Can't Sleep

So tonight was my KC Modern Quilt Guild meeting.  Such enthusiasm in the group!  Am so happy to be a part of something so fresh and energetic.

Had margaritas with some friends after the meeting...

And then came home, peeked in on the kids, texted the husband who was working in the basement to tell him that I needed to play in the attic and then I dashed upstairs.  I've had some white flannel 6 inch squares cut out for a few days.  I could hardly wait to start on a new project I've been thinking about...  

Aren't they fun!?!

What do you think about the pink with it?

Or maybe I should go with some red or blue... and then I could use it for my boys on their beds...  Or maybe I need to buy some flannel to back it with to make it extra cuddly...

I don't even know how many of these I'm going to make...  I haven't quite finished cutting out the white squares.  The fabric for the squares was leftover from a previous project...

The rest of the fabric is from my stack of squares and from my scrap basket.  I could make these for days.  I just love the look.

A Night of Binding

Pictures will have to come tomorrow (too tired tonight), but I finished binding the baby quilt I made for my cousin (the ticker tape one) and also the yellow block I quilted to be a wall hanging in my bathroom.  Am dissatisfied with the quilting and with the binding on the wall hanging, but it's done.  Am relieved.  Binding is not my favorite thing.

They'll both go in the washer with a color catcher in the morning and I'll bring them for show and tell to KCMQG tomorrow.  Then Friday, I think I'll try to get the baby quilt into the mail.

Taking the boys to the eye doctor in the morning for a yearly checkup.  Going solo...  Hopefully the kids will go easy on me.  Will bring plenty of snacks and choo choos...


Since my oldest (Wyatt) gets to be on my banner, here's a recent picture of my youngest, Owen.  They're both charmers.

:)

Playing With My Banner

Went to a little class on blogging and Flickr last night and I've been playing around with my pages...

Added a banner with a picture of my son that was taken a couple of years ago...

Blogger isn't very flexible, but I am thinking of messing with the html... We'll see!

Hexed

I've been playing around with hexagons.  Got a bunch that were already cut out from my friend, Paula a while back.  I have never worked with them before.  Not quite sure which method I prefer, but I've been trying a couple different ways of going about putting them together...

Here's my progress so far...

Hexes

I'm thinking of doing some hexagons...   Haven't ever done them before, but I wanna...

A friend gave me a BUNCh of hexes already cut out for a couple I Spy quilts...

Trying to think of something cute I could do with them...

And also thinking of doing some red hexes with different fabrics to use in my bedroom somehow... Would look so great on a black background, wouldn't it!?!

No pictures yet...  Soon, tho...

Ticker Tape Quilt

So I'm loving my new pastime...  Surfing other quilters' blogs...

And I came across this great idea to make a ticker tape quilt...

So here's my version.  I used a panel (I'm not a panel person... was given to me) for the back and just random squares and rectangles on the front...  Will be sending it to my distant cousin who lost her home a couple of weeks ago in Yazoo City, Mississippi and then had a new baby boy the next day.

Hopefully I can tack down the binding and bring it for show and tell to our KCMQG meeting next week... and get it into the mail by next weekend!

One More Purchase Today...

Besides the 144 yards of fabric... I bought some colored bags to help me sort my biscuits for my biscuit quilt.  Now, at a glance, I'll see which colors I need to use to make more biscuits.  Want to see?

Score!

So I got a heads-up about this person locally who has an online quilt shop but is trying to downsize and opened her basement for ONE hour tonight to sell fabric for (get THIS).... $1 per yard!!!  Had to buy the rest of the bolt, but WOW!  I got so much stuff.  Spent $144.  I also got 2 bolts of fusible interfacing for 50 CENTS per yard...  Oh, my.  Here are some pictures...

Can you believe it?!?  3 or 4 of the bots of fabric had never been opened.  Still had the plastic wrap on them!  I also got a whole bolt of yellow polka dot fabric.  It's very cheerful.  The second to the last picture with the gold, red, light and dark blue fabrics will probably be used for Quilts of Valor.  I will have a hard time sleeping tonight.

Serious Progress in the Attic

What a mess it was!  I still have a few boxes of things I need to go through, but my sewing room is ready to get serious about sewing again.

I still have fabric to sort and put away, but all of my equipment is upstairs now and (for the most part) put away.  I haven't put my design wall up yet, though.  It takes up SO much room, but it's portable and stands alone, so I'll probably put it up before too long...  The last picture was taken at the Blue Valley Quilters' Guild earlier this week when I presented, "Liberated Quilting" at a talent station.

All Play and No Work

So lately when I've had some time (kids sleeping), I've either napped or lamented on how frustrating housework gets when you are behind...

I played too much last weekend.  Mounds of laundry.  My sewing room never quite got organized and now it's a disaster again.  I have sewing things on 3 levels of my house and it's all supposed to be up in the attic...

I didn't drink any coffee today and the bed is screaming for me to just curl up and get 40 winks...

Should I?

Or should I be the responsible parent and try to catch up on this laundry (and run a load of dishes and sweep and mop the kitchen... and vac the living room... or maybe I should just start off by having a brownie and some coffee and see if the spirit moves me...

I'd much rather just quilt.

Yesterday, I went to Quilter's Haven (my closest store- one of my favorites, too) and found 3 fat quarters to help me finish my block for June's KC Scrappy Bee.  Yes, I know... I'm way ahead.  What I'm working on isn't due until mid July and I'm the one that it's due to (it's for my month of the virtual quilting bee) but I am so very excited about it and I couldn't wait to begin it!

Want to see what it looks like so far?  I don't have a picture of the fabric I just bought, but if memory serves, it's a blue striped fabric, a purple fabric and a pink one...

Well upon searching, it seems I haven't taken a picture of my progress on it just yet... So stay tuned.  Maybe in the next day or so I'll get it finished and snap a picture for all the world to see...

But for now, my freshly brewed pot of Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla coffee is calling my name... just a little louder than my pillow is...

See ya, friends!
Nikki

*** time passes...

Update:  4 cups of coffee later and I am jazzed.  I got 3 load of laundry folded and some of it put away... 2 more loads in the washer/dryer and only 3 more dirty piles to go!  Yes!  Also, I worked for about 45 minutes calling people to try to get a firm head count for my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary party (yes, 50 years.  Imagine!) and I had a brownie and some pizza.  Caffeine always makes me WIRED.  So I'd better keep at it...  Maybe my house will be recognizable by suppertime...

So Very Busy

Saturday, I worked during the morning with my Blue Valley Quilters' Guild working on Quilts of Valor and the afternoon with my Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild friends.

In between those two sewing events, I stopped by a 3 year old's birthday party and had some lunch and cake.  Played with my boys and their buddies and left all the rest of the parenting that day to my husband.  :)

Here's what I worked on at the KCMQG sewing day....

Ticker Tape Baby Quilt

Making this for my cousin in Mississippi's new baby.  He was born the day after the tornados that hit Yazoo City.  Their house is now uninhabitable.  They were luckily at her mom's house when the storms hit.  I will hopefully finish it up in the next week and send it to "Little Mike"...

I also put this block together.  It's from the color class I took last week.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I think I'd like to make something with it to hang in my bedroom... maybe above the bed...

We were also given some fabric (the center square) to use to make a quilt block for a friend's daughter.  She is going to have to have some pretty major surgery, so we're going to make her a quilt.



Today I had some time to work, as well.  I am getting ready to do a presentation at Blue Valley Quilters' Guild on Liberated Quilting.  I made some blocks from Gwen Marston's new Liberated Quiltmaking II book.  Was fun to play around with new approaches...

Flying Geese...

Check Out My New Bee

Some people I'm acquainted with over at the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild and I have decided to start a virtual sewing bee.  Check us out and keep an eye on us!  We'll be doing some fun stuff!

Jayden's Quilt

Here's the back of Jayden's quilt:

I think I like the backing more than the front:

It's basted... but I'm not quite confident enough to quilt it just yet...  Need to practice some more...

Picnic Quilt

I've had this UFO going for a while now... Trying to finish it up in short order!

Am 1/3 of the way finished with tying it... and then I will have to bind it and wash it...

This is what I'm bringing to work on this weekend to my KCMQG sewing afternoon.  Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is working on and getting away for a few hours.

It's made from batik charm squares that I got when one of my guilds (Blue Valley Quilters' Guild) did a charm square exchange not too long ago.  I signed up for a couple of packs plus I added a few from my collection.  It's pretty big.  I wanted something we could spread out and sprawl out on.  The backing is a darker batik, which should hide dirt nicely.  This one will be used a lot, I think.

Color Class

Last Saturday, my good friend, Parthena treated me to a quilting class.  Some ME time....  And I pounced on the opportunity to go.  Prairie Point Quilt Shop is where the class was and I had such a great time.  The teacher had all of these pre-cut 2 1/2 inch squares and we delighted in designing these blocks...  Which are your favorites?

I like the yellow one and the last one with reds/oranges/yellows/green....

So much fun.  I put the yellow one together, basted it and quilted it on my machine with my new darning foot.  That's a great name for this particular foot because I was saying, "Darn!" a lot...  My tension on my bobbin must be screwed up or something because I did an awful lot of "unsewing"...  

But I stitched the binding on with a machine and I just need to tack it down by hand.  I'll have myself a new little wall hanging for my bathroom in no time, thank you very much!

And by the way, Parthena, if you're reading this, I appreciate your friendship more than you know and I've missed you since you've been out of town.  Come home soon!

Passing the Time...

Making biscuits... Endlessly...

Jayden's Quilt

My sister, Laura has 4 daughters and lives in Houston.  Olivia is 7, Cameron is 5, Natalie is 3 1/2 and Marley just turned 1.

That's a picture of the girls with  my boys during Easter weekend.

Since then, they've opened their home up to a little boy named Jayden.  He is 2 1/2 years old and they will be fostering him for an indefinite amount of time.  They would like to eventually adopt him, but it's too soon to know how that will work out...

So I've made him a quilt.  Here is the top:

I pieced the back and it turns out, I like it more than the front.  I haven't had a chance to snap a picture of the back just yet...  

I'm going to have to find some safety pins and get serious about quilting it.  Not using batting.  It's hot in Houston.  Going to use my new darning foot.  Maybe some free motion circles or something...  We shall see...

A New Foot!

I forgot to mention that I got a new darning foot for my machine.  The lady at Joanne's in Overland Park was very nice this visit.  By the way, they never called me from my last visit when I left my # and told them I needed one...

She showed me how to drop my feed dogs (I had no idea that I could do that) and demonstrated how to meander.  Looks like exactly what I want to do...  Will let you know how it goes!

Updates

I'm back from my Easter travels.  Saw family and friends and drove a LOT.

Now it's time to get things back in order so that I can SEW!

I am halfway through the laundry (2 1/2 big piles left)...

I need to switch out winter/summer clothes for the kids...

I am making two new raised gardens in my backyard.  Still need to finish up lining them with landscape fabric and filling them with dirt...  Then I'll put more of that landscape fabric stuff on top and we'll be ready for planting...  I'm hopeful that I can be ready to plant by Friday or so...  Will need to top everything off with mulch once I've planted, I think.

Had a very successful birthday party with Wyatt and his buddies.  Stick horses were a hit.  Now that his party is behind me, I need to start thinking about Owen's birthday party in late May.  Also, my in-laws are having their 50th wedding anniversary over Memorial Day weekend.  We'll be having a big party and I'm going to be pretty busy with getting ready for it...

But I bought new fabric for a new project.  My sister, Laura lives in Houston.  She has 4 girls and is about to get a foster son.  I think he needs a quilt of his own.  I bought some cute puppy dog fabric with a blue background and several solids to compliment it... Going to try square in a square, I think.  It should come together pretty quickly.  I think I'll make 12 1/2 inch blocks... Probably 12 of them.  I have some fun weenie dog fabric for the backing.  I don't plan to use batting since they live in Houston.  I have some satin ribbon that I plan to use for binding but I've not tried that before.  Sorry I don't have pictures of the fabric yet, but the door leading up to my sewing room (attic) is blocked by laundry.

One thing that's cramped my style lately is that the hubs has been traveling.  He went to DC last week and leaves for Toronto Tuesday...  Will be gone till Friday.  Ugh.  Good thing my in-laws are around to stop by to visit.  Always helps to break up the day when we go on an outing.  Anyways, there's been no time for me to have "me" time...

But hopefully that will change starting Saturday.  Am going on a road trip (all by myself, blissfully) to Abilene, KS.  Going to meet some Quilts of Valor friends from Wichita and visit the Eisenhower Library to talk with them about an upcoming project they're doing.  For Veterans' Day, they are going to be displaying quilts made for the Quilts of Valor Project and will then be donating all of the quilts to Kansas military people.  So excited about that.  If you'd like more details, let me know.  The more quilts, the better!

On The Road

I'm in Houston visiting my sisters.  Drove to Little Rock Wed...  To Houston Fri... Going back to Little Rock Mon... Then home Wed...

Has been good to see everyone, but I'm so very tired.  I miss my husband and I miss my bed.  My boys aren't sleeping as well since we're not at home and I don't have much help in the wrangling department.  It's leaving me very weary.

I have decided to treat myself to a lot of extra quilting time when I get home.  I need that therapy.  Have been looking all around online for inspiration and I've found lots.

Cannot wait to get home to sew!