A Simple Quilt is Coming Along

My daughter Hannah is a junior in college majoring in accounting and is currently taking a summer class in China. She is the beautiful blonde in the center back row in white. This is the only picture I have seen so far as they don't always have the bandwith to post photos but they are blogging and it has been fun to follow along!

Got crazy at JoAnn's. I wanted a gnome so bad and he was 50 percent off so he is now snoozing out my front door!

I also managed to find another Densyse Schmidt fabric that I didn't already have! I pulled up the picture on my blog to see if I had it and it didn't look like it, and voila I didn't have it already! This pic doesn't have my green dots in in, but I have that one too.

I bought these two fabrics for backing...the dog paws will go on Seth's quilt that Kathy made last NYE day and the fish will go on the back of Koi's "Simple Quilt".
And here is the Simple Quilt. I didn't make it as big as the pattern but I have more blocks done. It just was getting too big for a baby quilt! I need to either quilt or tie it this week too. And the bonus is I have enough cut to make two more this size!

My parents are moving down to New River this weekend....into my sister's house actually. My sister is moving into two of the bedrooms that are joined (office and bedroom for her) and staying for the summer. Partly for financial reasons and partly to help mom through the radiation. My mom found out she has stage three ductile breast cancer. She opted not to do the chemo. So nothing like trying to help the family pack, clean, move and unpack. DJ and I came up a few weekends ago to help and again today. We haven't stopped moving! I just showered and wanted to blog and check my email. So tomorrow is another big day.

But....Sunday afternoon I am sewing with June!

Potpourri of Projects!

Tada the binding is all done on this NYE mystery quilt designed by Ann B. Smith. DJ's sister Samantha will be getting this for her soon to be born baby.

I was in the mood to finish up some of the many things that were building up as WIP...they were small but it was nice to get some of them done. I added some fleece (from Michelle) to the back of this doggie quilt and it is in our room for Bug now. I also finished the quilting on one I was using that never got completly quilted!

I added a final row to this Eye Spy that I started at Quilt Camp. A few of the added squares were from little pieced Michelle gave me too. I really love this one little orange square with cowboys on it! I cut up extras and added them to the Eye Spy squares and hexies I have cut too. We then backed this with corderoy type fabric that I bought online by accident...thought I was getting cotton! I have blue just like it. I don't have hardly any batting so I didn't add any. It is like a heavy blanket and will do just fine. DJ is tying this quilt while I type (YAY!).

I also added the backing to this doggie quilt and quilted it. I think my sister will be getting this one for her birthday for her chihuauas. (backing from Michelle!)

I added backing to this doggie quilt too though I haven't quilted it yet. That is what I did on Saturday! Then we went to the Diamondbacks vs. Twins game for the first time!

Today we did a whirlwind of grocery shopping...we have learned to "ad match" to make things easier. Anyway we can to save a buck. We have taken to labeling all the food so Coleman doesn't eat it all in five minutes. (I am serious.) Then we made Jimmy Deans and Biscotti. Finally I was free to get some sewing in...we have a birthday party next weekend to go to for Tommie (one of our Deaf friends) and we decided to make her a bag from this book.

I have made this bag several times before and am always pleased with it. My bias tape maker is a HUGE help in making the handles. (in case you aren't tired of hearing it, the plaid fabric is from Michelle!)

We were going to make two, but we cut one piece two extra and decided to just go ahead and make four. I now have three Christmas gifts ready to go! I love that feeling!

Tomorrow Kathy is supposed to come over to do some more cutting and I might get to sew before work, life is good.

NYE 2010 and Block Express are Quilted!

This is the NYE 2010 Mystery Quilt I did this year with a whole lot of help from DJ (and Kathy did the cutting, then sewed her own top). Ros quilted it with elephants all over...quite fitting to go with the circus theme of the fabric--though there is saggy baggy elephant fabric in there too. I was using what I had at home. We plan to give this one to DJ's sister Samantha who is expecting baby number two in a few months. I haven't seen these in person yet, but looks like rainbow thread on this one, I love it!























Here is the back.














I haven't shown this one to Kathy yet since I was wanting to surprise her. This is Block Express and for some reason Kathy fell in love with the pattern and fabric. It was at a store about 45 minutes from us and we saw it two or three times before I finally just bought it for her. It will look great at her new apartment..she needs more color. She has her firefighter quilt with her and the quilt that used to be on our bed which was tons of work (with the mermaids on the back but the name escapes me) and her roommate nephew has the Sox quilt we made him, but their apartment is still lacking on the quilts!











Here is a close up. As always Ros did a fantastic job.











In dieting news...I haven't done much the last six weeks or so. I am sort of in a slump. Trying not to gain, but for sure not losing. I am up a few pounds and not really happy about that. I have slacked off on the exercise and tend to eat right during the week and go nuts on the weekend. It isn't working for you, gotta change it. Oh how I envy the people who are naturally thin or who have an affinity for exercise. Smile! (Sorry for the screwy formatting, I am on a different computer and it has different defaults or something!)

New Year's Eve Mystery Quilt 2010

On New Year's Eve Day Kathy came over and she, DJ and I worked on two of Ann B. Smith's Mystery quilts. We did a baby size each this year and it was nice to have some time to chat and relax in between clues though we really didn't have much extra time! These clue pics aren't in order and you see my colors and Kathy's....

Here is DJ helping us out with trimming..it was her first sewing experience.

Kathy is a pro by now and was speeding along and used two different machines throughout the day. She needed some help threading and such but other than that she did her own thing.

DJ also was chief ironer. She did almost all of my ironing and most of Kathy's too! It was nice to have a third set of hands helping us out :)

They did manage to get a shot of me too! And here is Kathy with her completed top without borders and then with cool borders. She thinks it will wind up as her nephew Seth's. He will love it!

And here is mine and I think this one is going to DJ's niece or nephew when he or she is born.

We had a nice time and it was great to actually sew for an entire day again! It has been about two months! Happy New Year!

NYE Mystery 2010, Designer Mystery BOM and Fabric Gifts

This is last month's Designer Mystery BOM Block Six "Hung by the Fire" designed by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson of www.meandmysisterdesigns.com and it went together fairly well. I still have one more to go (it is in progress) and I am sure the next one will be arriving soon--don't even ask what step I am on on Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll (Two, haha) and yes I am still assembling the last block on Carolina Crossroads too. I am so far behind but I no longer think I am first! I work quite a bit next week so don't think I am catching up anytime soon. Oh well, there is always summer, right?

This gorgeous fabric was on my wish list for Christmas and I was lucky enough to get it! I love the colors and can hardly wait to bust it open! It is by Moda and is called Basic Grey Origins.

Kathy's fabric choices for Ann B. Smith's NYE Mystery 2010.

My fabric choices for the same mystery. You may notice that the circus fabric is the same one Kathy used in the last year mystery...I decided to go ahead and use it again this year because we have a hunk of it left and because we are doing crib size quilts this year. DJ will be joining us for the day and we will teach her some about sewing, ironing and mystery quilting so we didn't want to stress about keeping up and we didn't really need two more lap size quilts this year so crib size it is. Seems we can always come up with babies to give quilts to.

So yesterday we got everything cut and marked. Or Kathy cut it all cut and I got it all marked. We are all set for tomorrow. We even have our burgendy beef roast and crock pot all set and just about ready to go. It will make for a really nice New Year's as always.