Summer Pattern Testing

Over the summer, I was able to pattern test The Alice Quilt Pattern for Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting.  I was sooo behind on turning my notes in to her - I had been battling a headache and got started late and then spent the whole day sewing and still didn't manage to get done on top.  I felt so horrid about it.  I'm usually a last minute turner-iner, anyway, but this was completely past due.

Anyway, if I have the time and I like the pattern, I always say yes when Erica asks for testers.  Her patterns are always very well written.  I highly recommend them!

I made this quilt from a fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner fabric that I had won quite a few years ago in a giveaway from Pink Castle fabrics (I think). The darker border fabric also came from my stash.  I had to buy the lighter background fabric and I also bought a fabric to be used for binding.

You should know that this quilt is still not finished.  I have to see if I have enough AMH fabric in my stash for the backing.  I've already purchased a pack of Quilter's Dream Cotton Request loft batting to use for it.  I want this to be a light quilt to be used for last spring/early summer napping.  I also think it would be less bulky if I want to drag it along on a road trip or something of that sort.

Traveling in June

I did a fair amount of traveling at the beginning of June.  School let out and maybe two days later we headed to San Diego.  My cousin had gotten married in April and they were having a reception. The reception was just a huge party in the park that was very casual.  It was great to just relax, hang out, eat, play games and not have to worry about being dressed up.  It was also a great time to stay with and visit my sister-in-law who conveniently lives in the burbs of San Diego.

The photo below is of:  my dad's wife, my dad, Aunt, and the groom and bride.

After we returned home, two days later my guild had a trip to Michigan State University to look at a quilt exhibit there (part of the Quilts and Human Rights exhibits).  We also had a chance to take a behind the scenes tour of their quilt storage.  The curator had pulled The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue quilt for us to see.  It was really quite interesting (and some parts were a bit shocking and funny).

My friend and I had decided to make a road trip out of our travels since I needed to be in Indianapolis two days after the MSU trip.  So, we traveled to Toledo and made a stop at The Toledo Museum of Art.  I highly recommend a visit there if you are ever in the area - it's free and the parking is cheap!  Their collection is really great and they have a whole building dedicated to glass art, too.

From Toledo we traveled to Indianapolis.  I participated in the Indianapolis location National Kidney Walk in honor of my nephew.  My brother and his family, and some of my sister-in-law's family also participated.

On the way home, we stopped at the Albanese Candy Factory and Outlet Store in Merrillville, IN .  It smells like gummy bears, in the PARKING LOT!  You can also buy gummy bears by the flavor... I'm a cherry girl.  Need I say more?

It was a great time!  Although, after all of the traveling I was happy to be back home and sleeping in my own bed.

So (Sew) Much to Report

There has been so much happening around here, I'll see how much I can recreate.  I'm thinking I may need to make several posts.

I just decided to go poking back through my photos and start where I left off.  So this should be chronological, but may also be a bit random.


These first two photos are of the spot where the house I grew up in used to stand.  They pushed it in sometime in the spring, after my last post.  Obviously bittersweet.  This was the only house I lived in prior to going away to college and then moving to the area I live in now.  My grandparents lived across the back yard from this house and in fact one of my brothers now lives in that spot where my grandparents live.

We had a Chicago Sewing Social meet-up at Benzie Design.  Their shop is so gorgeous with all of the felt lined walls and bins of felt balls.  They also carry little kits.  These were needle felting kits that a couple of us bought and worked on.  I think mine is the one on the left.  I also bought some felt balls and made the necklace in the second photo.  It was super easy to make.  I'm looking forward to colder weather when it will be easier to wear a necklace made with wool balls.

This is a quilt that I made when pattern testing for Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting.  This is a version of The Linda Quilt.   I find Erica's patterns to be really well written and would certainly recommend any of them.  I ended up gifting this quilt to my cousin's baby girl.  I was sewing the top together on the day she was born and then the quilt decided it was just meant for her.

Hmmm... just realized that I am at the end of the photos that I loaded into this post, so I will end here for now.  It's late, so I'll try for more posts in the following days.

Struggling

I've been struggling to find my sew-jo since I last posted.  Those shopping bags are STILL not finished.

In the last week, I just decided to move along to something else and come back to the bags after I get going again.

I saw that Svetlana at s.o.t.a.k handmade had released a new pattern, the Nina Wristlet.  I really love look of the wristlet, so I bought the pattern and ordered the same little swivel snap hooks that she had used, too.  I chose this Kokka cotton/linen fabric that I had in my stash.  The wristlet turned out super cute, if I do say so myself.  The making of the wristlet was not without "problems," user created problems, that is.  I did not read through the entire directions before I started and had the card side of the interior all sewn before I realized that I was supposed to interface each of the pieces before sewing them together.  Well, I just modified and put interfacing behind the sewn piece.  It worked out okay, but the card slots could really use the extra stability, so don't make the same mistake I did.

Yesterday, I made up this baby blanket to send to my cousin and his wife.  They are expecting a new baby any day now.  It's been quite some time since they have had a little one (their two older children are 17 and 13-and this baby was planned), so I wanted to send them something to welcome their baby girl.  I bought some double gauze from Japan in the fall and as soon as I had it in my hands, I knew it wanted to be backed in a pink knit and become a baby blanket.  I just squared up the ends of the double gauze, cut off the selvage, rounded the corners and stitched and flipped it, then top stitched twice.  It's really soft and I kind-of wish that I had an adult sized version for myself.

Next up on my agenda is a pattern test of a baby-sized quilt.  I was picking fabrics tonight.  We'll see how well what I pulled looks in the light of day.  

Shopping Bags.... In Progress

These photos may not look like much, but in actuality they show ~14 re-usable shopping bags in progress.  The pattern I am using is Michelle Patterns Grocery Bag PDF pattern.  I like making the large size.  With the exception of the chihuahua fabric that you can spy in the top photo, pretty much all of the fabrics are Christmas/Holiday fabric. 

I had wanted to make these bags prior to this past Christmas, but didn't end up getting them done.  So, I figured I would get a head start for the next Christmas.  My plan is to give them as gifts or even use them as gift wrapping- a gift inside a gift, if you will.  I had hoped to finish them already, but I have been slowed down by a bug this week.  So maybe they'll get finished up over the weekend.  I'll be sure to post more photos of the completed bags.  

Yeah, I'm feeling really neglectful right about now.  How does time pass so quickly?  I've gone back in my photos and chosen a selection to show what's been going on since I last posted.  This is certainly not a complete visual list, but it gives you some idea.  They are in no particular order.

There was a lot of celebrating here this fall, as my husband is a life-long Cubs fan.  He spend many an evening in the garage watching all of the play-off and World Series games.  By the end, we had quite a crowd out there.  Although, I just want to say that I do not make him watch games in the garage, he just likes to do that.

Our niece graduated college in May and she is a complete California girl and has a group of friends that call themselves mermaids (at least that's what I gather from the hashtags on her Insta and FB photos).  I thought that Mendocino would be perfect fabric for making her a quilt.  I'm a little behind on this one, because I'm actually just putting this in the mail tomorrow.  I had the quilt top pieced very early on and then basted it, but couldn't seem to get going on the quilting for the longest time.  Finally, I think around Thanksgiving, I finished up the quilting and got it bound.  Then, I was sick with a lingering cold for a month and didn't do anything.  At least it will soon be on its way.

In April, my husband retired from the fire department.  He had worked there for 24 years.  He was 12 hour part-time paid and unfortunately that does not actually come with a pension.  It was great money, for a part-time job, but he is happy that he doesn't have to go to work every third night in addition to his full time business.  It has been an adjustment having at home every single night.

In May, we had our 10 year anniversary.  You'll notice this is not a picture of us taking a fancy vacation.  We spend the weekend in Indianapolis at a Pace Car Reunion car show, the weekend before the 100th running of the Indy 500.  The car in the middle is actually the one that is my husband's.  It was a beautiful weekend to sit outside and visit with some of our friends who were also there.  Although, it got hot that Sunday and I ended up with a horrible sunburn on my legs which resulted in having some cankles for a few days.

I did some pattern testing for some quilts.  All of the patterns that I tested were for Erica Jackman at Kitchen Table Quilting.  I would really recommend any of her patterns as I have found them to be very well written.  I haven't finished this one up yet, but I have the backing done and binding fabric all picked out, just waiting for me to be motivated to baste it up and quilt it.

At some point this year, I saw the brightest rainbow I can ever recall seeing in my life.  To top it off, it was visible for what seemed like a super long time and it was a double rainbow, too.  It's not too often that you see the rainbow form end to end.

Our friends' daughter got married in July and I made my husband buy a new suit.  He needed it.  I bought a new dress, too.

Back side of the next quilt, pattern (for the front side) also by Kitchen Table Quilting. This will eventually go to some little boy, but for now it does not have a home.

Another pattern by Kitchen Table Quilting.  I haven't finished this one off yet, but I'll get to it eventually.  The design is so pretty, but turned out way more pinky-peachy than I imagined.  I really winged it on the planning and used fabric that I had in stash.  I'd really love the blue and green to be more prominent, but that's what I get.

This is part of a quilt top that I started years ago, after I joined Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  I started it one day, when I went to a then new friend's house to sew.  The pieces were cut and partially sewn for years, and this past fall, I picked it up again when I wanted something pretty mindless to work on while at a sewing social evening.  I still plan to add some "border" to this with some add-ins, in order to make it bed sized and usable on our bed.

One of my nieces, and one of my nephews at Christmas.  We are so blessed to have them all in our lives, but especially the little guy.  After he was born with dysplastic kidneys, we weren't sure what life would bring him or all of us.  He's been on dialysis for a year now (starting when he was 4-ish months old) and will continue until he is able to have a kidney transplant.  He's not yet big enough.  We just pray that he continues to grow and be in otherwise good health and that we are blessed to see many, many, many more years of his life.

In June, after school was out, we went to Universal Studios Orlando.  That was sort-of our anniversary trip.  My husband had been wanting to go for quite a while, but it always seemed like we had other places to be (and I was in no rush).  I really enjoyed the Wizarding World of Harry Potter portions of the park.  During this trip, I also learned about better living through "drugs", in this case Dramamine.  I've never had issues with regular roller coasters, but the roller coasters combined with the video portion just about did me in on the first day of riding.  I was miserable!  Luckily, it occurred to me to try the Dramamine on the second and I was so much happier - although we walked so much I thought my legs were going to fall off at the end of the day.  

I hope to make it back here sooner than say 9 months from now, but I won't make you any promises.  I hope the New Year finds you all healthy and in good spirits!

Working Toward....

Since the start of 2016, I've been working toward a few things.

One of the things I am doing is working to finish up some UFO's.  

I did a bit of work on my Classic Meets Modern Quilt Along (only from 2014...lol).  I linked you to the first month, but if you look at Erin's sidebar, you'll find the links for the instructions for all of the months.  I have worked through July so far, so only 5 more months to finish.  I have been making two blocks for each month.  I wanted to be able to make a larger quilt in the end.

This is not a UFO, but a RSO (Recently Started Object... I made that one up).  The Chicago Modern Quilt Guild, of which I am a member, is doing a Medallion Quilt Along for 2016, basically following the instructions from 2015 from Seattle Modern Quilt Guild (with Seattle's permission).  This is my center block.  I have to get the next round added very soon.  I have my pile of fabric all set to go, it's just setting down to get it all worked out in my mind and sewn.

Several years ago, I started this trip around the world quilt, when everyone was doing the scrappy trip along.  I had gone over to a friend's house to sew and wasn't sure what to bring.  So, I brought a fat quarter bundle which I cut up for this quilt.  Well, after probably three years of languishing, I finally started working on it, I have finally gotten all of the individual blocks sewn.  Now, I just need to lay the squares out and figure out what else I want to do to the thing.

Some other items I'm working toward:

• Putting more effort into my appearance.  I've bought a few new, nicer tops and such and I'm also in the process of updating some of my cosmetics.  I need to get back to giving more care to my appearance.  In August, I went to a new hair stylist, after about 15 years and these other items are the next step in the process.
• Getting rid of some clutter in our home (closets, kitchen, bathrooms, etc.) It has been a slow process for me.
• Trying to get healthier.  The last few weeks have not gone too well, just because I haven't put in the effort.  I'm back on track now, hopefully.