This week's WIP/UFO

So this week I'm working on the Florida quilt. I've decided to make it big enough for our queen size bed. This will be the first bed quilt I make.....if it gets done. I started making more blocks yesterday. The blocks in the last photo are just a mish mash of scrap pieces sewn together. I'll use those scrappy blocks for a strip down the back like I did on the AB quilt.

The View......

.....from my studio window. I face this window when I'm on my computer. I love to see the sunrise over the houses and trees in the morning. I continue to be amazed by how blessed I am.

Cool

Oh, I love this quilt. The credit goes to Marquerite van Eijck of the Netherlands. Take a close up look. The 'books' are made of selvedge. I love the greenery flowing down the bookcase.

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Front


Back
*

Such a silly girl I was last Monday to think I could get 4 WIPS done in a week! I'm sure you all had a little giggle on my behalf. Good thing I changed the goal to one WIP a week. I finished the AB quilt just in the nick of time. I like it.

**

Now, on to the Florida quilt. But first I have to go check on 2 new mommies. Have a great day!

Oh Sess....it was your birthday yesterday!!!!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest girl...EVER!!! I love you, Jessica!!!!

Its Raining.....Babies!

Well, I'm off to help another mom have her baby this morning. When it rains it pours! I think this is #5 or 6 for the practice in the last few days. No sewing this morning...only catching....babies that is! Have a great Sunday.

Yesterday

I didn't get much sewing done yesterday as I had the extreme pleasure of helping a mom birth her 5th baby. It was a wonderful birth, altho hard on the mom as she was having a difficult time working up the nerve to push her baby out. In the end a beautiful baby girl emerged and all rejoiced. WooHoo! I love my job!

**

When I got home I put this dolly blanket together. I want to try some freestyle quilting on it....should be interesting.

Crossing over from the quilting dark side.

When I first learned to quilt, everything I read and was told was that you MUST press to the dark side. I figured it must be a very important quilting law, so as a law-abiding quilter, I ALWAYS pressed to the dark side. Then I had a class with Nancy Brenan Daniel a few weeks ago and HORRORS!!!!! She suggested pressing the seams open. Well, I thought for sure the quilting police were going to bust into the room and take all our toys away. Fortunatly, we kept it really quiet and the were no arrests. Anyway, this is the back side of the little dolly blanket I started yesterday. I pressed all the seams open. Please don't report me.

Day 4....new plan....ADCD

Didn't get too much done on the AB quilt yesterday. Drew some lines and tried to sew as straight as possible. After working on only this project for the last three days, my ADCD* is really starting to kick in....hard. I want to work on something new. wwaahhhh. It seams I bit off more then I could sew. I think I was only fooling myself when I thought I could get 4 half done projects done in 7 days. So here's the new plan. How about a WIP a week. That feels a little more manageable....maybe. I'll finish the AB quilt this week....hopefully..... but I'll still be able to squeeze other stuff in. Let's see how that works for me.

*ADCD: Attention Deficit Crafting Disorder

I heart Cherries.

Not only did I get a marking pencil from JoAnn's yesterday, but this fruity fabric jumped in my cart as well.....it wouldn't get out, so I bought it ;)

Happy Earth Day

Let's get out there and clean up some trash today.

Day 2

I got the whole middle of the quilt quilted yesterday. It's stitch-in-the-ditch, nothing fancy. I need to do the sides, but I will have to go to JoAnn's (yippee!!!!) today to get a fabric pencil. I want to draw straight lines on the creme part of the quilt so that I sew straight....well as straight as I can. Does that make sense?
So in the meantime, I'll start working on my second WIP for the week. This was the one I had started in Florida.

Thank You Jesus.....

....for shining the sun this morning. 4 days of gloomy is hard to get thru sometimes.

Special Report

My Aunt Kathleen opened an ESTY store! Its called The Country Fair. My cousin Sarah (Kathleen's daughter and Cooper's mom) also has a store called Cooped Up. (get it, Cooper/cooped....Sarah is a very clever girl...just like her mom!) Check them out...oh I have such a talented family!

Day 1

The 4 quilts I want to finish may not get done in 7 days. I forgot how much 'work' is involved in 'finishing' a quilt. Once the qulit top is done, I begin to think, well that ones almost done...on to the next one! The tops are the fun part to make. Anyway, here's what I got done. Its sandwiched and pinned....which took longer then expected....... (and Bubba was no help once again)

The binding is made....which took longer then expected.....
...and the quilting has begun...which, you guessed it....is taking longer then expected. Stay tuned.

This week....

....is going to be all about WIPS and UFO's. I need to finish this, this, this, and this. In that order. Thats 4 projects in 7 days. Ready, Set, GO!!!!!!!

More Boo-Tay from Fridays IQF visit.

Quilts at IQF

I went to the quilt show in Rosemont yesterday. It was huge! and very crowded. Here are some pics of some of the quilt I liked. The one above is made with the 1930's retro fabric that I love and have seemed to have accumulated quite a bit of. (The fabrics pictured in the new header are all from the quilt show. I had no supervision, so I kinda went a little crazy.)
I liked the borders on the above and below quilts.

Ole' Sue doin' all the things she does.



The quilt below was super cool. It was made with 10 separate panels all by different quilters. It was hard to get a pic of because there were so many people admiring it.




Lots of houses. I like it just 'cause.





Love, love, love this one. Sweet mommy nursing her baby.

I was exhaused be the time I got home around 5:30.....I had left the house at 7a. I want to go back on Sunday. I'm sure I haven't seen everything.......and I was thinking maybe there would be end-of-show sales. I need more fabric. Stat.

Class

I took a class with Nancy Brenan Daniel. It was really fun. The sewing machines we used were so great. It was the nicest machine I ever used. I want one.......bad. It sewed so quiet and smooth and fast. And after you are done sewing, the needle lifts up be itself! who'da thunk! Amazing! Below is the flower we worked on in class.
I, of course didn't get very far. I was the newest (and youngest......woohoo!!! ) quilter in the group, so I was slow. Plus, I had to use my BFF (seam ripper) a few times.

Great......another UFO.

ATC's

Quilting Arts magazine had an ATC trading wall. If you made cards, you stuck your to the wall and then took one. here's the ones I got. I traded my sunflower Sue and landscape one. I want to make more today in case I go back tomorrow.

Another study on the safety of home birth

This blurb was on the news yesterday.....

April 15, 2009 (WLS) -- If you're planning on having your next baby at home, it's as safe as going to the hospital, according to a new study in the journal BJOG.
Researchers in the Netherlands found for low risk women there was no difference in death rates of either mothers or babies when deliveries occurred at home with a midwife.
Home births have long been debated amid concern about safety. Low risk women were those who had no known complications such as a baby in breech or one with a congenital abnormality or a previous C-section.

.....to which I respond...."no kidding." and "who knew?" ( typed with much sarcasm)

Here are some links of recent studies on the safety of Home Birth:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

The last link is a study done on why women choose home birth.

Done!

I finished my blocks for the rainbow swap....18 in total. I think they turned out okay. I'll be getting them to you early next week, Jane.

Sweet Girlie cousins.

Pumpkin Pie....on Easter? Why not.

The week before Easter, Amy and I were talking about the menu and Jack piped up and said, "Auntie, you make punkin' pie? I wuv punkin'pie." I told Jack, " We usually have that sort of pie on Thanksgiving." He said, "So?" How could I argue with that logic? Pumpkin pie on Easter it is.
When, oh , when will we have the pumpkin pie?





Finally! I wuv it, Auntie!

....and I love you, Jackie Jack!

Kid Art

Us

Amen!

a-thriftin' we will go....

I love the thrift store that is about 1.5 miles from my house. It always has lots of good stuff (hence my full cart) at great prices. I wish it was a for charity thrift store, but it's not.

Dunkin Donuts coffee mug & Roll'n Donut

Here's another mug....I guess I'm making a coffee mug quilt. I want to do one of my very favorite coffee place, Rolli'n Donut. I need a more straight on pic of their sign, tho.