A Finish... Finally!

I had this quilt quilted since July 24th and I have been slowly but surely working on hand sewing the binding down. It was a thicker fabric for the binding and flannel for the backing and it seemed to take forever to sew the binding down.



Well, I FINALLY finished the binding tonight at a different Guild small group meeting! I was so exciting I think that I jumped up and down! Well, maybe not that excited, but I was still happy to be able to move on to another quilt with thinner binding and not flannel backing. In fact, I was able to get an entire side done of the second quilt in about 40 minutes and it took me 2 hours to get the last side done on the first quilt. Isn't that awful? Oh well, it's a finish for the FIUM.

Well, tomorrow is Friday and I am very excited! Saturday, I am going to Patrice's house in the morning so that we can work on our pieces and homework for the Courier bag class. I also have a couple of secret projects that I want to get to work on this weekend, too. Here is the fabric for those. I forgot to post them and Patrice wanted to see the them.

So what do you think?

Packages ....

Are on their way to the recipients! When I left the house this morning to head out to the retreat, I had a few errands to run - deposits at the bank, books back to the library, and packages to the post office. I got 5 large envelopes and one flat rate box to mail. I wonder where they will end up....

While I was loading up the car. The dogs were going nuts. I figured that I would pull out the camera and show them off. They are very silly!



So, I am now at the retreat and we have had our dinner and I am trying to get to sewing, but I wanted to post what I could for now. Wish me luck on getting my projects accomplished! I plan on finishing some things up this weekend! :)

Catch up post - Last weekend in July

**Note - join us for Finish it Up Month! Join the Prolific Quilters Yahoo group for support and post entries on your blogs of what you are working on! And when you have a Finish, post a picture! And you don't have to have a blog to participate. You can leave a comment with your email and I will contact you.**

Since I was busy sewing the last weekend in July, I didn't have time to post about what I was working on. Here is the update from the last weekend.

Friday night, I added a binding onto a Kid Komfort charity quilt for my Guild. I had loaded a quilt onto Lenny and had issues with the backing being loaded upside down so I had corrected that error and quilted the quilt with loops. I really enjoy the meandering loops and it just gives the quilts a little more ooomph, I think. I had some issues with the blue thread that I was going to use, so I just used a light brown variegated and the tan Bottom Line on the back. The quilting shows up a little more than the last quilt, but I think it looks nice.





The rest of Friday night, I ironed and read through patterns.

On Saturday, I packed up 2 quilts that needed binding sewn down and headed out to work at the St Jude Dream Home again. I was able to finish one quilt and start on the other while we sold tickets and answered questions. After we worked, Amy, Lynn and I headed to Don Pablo's for dinner. Yum!

Once I got home from working and dinner, I cut out pieces for my secret projects and got them quilted on Bubba.



On Sunday, I finished my projects. Now here is where the idea came from. A couple of weeks ago, I met Jeanette and Patrice at one of the Guild's small groups meeting and I had my binding supplies in a plastic bag sitting in front of me. Patrice was teasing about me not having a quilted bag to carry my supplies in and said how she had done the same thing and Jeanette gave her a bag. She held it up and showed it off. Then, Patrice said that if she was a real friend, she would make one for me, but I could make one for myself and make sure to put on my blog that she made it for me! We had a good laugh out of that so I set to work.

Here are the first 2 that I finished.. I mean, here is the first one that I made on the left and the one that Patrice 'made' on the right. Of course, the pink one is for me.



Patrice did a great job on the quilting!



And here are all of the bags that were made. This is the Lazy Girl Purse-Nickities pattern - the Nickole - and I made some small adjustments. I stitched the zipper flap on the inside of the bag down with a top stitch on each side of the bag. I also made a box bottom so that it can sit up.



And even though they aren't quilts, Maisy still had to test them out. Notice that she isn't making eye contact with me. She knows that she shouldn't be on them!



Now, 2 have already been claimed - mine and Dominique's. And the other 2 will be mailed out this week. Anyone have ideas who will be getting them?

Once I got these 4 things done, I worked on the Lover's Lane quilt. Now, I have already posted some pictures of the finished quilt, but these are other pictures that I had taken during the day when I was assembling the quilt top.

Here are the first 2 rows sewn together and hanging on my design wall.



And the rows all sewn together and laying on the floor so that I could see how cool it looked!



And someone getting into trouble after the inside border was sewn on. She just can't help herself!



So, after 15 hours and 15 minutes, I gave up and went to bed. I had the first border on and the second border cut and ready to be sewn on. But it was a very productive day!

July Monthly Accomplishments

July was a very busy month. Reading through my list, I really got A TON done!


Here's the list:

1. Finished piecing the block and assembled the top for the Wagon Wheels quilt. Also made the binding.
2. 3 blocks for the Block of Month that I am doing through Best Friends
3. Completed a Cars quilt from a Joann's kit for Ethan
4. Completed a Christmas quilt top and prepared the binding. I bought it because the Santas reminded me of my grandparents' house at Christmas when I was little. When I showed my aunt and grandma, they totally agreed!
5. Finished a very old UFO - Mom's Halloween Big Shirt
6. Watched part of the Pajama Quilter Reloaded DVD and practiced quilting designs a lot on a white board.
7. Loaded, quilted and buried the thread ends on Hip to be Square, formerly known as the first Stash Pot Pie. I also got the binding attached and completely sewn down. It just needs a label now.
8. Completed a Spiderman quilt from a Joann's kit for Spencer
9. Fixed Bubba when he was acting ornery from over-use and wanted to suck the fabric in when I wanted him to cut the threads.
10. Completely finished the fruit table runner and place mats. I just had to finish hand stitching the binding down on most of the pieces.
11. Completed the entire top of the Lover's Lane UFO. When I started, I only had one block of 20 completed and about 15 4-patches and half square triangle units of 180 each that were needed for the top. I got all of the units done, the blocks assembled and the entire quilt with borders put together. I also have to say thanks the members of Quilted Chaos, the Guild small group that I belong to. They helped me lay out most of the blocks when the units were finished. Thanks so much, Ladies! I'm so glad that you could have a hand in helping me with this quilt! (Note - See pictures of my sweat shop here.)
12. Quilted a funky block Kid Komfort with meandering loops and sewed the binding on. Am still working on stitching the binding down.
13. Stitched a binding down fora quilt from one of the Guild small groups that is going to Alaska. The quilt, not the small group. :)
14. Finished the Lover's Lane top! I know that this was mentioned before, but it was a HUGE undertaking with all of the piecing and ironing that had to be done!
15. Quilted a blue Kids Komfort
16. Completed 4 of my secret projects. Well, I finished 3 and Patrice 'finished' 1. When I post about the projects, this will all make sense. I promise!
17. Finished a paper pieced star block for Heather.
18. Oh, and I got in 160 hours of quilting/sewing. How cool is that? I didn't win the July Challenge, but I still did A LOT!!!

Other non-sewing items:

1. Picked up a gooseneck lamp for Squiggy. It's wonderful to be able to see while I quilt!
2. Tried the ice cream at The Dip. It's good! I'm in trouble!
3. Got my shirts that I ordered with our July Challenge logo on them. Very cool!
4. Picked up a large white board to practice my quilting designs on.
5. Worked at the St Jude Dream Home selling tickets at the open houses for 2 afternoons.
6. Read D is for Deadbeat and E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
7. Read The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen - great author!

So, it was a very, very productive month for me! August is looking like it will be almost as productive! I am going on a retreat next weekend for 2 days. I have already started thinking about what I need to get done before I leave and what I should take with me. Decisions, decisions! :)

Don't forget about the Finish it Up Month this month! Read about it here and come and join us! And if your not already a part of the Prolific Quilter's Yahoo Group, join us here!

Get ready!

Finally! Something that everyone can participate in!

Are you swimming in UFO's? Are they taking over your sewing table? Your sewing room? Your house? Have you hidden some in the dark recesses of your closet in hopes that you will forget that you had even started them? Do you have some projects that are in progress and older than your kids???

Or do you have a project that you haven't even started with that needs to be done and you just need encouragement along the way?

If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, then you need to join me and Jen in August for our second Finish it Up Month (FIUM)!

Now, you may ask, 'What's in it for me?' Well, quite a few things! You will have the satisfaction of working on and finishing some of your UFO's.You will create some space in your sewing area for new projects.By clearing out some of your current UFO's, you will be able to start and add some new UFO's! And don't we all need this?

But the best reason of all - Jen and I will be here to give support to anyone who wants to participate! Having people behind you saying 'YOU CAN DO IT!' works wonders for keeping a person motivated and giving the incentive needed to work through whatever issues made you put the UFO aside in the first place.

So, join us! Add the link and the forthcoming logo to your sidebar and let us know that you will be participating. Anyone who is participating will be listed on my sidebar so that everyone can check on their progress. We will post encouragement via comments on you blogs. You can also join the Prolific Quilters Yahoo Group and get more interactive encouragement from the other group members.

Some come and play along!

Plus, with me and Jen, you never know what surprises are in store! :)

February Accomplishments

Well, I am not as late getting these done as I was getting January's done. I am quite proud!

1. Went to an retreat and had to buy a new camera - Ruby
2. Started receiving donations for the St Jude's Quilt Retreat
3. Completed the January 2 buck a block BOM through Best Friends
4. Sewed the binding on and hand stitched it down for the Halloween table runner
5. Finished the 3 cat placemats that were Christmas presents
6. Finished Nikki's brown and teal purse that was a Christmas present
7. Finished the Star and Nine patch top
8. Learned that I do NOT like mitered borders! Although they can look very stunning!
9. Dropped a hot iron on the floor at a retreat. I still haven't heard anything, so I am guessing that the center had no issues with my mishap.
10. Received more donations
11. Got fabric cut and blocks finished for the first stash pot pie quilt
12. Made my 200th post and had a small give away. BTW, Dot enjoyed her winnings!
13. Learned that I am Scarlett O'Hara to Jen's Mammy and that I act 26, when I will be a bit older in less than 3 weeks. :)
14. Finished my granma's pink and blue purse that was supposed to be a Christmas present
15. Got another perm and my hair was wild and crazy for an evening!
16. Worked 2 nights at the St Jude's Radiothon where we raised over $400K!
17. Finished my mom's purse that was supposed to be a Christmas present. I heard from Mom today and she received the box of presents and loves her purse!
18. Had fun driving in the snow with the new car and it's manual gears!
19. Finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I believe this book was 23 discs - this was quite an accomplishment in itself!
20. Cut fabric for a Guild class that I took on March 1.
21. I also spent some time in the spare room moving the furniture around so that I can start organizing my stash and kits and UFOs.
22. And received more donations! We have quite a bit so far!

Well, I think that is it. Hopefully, I will be just as productive in March!

OMG!!! I am finally finished!

I am so excited! I was able to fudge my mitered corners enough so that they lay fairly flat even though the points aren't great. And tonight, I was able to get the third and final border on this top! It is now completed and I can mark it off my Finish It Up Month list! I am very excited to be able to share the pictures of this top with you fellow bloggers!

I tried to pin the top to my poor man's design wall, but it was too long and too wide to be able to show all of it. It was also too heavy for the pins to continue holding up the batting. So I had to spread the top on the family room floor and climb the stairs as far as I could to get as much of the top in the pictures as I could. The third picture was taken while I was standing on top of the sofa and holding the camera up as high as I could.





Now, here is the slideshow of all of the pictures from the process of making this top.



Star and 9 Patch

Progress was made today!

I was very productive today at Jeanette's! After we got all set up, I started working on the last purse that should have been ready for Christmas. Here it is!!





It looks great! Now, I will just have to pack up stuff and send it to Florida.

After I got the purse done, I decided to work on the pieced border for the Star and Nine patch since it was only Jeanette and I and no one else was going to be there for another couple of hours. I was able to lay the quilt on the floor and spread out the border pieces to get a good variety on each edge.

Although, the pattern was a little questionable. It read as though each edge would be made of 15 of the pieces and when I got the first 2 edges done and they were short by 2 pieces. This wasn't the first problem with this pattern either - it doesn't give the yardage needed for the borders! How strange is that?

Anyway, here are pictures of the progress on the border so far. I got all of the sides sewn together and I just need to iron one side and then trim all of the sides down to 1/4 inch from the 4 patches. I am going to do that tonight and in the morning so that I can attach the last borders to the quilt and it will be a finished top. Yeah!

FIUM and another random thing

Tonight, I finally got off work at a decent hour and was able to come home and work on the FIUM (Finish it Up Month) projects. I got 2 more purses cut out and some flannel washed to make a couple of things for Ethan's birthday this month.

I have to get to bed pretty soon because tomorrow is the horrid IT Council meeting at 7:30 AM. That is going to come way too early for me!

Max is doing a lot better today! He has been prancing around and, this morning, he got himself up onto the back of the couch. He hasn't done that since last Monday when he starting showing some signs of being in pain. I think that he still enjoys being carried up and down the stairs because we have gone downstairs to work on laundry a couple of times and then we came down from the bedroom a couple of times to go outside and he always waits for me to carry him. Tomorrow, I will need to start cutting down on the pills.

Have a great day, everyone!

It's a good day!

This is a picture of Max tonight. He is chewing on a toy! He hasn't wanted to chew on a toy or play with anything since Friday or maybe Saturday. And he was wanting to run around and he even jumped on and off the couch a time or two while I was outside with Maisy.

I am hoping that it is because he is starting to feel better and not because it was raining and he got all excited about the rain and being wet. But he was running around before he got his evening pills... I am very hopeful!! He hasn't even been groaning too much tonight!

Well, I am now watching the Biggest Loser and I should be working on a FIUM project. I think that I am just not going to get the things done for this weekend. I still have no idea what the plans are for when my parents get here other than Saturday there is a birthday party and dinner on Saturday. And they will be here from Thursday until Monday evening.

I finished a purse!

Yesterday, I met Judy, Jeanette and Maria at Sew-Ezy and we ran around to 3 quilt shops, got lunch and then headed back to Maria's house to sew for the rest of the day. We had a great time! I worked on a couple of different things and then worked on a purse. I got some pictures, but I haven't downloaded them yet.

This morning, I went and saw Spencer wrestle. He did really well and fought hard, but he didn't win. He didn't get pinned down though so that was good.

After that, I went back to Maria's and Jeanette was already there and we sewed for a few more hours. That was when I finished the purse. They were very encouraging for me to get it done!

Now, since I have been home, I really should have been back at it and working on another purse, but I guess I am tuckered out. I am working on laundry and ready for a nap even though it is 7 PM.

And I am now thinking that I need to take Max in for X-rays. He is still in a considerable amount of pain and it doesn't seem to be lessening as the days go by. I would've thought that with the prednisolone and the muscle relaxers that he would be feeling a bit better by now. But he's not. Well, he is able to make it through the night now without a lot of the whimpering and groaning, but he still makes a lot of noise every now and then. And I don't think that he is doing it just to get sympathy from me.

I guess I will be calling the vet tomorrow.

I sewed tonight!

I am proud of myself! I was able to get something accomplished today!

I finished a Buzz Lightyear fabric book. This will be part of Ethan's birthday present since his birthday is in January.





I also finished both of the cat table runners that I was working on in December. I bound them using the birthing method and then quilted them on lines that followed all the way around the runner in the pattern of the fabric.








I think that the runners turned out well - there are no puckers in the quilting and they lay flat!


Now, I can take these things off my Finish it Up list and, tomorrow, I can start working on the next thing on the list! Woo Hoo!

January Finish it Up challenge

Here is my list of things for the January Finish it Up challenge:

1. 1 more fabric book for Ethan
2. 2 cat table runners-just need to finish
3. Blue floral purse-started
4. Brown floral purse-started
5. Cat placemats-1 done, 3 to go
6. Pink and blue Very Badley purse
7. Yellow Very Badly Purse
8. Star blocks
9. Star and Nine patch border pieces
10. Star and Nine Patch block assembly
11. Finish organizing stash and spare bedroom

Hopefully, I will be able to make a huge dent in this if I can't get everything done. I hope that I can get everything done!

December Accomplishments

Here is my list of December Accomplishments:

Quilty Things Accomplished:

1. Finished my 9 patch blocks for my star and nine patch quilt class
2. Practiced FMQ more on my scrap quilt and quilted a Kid Komfort quilt for our Guild
3. Finished the Monkey fabric book for Ethan
4. FMQ a Halloween table runner
5. Finished coasters and rice heat bags for Christmas presents for co-workers
6. Completed the first Santa Rag quilt for my Granma's birthday
7. Bought Fabric for another Santa rag quilt
8. FMQ the I SPY - this was the biggest thing this month, I think. I also got it bound with the help of Granma.
9. Finished 1 cat placemat
10. Started working on 2 Very Badley purses before I realized I had messed them up and quit sewing on Christmas presents for a week!
11. Began the process of cleaning out the spare bedroom where my fabric stash is kept. This i quilt related because I needed to have a place to put my stash as I bought fabric and I was running out of floor space in the spare bedroom. Now, there is lots of space and lots of containers in which to store projects!
12. I also started preparing Maddy's 50's Retro Take 5 quilt to sandwich and quilt. I'd like to get that done before Valentine's Day. (no use trying to add it to my January list of must do's!)

Non Quilty Things Accomplished:

1. Found out that my Grinch Name is Woefulgrump Sourbottom. Everyone should know what their Grinch name is, but the link is disabled! :(
2. Changed my blog template
3. Finished Lake in the Clouds by Sara Donati

I think that there might be other things that I have done, but I am drawing a blank right now.

The only other thing that I can think of is that while growing my tiny stash, I won the $100 gift card at my lqs!

Now, I need to make my list of things that I have to do for Jen's January's Finish It Up challenge!