Quilt - finished

How is it February?  I think I missed the entire month of January.  And I just realized that I never posted a picture of my finished quilt.  What a cliff-hanger. 

Here it is!  My brother and his wife were staying down the street at my parent's house the week of Christmas.  So we had to go hide in the back yard on Christmas eve to snap a few pictures of the quilt.  It was cold.  And I forgot to get a picture of the back. 

(and there is my foot and fingertips)

I've never done a sampler quilt before. It was a lot of fun mixing and matching.  And towards the end it was super mathematical/patterny.  I loved it.  I did a lot of figuring out how to use a bunch of scraps up and how to make sure all the blocks were balanced and had a bit of each color. It was a super fun experiment, but also exhausting.  I don't think I'll be making a quilt again in just a month for a while.   But it was fun to quilt again. I miss just sewing for fun.   

(oh look, there is my arm)

I ended up wrapping the seat covers in the old peach crate.  Did I tell you all about my cool peach crates? I bought a bunch from a farm that my siblings used to work for and I have all sorts of cool ideas for how to use them. They are really neat. 

And here is my little brother and his lovely wife opening their quilt. I'm kind of in love with this quilt.  Which is a good thing since I used up almost all of my favorite cream dot fabric on it.  The rest of the fabrics that I used are interesting, but I would have never picked any of them off the bolt.  Some of them are down-right ugly.  But that is the great thing about quilting - together they all look incredible.  

(my parents ordered the quilt on the wall off of eBay - I didn't make it)

Annadrew Quilt

I saw a red and white quilt in a magazine, but I was too cheap to buy the magazine.  So I just started sewing red and white triangles together.  Then I turned them into squares. I borrowed a lot of reds from Cindy because I wanted a lot of different reds. I immediately planned to make this quilt for Anna (before she even started dating Andrew) because I knew she loved reds. 

I couldn't decide how I wanted to lay them all out, so I sketched up a few different patterns.  All that engineering graph paper comes to great use when quilting.  I am glad I have several pads of it left.

Here is the finished product. I love the way that it turned out.  Funny thing, Annadrew has blue walls in their bedroom that go with the blue trim that I picked out. I had no idea at the time I made this.  Also, our walls in our bedroom are also blue now.  They look so much better than these plain white walls.  I will have to take an updated picture.  Actually, you can see one here. They look so much better in blue!!!!

 This is one of my favorite quilts... probably because it took so long to make.  I worked on it for over 15 months... off and on. 

A baby quilt for Ivy

 Most quilts start out as sketches. I usually spend time trying to figure out how to have the smallest amount of waste.

Here are the blocks sewn together. 

 Here I am playing with concepts. 

Here my concepts are starting to take shape. I thought the white space was too blank, so I added birds. 

Finished product. I really like the way it turned out.  It is great when ideas turn out better than you imagined.  Yay. 

Runners

 I made this runner for a relative of Mrs. Bailey's.

I threw this together from some scraps that I had.  It was a pattern in a book that I wanted to try.  I need to make some other ones now that I am retired.  ha ha. I have two books of patterns that I have only made two or three out of.  I will have to pull those out again. 

This was one of my first runners that I made. 

Quilt

I have decided to start documenting all of my past quilts (and eventually my future quilts too).  This quilt was made for Sarah and Josh's wedding.  It is called Shadowbox.  Cindy bought me the pattern while she was visiting North Dakota. 

A New Quilt

I was trying to clean out my sewing room and use up all the scraps that I had been holding on to for the past four years.  I started out by trimming everything to a 5" by 5" square and then I trimmed everything else to 3" pieces of various widths. I sewed all the 3" pieces (sorted by color) together and then trimmed them into rows. 

I just finished quilting and I am working on the binding now.  I was discussing with Cindy if the binding is my favorite part because it is the last step and it makes it look finished or because I find the hand stitching calming. It is probably a combination of the two. I decided to do a scrappy boarder to match the scrappy nature of the quilt.  It looks pretty awesome.  I will post a picture when I am finished.  

I would really really love one of Marie's crocheted felted flower pins to pin to my light blue pea coat.  I think the green one would look the best, but I wouldn't complain about any of them.  ha ha. I might have to break down and buy one soon.   

And I need a new wallet... Jared and I looked at this type of wallet at the Fossil outlet this weekend.  LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  If you click on the link you will see how many pockets this wallet has for cards.  It is the perfect size!  It zips!  And it holds change in the middle and has a place for dollar bills.  I think I might be getting a similar design, but much prettier pattern for my birthday.... :)  Maybe someone might buy me this.  Jared said he would think about it.  It is worth every bit of the $25 they were asking for it.  

This is going to be dinner sometimes the week after next.  I use the recipe a lot, but in a cast iron pan on top of my pizza stone. It makes a perfect crust that way.

And I want to make these because they are so cute!!  It is too bad that I can't make myself eat all things small and cute (such as baby carrots). 

Here is a place I go for baking inspiration (and the desire to move out to mountains - but I really like the east coast).  Look at all these wonderful desserts.  I have tried 4 or 5 of them; they have all been melt in your mouth amazing.

Speaking of snow and Maine... wasn't I speaking of them... oh, I was just thinking about them... anyhow, here is one of my favorite stores in Camden, Maine, "once was a tree".  They sell all sorts of neat wooden things.  I would love to live in Maine.  Do you hear that, oh company that I work for? Why don't you buy another company in Maine, I will move up there and run it for you.  I am just saying... I would definitely consider it. :) SNOW!!

And if you have snow, you need quilts to snuggle under... I might make this... someday. 

or maybe this one.

Speaking of fabrics... MODA

Ruby

Punctuation - there is a fabric in this collection that have ampersands on them.  How awesome is that? &&&

Both of the shown fabrics I have in my house right now.  I am just trying to decide what is the perfect pattern to use them. It is a curse to have a fabric that I really love because I have such a hard time picking the pattern that will use it up.  I would rather let it sit on my shelf and I can flip throw the pile and gaze at its beauty.  But fabric is meant to be shared!  I will get around to making a project out of at least one of these two lovely prints later this year (hopefully). 

odds and ends

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I want to make these soon.  I love the bright colors and the way it uses up scraps.  I also like because it showed up on my favorite food blog because the pattern is named, "chopped vegetables".  Notes for myself below.  :)
For each pillow, you will need:

20" Pillow Form
3 Print Fat Quarters (or scraps, as described in pattern)
1 Yard Coordinating Solid Fabric
1 Yard White or other Neutral Solid Fabric
1 1/2 yards 36” wide Muslin

For pillows with a visible zip closure, you will also need:

22" (or longer) All Purpose Zipper
Zipper Foot
4" x 4" Print Fabric Scrap (can be cut from fat quarters)
12" Fusible Hem Tape
1 Batting Scrap 22" x 22"
1 Batting Scrap 22" x 25"

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I love these.

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I like this bedroom for three kids too. The father of these three boys made all of the beds, without glue, so he can reuse the wood later on.  He also says his kids have bins of toys under the bed and they have to give away toys if they want to put in more toys.  I love the book shelves up on the top bunk.  I would love to have books that close to by bed (I do, just not on shelves, so they don't look that neat). Anyhow, I think this is a great small room. 

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How fun are these? Maybe next time I make peanut butter stuffed chocolate cupcakes, I might die some of the icing orange and yellow... hmmmm.  that might be weird.

I am going to go finish a quilt and maybe start on those chopped vegetable pillows.   I have to go sort through some scraps.  There are some really creepy people looking at the house across the street from us.  Ugh.  College kids. Two families have looked at the house so far... I liked them better. Oh, and speaking of neighbors, our neighbor next to us just got a chicken. WHAT?!? I have been asking Jared for chickens since we got married.  :)  I want free eggs (not that they are free since I have to pay for the feed - I will do a study to see if they are worth it - I wonder how many years until they pay for themselves...). 

I am making pizza for dinner with my Grotto pizza sauce from Anna and Andrew.  Yum yum yum.  I still have 4 or 5 jars.  Delicious!

Some pictures from life

Jared sang at the Salisbury national day of prayer prayer breakfast at the civic center, but the video isn't loading.  So you will have to imagine that for now. 

 Jared sang on the Huckabee show the week of my birthday.

 Jared sang at the Shorebirds a couple weeks later.

Jared sings around the house ALL the time.

Jared is singing at the Salvation Army start of their football season on Saturday.  He sang there last year and they asked him back.

These are some quilt blocks that I have been meaning to do something with.  Jared pulled them out on Monday and arranged them for me (not like the picture - I failed to take a picture of the final result).  I sewed all the squares together and put on the boarders.  Now I just need to quilt it (my plan for tomorrow night). 

When I had shoulder surgery in 2005, Mrs. Shelton bought me this puzzle to play with.  I have always loved changing the triangles around and coming up with different combinations.  Well, Jared and I were playing around with this the other day and we had tried several different combinations before we came up with this one.  I saw this one and I said, "it would be fun to make this a quilt." Jared replied, "a Christmas quilt!!!"  And that is how the following quilt came to be. 

 Here is the quilt. The funny thing about this quilt is that Jared cut all the blocks and sewed them together.  The only thing that I did was quilt it and sew the binding on.  When I had the flu, right before Sarah's wedding, we started to pick out the fabrics.  Jared was so excited about the quilt that he cut out all the squares and once he was finished that and saw that I wasn't moving off the couch, he asked how to use the sewing machine. Jared has hemmed and altered his own pants, so I am not surprised that he can quilt too. 

 Closer shot and a picture of my foot (for Anna).

 The quilt draped over one of our chairs.

 Another close up.   I love the bright colors and can't wait until Christmas to be able to hang this on our wall!!!  YAY!!

 This is the back of the Sarah and Josh quilt.  That is all I am showing you until they see it. 

 Here are some doodles of the back of the Sarah and Josh quilt.  I had to sketch everything to calculate the sizes and boarders that I need.

And this is another doodle of the Sarah and Josh quilt.  Once again, this is the back.  You will have to wait to see the front.  I don't think I even have any pictures of the front right now.  ha.  My goal is to have it to them by Christmas.  It is not that long to wait until you will get to see it.  :)  I can't decide if I like the Annadrew quilt or the Sarah and Josh quilt better... I guess that is a good thing.  I love them both.

I am headed to bed now.  Thanks to the neighbors for the free Internet.  It is super slow, but it let me post pictures.  Yes. 

Today at work I was audited by two guys from France.  I am not sure that we understood each other completely, but it seemed to go well.  I had to explain everything that I was doing in my department and how I keep records and track everything.  Thanks to my Dad for making me write everything down and stopping me from doing things in my head.  There have been many times that I have been tempted to do things in my head and not document them, but it always seems to turn out better when I can track and find everything that I have done.  It is much easier to repeat what I need to repeat and avoid what I need to avoid. 

My department is slowly shaping up to be quite a great place to work.  I am starting to have all my own forms and documents that I can start to use over and over again.  At first I was reinventing the wheel each time, but now I can reuse some of the things that I have created. It is nice.  I am looking forward to next year.  There should be a lot going on next year.  They are looking to grow my department by about 8 or 10 more people.  It is going to be crazy; it is going to be awesome.  I am going to love it.  I am going to get so much done.  I can't wait!!!

Plus, I mean, how can you not love chocolate peanut butter stuffed cupcakes?!?  And how can you not love pizza parties and fried chicken picnics for the winners who have the highest audit scores? It is our goal to make people smile as much as possible.  I think people are starting to understand that we are there to help them instead of feeling threatened by change. 

I love my job.  I am so thankful for it. God is so good to me.  I NEVER NEVER NEVER thought I would find a job that allowed me to use so much of my degrees and that let me have this much fun on the Eastern Shore.  That whole year of misery that I spend in their engineering department was all preparing me for running this department.  I often asked Jared why I had to work at such a boring miserable job, now I know.  I am able to relate to some many things because I used to work with them.  And I am so thankful for a boss that talks to me like a normal person and for co-workers with a sense of humor and employees that do what they are told and want to do a good job and interns that follow directions and are creative. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love my job.  I never thought I would be able to say that.  God is great.  Follows are the words to a wonderful old hymn.  It is so true and has been such a comfort to me since the days during college.  I know the igrace tune to this song (if you haven't listened to igrace music yet, you need to head over to their website RIGHT NOW and buy all their cds -- my kids are going to be raised on igrace, Judy Rogers, and GT and the Halo express, I am just saying, they are that good, they never get old and really, how can you beat the words of hymns (unless it is scripture, in that case, go buy some gt and the halo express cds)?  Go buy yourself some igrace and be blessed greatly!); that is where I first heard it. I just love the words.  I listen to this hymn often.  Praise God for his goodness and grace. He gives us more than we could ever hope or imagine.  He is awesome.  

1.Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord who rises
With healing in His wings;
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after rain.

2.In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God's salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say—
E'en let the unknown morrow
Bring with it what it may.

3.It can bring with it nothing,
But He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing,
Will clothe His people too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And He, who feeds the ravens,
Will give His children bread.

4.Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their wonted fruit shall bear;
Though all the fields should wither
Nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice,
For, while in Him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice.

Sunday afternoon I was sitting on the couch reading a book, while Jared was taking a nap (I just don't get naps - they make me more tired), and I thought to myself, "I am really cold; I should put on a jacket. I bet Jared has turned the ac really low." So, I put on a sweatshirt and huddled under a blanket on the couch and kept reading my book.  When Jared woke up and saw me he asked if I was sick because he had actually made it warmer in the house than it normally is.  Yikes.  I took my temperature and it was 101.7.  Yikes again.  I took medicine, felt better, was really cold again, was really hot, and tossed and turned all night.

Monday, Independence day, we ran by the Shelton's early in the day to pick up some fabric for a Christmas quilt that we are making.  Jared treated me to a coffee smoothie at Rise Up because I thought it would perk me up.  I was feeling so tired and hot.  We came home and cut all the pieces out for out quilt.  Preview below.  Jared wants to change the light blue color to something else... And we might replace the yellow to all match.  The reds are scraps from Anna's quilt.  The quilt is based on a wooden puzzle that I have, called a Colorado puzzle.  We picked up the orange, dark green, and dark blue from Mrs. Shelton's collection.  The blue actually had a print on it, but it looks solid in that photo above. 

Christmas Quilt

Colorado Puzzle

Jared went outside to cut the grass and I started to read again.   Then because I was feeling particularly lousy, I went upstairs and watched tv.  I was hoping it would lull me to sleep.  Once again, I started freezing.  I had sweatpants, socks, and a sweatshirt on and I was bundled up under two blankets.  I checked my temperature again and it was 103.5.  I took 3 Motrin and sat on the couch in my delirious state until Jared came in from washing my car and told me that I needed to go to the doctor.  We went to Your Doc's In, but they told me I was a mystery.  My lungs were perfectly clear, my tonsils were great, my lymph nodes weren't swollen, but I was radiating heat.  I was so hot.  We stopped by my parents house to drop off some gifts for Sarah, that people at church had given me on Sunday.  Mom and Dad fed me English's chicken and sweet potato biscuits.  Last night again I tossed and turned all night, cold one minute and hot the next. I am sorry, Jared. 

Anyhow, that is how I spend my day off.  It wasn't the best holiday, but it could have been worse.  I could be throwing up or in pain.  I don't mind being cold.  Hopefully whatever this is will pass before Sarah's wedding. 

Happy wedding week, Sarah!!! 
I love you.

This is a new flannel baby quilt that I am making.  I love the purple dots on boarder!!  It is so soft and wonderful.  :)  I am planning on finishing quilting it today or tomorrow.  

 I have made two new aprons out of this material. This is a close up of the bottom and the ruffle.  They are both full aprons and so much fun for Christmas.  I need to think of more people to give them to.

 

These are a few of the things I have made this week:  thin crust pizza, chocolate cake truffles, and apple muffins.  My favorite thing I made was gingerbread thin and chewy cookies.  They were so good.  Yum. Yum. Yum.  I think people are going to get a lot of baked goods for Christmas this year.

I am going to babysit the nieces and nephews today (there should be a word, like sibling that covers all of them... maybe niehews or niphews or nephces).  I might get some pictures if they aren't too crazy.  ha.