Several Finishes, WHOOT WHOOT!

 This is the last of the leftover bits and pieces from my cousin Tara's "Night and Day" quilt.  I made Coleman a whole quilt from the leftovers, and Tara a tablerunner to match her quilt and then Kathy made this for Coleman's wall.  Today she quilted it and I bound it and we will give it to him for his birthday in December.  Bug loved it!

I made the binding and Kathy attached it to Tobacco Road.  This was a tag team effort and we both count it as a finish!

 Swoon is also all bound!  I do need to get labels on these though...

 I also cut out about ten more zipper pouches from Patriots, Packers and comic fabric.  I plan to get on a roll with them next weekend.

Tobacco Road Quilting/Frogging...

 I gave Ros my Swoon and Tobacco Road quilt a few weeks ago.  She worked hard at quilting Tobacco Road as you can see..then decided she didn't like the brown thread or the fussy design.  From the pictures it looks good to me, but I trust it will look even better if Ros thinks it will...

She is now frogging away in her free time and will be quilting it with the design below when it is done.  I can't wait to get my quilts back and am so happy I have such a fabulous longarmer who really wants each quilt to be a work of art!  THANKS ROS!

Baby Quilts, Mug Rugs, and OTR, OH MY!

 Jill (from PHXMQG) and I are doing a little side mug rug trade...she let me pick which I preferred and it was tough, but I went with pink since the one I traded with Jacki has purple in it!  I finished up the one from Jacki (she did the paper piecing and I finished the mug rug...I had some of that background purple so I bound it in that!).  This is a sign for I love you for anyone who isn't sure what it means!

 Stopped at Barbs and picked up my baby quilts.  These cowboy quilts have a loopy lasso type quilting on them, really love it!  Here you see the front of one and the back of Sam and Tiff's soon to be born little guy.

 And here is the front of that one and the back of the other one.

 It was fun to use up a bunch of that bandanna fabric and actual bandannas that I have been saving for just such a quilt!  I used leftover bits of it all to bind them.  Here is Colton's (the name Sam and Tiff have decided on this week, lol).

 And this one goes to the cabinet for another little guy, not yet known!

 Kathy finished putting the borders on our Old Tobacco Road too!  We stopped at SAS and found the perfect border for it...looks like ginko leaves and has a few shades of brown.  This quilt is huge and we aren't sure where it will wind up yet, either.

Off to Barb's for a bit.  I tried free motion quilting last night on the Brother with NO luck whatsoever.  I am not sure I had the machine set right and I sure need practice anyways.  Not really sure I am going to get my Skillbuilder BOM's done...and pretty sure this is the only month I am even going to attempt this--lol, quilting by check is my preferred way to go!  Barb is going to let me try her machine, then if I stink at it, we will know it is me and not the machine!  Cross your fingers I can manage something--PHXMQG meets next weekend already!

A Little of this and a Little of that...

Ros helped me pick out which blues will wind up in a small version of Merry Mayhem's Modern Mystery.  Can't wait to find time to cut and start this one!

 I trimmed up and added a border to the mug rug Jacki made me.  Found a backing...soon will quilt it.  Already someone on fb offered to buy it off me.  LOL, I referred her to Jacki!

 Kathy made progress on the borders tonight!  This looks SO awesome now!  She still plans to add another 5 inch border to the outside.  This quilt is huge too!

I made two QOV scrappy trips blocks for Alycia's collection.  I will try to make a few a more before I mail them off!  The night is no longer young, so off to bed I go!  More tomorrow!

Potpourri of Quilting!

Last night while talking on Skype to Barb and Fran they commented on my little flag quilt on the design wall. That led to a conversation about buying it with a kit and this "Jelly Stars" Bread and Butter pattern that I had given up on when I discovered we made a cutting error.  I decided to just piece the bits together so I could get it done and five stars later the little top is together  It still makes me smile.

 Tonight Kathy and I sewed our Kaleidoscope of Kolor center blocks for the 35th Ave. BOM.  Here she is with hers.

Prior to that Kathy and I finished putting together Old Tobacco Road--I can now say I have made ALL of Bonnie's mystery quilts (and more!).  Still need to trim it and make and add borders, but not bad!

Here I am with my K of Kolor block too!

I also did my Pile O' Fabric "Sound Waves" block....this is Alyssa's mock up above and mine below.  I was inspired by the colors in our Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild button which some of us copied into our name tags.  

 Here is my K of Kolor block again.

It was really nice being done with work by 2 pm today so I could get in a whole afternoon/evening of sewing!  Tomorrow I work all day but will be back at it tomorrow night and/or Saturday!

Working on Mug Rugs :)

I spent some time last night looking over mug rug tutorials and pictures for inspiration on what to do for the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild's Mug Rug Swap for February.  I decided on a rather simple one, but a block I had never made and I used my Denyse Schmidt fabric so hopefully someone else will love hers as much as I do.  I am making three..one for my swap partner, one for me and one for Jennifer who wanted to swap but didn't want to worry about a binded border.  So when it is all said and done, I will have three different mug rugs!

 
 

So the tops are done and the backings are made and I will leave the quilting and binding for another day.  These granny squares just make me smile.  I could almost do an entire quilt like this!

Here is Kathy holding up Old Tobacco Road.  She has about half of it together now.  This has truly been a tag team quilt and fun to do!

I hate to see my long weekend come to an end...back to work tomorrow.  I did pretty good getting  back on my be active and eat right train.  I rode my bike all but two nights this week (groin isn't ready for everyday!) and tonight I did some hand weights too.  I am writing my food down on myfitnesspal and am once again trying hard to make a life change that really needs to happen.  Life is good here too!

Whirlwind Weekend!

 Yesterday Kathy and I met up with BJ and Ros and Jacki and went to 35th Ave for the first BOM meeting.  This is our first time doing this!  The bad picture above is what the quilt will look like after one year.  We paid 10 bucks to join and as long as we finish each block before the time of the next month's meeting we get the supplies for it free.  We did upgrade to the larger size and to using black as the background so we had to buy NINE yards (each) of black fabric, but we had a 50 percent off coupon and so we got our Kona black cheap!  This was our first bolt purchase ever!

 Here is what it looked like in white, I didn't get the picture before she folded it back up.

 This is block number one..it goes in the center.  This is the sample block, lol, I haven't done mine yet!  HA!

After that we went to the PHXMQG meeting and heard what our new chairs have planned for the year.  Lots of awesome ideas and it was hard to pick what to join and what to pass on!  I signed up for a mug rug swap and for the Pile of Fabric Skillbuilder BOM (but I seriously don't think I will make all of those and I don't plan to make the quilt anyways..I may do some of them and turn it into other smaller projects, not sure yet).  More on the meeting later.  

Then after I got home, Barb came over and I finished up piecing my Streak of Sunshine quilt and then made another one that is very similar.  Barb worked on knitting up a hat that DJ had left on the peg thing since I didn't really know how to do it.  She also wound bobbins and we gabbed the night away.  It was fun!

 I am pretty sure the one with the cat will be for Sam and Tif's baby.  Though I had dinner with Tif and she told me they are thinking of decorating the nursery with monkeys...lol that is okay I can make and gift them two!

 The one with the yellow will find its way to another little boy, not sure who yet. 

 Oh and I finally picked out the Schnibbles Summer Day quilt for my cousin Jamie's baby girl who is due soon.  Will get this in the mail this week.

 So today Kathy and I got up early and drove north to sew with BJ and Jacki.  Here is BJ with her first project of the day.  She also worked on her NYE Mystery and on Easy Street too, I think.  We turned Bonnie on QuiltCam and listened it too!

Kathy worked on putting together our Old Tobacco Road.  It is a bit of a bear because it goes together in rows not in blocks and she wasn't used to that, but with a little help from me and BJ here and there she got a good chunk of it done.

 Jacki was working on a game case for her grandson that was labor intensive and when she finished that she kept on with her Easy Street.  It is looking great!  She didn't get enough contrast in her four patches, but we decided it looks GREAT anyways...it is almost like she tweaked the design a bit and hers is more unique!

 I cut and pieced my second braid in a day quilt...so I will have a semi matching pair or couch quilts.  These protect the seats from dog hair--ie I wash them often and change them out just seconds before people come to my house :)  I didn't pay any attention to which direction the braids were going in this one as I did the first one (center one is different in the first one, this one the one on the right is) but it gives them personality I guess.

So after an all day sewing session, we went to my Mom and Dad's where we celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary with a pot of Boiled Dinner.   My sister and brother didn't come, but my brother's fiance and Kathy and I did and it was a nice night!

Tomorrow I am off work and I will be in my sewing room--but I am sleeping in first!  I plan to piece a back for the Gnome Braid in a Day above, Easy Street and Cheddar Bow Ties.  Also need to choose a pattern for my cousin Kai who just got married!

Another Sewing Day--Life is Good!

 Today I got the last of the pinwheels made and all of Old Tobacco Road step three done!  It is now waiting for us to cut the bricks necessary to lay it out and sew it up!  For now it waits but am happy it is making progress.

 I also cut and sewed this Simple Strippy baby quilt for my youngest nephew's soon to be born brother.  He is insisting his name will be Lightening (as in McQueen) though his mother is leaning towards Oliver!  Hard to see the colors here, but it is lime and orange stripes.  Thought the lizards were good for a boy.  It is just a flimsy at this point.

 Kathy didn't sew much today, but did other stuff.  Then she pulled out this Scrap Jar Star in pink for the SoScrappy Rainbow BOM!  She will make one in each color with black for a background--I may join in and do one with the white.  I spent some time moving my small fabric to the back of my color bins (some cut cut into strips too) and then filled the empty drawers with string piecing strips that are sorted by color.  Things are shaping up organization wise here!

I also took a picture of some of the prep I did for future Rainbow BOM colors!  Well, our Burgundy Beef is in the crockpot for tomorrow, the dip is made for snacks and the steel cut oatmeal is doing its overnight thing so the food is taken care of for tomorrow's marathon sewing of the NYE Mystery for 2012!   

Behind on the Blogging! Stepping Down Easy Street!

While Kathy is in MA for her father's funeral and Randy is in Ohio for his brother's funeral I have been home sewing and sending my prayers and love out to both of them and their families.  They say bad things come in threes, so I am not sure what we will be hit with next.  Kathy's father was 85 or so and ready to go be with his wife but Randy's brother was only 51 and it is such a sad thing to bury your younger sibling as Randy and several of his sisters had to do.  So since Coleman and I are holding down the fort here I have been sewing.  I made this Zip up bag for Mac.  He loves Batman and anything comic.  Already filled it with bathroom supplies and wrapped it up for him.

 I talked to Kathy on the webcam last night and made this Moth in the Window block while we gabbed.  Recognize the plaid?  It was the back of my Dad's quilt.  Love seeing those fabrics turn up in other quilts!

 This morning after some cleaning and organizing and fabric folding, Becky came over and we worked on clue three of Easy Street.  We both finished it off and got in a few spools too.  We both agree we are loving Bonnie's color choices!

 Here are all the parts for the mystery so far.

 Here are a few of my spools.  Got more cut too, really need to sew more!  Linking up to Bonnie here  Bonnie's mystery Monday link-up.
Grab your cup and meet me there.      

 I made a pair of pillowcases for Reid (my cousin's son) for Christmas too.  Hope he likes them.  I need to make a pair for Kathy and I too.  We got new sheets and since we have six pillows on the bed we need more pillowcases!

 I also dug out all my half square triangles that were bonus triangles and trimmed, and trimmed and trimmed them for pinwheels--clue two of Tobacco Road.  I have 25 blocks made and have trimmed all the rest of the hst's so I can make more tomorrow.  I hate the trimming, but am happy to use up leftovers from Carolina Christmas and I am not sure what all else!  Made the eight half four patches today too.

Tomorrow Kathy (sewing buddy) invited Becky, Barb and I over to sew.  I am sure some will be finishing up Easy Street clue three, Becky has some Christmas items for her kids she wants to sew, and I think I will work on pinwheels for Tobacco Road.  Or I make take spools, or both!

My oldest son turns 26 on the 9th (today since it is after midnight now) so he and I went and saw Red Dawn which was really a good remake to celebrate.  It was nice, he and I haven't been out by ourselves in forever. Went to the late movie and it wasn't crowded at all so that was nice.  Now I am free to sew in the afternoon and should still be home in time for the Packer game!  I hope you are getting in some sewing!