Biting off more than I can chew?

I hope not! I am feeling a little stressed but I think it is just that there are so many projects hanging over my head. I am prepared but there are a lot of unknowns involved.


On Monday our son returned from his trip to South Korea to visit his girlfriend. It sounds like he had a good time but since he is here and his computer is at his apartment on the other side of the state we will have to wait for pictures until he can do some downloading and editing. 


His girlfriend's mom sent these beautiful fabrics for me. I am not sure what exactly I will make with them but I am toying with making a wallhanging for me and a matching one for her to thank her for taking such good care of the boy. She also sent this cute little bag that she made (look at those cute little prairie points).

My son brought me this beautiful sample of traditional Korean handwork made from silk. I am hoping my husband will make a frame for me so I can hang it on the wall.

Silly me, I volunteered to make a quilt for our church's 'VBS' program this year. We are doing it on 5 Wednesday evenings and as part of the adult class I am having people help me make a quilt. My niece, Katie, designed a quilt in 5 parts and I get to figure out how to make it work in fabric. This was last night's section which is very loosely based on the story of Moses in the basket in the river.

Today I got next week's section ready to go since I volunteered for another project. This one is making a quilt with our church's older day care kids. I got all the pieces cut out from donated fabric and the goal is that each child will make a 4-patch block which will be put together to make a LWR quilt top and they will help tie it. I also cut out pieces so they can each make a little 8.5" 'quilt' to take home if we have enough time. We will work with them for 2 hours each on Tuesday and Thursday next week.

Comfort Quilts

Here are my first two comfort quilts for church.

They turned out great. They are from the book Scrap-Basket Surprises. I might change how the border is done if I make more from this pattern but otherwise, it is a great pattern for scraps. I also realized when I wanted to get a picture of the quilts that I found another benefit of my clothes lines! It is a great way to hang tops since they don't do well in the quilt hangers I use on the deck. It is a grey day and there were a few sprinkles but I quickly wiped off the line and hung them and got the shots without getting too wet!

My husband has been working furiously on the garage so we can get the new garage door installed this summer but this afternoon he will get a little break when we go see the Harry Potter movie. 

Piles of fabric

Someone dropped off three huge garbage bags of fabric at church for the quilting ladies. It was pretty decent fabric so I proposed that I take it home and use it to make some nicer quilts that could be used for baptisms, graduations, comfort quilts, etc. and I would donate some of my larger pieces of fabric to be used for LWR quilts and backs. The proposal was accepted to I schlepped the bags home and on Sunday afternoon I went through all the fabric. I took out some of the larger pieces or pieces that I didn't feel I would use in a quilt and put them on the LWR pile and also cleaned out some of my larger pieces and ended up with about 2 huge garbage bags to give back! I sorted through the fabric some more and divided it into some different groups of colors or styles.

The biggest piles was florals. Now, these are not my favorite type of fabric so I don't buy much but there are a lot of patterns that work well with a variety of florals so I pulled those out first and cut some of the 'darker' ones up for two quilt tops. I now have the two tops almost put together, just need to sew the borders on, which I hope to do tomorrow. (I originally wrote this post on Saturday but didn't end up posting it until today so the two quilts are done but I don't have the pictures ready yet.)


Thursday afternoon, my niece, Brita, and three of her friends arrived for a visit to Washington. We had a nice dinner and a good visit that evening. In the morning after blueberry muffins and raspberries and strawberries I dropped them off at the ferry for a day in Seattle. Yesterday evening we picked them up after dinner and came home and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 so we will be ready for Part 2 at the theater! This morning the girls were up and out of the house by 6 heading up to the San Juans. I didn't wake up until 8 which is pretty amazing for me!


Brita's sister, Katie, was here also and she and I got some sewing done. She quilted a baby quilt yesterday and then today quilted two little paper-pieced wall-hangings and got the bindings on those ready for hand sewing. We also went to the local farmer's market to check it out. I figure if you live less than a mile from something you should go at least once! I ended up getting a nice Hosta for my yard and a little Lion's Head Japanese Acer tree. On our way to pick up the girls at the ferry we stopped and got some border fabric for a couple quilts that need finishing and also a pot to replant the tree so I have another project!

Where have the days gone?

It has been two weeks since my last post and I am not sure I can tell you why!


I suppose part of it is that the weather has improved and I have spent a good bit of time working outside. The beds out there are looking better but still not great for the most part. Last year's onions, this year's carrots, chives and kohl rabi are growing well along with some volunteer pansies and tomatoes. I also have acorn squash, pumpkins, zucchini and green beans up.


The strawberries are giving us a few berries which is good considering they were just transplanted a few weeks ago. The raspberries will give us a few berries also. I am hoping they will do better next year after I get them transplanted. The gooseberries are ripening and the blueberries seem to be doing well.


As for work in the sewing room, there has been some of that. I got the main part of the quilt for my neighbor for our quilt exchange. It still needs borders and quilting but that can wait as the quilt doesn't have to be done until November 1.


The original plan for the 4th of July weekend was for my niece to come over so we could play in the sewing room while my husband ripped the garage apart for a new and larger garage door. It changed when my daughter realized she had a 4-day weekend which meant she could come over for a visit with the kids. She hadn't been home since last fall sometime though the kids have been here several times on their own. They arrived on Friday and both kids and the dog were so happy to get out of the car and run!


Chelsea helped her dad with the garage project and Katie and I had fun with the kids and took care of the meals. We did get some sewing in but not much. The kids got in a trip to the local beach on Puget Sound and even got an ice cream treat from the little store there. This is a tradition that was started when I was little girl and my great-uncle would take us down there for treats. There was also running through the sprinkler, riding bikes and 'helping' in the kitchen and with the garage work.

Chelsea and the kids headed back home on Monday morning and Katie and I got to work in the sewing room. Our project - the scrappy Geese Atop Your Cabin with black geese. We finished up the first 32 blocks and decided to head to JoAnn's to find some outdoor fabric to recover a chair my husband got at a garage sale this weekend. We got some brown that wouldn't have been my first choice but was the best available and it was on sale! We also got a kid's swimming pool for the grandkids' next visit. We even let my husband tag along since he had a sore thumb and couldn't work on the garage.


Tuesday morning we were back in the sewing room and got another 58 blocks done. By evening I had the top put together

and Katie had my remaining 1.5" scraps sorted and cut into either 1.5", 2", 2.5" or 4.5" pieces. As we worked we had come up with plans for all the pieces so that basket would be empty for at least a short while.


Katie headed home so she could be ready for giving piano lessons in the morning and I headed over for craft night. While there I was able to finish off the last of the owl hats I had made. I now have 8 on hand but 4 of those were made to order and I need to contact the 'orderees'.


Wednesday I got the 2.5" pieces sewn together into this little top

and then spent some time outside working.


Yesterday, I needed to get a skirt made for my little granddaughter who turns 3 on Sunday. I had gotten Figgy's Bubble Skirt Pattern at Fabric Depot back in April and got the corduroy to make two skirts but hadn't gotten around to it until now. I made the first one and it just looked too big so I made another smaller one. Hopefully one will be right for her! Then I ran to Target for a t-shirt to go with them and Costco for a swimsuit for her (we have been looking for one that has a UV protecting shirt to go with it) as last year's suit is allowing an awful lot of tummy to hang out! Stopped at the post office on the way home and got the package in the mail so hopefully she will have it by Monday, if not Saturday.



I also added 2 borders to the the little scrap quilt I started on Wednesday.

The first was a light neutral fabric followed by most of the 1.5" X 2" pieces sewn together. I am thinking I will add another neutral, probably a darker one, and a row using the 1.5" X 4.5" pieces.


Oh, I almost forgot! On Friday evening, we got my clotheslines up! It was so great to be able to hang the laundry outside this weekend and the sheets and towels after the company was gone!


This has been a little long-winded but I hope you stayed to the bitter end! I keep thinking I will be better about getting posts written but somehow...

Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop 2011

It has been a busy week around here. Didn't spend much time in the house though. Monday I had a number of errands to do but I spent a little time out in the berry garden first. Tuesday I spent the whole day outside working and then it was craft night.


My niece, Katie arrived in time for craft night and in the morning we headed out bright and early to start our shop hop road trip. We made it to 17 stores before closing time at 8 pm and then drove a couple of hours back home. Yesterday we headed out again to be at our first shop at 9 am when they opened and made it to 20 stores before closing time. Thank God for GPS to help us find all the shops without too much trouble.


We made a few purchases on our travels. We each bought a couple of paper piecing patterns from one shop. They are from MH Quilt Designs. We also bought some fat quarters. But if you want to make it to around 20 stores in a day you can't dawdle!


We were still frustrated by some of the blocks we got from the various stores. Not sure what some of the store owners are thinking when they design them!


We saw several quilts we thought were pretty cool. One was an awesome applique quilt but I held back from buying the pattern since it is all hand work and I have so many hand projects waiting for completion. Though I am thinking I will order it because it is just too hard to resist!


Another quilt we saw is called Geese Atop Your Cabin at Gee-Gee's Quilt Shop in Yelm. Katie and I both saw it when we used the restroom at the store! When we got out to the car I asked Katie if she had seen it and she had so she pulled out her graph paper and colored pencils and drew a block so we wouldn't forget it. Today we decided to make one or two blocks to try a couple of color combinations. I sewed and she pressed and trimmed and here is what we came up with:

As you can see in the last picture the triangles are just folded squares that are caught in the seams. I am pretty sure there will be several of these quilts in my future. Probably the first will be using up some of my 1.5" strips and using either black or white for the centers or triangles. After that will probably be a black and white quilt with various bright colored triangles and centers.

Secret revealed

Another busy weekend for me! Thursday I took off across the state to spend the weekend with my sister and her family. Her youngest daughter graduated from high school on Saturday and there was a BBQ party on Friday evening. On top of all that my daughter and the grandkids came up for the celebration too! Lots of commotion that is for sure. 

On Friday morning my job was to make a Graduation Barbie cake. My sister made the mortarboard, complete with tassel! She also created the sashes and cords out of ribbon and some silver cording to represent the sashes and cords my niece would have for graduation. I also added some paper sleeves and a section around the body to look more like a graduation gown instead of a ball gown. She turned out pretty well I think!


We also surprised my niece with this graduation quilt. There are blocks made by several quilters in her life that represent various interests of hers. Her high school colors were red and white and her college colors will be black and gold, hence the color scheme. The top was put together by my sister and I got the honor of quilting it. She was very excited about it and very surprised!


On Saturday morning we took a walk to a local coffee shop and got coffee for the grown-ups and cocoa for the little ones and then walked over to the park so the kids could play and we could reserv seats with tape for graduation that afternoon. Just after we got home from our walk the skies opened up with rain and hail and wind so we had to postpone our trip the Fantastic Sam's for about an hour for my granddaughter's much needed hair cut - she had to tip her head back to see out from under her bangs! 


The sun came back out and stayed out through graduation which was awesome since graduation was held outside! After graduation we enjoyed a turkey dinner then my daughter turned over custody of the grandkids to me and headed home. 


Sunday morning the kids I headed out and met my other daughter and her husband for coffee and then strted our trek across the state. An uneventful trip filled with chatter and singing and a couple of stops at rest areas to let off some steam! We got home, got unloaded and the kids headed outside to see what was new. I started dinner and our son arrived home just in time to eat. 


We've been having fun at Grammy World including driving to the airport yesterday morning to drop my son off for his adventure to Korea to visit his girlfriend who has been back home in Korea for about 6 months.


I was able to deliver one of my owl hats to a friend who was at the graduation party and got another finished. I now have two more of the main hats finished and I am working on the eyes and beaks so they can be put together and ready for delivery. I got a couple more orders so I still have 5 to get made! At least that is something I can work on while the kids are here.

Recovering slowly!

Here is the purple quilt. It is all finished and I will be delivering it tomorrow. The pattern is called Grandma's Scrapbook from Judy Martin's book Scraps.

I tried a new kind of crocheted hat as we were driving across the state last weekend and got the top sewed up last Tuesday but didn't get a picture of it until yesterday! Not sure I am excited about this one but it works. I might have to try it again with adjustments.

This is the latest project I have started. It will eventually be 2' X 6' and along with several others will hang in our church. The plan right now is to have a set of green ones and also white, blue, purple and red for the seasons of the church year. They will hang on some not-so-attractive dividers that are used to hide the daycare's furnishings during worship and other church activities.

We had a great time at Relay this weekend. So many moving moments - watching all of the cancer survivors walking that first lap in their purple shirts, walking the track during the luminaria ceremony and listening to all the names read over the loudspeakers and that final lap celebrating 'more birthdays'. If any of you ever get the chance to take part in a Relay for Life event I would encourage you to do it. 


I had several smaller quilts and some other small items available for sale at the event. I sold several pillowcases but the big hit were the owl hats! I had two finished hats and both sold but I was able to keep one of them at our booth through Relay as a model and took orders for 5 more! I will be kept busy for a while with those!


I managed to get about 1 1/2 hours of sleep Friday night so I came home very tired. My hubby was very good to me and went out and got some teriyaki for dinner before I headed to bed fairly early. I am still a bit tired but at least I am functioning again!