Halloween

I'm not sure why these photos are so unclear but here are a couple of pictures showing something quilty. I haven't done a whole lot of quilting lately, not sure why just not in the mood, I guess. I have been reading blogs of others' stuff, but somehow not motivated to do much more than surf and observe. But I finally put a few of the Halloween guys I did and added another witch from Tonya's tutorials. I'm not crazy about how I put them together, but I wanted them up for Halloween this year. It's still just a top, maybe someday it will get quilted. But I'm not crazy about the witche's hat and the background color I picked for her. They blend too much. Oh well, who am I kidding, I will never rip it out-it will have to stay that way!
The bottom pic is my beginning attempt at the Alzheimer's quilt. We'll see how far I get on that. Maybe I"ll work on that tonight.....

Molly wants to sew

Molly came over today and wanted to sew. We decided on a house block. She really wants to do a mummy but for her first time, I thought a house would be good. Maybe tomorrow we'll try a mummy! She did a great job, for any age, but for almost 6, she really did awesome!

Look what I found

I guess it pays to clean up every once in a while. I made these a few years ago and didn't end up using them. I think they might go in the Halloween quilt. I was planning on making a pumpkin with a face, a jack o' lantern I suppose I should say, but I think one or maybe both of these would work too. Maybe I'll make a jack and use one of those and one of these. Well anyway, I am excited I cleaned up the sewing room and found them-now I can't wait to get back into my Halloween quilt. This is not the best picture, not sure what's going on with the camera. I know it's at a weird angle.

I tried another picture but not sure it's any better. Oh well

A few pictures

I finally finished quilting the baby quilt I started back in April, I just have to put the binding on. I took a cable knit scarf class with Tammy back in May or maybe it was April, I 'm not sure but I finished that too. I love the colors in it. I'm trying to get some projects finished up. I'm feeling overwhelmed by so many starts and not many finishes, but that didn't stop me from starting a "Happy Villages" quilt. I found the book at a quilt show last weekend and started it that night. It's a very small project and I finished it the next day, including the quilting. I also started crocheting that granny square. I saw some out there in blogland and wanted to make one. I know how to crochet, but didn't quite know how to do the traditional square-so I learned by watching videos on you tube. You can find anything there. I found this pattern for penguins in granny squares and had to order it. I also ordered one for a frog, a dinosaur and a kangaroo. I need to keep working on those. They are not quite right, yet.

I need to keep blogging so I can keep track of what I'm doing. I have been bad about that. I will try to be better. After I finish a few projects, I intend to do a little work on my Halloween blocks.

New Direction

I haven't done much quilting lately. Not sure why. I have been looking at quilter's projects on line (blogs) I just haven't had the motivation to do anything of my own. Today I decided to work on my class project. I have decided to start over. Not that I didn't like my other thing, I just haven't fully decided what I want to do with it, how I wanted to proceed and it seemed that not knowing was paralyzing me. I just couldn't do anything with it because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Anyway, I have decided to mull over that one and maybe I'll go back to it next month or next year or sometime, but right now-the ideas are just not forming. I know there is a good idea in there I just haven't figured it out yet.



So I have decided to do a house, a flower and a sun (really one of Bonnie's maverick stars-I saw someone do this, but I can't remember who). I am trying to figure out how to do a butterfly (free pieced) and if I figure it out, I'll post that. Right now it doesn't look so good, but I'm going to keep working on it. I'm thinking about adding a big tree and maybe some hearts in the border then when I get some more stuff added I'll start thinking about any wording I might add. I am thinking hearts in the corners with wording either just at the top border or if it is a lot of letters, then all the way around. Still in the thinking mode I guess..trying things out-I think I will go try some hearts and think about those butterflies.....

class progress

So far this is as far as I have gotten. I have my letters in "blue eyes" all sewed together and I have done a few hearts. I plan to do more, I think. I still don't have a good vision for how this will go. I'm not sure if I want to add more or all of my nicknames or if I just want to build on the "blue eyes" with hearts and maybe some other things. As I look at it, I am not crazy about how the 'y' came out, I forgot I wanted to change that before I sewed them together. But I don't see myself ripping it out either. I think the one thing I have realised about these classes is that I like doing the free piecing, but the coming up with the ideas, not so strong on. I'm better with using other people's ideas!

Stuff I've been working on...

Well, I finally spent some time in my sewing room this past weekend. I got my bargello top put together. It still needs borders but I am going to put it away for a while. Not sure what I want to do with it border-wise and I don't seem to be particularly motivated to work on it. I also finished up a top for a baby. It is for a girl (I thought) that hasn't been born, but now the mom is saying she thinks it might be a boy (they had a sonogram early and it was determined to likely be a girl but maybe only 85% or something, so now she's not sure) so I am not going to finish it til it's born. If it is a boy-she might not get a quilt! We'll see.

I thought joining Tonya's class would give me lots of motivation to quilt, but I am still undecided about what I am doing. I love some of the stuff that others have done. I seem to like everyone's ideas but can't come up with my own! I did do a heart this weekend (I like those) and I like doing the free pieced letters but I just don't know how I want to put them together or what colors to use-I guess I could keep with the green and blue that I started with , but I don't have all those exact fabrics that I started with-I'm running out. I'm just having trouble with decisions lately-even what to make for dinner has become a major dilemma some nights! Hopefully I will get out of this soon and get back to normal. For now I'm going to keep watching what everyone else is doing and maybe one of those lightbulbs will appear above my head, and I'll know exactly what to do-

Slight diversion

Last night I decided to do a spider I had been wanting to do. I was looking through fabric and came across some orange and black and decided to make on e up. I got the idea from Comicbook Lady's blog. Which I found through Tonya. I was going to work on some letters, but somehow got into the Halloween spirit. I didn't put it all together yet, but when I finish this block it will go with the monster and mummy and other Halloween-y blocks I made back in October. I will finish them-I just work at my own pace-Halloween in March, Christmas in June (I still have to finish Santa) whatever strikes me! I do plan to work on more letters tonight-really, unless something pulls me in another direction...

Been a while...

Tonya is doing a new class and I joined up again. I really want to do more letters. I really love the free pieced letters. This class has "repetition" as the theme. I really liked Tonya's idea of the Endearment quilt and I actually did these letters before the class even started. I like the idea though and want to use it (the idea, not these particular letters). I think I want to use a different color scheme though. And I haven't got the complete plan for it yet-I guess it will be a work in progress.

I really have to blog more often. I have been meaning to, I just haven't gotten myself to do it.

I have actually done a few things. I put together the Bento box quilt-the red and white and black one on a previous post. But now think I may do more blocks to add to it and make it bigger-why not that would postpone finishing it anytime soon, and we wouldn't want too much of that going on. I'm much better at starting projects!!! Finishing them is something much less likely to happen.

I'm going to play with the letters and hopefully post some more tomorrow.

Grandma's goodies

My Grandma (on my father's side) is a quilter. She also knits, crochets, makes dolls and does many other crafts I'm not sure of. She is probably how I got interested in quilting. She didn't really teach me to quilt, but peaked my interest in it. Actually I think she did have me start a hand project that was an applique quilt. But she mostly taught me to knit.
These images are quilt tops and pieces of quilt tops from a big box of stuff Grandma gave me. I guess her eyes are not what they used to be and she has taken a break from quilting. So she gave me her stuff. As far as I know no one else in the family is really interested in quilting. I could be wrong, but I don't know of anyone else in the family who quilts and she did give me her stuff!
These are some projects she had started. There were all kinds of stuff in there, books, magazines, fabric rulers, etc. Not sure what I'll do with it all but is interesting checking out what's in the big box!

There are more things that I'll photograph but that's it for now-the boys have been using the camera today to film their videogames and upload them on youtube, so I only get so much time on the computer before I get booted off!

House blocks for Bonnie

I did a couple of house blocks for Bonnie's housewarming today. I did one from her scrappy houses pattern and one from Tonya's free pieced wonky houses. Hopefully she likes them and can use them with the others that she will receive. I like the top one better of the two . I intended the roof to be bigger, but now after looking at the picture realize that it didn't end up being bigger than the house-it was supposed to overhang the edges.

Another new project....

For some reason, I can't just start one project and keep working on it until I finish. I have to start many projects and have them in different stages of completion. So while still working on the bargello quilt which I just started last weekend I decided I had to start another one! What's wrong with me-maybe ADD? I don't know. But I was going to do a baby quilt, then I went and picked out red, white and black fabrics. I liked the pattern, but after doing a couple of blocks I decided that even though they say the black and white contrast is good for babies, I want to do a pink one, so I'm not sure what I want to do with the red and black quilt I just started?

I guess I don't really need to know what I want to do with it, I just wanted to do it.

Oh yeah, and I want to make some house blocks for Bonnie-both a scrappy happy house from her site and one from Tonya's wonky houses also. So I guess I'll start working on those tonight....

Who says you have to finish projects? I just like to start them!

Bargello progress

Well I got some work done on the bargello quilt, but I am not sure how Bonnie did hers all in one day. Maybe I need some Focus Factor or something but I have only gotten one of my strip sets sub cut and they still need to be sewn together. I did get all the strip sets themselves sewn though. I intended to do more during the superbowl but I ended up watching a movie with Zack. He didn't want to watch the superbowl either, so I told him I would rent him a movie. It was not that great -some teen movie- so I didnt really pay attention to the whole thing but I didnt want to go upstairs and leave him completely alone to watch it. So I have been doing a bit at a time.

Last night was the only night I didnt have to run him anywhere, so I got the one set cut up. Boy I don't know how single mothers do it! I'm glad Jim will be back next week! Of course there's not as much running around to do next week. Zack had religion on Monday and he has a school dance on Friday this week which won't happen next week. So maybe I can rope Jim into both nights of karate and I can stay home and work on my bargello. That won't be too hard, he always offers to take him anyway and he will feel bad about being gone all this week. Even if I do my one night of running Zack to karate, it will still only be one night out as opposed to the 4 this week. Well I do have tomorrow off so I can give myself a goal to get to where all the sets have been subcut and then get them sewn together this weekend. Sounds like a good goal-we'll see what happens....

Superbowl Bargello

So here are some in progress pictures. I actually cut the strips Friday and started to sew a couple sets together yesterday. I am going to get back to it this afternoon. Jim is out of town and Zack has a friend over so I will have some time to myself to get a bit done-we'll see how much!

Finished and almost finished....

So I finally finished my free piecing winter quilt for Tonya's class. I was just in an after Christmas funk ,I guess. I have done a little quilting but not really blogged about it. I made a baby quilt last weekend for Melissa from work, which I did not even get a picture of . Oh well, I have another one to make soon too-Ashley from work invited me to her shower which is in a few weeks so I will need to make one for her too-not fair to make one for one co-worker and not another? Why did I get myself in this mess-there are probably 3 others at work who are pregnant! I won't make all of them a quilt though, but probably one more.

I got Patrick's pirate quilt almost done. I intend to get the binding done today. Then it will be done. I put his name in pieced letters on the back which I thought would be fun. This was a fairly easy quilt as it was just a yellow brick road pattern. But for some reason took a while to get motivated to do. I guess I liked all the pirate fabrics I had but when I put them all together I wasn't as crazy about them. The blues don't exactly match but I guess as a whole it's kinda cute since it has the theme going. I'm sure he'll like it-he's only four he doesn't know how to match colors! So after finishing this quilt and Ashley's baby quilt I should attack some UFOs before I start anything new. Although Bonnie is doing a super bowl bargello I am sort of interested in trying. Do I really want to start a new project? I really like starting new projects, they just don't all get finished.....

Tonya's class update

Here is what I have so far. I don't think I will be getting any more done until after Christmas, it has just been too busy. I have basted my "let it snow" project and have started some hand quilting which I am enjoying doing. I tried the circles that someone (I forget right now who it was but) someone in the class had hand quilted circles on their piece and it looked really interesting, it gave some nice texture so I thought I would try it. I don't think you can really tell right now in this picture but maybe after I add some more maybe you can tell.
The space next to the white tree on the right, I have stitched a green tree and I think I will add a few more rounds or perhaps I will actually fill in the lines instead of having a broken stitched tree.
On the Santa, Ho ho ho top I know it needs a lot of work and I am just not sure what yet. But I think I will keep working on the top one since I can display that after Christmas if I get it done and the Santa can go up next year if I get him done. I plan to get back to this after Christmas, but I have so much wrapping to do and cookies to make and I'm cooking dinner for Christmas Eve and I have to work Saturday-ooh I'm stressing myself out, maybe I'll have to quilt to relax.....Merry Christmas!

Snow Family?

I'm thinking about maybe just doing a snowman family, some snowflakes and maybe trees. I'm going to put this up on the wall and see how it looks. I set some buttons on their bellies to see how that would look. I like thee buttons and I think adding some embroidery after it gets quilted or during the quilting process is a good idea. I'm not sure if I should keep with one color tree or use both, maybe I should make more. I think I have one smaller white tree that didn't get set up here.

Something different

I needed to clean up my sewing room this weekend and came across these blocks. I decided to put them together in the quilt as you go method. So this is the same on both sides. It's very small though, each block is 9 inches. This is from the International mystery class (this one is Mexico-I think it may be called a Mexican cross?) I took earlier in the year, maybe in February. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next in my winter class with Tonya so I decided to work on this. I need to add a border and then I think I will give it as a baby quilt -not sure who exactly will get it. It is kinda bright, maybe tomorrow I will get back to my free piecing. I think I may have ADD. Have to change things up every once in a while. Can't work until finished on any one thing, have to have many projects going at the same time.

Work in Progress

I have added a couple of things, some letters for Santa and a snowman. I couldn't figure out how to add a scarf, so I think he will just be plain. I think I'll add a face either with fabric paint or markers. I might try making a bigger one too, not sure. I'm not crazy about the house, I forgot a chimney, not sure if that's what's missing or if it's just the colors I don't like. Maybe I should make the letters I have more colorful and then I can add more to the body of the quilt and it will work together better. I guess I am still trying to figure out how I want this whole thing to look.
I guess I'll keep adding and changing until I like it enought o put it together into one piece.

Winter Project

I have some work done on my project, but I'm not crazy about it. I like the letters-I even like the house but I don't think they are working well together. I kinda like the Santa though, but I think he needs different letters.

I think the house may be too dark, but not sure what colors would work better.

Maybe that whole idea would work if I just re-did the house in different colors and then made Santa his own project. I don't think he fits on the "let it snow" theme.

But I did want to make him. Maybe he just needs his own quilt.