Down to the end of the fabric

End of what fabric? Stash--ROFLOL!! Scraps--LOL! No--my Quilt 24 Challenge fabric! Here is what I have left. On my rounds of blogs I saw what Bonnie and Tonya did when they recently were together. I thought it would be perfect to use up the small scraps. And what fun! But, ooops! She used a 45 degree angle diamond and in my excitedness, didn't even THINK about that--I had a diamond shape template and went to town!
And look what I get.....a 6 pointed star, NOT an 8 pointed star. It turns out my template was a 60 degree diamond. Oh well--I do have a few thoughts on what to do....I'll be back!
And of course, I had to make a postcard with ALL the fabrics that I used. I decided I will do that with each big challenge...it's kind of a nice way to remember all the fabric I used. My cousin does beautiful journals with her projects and I really would like to do that too--but time gets away from me SO fast--this has to be the next best thing.
And talking about going around the blogs--you guys are ALL so inspiring! I apologize if I don't comment as much as I would like--I'd never get around to all of you if I did that. So please know that I am keeping up with you--and will try to leave a comment now and then. I'd rather visit more blogs than stop and chat with all of you, although I would love to! Also, thanks to those who do stop and 'chat' with me. If you leave a comment or question, I'll answer you, but there are still quite a few who do not allow replies and then I can't answer you.

******Gratitudes***********
1. Sleeping on sheets that have been hanging on the clothesline
2. Safe journey for my hubby
3. Being excited for each day--so much fun stuff to do!

Serendipity

I've been working hard on my Quilt 24 Challenge, trying to get that done and out of the way. The trouble is I don't know where to stop sometimes! LOL The good news is that I have figured out what the rest of my projects will be, have them cut out and some are well on their way to being done. Where does the Serendipity come in? Well, I had quite a few strips left, ranging in size from 1" to 2" wide and most not longer than 8". I finally decided to cut them into 1 1/2" widths x 6 1/2" to get the most that I could. I figured I would 'frame' a block or something and had enough to do 9 blocks. Then I thought I would maybe do some redwork in blocks, good idea. I stayed up late one night surfing the internet for redwork patterns. I then thought since I'm doing that other hand embroidery, I didn't want to do any more handwork, so switched my thinking to machine embroidery--a whole other set of internet sites. I couldn't find quite what I was imagining, finally settling on maybe doing the days of the week and I'd figure something out for the other two blocks. I went to bed with that on my mind. Well, you know what sleep does for you! It goes into overdrive in thinking, processing and assimilating all the information it took in for the day! I woke up with a great idea! My mother had given me a set of tea towels my grandmother embroidered years ago. I didn't even get dressed, eat breakfast or anything before heading to the studio. I found the bag! And there were enough for 8 blocks and I quickly decided that embroidering a center block with "When this you see, Remember me" in it.AND they were 6 1/2" square! The only thing was that one block was a bit stained from what appears to be a little rust from the hoop and in the other, it must have been the last thing she was working on, because their were a few small flowers that were not done. I thought about finishing it, but then decided not to--remember her just as it is. I have everything laid out..and had enough fabric left to cut down to 1 1/4" and sewed them all together for a small border, in between two white borders. I have an idea for the last outside border, but will withhold judgement until I get to that point.

****** Gratitudes************

1. Days were everything seems to fall into place

2. The lush, green grass of spring

3. Waking up to the birds singing

working with Miss M

It was little Miss M's turn to spend with Nana--and she too, had to make her own little personalized pillow. She wasn't afraid at all of the sewing machine and wanted to do it by herself! Ahh, maybe a little later, :)
They sure liked putting the "fluffies" inside the pillow. She liked doing that so much she wanted to make one for little brother too...Little brother...sorry Liam--you didn't get to come help--soon...soon..And another quilt for my Quilt 24 Challenge...this time we were to do an applique--and if you remember, I was working on this during my trips and then one little Scotty dog got away in Bora Bora. If you look really close, you'll see an outline of a Scotty dog, headed the wrong way. This little quilt is dedicated to him--titled, "To the One Who Got Away"! It's all basted and ready to be quilted--and it's not even due until June 2!! I'm working on another twin size quilt for this challenge. I've got all the blocks pieced and am working on the MACHINE applique blocks now.

K creates her own quilt

Miss Special K is working on her own quilt. I purchased some yardage (her choice) with strips of cats and other designs. I cut it apart and we are inserting other fabric rows and she is creating her own rows of things she has cut out and fused. She's only in kindergarten now--I hope she always will love fabric and sewing as much as she does right now. Mommy and Daddy weren't even out of the driveway when she is dragging me to the studio to play!




She is very careful when she is cutting! And her teachers wondered where she got such good cutting skills! :)














Viewing her quilt to see if it is how she likes it. She definitely has her own opinions on where she wants things on her quilt--I might make a suggestion, but she doesn't follow it very often! :) That's good--she has her own mind on why she wants things in certain places.















Quilt in progress...the blue rows are the ones where she is adding her own designs. We got all the center rows done, and now need to add the side borders. She wanted it all done because she went to the Quilt meeting with me and she wanted to have her own show and tell. She took what we had done so far, as well as the pillow and baby doll quilt that we had done.

how time flies when you are having fun

Man, how does time get away so fast? In fact, my granddaughter was here last weekend with me and she was really sad at bedtime. She was crying and said that time always go too fast here! Catching up on things....playing and having fun with grandkids.....

This is Kai stuffing his pillow we made with his name on it. He spent a day and night with Nana, just us two....sewing, playing soccer, having a picnic at the park


working on my Quilt 24 Challenge Medallion....still painting....making baby quilts......and running my daughter to and from work for 2 weeks while hubby is out of town--it takes 2 hours out of my day--OUCH! But he's home now and I can have those hours back!
This is my Quilt 24 Challenge Medallion--as I had sketched out on paper. It sure looked better on paper! After playing with it, I changed the leaves on the vine to become flowers and added 2 more borders...I'm a little happier with it now. Since I'm using feedsack repros--I thought I would make more traditional style quilts, but with a little contemporary twist to them. In this case, I would make the medallion OFF-center. And fortunately I had cut too many squares for another quilt, so I added the extras as a border.

"Funky Monkey" quilt for my youngest grandson. He just loves monkeys and SOFT fleece blankets, so I put Minkee on the back of this. I gave it to him and we put it on the floor with the Minkee side up and he kept putting his forehead on it, sliding along and then rolling over...looked like a little kitty!