Tag Archive | Family

A Post for March 30th

I can’t think of a witty title for today. It is now Sunday evening, and I’m about to prepare dinner. I have done a little sewing, specifically on my Great Granny Squared quilt. The friend whom I intend to be the recipient of this house warming quilt just closed on her home a couple of days ago. I hope to get this one done in the next month to be timely in the delivery to her.

9 Blocks done! Laid out on the driveway. You can see Nora’s little foot in the picture – she was helping when the wind started to blow:

I never did find my Birds & Berries fabric – but I KNOW I have it. I couldn’t wait though and found a layer cake on Etsy and got it Saturday in the mail. Here’s a close-up of the first block using some of those vibrant colors (especially love the purple!):

I have 11 blocks left to make. And even though I didn’t find my Birds & Berries fabric, I did come back across a box that had 4 charm packs of Wee Play by Sandy Klop (American Jane). I really, really want to make something with her collections. I also have some precuts of Potluck that is more recent. I had purchased 4 yards of the Moda Weave Black to possibly go along with it (inspired by a quilt done by Ms Cupcakes ‘n Daisies. She named it “I’ll Take Mine Black“).

I have also decided on a quilt to make for my upcoming grand-daughter. Well, step grand-daughter. I really struggle to think of myself as a grandmother yet since I have a 5 and 7 year old at home. Denial, denial, denial. I’m in my early 40s, so it isn’t impossible .. but… denial, denial, denial.

Sunbeams Quilt Kit offered by Fat Quarter Shop… fabrics in Mirabelle collection by Fig Tree Quilts.

The backing fabric is shown closer up here:

The mommy-to-be said she was doing her room in yellow, so this felt really perfect. I hope it goes together fast though – she’s due in June!

I hope you had a great weekend and was able to enjoy some sunshine today. We are feeling the spring weather finally coming around.

Next time – the next block in Reach for the Stars!!

All my best,

Jennifer

Busy, busy, busy…

Mar12

I wish I could say that I had been sewing in secret and that I had three finished quilts to show off…, but that just isn’t the case. Not much time devoted to my hobby at the moment. Last week, I did get done with the 9th block in the 2013 Designer Mystery BOM by Fat Quarter Shop. It is the last house block in the row quilt. The last three blocks are a mystery to me. We have had three basket blocks, three star blocks and three house blocks.

I was only having to look for one piece of fabric to make my two blocks from one package this time. The facing of the house between the door panel and the roof line called for a 6″ square of fabric, and I only had a piece big enough for one. No worries though, last month’s package had a perfect piece that I used.

Here’s version 1 of the block:

And here’s Version 2:

And here they are together on my driveway!

The more I look at my six house blocks, the more I know I will embellish with some creative embroidery when I’m done. Little doorknobs, and maybe some flowers in the window boxes.

Jennifer Thacker from Houston has also been getting some sewing done. She has completed Block 2 of the Reach for the Stars pattern. Her block is perfect! Love the paislely center in its frame… take a look:

The next edition of Quilters Newsletter will be in my mailbox soon – I got the digital edition email yesterday. Three more ready to go!

Finally, I celebrated a birthday yesterday. I had a great day, surrounded by wonderful friends at work and family at home. One of the ladies at work made me a beautiful pink fondant covered cake, with hand crafted roses. The kids had fun lighting and relighting the candles last night.

I am truly blessed.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer

Love for Nora Quilt

Feb17

Anything pink, dark pink, violet-red pink, light pink, etc… has already received claim by my daughter. She’s probably like most little girls, although I don’t particularly remember having such a taste for the color myself.

I decided to jump in and make this quilt about 10 days ago. I had the Kissing Booth fat 8th bundle for over a year and really wanted to put it together fast. I combined some ideas from the Temecula Quilt Co blog site that gave instructions for their wall hanging on Jan 29th, and the Layer Cake Lemonade pattern from Fat Quarter Shop. Instead of a layer cake, I made 9″ squares from my fat 8th bundle.

Started with One Heart:

Then Three Hearts…

Then a Row of Hearts…

And finally – a finished quilt top! I called it “I Heart Nora”

I plan to FMQ it myself, and at the same time, do some quick and easy heart applique shapes in a couple of corners. I also have in my stash, a pink minky type fabric for the backing that I bought and never used that will be great. Just trying to decide on a binding.

Sorry I have been away, if you are a follower! My husband upgraded my blog to it’s own domain site and then it took a little while to reorganize the content. I think we are very close now! You can bookmark www.seamscrazyquilts.com if you would like! Please follow along if you enjoy seeing quilts, cats, and an occassional family post.

Work is hell right now, so as soon as this week is over – I will be able to get back to my projects. Really looking forward to the next block in Reach for the Stars, and maybe another one in my General’s Wives BOM.

See you soon!! Thanks for visiting!!

Jennifer

2013 Wrap Up!

Dec31

Last day of 2013! It was a big year for my family, on different levels. My children started 1st grade and Kindergarten, which are two big milestones. We bought our house, which we had been living as renters for over 3 years (thank goodness we don’t have to move!). My grandmother moved from my hometown to live with my aunt in Dallas, but she is doing well. We became pet owners again (from zero to 5 cats is extreme – anyone need to adopt a cat??). We all got another year older, but no health concerns.

Our Christmas rotation is now complete, with a visit this past weekend to Dallas to continue our family tradition with my grandmother and extended family. Every first cousin, Aunt and Uncle were present. We were only missing two second cousins, and the step cousins. Actually, it was a pretty successful turnout for shifting the location after 42 years from four hours away.

I asked for quilty things from my family and they took my wish list to the store for me. Couple of great books, a magnetic pin cushion, 3 yards of Kona White solid fabric (plan to work on the Lori Holt quilt along) and a FQS gift certificate!:

I also tried to put together a last minute gift, but didn’t make it. I did finish the table topper and pieced backing, but I ran out of time for the quilting part. This is a pattern called “Winter Seeds” and it was on my bucket list all year.

I used the fabric collection “Winter’s Lane” by Kate & Birdie Co for Moda. Beautiful ice blues, grays and saturated reds. The pattern was from The Crafty Quilter and her blog … click here to go to her post.

Here are some more pictures. I machine appliqued the ‘orange peel’ shapes with a tight top stitching and matching thread.

I pieced the back, but had to ‘make do’ with one small rectangle due to my shortage of that fabric. I should have used a primarily white alternate piece. I may replace it before I quilt it:

And here’s the top and bottom in one picture:

There will be some waste of the backing, but if you look at the Crafty Quilter’s blog pictures, you will see how it all comes out. It’s perfect!

Now that Nantucket was completed, I am moving on to my other BOM projects. I am three months behind on the FQS DM BOM 2013 quilt. I started on Block 4 yesterday and have gotten the pieces cut out. Like the other months, I am cutting out two blocks from the one set of fabric. I was able to get everything I needed, but I had to add the smallest amount of background fabric, which I had from an earlier month.

This morning I finished the center star portions with the surrounding strips. Next is the red/striped flying geese units. I want to get this block done tonight!

I’m so thankful for my family and friends and I look forward to all our new adventures in 2014. I hope you have a great evening tonight and I look forward to visiting with you again next year!

All the best,

Jennifer

Catching up on … everything

Dec2

Oh my – it was a busy week. I didn’t mention it before, but my family (including parents and brother) spent the entire Thanksgiving week in Disney World and just got back yesterday. So, I am catching up on mail, blogs, TV, sleep, laundry, healthy meals, etc…

It was a magical experience and Oliver celebrated his 7th birthday while we were there. I’ll pull out some good pictures to show you on the next post. This is a quick update to get me back on a roll.

I appreciate the comments that you guys sent in about my neutral border addition for Nantucket. I completed the other side today and was able to get some pictures taken just before the sun went down tonight.

Still liking it? Yes.

Just need top and bottom done now…

It will be a race to get it done for Christmas. My Dad turns 71 on Christmas Day and I really want to have the top done for it.

But, returning a bit to our trip to Walt Disney World (WDW) … I am not a fan of flying. I spent years traveling as a software consultant and flew about 3 out of 4 weeks each month for work all over the country. Sometimes in big planes. Connecting flights. Most of the time it started with ‘puddle jumpers’ between a small regional airport to DFW airport. I was even a Platinum member with American Airlines a couple of years. First class upgrades at no cost – that kind of stuff. But after the birth of my first child – I no longer wanted to step on an airplane. I have, in fact, not flown in just over 7 years now. I have driven from the Carolinas to Texas multiple times and back, and now we have driven from Texas to WDW Florida and back this past week.

All of that is to ramp up to the photos of my travel sewing project … Yoyoville by Bunny Hill Designs!

I thought I had plenty of squares cut up and inside my little box – but I found out by the time we arrived in Florida – that I could have completed all of my blocks if I had been more optimistic of my goals.

As it turned out, what I thought was a LOT of squares, was only 35.

Got those done with no problem at all. I need to count all of my blocks now to see how many I have left to do for the main portion of the quilt.

Don’t they look great though? Tapestry fabric collection for the yo yo circles and a fabric from the most recent Honeysweet for the background (both by Fig Tree Quilts).

It was already dusk outside when I took my pictures. So they look a little darker than they are.

I am also happy to announce that we are finally homeowners once again! We closed on our house two days before we left for our trip. We have been renting our home for over 3 years and we now own it. We love the location and are looking forward to getting some professional renovation designs drawn up. The house is over 70 years old and has a few items to fix – but we love that it is our family home and – like a great quilt – we will make it our own!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I’m enjoying catching up on my blog reading. You guys have been busy!

Take care,

Jennifer

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Oct24

Special day for our family. My mom is having a birthday and if anyone is the center of an extended family – it is her. She does everything and has always done everything. She’s a social butterfly and attentive wife, mother and grandmother. Now that I’m writing this post, I wish I had a good picture of her to include…. darn. My parents also celebrated their 50th anniversary this year.

I thought I would do a post today to accomplish two things at the same time. 1) Honor my mom’s birthday and showcase the prior quilted items I have made in the past for her, and 2) update more items to my Quilt History page.

First up is a bed runner I made for her. I think it was a Christmas gift for 2011. NO LABEL!!! !@#$@#$! I guess I can still make one and attach it.

The colors go great with her neutral toned bedding. The fabric is Park Avenue by 3 Sisters and I got the pattern from the book “Bed Runners using Precut Fabrics” by Kathy Brown. My mother is also a retired English teacher, so I need to comment that I know I should underline book titles, but I don’t have that option in my free WordPress application.

I gave her the coordinated fabric covered buttons as an option, but she decided to leave them off. They would have gone in the center of each “flower” block.

This is on her actual bed.

I was under a time crunch and I wasn’t confident enough to do the quilting myself yet, so I just gave her the quilt top with the backing/binding material in her gift. She had it quilted locally and the woman selected a dove/bird motif as the pattern.

The next one to show you is a table topper I made her on July 4th, 2012. I started this project when I got home one night from work and stayed up all night to finish it, and free motion quilt it myself! I did the binding by hand and completed the label applique on the drive to her house that next morning.

It is called Ozark Star and the pattern is by Fons & Porter. They did a segment on their show one day on this project and I really liked it. Since it was 4th of July, I found some great fabrics I had in my stash by Anna Griffin called Fleur Rogue along with a random charm pack and yardage that was also patriotic looking.

Nora loves her hair clips. Not just for hair apparently!

I even threw some fast embroidery on the label to try and spice it up. I think this backing fabric was a juvenile print called “Rescue 911” if I recall correctly.

Another table runner that I made was documented extensively on my blog already … it was the quilt along I did with Pam Buda called “Forget Me Not”. Here’s the finished quilt runner, but you can click on my tags to the right and see all the posts relating to this quilt.

I gave this to my Mom on her birthday last year, 2012.

I still love this quilt and the details I put into it. Like the wooden forget-me-not flower button.

Finally… I have tried and tried to remember if this was my FIRST quilt or my SECOND. The other option is a king size Christmas log cabin quilt which I haven’t shown you yet. But… I think this might be the second. I didn’t label it, so there you go. LABEL YOUR QUILTS!

Complete unknown fabrics from Hancock Fabric and WalMart.

So – HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I reserve the right to whip up another quilted gift for you tonight… 🙂

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

Pumpkin Time!

Oct10

We are getting a head start on our Halloween festivities. The decorations got pulled out of storage last weekend and have been strewn EVERYWHERE in the house, in the yard, on the porch – you name it. My kids also love to paint pumpkins. Which is great for me, because the carving process is kind of cumbersome. And these are just small pumpkins right now. We’ll get some bigger ones this weekend to cut up and light.

One thing to notice here… my kids poured out their own paint into their little plastic palettes. Look at Nora’s and then Oliver’s. Amazing. While she is still dutifully planning out how to decorate her pumpkin, he has already slathered a ton of blue paint on his.

Here she is paining her stem in sparkle pink! Oliver is planning on making his a zombie pumpkin.

I love this time of year – the start of all of the holidays!

I also got my CLOVER pattern from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co yesterday. This is the chosen October pattern for the AYOS project hosted by Sinta and Sherri. I decided to jump into this month and make a fall themed quilt for the family. You can also order the pattern as a PDF download or paper copy from Carrie’s website. Click here to link over to the Clover pattern on her shop site. It is also for sale at Fat Quarter Shop. (Sorry – I can’t seem to make this image bigger without it getting really distorted):

I had bought a charm pack a while back of Posh Pumpkins by Sandy Gervais for Moda and instantly knew that was what I wanted to use for the quilt:

NOTE TO SELF: ALWAYS BUY TWO CHARM PACKS – ONE IS NEVER ENOUGH.

So, when I started reading through the directions, it was clear that it would have been best to have two charm packs instead of one to make the quilt. However, I like this one so much that I want to make it into a lap quilt – so a layer cake would have been best anyway!

I couldn’t get this out of my mind and I finally just decided at lunch time to race 30 miles away to GRS Creations and Fabric in Old Town Spring. They have nearly EVERY Moda collection that comes out. Tons of fabric. TONS and TONS! I don’t know why I don’t visit more often! Oh yes, … money. That would be a reason.

So … my trip to their shop netted me one layer cake of Posh Pumpkins and perhaps a wee bit of yardage to go along with it. I’ll show my winnings tomorrow … they are tucked away in my backseat at the moment.

Can’t wait to get started on this one!

How about you – are you joining AYOS this month?

Jennifer

Friday excitement!

Jun28

Soooo glad it is Friday! How about you? I’ve got much waiting on me at home and I’m ready to get back into it.

I had started my June AYOS this past week and am working on the pinwheel blocks in the Dulcinea pattern. I went through my stash and found that I had two charm packs of Indigo Crossing by Minick & Simpson (MODA). Very soothing color combination of blues, tans, creams. I can’t wait to see how it will turn out.

I also continued my Robin’s Nest applique. I went to the store yesterday and bought some silk thread to see if it made a difference. I was using 100% cotton. It sure feels better gliding through the fabric, but I don’t know if I can tell much difference in the end result. I’ll stick with it though, because it does feel good.

I had to go out shopping for a new dress (first time in years) this week. My mother was awarded the Paul Harris Fellows award from the local Rotary Club last night. Very proud of her and everything she does for my hometown. Born, raised, married, returned, and retired from teaching in the same town. Anyway, getting out and about at 6:30 pm here is still horribly warm. Really doesn’t make you want to do clothes shopping when you are dripping with sweat just from walking to the mall doors from the car.

Weekend at home with no big plans, other than the usual.

Goals for this coming week:

Complete June AYOS – Dulcinea
Complete Robin’s Nest applique center and cut out first border
Complete the 20 blocks for Rah Rah Rally quilt
Play with kittens!

Here they are napping, one practically on top of the other. Good thing they are so cute, because I really forgot how bad litter boxes smell…

Have a great weekend! See you on the other side!

Jennifer

Happy Saturday

Jun8

Having a great Saturday so far. Just keeping it relaxed – no pressure.

Finished cutting out all of the tumblers from my fat quarter stack:

I think I have around 1000, which will be enough for the border and an added row as part of my pieced backing as well. I’m going to try this idea I found on a blog last week to make my ‘random’ selection for putting together the rows. I can NOT remember whose blog I saw this on – was it yours? I’m going to throw my pieces into the dryer for a few minutes, lowest air only setting, and then scoop them out into a basket for my retrieval during the sewing stage. Of course, no two same will be next to each other, but I’ll try to keep it random other than that.

Here’s Nora making up our shopping list for today. All the essentials.

Notice her memo board. This has turned out to be my favorite ruler, and I have a LOT of rulers.. It is an 8×14 Fons & Porter Omnigrid ruler, purchased at Joann Fabrics.

And the shopping list:

I started helping with the spelling halfway into the list. And I added the “meat” word. Can you decipher the first three items?

Finally, today’s cat picture. They are getting more and more cuddly. And courageous. But not at this particular moment:

Have a great weekend! Thanks for visiting!

Jennifer

(Final note, as I was completing this entry – the cats pooped in the bed because I moved their litter box earlier in the day. Daddy was not pleased at ALL. I did show them that I moved it – but they are just babies – right? Going to do some laundry now!)

What’s new in our house?

Jun4

Well, as I mentioned in my earlier posts … we decided to foster a couple of kittens who will soon be up for adoption through a rescue group called Dori’s Darlings. I met up with Dori yesterday after work and picked up my two cutie pies!

We all had fun watching them explore last night. I haven’t been this tired since I had a newborn waking me up every few hours. Well, maybe not that bad. I did fall asleep in the McDonald drive-thru lane while waiting for my caffeinated Coke. So, I am pretty tired.

On my way out the door – I decided to try and take a couple of pictures for you. Here’s Possum … now, temporarily renamed “Jewelry”:

Dori called her a tortoise muted calico, or something like that. Oliver says … ‘the one with the spot on her head’. The kittens are about 8-9 weeks old, but they are very much underweight. So our goal is to fatten them up so they can get their final immunizations and get spayed. Once that is done, they can go up for adoption.

Cute – right? Dori also mentioned something like … “It’s ok if you become a failed foster ….”. I was thinking – hey – I just got them – give me a chance!! But she meant, fosters who decide to adopt them for their own families… so, I get it. And yes, that is a very big risk for us. The kids didn’t touch the iPads all night!! Bonus!

I would show you the other one, called Bobbie (because she has a bobbed tail). Her name is temporarily “Sparkle”. However, I couldn’t locate her as we were heading out the door – and unlike a baby newborn, I just left out enough food and yelled out ‘Bye Kitties!’ and didn’t worry too much about it. She’s the one who slept under the couch last night.

Quilting… well, …. the good news is that my friend doesn’t even know I’m making the quilt for her – so she isn’t expecting it at any particular time. I have to connect my last row of blocks to the first two rows and then I can add the border. Almost there… almost there. I will post a picture of my quilt top when it’s done before I send it off, and then an update when it gets back and certainly one with Beatriz (the newlywed).

Hope all is well with you today! Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

Seams Crazy

Quilting and Family – both crazy!

Tag Archive | Family

A Post for March 30th

Busy, busy, busy…

Love for Nora Quilt

2013 Wrap Up!

Catching up on … everything

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Pumpkin Time!

Friday excitement!

Happy Saturday

What’s new in our house?

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