Design Stuff Monday

Yesterday I did a bunch of shopping for MOTU, so to reward myself I went to Joann's and used up some coupons.  I got this nifty book which has literally opened up entire new worlds for me.  I never thought to quilt using paper stencils.  Duh.  I think I need to get myself some thinner paper, but for now just plain printer paper is working ok.

I played around with the new stencils, using some leftovers from the last round of QFKs. I made a couple of these and turned them into Valentine's gifts for some unsuspecting friends.  Muahaha.

The paper should be thinner...it's hard to get off as is.  If I wet it, it mostly works but some stuff still lingers.  If I don't, I'm afraid I'll rip the stitches.

I kind of like the slightly damp effect here.

I have (as usual) a couple projects going on right now.  In addition to the quilt for the neighbor, I signed up for one of the kids in the Wrapped in Hope program.  My girl likes dancing (but not ballet) and the color orange.  Her birthday is in March, so I need to get working on this.  I'm cheating and using a modified version of the QFK pattern for this.  I have a lot of the dark orange and a bit of the pink/orange hearts and the lighter orange.  So that pic up there is the basic pattern I'm using.  Grey is the focus print (dancers), and the rest of the colors are self-explanatory.

Blocks and strips cut.

Trying out the first few blocks.  I'm still mid-strip-sewing, but I wanted to see if this would even look ok.  I think it works.  I'm excited to try some of my new paper patterns to quilt on these!!

I also have the wedding quilt and the colonial quilt for our bed in progress as well...should really put some more time in on those.  They're just really big and slightly overwhelming right now.  But I'll get there.  Really.


UPDATE!!

I actually finished the entire top before going to bed last night.  I don't have a good picture of the whole thing, but here's a sneak peek anyway:

Happy Monday!!

Design Scrapbook Monday and Friday Night Sew In Report

So I just realized most of my FNSI pictures are actually on the camera that's at home right now, so for now these will have to suffice.  I got all the placemats finished, sewed and pressed all the triangle squares I had started (which is about a quarter of what I'll eventually need) for the colonial quilt, finished the Valentine's top, and basted the Christmas quilt.  Phew!  All that, and it was only a 3 hour night, since I also made cookies and chicken baked in fig sauce (see my cooking blog for yummy details). 

The colonial quilt squares.

The stack of everything completed.

Saturday, I got this in the mail.  That, folks, is 350 4x6 prints from our wedding.  Note it's almost as tall as the base of my sewing machine.  Gulp.  I've since organized them into several piles (friends, family, us, key moments, and misc - horizontal and vertical of each) and have started sorting those piles into a rough timeline (rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, morning of prep, pre ceremony, ceremony, post ceremony, formals, reception...yes, that took a long time).  And then I took a break and went to Micheal's, where I found this:

Feel free to add your own punchline.

3 trips to Micheal's, one trip to Joann's, and 2 trips to Target/Ritz Camera later, I exploded across the couch, in hopes of being less anti social.  This had the adverse effect, as Nick didn't want to touch anything (lest he mess up the system) so he and Kini went and watched TV in the bedroom.  I even put Firefly on to lure them back in, but to no avail.  I wallowed in lonely, nerdy scrapbooking for a solid 4 hours last night. 

I've gotten as far as the morning of prep, and only about a third of the way through that, but here's the progress.  The above picture is actually sideways, but I'm too lazy to fix it right now, sorry.  That's the front cover of the album.

First page.

Rehearsal.

More rehearsal. Love the pictures of my grandmother and her great grandson...too cute, huh?

Rehearsal dinner.

More dinner.

Morning of prep, bride and groom.  You'll notice that, while I was spending 4+ hours getting dolled up, about 3 hours in Nick came by to steal some food and try to get a sneak peek.  He was still in jeans and a t shirt.  Boys have it so easy.

My brother, without whom the wedding would have gone very differently...I may have walked down the aisle nekkid, and definitely without as big a smile.  He's the best brother ever.

While I was scrapbooking, Nick was out making the house pretty.  We have a new banister on the front porch now!  The next step is adding a little fencing to prevent Kini from bolting into the driveway (I predict confusion the first time she encounters it).  Didn't he do so good??  :-)

Facial Hair

Finally got back in the sewing room and made some headway on the mustache placemats from the giveaway...I'm sort of terrible at this blogging thing.  Sorry it's been so long, Keeley.  They'll be shipped this weekend though, I promise!  Tomorrow is Friday Night Sew-In, and that's top of the list (if I don't get them done tonight even). 

Best dog ever.

I digress.

On the docket for Friday night:
* Finishing what's to be finished of the placemats.
* Piecing the back and basting the sandwich of the Christmas quilt. 
* Making serious headway on our Ohio Stars quilt (hoping to get at least all the triangled squares sewn and pressed...that's the worst of it, the pressing.)
* If there's time, maybe I'll finish the top of the Valentine's quilt.  That's still in a box, and I have like 5 rows left to sew together to make it a finished top.  Really should just get that done.  Don't need to baste it or anything, I just want the top done.  Maybe I'll move that up the list some. 

I need to figure out a couple of Christmas gifts too...I want to do more handmade stuff this year, but I'll be honest...I'm a little nervous about making stuff for MOTU's family.  I don't know what kind of precedent to set and all that. 

Oh that reminds me...I should start on Christmas cards too.  I have ideas.  That's another precedent I need to set right.  Yikes.  No pressure. 

Saved a Horse

I can't  believe I never posted pictures of this finish!  I sent this off to Alishia in July, but didn't post then because she didn't know I'd sent it...then forgot to post!  (Or at least forgot to post with correct tagging...)

Anyway, here's the final outcome of Alishia's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy quilt:

To make the label, I cut a piece of the binding material and turned it backwards.  Maybe I need to make an "inside out" quilt...hmm...

For now, I'll stick with traditional.  First block, done.  Not too shabby, huh?  :-) Since the sashing will be some variant of weathered maroon, I'm calling this one "Colonial Home".