Progress!

Well, I think I have a third of the ginormous quilt finished.  Except that I already have a few more ideas of things to add to it.

I tend to fret about every stage of this quilt before I get going on it.  I started laying flowers out today and hated it.  I didn’t have any stems cut, so I just kept at it one piece at a time.  A couple of the flowers I made didn’t make the cut.  They may go on the other half or I’ll just skip them.  Eventually I got it to where I wanted it.

Here’s a closer shot of just the flowers.  I had the whole thing laid out on the tile floor in the kitchen.  I used an iron right on the floor to tack everything down.  Then I took the whole thing to my sewing room and ironed it really well.  Everything is iron on applique.  It will all get nailed down when I quilt it on the longarm.  That thought makes me fret…a lot.  That’s a lot of thread changes.

This flower is my very favorite.

I think this little lady is pretty cute too.

I haven’t done much else this week besides work on the quilt and do a mountain of laundry.  I think tonight, I may just knit.  Of course, I’ll be fretting about the other part of the quilt.  I have some pretty ambitious ideas!

This project is really stretching me.  I’m doing some things I never thought I could do, and I’m enjoying it.  A couple of times, I’ve been tempted  to have a bad attitude, but I’m not going to let that happen.  This quilt is going in the new kids wing at our church.  While I know that this quilt isn’t going to affect the kids, the building and the people that volunteer there certainly will.  There are lots of kids that show up there on Sunday and Wednesday that just need someone to love them and to tell them that they’re not an accident.  So, I’m going to do my small part to make that happen!

NowI’m going to go eat!  I’ve had a bunch of salmon smoking all afternoon.  I snitched a little piece earlier and its really good!!!

Yum!!!

It’s a Bug’s Life

Yes, I fell off the face of the earth again. We visited The Genius.  I spent two whole days planning our bus trip.  (You’ll hear a lot more about that in July.)  I’ve tried to keep this house and back yard under control.  I may finally be winning. And life is calming down for a little while.

This morning was the first time it was warm enough, not raining, and I had time to sit in the back yard.  It’s glorious out there at 8 AM.  (Yes, I’m finally an adult and get up in the morning, even when it’s summer.)  I haven’t done much knitting in the last week because I’ve had a big knot in my neck.  I did a little bit this morning, and it was so relaxing.  My little white sidekick loves it when I sit and knit.  She just hangs out with me.

So…this week is all about the Kids World quilt.  This morning I made bugs.

 

And a caterpillar…

I did some funky leaves!  The fabric was custom dyed by the famous Mickey Depre and her hubby Paul!  The dark green on the caterpillar is the same fabric.  It much more vibrant in real life.

I traced this leaf from the wallpaper in my sewing room.  I didn’t realize until after I cut out the centers, that I could use those too!

And then there are a few more funky flowers and leaves.

I’m going to have to start laying all this stuff out on the quilt soon.  I have a feeling I’m going to panic because I feel like I’ve made lots of stuff for the quilt, and it’s not going to be nearly enough!

And now it’s time for another hour in the sewing room and then it’s off to Frankie’s baseball game.

Now This Is Fun!!!

First of all, if you’re looking for the giveaway of the Angles With Ease quilt book and ruler, check out this post.  Hurry!  The contest ends at midnight!!!

I’ve spent the last couple of days working on the ginormous Kids World quilt.  (If you would like to read the back story on this quilt, here are the details.)  When I last blogged about the quilt, I had added the tree to the quilt.  I took a break and did some knitting, traveling, and sewing room cleaning.  And then I procrastinated because I was worried about decorating this quilt. So the other day I took the plunge and started making stuff.  Here are the first two pieces I did!

I’m going whimsical with this quilt, because I can’t draw to save my life!!!  But I will have to say these guys turned out great.  I also made a home for one of them.

I also made a birdhouse and some flowers.  I’m not going to attach anything until I have more stuff made because once its ironed down, it’s not moving!

And now for todays finale’, my favorite thing so far…..a hedgehog!

My sewing room was clean on Monday and it’s now trashed.  I’m going to clean it up and make some more stuff.  This is fun!

I do have to take a little break tonight.  We have 20 high school freshmen coming over, and the weather isn’t looking too good.  Yippie!?!?!?!?  I can survive four hours, right?

Ok, So I Can’t Just Sit!

I have a little problem with being able to just sit.  If I’m not knitting, my mind wanders.  The Genius is the same way.  She knit through some of high school and a lot in college.

As I said in yesterdays post, I was just going to sit in the sun and knit.  I couldn’t do it.  I started thinking about how I was going to put the trees on that ginormous quilt, and I had to just go do it!  I sat in the sun for maybe 45 minutes.

I got my stuff together and headed back to My Hero’s office.  I started working on the quilt at 1:30 and worked until 9:30.  Fortunately,  My Hero was willing to grab some takeout to feed the kids!

Here’s what I had at 9:30.

It looks a little desolate now, but imagine it covered with lots of leaves!  I think there will be a nest in the tree with birds in it.  It’s hard to see on the picture, but there are four colors of brown in the tree.  I may add more texture to the trunk, but the machine quilting will do a much better job of that as well.

This morning I feel like I got hit by a truck.  Half of that eight hour stint was spent crawling around on the floor and getting pieces in the right places.

Maybe today I’ll just sit…and knit!