Look Who's 2 !!!!

Denver wasn't feeling too well, but he still is awfully cute!  Love those curly locks!!

Keeping Tabs

I've been working on the Keeping Tabs quilt from Modern Quilts Illustrated #5 for myself for the past couple of weekends.  I can't seem to find the time to sew once I get home from work.  Or maybe it's that I can't seem to find the energy to sew.  I don't know.  I only know that this simple quilt is taking a bit of time to complete.

Today I finished sewing the border on and got started on piecing the backing.  The original quilt pattern made a 53" x 84" quilt but my quilt top is 68" x 100" which makes it a long twin.  I figure it will be long enough to tuck under a pillow.  In the mean time, here's the fabric selections for the top:

The solids are the main part of the quilt, the round-ish design is the border and the square-ish design is the backing.  Only there wasn't quite enough for the backing, hence the piecing.  Here's a rather poor camera phone shot of the top before the border was fully stitched on:

Hopefully the entire thing will be done next weekend and I'll decide whether I can tackle the quilting or not!

Life's a Beach

 Last month my friend Cathy invited me to spend a few days at her lovely cottage on Lake Huron, along with Sue and Kathy from the Chickens.  The Lake Huron shoreline is far less crowded and developed than the Lake Michigan side but every bit as enjoyable.  Mostly I would have to say it's very relaxing there.  We always have to walk the beach, gathering up new treasures that the waves have brought to shore.

I think Sue was particularly in search of green rocks -- who knew!

There were occasional pow-wows between Cathy, Kathy, and Sue over whether a stone was worthy of keeping or needed to be tossed back into the water.

I didn't pick up any rocks but I was practicing my photography skills, capturing waves on the rocks.

And goose-prints:

And driftwood that had washed ashore:

Isn't this the most beautiful place for a swing -- what a view!

It was so nice to get away with the girls:

I even got some sewing done:

I think I've sewn about 10 more rows since that weekend.  A few more to go and it can all be put together.

Work, work, work!

This working stuff is getting in the way of having fun!  Most nights I don't get home from work until 7:00 or 7:30 pm.  I've discovered that getting to work early (8 am is early to this company!) is making the drive to Ann Arbor much easier on me.  Many days I've been working 9+ hours so if you tack on the minimum of 2 hour total commute, we're talking about 11 hour days.

This has significantly cut into my energy level and at the end of a work day I just can't seem to muster anything more than a walk with the dog.  Thank goodness for weekends!  This weekend I finished piecing the quilt top I'm making for myself -- yeah! -- and just have a little bit of stitching to go to complete the border.  Once again this quilt top, like many others I've made, has grown much larger than my original concept and now I'll have to piece the backing as I only bought 5 yards of fabric for it at the AQS show in Grand Rapids.  It's roughly 68" by 100" so I'm thinking it will look great on the twin bed I don't have yet!  I'm planning to downsize my bed from a queen size because it takes up so stinkin' much room in my bedroom.

I'm fairly certain I'll have it machine quilted.  I'd rather have it done than sitting on a shelf waiting for me to get the hours of time needed to do it myself.

This afternoon I got my loppers out and went to town on the weeds in my backyard.  It was looking like a jungle and I had finally had it.  My roommate wasn't tackling it so I did it myself.  Now my hands are aching and so is my back!  Time for some Aleve and a good night's sleep!

Denver's Deer Blind

A few weeks ago I wrote that I was super busy working on a covert sewing project.  Well, here it is!  I made a deer blind for my grandson Denver.  I used a card table that I rescued from some one's garbage pile (it's TRUE -- one man's trash is another man's treasure!) - and it was a true blessing as I was still looking for a job and running out of unemployment benefits.  Free is good, right?!

I had purchased 5 yards of this great camo fabric and ended up using only 3 yards - so I guess there's another sewing project in my not-too-distant future.  Any how, the table measured 34" square and was in great shape except for a couple of paint stains and tears in the vinyl top -- who cares -- it's covered anyway!

I used the vinyl mesh fabric that you can use for beach tote bags, to make the 'door' and 3 windows.

The side windows have peekaboo flaps:

The rear window is bigger than the sides -- improved ventilation if it gets too warm for him.  I sewed two buttonholes in the fabric flap and two buttons toward the top of the back wall so it can be buttoned up, like you see here:

Denver's 2nd birthday isn't until next Saturday but I took his gifts out to him week before last, when I babysat.  At first he wasn't sure what it was or what to do with it, but with a little coaxing from his dad, he went in, came back out for some toys, and went back in again.  Success!  Mike couldn't believe I made it from scratch.  Buddy, where did you think I was going to find something like this??!!  Truly one of a kind.

I love when I put my sewing machine and brain together for fun projects.  Almost as much as I love Denver!

The Last of the Quilt Pictures

Here are the last of my favorite quilts from the AQS show in Grand Rapids last week.  Be sure to check out the last two quilts (#233 and #140) from my friend Ruth Montalvo, who is also a member of the Great Lakes Heritage Quilters.  She designed our raffle quilt for our last quilt show.  Check that version out at www.glhq.org, in the header of the website.

Enjoy the show!

More Quilts from AQS Grand Rapids...

This first quilt was from the Hands challenge:

I don't remember the challenge that this quilt was from but I liked it a lot:

I think this quilt was from an Architecture challenge:

Amazing work!

I don't remember which challenge this one was from either but the work is incredible!!!

This last quilt is a panel quilt made by six different quilters and then put together!

I'm always attracted to a beautiful red and white quilt and apparently so were the judges!

This quilt is a take on the New York Beauty pattern only all of 'piecing' was done with quilting, using many different colors of thread!

Willy Nilly is the name of this one but it's really crazy cool!