"Heavy Equipment"

KT departed yesterday morning. Her visit was really wonderful for the monster and me. She is neat and she makes ohhs and ahhs when you put dinner on the table. We did alot of sewing, she finished a quilt and a bag. What a great student! I kept quizzing her on quilting terms to be sure the 'got it' and she aced the quizzes every time. After she drove off, I started putting the sewing room back together. I have been excited to put together the aprons for an order i received. Two dirty men aprons, one camping boys and one construction worker men.

The camping apron was almost identical to the one I made awhile back, but here is the "heavy equipment" apron. I really wonder who names these fabrics. Its made by The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection.

The backing is a print I picked up at the HOLO. I really love it. I hope the recipient will too.

This pocket made me giddy. I just had all sorts of dirty jokes running through my head. I shall not repeat them, but I'm sure you can think of a few on your own.

Quilt School Graduation

Here is the student on graduation day. She did an excellent job. I am proud and I think she is very happy.

Quilt School Day Four

KT is making great progress! I am really impressed.

I had a little time today to get something going. Full Swing is about 1/2 quilted now. yay!

Quilt School Day Three

Today KT quilted her quilt. She is trimming it up as I type. She is a fantastic student!

We went on a quilt field trip today. haha. There was a quilt show in Roswell today. I snapped pics of my favs.

This wall hanging has pieces is made up of pieces that were only 1/2 inch wide! INSANE

The is was the November section of the seasons quilt. It has my mind going, I need to start thinking about my November wall hanging.

Quilt School Day Two

We had to wait until after naptime to run and get a little hunk of fabric for KT's backing, so we spent the morning working on this.

She made her first bag!

The fabric is from Walmart, and we both love it.

After we ran to get the fabric hunk she learned to piece the backing. Once the monster was asleep we basted it.

Tomorrow is the Roswell Quilt Show. Maybe if we get home early enough I will get her on to quilting it, but its a long drive, so maybe not. But Saturday for sure.

Quilt School Day One

Remember when I shared recently about getting ready to teach KT how to quilt. She had some old rusty skills. We polished those off today and added a whole load of new skills.....

She learned to cut.

She flew through the sewing.

She was giddy about chain piecing.

She learned to press and pin.

And looky what she made TODAY. During naptime and after the kid went to bed. Yep Yep. I'm proud, and we are going to baste tomorrow, and get quilting!

Baby Bubbles

I'm BACK! The monster and I made it home yesterday. I have a stuffy nose, and he has a new sassy mouth.

Here is a new quilt. A gift for one of those December nieces. I named it Baby Bubbles.

The bridal shower I threw went well. I will share photos soon.

Looky at this..

I didn't think I would start on part 3 of the quilt along, but then everyone started posting theirs and I had to! I am usually pretty critical of my work but, honestly I love this. I love everything about it.

It only took me a few hours after dinner to get it cut out and ironed on. I'm so happy I did it! Now I can clean the quilting room tomorrow for real and get that done!

Okay so, now I'm signing off until the 21st. okay, okay, bye.

Quilting 202

I will be heading east this coming Monday with the tot for a wedding. When we return on the 21st we will have a guest arrive later that night. KT is driving up from Tucson. While she is here I am going to teach her to quilt. She actually has come quilt skills already, she went through the same beginner quilt lessons I did back in high school.

That's why I'm calling her class quilting 202.

I'm going to do the normal basic accelerated quilt class I normally teach. The goal is to show each part of the process, but with me doing a big chunk of the work, so she will have a finished quilt before she gets overwhelmed or frustrated.

I have the fabrics prepped. So this is how the lessons will go...

Part 1 -square up remaining fabric, cut remaining squares.

Part 2- pinning remaining 4 patch sections together, I'll have her do 5-10 then I will finish them up.

Part 3- I'll have her chain piece the first 2 sections together, then I will show her how to press the seams.

Part 4- I'll have her pin a few of the 4 patch blocks together, then I will have her get sewing, while I pin the rest.

Part 5- sewing the blocks together, while I press and pin for her.

Part6- Piecing backing lesson

Part7- Basting lesson( but she has basted and tied a quilt before so there wont be a ton of blabbering from my mouth on the topic)

Part8- Machine quilting lesson, I'll show her once, then let her go at it.

Part 9- Binding piecing, then attaching the binding

Part 10- hand sewing the binding.

Easy right?

Day 1 will be parts 1-5

Day 2 will be parts 6 & 7

Day 3 will be part 8

Day 4 will be part 9 & 10

I actually think days 1 and 2 can be combined. So it may only be 3 days of working on this project!

So, unless I make a fabric buy in the mitten, I think I'm signing off until the 21st. See you then :)

Peeling the Mod Podge from my hands

I saw on TV awhile ago, a Martha Stewart craft project. I finally decided to do it today! You know because I don't have a list of a million things to do, but whatever. I was motivated, and it was the only thing I felt like doing today. (I did the grocery shopping, child rearing and made dinner too.(just fyi))

EASY and CUTE. Although Martha's are way fancier. You get wooden rectangles, these are 2.5 x 3.5, they come 4 in a pack, cost 99 cents and were 1/2 off the other day at the HOLO. I smoothed out the edges with 220 sandpaper, just for good measure.

Then you cut out some scrapbook paper a tiny bit smaller than your wood rectangle. Slap the paper on one side of the wood with some Mod Podge.

You print out doubles of the photos of your choice, wallet sized was perfect. I chose my tot's long distance relatives as the game players. Slap those on the opposite side of the wood rectangles...

Add a sealer coat of Mod Podge on both sides, to make them smooth.... Then WAALAA you have yourself a set of memory game pieces for your little one. I'm making another set for our nephew.

This is the first time I have used Mod Podge. I think I'll keep a bottle in the craft closet from now on.

I'm not overwhelmed...must be denial

I realized yesterday when I was blogging that I have a bunch to do this week!

Luckily, last night I quilted the brown and pink baby quilt, and threw together matching burp clothes for both new nieces due this winter.

Today I finished the Full Swing top and basted it.

I also washed up the fabrics for KT's quilt lesson today.

And! Hallelujah! I finally found a dress shirt for the monster to wear on the 18th to that wedding we are going to! I was getting worried!

He and I will be returning to New Mexico on the 21st, and late that night KT will be driving in from Tucson for a visit! I will need to get the guest room ready before I leave next Monday, and I need to get the fabric for the quilt she will make ready before I go. See why I'm so happy these things are being crossed off my list?!!

I hope KT will like making this quilt. I'm sure she can get it done, start to finish while she is here! It will be a simple 4 patch with alternating solid blocks. Piece of cake!

Still to do on my list: pack, slap a binding on the pink and brown quilt, quilt the Full Swing quilt, slap a binding on that one too, wait for part 3 of the quilt along, turn sewing mess into a guest room, grocery shopping, laundry, child rearing, and snuggling with the hubs before he deploys again.

Pat Sloan Says...

Are you following the quilt along?? Pat Sloan posted instructions on Friday and I have myself on track! Hopefully I won't get too far behind while I am in Michigan for a wedding. I will be gone for a week. Then I will be spouse-less for 3 weeks when the the tot and I get back, so I'm not sure how easy it will be to catch up. But I think I might squeeze it out during naptime.

I might not be in touch this week, I'll be packing, celebrating the hub's birthday, and turning the sewing room back into guest room mode. WHEW!