuesday evening I took it next door to craft night and handed it off to those who will be finishing it. We are really happy with how it turned out.
I also had this one started before the boo-boo but I managed to get it finished on Monday and Tuesday. This is a graduation quilt for a special young woman I know. She will be heading off to college in a few weeks and I am hoping my foot improves so I can get it basted, quilted and bound in time for that day. Luckily the college isn't only about 30 miles away so I can get it to her later if I need to.This is another of my denim quilts made using a modified Kaffe Fassett pattern from his book Glorious Patchwork. Most of my quilts have black strips to put the squares together but I decided to branch out with a pink and white print on this one and I really like it!

Today I worked on cutting more denim for more quilts. I have at least 4 more I need to make and I have enough old jeans/denim to make many more. I really would like to use up all my denim so I can move on to other projects!

Still slow but faster than I thought

It turns out, my foot is just sprained, not broken and I am so glad! I remember as a kid I always that it would be so cool to have a broken leg and use crutches - I was totally insane! It is hideous and I am glad that now I only have to use them if I want to, I can walk around without them as long as I don't overdo it.

Woohoo!

Slower, but not stopped completely

I am moving much slower these days. My big accomplishment for the day is laundry. Two of my kids and both grandkids were here for the weekend so there are the usual towels and sheets along with some rugs that have been needing it for awhile.

I have had a couple of spurts in the sewing room also. I am working on the first of many denim quilts for this fall and I am really liking this one. I am using a pink fabric for the connecting strips and it looks really nice. I hope to have the top done tomorrow so I will be able to post a picture then.

I got some blocks in the mail the past few days so I will also try to get pictures of those too.

This might slow me down a bit

but hopefully not for sewing. I managed to break my foot this morning. Just a little chip off one of the bones but it does hurt like the dickens if I move it. Hubby took me to Urgent Care and they splinted it and told me to go to an orthopedist early next week to see what needs to be done.

Luckily, my kids are all home this weekend so I have plenty of people to wait on me - even 3 1/2 year old Layden has been helping. The one year old just wants to take the sock off my toes!

Four corners....neat and square

I was feeling a little like Mike Mulligan this morning as I added the border to the spool quilt. The corners are mitered and as I finished each one I was thinking, "one corner....neat and square" - it is always a good feeling to get things to match up nicely. This block was made from the leftovers from the miters. For some reason these corners did not end up quite so neat and sqaure. With the border on the quilt I have one more project off my list. Next up...lots of denim!

2 More NYB plus some

Here is a little more of what I have been working on. The first is a second New York Beauty block for laplandyellow in the Flickr Quilt Block Exchange group. I am learning as I go along on these blocks.

The second block is for namawsbuzyquiltn in the same group. She wanted something with aqua and red and whatever else went with them. I think this one turned out pretty cool. Hope she likes it.

The third block is a 5.5" block for the July Baggie Bingo in the Mini Quilt in a Bag group of flickr. I have kind of taken a break from doll quilt swaps but I am enjoying swapping blocks in various groups. I got all the blocks in the mail yesterday and now I need to get moving on denim quilts!

Almost a Quilt

And yet, not! Here is what I worked on this past weekend.

These are all blocks for the Quilt Block Exchange over on flickr. I had not gotten my July blocks done so that was my goal for Friday. I got all but one of the 6 done and finished that one Saturday morning. I was on a roll and made 4 of my August commitment on Saturday before heading into town for some fabric for the remaining ones - I just didn't have the right colors - and a haircut. Yesterday I got three more August blocks done including my first New York Beauty block. They are varying size and color requests for each month and this month there are three of us in a New York Beauty swap. I have always wanted to make a New York Beauty quilt so I figure this is a good way to get some practice and get some blocks made for mine by some of my internet quilting friends. If you are interested in joining this group just come on over and sign up. It is a month by month commitment to make 3-6 blocks a month. It is a fun way to try some new things.