Happy New Year

Wow, it is hard to believe 2014 will draw to a close tonight. As I look thru photos of this past year I realize how blessed I really am. We had more up’s than down’s and I call that a definite win J  There seems to be many things to look forward to in 2015, travel, graduations.  There will be new opportunities and challenges to be faced and conquered.  I look forward to them all.

While I celebrate tonight with my family I hope you can do the same with yours and if not with family then I hope you are in the company of good friends. 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!!

Menu Monday

I like to have a basic idea of what my family is going to eat during the week. This works for me because if I don’t have a plan for meals we usually eat out.  That gets expensive really fast for my family of 6 adults. I am also a list girl.  I like to see what needs to be done and more importantly I like to cross stuff off with pretty colored markers J  I use to make my menu’s according to days of the week but this got complicated for my OCD brain when I didn’t want to make spaghetti on Wednesday; now I number them J  I also like dessert so most dinners have one but I don’t plan for breakfasts or lunches.  My kids are older teenagers and young adults, I just have to keep enough staples on the shelves to feed them at grazing times.

The weather has turned a wee bit chilly here in Texas which is perfect time to make some soup and bread.  I will also toss in some comfort foods that are perfect for chilly nights.

1.    Sausage and tortellini soup with toast with misc. cookies and ice cream

2.    Fried chicken, mashed spuds, veggie with cream puffs for dessert

3.    Split pea and ham soup with grilled cheese sannys with caramel cupcakes to completely over stuff yourself

4.    Breakfast dinner, French toast, sausage and eggs.  No dessert on breakfast nights

5.    Chicken casserole using up leftovers from the fried chicken and salad with chocolate mousse cups for dessert to make it special

6.    Meatloaf night, ick, but everyone else eats it and hubby cooks it can’t argue with that. Hubby has requested baked spuds and salad to go with this feast. I will make a chocolate pie to round out the night

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7.    MIY night!  Clean out the leftovers or  Make It Yourself

I know it's not New Year's yet but I can no longer put of getting my act together.  I lack organization.  I really need to address this problem and for me it has gotten to the problem stage.  To tackle this I have gotten myself a Life Planner with some snazzy Sharpies.  Normally, I would my Ipad but because I have a first generation Ipad the software isn't compatible with the planner apps you can get.
After HOURS of trying to decide what I wanted out of a planner and what I wanted to do to "bling" it up and make it mine.  I went with The Ultimate Planner from The Nifty Planner  I like that it has a month long view followed by a weekly view with a spot for my notes. I haven't gotten to the menu planner or the task manager yet but I can't see how I would be displeased.  I do want to get a few more colored markers and some sticker to join this party.

I made my list last night when I seem to have my plan for the next day going thru my head so that today I just had to look down and BAM I am telling me what to do.  It will help me stay on task with all things that swirl around in my head including weekly blog postings :-)  

Gemini Quilt top done :-)

I am really trying to get the quilt kits that I bought on shop hop done before Christmas.  Might use a few of them as gifts but really want to get them into my store so someone else might be able to snuggle up under one of my creations.  This is another kit that I got from Stitched With Love, if you are in the McKinney/Dallas area I really, really recommend you go spend some time in this store.  The ladies are wonderful and super helpful plus, there shop is bright and inviting.

This quilt is going together really fast.  I am falling in love with the patterns from Villa Rosa Designs.  They look fantastic and go together without much fuss if any fuss at all.  I hope to have it all put together tomorrow so look for pictures of the done top soon.

Finally Finished

Only thing left to do with this quilt is put the binding and the label on:-)  T-Shirt quilts can be difficult for me because I can spend way to much time on the thought process of how it should be laid out.  In this case my customer wanted the pink shirt to be centered.  I quilted it in a general large meander so to not take away from the shirts.  This will definitely wrap someone in memories :-)

Sashings and Center of T-Shirt Quilt

I have decided to use grey sashing and maroon corner stones for this quilt; seemed to blend nicely with the all the shirts.  The blocks will be 11 1/2 inches before sashing then I will add 2 inch sashing and the center is roughly 35 inches.  I am not set on my final design yet but I have a pretty good idea in my head how it will look :-)

Here are the sashing colors before cutting, you can see I am going to be using my Accuquilt cutter with the 2 inch strip cutter.

And here is the center all sewn together

These are the small pocket prints that were on some of the front's of the shirts and I hated not using them.

Tomorrow will be squaring up the rest of blocks and adding sashings and hope it works out like the plan in my head :-)  

Will keep you updated :-)

A T-Shirt Quilt

I have been commissioned to create a T-Shirt memory quilt.  I spent a better part of the day cutting and ironing but I am really happy with the progress that is happening.

Some shirts had backs as well so it took some careful cutting but after a few hours and The Mummy for background noise I was left with these

Tomorrow I will cut the sashing and the corner stone and I should be totally read to start sewing on Monday :-) 

All Done :-)

This quilt certainly challenged my math skills or should I say my lack of math skills :-)  I am so happy that it came out as well as it did.  I spent way too much time with the seam ripper.  I will put her up on the frame next week but first I need some time to think of how I want to quilt her.

The pattern is Atlantic Avenue by Sassafrass Designs

Christmas Quilt

I know it's been just short of forever since I posted and I am not going to bore you with excuses as to where I have been :-)

Christmas is just around the corner and I really don't have a Christmas quilt of my own.  Have made a few and given them away.  Nothing has ever screamed "KEEP ME", until shop hop this year.

I have got a pretty good start on her today :-)  She will done in all batiks in shades of red and green and a cream print for background.

I have Miss to keep me company this week so should get lots done

A few years ago, my hubby's cousin asked me "can you make a quilt out of old jeans?" Of course I said, "Sure, no problem."  He said he would get a box of jeans in the mail to me very soon.  I forgot all about this conversation till about a year later when this box came in the mail.  The size put me off for a while plus I had other things to do and he did say no rush :-)

It has been over a year since the box arrived and I am finally getting around to emptying it.  The jeans just kept coming.  I took out pair after pair out of the box.  What size quilt is this going to be, OMG.

A few days and some very sore arm muscles my stack of jeans now looks like this.  I am slowly cutting them in to 6 1/2 inch and 3 1/2 inch strips and sewing them back together,  I will be using Yellow Brick Road pattern.  This is where I am at so far.

I have a long way till it's ready for the frame but it HAS to be done and ready to hand off by July 8th. On the 9th myself and my two daughters will start our girls only vacation road trip to see my family and hubby's family in Illinois and South Dakota.  I will be handing the jeans back to their owner but in a useful form again.

First block down 90 or so to go :-)

Pretty in Pink

I have spent most of the week finishing up a baby for a cutie that just joined our friends family.  You can see that had way too much fun with my embroidery machine and made 2 label for her quilt.  I also made her big sister a quilt which of course needed a label.  

Are those not the cutest little feet ever!!

I couldn't decide between the 2 different label I made so I put them both on.

    

Block of Week and Month

I told you that I was going to be involved with 2 BOM's and 1 BOW well, that is what I spent my weekend working on .  I didn't have an iron most of last week and you know you cannot piece without an iron. I totally felt like I was falling behind and I know if I get behind that will be the death of it.
My group is using Carol Doak's 50 paper pieced stars. We are just finishing up with California and can I say that this star was a bear to get done; I do enjoy paper piecing but California almost sucked the fun out of it.

 All 5 of my stars together     

California        

 Wishes Block 2

 Aurifil Block 2   

On the Frame Today

I had a good time quilting this for a friend.  This will be a great gift :-)

 

Not gone

I know I didn't post at all last week but with this crazy weather kids were off work and everyone was home. I haven't been completely lazy, I did get plenty of  quilting done.  

I finally got my purple quilt up on frame. This one is for me :-) I have been storing these Asian prints until I found the perfect pattern to show off the panel and the prints.  The pattern is originally Winter Magic and when I saw this kit at the Houston Quilt Show I had to have it for my mom; her favorite color is blue and her favorite holiday is Christmas.  When I looked at it closer I saw that my Asian prints were perfect for this so I made 2.  All that is left is binding then that bad girl will keep my toes warm.

Aurifil Thread is having a free Block of the Month with a chance to win some free thread each month.  How can I not be in on this??  I absolutely love Aurifil thread! I have used King Tut and Superior Thread but in the end I just adore Aurifil for piecing my quilts. I am sure there are a ton of good reasons to love Aurifil some even technical but mine is because Aurifil doesn't leave HUGE dust bunnies in my machine.

In keeping with my New Year's Goal list I will be using another fat quarter bundle I have in my stash, Summer Breeze by Moda.

I think with it being January the colors of this bundle make me happy and looking forward to spring.  This block was fun to make and I can't wait for next month's.

  

Make sure you join the Flickr group and post a picture of your block for a chance to win some free 

Aurifil Thread

Purple Butterflies

I was asked to make a special quilt for  little girl who is fighting for her life in a battle against leukemia.  Her favorite color is purple and she adores butterflies.  We wanted to include the names of her friends in her kindergarten class.  This is what I came up with. I didn't use a pattern they are just embroidered 8 inch blocks with 2 1/2 inch sashing.  The butterfly embroidery comes from KCD Designs  I had a lot of fun making this quilt and hope that Breanna can feel hugs and prayers from Texas.  Sorry for the dark picture but it was raining all day which made good lighting hard to find.

Aurifil Thread

How can a person not love Aurifil Thread??  It is my favorite to piece with because it seems to put off the the lowest amount of dust and has the brightest and most brilliant colors.I am sure there are loads of other reasons to use Aurifil but that is my favorite.  Recently, Alex Veronelli of Aurifil had a give on Facebook and  long story short lookie what mama got in the mail over the holidays.  I would have posted about it sooner but I had the plague or something like it for a better part of December.   I have some plans for that green let me tell you and off white is always in demand here. The orange and brown will be added to my applique threads and can I say I love the wooden spools.

Block of the Month

I have joined in a few different Block of the Month's this year and this is the first one is through the Fat Quarter Shop to help raise awareness and money for the Make-A-Wish foundations.  The quilt is called Wishes and will have 12 blocks so finishing up in December. Normally, I would purchase a new bundle of fat quarters but in an attempt to stick to my New Year's goals I am going to use a bundle that I all ready have in my stash, Tending the Earth by Moda and a beautiful hand dyed beige for my back ground also from my stash.  It really is bordering on hoarding the amount of fabric I have.  Here is the first block.  It went together really fast about an hour and half including cutting time.

It's the New Year and that means time for resolutions on how we will all better ourselves, I almost always fail at these so this year I am going to do like so many others and set goals and not a ton of them.

I think having specific goals is an important key for me so that is why I am writing them here make myself accountable even if it is just in my head.

-I would like to make some quilts for family. I have 6 in mind so that is a lot of quilting

-I'd like to make/give more of my time to charity quilting. I would like to make a Quilt of Valor and at least 4 quilts for Quilts for Kids. I have also joined in the Wishes Quilt A long Block of Month.  I haven't made a sampler yet so this is exciting and at the end of year will auction quilt on Ebay with all proceeds  donated to Make-A-Wish. Make-A-Wish is a fantastic charity that makes it possible for children with life threatening illness to have a wish granted. You should join in :-)

-I need to do some serious stash busting (always!). To be specific, it would be great if ALL my quilting fabric could be contained in one bookshelf. (That's a lofty one!) I'll need to do lots sewing and not much buying!

-I'd like to keep working stocking my store and marketing my long arm services. I enjoy the quilting process more than the piecing process these days.

-I would like to write on my blog and work on my photography more.  Time to pick up my Nikon :-) 

Here's to a wonderful New Year!