Can You Believe it? More Sewing!

 Kathy and I worked on getting the borders on this Lil' Twister quilt.  Kathy also prepped the backing and made a scrappy Halloween binding.  We ran out of energy to get it all tied and whatnot, don't think this one will be done this Halloween.  However, now we think we should make a Christmas one!

 Since Kathy ran out to JoAnn's and picked up black fabric for the borders on the other quilt, I finally was able to get borders on this wallhanging which will be for Coleman.
I also worked on my bow ties...but didn't take a picture of those..made one more spool with the scissor fabric that was leftover from Grandma Nan's quilt several years ago.  Cut one up for Becky and Kathy too!  

We had a really nice weekend...got in lots of sewing and life is finally feeling better.  The weather here in Arizona is now perfect and is the reason we love living here--at least in the winter!

Randy's Grands' Quilts

In 2003, Randy's first grandchild was born and this is the quilt that kicked off my passion for quilting.  The grandbaby's name is Hailey.  In the picture is Rachel--she is now 21!

 Heather and Chris' next child was a boy--Christian got the "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" quilt done in zoo fabrics the following year.  Below is Christian snoozing on his quilt.

Next came Olivia who got one of a pair of "Screaming Yellow Crib Quilts" I made in 2006.  Isn't she a doll?  

I can't seem to find any documentation of which quilt I gave to Phylisity!  I think it might have been one of these because it is a baby quilt between the sister before and after it, but I honestly don't know!  The kids live in Georgia right now so I haven't seen them or the quilts in forever.  

Their last child is Kara Reneè (yes four girls and one boy!)  and she got this quilt.  

Then Randy's other daughter, Rachel (who used to live with us when she was nine and who came every summer for years to stay with us) had her first baby a week ago!  Randy will soon be on his way to see Leon in Norway and he will be delivering this Card Trick quilt for him.  I also sent an Eye Spy Quilt for him--and some burp cloths and clothes too.  Here is Leon :)

Some of My First Quilts :)

 I decided I should share some of the first quilts I ever made that haven't made a blog appearance yet.  This was Strawberry Shortcake (quilt # 12) This one was not too hard since it is all squares and I used strawberry fabric and just loved it.  It has long since been worn out and last I knew Randy had it, but not sure if he still does.

Made this one "Animals in the Pines" for my sister Tina.  she loves horses and she loves the quilts I make her.  Funny how my taste in fabric has changed since then, I would never put this stuff together now--lol!

 

This one was a kit in Fabric Trends called "Surfaces" that I did for my daughter Hannah.  See that light green?  I just cut up a bit of it for a bow tie or a spool (or both) and it made me smile to think of the early days of quilting in Wisconsin!  I have a large chunk of that darker green that was the matching valance...just dug it out the other day and I think I gifted it to Megan for her stash--should have cut a spool and bow tie from that too!

 This next one is the one I made for Randy's mom Margaret when she had cancer.  She has now passed and Randy's sister has this quilt in Ohio.  This was my second Irish Chain quilt and I love how it came out.

 This was a wild and crazy quilt I made for Mac--my youngest back when he was about 10.  He wore this one out but I think he still has it.  Both my boys LOVED that flame fabric.  "Do you Believe in Magic" was the pattern.

 

 This one was made for my mom after her heart attack in 2004.  She was in AZ and I was in WI and wanted to send her some heart health so I made "Heart and Soul" it was my first pieced border and was a bit tricky for me but I love how the whole thing came out and again just yesterday I ripped apart the remaining strip set that was STILL in my drawer and cut it into bow ties and added it to the bow tie quilt--in the post yesterday you can see three purple fabrics right in a row.  That Cheddar Bow Tie quilt is super extra special to me just for all the memories stitched in!  Purple is my mother's (and my daughter's) favorite color!

Still Sewing :)

 I decided that since I already had a few extra blocks made and my cheddar quilt isn't quite as big as I envisioned that I would keep on making little bow ties til I got another row made.  Here is last night's block.  I need about three more to make a row and hopefully I can call that top done.  BJ gave me one of the fabrics above--think it was the pink but not sure so it is fun to bits and pieces from other people's stash showing up in this quilt.

I am still working on my Sentimental Stitches October challenge doll quilt.  Here is the picture from the book which is the goal (Kathleen Tracy's book) and below my hand sewn hexies so far.  Today I made the brown one while watching the Packers play the Jaguars.  Seems to work well for me to set a goal of one hand sewn flower per game!  At least I am making progress on it this way.  By the end of the season there should be a little doll quilt made.

I have also been knitting dishcloths.  Right now working on a yellow and white one.  So easy...thinking about signing up for a sock knitting Craftsy class AND for Weeks Ringle's designing class.  I have no real desire to design, but love Weeks and want to see what I can learn from the class anyways!

Just Around the Bend is a Flimsy!

 While this wasn't the UFO drawn for this month for me, I am substituting it because it was someone's UFO and I got it done.  Will send it out to be quilted.  Today I finished up Just Around the Bend--the Debbie Caffrey mystery quilt UFO I picked up at a fabric thrift sale.  I was happy to get this top done while sewing along with Bonnie Hunter!  It went together really well and I cut up the little leftover bits into spools and folded up the big bits.  I still need to make the backing and I have not yet decided who will get this one, but I have someone in mind--maybe.

I need to get a better picture of it out in the sunshine...the green and cream aren't solid but they read as such from the distance of the picture.

Kathy has been hard at work finishing up the border for the Halloween Lil' Twister quilt too.  Can't wait to have that one done.  I am always looking ahead to the next quilt, ha!  I can hardly wait for Bonnie to announce the colors and yardage for the next mystery quilt.  Only have a few days til the info comes out but the wait is killing me!  Just want to see if I have enough of her colors in my stash or if I need to change it up again.  

We went over to Megan's today for a few hours and she gave me a perm.  Yay, I needed it!  Also watched a movie tonight "Soldier of Fortune" which was kind of lame, but I knitted away through it anyway.  

Hope your Saturday went well!

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2012!

It is time once again for the  Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side!  This time around I decided to enter my Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt that was started last November and finished about six months ago. I didn't follow Bonnie's color scheme because I was going with what I had in my stash which was green and gold.  As the quilt came together I suddenly realized I had a Packer quilt and being from Wisconsin I was thrilled!  GO PACK GO!

 It was quilted by Ros Atwood and she put in some text which really made the quilt even more special.  Here you can see GREEN BAY PACKERS

 and here GO PACK GO!

 I am Bonnie's Number One Fan (just ask her, lol!)  and I look forward to making her mystery quilt every year--fabric requirements come out on Halloween if you want to get in on making one of her gorgeous designs!  Thanks for letting me show off my Orca GREEN BAY quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

 Andee in AZ

Friday Funday!

I won this AWESOME tablerunner from Darlene over at Quilting Daze for Christmas Through the Year.  I am having such a good time participating in that and have much of my Christmas list done because of it.  Thanks Darlene!  

I finally added what I had hoped would be the last row to my Cheddar Bow Tie blocks!  I am thinking it is going to get yet one more "last row" LATER!  I have four more blocks done and think I should stick this away for a bit since I am tired of dealing with my seam allowance issues!  

Meanwhile I worked on my Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild name tag.  I like it though I veered off the tutorial in more than one place to make is simpler for me to do.  Thanks again Alissa for the tutorial.  

Another thing I did today was cut and cut and cut out some spools for Bonnie's challenge.  On the left is the huge pile I have accumulated.  Becky gave me some of these, so the pile in the middle is for her and the one next to it is for Kathy (sewing buddy) who also told me she has some for me.  It is fun to trade fabric and have a few friends to do it along with.  The three of us are eagerly waiting Bonnie's Mystery too.  I think BJ and Ros will be joining in on it and I am hoping Lauren will do her first Bonnie mystery this year.   

Last weekend, one of the things I bought at the fabric thrift sale was an incomplete Debbie Caffrey mystery called "Just Around the Bend" the gal had sewn 24 partial blocks and had all the fabric, directions and backing fabric for sale for 20 bucks.  Her sewing is great, this gal has the 1/4 seam allowance down...so I decided to take it and finish it.  I am sure I am the only person out there buying and finishing other people's UFO's lol.  So I finished all the blocks...and played with a few layouts.  There are LOTS of options.

 Pretty sure this second one is what it will wind up being...I tried to layout a third one and wound up twisting the blocks back around to this layout!

 This Christmas one is online at http://www.fibersandstitches.com/10_General_Info/FAS-Consignment-Pg1.htm for sale..but it is the same blocks just in a different layout.  Kind of cool, but I still like the second option better!

 My roommate Randy is happy it is finally cooler outside and is now back to his stained glass hobby.  He makes really cool stuff!  I think this is going to be a little box maybe for his youngest daughter Rachel who just had her first baby (a boy, Leon in Norway).

 I started listening to this audiobook earlier, but Kathy isn't feeling well and has been in bed most of the day.  Last I checked on her she had developed a migraine.  UGH so this book is waiting til she feels good enough to sew because she wants to hear it too!

Now, what shall I sew?

My Weekend

Got up early yesterday and met up with Lauren to go to yet another fabric thrift sale.  I got a few things for me, and lots of stuff for Megan now that she is sewing up a storm.  Then the three of us met up with BJ and Ros at 35th Ave. Sew and Vac for the black bag Friday.  It was my first time participating, but basically every third Saturday they give a little something to us and have a great sale with coupons.  The store is HUGE and I can't believe I have never been there.  It is really organized and had a great selection of fabrics. I bought too much and didn't even take pictures lol.  BJ also bought me a yard of fabric to replace the free yard I was to get from the kits we ordered together awhile back.  I picked out a cool orange fabric I fell in love with.  I bought fat quarters of the same kind of fabric in a few other colors.  We all went to breakfast before we headed back home so I could make it to the PMQG meeting at one.

 I heart this quilt.  This is Alyssa Lichner's Totally Groovy quilt from the Pile 'O Fabric Quiltalong.  I almost joined in, but had plenty to keep my busy so I didn't.  Now seeing hers done (and free motion quilted on her Juki) I wish I had done one too!  Love her colors, love the texture of it, WOW.  Alyssa shared this at the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Saturday.  There was tons of other show and tell (on the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild blog if you want to see them) and we had a good meeting. I shared my tiny modern Lil' Twister.
Alyssa also designed our logo and this cool name tag.  This is as far as I am on mine so far.

 I won ALL these prizes at our meeting.  Jona gave us one of her apron patterns, Gina gave us a quilt pattern and the Warm Company donated a ton of different products for us to try.  It was really fun for everyone to win, not once, not twice but three and four times!

 That same night Kathy and I met up with some friends for the all Deaf band Beethoven's Nightmare.  It was fun to see them and see so many of my favorite local signing people!  Here I am with Paula, Tracy, Eireen and Miki.

 Today I baked Pumpkin bread, Colonial Seed Cake, Spaghetti sauce and watched the Packers.  Did a little bit of cutting and organizing fabric.  I managed to hand sew the red hexi flower below too.  Keeping up with my one flower per game!  I also graded tests..the day flew by and we are really tired tonight for some reason.

Great Mail Day and Presewing a Nametag

 Alyssa over at Pile 'O Fabric http://pileofabric.com/post/1246884-tutorial-quilted-lanyard-name-tag posted a very cool name tag tutorial for those who want to try it at tomorrow's PMQG meeting.  I picked out fabric for it tonight and cut it into strips.

 Then I decided to try making the cactus.  It didn't go too badly.  It is  TINY!

 I did some fast (don't know that I really can call it embroidery) stitching on it so my name is all set.  Will do the rest tomorrow (with any luck) at the meeting.

 When I got the mail today I discovered that Amy from Amy's Passions sent me her share of the Hawaii Sunset swap!  I spent some time bagging up the swap for her and for Andra so they will go in the mail Monday (Andra, email me your address please :))

We went and saw Pitch Perfect this afternoon.  It was far funnier than we expected it to be.  Nice tribute to the Breakfast Club too.  Was a nice two hour escape from the world.  I think that is why we like Glee too.  Forget all your problems and sing off key!  

Tomorrow we are getting up early and heading up to North Phoenix to meet up with Huggy Bunch members to hit a fabric thrift sale and then to 35th Ave. Sew and Vac (it is bag day and apparently I need to join that!) and then out to breakfast.  After that PMQG meeting and then the Beethoven's Nightmare (all Deaf band) concert with another group of friends.  Gonna be an exhausting day I am sure!