Quilty Catch-up

Hidey ho neighbor! Well, it has been a busy few weeks. So I need to do a little bloggy blog catch-up. This should really be 2 blogs because there is so much to catch up on but…well…I'm lazy so you are stuck with one. 

Disclaimer: The first 5 quilts are not mine! Last weekend was the Venice Quilt Show and the Manatee Quilt Show. Ernie's mom and dad came down Saturday to spend the day with us. Ernie and his dad went off and his beautiful mom and I went show and shop hopping. We saw a few friends along the way and some amazing work done by local quilters. I typically take pictures of the cards so I can go back and read the stories of the artist/quilter and quilt but I also typically have a real camera and not my phone - plus the Venice show was so packed we were lucky to even get a picture at all! So, alas, the quilts below are uncredited but again I will say - they are not mine! They were just some of my favorites.

AMAZING quilting - makes it look like snow drifts

Background is silk and every flower is hand beaded in the center

Grumpy Cat!

Tokyo - made with the quilter's collection of Japanese fabrics

I just thought this was stunning - love the colors

I finally finished my Pinata pillow. It is getting much love - mostly from the cat. I just love the way it turned out and really love that I still have some of that fabric left so I can turn it into something else. Not sure what yet…side note: never ask a quilter what they plan on doing with the fabric when they buy it. Never.











Friday night was PMS night at one of the local quilt shops - Cotton Patch - It was from 6pm-midnight and boy was I pooped. It was sew much fun though! I love the new friends I have made and all of them are very talented, kind, and funny ladies. After lots of the picture below on Thursday night - I attempted to work on it Friday night and ended up with all of the fabric facing the correct way but I had reversed the colorway of the blocks…sigh.

Friday night sunlight and our organized mess

Gah!

 A bit wonky but it won't matter once it's quilted :)

Saturday afternoon was my Modern Quilt Guild meeting and we made charity quilts for a few hours. I sat with a friend who was at PMS the night before and we were both a little zombie-ish. Show and Tell was amazing as usual. Saturday night, Elizabeth Dackson from don't call me betsy suggested a #paperpiecingparty on Instagram from 8pm-11pm and I have a pattern and fabric that have been dying to just be something. So I pulled out Elizabeth's Ferris Wheel Quilt pattern and begun cutting away!  

This is going to be fun! 

Off to do a little sewing before the world wakes up and catches me…
Cheers!

Weekend Rewind

Sometimes things move so quickly - mornings turn into busy afternoons that turn into night skies. I scroll through Instagrams and blogs of complete projects and skiing trips and treasured moments and wonder how these people have the time to complete projects and take vacations. I find myself feeling frustrated and as if I am not living up to that standard of living but I realized that the only one who put that standard there is me. So, rather than get frustrated at lack of complete projects and no time for vacation - I need to just enjoy the process and enjoy the time spent with the people who matter most to me…and maybe detatch from social media every now and again.

Also, I live in Florida - HELLO! Every day is a vacation.

Myakka State Park

Alligator in Myakka - seen from our air boat ride

Saturday was an early day for us as Sophie had a choir thing and had to be on the bus at 7 am. So, by the time she came home at 2:30 it was nap time for everyone - except for me as I was fueled by my frustration of not having time to finish anything. I finished the February Lucky Stars BOM by my friend Elizabeth Dackson at Don't Call Me Betsy.This is my first attempt at paper piecing and I have found a new love! My middle got a little wonky but I don't think it will matter once it is all quilted. Everything else matched perfectly and I love this block.

Sunday we went to Myakka, explored a tiny bit and took the air boat ride. It was such a beautiful day. Sophie had to babysit so Ernie and I took walk on the beach for sunset. After living here for almost 3 years I still marvel at the clear waters and the sea life we find on our walks. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Just what I needed to calm my mind.

When we came home I started a new project. This one is a quick one and in honor of our Texas Family Easters. That is a whole other post altogether :) It will be a pillow for the couch - a Pinata pillow. This has been fun and relatively quick. It should be finished this week at the latest. Cute!

Friday Night Fun

Last night was PMS (Pizza, Munchies, Sewing…what did you think it meant?) night at one of the local quilt stores, Cotton Patch. My new friend Jaden had wanted to go and invited me to sign up to join her (if you want a good read, good laugh, and to learn a new recipe or learn how to not store fish sperm - go check out her blog!). Another friend had ended up being there last night as well and all together there were about 25 of us and the shop owner who is such a great lady. We stayed until midnight - gasp! I didn't even know I could stay awake that long anymore. Only a couple of us got loopy. It was really fun to see all of the projects that were brought and a few of them finished. I couldn't decide what to bring so I loaded myself down and brought a million projects with me. There was so much gabbing and munching and laughing that I am surprised I finished anything! 

Well, I didn't really…I shorted myself 1 white square so I had to finish my Sugar Block Club BOM this morning. I love the way it turned out and it looks so pretty next to its January friend.

Jaden and I met last month at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting. Elizabeth Dackson of don't call me betsy was the guest speaker and we had a free motion quilting workshop. She has a beautiful BOM called Lucky Stars and they are all paper pieced. Both of us signed up and neither of us know how to paper piece so we both brought our projects thinking we could learn together. Laura, the amazing owner of Cotton Patch, gave us an impromptu class on paper piecing and now we are SET! I can't wait to dig into my stash and finish this! I love paper piecing! 

This little itty bitty booger was last on my list of things I started and didn't finish. Thimble Blossoms Dwell . My little house block is only 3" x 4.5". I was able to dig through my stash and find enough coordinating pieces that I would almost call it a stash buster. But at a finished size of 13" x 15", I don't think there is a lot of "busting" going on. 

All in all it was a great night! I signed up for the March one as well and maybe this time I won't bring so many projects! I just need to finish something.

Cheers!

Finished Project!

It was such a beautiful day yesterday! Sunshine and low 80's. Almost makes a girl feel guilty when her friends up north and back in Texas and Oklahoma are freezing and prepping for another Winter storm. Then I remember that I chose to move here and they choose to stay there! I will enjoy my sunshine and warm Winters. Maybe one day this week I will even make it to the beach.

I did a lot of cutting and sewing this weekend. Sophie's pencil bag broke and I have a pattern for a bag but it is a little big. I explained it every way I could and she insisted that it would be fine. So instead of watching the Superbowl (Dallas wasn't in it so I don't care much anyway) Sophie and I went to JoAnn's to find fabric to match some pieces we already had. 

The pattern was fairly simple. 6 scrappy 8" blocks, a 14" sport zipper, 2 layers of batting, a 15"x22" piece of fabric for lining and voila! You have a bag. Being the first zipper I have ever done, of course I sewed part of it on wrong and had to unstitch it. The bag…well…it's really big! I told Sophie I would make her a smaller one and could use this one myself. She insisted on keeping this one though and proceeded to empty out her backpack of any non-important things…ie: math book…and said she would just pack an apple for lunch to save room. Oh goodness. I think I will be making another smaller bag in the near future.

Sophie and Ernie spent some time working on a very difficult Dr Who puzzle while I sewed and cut fabric for my Friday play day. It was a very pleasant evening. I do love our family time - it makes my heart happy!

APQ Quilt Along

Well, yesterday was a sewing day for sure. Kind of anyway. Friday night I finished my first block from the APQ Quilt Along. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. It is very busy for sure. I have been hoarding saving this kokeshi (doll) fabric since 2002 and I have quite a bit of it along with some sushi fabric. So I thought I would finally cut into it and use it as the large rectangles in the center of each block. Definitely  NOT low volume like it was supposed to be. I am going to keep going at the urging of a new friend and see if they get better as I go.

The Pattern and Fabric Stash

The First Block...

After the first block I decided it needed some softening up. I will use oranges, pinks, and a dark yellow for all of the "X"s and dark turquoise and this lighter one below for the rings. All the middles will be the X colors and the light turquoise chevron print that you can't see in these pictures.

The Second Block...

Scrappy Togetherness…

It's the beginning of a new month and I have 2 BOM's to do and now this one that I want to finish cutting. This Friday is PMS (pizza, munchies, sewing) night at Cotton Patch Quilt Shop and I am going with my new friend, Jaden, from Steamy Kitchen. Good thing my little machine is back from the doctor's and working better than ever. I better get cutting so I have something to do!

Cheers!

Sarasota Surface Design Guild

I promised myself that I would get more involved in life this year. Creative life, community life, etc. So, the boyfriend wouldn't let me back out of going to the monthly meeting last night as I so often do. I joined in December 2012 and went to 3 meetings all year :( Poor sportsmanship. Epic failure on my part. I joined again last night and plan on getting more involved. Such a lovely group of ladies from all walks of life! The creative energy in that group is astonishing! Weavers, painters, quilters, art quilters, jewelry makers, nature printers, fabric dyers, doll makers…I could go on and on. Plus they do play days once a month and you can try your hand at something you may never have thought of doing. One meeting I learned how to hand dye silk and made a beautiful scarf. I'm not sure why I talk myself out of going to the meetings. Maybe because after 3 meetings I still knew the same amount of people? ZERO. This time I brought a show and tell.

An art piece that I have been working on. I will finish it as soon as I get my other sewing machine up and running. I need the free-motion quilting foot. Oh well, I need it anyway for the Modern Quilt Guild meeting I am going to join this Saturday. They are doing a workshop on free-motion quilting too so it is perfect timing! 

I met some really amazing women last night and am very glad I have a boyfriend as stubborn as me who pushed me to go. Calamity Kim is a member of the guild and is a bit of a renaissance woman. She did a presentation/history of fashion and talked about losing your inhibitions and creating your own style. She talked about cutting up old pieces of clothing and reverting them back into just fabric to create something new and useful. I loved her quirky style and she was too funny! Such a great spirit. It is not my style to wear but I would love to make an artist apron using her techniques. Hmmm…just what I need. A new project…

Cheers!

Yay for Saturday!

It is so nice to wake up and not have anything pressing to do. I can just enjoy a cup of coffee, peruse emails, news, social media, or a good book with a warm puppy at my side. I think Ernie and I are going hiking later to look for Bald Eagles so I will enjoy my quiet morning for now.

I finished my Blogger Girl's January Block of the Month II Thursday. This will be very cute by the time I am done with it! It's fun to watch the other bloggers put theirs together and see all of the different color combos.

On another note…I have to have a proud mama moment. My daughter just turned 15 the week before Christmas. She has always had a talent using color and shading, etc. When she was young we would buy her more blank drawing tablets than coloring books. She loved to draw and when she colored in coloring books she would use the crayons like pastels and she would shade whatever she was coloring to give it depth. This is something she is working on for her 9th grade art class. It's not finished yet but it is already pretty amazing. It's been such a blessing watching her talent grow. 

Well, I will jump back into the book I am reading for a few more minutes of solitude before the troops are up and wanting breakfast.

Cheers!

New Year…New Goals!

This may have been one of the best New Years ever. Of course I was asleep (or trying to be asleep while the neighborhood hooligans were blowing up their firework stash) but so many good things happened in 2013 and I just know this year is going to be full of good things too. Do we ever think the New Year is NOT going to be better than the last? :)

I have very simple goals this year…

1. Finish projects…ANY projects.

2. Get my Art Quilt collection for the coffee shop on Siesta Key done. 

3. Take my Real Estate test and get my license. Class is done I just need to take the blasted test!

4. Get involved in the Modern Quilt Guild of Sarasota and the Surface Design Guild.

and then the usual…

5. Lose a little around the middle.

Okay, I've started 2 new projects to get the New Year going…

The first one is Blogger Girls Block of the Month.

Monique at Open Gate Quilts has a free 6 month Block of the Month where you do 2 of the same blocks in 2 different color settings so by the end of the 6 months you have 12 blocks. She also has the settings designed for you for free. She did red and greens but has a list of a few other bloggers that are doing this as well and they have different color schemes so you can see what that would look like. I chose turquoise and tangerine…although instagram made them look like turquoise and hot pink :) I will post pictures as I go along...

The second project is a table runner that was supposed to be a Christmas gift for one of Sophie's Aunts. I was killing myself trying to finish the other one from my last post for the other Aunt so I decided to stop worrying and bought her gift instead. So this will be a New Years gift! This one is also from Modern Patchwork's Winter 2014 magazine. The colors don't show well in the picture but they are deep rich colors and the gray has a nice sheen to it. I just love that fabric. I am challenging myself because I have never sewn curves in a quilt so hopefully my next block won't be so messy!

 We'll see how this goes!

Happy New Year!

Cheers!