DWR DONE! Babyquilt DONE! Bag Dispenser DONE! And a few other projects underway...

Ahhhhhhhhh
Yesterday, after relaxing in the morning, I decided to FINALLY just finish the DWR! And then, I just kept going...

I spend most of the day working on the DWR, finishing it up around 4:00. It feels SO GOOD having that done and off my back--seriously! I think this is the biggest quilt I have made so far. It measures 96"x108", and is pictured on our King size bed.

With the extra pieces, MIL and I pieced together some pillow shams and an additional "monogram" pillow. MIL hand embroidered the "H". (Hmmm....I must not have taken pics of the pillow-shams, which are now in the hands of MIL for final completion; I quilted it, but she is putting the backing on.)


I was still in the mood to sew (amazingly!), so I kept going. Wednesday night I started cutting up some adorable FQ's I bought off a fellow Quiltvillian. They are just adorable!
While at my sister's last weekend, I went through all my old quilting magazines (again), and sorted them; patterns I will someday make and mags that can finally be given away. I only set aside 19 mags open to patterns (sarcastically undertoned!) Gosh---when will I ever make them all?!?!? Anyway, Wednesday afternoon, I came across a hidden box of white, white, white that had been given to my from (who else?) my mother. It was given to me last summer with all the other fabric donated to church. I simply had forgotten about it. So...I pulled some white, I went and pulled the lovely FQ's, and pulled a McCall's Quilting (March 08, I think??) The mag is downstairs right now and I'm too lazy to go get it to double check. But I'm fairly confident the pattern was called "Emma's Garden", which I have now changed to "Barnyards and Prairies". (40"x46" not counting Prairie Points)
The top was finished at 10:30, but I wasn't ready to turn off the machine yet. I pulled some yellow-check gingham from the stash and prepared backing. I pulled SIX scrap strips of batting and pieced them together. Boy, it feels good to get some of those scraps used up. It's so easy to piece the warm-n-natural batting on the machine!
The quilting is simple; SID (stitch-in-ditch) verticle lines. This is only the second time I've worked with prairie points (and I have decided I simply LOVE them!!!), but it's the first time that they have been the "border" of the quilt. The pattern called to press under 1/4" of the backing and hand-stitch to the back of the points. However, I took my time ironing and pressing the backing so that I could machine stitch the backing to the front; it didn't turn out all that bad. I finished it up just before midnight and finally called it a night! :0)

Wednesday after, while lunch was cooking, I browsed online and read through the past weeks' worth of Moda's Bake Shop blog. I had read through this pattern (Bag Dispenser; posted in June, I think) before, but wasn't really sold on it. But, for some reason, I was motivated to try it and whipped one out using some 5" scraps I recently cut up. If you haven't looked at the Moda Bake Shop blog, you really should if you are looking for some inspiration. I love the fabrics, even though I don't have any of them. But the patterns are very universal (as most are).

Here are some other things I've been working on since Sunday...

I posted about the sixteen fabrics that I've been strippin' up, getting ready (finally) to attempt the pattern pictured. I still am amazed I was able to pull all sixteen directly from what I had on hand...

Here is the other set of strips I cut up with Jille Kemp's pattern (from Red Rooster Fabrics) in mind: It's the Berries (even though I'm not using the suggested fabrics.) I'm using all of Grandma's flowery fabrics for this one; I don't think any of the fabric was something I had purchased.

I took some time to make up the June block for Now-n-Forever, the BOM by Beth Ferrier. July has just been posted, so I'll see about taking that on after I come back from Mom's this weekend.

Last Wednesday, I spent some time working on my Rolling Star UFO. I think I have been calling it Rolling Rock in the past, but now that I have found the pattern, I have corrected myself. Six down, seven more to go before being able to applique them onto blocks. Hmmmm! I'm glad I found that box of white fabric!!!

Finally, I am posting a pic of my Wafter Cookies flimsey that I finished up last Wednesday. It has joined with Seven Shirts on the wall, awaiting quilting.

So, that's it folks (I think!) I believe I have completely updated the blog on my past week's worth of quilting.

Laundry is underway and I have the task of packing up all three girls for TWO WEEKS. They will be down at both sets of grandparents for the next two weeks; next week with my parents, and the following week with DH's parents. It's so nice that they (parents) get along and that they live 5 miles apart from each other :0) I have some professional development classes for the next two weeks, so they are helping us out so we don't have to cough up $500/week for daycare! Besides, it's VBS week next week at my mom's church, so the girls will take part.

Happy Friday!

Mama bought some new shoes....

I don't know what's more motivating for my running; the beautiful weather outside, or the new pair of shoes for the season ahead! This year, I'm sticking with Asics (bought the Gel-1140's in the color pictured). Tried 'em out with a VERY easy 2 miles yesterday; needing to walk a good half-mile. Whew! I'm actually gearing up to head out again shortly for another easy 2 miles. I think I'll give myself a week of "easy" miles in order to build up my mileage again. But, starting next Sunday, I reallllllly need to get back to some solid (and DEDICATED) training. Julie (running buddy) and I are planning on running a 10K & 5K back-to-back (called the Ultra) coming up in early June, so.....gotta get going!

I finished up a very (VERY) simple baby quilt this morning; I used a baby animal panel, so it went together lickity-split!

Anyway---off to get dressed for a run.....

Happy Easter!

Unexpected finishes...

Umm....I DID say I was going to work on DD yesterday, right????? Well.............

when I first went downstairs yesterday morning, the Seven Shirts's borders were still laying out in pieces. Rather than picking it all up and moving it to a new location, I just figured I'd get it finished........so I did. By noon, the final stitch was put in place, and now I have another "flimsy" that will await quilting. It is 64" x 76". A nice size.


Hey...where did that term originate? "flimsy"? This is the first time I've referred to any of my tops as flimsies, but I know many of you do........

Once lunch was over, I hung out upstairs, catching up with emails and blogs. Candace fell asleep and the other two were playing nicely upstairs. This really was IDEAL time to head back downstairs to finally dive into some DD work........but....20 minutes later, I was "resting my eyes." *wink* I am KICKING myself for staying up until 1:00 Friday night----I was so tired yesterday! 30 minutes later, Candace was still sleeping and the girls were STILL playing nicely (Barbie's will do that, huh?). Sadly, I still didn't have much ambition to head downstairs. So...........*gasp!*.......I actually dug out the Baby quilt from last summer that I had been hand-quilting. I literally had to blow off some dust.....oh dear!

After an afternoon of hand-quilting, and some machine quilting along the diagonals, she was ready for binding. WOW! After dinner (of FRESH fish that DH caught----yum!), I headed downstairs to sew the binding on. V'iola! An unexpected finish. For Baby is what I have decided to call it.




I have possible plans for this one, all depending on the gender of a coworker's baby that is coming due is April. Although the colors could be considered uni-gender, I still consider this more of a "girly" quilt because of the pink. My school's Science teacher and his wife are having their 5th child; they already have FOUR boys! Holy buckets! I'm hoping for a girl, but........another boy wouldn't be so bad for them either. Afterall, they already have all the boy clothes handy!

When I downloaded all the pics to the camera this morning, I came to realize that the girls must have borrowed the camera on more than one occasion yesterday. Here are just a few of the pics......

Candace was downstairs with me in the morning. I knew she had the camera and took pictures of everything from the movie on the television to her feet while standing on the carpet. Here is a shot she took of the shelf holding my threads. I haven't installed it on the wall yet; currently it is resting on two boxes that hold my 3.5" and 4.5" strips, which are resting on top of a tub that holds some pillow forms. ((Hey Carol---you recognize that wallhanging????--Carol had a giveaway not too long ago and I was given the wallhanging.))

Here is a shot she took of my "folding basket'" ----- ya know, that basket where I stock all my "new" fabric while it awaits washing/folding/cutting/pressing/etc. On the very top are the two pairs of Capris that were purchased a couple of weeks ago.....remember, the ones I bought for ONE DOLLAR.... They are Plus sizes and will provide lots of fabric for some wild colored quilt.

Cassie & Caitlyn took over the camera upstairs. Cassie is feeding her kitty some pizza.......







One of them took this great picture showing our loft view from the living room. That is DH's turkey on the right; pay no attention to the dead plant just to its left. On the left, you might be able to see the Orange Crush Wallhanging through the posts. Also, that "School House" quilt hanging was bought from a local Antique Shop last summer. It is machine pieced, but hand-quilted. The quilting is absolutely beautiful (of COURSE, duh, right??!) You can't tell from the pic, but some of the fabrics have clearly faded from what the originals were and there has been some bleeding of colors onto the muslin, but it's still a beauty.


And here I am, sporting the "no-shower-Saturday" look, working on the baby quilt.


So, today is Sunday. I've already made muffins, tidied up the Kitchen somewhat. DH said he would do up the dishes (he's trying to bribe his way to get fishing again). :0) I need to get some laundry going, and SADLY I have some school work that will need some attention today as well. I would be smart to take care of that first, but I want to get downstairs to FINALLY get some work done on the DD.!!!! Afterall, Andee did NOT lose an hour like most of us in the USA (she's in Arizona where there is NO time change.)

Happy Sunday

Okay, SHORT post tonight :0)

*chuckling at the comments from last night's post*

Okay...I'll make this one short and sweet---no photos, even! How's that?? :0)

I awoke @ 6:30; no shower (pee-u!); coffee and bagel; sandwiched and basted baby-quilt that I'd been ripping; avoided the heat of the day by heading downstairs to start quilting; got upset by TENSION ISSUES AGAIN!!! (but I think that's because the user has to play with the settings a bit more when using VERY thin fabric and batting (ummm...the batting is actually a piece of flannel); so, changed my "upstairs-hand-sewing-job" to quilting the baby quilt and put the Desert Stars away for another year ( :0) );

OKAY ---I LIED!!! I'll Ban my "never tell a lie" flag!!!!

Here's a shot of how the baby quilt was marked with cute concentric hearts and some grids; using verigated pastel thread.

Okay...back to the quick post-----lunch; did some more hand quilting on baby quilt; Candace fell asleep at 2:00; I headed downstairs to start piecing the backing (after IRONING NINE YARDS OF FABRIC!) for Cathy's Aunt Sukey; piddled with measurements and TRIPLE checked before making any cuts; didn't feel like basting---oh yeah : DUH! I needed to mark the quilt markings first; back upstairs to mark one corner of quilt using the hard-wood floor; made supper; did a little hand-quilting; hung out with girls and Dad watching "Wipe Out" (eh---it's okay; the big red rubber balls get us cracking up almost every time!); started to watch "I survived a Japanese Game Show," but laced up the laces 10 minutes later; ran 3.2 miles; shushed girls to bed; drank some water; logged on; posted.....oh wait...that's what I'm doing right now----no past tense there :0)

Whew---even typed like THAT, it still seems like a whirl-wind, huh?

Okay, I'm off to check out Blog Roll at Blogger.com (THANKS LORI!) I hope I find it and get it working!