A Great day for a Smoothy

Here it is...a delicious fruit smoothy. I think this quilt turned out so nice. The colors together are wonderful especially with the crisp white background. I have more of the accent floral for the backing and the stripe for the binding. This is probably my best yet as far as technique and lining things up. I would definitely recommend trying this Whirly Gig pattern. Just be sure to put together one block first to make sure everything looks good first. I would have saved fabric if I had followed this advice. Next time I make this pattern, I am going to try to add an additional fabric for some of the "background" white whirly gigs.

Other great news, I received a couple of squares from my momma. These are for the Denise Quilt in the unfinished projects list. They are the final squares, so I guess I better get to work.

I am not sure if this is good news, or just enabling myself in the fabric acquiring area. I ran into this super sweet Free Spirit print at the local fabric shop. I used a lot of will power and only bought a half yard of each of the two. One of these days I am going to figure out my incoming fabric to out going fabric ratio. I guess I will need to measure how many yards I have in my stash and then I can add and subtract after that. Maybe it will help me keep tabs on my fabric purchases.

And finally the best news of all! You will never guess what little beauties swam my way yesterday...drum roll please.....

Heather Ross's Mermaids

Yipee!

Didn't I warn you they were sweet. Just zoom in on their little faces. This fabric was love at first sight for me. I don't even know what I will do with it (except for some fussy cutting). I guess just stay tuned to see.

Quilt Lust

"Hi, my name is Christy and I have a fabric buying problem." It is true, I am addicted to beautiful fabric (and sometime unusual or quirky fabric) (and sometimes ugly fabric). You see what I mean? It is a problem. The most difficult part of my addiction is obviously the financial element, but beyond that there is the storage element, my sewing mess, time involvement... I have pretty much taken over the Red Couch Room, but I am careful to always call it the Red Couch Room as opposed to my sewing room, in a semi-subconscious way to try to down-play my addiction and all the space it takes up. One of my sons told me last week that I could take over his room for sewing after my oldest moves out, cause he wants her room. So I am guessing my "non-sewing room" sewing room ploy is even seen through by a 10 year old.

I am coveting like crazy the mermaid fabric in the Free Spirit line by Heather Ross. And I am having a difficult time getting my hands on even a half yard. Every time I think I am getting close to it, those little mermaids just swim right out of reach. Crafty! So crafty in fact, I cannot even grab a picture to post for your pleasure.


Speaking of crazy woman, I wanted to do something outside of my norm so I started with a yummy handful of fabrics:




Don't those colors make you think of some tropical drink?

Then I guessed at how to make a "Wonky Star". My figures did not come out just right, my split block is not square. You can see that I am going to have to find it in me to trim the hang-over on all four sides. Also I learned another hard lesson--if you want all your stars to go the same way, you can't cut the fabric folded in half. I have another pile of cuts which will make stars that are opposite of these. Maybe just maybe there will be enough to bang out another top.

This is my favorite of all the fabrics. I might just have to use this one on the back also. It really ties them all together, don't you think? The fabulous stripe is my second favorite, plus it has a great feel to it. I am thinking binding......

So here is what I have so far. I think I will just sit for a few minutes and admire them. lol

Here is an update on my Zig Zag quilt. I am still loving the aqua and red combo. I was so excited to see how it would look together I just sewed together what I had done so far. The width is just right, ummm but five rows of length is a bit awkward.
















Something I think is really strange; I have these two and a good number of other quilts which I am working on, but my mind is already lusting after the next project. I probably have a dozen quilts started and in varying stages of production and a few stashes of little beginnings (ie, fussy cut stars, waiting for accumulation...), but even as I write I am lusting after another quilt I have been wanting to make, a ragged edge circle quilt. Call me crazy!
(...or maybe I could make that hourglass quilt)
(...or there is that hexagon one I am itching to try)
(...and wonky stars...)

Ups and Downs and Double Toothpicks

Today has been another day from the double toothpicks--that is the double toothpicks as in "H" "E" "Double Toothpicks". So I thought it would be appropriate to make a Zig Zag quilt to help me remember that life has ups and downs. I started with this:

A stack of red, white and aqua squares.

Recently I was reading a blog and the writer mentioned that she just loved red, white and aqua together. Guess what? So do I. Well I do now, at least. That is one reason I love reading other bloggers, because they have such great ideas and are inspiring. Here is something I do. I keep a bound quilting journal, my little (big) black book. Whenever I am browsing quilting stuff and I see an idea that catches my eye, I jot a quick note and make a little sketch of the block or idea. Then later, I have a collection of ideas which I know I like to work from. If I plan out a quilt I also use the book to make and keep all my notes and measurements. It would be closer to a perfect world if I would slip in a finished picture of the project too, perhaps it will evolve to that level. For now, I am just happy to keep my thoughts organized.

I plan to alternate the aqua and white with the red and white. So far I have only this row and a half of aqua. But, I am already loving it! It seems really outside of my history of color scheme choices, but maybe that is why it jumps out at me. I can't wait to see the whole thing together.





On another note, one of my WIP (works in progress) is finally getting quilted. This Floral Fantasy pin-wheel top went together so quickly but the slow going quilting has made up for the speed of the top. My first quilting pattern once started, i realized that it was just not working for me or for the quilt, so out came all those hours of work--no wonder my hands are in such pain. Most of the new quilting is done, I am much happier with it, you can kind of see the quilting on the photo of the back of the quilt.


Also there are some pictures of a few of my favorite pin-wheels.
This first and second pinwheels are from some of my mom's free to me stash--Thanks Mom!
















It seems to me that this is a good note to end on--much nicer than thoughts of the Double Toothpicks place.

This my Lot in Life

This last week has been one of those weeks when you wish you could sneak out of your own life for a little while. Sometimes I try to hide from my life, but it always finds me. The Lupus wolf attended me most of the week, and by Saturday I was completely done-for. Most of Saturday was spent in my Red Couch Room under my favorite snugly quilt. I was itching to quilt all day but I just did not have it in me. Sunday after noon things perked up for a bit and I sewed like a mad woman, because who knows how long the break will last. I managed to speed sew a Stack of Coins quilt, which turned out so beautiful. I saw this pattern recently on another blog because of the simple beauty of it. How is it possible something so basic can look this awesome?