A completed top!

I was able to get a little sewing in this afternoon and now have my Jacobs Ladder quilt to a completed top stage! It is raining and dreary out so another inside picture. Excuse the waves on the borders.... they'll get tamed when I press it and straighten it out for pinning later this weekend.

Now I must go start dinner. I'm going Greek tonight and found this recipe for a Greek Orzo salad at Allrecipes.com. I'm going to add some grilled shrimp on top and maybe some 'carrots'. That's what Aidan calls them - really they are asparagus and he picked them out at the farm stand this morning. Em wanted tomato's... and I got to have a tomato sandwich for lunch. Yum...nothing like fresh picked tomato's.

Jacobs Ladder blocks...

Some progress has been made. I laid out the blocks a couple of ways and took pictures.

Excuse Miss Sophie who decided she had to test out the blocks.



I decided on this setting and started sewing the rows together. Then I noticed that I had two of the blocks turned wrong and had them wrong when I took the first pictures. Never do this after 9PM at night!



I was able to unpick those two last night and hope to get them sewn correctly on today. Heck... maybe I can get the rows pressed and sewn together too. Then a small cream inner border and a larger green border.

The borders will be using the same fabrics in these hourglass blocks that I was able to finish this week. I laid out the nine patches with the hourglass blocks and decided I need 6 more of the 9 patch blocks.

Now that I am caught up on the midgets I really need to pull out the next one and get working on that so I am set for next week.
So far... not enough sewing going on and no quilts pinned and ready for sewing. Maybe I can have Aidan help me during his afternoon quiet time on Thursday to get the pink one pinned. Baby steps.

For now, I've got to go into the store this afternoon to meet with the accountant and tomorrow we might go to a Tractor show in Leesburg for a couple of hours with Grammy and Papa. Then they'll head along their way for a week before they come back next Wednesday to kid sit for us while we go to a seminar in the evening.

At least we got the kids pictures taken yesterday so they will be ready for pickup next Friday, plenty of time to spare so things are all set to send up to Vermont with Grammy and Papa when they drive home at the end of the month. The kids did cooperate and we got some great pictures of them... just makes the decision part a lot harder when they all come out good!

Scrappy Birds.....

I decided it was the time to work on the scrappy birds in the air blocks. I was up cutting through some greens Thursday night... since when I checked on the kids at 9... one was still wide awake in her bed. Good excuse to stay up a bit longer and 'play' in the sewing room. I was able to sort fabrics and cut most of the green and creams for the small squares and triangles. I pulled my six fabrics for the large triangle... which is the amount I pulled for the red but only made 10 of the 12 blocks. I may go back and make two more for that month sometime. This is what I have so far of the greens.

Notice the boo boo. This one.... I need to take him apart and redo him.


All my reds and greens together.





Since I had all those greens out - I made a point to cut at least 3 more 2 inch squares for the squares box for next year and for making more of the Jacobs ladder blocks... still undecided. I currently have 30 blocks for a 5x6 setting and the blocks are 9 inch finished. I'm thinking that is a little small for a 'lap' quilt to be donated to a fundraiser. I might add 5 more blocks for a 5x7 setting. That would give me 45x 63 and maybe a 5 inch plain green border around the outside? 55x73 should be a good snuggle size and I should be able to get it quilted and sent to VT for June. So... I need 5 more blocks. I'll try and get things cut out so I can work on those next week. Worst case..... she doesn't know I am planning on donating this to her so we'll see how the next month or two goes. Mom and Dad are coming down... so I might try and steal a little time and have them watch the kids play outside while I pin a few quilts for quilting.

I also have 25 (or 30?) 9 patch blocks that are all scrappy from last summer when I was making some blocks from VQF. I went searching and found this pic of 16 of them.

I have some green and a medium tan print that I am planning to make some hourglass blocks for the alternate blocks. I need to draw this one out and figure out how many I'll need but since it is green this month, I am going to try and get those hour glass blocks created this month.
Go on over and see what others are doing this scrappy Green month at SoScrappy's blog.

Scrappy Green Saturday

I was able to do a little bit of sewing this morning and got these 2 green pinwheel blocks put together.


This is the bunch of blocks I have so far... the 2 reds from last month and the 3 that I had left over from the guild blocks I won a couple of years ago. I am thinking this may become 2 different quilts ... but I'll decide later this year on that one.

I did finish the last 4 Jacobs ladder blocks and now it looks like this with the blocks laid out on the floor. Looking at it.... I am thinking I want at least 2 more rows... maybe 3.... so back to the sewing room to cut more of these I think. I need to measure things out and rethink this one. I may just call it done at this point and add a border...... Hmmm. Something to think about today.


Next week..... I'm planning to work on the birds in the air blocks. I hope things will settle down a bit into a routine now that we officially opened our store on Monday.... my son's 4th birthday! Now that is a date we will not forget.

Go on over to SoScrappy's blog and see what everyone else is working on this green Saturday.
Happy Sewing.

Monday recap

Hmmm. Where did that weekend go? Oh yeah.... a bunch of time spent in the car on Saturday heading over to visit relatives on the coast. A great visit and I was able to do a little bit of applique in the car... but decided being in the back, back seat (I had MIL sit in the front and DH was driving) and working on those little tiny 'leaves' from #9 cactus bloom did not mix. Bummer. I have 2 on.... 6 to go. At least it is progress.

I spent some time on Sunday sewing while the little ones napped.... in between making an apple crisp, getting the chuck roast and carrots prepped and into the oven to slowly bake and doing about 4 loads of laundry done, folded and put away.

Mindy's quilt..... This is a star struck pattern by Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.

I am going to have lots of little HST's in black and orange,red,pink and yellow after I get this done.... Hmmm Maybe they will end up in the border somehow?


I also wanted to see some progress....you know how that is. I did 2 more Jacobs Ladder Blocks and now have 22 of them done. Only 8 more to go and that will give me a 5x6 setting. I have not decided exactly how to lay it out yet...




Today..... I have a little quilt planned for nap time sewing. Lets hope the little ones go down good for their nap so Mommy can sew!
Happy sewing.

Alphabet done!

I was able to finish the alphabet letters yesterday.... but I think I'll redo the Y...it's a little small. I still have to make the Emily and the 2011.... I think I can even get this completed this year!

I also did 2 more of the Jacobs ladder blocks and did some lne's of the green and cream 4 patches. Today I was able to cut a bunch more of the 2 inch squares in lots of green shades to refill that basket and a few of the creams to top off that basket. I should be set making four patches for the JL blocks for a bit now.

I also made #19 Crows nest for the midget blocks. This was an easy block to do and another block checked off my list.

Tomorrow will be a wrap up of the year of quilts. I just need to add all the pictures to the post... maybe tonight after everyone goes to bed.

Home sweet Home...

It is so nice to be able to be home this week! Being away for 4 of the last 5 weeks has been difficult but we made it through. The kids were great with Grandma and they had some great memories with her. A big thanks to my MIL for staying by herself with the 2 kids for us. She even took them to a movie! I don't think I would have dared to do that.
The good news... I get to pull things out in my sewing room and not worry about putting things away right off! Yippee.

So many projects and so little time. I've decided to make some progress on the midget blocks over the next couple of weeks and made this cute log cabin block yesterday.

I printed off the next few and have pulled the fabrics for the next paper pieced block on my list. I plan to do that one on Tuesday.

I also was low on the HST's in green and cream so I was busy on Saturday pulling my green fabrics and doing some cutting to restock the HST's and while I was doing that I cut some more 2.5 inch squares for the 4 patches. These are for the Jacobs ladder quilt along - doing 1-2 blocks per week. So far I have 12 blocks made including the 2 I made yesterday.

I am leaving the pile of greens out on the floor (where Sophie has decided to sleep while I am in the sewing room!) since I am sure I will be needing more in a couple of weeks. So nice to be able to leave things out!!!! (Yup, I work best in clutter.)

The next project I want to concentrate on... the crumb quilt. I have 42 6 inch (unfinished) squares from the quilt along with Jo last month. I have decided to use sashing and will do a mix of the pastel colors as a scrappy sashing and will do some cornerstones of various 30's prints. I need to cut these out and sew the middle parts together. Then I plan on a blue inner border followed by the alphabet letters along the side. I think I may do those in different colors..... I'll have to see how the middle comes out and then decide. Just in case... I ordered 2 more yards of the blue pastel from Keepsake quilting and it arrived last week. I may do the letters all in the blue around the outside...... time will tell. I believe Jo has a second reveal sometime mid January... so I hope to have this quilt top completed and quilted and bound by that time.

I also have a graduation quilt that needs to get done by June and shipped to it's recipient. I have the fabrics....I just need to find the black background somewhere in the closet. I am going to do a star struck pattern by Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.com. I made a scrappy one a few months ago and think this one will be really striking in M's chosen colors of brights - orange, yellow, pink and red . I think the black will really make them pop. I started cutting some orange for the 2.5 inch squares but need to cut the rest out and start the sewing. I'm thinking the week of Christmas for cutting and sewing the blocks on this one... which means I really need to get the crumb one done in the next 2 week. Yikes.... 2 weeks until Christmas.

On that note... I need to get a good picture of the kids for sending out to family in the Christmas cards. I've got the cards ready to go... just waiting for a picture.

Then... it will be off to the usual holiday baking and cookie decorating over the next week. I think the freezer will be stocked with cookies for the warm months to come down here in Florida when I won't want to warm up the house with the oven. The kids are great little helpers with measuring and stirring... I just know to plan on it taking twice the time it normally would.

Enjoy making some memories with your families. I know I plan to.

A little of this and that

Not as much sewing this past week as I'd prefer. As you can see on my side bar, I've decided to join in on the Jacobs Ladder block along.... The tough decision was purples or greens...... I pulled some nice purple floral print and a coordinating purple leaf 'solid' and cut some strips for the 4 patches and the HST...... that turned into this...


The colors don't show well in this photo... but they are too much the same.... tone maybe? Not enough contrast. Back to the drawing board.... I know I had a good bunch of greens that I had packed. Green and creams it is. A scrappy quilt.... needs lots of things cut before I can assemble a block. I've been cutting away but have little to show for it yet. Hopefully I'll have enough to make a couple of blocks up in the next few days.

I seem to be running out of my 1.5 inch 30's prints and can't seem to find the other 4.5 inch strips I know came down with me in the car and are somewhere in the 4th bedroom. I've gone through it twice... still can't find them. Good news though... DH picked up 3 shelf boards at Lowes today and will be putting them into one half of the closet so I can get the fabric out of the boxes and out so I can see them. Hopefully, I'll find them when I do that. Until then..... my crumblies will be on hold. I did manage to make 4 of the log cabin blocks and think I have 36 of them right now.

Wanting to work on something different - I found a little bag with 4 dark blue rectangles, 4 dark blue triangles, 4 light blue triangles and 8 white triangles. No instructions. I sewed the triangles together to get 8 HST. Looked again for instructions... nothing. I set them like this

The next day... I found this!

Figures. Oh well, I like the one I came up with and think it may turn into a scrappy blue quilt. We'll have to wait and see....And yes... that said 1997 for this block. I don't think I have any of the other ones.. don't remember seeing that when I packed things up, but you just never know!
Time for some pumpkin mouse and hope the kids stay in their rooms and go to sleep.