Life is good!

Making some bit of progress here and there!  The biggest one is that I finished putting together the Hugs and Kisses quilt top.  It's made with two Zippedy-Do-Dah jelly rolls.  Just don't look too closely at the points, please.  Lesson to me, take more time when you're cutting.  I may have rushed a bit too much, and made it worse when sewing the two pieces on the bias together.  So this one is best examined from a distance!  Also somewhat completed is the Basic Math quilt (sorry about the shadow in the picture - love my design wall, but it's underneath a soffit).  I'm torn on this one.  Part of me thinks it needs to be calmed down a bit with sashing (either between all the blocks, or making smaller squares of blocks) and part of me just wants to go with the crazy.  Thoughts?

Some progress this time around!  I didn't get to my craft room much this weekend, spent most of the time finishing out the basement.  Still, that was definitely time well spent! Recent Completions: Flowered shirt WIPs: Farmer's Wife (LONG term project!) Fat Quarter Shop BOM (eight of twelve completed) Hugs and Kisses Ruby, Pearl and Opal (waiting for my bee blocks) Craftsy QAYG quilt Basic Math Top Completed, waiting for quilting Swoon Summer Breeze Jewels Salad Waiting for Binding: Stacks of Color Planning: Heart of Mine 2 Simply Woven Lucky Pezzy

This is Reunion - it's a Moda Bakeshop Pattern .  The fabric line is A Stitch of Color.  I love the way it finally turned out.  So colorful! I used the quilted block fabric as the binding, and machine sewed it from the front.  I love how it turned out - much more even than the old way I was doing it! My daughter was having fun helping me hold the quilt up.  Of course, she's at the age where she always wants to be IN the pictures! I'm still working on getting decent quilt pictures.  I am saving up for a new camera; for now all my pictures are taken with my iPhone. I do love this one, with Gunner peeking out from around the side. I also finished my Salad quilt top.  It's the cover pattern from this book .  I love how it turned out!  I finished it in only three days, which I was not expecting.  But I had a great time just picking up pieces - it came together very haphazardly.  I'd say organically, but then ...

So a few changes to the list!  I picked up a double needle and some knit stay tape today so I can hopefully finish the top, all it needs are hems.  Hemming knits can be a bit hairy, though, and especially since the front is a double layer, I'm a bit nervous about taking it on.  I started Salad, and I think I'm going to love it.  I'm curious to see what it will look like together.  I also put Basic Math on the WIP list.  I have a layer cake that I've been looking for the perfect pattern for, and I think that's it.  It should be a quick, easy finish, too.  Recent Completions: Reunion (need some pictures!) WIPs:   Flowered top Farmer's Wife (LONG term project!) Fat Quarter Shop BOM (eight of twelve completed) Hugs and Kisses Ruby, Pearl and Opal (waiting for my bee blocks) Craftsy QAYG quilt  Salad Top Completed, waiting for quilting Swoon Summer Breeze Jewels Waiting for Binding:   ...

Big storms this weekend.  Our house and property survived with minimal damage, but Mom wasn't so lucky.  As seems to be the case whenever Dad leaves, wind did significant damage to something.  In this case, the big white shed.  Wind got inside and lifted the inner support beams five feet out of the ground, snapping several others. Mom asked if we could come down and help take care of things.  Mainly, she wanted the things of value moved out of the shed, in case of more wind, or if there is some chance the building can be saved.  So I left work early, and left Gunner with the neighbor, and headed down there.  Marc also came, as did Sean and Matt. I made Isadora and the boys help out as well, although they would much rather have run around and played.  I tried to tell them that family needed help, and that came first. I know Dad wishes he were here to help, but since he's off walking across Europe, I hope we filled in sufficiently! ...

I've been working on a top recently.  I need to get some variety in my summer wardrobe, and have had several pieces of apparel fabric in my stash, so I figured it was time to get to it.  Up first was a knit top from a Vogue pattern (8790). I'm making the long sleeved version, but I'm turning it into three quarter sleeves.  I fear that I once again made it too big, but I'm working on adjusting it.  The drape was good the first time I put it on, but the sides weren't hanging correctly.  If I had more ample bosoms, maybe it would have worked, but my proportions do not naturally lend themselves to normal sizes.  So I had to cut apart the side seams and do some reworking.  But i think it's coming along.  It's nice to work on something different! Recent Completions: Reunion (need to take some pictures!) WIPs: Knit top Farmer's Wife (LONG term project!) Fat Quarter Shop BOM (eight of twelve completed) Hugs and Kisses Ruby, Pea...

We had an absolutely wonderful Mother's Day.  Rather than do the brunch thing, my brilliant sister in law suggested we roast weenies.  Perfect!  The weather turned out to be a lot nicer than we were expecting, and it was an ideal day to put the kids around a fire and roast hot dogs.  We potlucked the rest of the food, and finished up with s'mores.  Dad leaves on his pilgrimage today, so it was a great to spend the day with him, as well.  The kids enjoyed the zip line immensely - I can't get over how fearlessly Fiona LEAPS off of the platform!  We snapped some pictures for Dad to take, too.  This is my favorite - I think we have to keep this old derelict tractor just to keep snapping pictures of the kids on it as they grow. 

No real finishes to report, but making some progress on little things.  I finished FW #18.  I paper pieced it, as I didn't think there was any way I could make the points come together cleanly otherwise.  After it was done, I realized I'd sewn the sections together incorrectly.  But I decided it's staying the way it is.  I think if I tried to pick it apart, it would not end up well! I finished the Fat Quarter Shop BOM #9. Whoops. That one I did fix. I started the binding on Reunion.  I am trying yet another technique for machine binding, and I think it's working out really well. I'm also getting ready to start cutting for my next project.  This batch of lovely fat quarters - aren't they beautiful??  I've had them for a while, but can't remember what exact line they are. Golf tonight!  I haven't hit a ball since the last night of golf league last fall, so we'll see how well it goes.  Not very, I'm sure!  And as m...

Yesterday was the May Day crowning at Church, with a special 6 p.m. Mass.  The little kids get to carry flowers up to the statue of the Blessed Virgin, and a crown of flowers is placed on her head.  Isadora has been asking for days if she would get to crown Mary.  I kept telling her it wasn't up to me, and they'd selected another child to put on the crown.  But it turns out that she was too short (by at least a foot!) and they called Isadora up to help the little one.  She was ecstatic.  To put it mildly. Gunner was NOT behaving during the Mass at all.  We sang Immaculate Mary.  I was trying to accompany, but ended up butchering it in places as he was grabbing my arms and banging on the keyboard.  Not fun.  We ended up in the basement so he could run around.  I could not believe how he was trying to tackle Colin, either.  Definitely something different, there! I also agreed to help chair the church dinner.  I think ...

I started working on some shirts recently.  I need some new summer tops, and have fabric in my stash for them, so figured I should get cracking.  I started off with a simple tunic from Butterick.  Going off the measurements, I needed a large.  Well, it turned out HUGE.  I am swimming in it.  But on the bright side, it's a really soft fabric, so now I have a new pajama top. :)   I have a couple of knit tops up next, and I'll try and check the patterns more accurately before I cut things out!  And now for the WIP list: Recent Completions: Supersize Shoefly Pinwheels for Pop WIPs: Farmer's Wife (LONG term project!) Fat Quarter Shop BOM (eight of twelve completed) Hugs and Kisses Ruby, Pearl and Opal (waiting for my bee blocks) Craftsy QAYG quilt Top Completed, waiting for quilting Swoon Summer Breeze Jewels Waiting for Binding: Reunion Stacks of Color Planning: Heart of Mine 2 Simply Woven...