Smooth Sailing finish; Country Spirit begins

I was NOT up bright-n-early by any means this AM, however, I was still the only one awake for about 45 minutes from 7:00 to about 7:45. So, I made use of my quiet time by creating a label for Luke's Smooth Sailing and get it sewn on. My mom is more than pleased with the results, and was VERY surprised when I handed over the pillow yesterday afternoon. She amazed at a few things.......1) I quilt; 2) I FINISH projects; 3) the projects are good quality; 4) I finish projects FAST (and even FASTER when there is a good purpose).

I saw these little "circle-hangers" on a quilt once and thought they were so much easier than putting a sleeve on the back and then finding/buying a dowel to hang it. So, for the past year, whenever I am making a quilt for hanging, I sew these on. They are found in the crafting section; I THINK they have a purpose for knitting?? I really don't know, because other than sewing/quilting and cross-stitching, I don't have any other "crafting" talents (at least none that really mean much anymore).

So.....number two for 2009 is done. Smooth Sailing


Once my parents left at 10:30, I decided to head downstairs to see what fabrics I could find for the Country Spirit pattern I found at McCall's Quilting.com. I pulled all of my blues and reds from my 2" draw, plus cut up just a few more strips from other scraps I still have laying around. I found this perfect "light-star" fabric hiding on my bottom drawer. I am shy about 1/4 yard from what the pattern requests, but I already know I'll be adapting the design a bit from the actual. I've had this red paisley sitting on my shelf for a year, so in it goes as well.
DH and Caitlyn went fishing for the afternoon; Cassie went sledding with a friend, so it was just Candace and me. We threw KungFu Panda into the DVD player, and I went cutting and sewing away while she rested. At first, I had complete intentions of strip-piecing and then sub-cutting into the 6.5" sections. BUT, my strip were at such odd and non-consistent lengths, so I decided to cut all of them prior to sewing. 96 lights and 48 reds/blues each were cut; 2"x6.5". The sewing was mindless; and I can't really even remember where my mind all wandered today. I thought ahead to the week and how I would use the days since we lost Thursday and Friday. The end of the semester is coming this Friday, so I'll just have to throw out the lessons planned from those days; spend one more day tomorrow with a "wrap-up" lesson in each class, have a TeamTest on Tuesday, do a final review on Wednesday, and then give the finals on Thursday. Friday will be used for any makeups.

Anyway, by 4:00, the 12 rail-fence blocks were made. They are very scrappy and nothing is really "holding" them together right now. However, once I cut into the light-star and red-paisley yardage for the sashing, I think it'll come together nicely.

Taking a short break---DH arrived home a bit ago and it "cleaning up" supper. Caitlyn is beat and is resting on the couch with a Barbie movie. Cassie JUST got home from her friend's; they made cupcakes and spent much of the afternoon being pulled around on a sled with a snowmobile.

I might be heading back downstairs after the girls get to bed. Tonight is BATH NIGHT! Tomorrow, life gets back to a normal schedule again.......
This has been a wonderful 4-day unplanned weekend!
Happy Sunday

QOV--Have time to make a quilt? & SS Pillow

Hey all----
Just wondering if you have plans for Monday OR anytime soon for that matter?
There was a post made the the Quiltville-Yahoo group from a member who received a post from a different group.....

Lately I have been thinking about what changes may be ahead for our country as we usher in a new administration, and what those changes might mean for each of us as citizens. Since Monday is Martin Luther King Day, and MLK Day is supposed to be a day of service to others, I have decided to issue a challenge to quilters. And that means you.

If you're interested, go to my blog at http://kimmyquilt.com/blog/

Please feel free to forward the blog addy to quilting groups or quilty friends. The more hands we have working together, the faster we will reach our goal.

Kimmy Brunner

After a bit of reading and searching, here is the exact post where Kimmy is talking about the "challenge"....
http://kimmyquilt.com/blog/2009/01/17/judged-content-our-character/. To sum it up, she is requesting assistance in making quilts for the QOV.

I have always thought about doing a worthwhile project and have heard so much about the QOV, BUT have never know who, what, where, etc.....
So now-----I am motivated! I can't wait until tomorrow! I will use tomorrow since I have school on Monday to get a good start on a quilt.

I hope you will join in, for a good cause, and just for the sheer JOY of making another quilt!!! :0)


Also---on another note....I am putting up my feet for the evening of hand-sewing the binding on the Smooth Sailing quilt. Mom and I have put in Momma-Mia. We went shopping this morning, were back by 1:00, so I whipped up this little pillow to go along with the wall hanging.



Oooooo, I also made a half-batch of Monster Cookies!!! I had some extra stars left from the peanut butter cookies a couple of months back, so I threw those on top as well. (Pay NO attention to the partially eaten cookie in the bottom left of the picture!!! I have NO idea how that happened!) (*wink*)

Okay----off to sew.
Happy Saturday.

Detoured...

With the day off again, I was looking forward to actually wrapping up the Scrappy Irish Chain to clear up some floor space. I had sewn a few rows together last night, in fact, after laying out the PKD (Perkiomen Daydreams) blocks.

Sitting at the breakfast table with the girls and my mother, she got to talking about my cousin Jean and her son. Jean is trying to coax him into sleeping in his own room--I guess he has the habit of sneaking in with mom and dad everynight. He's in Kindergarten. Anyway, Jean is redecorating his bedroom with fish (HIS choice). She is making up some curtains, painting the room a light green, with brown; the whole nine yards. Anyway, my mom is his Godmother, and mom mentioned a new quilt for his bed, but Jean turned that idea down since he has a nice quilt. So that suggestion then turned into a wall-hanging. I think my mom had the idea in her mind that she was going to attempt it, but.......at the same time I think she KNEW that if she got to talking with me, I would GLADLY jump on board and help out (or do it all)....

Well.....lo-n-behold! My mother picked up fabric on the way up to the house yesterday. Hmmmm.......she MUST have had the idea that we (I) would be working on it this weekend. *chuckle* Sneaky bird!

Anyway...I threw the fabrics in the washer and grabbed a huge stack of quilting magazines to find an idea. But the time I moved the fabrics to the drier, I was half way through the stack of magazines and had two ideas picked out already. Once the fabrics were dry, I had three total ideas.......narrowing it down wasn't that easy, either! However, sailboats seemed to make the most sense to go along with fish fabric.

My mom bought the fish fabric and the brown fabric. I pulled the rest from my stash.......This baby was going to go together FAST! Simple HST's and rectangles!

While mindlessly chain-sewing some pieces, I allowed my mind to wander. I came to realize that while "yes," I found this pattern in a magazine, I must be advancing to a new level of quilting skills because I didn't even bother reading any of the directions. I simply looked at the picture, grabbed my EZ Angle ruler, cut and sewed away. I also have come to realize that we can alter designs as we see fit----the projects are ours afterall! I sized down the overall dimensions from a Twin down to a 38"x42" wall size.

I started cutting and piecing at 11:00 AM. By 2:00, the top section (minus the borders) was pieced. After a short break, I was back at it, putting the borders on. By 4:00, I was choosing backings. By 5:00, the sandwich was basted. The girls played with Grandma for most of the day, but Candace came down by me while I was pin-basting the quilt sandwich. She grabbed my camera and was trying to take pictures--she had a problem with holding down the button long enough for the picture to be taken. However, she did get this silly shot of me......
.....Then, she said...."Momma take picture of me?" She's in the midst of a cold bug right now and her nose is a faucet. Her cheeks also took on the "red look" today with the cold.





I was back downstairs at 7:00 after dinner to get to the quilting. I stippled the background and did my new-found "ripple" in the borders. The brown vertical strips were channeled a quarter of inch inside the seam. The binding is on and will be hand-sewed tomorrow.

So.....today took me through a slight "detour" from my other quilting projects. I think I'll call this one "Smooth Sailing".