pretty in pink and the call of the wild

Something quilty-I got the quilting done on my little 9 patch quilt. This photo doesn't show the color very well but it's the best picture of the quilting. I really like hand quilting these little tops-it doesn't take more than a day or two so it provides a lot more instant gratification than...oh...say that queen sized top that I've been hand quilting for the last 500 years.

I'm hoping to get it bound tomorrow-I'm going to have to be a little creative with the binding-I used scraps for this and I don't think there's enough of the border fabric left for the binding so I'll have to play around a little. Kathi did this really cool stripey binding on her framed 4 patch quilt-she may be my binding muse for the day.

On a non quilty note meet out little (hopefully temporary!) visitor.

Today DH and DD were outside with the cats when Sorry (cat 1) comes in the house with something in her mouth. Dh hollers at me to come see what it is. It was chirping and shrieking and at first I thought it was one of the little ground squirrels that frequent our patio. I was completely freaked because I was terrified she was going to drop this ground squirrel and it would be loose in our house. I finally get Sorry to very reluctantly release her prize and I realize it's a bird.

The bird goes scooting out the door in a desperate bid for freedom only to be pounced on by Tommy (cat 2). Normally Tommy shows complete disdain for anything Sorry does but this time she decided to be a team player...fine-whatever. I get the bird away from her only to discover that one wing is completely ajar and it can't fly.

So we get it a little box with some batting (hey-maybe this is a quilty post after all) and let it rest for awhile thinking maybe once it has a chance to relax it will be ok. After an hour it's wing is looking a little better but it's still not flying. Our neighbor who has some experience with birds gives it a good look over and says the wing isn't broken but might be sprained and little birdy is going to have to rest for a couple days. She also sexes the bird for us so we now know our guest is a girl.

So Itty Bitty as we've been calling her is hanging out in her pimped out shoe box with food and water, soft batting, and some leaves and will be spending a quiet night in our bathroom-far away from the cats I assure you! Hopefully in the next couple days the wing will be back to good and she'll be ready to fly back to her family.

Crazy mini and my quilty muse

I'm planning a wall hanging from the blocks I received from my crazy quilt swap. I decided on a 3x3 arrangement and since I ended up with 10 blocks I decided to make one a little mini. This block came from Randi and compared to the others I received the embellishments read a little pink so I decided to make it my mini. I spent Saturday afternoon embellishing away and finished it off in the early evening.


Close ups of the details



Yesterday I was cruising around my bloglines and happened to see this adorable mini Colene had made for her partner in the doll quilt swap on the about.com forum. I thought it was so cute I whipped out my red and blue scraps and made one of my own. (Of course mine is not quilted yet-I'm not that speedy!) This one measures about 16 inches square.

It was such a fun little quilt to make-thanks Colene for being my quilty muse!


I'm hoping to tackle something truly tiny soon-I've been working on some teeny little 3 inch log cabin blocks that have something like 21 bars each but I've been so busy with other things that they've been set aside for awhile-maybe it's time to dig them back out.

Booty Dilemma

Ok folks-can I probe your brains, delve into your psyche, and snag some opinions?

I got my partner info for the miniature booty swap and I'm debating fabric choices. I'm planning on a floral appliqué block surrounded by some kind of border. I don't usually pick borders until the center is finished-it seems to work out better if I wait and see what the top needs when the center is done.

I have my purple and green combo-there would also be a smidge of yellow in there-I forgot to put it in the photo. I don't have a focus type fabric for this one but I'm sure I can find something at the quilt store if I need to or I can do a fun pieced border with the purples and greens.



Then I have these lovely tulip FQ's and some coordinating fabrics. I adore these fabrics but I know orange and yellow don't do it for everyone.

So (this is where the probing comes in) if it was your quilt which color combo would you prefer? Purple and green? Orange and yellow? Both? Neither? (Oh please, please, please don't say neither-I don't want to dive back into my stash and look for more fabric.)

Birthday Beauties

I've been pleasantly productive today. It's a rainy, dreary day here and DD has been content to play on her own and watch some movies so I've been putzing around doing little odds and ends of quilting. I attached the binding to my postage stamp quilt and have it sitting on the couch to hand sew the back. I also marked the quilting design on the tiny 9 patch and got it sandwiched and pin basted so it's ready for quilting and did some embellishing on my crazy quilt blocks.

Last year I participate in the first round of the Birthday Block swap that Kate hosted. I was in two groups-in one group my theme was Halloween-I requested stars in any size divisible by 3 with black backgrounds. Here's a pic of the blocks I received.


The second group I was in I requested a chocolate covered cherries theme-I asked for chocolate browns, burgundies, and soft pink stars on cream backgrounds and this is what I received....

I was a little worried with the cherries group because when the blocks started coming in they were all so different I wasn't sure they'd go together in the end but once they were all laid out I loved them. I'll probably make a few more to tie them together. The Halloween blocks will be a quilt for the couch-I'm pondering settings for it- I was thinking maybe staggering the rows so they aren't lined up all matchy matchy.

Land of the Littles

I was so good yesterday and worked on lots of things I needed to do-really yucky stuff like cleaning the kitchen and some fun stuff like cutting out pieces for the next round of the the birthday block swap. See my little tub of cut out blocks-I actually have patterns picked, fabrics selected, and even some of my fabric cut for about half of the blocks and I even made one this weekend-not because it was the first one due but because I just had to try out the pattern. You won't have to wait too long to see it-I think it's one of my August blocks.


This morning I got up and was really in the mood to make a little quilt so I dug out my tub of 2.5 inch squares and this is the result.

It's about 16x18 inches. Since my tub of 2.5 inch squares is overflowing it was nice to use up a few of them-although 42 squares doesn't make much of a dent. I just randomly picked out a bunch of squares I liked and then played with the layout until I found one I liked. It took awhile to find a border fabric-I finally picked this one-18 of the 42 squares had some green in it so I thought the green border tied it all together nicely.

I found a piece of muslin for backing and after a short hunt through my pile of leftover batting pieces I got it sandwiched and did a little hand quilting on it. It's just the right size for hand quilting in the summer-it's far too warm to do anything that actually covers my lap.

My little postage stamp top only took an hour to make-I made it while I was watching Diagnosis Murder. (Yes, I know, it's a show for old people and it's cheesy as all get out but I can't help it I love that show.)

Since I was still in the mood to make something else I dug out my brown and pink strips and put this together while I watched a 2 hour Matlock movie. See about note for Diagnosis Murder-all I can say is my grandpa watched me a lot when I was a kid and I have the TV viewing taste of an 80 year old man.

This one is about 15 inches square-the 9 patches and solid blocks are 3 inches finished.

I'm still brainstorming ideas for my quilts for the Miniature Booty Swap-I think I've found the pattern that I want to use but I'm not off the fence yet.

churning them out

Check it out folks-3 posts in one day and 2 of them are actually productive. These are Kathi's rows for her row robin that I've been promising pictures of. I think these are just so lovely and elegant.




I made the row of double shoo fly blocks on the bottom. When Kathi posted her theme I thought shoo fly blocks would be so pretty in the soft, subtle taupes. When I got to her quilt all the rows were 12 inches. I decided 4-12 inch shoo fly blocks would be too blah and 8-6 inch blocks would look out of proportion with the other rows but 16-8 inch blocks doubled up would be just right. I'm really happy with how it turned out (and really hate to send Kathi's quilt onto the next person-doesn't it look like it wants to live with me?!)

Crazy for crazy quilts!

I got my blocks back from the crazy quilt swap I participated in and just had to take pictures to share-aren't they gorgeous!

Here's all my blocks together-I'm going to have so much fun playing with these.

Nell made this one...

Randi made this one...
Terri made this one...
Lisa Jo made this one...
Lou made this one...
Faye made this one...
Kathi made this one...
Linda made this one...
Lucy made this one...

I'll do some further embellishing on these and then they'll get trimmed down to about 8 1/2 inches and turned into a miniature quilt. Lol-see-I've got miniature quilts on the brain!

Look at me go!

I was all set today to show you my progress on my mini quilt for the ALQS swap I'm in but in a fit of productive energy last night I finished it! Ok, ok, I still have to write on the label so 99.9% done.

Here's the top...


Close up on the quilting...

A look at the little hanging tabs on the back.

This is the first mini quilt I've ever made and I found the process to be quite enjoyable. Good thing too since I've already signed up for the next round of the Miniature Booty Swap. We should be getting out partner info for that swap soon.

I learned a couple things from this swap-one is that it's nerve wracking trying to make a quilt for someone else! I really hope my partner likes this.

I think the next one I make I'll choose a block where there's not so many seams meeting in the corners. The points where 4 star blocks come together were definitely bulky even using a smaller seam allowance and it was definitely a challenge trying to get those points to match up.

DD is going to Grandma's this weekend so that means some lovely quilting time for me so hopefully I'll be showing you pictures of my row for the Row Robin I'm in either tonight or tomorrow.

I also signed up for the Birthday Block Swap Round 2 so hopefully I can work on a couple of those blocks with weekend. Not really because I need to but just because they're so darn fun. This is one of my favorite swaps. Last year I was in two groups-one theme was Halloween stars and the other was Chocolate covered cherries. I got gorgeous blocks from each of those. This year I'm in one group but it's a big one so I'll get as many blocks as I did from the last swap where I was in 2 groups. Instead of picking a theme I picked the Brasstown Stars block done with batiks on black backgrounds. I can't wait till September when I get my blocks!

I see your true colors shining through....

I finally got my quilt top together for the ALQS and took it out in the sunshine to take a picture of it. So now instead of me posting a pic and saying "it's not such a hot picture" I can officially say look-this is what it looks like!



See the shadows on the left hand side. We have this gigantic tree right in front of our apartment-it's absolutely gorgeous and even on the hottest sunniest day our patio is in the shade 95% of the day. There's about a 1 hour window where it gets full sun but even then I've got some shadowy bits. So now you know why all my pictures turn out so dark! I can't complain though-it's only on the hottest days we have to run the air with all that nice shade so that big tree saves us a bundle.

After I took the picture I sandwiched the top and started quilting it-I've got just over half of the top quilted so I'm really pleased with the progress. Originally I'd planned a pieced border to follow the purple (which was going to be thinner) but once I got the purple on it just looked right so I decided to listen to my quilter muse and stop.

something to report

I've got progress, sweet, sweet progress. Today I spent a couple hours working on my quilt for Kate's ALQS. I was really buzzing right along on this and then with everything that's been going on the last month I went from way ahead of schedule to way behind. My goal is to have the top all pieced by Tuesday so I can get to work on quilting it.

I chose the Iowa Star pattern for my partner's quilt. I thought that was appropriate since it was coming all the way from Iowa. Although if I'd known that the weather was going to be like around here I might have picked Storm at Sea!


I also worked on my row for Kathi's row robin-I'd work on a couple Iowa Star blocks and then put together some blocks for her row. I promise to get a picture of her gorgeous rows tomorrow when the light is good-she is going to have an amazing quilt.

DD and I had a tea party with my friend Kathleen today. We had little chicken salad sandwiches, cheese slices, pears, tea, and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Kathleen made the chicken salad-there were figs, raisins, and a whole host of other yummies in there. It was absolutely delish. She offered me the leftovers chicken salad-one guess what I had for supper. Hehehe-there's just enough left it may be breakfast too!

wet and wild, hoping for dry and boring.

Today DD has a friend over to spend the night and at the rate we're going she may end up being here for more than one night. When her Dad dropped her off he said the water was right up almost to the edge of the bridge and the Highway Patrol was out there deciding if it needed to be closed.

Iowa is right in the midst of the "Floods of 08" as the news channels are calling it. Fortunately for us we're far from the rivers and up on a hill so we're in no danger of getting washed away but lots of people around us, especially those near the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers are dealing with the flooding and the danger to their homes. We've laid in a small stash of bottled water in case Waterworks goes under but right now they're assuring us the water supply is safe so hopefully we won't need it.

Many parts of the state learned some valuable lessons during the floods of 1993 so homes, business, and lives are being saved this time around because of new safety measures and better protections that were put in place after 1993. Of course then they called it the 100 year flood and now 15 years later we're having another one-guess they may have to revise that.

If you have some spare prayers and good thoughts Iowa could surely use them-I can't even imagine what it must be like for the folks who've seen everything they own literally washed away.

Here's a picture I took out at Saylorville Lake/Dam. In 1993 Saylorville peaked at 892 feet and the other day it was at 889 so it's very, very close to the last huge flood level. See that bit of wood fencing in the middle of the picture. That's normally a little observation deck with a bench where you can sit at look out over the water. Right now you can sit there and be in the water.
Here's a picture I stole from out local news station KCCI. Those bridges crossing the river have huge arches underneath that are usually visible.




On the non flood related front I've been working on uploading some pictures to our family genealogy website. My cousin Christopher is the compute genius in the family and the mastermind behind the website-he has our genealogy on there, pictures, a blog, and part of our family cookbook. Lol-I just try not to mess it all up when I upload the photos. I've got gobs more stuff that needs to go up but hey-baby steps right.

Believe it or not there actually has been a little quilting done too-I've been working on Kathi's row for the row round robin. Hopefully tonight after DD and her partner in crime crash I can do a little more on it. Right now I'm going to take the girls swimming (in the pool-not the flood water!). Send me a couple happy thoughts while you're at it-lol-by the time we get out of the pool I may need them and a stiff drink!

We're down at Grammy's house right now helping get everything set up for the garage sale. Not much quilting getting done. I did a little work on my crazy quilt blocks for the Crazy quilt swap-I've got 3 more to finish embellishing and then I'm done.

We had a tornado warning last night so we spent a fair bit of time sitting in the basement. Lol-I took my crazy quilt blocks and Kathi's rows for her row robin with me-didn't want them blowing away to Oz!

I've talked so much about the row by row round robin I'm doing on the about.com forum but I'm not sure if I've ever shown pictures of my starter row. So here it is...



My theme is red/cream stars. I asked for stars of any size and asked that the other ladies just baste their rows together because I'd like to take them apart and put them together in a puzzle fashion. I love quilts that just seem to have stars of all sizes flowing together. Lol-I'm sure when I got to put it together it won't feel like it's flowing but I think once I'm done gnashing my teeth and snarling it will be lovely.

Becca

I hope you all haven't given up on me during my long quiet spell. Shortly after my Grandfather passed away DH decided to have his own little near death experience and ended up hospitalized for 5 days. We've yet to discover what exactly is wrong with him but we now know a number of things that aren't wrong with him. I spent quite a bit of time at the hospital with him as he's a teensy bit of a great big baby and wasn't to thrilled about the idea of being left alone at the hospital. I don't know what he was so worried about-he had a whole gaggle of cute nurses!

I've spent this week trying to catch up on everything that's gone by the wayside and while the to do list is still freakishly long it's no longer threatening to become a short novel.

One of the things on my to do list was to get my row done for the row robin I'm participating in. I had Gail's rows for May and her theme was China Dolls. I had a really neat idea about appliqueing Chinese words onto blocks but unfortunately with everything going on I just plain old ran out of time and went with these simpler Chinese Lantern Blocks. I got it done just a little late and it's going into the mail tomorrow.

Aren't Gail's rows gorgeous! I love them all.
A couple close ups of my lantern blocks...