End of an Era

Jun19

Every other month, there is a “large trash” pickup day in our neighborhood. We try to purge what we can. This month, we decided it was time to get rid of the car seats.

***sigh***

***sniff sniff***

The kids are now too tall to really be comfortable in these seats anymore, and although from a distance, they look pretty good … you don’t see the food stains, crumbs, dirt and dried icecream in the buckles. Car seats are also one of those items that they say you shouldn’t get used, or donate. Hence, they are ready for the trash pickup.

I am so sentimental about these kind of things. I would keep them in the garage forever if my husband would let me.

When I was driving the kids across the street this morning, with just the regular seat belts on, my daughter exclaimed “I feel like a Queen!” and my son said “I feel like the President!”. They are enjoying the increased leg room I think.

Bring on the booster seats!

Happy Thursday,

Jennifer

Just bring me back a T Shirt…

Jun17

I am a huge collector and wearer of T Shirts. It is my go-to clothing of choice for anytime I’m not at work. My mother hates it, but she can’t complain too much because she bought most of them for me. I have a lot of vacation t-shirts.

It only seemed natural that when I found these two items, I had to buy them! Have you seen them? Do you own them yet yourself?

I got this one in a extra large size for sleeping… Love it!

I got home really, really late last night. Everyone was asleep already, piled in my bed. So I headed to the guest bedroom and found my squishy package from Fat Quarter Shop. I opened it up and had my night shirt ready to go!

Very soft and my XL size fit me well (I’m a size 16). I’m a huge fan of FQS, as you can see by this small sampling of my overflow stash boxes under the design wall:

Speaking of which – I decided on a little change up in the backing squares for the GGS quilt. I got my Bella solid light gray fabric last night also (along with the shirt), but I also found on sale a light gray/white paisley fabric which I think will work better. I took advantage of FQS shipping sale this week and I should have that delivered tomorrow or Thurdsay. Then I’ll make my final selections and get this back pieced and off to Linh!

Here’s the BEFORE picture:

Finally – I completed Block 1 of the FQS Designer Mystery BOM featuring the Snowbird collection. This is a great star! I might just make an entire quilt out of it…

I was a little nervous to cut the hour glass units to piece in the sides and top, but it went together just perfectly!

I am wrapping up a very busy week(s) today and hope to jump back on my sewing machine by tomorrow night. I’m anxious to get another block or two or three done on the Reach for the Stars quilt.

Have a great week!

Jennifer

No lectures, please…

Jun13

I know it. But, you do the same thing! Don’t deny!

I got my box from Fat Quarter Shop yesterday and it had the first block of the 2014 Designer Mystery BOM program. This year it is featuring the collection Snowbird by Edyta Star of Laundry Basket Quilts and I think it will be all star blocks.

But yes … I know … I have three blocks left to do on 2013 DM BOM … but they got pushed to the side last night so I could prep.

I started by ironing and lightly starching all the fabric pieces. Don’t you love those blues with the gray and beige colors?

It took no time to cut out the pieces for the block. In the the past two DM BOM years, I have tried to cut out two blocks from the same pack of fabric. Unfortunatley, at least on Block 1 this time, the cuts called for some large squares and I just couldn’t fit a second set out of the swatches. I might try again since all but one of the large squares got subcut diagonally twice, so I could possibly work it out as smaller squares for the extra block set. I’ll wait and see how Block 2 goes and I might invest in a layer cake to supplement. I wanted to make another quilt at the same time – I think my mom would like this one.

Here are the cuts and in the top right corner, you can see the abundant left over ‘scraps’:

As of this morning, FQS still had this program available along with the backing and finishing kits. It is going to be beautiful!

Also, a quick look at my design wall where I’m laying out the pieced backing for my GGS quilt. I have some light gray solid on order to help finish it out.

This one Great Granny Square will be about 60″ square when it is done. Can’t wait to see how it ends up!

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and to those celebrating – a Happy Father’s Day!

All the best,

Jennifer

Garden Diversion

Jun12

Well, as I type this, my office is gathering in the main area to watch the opening of the World Cup games. Pizza for everyone! We have a diverse group of employees from all over the world. My staff in particular include three ladies from Colombia, one from Mexico and one from Poland. We have offices in Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Barcelona, Antwerp and Shanghai. Therefore, this World Cup thing is big (to some). Me… I’m just glad I get to wear jeans today!

I wanted to share a bit of our garden with you. My husband and I love to garden, but my quilt obsession took over and now I’m more inclined to piece a quilt top than sweat it out – but this may turn me back a bit. My husband has been working on the beds and buying some nice accent flowers. I thought I would share some with you…

We love Coleus of all sorts…

I have a desire to build back my Daylily collection. This is just a start. Three varieties below with a peachy color, a bright yellow and this top picture of a variety with a purple/white bloom:

Potted plants are scattered about, this one with some blooming geraniums. Suppose to be good for mosquito control, which is absolutely necessary in Houston, TX:

And newly bloomed star lillies:

To top it all off, he ordered 10 yards of combination mulch/mushroom compost and we have 4 inch layers going over all the beds now. It looks great and really makes you want to be out in the yard (best to be dipped in bug spray first).

Hope you are getting some sunshine and fresh air this week. I’ll be back soon to show my backing for the GGS quilt. It will be like a quilt in itself!

All my best,

Jennifer

Great Granny Squared quilt top completed!

Jun9

I stayed up until 3 am on Friday night (Sat morning) to complete this top.

There is a point where you get near the finish line and you tell yourself – just keep going. You are too close not to just finish these borders and have it DONE. I was at that point Friday night. My son tried his best to keep up with me, but he fell asleep about 30 minutes from the finish line. We were both pretty tired on Saturday.

What about you – how close do you get to a quilt finish where you will just grind it out? 10 min? 1 hour? 3 hours?

I’m happy to show off the finish… Great Granny Squared pattern by Lori Holt from her recent book by the same name.

Fabric is from collections including Birds & Berries, High Street and Bluebird Park.

Background is a light gray polka dot on white from Vintage Modern.

A charm pack of Grunge basics (variety of colors) was used in the border to mix with the prints.

A little close up of the corner.

I do have a problem however. I don’t have much of my background left and I would have liked to used it for the backing. I can’t seem to find it on eBay, Etsy or my favorite online shops either. My grand plan is to use another layer cake from High Street, the leftover layer cake squares from Birds & Berries and piece a big GGS block on the back. I just need to decide on a complimentary fabric to make up the difference. Any suggestions? Pull out the yellow or green and find yardage of that perhaps? Or the light teal blue? So, I’m really not ready to send this off, but so close!

Thanks for stopping by today! I’m looking forward to switching gears a bit and working on my languishing BOM projects for awhile.

All the best for a great week!

Jennifer

Nantucket is Home! Picture heavy post ahead…

Jun3

I sit here to think of how to explain why I can’t post more often and I struggle with trying to sound gracious and humble. But it’s hard.

My kids are absolutely a terror when it comes to picking up after themselves, causing more of a mess while I’m cleaning up the last mess and they do NOT like to get up out of bed in the morning. One child begs me to let her stay up later and read more and the other runs screaming through the house when he has to do 2 pages of homework (that would take him all of 3 minutes if he would just down and do it).

I spent about an hour and a half last night doing the summer school homework with my son. Two little pages. 90 minutes. Several calm and thoughtful discussions in between about how we are going to be a team this month to get it done and a little bribery slipped into the mix. I soooo wanted to take my left hand and complete the homework for him, but I drew the line. Just a few more weeks and they are all play, all the time. Until then, we have a little extra work to get through to prepare for 2nd grade.

The days fly by. The nights are even shorter. And we have eaten at McDonalds waaaayyyyy too much for my comfort. !@#$!@#$

So, anyway, the conflict I feel is to record in my memoirs this moment in time and to also be aware that others are reading this and I want you to know, gentle reader, that I am very blessed to have my family and I wouldn’t want any other family in this world. I love my children. I spoil them rotten I’m sure and my husband pulls more than his weight around the house. But we both work full time and that leaves precious little at night to feed everyone, bathe everyone, do homework and wind down enough to slip into an unconscious state.

Now – for quilting pictures!!

I would like to formally state that my official quilter is Linh at Lima Sews. She is fantastic and I was overly thrilled when I got my Nantucket back from her this past weekend. I gave a couple of design thoughts and asked her to ‘do her thing’.

I’ll just pop these pictures in, back – to – back for your viewing enjoyment. I’m so glad that my backing allows the quilting to show off well.

Love the cross-hatching in the inner border…

See what I mean about the backing? This is my favorite picture of the group. You see all the designs in one place.

My only initial design request was circle feathers in the big stars. They turned out just like I wanted!

I tooks these pictures minutes after I pulled the quilt from the box. Should have ironed it out a bit first 🙂

Thank you Linh for a great quilt job! It is going to be so very hard to give this away – but at least it stays in the family. The binding needs to go on before Father’s Day, so I should be able to swing that at least.

If you want Linh to quilt for you – you can visit her blog and website.

She blogs under “Elvy Crafts”: http://elvycrafts.blogspot.com

Her longarm services can be linked from that site, or you can go here under her company website for LiMa Sews: http://www.limasews.com/services

Go to the bottom of her LiMa Sews site and you will see the SWOON quilt I did last year for a wedding gift in Happy Go Lucky fabrics.

Thanks for visiting my site today. I hope to get back into a routine that will include more posts. I am so very close to finishing my Great Granny Squared quilt. Just the plain outer borders left to sew and then a pieced backing.

Until next time!!

Jennifer

Loving this MINI Trend!

May9

My all-time favorite designer has jumped on the bandwagon now… MINI quilts by Fig Tree!

Last month I took the Canned Pears pattern by Fig Tree and did my own math and graph paper exercise to scale down the pear blocks to make a new window valance for my kitchen (click here for that post)… If I had JUST WAITED a few more weeks, I would have saved so much time, because Joanna and the Fig Tree team have just released four new mini patterns!

The Fig Tree blog has a post about it this week, and you can click HERE to jump over and read it with all the eye candy pictures. You can also buy the PDF download of each one individually, or do what I did and get the 4 PACK! Click here for a link to that item on their shop site.

Picture from Fig Tree Quilts Blog – Used with Permission

I particularly fell for this version of the mini Blossom quilt in the red/white colorway:

Red & White Mini Blossom – Used with Permission

So, even though I have other projects ahead of any mini quilts … for example, I’m still just sitting at 2 out of 66 blocks to finish my GGS quilt:

I couldn’t stop myself from raiding my mini charm packs and coming up with the start of a mini quilt of my own.

I’m going with Chateau Rouge by French General mini charms and a background in the Rounneires Deux group.

Laying out my first of four Blossoms:

And jumping ahead to the end of the first completed block, unfinished at 8 1/2″ square. See how it compares to the 2 1/2″ square piece next to it:

Loving it!

Are you getting on board yet? How many minis have you made?

Patiently waiting on my table as well, a Monthly Stitch Club by Shabby Fabrics and the latest two blocks of the FQS Designer Mystery BOM… can’t wait for the weekend to begin!!

Have a wonderful Friday!

Thanks for stopping by as always!

Jennifer

GGS Homestretch

May7

I have the center done for my GGS (Great Granny Squared) quilt. Pattern by Lori Holt.

What do you think? All that is left is 66 square-in-a-square blocks to make a pieced border. I have 2 done right now. 64 to go! I’m in the homestretch of this finish!

GGS Center 3

GGS Center 2

GGS Center 1

I’m determined to make a pieced backing for this quilt also. I have many leftover strips, blocks, layer cake squares, etc… from my sampling of the three collections I used in the quilt top. Now to also decide on the quilt pattern…

Happy humpday!

Jennifer

Happy Friday!

Apr25

It’s 5:30 am, and this is apparently the perfect time to update a new post. There is always a chance that one of my offspring will sense that I am not asleep, then wake up themselves and seek me out – but if I type fast enough….

You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.

First – I’ll share some gratuitous kitten pictures because that is really what the internet was invented for after all.

All five kittens were named for characters from the Disney Frozen movie, by the way.

1) Anna (black and white)

2) Elsa (tabby)

3) Olaf and either Sven or Kristoff (we have two solid black kittens)

Olaf is by far the most outgoing. I think he was the first born as well. We are working on socializing them and litter box training. Next week, mommy goes in for her snip-snip surgery. There are just too many dead-beat dad tom cats out there! And she likes to escape and run off with the first one (or several given the out come of this litter) that she finds. Tsk tsk… 🙂

Now, for my latest project. I’m completing the main quilt pattern in Lori Holt’s book “Great Granny Squared”. It calls for twenty of her GGS blocks and then it will have a pieced border of 5″ squares set on point around it. These fabrics have been so fun to work with. I ended up using three main collections: Bluebird Park, Birds & Berries and High Street. There is one fabric round in the blocks from Mirabelle – but it truly doesn’t fit in (see bottom row, second from left, outer pale yellow fabric round). There are also perhaps 4-8 squares in the mix from Wishes by Sweetwater – but I found that the colors were also too muted for what I evolved into using.

I ran out of room on the design wall, so I had to tape up the other 5 blocks on the bathroom door. That is what the blue dots are holding up the squares.

My photography skills at night in a spare bedroom are lacking. The colors are really so vibrant and cheerful.

My daughter’s favorite block:

One of my favorites. Once I added in some of the High Street collection, I wish I had more blocks to make!

I have the sashing strips cut, so that will be my next step. This is going to be a housewarming gift for one of my coworkers. I have plans to make another of these for myself, in Vintage Happy fabric and other Lori Holt collections.

Have a great Friday and thanks so much for visiting my blog today!

Jennifer

I’m taking what I can get

Apr24

Look at that. Last post was 2 1/2 weeks ago. Fantastic. It does feel like forever. I have been resolved down to only a few minutes of quilting a day, if that. I usually grab a few minutes when I’m pressing my kids clothes for school. I’ll sew a few rows together and get them pressed and ready for the next five minutes I can find.

I don’t even have pictures for today.

Another reason could be that we have 5 baby kittens that are now adventurous and slowly weaning off mommy kitty. It takes a bit of time for them to all figure out the litter box routine. Fun times.

I’m also so depressed by the news lately. Everything seems so bleak and horrible. I even went so far as to change my opening internet home page to my bank, instead of MSN.COM because I just kept seeing these stories pop up of murder, tragedy, kids illness, and equally depressing all the hype around celebrities that seem to be at the other extreme end and is just too tiring to care about.

I know what I need, I just can’t get it right now. Perhaps this weekend I can get some great sewing time in. Nope – just remembered that I have a sleep study night to go through to be fitted for a CPAP machine. Apparently I have severe obstructive apnea.

I have managed to complete all 20 blocks for my Great Granny Squared quilt. I added in some bright and cheery colors from the High Street collection. A charm pack of it was just enough to add into the mix. I love the blocks and I hope my friend remembers that she asked for bright colors. I’ll get a picture tonight of the finished set and show them off tomorrow. That will make me happy too.

Hope you are having a great week and loving life and those around you!

Jennifer

Seams Crazy

Quilting and Family – both crazy!

End of an Era

Just bring me back a T Shirt…

No lectures, please…

Garden Diversion

Great Granny Squared quilt top completed!

Nantucket is Home! Picture heavy post ahead…

Loving this MINI Trend!

GGS Homestretch

Happy Friday!

I’m taking what I can get

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