Monday, September 29, 2008

Some completes and a start

I have started on my Christmas booty swap. This is what I will show until my partner receives the wall quilt. Oh, I might show the back when finished so maybe that statement is not entirely true. I hope she will like this quilt. I am thinking it might be a tad larger than guidelines allow but I hope my partner won't mind. This will finish at 23x23. I think the guidelines are 21x21. I am going to go forward with the quilt though because this is what I really want to make for my partner.

I completed SITP. Am I happy with it? Not really. I like the final look but I don't like the fact that many of my corners are cut off and that some of my blocks are poochy. I even washed it after I quilted it and guess what, it doesn't look any better to me. I most likely will make anther one day but have to many other projects in the fire right now.


Here is my completed Old Tobacco Road. I finally got it all frogged the borders fixed and re-quilted. I like how this came out. It is larger than I expected. It does cover my queen size bed. It covers over the sides, a bit shorter than I like but certainly could be used on a queen in a pinch. It definitely will work well on a double. Does anyone even have a double bed anymore?
I did not see my grandson this week-end. We stayed home and did some work around the house and gave the new family a break from us. As my daughter would say, "My mom staying home to do housework is code talk for my mom staying home and sewing." Well, I have to admit she is partially right. Saturday is another good football day so we will go over and watch with them. USC will play OR Ducks. Well we are USC fans and SIL is a Duck fan so it will be fun. I promise I will be good and not cheer to hard. I will say the Trojans will have to play better than they did with the Beavers. What a dud of a game for us USC fans, it was as if the Trojans did not even want to play so they didn't. Hopefully they will be fired up after that loss and want to play hard and win the game. Enough football talk. I have to get ready for work. Have a good day. Dot

Monday, September 22, 2008

Gifts from Ukraine

My co-worker returned from Ukraine over the weekend and today was her first day back to work. I gave her money to purchase some Ukrainian fabric for me and here are the the goodies she brought me. This cute little bag was what the fabric arrived in. It was a gift from her mom. How nice and thoughtful of her.

Isn't this wonderful floral fabric. It almost just to pretty to cut into. I will have to think long and hard on what to make with this before I do anything. Suggestions will be welcome.

Look at these wonderful pieces of juvenile fabrics. Now she knew I was expecting a grandchild but did not know the sex. These two choices of fabric are just wonderful for a little boy.




I will probably use one for my daughters baby and save one to use when my son and his wife decide to have a baby. It would not be fair to use both pieces of fabric on the first grandchild and not save one for a grandbaby from my son. I don't think I will have access to Ukrainian fabric on a daily basis.
I feel so lucky, I get to have a sleep over with my grandson tomorrow night. My daughter has a doctor appointment on Wednesday and her doctor does not want her to drive yet so I am staying over night and taking them to the doctor in the morning. I am so excited about this. It is going to be so much fun. I am going to take my sewing machine and stuff, we are going to work on making some baby slings for her. I found a couple patterns on the Internet and we will try them out to see which one she likes best. Oh, how fun it will be.
I best get going so I can get things gathered together for my sleep over. Have a good evening.
Dot

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Middle of the week

These are some Halloween jars I am busy making. I really liked the quilt Pam at MamaSpark'sWorld made. She named Witches Pantry. I wrote and asked her if she minded if I tried my own version and she granted permission, so here is where I am so far. I will make a few more jars and go from there. Who knows where this will end.

This is a picture of the fabrics I have pulled, washed and ironed for my Christmas booty swap. I am excited to get started but it is really hard to sew on a Christmas quilt when it is hovering the the 90's. Everything is ready when the weather cools and the mood strikes.
No baby yet. DD has appointment tomorrow so I will know more in the afternoon.
I do have a request. One of my co-workers could really use your prayer tonight and through out the week. Her mother was diagnosed with a rare cancer about 18 months ago. She went through chemo and stem cell transplant and passed today. Could you please hold this family in prayer? Pray for peace comfort and that God will provide them with the strength to go through this tough time.
Thank-you and have a blessed evening. Treasure you loved ones while they are with us here on this orb.
Dot

Sunday, September 14, 2008

No Baby Yet


Well, here is where the baby is still choosing to reside. I kept asking the little one yesterday if he/she wanted to come out and meet grandma but no go.
We will start the guessing process over again. The guess must include time-date-gender. Hopefully this will be the week. Dr. has decided the 2oth is the 40 week mark. They will let the baby go until Oct 4th if all vitals and labs stay in good standing. (I am hoping it does not take that long). So I guess I will leave it open for any day between now and October. You and look at the belly and make a decision.
I am so excited, I received my swap partner today for a Christmas swap and now I can get started. I pulled fabrics today, will launder the fabric and get started. I will post pictures as I go along.
Have a good day. Dot
P.S. I forgot to let you know, USC won their game yesterday. OH YEAH!!! FIGHT ON!!!!!!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Quilting SITP


I am in the process of quilting my SITP. I can not say I am totally happy with the outcome of this quilt top. I will probably remake this pattern again and see if my seams will match better. I will blame it on operator error, my blocks did not seem to come out the same size and I had to make minor adjustments while putting the quilt together. These minor adjustments lead to puckers and stretching during the quilting process. Oh well, I guess I am in a learning curve, it seems like everything I have sewn this month has had problems. I am in the process of frogging Tobacco Road, the borders were wavy while quilting and I could not quilt the wave out. I will frog, redo the borders and re-quilt. It's all a learning process.
No baby yet. I might have to reopen the guess the date, time and gender. The decision was to wait one more week and give baby a chance to arrive in its own time frame. The labs are coming back good and baby vitals are good. The doctor would like the baby to arrive on its own if possible so one more week unless he/she decides to come today.
Saturday college football day. USC/Ohio State tonight. Baby better wait until about 9 p.m. to try to make it into this world. Maybe mom will get so excited during the game she will cause the water to break. If no baby today we will try again.
FIGHT ON!!!!!!!!!! Dot

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Wordless Wednesday


Read into this picture what you may.
I like it and think it is funny.
Dot
P.S. I know this is a photoshop picture.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Contest

Okay, no picture with this post. If you want a picture you will have to look at previous posts. I found out today the grandbaby will come within the week. My daughter went to hospital today and they sent her home. Her doctor has informed her it the baby does not come before next Saturday they will induce. Sooooooooooooo here is the contest. Guess the day and the sex and the time and you will win something. I don't know what the something is yet, probably a small quilt of some sort or maybe some fabric. I don't know yet. I will work on that during the week. Start guessing...............

Gifts in the mail


Colene, at ItsAll AboutMe, had a challenge on her blog a few days ago. The challenge was to guess when her grand baby would arrive into this world. I was fortunate enough to have the closest guess to the birth date. What a surprise it was to receive my gift for guessing closest. Look at this wonderful array of goodies.
Thank-you so much Colene.
Well, I guess I will get back to sewing the borders for Old Tobacco Road. Bonnie posted them today. I am really happy with her design. It is fun making this quilt and I like how it feels and looks like fall. Good day to all and enjoy all the football games. USC is off today but their opponent for next week-end played today. They won their game, oh my, I am looking forward to a good game next week-end. Maybe I will have a little grand baby to watch it with. Keeping those fingers crossed. Dot

Thursday, September 04, 2008

My EQ


Well ladies, I am once again working on SITP and have decided I want to make it queen size. The instructions are for a double ( I am guessing) and to make it queen you need to make more blocks and sew more rows on the diagonal. I could not figure out how to sew the rows without a visual aid. What was my solution. I copied two copies of the layout, cut out the tiny pieces and glued them together on paper. Here is the diagram. Believe me, this took some thought and time on my part. I might be a bit slow in this department but it worked.
Hopefully I will complete this top over the week-end.
Good evening to all. Dot

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Body Finished


The body of Tobacco Road is finished. I will do borders next. Bonnie has not posted her ideas on the borders. I have an idea but will wait to see what Bonnie has done. I am thinking of doing some wonky letters but time will tell.
A really fun quilt to make. Time consuming but fun. I think I would have stayed with the darker browns for the brick part of the quilt but than again the lighter browns do add some variety. I don't have enough room to lay out as Bonnie suggested so I had to just sew and hope a got things mixed up enough. I think I succeeded.
Well time to get ready for the night news. Dot

Monday, September 01, 2008

Traveling down Tobacco Road


Here is where I stop on Tobacco Road tonight. I have traveled far on the road this week-end but I just can't go any further. I don't know how Bonnie does it. She is completed and here is where I stand. Things I would do different. I would have used more of a light brown where I used the beige with white flowers in the pinwheels. I think it is a bit to bright but this is what it is. I do like what I see and will enjoy this quilt. Bonnie is right, they are a lot of work in the beginning but well worth the work in the end.
Good night to all and I hope everyone had a good Labor Day week-end.
Happy Birthday to my Mom. Dot

Just checking in


Here is where I am so far on the Mystery quilt. I just thought I would pop on with a post and show what I have so far.
I need to be some house work, which I have neglected all week-end.
I plan to sew more after house work is done, or mostly done.
Have a good Labor Day.
Dot