Easy to Go Crazy

I finished another one! I'm feeling very productive all the sudden! This one is the same as one of the quilts in our book only slightly different fabrics. The one in the book was made by my mother so I wanted to make one myself. There are seven quilts in the book that my mom made using cuts I haven't tried and I'd like to try them all eventually.
I'm having a bit of a dilemma about what to do with this quilt so I thought I'd put my options out there to see what you guys think. Option #1: Give it to an acquaintance who just had a baby (I don't know this person very well, so I'm worried it might be weird if I give her a quilt) Option #2: Put it in the charity quilt auction in November (which will make it a tax write off) #3: Save it for Christmas and give it to an as-of-yet-undecided person on my shopping list or #4: Try to sell it on Etsy. Thoughts?

close up:

back:

Weekend Fun

We've had some beautiful weather this weekend and we've been out enjoying it and I thought I'd share some of the photos:
The beach at Kincaid



Face painting at the Saturday market

Audrey was very proud of her Frosty

More fun at the Saturday market- Audrey's turn to paint

Shortcake

I just got my camera back from the repair shop! I'm so happy to have it home and it arrived right in time to show you the quilt I just finished. It's from my mom's Shortcake pattern which only takes 1 layer cake and 1 yard of fabric for the sashing & binding. It's fast and easy and I think it will be the perfect gift for a little girl I know that is turning 2 in August.
front:

close up:

back:

Pyramids

This is from a class I took at Seams Like Home about 2 years ago I think. So it's really a newbie to my UFO pile, but quilting a lapsize quilt seemed really appealing after that flannel beast. This pattern is usually called either 1,000 Pyramids or 10,000 Pyramids, I forget which, and has a ton of bias to deal with. It didn't stretch too bad although next time I will use a heavier hand with the starch before I cut my pieces out. And yes, you heard me right, I liked it so much I think I will make another one! Not right away- I'm not ready to give up on my battle against the UFO's- but I am starting to plan.

You can sort of see my quilting lines if you look really closely. I did a zig zag pattern following the same angle of the triangles (it reminds me of Charlie Brown's shirt).

And for the back I found a really cool varigated striped batik. All the fabrics on the front are batik too.

I've decided to give this one to a family member with a birthday in June- I hope she likes blue!

Flannel Finale!

It's finally done- and weighs in at just over 4 pounds! As you can see what started out as a full size quilt covers the top of my king size mattress.


I did swirls in the inner border and at my mom suggestion I went around the moons & stars in the outer border in a blue thread that just disappears. It's certainly not perfect but it's done and I'm happy!


You can sort of see the star in the center and the straight lines going through the bow ties.

On to the next UFO!

Home Imporvements

I painted one wall in my house blue- it's about the same color as that painter's masking tape. I have been wanting to paint for a while but I couldn't decide what color, but just over a week ago I decided blue is what I want and just went for it- stayed up all night and into the wee morning hours (5am to be exact) just to get it done in one night. I'm quite happy with it- it makes me smile every time I look at it.

That project went very well so I decided to tackle another project I have been dreaming of for a while: an awning. My back deck has a roof over it that has exposed beams showing. These beams turn into a breeding ground for spiders in the summer so I usually end up avoiding spending time on the deck. Here's what it looked like before:


So I decided to order some outdoor fabric from JoAnn's and staple it to the beams. I loved the idea of a black & white stripe- it it reminds me of a restaurant awning.

I also love looking out the window of my blue wall at the striped awning.

Next up on my list of things to tackle: sand down my kitchen cabinets and paint them white and spray all the hardware silver (currently I have medium to darkish wood cabinets and brass hardware).

P.S. Again I apologize about the blurry photos. I am trying to track down my old digital camera until I get this one fixed but apparently I put it somewhere REALLY safe in one of my cleaning sprees.

Sewing Studio Update

Okay, I did a little straightening up. But I wanted you to see what it really looks like when I'm sewing in there- it never stays this clean. The best part of a clean sewing room is messing it up again right?








I apologize for the blurry photos- I dropped my camera the other day and now I can't get it to focus =(