Herd of Turtles

I've had a busy weekend for working on quilting projects.  I cut up over 45 t shirt quilts to help a friend.  I cut up the t-shirts, ironed on the interfacing, and cut them to the 12.5" square size.  I still have around 21 t-shirts to go for her and then I have some that I will be using for myself. 

In addition to that, I signed up to do another test pattern.  It's a nice spring one but, of course, you won't get to see it for awhile yet.  I am in one of the most difficult parts of it...picking out the fabrics that I want to use.

I also managed to work on the Herd of Turtles wall hanging.  The pattern is from Pacific Rim and I am having trouble doing it their way so have adopted my own way of doing it.  If it turns out good enough when finished it will be for a present.  Can you see the herd of turtles starting to take shape?

This method uses two fabric for the top of the quilt.  You cut away what you won't need.  In this case, the brown will be the turtles and the border and the blue /aqua is the sea they will swim in.  You leave gaps in the brown to get the turtle shell affect.

Wish me luck.

Tragedy...almost

Whew!  Have you ever had one of those days where you have a project and it should be relatively simple but it doesn't turn out to be?  That's the Herd of Turtles wall hanging that I am doing for a good friends betrothed.  Isn't that a great word?  Betrothed.  Anyway, I picked out the pattern ({Pacific Rim) because she loves turtles.  I bought the fabric and but didn't realize how hard the one fabric was to mark.  Got rid of that fabric and picked out the brown.  Turtles are brown so it should work.  I still had problems with marking it so am doing it the long way around.

What's that you ask?  i drew the pattern on freezer paper and am slowly cutting and stitching it as I go.  Pacific Rim has a whole line of lovely patterns that are for two fabrics.  This is one.  You basically cut away what is not needed and stitch.  Then you finish your quilt in the normal way.  This is working out but there was one more "almost" tragedy to it.  I had it on my table when Jessica came over to clean.  She accidentally bumped into it and spilled my soda that was also on the table.  Just a couple of minutes before then I had moved the Herd of Turtles to the bed to work on something else.  The soda (a full glass0 tipped over and ruined between 2-3 yards of Heat n Bond Lite and my pattern that I was half way making templates on.  Back to the drawing board with those.  At least the Turtles are safe and I don't have to start over - again.

:)

I also received a package in the mail from one of my online quilting friends.  She sent me two pieces of pink (and I *mean* pink) fabric.  Not sure yet what I will do with those.

The fabric is a little deeper pink (on the right) than is shown but it still is a pretty pattern to it.  She also sent me a counted Cross Stitch kit.  Isn't it cute?

Well that's about it this time.  I will be updating the medieval quilt blog also in the next day or two.  Check it out if you have time.  I am in the middle of doing a mock top to see if it is the right size or not.  :)

Happy Stitching everybody.

Vacation is Over

It's Sunday and tomorrow I go back to work.  Sigh...BIG SIGH.  LOL.  I like my work so it's not that bad but I could get used to having some extra time to work on things.  Things like cleaning the apartment. for company.  Tuesday Harmony came over and we had a quilting play date.  It was a special treat since she has kids at home and managed to get a babysitter so she got away from that too.  I believe that my last post showed pictures of the clean apartment.  Well It's a little cleaner since I sent back with Harmony some fabric.  I was able to empty out those three milk crates of fabric and it cleaned up that corner pretty good.

Of course during her visit it looked more like this:

Harmony also gave me the cutest birthday present and I found just the right place for it.  I love this.  Perhaps I'll not lose my keys now.  LOL.  Don't count on it.  The wheel on the sewing machine moves also so it is fun to play with.  (grins).

Connie, another quilting friend, also managed to come over for lunch and stayed a little longer.  Actually it was Connie who threw the fabric at Harmony for the photo opportunity.  Not my fault...really it wasn't.  Umm...I just had the camera in my hand. 

Then on Wednesday and Thursday I planned on what else to work on.  More on that probably in another post.

Friday came around rather quickly and my Niece in Law Jessica (mother of five of the cutest kids you ever saw) came over to help clean.  She is my biggest supporter on getting the apartment all cleaned up.  She doesn't know how to sew but I told her she could do a tote bag.  Simple...No measuring even.  So we set to work.  She wanted to give it to one of her girls, who loved it, and now is thinking she has to do two more for the other two girls.  I think she did a great job on it.

Today also was a good day for mom.  Even though I was 10 minutes late for bringing her breakfast, she cheered up when I hung up her mini wall hanging that I had finished.  She also had gotten a perm and wasn't wearing a hat (a shocker by itself) so I, of course, had to take a picture of her.  :)

 

Overall it was a good vacation.  Made progress on projects, got to see a person take pride in what they did, and made Mom happy.

That's it for now.  I have to get back to working on projects so I can show you more next time.

Everybody have a great day.

HUGS to all.

The Apartment is CLEAN!!!!!!

Well as clean as it's going to get.  LOL.  I'll slowly work on getting some changes done to it (read that as I'll hire my niece to do it) but for now it is all ready for my quilting play date with Harmoy and Connie.

To prove that I actually got it (Thank you Jessica) clean at one time anyway, here are some pictures.  It's a small apartment.  So first of all here is the view as you stand in the doorway.

Look mom!  Clear pathway all the way through the apartment!  LOL. 

The first area is the kitchen.  No cupboards except in the sink area so that's why you see everything out.  Also notice the slanting ceiling and walls.  That's a decorating nightmare.

The little hallway has the bathroom off to the left and two single closets that are great to hide...I mean store stuff.  Not large enough of course since it is my only storage space.  But after you go past the hallway it opens up to the sewing area.

Did you notice that you can see the carpet?  I'm not sure how long that will last tomorrow.  LOL.

The other, and final, area of the apartment is the living room.  Aptly named since I virtually live in it.  It has the TV, DVD player, the A/C (can't forget that in the summertime can we), the computer and the bed.  Almost everything that I need.  LOL.

That's your tour of my CLEAN apartment.  We'll see how long it will stay that way tomorrow.  Hope you enjoyed the peak into my inner sanctum.  I'll report later on what we do tomorrow.

HUGS to all

July 3, 2012

What do you do when you have blocks you no longer like for whatever reason?  If you're me...you make them into mini wall hangings for your mother.  Mom is 92 and in a nursing home.  She only has room for mini wall hangings (around 12 in size).  I am totally starting over with my Baltimore blocks and the center block which I first did by needleturn didn't turn out the greatest.  Mom thought it was beautiful so I asked her if she wanted me to finish it for her and she said yes.  That was indication that her eyesight is bad because mother is a picky person.  LOL.   Here it is.  I just have to put the sleeve on it by Sunday and then can give it to her.

As you can see, the face isn't straight, the flowers have more pointed points but the leaves don't.  Go figure.  Still it was good to know that I could use it after all .  Some of you might be wondering why I'm not using it or why I'm going to start all over.  That's because I found out that I wasn't consistent with which side of the fabric I used.  In addition the fabric that I was using came in white on white and a cream on cream.  I, evidently, mixed them up and have some on cream and some on white.  I can hear you quilters opening up your mouths to tell me that I can still use them and it will give it a different look is all.  You are absolutely correct.  HOWEVER that is not what I envisioned the block to look like and it ruined it for me.  Back to the drawing board.  :)