It's Fussy Friday

Not as pleased with this one as I am of my first Fussy Friday block.  The stripe caught my eye, but I couldn’t get the leaves to match up.  In the whole scheme of the quilt, I doubt it will be noticeable.  Right?

 

Happy New Year!

My new year’s resolution….update my blog a little more often!  

Thought I’d better post the update of my MIL’s Christmas eve birthday present.  So, I had high hopes of whipping up a snazzy quilt label for her – some cutesy paper pieced work of art.  A few weeks before her b-day she tells me about a neighbor lady who received a quilt with her name embroidered on it.  MIL thought it was so special to have it personalized. Hmm, I had planned to run fabric through the printer for a label then paper piece into a bird/birdhouse, but I can switch it up.  My snazzy paper pieced label wasn’t turning out so well anyway, so I tossed it aside for an appliqued bird and Jen’s name hand stitched on her quilt.  Even with the horrible hand writing, she loved it. 

Back

Front

 

 

Now that I’ve got a little hand sewing under my belt – Temecula QuiltCo. Blog is doing a Fussy Friday each week.  She’s using 60 degree diamonds to make a 6-point star.  Thought I’d join in, not sure I’ll do the entire 52 weeks, but maybe enough for a wall hanging.  I have great intentions and all, but 52 weeks is a long time!

 

Time flies

Where did it go?  What happened to the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas?  While waiting for my Mother-in-laws birthday gift to be quilted, I worked on a few smaller projects.  My 2 youngest grands talked me into making them new pillow cases – I let them pick out the fabric. 

 

Little Man wanted a 2-sided pillowcase, while Beezer’s only requirement be that it was soft on both sides.  Mission accomplished.

 

My husband’s daughter-in-law wanted a new stocking for 1 year old Hank – I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to find boy-ish type Holiday fabric.  They’re outdoorsy types so I thought this print was appropriate.    

 

Front

Back - can be flipped around as he gets older

 

Wanting something for all the Grands this Christmas, I whipped up some mittens instead of stockings for the mantel.  We have all of our kids’ stockings hanging from the railing between the kitchen and living room, but I wanted something different for the little kiddies.  So stinkin' cute!

 

 

Pucker up Baby

I am now "one" with my people, yes – that’s right, I’ve joined a quilt guild!  This group meets once a month, and at each meeting there’s a guest speaker – for my first guild experience Jenny Doan "charmed" the guest spot!  After the speaker, snack and short meeting, most line up for show-n-tell.  For each item a guild member shows, they get a little ribbon which pins to their name badge – I call this “Badge Bling”.  There are some women who have so much Badge Bling the badge necklace has to be cutting into the back of their necks.  Talk about Bling over-acheivers, these women must sew from dusk-til-dawn.  I know what you’re thinking “she’s got Bling envy”….well, you’re right, I do!

The Guild is a big supporter of making Linus quilts, so I decide to whip together a Linus quilt to earn my first ribbon.  Couldn’t I just take a quilt I’ve already made?  I could if any of the really nice quilts had the binding on them!  So, I pick a super easy pattern, whip it together and start quilting.  I had 4 days before the next guild meeting and needed to get cracking.  I checked the backing after 4 rows of quilting and everything looked fine and dandy.  I’m guessing the moment I stopped checking the back is when it all went downhill…..I zipped through the toddler sized quilt and was immediately deflated when I looked at the backing.  Pucker City.  Puckered beyond belief - so bad I’ll have to rip it all out.  Argh!  So, I went empty handed to the guild meeting and left bling free.   

Cute, right?

Pucker City 

 

My spiffy new Guild Badge, Blingless....

It should be a happy birthday!

I’m seeing pink and brown in my sleep!  I’ve had the pedal to the metal for 3 weeks trying to complete this quilt.  The worst thing that can happen is if my quilter Gail says she doesn’t have time to quilt before the Christmas holidays.  Surely, she won’t turn me down, right?  I’ll be reduced to tears, I’m not beyond crying and begging!

This quilt is a mini of my queen sized quilt.  Even though my MIL ooh’d and ahh’d over my queen, I think she’ll love this one just as much.  Thinking about making a paper pieced bird for the quilt label.  I’m the worst at adding quilt labels, so it’ll be a snazzy move on my part if I can get bird whipped up.  Stay tuned, I’ll post a quilted, labeled, binded up quilt pic before Jen’s Christmas eve birthday.

Sassy Witches!

For me, Halloween is right up there with celebrating Christmas. I’ve got 4 little grands, and each and every year I beg them to dress as Dalmatian puppies so I can be Cruella De Vil – yet they flatly refuse.  My oldest grand isn’t trick or treating this year and I’m seeing visions of my ultimate Halloween slipping away.  Let me just say, I’ve attended countless “Grandparents” days at school, I’ve played endless games of “go fish”, I’ve even had to crawl to the top of the PlayPlace at McDonald’s to rescue a grand who freaked out and couldn’t find her way back down.  So, I’ve decided to play dirty next year – if I have to blackmail, bribe or payoff, I’m going to be Cruella and those grands will be Dalmatians! 

 

 

Muh-ha-ha-ha!

 

 

A-dor-a-ble!  I picked up these little sweeties at our Auxiliary Sale here at work.  I couldn’t resist.  So detailed, I love their shoes!

 

One Lucky M-I-L

I’m moving right along with my Mother-In-Law’s Birthday gift.  I anticipate having the throw complete by this weekend.  The sooner the better since I’m not doing the quilting myself.  My M-I-L (Jen) was born on December 24th, so in all the chaos of the holidays her birthday is always lumped in with Christmas.  This year all the “kids” will give her the usual “lawn service for a year” gift certificate, but I’ll have a bonus birthday gift of her favorite quilt.  It might be Jen’s birthday, but I’m quite excited about it.