WIP's and other fun stuff

So you want to know what I've been up to huh?  First off my arm is healing.  I can now expose it to the air without running around screaming because it hurts!  I have the bandage off and it is scabbed over, hurrah!!  Still really red and tight and now itchy and just a little bit painful so point of the story...I'm healing.

I had seen this cute little needle case over here and thought it looked like something I would like to try.  I need some little gifts for some quilty friends this year and I also thought it might be nice for our Christmas Craft sale at the church and maybe, if I thought it was easy enough, I might make some as thank yous for the people that donate quilts to our raffle at the U of M.

The orange fabric is left over from the cushions I made for my wicker outdoor furniture.  I have 3 other colors too.  I didn't know what I was going to do with the scraps so thought I would try using them with this (it is home dec fabric)  I used the HD on the outside and regular cotton on the inside.  I wanted to share it with the CL's so thought I should try to make one before I brought it to the meeting on Tues evening.  I was finished, seriously, in 15 minutes.  Cutting and sewing.  It was THAT easy!  I have not put a closure on it yet.  The pattern calls for a snap and then a button sewn over it (way too much work for me!)  I will do velcro.  

I used a wool felt for the inside part.  Never mind I was in a hurry and didn't pin it so it is not centered, (tell me you didn't notice before I pointed it out?)  I have decided to cut some out and use them as leaders and enders while working on my FS quilt (of which I now have 62 of like 121 blocks finished).  Clever, huh?  LTW gave me back some batting that I can use so I don't have to cut up big pieces so I am recycling too.  Wow you should be amazed now, lol!!!  We quilters are good at multi-tasking aren't we?
Remember this little quilt?  It is one of my 2 orphan stars.  I used the left overs from the M string quilt and had enough to make 2 of these.  This one is the one going to the Christmas Craft sale and the other one is going to the U of M art auction (once it is finished).  LTW did an overall panto on the blue but "cut out" the star using her new toy.  Then she programed in the quilting for the star.  Pretty cool huh?  Give it up for LTW.  She now has like a gazillion new patterns which she needs to get right on giving to me to post on my side bar for others to choose from!  C'mon now Liz, get right on that!!
I have no concrete plans for the weekend, how about you guys?  I may end up in Grand Rapids visiting the storage facility and then in E Lansing visiting DD2 and back to GR and then home, but other than that, nothin'!  

We are looking for another car for DS, oh that's been fun (just pith me and put me out of my misery!)  I think the choice has been narrowed down to a 01-02 Mustang.  Could the boys work on it together and leave me out of the *fun*, oh heck no!  "Mom, will you call and see what insurance will be?"  "Why can't dad do it?"  "Because he doesn't know what to ask."  "Mom, can you call about a loan?"  "Why can't dad do it?"  "Because you know how better than he does."  Mind you he is at home all week while I am at work.  But who's complaining.  I got the info now maybe the 2 of them can go and take care of actually choosing a car without me!  Do you think that will happen?  I  seriously doubt it!  *sigh*. 

My friend, Maryann from Very Mary Designs, emailed me and told me she made something neat from the old magazines I sent her and she is sending me one.  Apparently with some other goodies.  YEAH!!  I love surprises!!!  What a sweetie she is.

Keep in touch and thanks for stopping by!!

The Witch's Pantry

The Witch's Pantry is coming along quite nicely considering I should be working on other things!  I found the bug jar pattern and thought it would be nice to use for our CL Christmas Craft Sale.  I thought I would try it in Halloween fabrics and then I couldn't stop!  ACK!  I have an anniversary quilt to work on and the FS quilt to finish, what's wrong with me??

Anyway, here are some of the jars I made.  I used a light limey green for the background (very Halloweenesc I thought)

I used this dusty purple for the shelves.  It is actually a plaid, I think it shows up better in one of the close ups.  I appliqued the cat on top, and the broom on the side and a mouse on a shelf with fusible.  Now I need to stitch around them.  I decided to do it by hand and am actually almost finished with the cat, but will show it once it is all done.  I used a gold metalic pearl cotton and I like how it is coming out.  I thought that the other bottom corner needed something so last night I make 2 Jack-O-Lanterns (actually one is a Cat-O-Lantern) and fused them in place.  I will show you those later when the stitching around them is complete.
I like how the broom turned out!  The blue I used for the floor was a gift from Pat when we met for my birthday and it was perfect!  I loved the spider web fabric for the broom handle.  and the fabric I found, in my stash for the bristles was perfect!
This was taken this am and the light at 6:30am is not great so forgive the poor quality of the photo but you can see my mouse.  I used the gold pearl cotton on him too.  Isn't he so cute?
You can see the plaid in the purple better in this photo too.  I made legs for the cabinet and I like how that turned out too.  Of course DD1 thinks this is for her (she thinks *all* my quilts are for her, lol).  I will keep the hand work for when I meet with the CL's or the CHV quilters so it will make me work on the other 2 quilts!  Please let me know what you think!!

Quilty Progress

Who says writing a blog isn't inspirational?  I did NOT feel like making this block last night but I remembered that I told you all that I was going to make this block  so I *had* to do it, right?  When I got home from work DH asked me if I wanted to walk to the Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Of course, are you kidding me?  So we went to dinner and when I got home I felt like a slug but...I just *knew* you were holding your breath waiting to see this block...so here it is!  I love the fabric but did not like making this block.  Too many little seams to match.

Here is the little table runner made from left over fabric from 2 big quilts and then another small quilt.  I got it back from Liz yesterday all quilted up and now I just need to put the binding on it.
I love this little quilt.  I did the star in a class in Paducah and then added the fish border.  I asked Liz to quilt something from the sea on it as I wanted to call it "Star of the Sea".  So she just went to town.  
There is a crab with some seaweed.
A little fishy,
An octopus,
And this little sea horse!
But my favorite is in the middle, a huge Sand Dollar!  I think Liz did a fantastic job on this one!!
Then I decided I needed to make cushions for my patio furniture.  I have these 4 wicker chairs and one love seat.  I want to just cover pillows and use those in the furniture instead of making actual cushions (hate using piping and zippers).  This is the fabric I found that I want to use.  This one is aqua but it comes in gold, orange and lime so my dilemma is whether I need to use all the colors, just aqua or aqua and lime (a lot of my house is done in aqua and lime).  Any suggestions?

My Arch Nemesis...TUQ

OK, OK...I'm ready to cry Uncle here. So I was working away on TUQ and had made almost all of the sets of 4 blocks I thought I would need. Mind you I had a lot of the triangle units left for being so close,hmmm. Counting proceeded and guess what? Yep, I had *more* of those but certainly not enough of the regular strips I would need to do the border. ARRRRRGHHHHH. Why didn't the pattern just *tell* me how many 12.5" blocks I needed to make so I didn't make as many from the strip sets as I could? Why didn't I actually *think* about what I needed to do before merrilly cutting and sewing? Am I a moron? Nope, it does NOT say anything about how many 12.5" blocks to cut. Omsosis, I guess. So I had to do the unthinkable, you got it, buy MORE of this hideous fabric!!! YIKES!!! It only comes as a bundle, of course, so I had to buy the bundle. So I decieded, lemons---lemonade, right? I decided I didn't like how it finished in half a 4 block unit anyway so this will allow me to extend it (which, IMHO, they should have done in the first place. Now I will be able to make it a little bigger and have enough squares for the border too. OH yeah, about that. Now that I am making the quilt bigger, the border needs to be bigger and so I had to buy more of the border fabric too.

While at JAF I decided to check out the clearance too. I found some really cute nursery rhyme toile like fabric in pink and green for $2 a yard, so I bought what they had to use for backs. Also I found this really cute MSU ribbon and *had* to buy a spool of that too. (I don't have photos of any of those things).

So I guess the road to Hell is really paved with good intentions. I started watching Beauty and the Geek with DD2 and didn't touch the machine until she left around 6pm. Bad me...bad!!
I need to finish this quilt and soon. I spent most of Sat cleaning the sewing room and the downstairs as DD2 was coming home from the week in CO. Her BF's parents were giving her a ride home from the airport and what if they want to come in?? The Sewing Room was a MESS and I needed to clean the entire downstairs. So I spent all day cleaning and doing laundry (so I could do hers when she got home). Well, LSS, they did NOT come in and the airline lost her luggage so, no laundry. At least the house is clean and this week I can sew guilt free!! The next day they had 4 of the 6 pieces of luggage, no snowboard though. Bummer. She got her suitcase and boots and so did her BF but they both lost their snowboards. They have 5 days to *find* thim so we will see what happens.

In addition to all this excitement. DD1 informed me that she was giving her 2 weeks notice and that she needs to move out of her apt in IN by the end of the month (told me on Friday). So her plan is to move in with my dad and sister (they are very excited about this) and put her "stuff" in storage. So we will see how it goes. The official start of the lacrosse season kicks off on the last Sat of this month so it will be a busy few months coming up (hence *needing* to finish TUQ).

Whew, anyone got some additional caffeine? I might need some = )

Progress on The Ugly Quilt

There is progress on the Ugly Quilt.  I found my 24" ruler, yeah!!  Therefore I was able to cut the 12.5" squares into 4 triangles.  This shows how some of them *could* be put back together.

I didn't have time to do any sewing before I had to go to the church for quilting  with the CL's tonight.  They are making progress on the green string quilt.  We have over our 45 all green string blocks we needed for this project.  I decided I needed to work on TUQ (The Ugly Quilt) while I was at the church.  The ladies loved the pattern and some actually liked the fabric too.  I was able to use some of the ladies to help me.  They handed me pieces and did some pressing too.  I managed to get 6 big squares of 4 blocks put together.  It doesn't look so bad, right?
There are 70 blocks total and I sewed only 24 so I have a few more to do but I have decided I really like the pattern.

We were talking about our church group last night too and I think a few changes will be happening with the CL's.  I think we will charge a fee to be a part of the group.  I will ask that there be one donation quilt from each person per year.  They will have to participate in at least 1 group project per year.  Then we were talking about using up the stash at the church and I think I will issue a challenge to the CL's to use only the fabrics in the stash plus maybe one of their own choosing to make a quilt for donation.  Have any of you done anything like this before?  Did you stipulate a size?  Did you allow the back to not be from those fabrics.  I would like to hear what you might have done or if you think this would be a good idea for a group endeavor?  I want to try something that will challenge them.

The Journey of the Ugly Quilt

So...you might be wondering why the journey of the "Ugly Quilt" begins with a photo of Autumn?  Well she was *helping* me work on the quilt.

As you can plainly see this poor quilt simply did NOT have enough cat hair on it nor were the strips quite random enough to suit her highness.  Hence the "cat mixing".  Thank you Miss Autumn!
Well, fatty, I mean Aiden, needed to see what had caught her sister's attention and she decided it needed even more cat hair.  So she positioned herself to help me out with that.  lord help *anyone* that receives a quilt from me that is allergic!
So now that you know all about the furry helpers (Jack and Mosen visited also, sorry no pictures) I will talk a little about this quilt.  for Christmas my friend, Ellen, gave me a tin of FQ's.  Not my colors(except for the aqua dots which is fabric I had to add to make the numbers of strips work) but I decided since they were upstairs they had to be in the que for finishing (anything that is "upstairs" has to be finished first).  Now I really do NOT like the colors but I decided to make something with them anyway.  I found a pattern that I thought lent itself to this and didn't look like it would be too difficult to do and that I wanted to try making anyway.  I had to cut the fabric into strips and make strip sets.  Well, the pattern called for 42" which meant I had to sew my strips together to get the length, which I did.  Making the strip sets took longer than I thought but they are all finished now.  I need to cut them into squares and cut the squares diagonally into 4 triangles, rearrange and re-sew.  Presto change-o, we'll see how that goes.  So I was just curious what any of you think about these colors and fabrics?  

Here is the actual pattern.
I'm thinking this will be my contribution to the U of M raffle, which is good as it will be done early and cost little as all but the back will be from fabric I already have (and was actually given to me).  I will, of course, go through the stash and see if I can find a back too.  

An interesting thing occurred while I was cutting this quilt out.  I noticed a HUGE rabbit in the snow in the front yard.  It was so beautiful!  She just sat there are stared at me and finally dashed away.  Well, I wondered why, in the middle of the day, a bunny would be in the front yard?  I usually see them at dawn and dusk, mostly.  So I opened the front door only to see the neighbor's cat, Sony poking his head in the hole in the bushes where, I am assuming, said bunny had just come out of.  So I chased him away and hope he leaves the bunnies alone.  My cats do not chase the bunnies, they are afraid of them.  But...mice and voles BEWARE!

Skipity-Do-Da

Wow!! Who knew how generous you all would be to me!! I asked for green and blue 6" squares for the"S" quilt and you certainly delivered!! These beauties came from Amy at the Calico Cat. Thanks Amy!! I sent her some cat squares in return for the greens she sent to me.
Here are a few more from Amy.
Now then these fabulous blues came from Jeanne at Luv 2 Stitch.
Jeanne also sent all these wonderful greens. I love it!
Now these beauties came from my newest blogland friend, Pat at Bell Creek Quilts. Apparently she is a transplanted Wolverine and now lives in Badger territory (sorry for you). She was asking about my MSU fabric and we got to talking and I told her about our Big Ten quilt that we are always looking for fabrics for and lo and behold she sent me a yard of each of these wonderful Wisconsin fabrics! What a doll you are Pat, thank you. Last year that Big Ten quilt raised over $1500 for charity so the patient families at the U of M will appreciate your generosity also. (Hard to swallow the old Spartan pride, but thanks!) Let me know if you get in a pinch for the MSU fabrics. She even sent a cute little note!
Lastly, I wanted to show you all how great our green strings are turning out for the St. Patirck's quilt! This is just four I put together but there are a lot more. I think they are quite striking. The CL's liked them so much they asked if we could do them in another color (wonder who will design that quilt??)


My friend Ellen had given my some fat quarters in a tin and I found a pattern but (of course) I needed a few additional fabrics. They are not really "my" colors anyway so I was struggling with the whole thing. (Aqua, orange, green and brown) The print is kind of retro too so it was difficult to add to. I don't have anything like it in the old stash. So I went to JAF tonight and bought a little orange that should work. I will take photos tomorrow once I get some of it put together. If I don't like it I will just donate it. I need a quilt for the raffle too so...hmmmm maybe this will be the one!

I spent the day getting DD2 off to Co with her BF. They are staying with his sister in Denver and will go snowbording, ah to be young again! She was pretty excited. It necessitated several trips to stores to get "stuff" that needed to be gotten and packed for the trip. I hope they have fun and don't break anything important, those are some big mountains!

Baby Quilt

I have been so busy for the quilt raffle showings that I have not been near my computer for awhile. We had the big 7 of7 tournament for lacrosse on sunday too. That was taking up a lot of time so now it is the raffle (and probably thanksgiving, since it is always at my house!) I did manage to finish a panel baby quilt and I sent it to Liz. I will show you the photos once I get it back all quilted up! It was the Thimbleberries "Wiggles and Giggles" panel with a bear and a bunny. Maybe some of you know it. I just bordered it with a blue star border and then a second border with rectangles. I found a nice blue stripe flannel for the backing. A good friend of mine sent me a shower invite (Dec 9th) and I was so suprised as neither of her boys are that old. Apparently the 19 year old is *that* old and now there is a baby. I guess it is not the end of the world but him mom is pretty upset. I hope the quilt helps!

I found these pretty fabrics and thought they would make a nice baby quilt too. Our lacrosse coach and his wife are expecting a baby in Feb and the lax moms will be having a shower for them. Any suggestions for a pattern? I really want to work on it soon as the shower will be in Jan. I am open to any ideas, mine seem to be coming in fits and starts right now.




Isn't this mouse adorable??


I don't know if you remember the woman friend of mine with cancer that has no family only her two cats? Well, I *finally* finished putting together, and binding her quilt. I am meeing her tonight for dinner at the Olive Garden to give it to her. She had tumors in her jaw, bone cancer. She said one of the tumors is not responding to treatment, so I would appreciate you keeping her in your prayers. I will post that quilt once I remember to bring my cord to work = )

I had to see the dentist yesterday to have him replace a filling that had cracked. They ended up giving me 3 shots to make my mouth numb. It was awful! My jaw is so sore today. It is difficult for me to eat too (I guess that is no great loss as I need to lose some weight anyway, lol). Hope all is well with you and send me some ideas for that baby quilt!

Just a funny Aiden photo for you to enjoy!!

Crazy Rail

Update on projects

I snapped this photo quickly before I sent the quilt to Liz for quilting. It is from a pattern I bought in Indiana while visiting DD1. I loved making this and it went together very quickly. I can see myself making this one again. It used 9 one half yard pieces for all the crazy rails and 1 yard for the red border. I just love it! I did the entire thing out of flannel. I saw the bear fabric and fell in love with it so I built the quilt around that fabric. I got the fish fabric as a compliment since it is in the bear fabric. Our church group is making quilts for the boys at a local Methodist children's home. the boys are middle to high school age and have been taken from their parents due to abuse and or neglect. The person in charge spoke at a LQS and told us that these boys often come to them with nothing of their own and was asking if we would help and make some quilts so they would have something of "their own". So my group is adopting a cabin (10 boys) and making quilts for them. We will also be doing little things trhoughout the year for the cabin since the director suggested that they get a LOT at Christmas and much less during the year. I thought this pattern might make a cute I spy quilt too if you made all the rectangles that you begin with from different fabrics.

These are a few close ups of some of the bear blocks.


This is the cutest ghost fabric I found when I went to the LQS last weekend with my DF, Charlotte. See howit is irridescent?

Last but not least, you have all heard me talking about the pumpkin blocks so here is a photo of what mine look like! (All 42 are the same). I like the idea of getting them back and all being different but it is kind of boring to make 42 of the same pumpkins! I hope my group will like them.

New Raffle Quilt

Wow, I have been trying all morning to get here to post. I don't know if it is my computer or Blogger, but it is frustrating. I have been trying to leave comments and it won't let me do that either. I told you I have a lot of pictures to post so here are some of a recent project.




My LAQ, Liz, used her embroidery machine to create these wonderful animals. then she gave them to me and asked me to make them into a quilt for the U of M raffle.



I designed a quilt with my trusty graph paper, cut out all the blocks, and sewed all the blocks. Then I layed it out. I HATED it! I used the thirty's reproduction fabrics, which look good with it but it was too busy. So I cut out some more blocks and now they are sitting on the cutting table (under Jack, most of the time, LOL) I had done a 4 patch alternating with a pinwheel. I like the design, but the 4 patches were too much when done in 4 different colours. So I will make them using 2 white squares and 2 of the same colour 30's fabrics (hope that makes sense). That is how the pinwheels are done, one colour and white. I think it will calm it all down and you will "see" the animals more.




I will post it as I get more done. I did get the binding done on the 2nd bear quilt and also on the Winnie the Pooh quilt. I took photos of the WTP this morning so I may try to post those later this week. I feel completely AWFUL right now and am considering going home. I went to bed with a scratchy throat and I think I had a fever. I woke up with soooo much more, laugh. Headache, scratchy throat, body aches, fever and nausea. I feel a little better right now and am going to try to eat a little bit, but I am not really hungry. I have quilting tonight with the church ladies (CL, for you Char!) so I want to go home and rest.

I don't know if I mentioned it or not but I joined Weight Watchers last week. So tired of being overweight! I weigh in today, so keep your fingers crossed for me!!

MEEEECHIGAN!!!

Yup...here it is, the Michigan quilt! I made 2 count them 2 Michigan quilts!!! Being a Spartan, this was difficult for me = )
My friend, Robin, and I made the first one together. I cut it all out and made off the "M" applique's and handed it off to her. She sewed the center of the quilt together. Then, she gave it back to me to make the borders. We than handed it off to our friend, Liz, to work her magic (I mean quilt) it. When she brought it back to us, it was so beautiful, we thought maybe it should go for raffle rather than auction. Maybe it would raise more money that way?? Well, I had made 4 "extra M's". What to do?? Why, make another quilt of course!! Smaller, and use it for the acution. What??? The deadline is when??? The deadline was one week from the decision to make another quilt!!!!! Needless to say, I busted my hump and got busy. I had it done from cutting to finished top in about 4 hours. I gave it to Liz on Monday, got it back on Wed and had the binding done and on in time to turn it in on Friday. WHEWWWW!!!

You can see the whole "Lap" size one here. I haven't got photos of the "BIG" one yet!!


This is what one of the"M's" looks like up close from the front

You can see the magic of Liz's wonderful quilting from the back on the "M's"

She went around each star too.

And the other star

Liz quilted "U of M" into every rail fence block too. I just posted the plain one as it is difficult to see it in the focus fabric one.

On both the big and little quilts Liz quilted a block "M" into each corner but on the big one, in the lower right corner (if you are facing the quilt) she did something different. Robin designed a stylized version of the U of M football helmet. Liz quitled that into the corner and embroidered the date!! Isn't it neat?? I really like how that turned out!! Liz is amazin' (pun intended, you know? Maize and Blue...?))

Liz also quilted "M go blue" into the outer borders, but I haven't been able to figure out how to photograph it to make it show up. If I take the photo from the back the words are backwards, and it is difficult to see on the crazy M fabric on the front. I may take it from the back and flip it on the computer, we'll see.

This is the website for the auction. http://141.214.4.32/auction/ Anyone can bid, it works like ebay. All money raised goes to the patient's charity here at U of M. Look for the quilt raffle on the pathology website coming soon too.
http://www.pathology.med.umich.edu/charity/

I got the binding on the pansy quilt and the label done, I just need to sew it on. I got my bow label back from Liz and sewed it together, now I just have to write on it and sew it on. I have the binding all ready to turn for the bow quilt too. I got to see the nursery for the baby that will get this quilt and the quilt is just perfect for the room!! Divine intervention once again!! I trimmed the second bear quilt and tried to sew on the binding, but realized I was about 18" short (after I had most of it sewn on). That necessitated a trip to the fabric shop to buy some more. I bouth more but I didn't get the binding made or sewn on, maybe tonight. Liz gave me some vintage embroidered animals that she did on her embroidery machine and I trimmed those and designed a quilt for them. I got all the fabric cut and ready to sew. I trimmed all the cat's for my friend Judy's quilt and realized that I need to make 2 more. I got them fused, but not marked or cut out. More for tonight (AFTER my lax meeting...) Last but not least I got all 36 of my pumpkins, stems and leaves traced, fused, cut and ready to fuse to background. I still have a lot to do but feel like I am making progress. DH will be out of town for 4 days so I should be able to get a lot done in that time. We will see...