Progress, Progress, Progress

I have cut out the fabric for the Gift Block quilt for my friend.  The shower is Sunday, but I have to work, so I cannot attend.  I should be able to have the quilt completed by then because I am finished with my previous class.  I am not taking anymore classes until June, so I should have time to complete some projects.  Anyway, the blocks are 1/2 complete.  They are squares with prairie points on them, and I have pinned all of the prairie points to the blocks and the rectangle that frames the top and bottoms of the squares.

I have purchased more fabric for the Husker quilt, and have thought about it, but no more progress has been made.

I completed tracing 2 more blocks for my Baltimore Album quilt, but it has been languishing while I work on the baby quilt.

The sampler is coming along, I have almost completed 1/3 of the blocks.  They are not moving away until August, so I have some time.  Plus, I haven't seen them since before the wedding, anyway.

On President's Day, I cut out the Magoo monkey pattern by Melly & Me.  There were things I would have preferred to do differently, but I was on a time crunch. My niece really liked it, and I hope the arms & legs hold up to a 2 year-old's beating.  I had to attach them by hand, and was a little scared.  So far, though, it has held up.

I am heading to KC for the greater Kansas City Quilt Shop Hop, so I am pretty excited about that.  There are a couple of pieces of fabric I am looking for, plus I think I will look for some 30's fabric to finish some Dresden Plate blocks that my great-grandmother started.  The only thing I am not excited about with that project is she did them by hand.  I am thinking since I will make a runner out of them, she had 3 blocks, so I'll finish a 4th and maybe do a 5th on my own, and lay them on point.  I have to dig them out of storage and will decide after refreshing my memory of what they look like.

I feel I have been slacking on projects, but I have been working on them slowly but surely.  Having completed my class will help.  I have several goals of projects to complete, and finishing the baby quilt and the sampler will help me feel accomplished.

Until later,
G

One down, too many to count to go...

So I have totally completed the horse quilt.  I thought it looked pretty good.  My friend was happy with it.

RP and I went to Country Traditions on Friday since they have a total purchase coupon for your birthday.  While there, I bought fabric for 2 little quilts along with a book.  The book I bought is Warm Welcome cozy quilts for baby by Mary Hickey.

I am making one called Gift Block for a friend who is having a baby in April with the shower in March.  She found some fabric she liked that her husband decided was acceptable from Hobby Lobby with robots on it, so they are going with a robot theme.  I was going to embroider the center blocks, but while at JoAnn's I found a cute juvenile print of robots that matched my colors I had already bought, so I'm going to use that instead.  Right now I am all about speed.

I am making one that has snowball blocks out of some Husker fabric for a couple who are getting married in June.  I was going to make it the size it was as a wall hanging or table topper, but I think I will get more Husker fabric and make it bigger- like maybe twin size to be thrown over the back of the couch.  I haven't totally decided the final size on that one.

I have another friend getting married February 25th, with a reception in March, so I have a sampler I am cross stitching for them.  I am not as far along as I would like to be, but I am plugging away on it.

I have a niece who is turning 2 in March and I would like to send something with my parents for her when they go visit, but that may not happen.  I am planning on sending another book to her in December- but this one will be more of an activity book instead of a picture book.  I would also like to make her a Disney ABC book, but that will probably be later.

Speaking of books... here they are:

The ducks are my favorite.

I used elmer's purple school glue sticks to stick the little shapes down and then did a blanket stitch by hand around the shapes.  Then I added some embroidered words at the top or bottom of the pages.  I would have had it completed by Chritstmas had I known how I wanted to attatch the pages to each other.  I will also be more careful squaring up my pages and keeping everything within the confined space so they all come out the same.  I put denim on the outside and wrote her name on it in puffy paint and sent it on its merry way.

On the selfish side,  I have taken my class on hand applique and have started tracing my blocks for the Liberty Baltimore Album quilt I want to make.  I have 3 done, 9 more to go.

I will try to not let so much time pass between posts next time, but no promises.

G

It's finished... but not quite....

I was doing a baby gift for a friend.  It had horses I embroidered.  It was really cute.  I liked it.  I was sewing, ragging it as I went.  I completed it.  I was going to give it to her.  I noticed a corner coming undone.  I fixed it... until she washed it.  Unfortunately as I was sewing it, I think my sewing machine malfunctioned.  Since tomorrow is a federal holiday, my machine is going into the shop and I am borrowing my mom's, so that when my friend returns home, I can retrieve said quilt and re-do it.  I'm not sure I ever want to do another project for sale again.  Yes- she paid me for it, and now I feel really, really bad.  She is the easy come, easy go, type of gal, and since I'm fixing it, I don't think she has a problem with it.  I'm just sad/disappointed/frustrated that said stitches didn't hold up.  My machine made a funny noise, and I should have stopped, but I was on a deadline and wanted it done.  I looked at the stitches- I was cutting to them- as I was sewing them.  They looked like they were locking, but obviously something was wrong.  We'll see what happens when my machine goes to the shop.

Which puts a damper on my plans for tomorrow.  My mom and I got some really pretty quilted fabric in Germany this fall and I was planning on making my Mom's vest tomorrow.  I have her machine, but I have now officially lost all my sewing mojo for the day.  We shall see.  It doesn't help that the Nebraska women's basketball team and the Packers both lost, but oh well.  At least I can root for Prince next weekend against the 49ers.  On the plus side, I did get a lot of my living room cleaned up so I can vacuum tomorrow.  There are also only 34 days until pitchers and catchers start reporting... ah baseball, please come soon.

After this run on ramble, I need to get back to organizing my fabrics, so more later.  I will also figure out how to make my computer and blog happy to post pictures again.

G

It's been a while...

Well, it's a good thing my dad only wants cookies for Christmas, because that's certainly what he got.  My mom's Christmas is still a WIP, but it has been put on the back burner for a friend's baby gift.  I'm making an embroidered horse quilt for her to give one of her friends.  I will be finished with it on Thursday, and can then return to the cross-stitch for my mom.  One thing that has slowed me down a little is the starting of school.  However, it has caused me to be a little more deliberate about my schedule.

I did finally finish the book for my niece, and next time I am either doing double pages or single pages with rings holding it in.  Single page binding is for the birds.  However, it is finished and they did receive it.  I also think they like it, my brother called it great.

I was going to post some pictures, but the computer is not cooperating with the blog, so more will have to come later.  I just wanted to get this up.

G