Hello from Ankara, Turkey!

 

Hello there.  Just a quick check in from Turkey.  I got here late last Saturday to visit my hubby and to take a little vacation with him.  It's already a vacation for me but he gets an R&R trip every six months with this company he's working for.

 

Tomorrow I'll do some laundry and we'll pack our bags for Ireland.  I'm so excited and can't wait.  Turkey has been very warm the last few days so the cooler temps in Ireland will be wonderful.

 

This was the sunset a few days ago.  I haven't really taken too many pictures yet but I'll make up for that in a few days.  :o)

 

I got to do some sewing this week while Richard was at work.  Did some blocks for a UFO and made my daughter Ashley a nursing cover.  I'll share pics of those next week.

 

Have a great Labor Day!!

From Upholstery to Baby Tom's

Another weekend of being in my sewing room for two days.  Man I LOVE weekends like this!!!!  :o)

 

First project was to make cushions for a glider rocker my daughter bought at Goodwill for $25.00.  The cushions from the manufacturer started at $150.  Amazon and Penneys had some too but same thing, $150-$350.  Sheesh. 

 

Friday we went fabric shopping.  I would not have picked this gray if this was for me but this is what Ashley picked out.  She said if they decide to keep it in their living room when they get a house, it will match better than a nursery print.  I suppose....   I still need to make something for the arms but I think I'll just do a band of fabric and stuff it a little.  There are snaps on the bottom of the arms but I'll just use Velcro to attach them.  The snaps look industrial and I have better things to do than to shop for snaps.  lol

 

 

Then my oldest artsy daughter bought a pattern on etsy for a little Tom-look-alike shoe.  I did a prototype to see if they were easy, hard, doable.  They are pretty easy.  And they're SO adorable.  Got the canvas at Hobby Lobby.  There sure aren't very many cute canvases out there.

 

These are the 6 month size...and will be for the granddaughter due in November.  hehe

 

Hope you had a great weekend.....sewing or not.  :o)

Almost All Done!!!!

I'm almost done with the baby bedding!  Yay.  The back of the bumper pads are the mushroom print.  The "doily" turquoise design and the mushrooms were Ashley's favorites.  I finished the dust ruffle last night.  My friend Carolyn gave me a pattern for the pads and dust ruffle but the ruffle on the pattern was pleated.  I decided this fabric needed to be gathered.  :o)  And there is no crib yet so the ironing board is having to make do.

 

 

Here is a close up of the dust ruffle, which is the same focus fabric for the center blocks of the stars on the baby quilt.  The little "Red" and wolf are so darn cute!

 

I love the big gingham cut on the bias for the cording.  I ran out of the fabric because the Riley Blake pattern only had nine stars and I made 12.  I didn't take that into account when I ordered fabric.  DOH!!!!  I had to piece some of the fabric strips but I figured once they are tied on the crib, it won't even show.  And I used every bit of it up!!!  That's a first.

 

I finished the binding on the quilt last night.  This picture is taken on my double bed so it's a good size little quilt.  I love how it turned out.  The original pattern by Riley Blake used red, aqua and gray.  I like adding the yellow in there.  It doesn't hurt that the yellow has cherries on it.  ;o)  I stitched in the ditch on the interior of the quilt.  The sashing is 1 1/2" and the blocks are 8" so it's nice and secure (I hope).

 

I outlined the stars and center squares.

 

 

 

For the outer border, I got input from my girls for the design.  I had several stencils and this was the top pic.  I love this little loop design.  It's just the whimsy the quilt needed without being too much.

 

This was my first time using my new sewing table and longer throat Pfaff for free motion quilting.  My stitches aren't perfect but they are okay.  More practice is in order.  All I have left to do are little things to complete everything....serge the under side of the dust ruffle, hand close the bumper pads (which I'm saving for Thursday night sewing with the girls) and a label.  Can't make the label til the new parents decide on a name.  That might happen after my little granddaughter is born.  :o)

Stitching in the ditch!

Waiting in the lobby at the dentist.  Thought I would do an update of what I've been doing.  

 

Sunday I sandwiched the baby quilt for my grandbaby-to-be.  Monday and Tuesday I stitched in the ditch of all the borders and the sashings.   It's starting to look pretty cute.

 

Working on stitching around the stars now.  I think I still have a couple nights worth of stitching.   Not sure of what I'll do in the borders yet.  Hopefully it will all come to me during the stitching process.  :-)

Seeing Stars...

I didn't finish the quilt tops from the classes I took with my sister three weeks ago shared here but I decided to set them both aside for a little while. 

My daughter, Ashley, is in her 6th month of her pregnancy and I will be leaving for a trip to see my hubby in about three weeks.  Her shower will be a few weeks after I return home so I figured I better get to her baby bedding before the time has flown by in a blink!

I had to fussy-cut the center of the blocks and in order to get variety with both the centers and the star points, I had to do a little rearranging.  The design wall was great for this.  It's like playing on a flannel board, like back in Kindergarten!  :o)

 

Got the blocks all sewed together.  There were some repeats but it was bound to happen as there aren't that many designs on this fabric.  It's so darn cute, who cares?  hehe

 

My friend Irene knows I love cherries.  She asked me if I was going to use cherry fabric in the quilt?  I hadn't thought about it but when I came across this Riley Blake fabric when I was shopping for the Little Red fabric, I "had" to include it.  And I think the yellow helps break up the red and aqua.  I decided to just use this one print, instead of doing different yellows.  It was cute enough to be used several times!  And here's a close up of a few of the block centers.

 

 

 

Got the cornerstones worked out...

 

And the sashing on.

I started sewing on the borders and had a little (or a BIG) issue.  The borders were looking like they angled off at the edges.  I tried to be careful but not careful enough, I guess.  I could've lived with it or I could rip out the borders and redo them.  Guess what I decided to do???? 

 

And the last issue for this little quilt.  The free pattern I got for this quilt was from the Riley Blake website.  It is for nine blocks and finishes at 46x46".  I wanted it a bit bigger but didn't decide that until after I ordered the fabric.  I didn't buy enough of the border print, the one on the right.  I was trying to convince myself that the print on the left would be okay.  I called in the boss, my daughter Ashley.  She liked the one on the right too. 

 



 

The order will be delivered tomorrow.  :o)  I should be able to finish this by the weekend and get started on the quilting.  Until then, I'm in bumper pad and dust ruffle mode.

A little roof repair and a whole lotta cleaning!

 

Over a year ago, we had a leak in our roof and wouldn't you know, it leaked right over my sewing machine.  Thankfully, no damage to the machine because it leaked more on the extension table than the actual machine head.  I figured with the warm weather, it was a good time to have the roof repaired.  But lordy, that meant moving all of my bins, the sewing table, etc.

 

 

I had a friend of my oldest daughter to do the job.  He's in construction and his work has slowed down so it was a win-win for us both.  I didn't think to take a before picture but the damage to the ceiling was just discoloration.  The real damage was to the ledge of the soffit where the stucco was cracked and separated.  Here it is all fixed up and better.  The acoustic was still a little wet but it has dried now and blended in perfectly.

Then I had to deal with this!!  But I got it all put away and my room is pretty once again.

 

I didn't do one ounce of sewing this weekend though.  I spent both days in the game room.  All of my craft stuff had been moved to the closets in that room when my hubby left and I moved to the spare bedroom.  I "had" to get that sorted out before I leave in a month to go see Richard in Turkey again.  By the time I get back, it will be time to prepare for Ashley's baby shower and the baby shortly after that.  I figured giving up one weekend will be worth it.  The closets are organized but they are packed!!  This one is a hundred years worth of family photos...I swear I will put some in scrapbooks someday!  Then there are all the other craft items you might need one day. 

 



 

Ashley and I moved this desk to the game room to make room outside of the master bedroom for a dresser for the baby.  I swear I feel like we're just moving stuff around all over the house!  lol  We did fill some bins for either donating or if Kelley, our oldest, has another yard sale, she can try to make a few bucks from it.

 

 Here is the other closet.  I had to share this picture.  The crates will go to the garage but we had already closed the doors for the night so I'll put them out there tomorrow.  Check out those clear bins.  Those are all clothes given to Ashley for the baby from her friend.  She has two little girls and had a boy so she doesn't need all those "pink" things!  lol  While I cleaned up the game room, Ashley sorted through all of the boxes and got them put in age/size.  We're getting this place organized....even if it kills me and it probably will!  :o)

Quilt Guild Quilt Camp

Camp Watchapatcher!!!  That's what it's called and we were packed and ready to go on Monday night.  My sister drove down, we slept in my little double bed and then took off early on Tuesday Morning.

 

 

The first class was Lollipops by Joanna Figueroa.  I got started sewing lots of strips together.  Then you sew across one short end and turn the piece out to create the Dresden plate point of the block.  I used an old jelly roll I've had for several years from Me & My Sister called Spring Fling.  I had to fill in some lights with it, and polka dots of course!  :o)

 

Camp was at a university in Costa Mesa, Vanguard University.  Nice campus and nice classrooms for lots of sewing.  You can stay in the dorms if you are from out of town but we chose to save our fabric money and drive back and forth.  CA traffic is not for the weak but we toughed it out.  lol

 

These were some of the lollipops from the class.  You can see the difference between the ones that did dark/light combos and some that were more just colorful fabrics.  Either way, they were all so pretty.

 

My sister Isabel is a BIG Mary Engelbriet fan and used her jelly roll plus multiple other fabrics she had.  Her blocks came out so cute!

 

Here are nine of my blocks.  I got 5 done in class and four more done last night.  I took the pic with my phone so I could post about it easier.  I'm having trouble connecting my camera for some reason.  Anyway, I have to cut out more strips and make more pairs.  I have very little to choose from to finish the other three blocks I need for a lap size quilt.....another UFO!!!!

 

 

This is Kathy Brown.  She was our teach for the Fat Man's Squeeze.  We had to have her book and ruler to make the blocks but there are lots and lots of other blocks you can make with her method.  I hate that we have two projects unfinished because I want to work on them both and finish them!  Oh, this job sure is getting in my way!

 

Here is one of the block choices...

 

 

And another...

 

And the Fat Man's Squeeze quarter of a block.  There were a few more but I didn't get pictures of them all.

 

 

And Kathy told us when we went to the Ladies Room to check out the latch on the door.  Hiny Hiders!  Can you make out the body behind the door.  lol

 

And here is my block from the class.  I got four of these done.  Two navy with cream, two navy with beige and I need two red and two light blue.  It will resemble the block on the cover of the book.  I can't wait to sew more together.  I think I'll save this one for a Christmas gift for my roommates, Dave and Ashley.  Shhhh  He is a big Detroit sports fan and since she/we are big Angel's fans, I think it will suit them.  :o)