Finish and kitties

Here's what I've been doing this week.

This is for a friend's mom, who needs a little comfort in the coming weeks.

It's kitty themed. :-)

And on a related note, this happened this week. It was weird. They hate each other.

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry it's been so long. Life's gotten crazy busy lately.

Last weekend was our anniversary, so we went up to VT to celebrate. It was wonderful to be able to relax and relive the memories a bit.

 At the winery

 Out to dinner

 At the church

Back at home, I've got a few projects in the works (of course), the most pressing of which is this one:

Just kidding. That yellow makes my eyes hurt a little. Blech. I swapped it out for a blue and now it's much more soothing:

Right now the rows are all sewn and about half are sewn together. I'm hoping to get the top done tonight so I can baste it and do some simple quilting (diagonal lines) and get it done for a friend who needs it this weekend. Might be a long night.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the gymnastics quilt:

I'm debating doing something more complicated on the colored blocks, but it depends on how much time I have in the next few weeks. I've been a little swamped lately.

On a positive note, two quilts met their recipients this weekend, and I'm told both were very well received. :-) I love hearing when my babies go to a loving home.

And finally, sad news...I'm shipping out the military quilt today. Mom's coming to visit tomorrow, but the girl wants me to ship it ASAP, so out it goes. Sigh. Another quilt goes out into the world...I got a little attached to this one, as you can imagine. Farewell little quilt, godspeed:

FNSI - Social Edition

Just a quickie picture post before I head to bed...it's nearly 12:30 AM and I have a TON to get done tomorrow. Daunting.

Anyway, here are the pictures I'm at liberty to show tonight:

 Our mascot, camped out in the tshirt scrap box. Anyone have ideas about what to do with tshirt scraps? I'm not really excited about sewing with them.

 We crammed 3 sewing stations, a cutting station, and an ironing station into my sewing room. Love it. Oh, and the design wall was still accessible too. Luxe.

 Carolyn's project...how cute is this???

My top finish for the night. I added a couple of borders and decided to dub this one "Funfetti".

Oof

This...has been a turbulent week. None of the bad stuff directly affects me, but there has been a lot of seriously heart-breaking news this week that's made my weeping heart, well, weep.

But that's for another post. For this post, we have a finish! Huzzah!

 Front!

Back!

I stippled it (not very well, mind you) around the focus pieces, so they're kind of raised and highlighted. I'm happy with it. I'm still not very good at stippling though. My lines cross a lot. A LOT. Oh well. The dark blue fabric on the back is some of the same stuff that I used in Just His Size, which was made for the recipient's grandson, so there's some connection there. Precious, I know...aren't I special? :-P

Friday Nigh Sew In is nearly upon us, and for once I'm hosting a party! A couple of friends are coming over, cramming themselves into my sewing room, and partying it up with me. I can't wait. :-) The major project of the night is top secret (to be revealed later, I promise), and if there's time then I'll put in some more time on the memory quilt. That one should go together quickly once I sit down and do it.

Design Wall Monday

First up, the Civil War quilt:

The top is done! I don't have quite enough material (at least not in the right direction) for the backing, so I'm taking a little field trip over lunch to grab some coordinating stuff for a border. Tonight, I'll hopefully get it basted and start with the quilting!

Next up, the design wall:

This is a memory quilt I'm putting together for my sisters-in-law's friends who are getting married soon. I love the fabrics they picked out - so colorful!

Just a quickie today, gotta get back to work!

Hand Dominance

Quick favor to ask all you followers out there.

Clasp your hands together. Which thumb is on top? What's your dominant hand? Leave the results in a comment (and for those of you who are FB friends, please only reply if you haven't responded to the question on FB).

Thanks!!

Impromptu Shop Hop and Design Wall

This weekend hubs and I went up to Franconia, NH for a weekend with his soaring club. As much as I love watching specks of planes in the distance floating slowly in and out of the clouds, it was pretty muggy and warm, so I excused myself from the picnic tables and took a little road trip.

First stop was at Stitch at the Old Mill, which billed itself as "a social club and fabric resource". Love it. The shop wasn't too big, but half of the building was set up with tables that would allow 20+ quilters enough space to work and chatter for hours on end. I wished I'd brought my machine (or at least the latest finish, since they'd had a show n tell not half an hour before I got there). Their list of social activities makes me want to retire early and just hang out at the shop all day.

The next stop took a little work to find. Google Maps led me slightly astray, so I ended up needing to stop for directions from a surly guy working at the paint your own pottery place (he made fun of me for using a GPS...I'm sorry, but I wouldn't have known your little town even existed, let alone had a quilt shop if it weren't for Google Maps, so don't knock it!) Then I got closer and had to ask a sketchy dude running what might have been a pot shop if he knew where the shop was.

Finally, I made it to Pinestead Quilts in Lincoln, NH. They don't have a website, and the shop was really pretty tiny...but I loved it anyway. They had bins and bins of precut squares that you could put together and purchase as little kits...sort of like a by the pound candy shop, but with fabric. Love it! The lady working the counter was 75 (she told me so) and just this tiny little thing, but she had some great opinions about technology. Not ones I agree with necessarily, but she had them anyway. :-)
I bought these fat quarters for a project I'm not at liberty to discuss yet. I'm actually hoping that this project won't be necessary, but just in case...

Aren't they lovely? I just love the rich colors and the subtle texture/pattern. Beautiful.

The final stop was Keepsake Quilting in the Lakes Region. Oh. My. Goodness.

They had an outlet store!

The place was seriously enormous. It took up an entire side of a strip mall, and the fabric selection was just overwhelming.

I loved this little tie quilt! It made me think of church-going babies

I bought this fabric for an upcoming project for a friend's mom. She wants a "whimsical cat-themed" quilt, so I found this stuff. The fishes is going to be sashing and the paw prints is the backing.

And after much labor and graphing (see below), the layout for the Civil War quilt is coming together. All the feature pieces (flags and maps) have fusible stuff on them, so now the next step is to crease the edges then iron them to their background blocks (blue has the Gettysburg address on it and cream is just a pretty pattern). Then I'll start putting the blocks together in chunks and hopefully by the end of the week the top will be done! I'm thinking I'll quilt around the feature pieces with cream or tan thread, some kind of swirly something.

Seriously, this is the most planning I've done on a quilt since the first one!