Monday, February 25, 2008

Bad News, Good News and Some Quilting

Well, the bad news first: we won't be moving to this house. Saturday we learned that someone made an offer on the house without a contingency like in our agreement. The seller obviously went with that offer. I had prayed for some guidance and we were given it. That is the good news: we are being led in a different direction. We had an amazing open house here on Sunday. We aren't 100% sure we are going to sell now that we've lost the other house but we are reevaluating our situation and are keeping the house on the market for now. We are taking a long hard look at what it is that we want to get out of moving. The biggest thing is a better financial future. God will lead.
Now for the quilting. I added a border to my Irish Chain quilt and am finished with the quilting in the plain blocks. You can see a close up in the top picture. I use a blue washable pencil to mark my pattern and it always makes me a little nervous. I'm always afraid the blue won't come out of the white but it always does. I do enjoy the hand quilting even though it takes longer than by machine. I will also quilt straight lines in the small squares and then a design in the border. The sun is shining today and it is a little warmer. I saw some bulbs peeking their little green stems out of the ground and that always makes me feel cheerful.

The other great news is that we have finalized our plans to vacation in Colorado in June. Mike's aunt and uncle own a home out there and have graciously invited our family to stay with them for a week. We are excited! Now I REALLY have to get in shape. I'm dedicated to walking everyday and really taking a look at my eating habits. Actually I'm going to be bugging the whole family about this. We don't want to be outdone by some 60 year olds!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Camera suprise

I thought I'd show you my new ironing board cover today. I have been working on my curriculum for work (I facilitate small groups of children at risk for drug and alcohol use) which has been weighing on my mind. I want to get back to my Irish Chain quilt soon. When I uploaded the pictures on my camera I discovered the nice little picture you see above. My husband must have taken this picture yesterday. This is our cat Gizmo who loves Nathan more than any person alive. The cats are banned from several parts of our house (the carpeted parts) and so Nathan always does his reading on our bed so he can give Gizmo some love (or so he can get some love from Gizmo, I'm not sure which). This is my new ironing board cover. It may be the worst sewing job I've ever done. Fortunately, no one can tell. I didn't bother to take a picture of my old cover since it was so hideous. This fabric has been in my stash for a really long time. If you look at this post you will see the resemblance. I have to admit that this still isn't exactly what I would pick for a cover but I didn't want to spend any money and I REALLY wanted a new cover. If I kept the hated one on for 14 years, I'm sure I'll keep this one that I actually somewhat like for at least that long.

On an ironing board related note, tell me about your irons. This one is a $10 job from Kmart. I have a great dislike for it. It takes a really long time to get steamy enough to press my seams. My birthday is coming up in April and I'm notorious for asking for things that make other people cringe. So, bare all....tell me about your iron and whether you'd recommend it to a quilter. Please remember that the only time I iron is when I sew. I do not iron clothes. I repeat (and you can ask my husband) I do not iron clothes. So, that little piece of information being revealed (she says in her paint stained Old Navy sweat shirt) I want the goods on your irons. Pretty please?

P.S. What is the deal with Blogger and spell check? I'm a terrible speller and my spell checker hasn't worked for weeks. Please forgive any misspellings.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Irish Chain

Here is a picture of my new carpeting and my new quilt. I wouldn't normally put carpeting in my sewing room but it was less expensive than hardwood and since the goal is to sell the house, we went with it. It is warm and soft and cushie (is this a word?) so that I'm secretly happy about it. I also got rid of some furniture and moved my sewing table to the center of the room so I can walk all the way around it. I do love this room but still hate that when I am in it I am so isolated from the rest of my family. This is one of the reasons we are trying to move.

The quilt you see is my current work in progress. I have been feeling rather lethargic lately and haven't set foot in the room other than to take this picture. The other thing I want to improve is my ironing board cover. I have this nasty silver cover and I long for something colorful. I found this post today and it inspired me to stop thinking about changing the cover but to actually do it.

Finally, you have to take a look at the quilt-along that Amandajean from Crazy Mom Quilts is hosting. One of my downfalls in quilting has been my lack of borders. It is one of the goals I set for myself this year: add borders to my quilts. This post shows how she is putting together the border for the quilt. I just love the way it pulls all the blocks together. Amazing.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Cut, Sewn and Sent



I finished the second round of coasters. I may have to make some more out of this block as I really like it. I sent both sets to my swap partner today. Hope she likes them.

Coaster Swap take 2

As I told you in this post, I signed up for a coaster swap. When I signed up I had so many other things to think about and do that I wasn't sure if I could spend much time on the coasters. But, they are small and quickly finished. I had a stash of Heather Bailey's freshcut fabric and I cut into that for my coasters. I like them and I've gotten some nice comments about them on flickr. But I kept having a nagging feeling that they weren't really the right style for my coaster partner. I can't tell you why because the whole thing is a big secret. You know, making it a surprise and all. Needless to say, I finished up my projects around the house and in the sewing room and so last night decided to give the coasters a second try.

I discovered (well, actually she discovered me) a new quilting blog, Crazy Mom Quilts. She makes AMAZING quilts. I am re-inspired with so many ideas. So I have to give her credit for the idea for my little coasters. I saw a similar block and thought it might look super great in a coaster. I sewed up the coaster tops last night and cut out the backing fabric. I'll finish them up today and show you the completed project.

I have a quilt that I am ready to start. A friend of ours is having a baby (her first girl after four boys!) in April. She doesn't read my blog so I am safe to show you the quilt in progress. I was inspired by this post from a year ago. It is an Irish Chain block. Here is the pattern that you can buy but I really didn't think it was necessary. I would never make the pillow (of course when I say never to something it means I'll usually do it sometime in the future...) which is the only part I would need the instructions for. It is a beautiful quilt and how I'll finish it is still unknown. I am a terrible quilt planner which in some ways is because I like to use unusual fabrics and then have a hard time matching things with them! This one is all Moda Marble fabrics which I just adore. I don't think you can go wrong with this line of fabrics.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Covered in God's Love

We have a friend who recently was diagnosed with breast cancer and is having a double mastectomy this month. She is in her early 40's, has two beautiful children and a loving husband. We have been praying for her and I have wanted her to feel covered in God's love. So I thought, what better way to be covered in God's love than by a Prayer Quilt? I love this Freshcut fabric and couldn't bear to cut it so I made a whole cloth quilt with flannel backing. It is not quite bed sized but large enough to sleep under on the couch.All around the back of the binding I wrote encouraging Bible verses. I hope to get the quilt delivered soon. Please pray for our friend as this is a very trying time. Thanks.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Quilt finished (almost) in time

Well, here it is. I finished it this morning at 6am. Not quite before Matthew was born but pretty darn close. I just got home from visiting the new baby. He is a doll, all blonde peach fuzz and sleeping like crazy. His big sister Angela thinks he's something special as do his parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and all manner of friends and neighbors. I am always amazed at how small babies are. You'd think I didn't have any of my own. My boys are so big now that I just can't believe they started out that small. They really did, though. Let's keep praying that all the details of Matthew's adoption are smooth sailing. Thanks for all those of you who have prayed. He is a miracle.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Can you help?

My sister-in-law is a fabulous writer and has done lots and lots of free lance work but wants a REAL JOB. Check out her work at her blog: maryalicebitts

Maybe you know of a position (she's willing to move and loves big cities) or have a friend who knows someone who knows someone, etc.

MaryAlice is one of the best people I know, is a tremendously hard worker, is ethical to the point of being obsessive and so nice I don't know anyone who doesn't like her. Did I mention she's a great writer? Check out her blog and if you know of anything let us know!

Thanks.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Coaster Swap

A few weeks ago I signed up for a coaster swap on Ibby Bee Quilts blog. I've always thought it would be fun to do a swap and since I am very busy with selling houses and homeschooling and homework and work and baby quilts I thought this was doable since coasters really don't take too long. Also the time frame was over a month. I won't tell who my swap buddy is since it is to be a surprise. I've decided to use my Heather Baily fabric for the coasters. I bought this a while ago and have been itching to cut into it. My original intent was to make a mini quilt with it and I will still do that but I'm sure there is enough for four coasters as well. Now I just have to decide how to sew them together.....
In other news, I have begun quilting the baby quilt for baby Matthew. I hand quilted part of it but have decided to try some machine quilting because I am running out of time. Keep praying for that small miracle.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

copy cat

Remember when I made this? Well, I found a copy cat today (yes it is 2:56am and I'm up....I'm still sick). I don't mind if someone takes a quilt design and copies it but I do mind when they don't mention at all where they found the design. I didn't copyright it or anything and it is just a basic little design but I always give credit when I use someone else's design as a courtesy to the designer. I didn't realize I'd have such a gut reaction. I think the fact that she copied it down to the scallop quilting and is selling it on etsy was just too much for me. I don't mind imitation (obviously, since I do it myself) but I think it is just common courtesy to say when a design isn't yours. Maybe it is because I am sick and tired and our house isn't selling and it is looking like we will lose the house we want to buy that it bothers me so much. I did send out a comment on the other quilt and hope that it was an honest mistake. I'm not going to link to her quilt because that might just be mean and don't want to do that here in public. Maybe I need to just be humble and say that it really doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter.

I'm going to go lay on the couch and continue reading Lord of the Rings now.

Thanks for listening. Hope you are all well.
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