Yep I've Lost My Mind!

My oldest daughter is getting married in March 2012. So I have decided that I would make them a double wedding ring quilt for a wedding gift. Yep, I told you I have lost my mind!

Her favorite color is dark green and his is dark blue. So one ring will be shades of green while the other shades of blue. I have only bought the green fabric at this time.

I'm going to start making my green arches now and buy the blue fabric in June to get started on them.

I'm really liking how they are turning out. I'm paper piecing them using this pattern. So far it's pretty easy, but I'm worried about when I stitch all the arches together with the centers. I've never done curved piecing/sewing before.

Another Treasure Box

I made another little treasure box for a friend's daughter for graduation. It was a lot easier this time and my results are much neater!

See no raw edges showing this time!

I hope she likes it!

One Flower Wednesday

Once again I have been working hard on my hexies. I have 2 flowers finished this week.

I love the measuring tape and choir hexies!
I have also started putting them together with purple.

House Divided

My middle daughter started Driver's Ed yesterday. She informed me that after I paid $225 for this class they didn't provide her with a driver's manual. That we either had to drive the hour to the nearest DMV or print the 97 page manual off the internet. I opted to print it off the internet. In order to contain these 97 pages, she needed a notebook. So I dug out an old one and told her I would cover it. Here is what we came up with...

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The funny thing is, my daughter is a HUGE Texas fan (because we are originally from Texas). But her TEXAS notebook is holding the OKLAHOMA Driver's Manual! Haha!

February BOM

This BOM didn't take long at all until I messed it up and had to rip.

Can you see my problem?
Here is the correct one.

I like this block better than the first one. I think the pattern got lost in my fabric choices on January.

Teeny Tiny Hexies!!!

When I saw this in the current issue of The Quilter Magazine, I knew I had to blog about it! Grace Snyder made this quilt out of 58,640 dime sized hexies!

WOW! I'm speechless!

Guild Block of the Month

Since January our guild president has been giving us BOM patterns. I didn't make it to the first couple months meetings because of ball games. So I'm behind on getting these done. Then I decided I didn't just want to create these blocks out of scraps, I want to have a quilt to be proud of at the end of the year. So I was waiting until I found just the right fabric.

Since I am the youngest in our little guild, I like to shock these ladies with my fabric choices. So I have decided to go retro. When I was little I had a comforter set for my room. I believe it was from Sears and I think it was called "Country Patch". Well it was fabric printed with big blocks in lime green, yellow, and pink. I loved that comforter! 

Me as a teenager sleeping in with a cat I can't remember. LOL

When I found these fabrics at Walmart, I knew that was my choice for my BOM quilt!

And here is my January BOM finished!

I can't wait to make February's block!

Erica's Treasure Box

I bought Abby's Treasure Box pattern back in April. I intended to try it out when I was off on vacation, but my brother had other plans for me. So I took last night to give it a try.

Now, I'm fairly new to decorative sewing and I've NEVER sewn a zipper before. So this pattern was a bit of a challenge. For starters it tells you to take some of your 5" charm squares and cut them into rectangles (it gives measurements, but my ADD brain didn't register them). So I cut my 5" charms in half to make 2 rectangles 2 1/2" wide by 5". Long story short I ended up ripping out and cutting them into the 2" by 3 1/2" the pattern called for.

Then came my real challenge...Putting in the zipper. I read the instructions over and over and over. Finally I jumped in and took it one step at a time. I had to rip out once, but in the end it worked out.

Isn't it cute?

Not real happy with the raw edges along the zipper. Does anybody have any tips for me regarding this. I think I sewed to close to the actual zipper. Maybe if I sew it correctly the raw edges won't be so noticeable.

Taste the Rainbow!

I *heart* rainbow colors!

In April I participated in my 1st fabric swap EVER over at Bolo Heads. Coincidentally, it was Robyn's 1st swap ever to host. Well I received my fabric last night! I have really enjoyed playing with my new fabric. I can't wait to put these into a quilt!


Just a little peek...

And a little more...Don't want to overwhelm you...

 Is it just me, or are these charm squares gorgeous!

 Oooo & ahhhh!

These will make me the perfect quilt!

200 4" charm squares just begging for me to make into a quilt! Now time to shop for some coordinating white fabric (for the clouds of course) and maybe a touch of black, just so I have all the colors covered.

Thanks Robyn & DJ for all your hard work!

Baby Frogs Quilt

I have decided to enter my Baby Frogs quilt into the Bloggers Quilt Festival before it gets shown at our local quilt show.

 

A coworker of my husbands is adopting her first baby daughter this summer. I was planning on making her a quick and easy rag quilt, but she told me she couldn't find a crib set she liked. She told me she loves the frogs on the pink fabric. So I asked her if she would mind if I made her crib quilt for her. Of course she said yes! So that weekend I went shopping. 

This quilt was made from the Quilt In A Day Log Cabin pattern. It was super easy and fast! While I was shopping for fabrics I had the layout planned in my head and had decided I was going to applique a big, jumping, frog down the middle of the white portion and it HAD to be done in minkee fabric. Now the problem was, I had NEVER appliqued before and I didn't have a pattern. I had read enough quilting blogs to know that I just needed a simple picture to create my frog, but I was still clueless how to applique. 

So, I asked the ladies in my quilt guild if they would teach me how to applique a frog to my quilt top. They were all quick to come to my aid until I held up my coloring book picture of my frog. They asked where my pattern was, and I held up my picture and smiled. Some of them told me I HAD to have a pattern and they went back to their quilting. The few that stuck around listened to my other ideas. I told them I wanted it done in minkee fabric. Well those that were left now told me I was crazy and they left too! 

I was pretty discouraged, but also determined to make my frog idea happen! So I researched applique myself and bought my bumpy green minkee fabric from our sewing shop 30 miles away. It took me about a week of trial and error, but by the time I returned to my quilt guild I had my frog finished and sewn on my quilt.

I kind hate to give this away, but I know it will be cherished for years to come by my friend.

Upset - Two Flower Wednesday - Finished Quilts

So, why am I upset? Well I have 3 quilts that needed binding before our local quilt show. I can take care of 2 of them easily, but the 3rd quilt is a surprise for my husband. I managed to create this quilt without him seeing it, so I didn't want it ruined with him walking in on me hand stitching my binding. So I asked a friend and fellow quilter if she would help me out by doing my binding for me. BIG mistake! She brought me my quilt at my office on Monday. I thanked her and she left. So I was going to show my coworkers my quilt and when I took it out of the bag I gasped at the binding.

 See the loops underneath the binding? The ENTIRE quilt was done that way! Now, I am not a picky person. I just want it to be sewn down securely with no thread showing, except for maybe a tiny bit where a stitch was made. When I saw this I said a few naughty words and then I wanted to cry. Even my non quilty coworkers were shocked at how bad it was done. So after lunch I snipped one of the threads and started ripping out threads. One snip caused this whole binding to unravel QUICKLY! I didn't even need a seam ripper. I just used my finger nails and about 10 minutes later I had all of it undone.

So since I have such a cool boss (and the not so cool supervisor is on vacation), I have been able to slowly work on my binding during business hours. Didn't get far Monday, Tuesday I was too busy, and today I have been swamped with work. But tomorrow and Friday I'm all alone and I will be sewing this sucker down! This is a present for my hubby for our 20th wedding anniversary on Friday! So I have to get it done this week.

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I know it's called One Flower Wednesday, but since the end of April I haven't been very good at making my flowers. So this week I made 2 flowers!

 I am loving all my little I-spy flowers!

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So now to reveal my quilts for our local quilt show! I'm warning you now, I'm terrible at taking pictures!

Hubby's quilt with binding not finished

My 15 yr old daughters quilt. It's a disappearing 9 patch.

I love the loopy loop quilting and I love my little stripy binding!

A baby quilt for a friend. 

I LOVE my little stuffed appliqued minkee frog! 

Stay tuned until tomorrow when I hope to have another little finished project to show you!

I'm Back!

I actually got back last Saturday, but I've been busy catching up with everything.

This was my youngest daughters 1st plane ride. I think she enjoyed it. She kept saying, "This is AWESOME!" over and over and over.

As soon as I got off the plane in Dallas and climbed in my Daddy's truck I slipped and slammed my foot against the door. I believe I broke my toe.

What do you think? The next morning it was even blacker. It's now 9 days later and while the coloring is back to normal, my toe still hurts as bad as it did in this picture. I have it all taped up and am babying it, not much else to do for it.

So, the day after I broke my toe, my brother had surgery. He's doing great! I believe he's trying to get in touch with his feminine side.

I just noticed my right toe and his right foot were hurt. Yep we are related! Haha!

On Tuesday of this week I decided to start the 17 Day Diet. It's not too bad, except I don't care for veggies and that's the majority of what you eat. I'm on day 4 now and am finally getting the hang of what to eat or not eat. I've already lost 8 lbs! (I have a LOT of weight to lose, so no this isn't too fast for me.) I feel great too with lots of energy! I have a reunion coming up in June and I am dancing at an event in Dallas a week after that. Can't say anymore about the dance thing, but hopefully as it gets closer there will be info online I can link to. Then after it's over there will be a video of it on YouTube and I can tell all!

I'm so excited for tomorrow! Will have to contain my excitment and post pics tomorrow.