Pillowcases Completed!

Well the count down begins, only we don't know what day it will be, so I'm just hanging tight and figuring I can do what I can until baby decides to make an arrival. I'm hoping it's towards the end of the week now since Paul is headed back to Pierre for another week. I'll see the Dr. on Tues. and guess I'll wait and see what she says, but it could be another 2 weeks before she induces.
In the mean time,  I put the binding on Vi's quilt and washed it up today, so it's all done! It's the last project on my to do list, so now I can count all that fabric as used. I'm keeping track to see how much I bring in and use, but think I'll update monthly instead of weekly.
Tonight I got out the serger and whipped up a couple pillowcases. I used the leftover fabric from the OBW to make this one, but since it was short, I added an extra wide top of black.

Then I made this one out of fabric I received from my friend Darlene. She got it on a trip and just loved the girls, so she gave my mom and I each a couple yards. I didn't want to cut up the fabric, so ended up making it into an extra long pillowcase to use on my body pillow.

Then I decided I had enough fabric left from my sewing quilt to make a pillowcase to match the throw quilt. I wish the flange had more contrast, but I was using up the fabric, so I'll live with it. I have enough scraps that I could make a tablerunner out of them, but we'll see what I figure out. For now they've gone back into the fabric stash.

It felt great to get these made. I've had the one cut out since I made Cathy's pillowcase a couple months ago, but I needed to change the thread and just didn't get it done. Tonight I made myself do it. It's not hard, just takes me a bit of motivation to do it. I love making pillowcases, so I really don't have any excuses. I have a great serger and it works amazingly, so I can't complain about it either. Not sure what this week will bring, but I have a few more quick little projects I'll plan to work on while I'm waiting patiently for this baby's arrival!

Vi's Double Knit Quilt

On New Year's Eve I made the backing and loaded the last of Aunt Vi's Double Knit quilts on the frame. My goal was to have them all completed by the time she comes back to SD. I think she's coming home next weekend, so I wanted to have them finished before baby comes. This one is a large 9 patch quilt. It probably turned out to be my favorite. I did a loopy loop design for quilting which was fairly forgiving of all the stretching. This one is 90x108. I used a green backing and thermore batting. I quilted on it a bit on the 31st and 3 nights this week, but I was still only half done. I did 3 rows every night, but it just wasn't enough. I didn't want to over due it though.

Today after a long afternoon nap, I was determined to finish it. I did about 6 rows before taking a break, doing some cleaning, and then I went back at it. I was finally able to finish the quilting on it tonight! It only took me a good 5 hours today!  I pulled it off the frame, squared it up and made the binding. I hope I'll be able to get the binding on tomorrow. This is my last pressing "before baby" project, so hopefully it'll get binding and washed tomorrow and be ready to go to Vi whenever we get a chance to meet up with her.

There is a lot of variety in the colors, so I used a brown/tan verigated Robinson Anton for the top thread and green bottomline. It turned out to work really well with all the various colors.

I also got some cleaning done in my studio. It sure feels good to have it looking nice again. I have 3 small projects ready to work on if I have time this week. They aren't pressing, but if I have time, they'll give me something to work on. Maybe I'll even get a chance to sew some tomorrow!

Groovy Girls January Sample

This week I've been busy completing the last few projects on my "before baby comes" list. One of the last samples I need to make for Jan. is a Groovy Girls bag. It's not following the pattern as I changed the size and added laminate to the inside, but it turned out really cute and was easy to make. I got it done on Wed. night and turned it in, so when baby comes, all the samples for Jan. GG's are done and I don't have to worry.

Family Christmas

My family got together for our Christmas celebration on Sunday the 2nd. We usually do the New Years day celebration every other year, but this year my little bro couldn't make it back until late Sat. night, so we waited till Sunday to celebrate. We all made it to church Sat. night as a family. The first time in probably 2 years that we've all been together for mass. My bros and family came over to mom and dad's and we all ate, drank, and visited. Sunday we fixed a big meal and everyone was together again to celebrate. We opened gifts and my bros/hubby/Steph went hunting. When everyone was back we took a few family pictures. My parents, me and my brothers, from oldest to youngest. I definately got my grandma's shortness!

Ed and his new girlfriend Steph. Ed's living in ND and working on an oil rig, so this was the first time he'd been home since Thanksgiving. It was so good to have him there and we all really liked Steph. She fits right in with the rest of the hunters.

Paul and I even got a picture taken.

It was such an enjoyable day and we all had a great time. Hopefully we'll be together again in a few months when Ed's home again.

December Quilting Accomplishments

December was a fairly productive month, even though I spent one week visiting at the hospital and the last week not doing much of anything. My goals for the month included:
Baby Bag - Bought instead of made, couldn't find fabric I liked.

BOM Setting Blocks - No progress, no motivation!

Quilt OBW - Done - including the binding. It's amazing how much hand stitched binding can be done in an ER room for 7+ hours!

Quilt Sewing Themed Quilt aka my hospital quilt - DONE! So excited to get to use it, but baby is just not ready to make her appearance yet.

In addition to my goals I also accomplished several other smaller projects:

Quilted Christmas throw for Karen's holiday party. Love how the metallic thread on it turned out.

Finished the quilting and binding on Aunt Vi's second Double Knit quilt. Hate quilting DK - it stretches all over the place!

Made a Christmas Margo out of Figgy Pudding. It really doesn't look all that Christmasy which I love about it.

Made 4 Java Cash and Carry wallets for my co-worker friends.

Made 10 coasters from the 2 charm packs Sew Cindy sent me for her giveaway. Gave them to my 10 co-workers in the registrar's office.

Finished sewing all the hexi's together into a Valentine's table runner while spending evenings at the hospital with mom. I am now in the process of appliquing it by hand to the background.

Finished an iron holder for a sample of travel totes for Groovy Girls.

Made the Large bag for a Groovy Girls sample.

On New Year's Eve we were snowed in with a blizzard, so I made the backing and loaded Aunt Vi's third and last quilt on the frame. I was able to get 3 rows done before calling it a night. It's a huge quilt! I did quilt a bit more on it last night, so hopefully if I do a little every night I'll have it done by this weekend.
All in all I had 80 hours for December. A lot of those hours were hand sewing! I have my next Hexi project cut out and ready to work on, since I forsee lots more waiting in Drs. offices this year.
I'm working on a re-cap of 2010, but there's a lot so it will have to wait for another time.
My January Goals include:
Finish Laminated Travel bag
Quilt Vi's last DK quilt
Snowflake Table Topper
Have Baby!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all my blogging friends.
This year for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we stayed home and my parents joined us and my MIL for supper and dinner at our house. We had Nifla soup and appetizers on Christmas Eve, opened presents, visited and enjoyed the evening. We went to mass at 10, so the evening went quickly. This is the best picture of us from the night. Two weeks and counting until Baby Stephens arrival!

Christmas Day Paul smoked a turkey, roasted a turkey, and made a spiral ham. We definately have the leftovers! It was all so good and we enjoyed all the fixings too. We plan to go to my parents this weekend for our Christmas celebration with my brothers and their family/significant others.
I hope everyone had a great holiday. I'm working on Christmas cards this year, but still will be late with them. It seems the time just goes so quickly and last year I just didn't feel like writing one, so I've gotta get busy and send one out this year. I bought the cards, printed the pictures, and wrote the letter. Wish me luck in finishing it this week!

Quilting Activities

In the 12 years or so that I've been quilting I can't believe how many things I've gotten to do, see, and experience because of my quilting. It's my hobby, it's my passion, it's my life. I saw this list on another blog and figured I'd see how many I had accomplished so far. I realized I've done almost all that I would like to do in my quilting career. The only 2 that I have any real desire to do are participate in a round robin and be president of a quilt guild. The rest I really have no desire to complete. I'm feeling pretty good about 81 or 105 being completed. There are a lot more things that I would add to the list, but I feel like I've done a lot of what I have set out to accomplish. There are several quilts on my "Bucket List" of quilts, but if I accomplish one each year I'll be completely satisfied.
Quilt activities that you’ve done (bold means you have…)

1. Taken a quilting class
2. Paper pieced
3. Hand quilted
4. Hand pieced
5. Created your own pattern
6. Published a pattern in a magazine or book
7. Gone on a quilting retreat
8. Gone to a quilting convention
9. Met someone who wrote a quilting book
10 combined your quilting with some other craft
11. Done any three dimensional quilting
12. Made something using Thimbleberries fabric
13. Made something using batiks
14. Dyed your own fabric
15. Made a landscape hanging
16 Made a New York Beauty quilt
17 Made a baby quilt
18 Made a wall hanging
19 Made a journal quilt
20 Submitted your journal quilt for viewing
21 Made a fabric postcard
22 Made a artistic trading card (ATC)
23 Exchanged artistic trading cards
24. Mailed out your postcard?
25. Made a lap quilt
26 Made a twin size quilt
27 Made a full size quilt
28 Made a queen size quilt
29 Made a king size quilt
30 Donated a quilt to charity
31 Sent a quilt out to a quilter
32 Thrown away a UFO
33 Given away a UFO
34 Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35 Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36 Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever
37 Done any Sashiko
38 Quilted your own quilt
39 Did free motion quilting
40 Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt
41 Given away your quilt to a stranger
42 Swapped fabric
43 swapped blocks
44 participated in a round robin
45 participated in an ostritch round robin
46 kept a journal about your quilting
47 written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
49 kept a blog about your quilting
50 participated in a gift exchange
51 sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 made a quilt using a pattern from quilterscache
54 joined an online block of the month
55 made a block of the month quilt
56 subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 bought fabric at an online store
58 bought fabric from ebay
59 own more than one sewing machine
60 have a room dedicated solely to sewing
61 hid a fabric purchase
62 finished making a holiday gift before July
63 made a landscape quilt
64 made a quilt using a book from the library
65 worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. joined a quilt guild
67 become president of a quilt guild
68 taught a quilting class
69 helped someone else get the quilting bug
70 taught a child to sew
71 made a Dear Jane block
72 Made a miniature quilt
73 watch QNN – quilters news network
73 subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
74 subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country
75 buy fabric from another country
76 swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 asked for quilting help online
78 gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 travelled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop
81 used nontraditional fabric for a quilt – something other than cotton or flannel
82 made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 make comments on someone’s quilting blog
84 meet a quilter in person after only having talked online
85 had a quilting retreat in your home
86 own quilting software
87 made a quilt you designed on your quilting software
88 done any quilt research – history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 donated a quilt to a museum
91 bought a quilt from a thrift store
92 made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 made a quilt using photos
94 made a pastel quilt
95 made a quilt using brights
96 made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country – African, Asian, etc.
97 made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts
98 had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc.
99. submitted your quilt to a quilt show?
100. won any ribbons with your quilts?
101 had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 made a quilt using reproduction fabrics
103 took a break from quilting that was longer than a year
104 made money with your quilting
105 had a job in the fabric / quilting industry

January Groovy Girls

Groovy Girls for January is coming up quickly and since baby will hopefully have made an appearance by then, I really needed to get busy on the samples. The theme is traveling, so I made a few different totes. This is the medium sized one and I lined it with Insulbrite, so a warm iron can be placed in it. I love how it turned out and it was quick and easy to make.

Then I did the applique on the big bag. I did a star following the directions. I'm not a big fan of this applique method. It's easy, but I like how steam a seam turns out better.

This is the large size bag. It makes a great laundry bag.

I have another one in progress, using the iron on laminate. So far I'm hooked on that stuff. It's amazing!

Valentine Tablerunner Top Finished!

This week has been long and I haven't gotten much time at home for quilting, so thankfully I had no Christmas present quilting planned.  Last year when I started going to Dr. appointments with my mom, my amazing blogging friend Jen sent me a kit of Valentine's fabric and English Paper Piecing papers to make a table runner. On January 11, 2010 I started the handwork on the Valentine table runner. I've taken it to almost every appointment, worked on it at lunch, and took it to many of my own Dr. appointments.  Last week my mom was very sick and I took her to the hospital on Fri. She ended up spending a week in the hospital and finally they were able to figure out why she was sick. She got out today and I'm so thankful to have her with us for Christmas this year.  My mom's diagnosis this week is a repeat, to the day of last years and it's been difficult to say the least.This week while spending many hours at the hospital, I finally finished the Valentine top. I even spent an entire evening taking all the paper pieces out. I'm ready to applique it to a backing fabric and complete the table runner. I absolutely love how it turned out so far and am looking forward to finishing it now. I may even get it completed in time for Valentine's Day this year. Thanks Jen for keeping me busy all year! It's been a Godsend to have this year.

My mom wanted a picture of my pregnant belly, so I obliged her one evening. I've got about 3 weeks left and the Dr. says I'll probably go full term, so no Christmas baby here.


Today we had a solid sheet of ice when we went out and the university didn't open until 10, so I got a chance for a nap this morning. I made it to work fine, but most did not come in, so it was quiet. Then we got to leave at 2, so it was a short day. Paul made it safely home from Pierre, so we enjoyed having the evening together. I did go down and quilt my Christmas table topper and put binding on it. I'm sure it won't be finished for tomorrow night, but it felt so good to quilt and relax tonight. I also finished up a little cash and carry wallet for a friends gift. I was so relaxed that I should be able to sleep good tonight. Baby is moving like crazy and quilting relaxes her too!

Gifties for my Co-workers!

Tonight I stopped at Fabric City and picked up 3 fat quarters and 6 zippers. I wanted to make 3 cash and carry style wallets and figured I probably could get 6 out of my fat quarters. I just love this new Java line of fabric and since my walking buddies are also my drinking buddies (hot chocolate and coffee) when it's too cold to walk, I figured it would be perfect for them. I got 3 made tonight and they turned out super cute. I kind of used the pattern, but really made them the way I wanted.

They turned out super cute.

The inside lining fabric is coffee beans.

I love the marroon/read color and how well it goes with both black and brown.

I decided to use the two charm packs I won from Cindy last week to make coasters for my office mates. I hadn't planned to make anyone, any gifts for Christmas, but tonight I was inspired. I got 5 done before I called it a night. I have the rest sorted and ready to sew, but they'll have to wait until this weekend. I have a co-worker that will be gone next week, so figured I'd give her one tomorrow.

I actually really enjoyed making these gifts for my co-workers. By next year we'll probably have double the staff again and then I'll have to figure out something else. It takes some creativity to make 10 gifts instead of 5. If we have 15-20 next year, I may not have time to make gifts for all.

Paul's Wolf

Paul's been hinting that he wants me to finish this wolf wall hanging for Christmas. I've been working on it for the past two years. So today I took it to work to work on it during lunch. I figured if I just got started I could maybe get into working on it. I started with the ears and got them done. I love how they turned out. They are fused to a press sheet, so I can remove them and add them to the larger piece later.  I got started on the eyes, but only got one done. I'll have to work on the other one tomorrow. They are rather tedious, but coming along better than I expected. I have a mini iron and a omnigrid mat/ironing pad combo that works great for doing small parts of this project.

This is the Winter Wolf pattern I'm working on. Doing just a bit at a time may just work for me. I'd like to at least get it all put together before Christmas. I may not get it quilted, but if I got it put together I'd being doing really well. There is just something about all the pieces that really intimidates me. Hopefully I can finish it without Paul knowing. I think that would be cool, but I have a hard time not sharing what I'm working on with him, so we'll see how it goes.

Christmas Purse - Figgy Pudding

Tonight I finished my Christmas purse. I'd wanted to make it last year, but only got the quilt made. I had the Figgy Pudding fabric saved to make it. When I went to make it. I realized only the stripe looked really Christmasy, so I used it for the lining. The brown was my favorite, so I used it for the outer part. The Margo is one of my favorite patterns and I added interfacing to the pocket and so far I really like that feature.


The lining and red pockets make it a Christmas purse, but I could use it longer than just the season. I'll have to get some accessories made to use with it now.

Sewing Quilt for Me!

I finally finished the binding on my sewing quilt today. I've been working on it almost 2 weeks and thought I would never get it done. It's been so nice here that we've been walking instead of going to the break room for our breaks. I love how it turned out and can't wait to use it when our baby comes. It's a quilt for me to snuggle up with. Baby is four weeks from birth, give or take 2 weeks, so any time now!

This pattern is a fat quarter friendly pattern and uses 10 FQ's and a bit of yardage for the white.