A Little Help From My Friend

I have been trying to finish up a project that had a deadline by the end of the month. 

 I finally got it all pieced and quilted but needed to put the binding on.  

Autumn thought she needed to help me.

You can see the pins in the binding!

She fell asleep as I stitched and watched Supernatural.

It was a very relaxing afternoon over here.  

Now I have bread rising and laundry in. 

 Getting ready to watch the new Once Upon a Time, Walking Dead and Downton Abbey!

~XOP~

Forward Progress

Yes, yes, I am making forward progress on this Improv quilt.  I had to decide what color to use for the backing and for the binding too.  I thought I wanted to use a purple of some sort, but you never know what you will find at the store and I had something in my mind's eye of how I thought it should look.  Then I had to consider what the backing would be.  The last 2 blocks to come in will be on the back and they will be one purple and one green.  I had traced the label on Kona Snow and also had to consider the color of floss to use for the embroidery of that label and what color I will use to build that block.  So off to the shop I went in search of the perfect combination!

I was trying to decide between Kona Eggplant and Kona Berry for the binding.  How did they look with the top, both were good.  How did they look with the back, oh wait I had to choose the back, LOL.
Eggplant                                             Berry

So I laid them both out on the floor and placed the top on them.  I liked them both.  This made me decide that I had to choose a color for the back and maybe that would make the choice easier.  I himmed and hawwed and but finally I chose Kona Baby Pink and you know what?  I loved the Berry with that so here is what I got.

The pink is a really soft pink and when I put some of the purple blocks and some of the green ones on it they looked so nice!  The baby is going to be a little girl so pink is perfect.  I think I am going to leave the label in snow and surround it in pinks and purples.  The floss (no pic sorry) is a variation on the Kona Berry that I will use for the binding. 

I know you are all probably bored to tears about this quilt and I am sorry but it is consuming so much of my thoughts right now!  As is going to market!  QQ and I have gone through the gamut of events all to get there.  First we were staying with a friend, and she was going to drive us around.  Then we were going to rent a car and now we are staying at a hotel downtown SLC (Little America, if anyone wants to meet up with us or happens to be staying there too).  Staying a few blocks away gives us the flexibility to walk wherever we want and come and go as we want.  It was nice for our friend to volunteer to have us but I feel like it would have been a HUGE imposition on her and her family.  I want the FULL market experience and if that means late nights and early mornings it is better to be close by! (Thanks for understanding my weird control freakish personality, Ms Annie!)

I should be getting the layer cake quilt (now known as "Jessie's quilt") back from LTW the LAQ today and I could not be more excited to see how it turned out.  I went to her farm last week and chose the design elements for each of the blocks, with Acanthus butterflies as the theme.  I found an amazing deal on a pattern pack that had 42 quilting patterns in it at One Song Needle Arts and it was on sale!! 
WOO HOO!!  If you are interested in butterflies you should check it out!  GREAT price!!!!
Anyway, I am hoping to make the binding tonight and square up the quilt and maybe hand it off to QQ for binding later tonight.  I guess I need to think about a label for that one too, *sigh*.  Although, the back is Kona Celery so I may lazy out and just write on the actual quilt (I really HATE sewing on a label)  How do you like to label your quilts??

My Saturday

Ok...I know I told you that I would take a photo of my sewing room before I picked it up but I forgot until it was all cleaned up, so oh well. This am I met PTM at the gym, we worked out for a half hour. I came home and worked all day cleaning and rearraging the house to make ready for Christmas stuff tomorrow. Before all that though, I won a contest online at Paula's Sewing Challenge. Here is what I won, an apron, dish towel and a cupcake pot holder.

I thought I would show you the place mats I got for my gift at the party last week too.

More tomorrow, including the blocks I made today so stay tuned!
XOP

This and That

Well, this is going to be one of those posts.  

Schmitty swam in the semi finals last night and placed 9th by 1/100th of a second!!  That sure is rotten luck, huh?  I am so proud of her and all that she has accomplished though and she still has the 800 free relay to swim in and I am sure that will medal.  Wasn't it an amazing night for US swimming last night??  We certainly do Rule the Pool!!

I have been working on some of these "jar" blocks for a quilt to use for our Christmas craft show to sell and have the money for the CL's to use for quilting and whatever else we decide we need to have to make our charity quilts.  I am doing Halloween jars.  Here are just a few.  I am making 16.  I will"put them on shelves" and maybe put a cauldron or a broom in the corner, we'll see.  I love Halloween!!  What do you think?  NO I haven't stopped working on FS or the Anniversary quilt, but these are fast and fun to make.  (Can you say ADD?? LOL)

The third installment in the Designer Mystery BOM arrived yesterday so I need to get to that too.
As if there is not enough for me to do this week here is the rest of the line up for the week:

Quilting with the CL's tonight

25th anniversary on Wed (no quilting with the CHV ladies tonight)

Senior pictures with DS at 4pm

Dinner with the in-laws and DH's sister and BIL on Thursday

Friday- WHEW

Sat quit-till-you-wilt at the church

Sunday Lacrosse picnic

Now, I REALLY need your help with this.  As you can plainly see, my 25th wedding anniversary is tomorrow and I have NO idea what to get DH.  I really wanted to go on a trip to Ireland but that is not in the cards (you know that pesky 2 kids in college at the same time thing!)  So any ideas?  I know the Nascar race is close to home on Sun and he would love to go to that, but I was thinking of something together or some kind of gift, HELP!!