BOO!!!!!

Okay, so this is not what Kirsten hinted that I should be posting about, but if I wait as long to post about this as I have waited to post about the cutest purse ever that I made and the quilts (yes, plural!) that I have currently in the works, then I would be posting about Halloween stuff around Christmas!

So, I got these 2 black shirts at WalMart for $7 each.


And I got this square of red felt, also at Walmart, for a quarter. (forgot to take a picture before I cut into it.)


And here's what I ended up with!
The second shirt provided the fabric for the extra "legs". I added a bit of stuffing and sewed the legs into the side seams of the shirt. Then I strung the legs at the ends with clear monofilament thread and tied that to fabric loops that I could slip over my wrists so when I moved my arms the legs moved, too. Added this to a pair of black pants and I had a cute costume for cheap and really easy to make. And I had so much fun wearing it to work today!

Tracy

Distractions

Lookie what I got tonight?? I'm so excited! 2 years is far too long to wait for a book! If you like to read and want to get sucked into a fantasy series (this is book 12 with 2 more not out yet...) I HIGHLY recommend the Wheel of Time series. Love 'em! My husband thinks I'm nuts, because I can read them over and over again.

However, I must first finish reading this book before I start on my next installment of Wheel of Time...

This one is also good, and is keeping me pretty entertained, but let's face it, I haven't been waiting for this one to come out for years :)

So, while I AM getting a bit of sewing done (mostly in the way of halloween costumes right now...), and I do have a finished quilt photographed and everything, I'm not taking time to blog it yet...just give me a few days and I will be all done with my books :)

Maybe my mom will get around to blogging about some of her many projects in my book induced absence!(hint, hint)

Kirsten

Wonk wonk, it's Chloe's quilt!

I am so excited that I finally get to post about this quilt, because it is now with its new owner! I sewed the blocks for this quilt pretty much simultaneously with these ones, cuz I was so stoked to try out some wonky quilting, and I wanted to play with more colors at once. And, since my BFF had just had a baby exactly one week after me, and another BFF was recently pregnant(she had her baby this month!), I decided they each needed a quilt, and went with the same pattern for both. Anyways, here is Chloe's quilt, finished!

Front of quilt

This finished at appx. 50"x50", I think. The sashing is white Kona muslin. It is so soft, I love it! I like it more than regular Kona cotton, its much softer, and with a 50% off coupon from Joanns, not too pricey! Various fabrics, mostly scraps, leftovers, and a few bits of fat quarters to add some more prints in the blocks. The binding is solid pink.

Back of quilt

I really really like the back of this quilt. I can't decide if I like the front or the back better...

I hand embroidered both Chloe's name and two butterflies meandering along the sashing. You can also see the quilting a bit in this photo, it is a loopy design all over. My free motion quilting is definitely improving! There were many fewer spots that make me wince on this project!

Close up of one of the butterflies.

The other butterfly is opposite colored. So much fun to add these kinds of things to quilt tops!

This quilt is now in its new, good home, where I am sure it will be well loved for hopefully a long time!

Quilt Festival - Fall 2009 (part deux)

Well, I wasn't going to post a quilt for this festival because 1. most of the older quilts I have made have been gifts and I never even considered taking photos of them and 2. most of my newer quilts are either wips or ufos. But I was talking about it with Kirsten and she convinced me that I should go ahead and post this quilt.

When I was about 13, I had a Young Women's leader at church that encouraged all the girls in her class to make a quilt. This was in 1976, America's Bi-Centennial year, so I chose a very patriotic theme for my quilt. It is actually a 9 patch inside a huge 9 patch. My mom used acrylic paints and painted the pictures in each of the large white squares. I'm sure my mom also helped with most of the sewing to piece the top of this quilt. The square with the Beehive was for the Young Women's class I was in at the time, the Salt Lake LDS Temple represented my church friends, the tree represented my family, the schoolhouse represented my school friends and the star in the center was the Bi-Centennial Star that was everywhere in the U.S. that year. I took the squares to church, school, and to my family members and had friends and family sign their names in sharpie marker. As a class, we gathered to help each other tie our quilts. My leader worked at a place in Arizona that was called Pioneer Arizona or Pioneer City. It was a model of an old pioneer town, sort of a museum, and people could go there to see how things "used to be", so some of us got to take our quilts out there and we dressed in period clothing and set up the quilts on frames inside one of the houses and tied the quilts while people came around and talked to us.

Spread out on my king size bed

Yes, that's my shadow in the picture. Don't you love the big red fluffy yarn ties?

Closer view of the center blocks.
It really is square, but standing on my bed to take the picture sort of distorted it.

Close up of the Family Tree block.

33 years later, you can still make out some of the names.

I guess these are called prairie points, but we just called them points.

The "pockets" on the dark blue fabric say "I like you, America". I still love that sentiment! I used this quilt on my bed as a teenager and it is faded and worn, and loved. It's not a fancy quilt, but the memories around making this quilt makes it one of my treasured possessions.

Tracy

Quilt Festival Fall 2009

Alright, I have been meaning to post this all week and realized I am just about out of time to do so! When I first saw Amy's (aka Park City Girl) post about the blogger's quilt festival, I wanted to join in on the fun. However, the quilt I really really would have liked to post is still in the block construction stage...So, I decided to reach back a little, and feature a quilt I made a few years ago. Here it is! I have it on my queen sized bed right now, so that gives you an idea on size.

Quilt laying on my bed

I came up with the quilt design before I had any idea what the fabrics or even colors were going to be. I just knew I wanted a new quilt for my bed! So, with design and yardage estimates in hand, off I went to Joanns (it was a while ago, I didn't even know about LQS's yet!) to pick out my fabric. Now, you have to understand, I was NOT a pink girl. Not ever my first choice for anything! But while I perused the fabric selection, I found this light pink with darker pink fleur-de-lis. It was love at first sight! I had it in my hands immediately. As I stood there, I just couldn't help drolling over the pinks(though my husband says this quilt is red, I say pink), and ended up with 4 more pink fabrics that worked great together. I was in love with the lightest 3, and so-so about the darker. I ended up at another store for the 5th fabric. (I'm still not in love with the darker 2 fabrics, but they look great as a whole!).

Close up

I pieced the top sitting on the floor in my room. That's right, on the floor. As in, my mom's sewing machine was sitting on the floor in front of me. I was 18 and crazy enough to sit on the floor through a quilt top...It helped that I had just lost my job due to poor management by the CEO (if you live in AZ and do anything outdoorsy, remember Popular? Yeah, that's where I worked..) Anyways, I had lots of time, so I got it done all the way through sandwiching it pretty fast. Then, I had the bright idea to hand quilt it. I had time, right? Yeah, I started it, and it sat for another year...Then I came across it again and pulled it back out. A few weeks later, it was finally done!

Quilt back with awful camera flash spot

I love this quilt!! It is my bed quilt right now(my husband has another one...we have issues with stealing the covers...), and it is sooo soft and comfy. Probably due to my skimpy quilting, but it works for me for now. As you can see from the above photo, the edge is rolled from the back to front, and hand stitched in place. This was before I knew anything about quilt binding, so now I want to go back and bind it, cuz the batting has shrunk away from the edge about 1/2", and the edge is starting to discolor. The backing fabric is the medium color from the top. You can also see my quilting pattern in the above picture. It is jsut a bunch of big flowers all over, looks way cool on the back. Awful pictures, I know, I had help from my 4 month old... I also have no idea what the finished measurements are, and since said 4 mo is helping me post too, I'm not going to go measure...forgive me!

Hope you all enjoy my contribution to the festival!

Kirsten

Progress!

Hurray, this quilt top is DONE! I finished it last night after the kid finally went to bed, and I ran to get my camera because I love it so much and wanted to share it right away. I pushed the "on" button on the camera, and it said "battery exhaused." Haha I think it's so funny that the battery is not dead, it is exhaused! Too much work for it, I guess. So, I had to wait until this afternoon to get pictures. Also, I live in an apartment, and the lawn guys are here today reseeding the grass, so I got to take pictures inside with bad lighting. Oh well, I'm no photographer :)

I am so excited to finish this quilt, I love it!! I had to force myself to stop sewing string blocks to sash this top, but once I got into the sashing, I got all excited again. Now, to prepare the back...

Kirsten