Quilting! I've decided tuesday nights will be my craft night each week - starting last night....

see my new blog for my project progress: Quilting

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!
With a real snow day yesterday, I worked from home. This meant that at 5 when my fiance got home early I could stop working and get into the holiday spirit. The tree went up!
The village I got for xmas last year went up for the first time, this was fun, next time I'll use some batting for snow but I didn't want to go crazy the first time!
And the decorations went onto the mantel. The mantel is generally decorated with dragons and a few xstitch pieces, well those got pushed aside (not removed mind you) so we could cram these little guys in!

And finally a picture of the table runner I completed weeks ago (before thanksgiving when I was sick). It's called Chaos and the only thing I did different from the pattern is that I made the red squares all the same color, the pattern called for the border ones to be different than the inner ones.
Now I'm back to the office, will get home at 6 and maybe do some knitting tonight... OH yea I started knitting again :) I'm making a rabbit - it's grey since I didn't have brown yarn and I'm not quite sure it looks like a rabbit but once I start stuffing it I'll take a picture!

Happy holiday season everyone!

In 2 1/2 hours I have completed the costume (guess I'll be working late and tomorrow ...all well).. but here it is - the Singer Costume:


This costume has no pattern, I just bought the fabric (way too much of it by the way as I could probably make 3 more of these! I think I'm going to make a matching shawl since this is a halloween costume and it might add some warmth.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the dress, I won't show the back because it's not as nice (the furriness of the fabric was touch so I used seam binding where the zipper goes (to help so the zipper doesn't catch on the loose threads) and it's not as pretty as the front. :)

And here's block 9 I pieced up this morning. Now it's time to work work work .. I've been trying to keep a migraine away all day so far and each time I try to use the computer it hits again. So time for some meds and then work :)

Long Weekend, short week!
First an update on the long weekend... Saturday and Sunday were regular weekend days, I cleaned the apartment, went shopping then we went over to some friends' house for dinner and cards. Sunday more shopping, then over to my uncle's house to play with the cousins.
Monday and Tuesday however were free days! I did some stitching:

That officially marks the halfway point on Celtic Banner! Page 2 is complete! I was very very excited!
Then I did a little quilting:

That's Leanne's quilt block 8 pieced, ready for applique and embroidery!
And:
I started block 9, just a little piecing. It was so much fun! I've just been working the last three days (today from home). Last night I went to stitch and continued to work on block 7 embroidery which is ALMOST done!

This weekend we are going camping with the familiy, annual thing. I need to stop working at a reasonable time, pack all our camping stuff and drive back to NY. Then tomorrow we head up to the campsite and make camp for saturday-monday. I should get some stitching done but more likely lots of reading.

That's all - hopefully more pics next week!

As promised...
Off to Easter :)

Finished the Baby Quilt! I will try to take a picture tonight to post tomorrow!

I spent a few hours last night listening to my audio book and finishing the binding on the quilt. I'm listening to "The Tenth Circle" by Jodi Picoult which I'm of course enjoying immensly.

Then I read for an hour, I'm reading "Perfect Match" by the same author. Not a great before bed book but whatever.

It was a great night but I wasn't feeling well and wasn't very social after dinner (went up and read). But I'm feeling fine today and I have stitch tonight with a friend so I hope to work on Barnabee and maybe by this weekend get that finished up so I can switch over to Peaceful Silhouette completely.

I can't believe it's only Thursday :( For some reason this feels like a long week. I really need to go to the gym tomorrow as I will be up late friday cleaning!

Quilt almost finished!!

Well I got home by 5 last night and after getting my taxes done finally I then moved on to the baby quilt! I finished all the quilting and then squared it up and added the binding which I then started tacking down. I'm about a 1/3 done with that and hope to finish it tonight! That's one thing I can cross off my list!

Sometimes things just work out. Now if i could just finish the website and then the xstitch for my fiance for graduation I'll have no more obligations! That's my goal by mid may or sooner.

Taxes were a serious hit financially but I kind of expected it so I was all ready for it. And if i can finish the website I'll be making up for the taxes for sure.

Well work work work - time to see what I have going on for today!

As Promised - progress on Barnabee:

This is after Friday and Saturday night stitch. Sorry the scan is so crooked. The next pic will hopefully be a finished one! This one went really fast. All i have left is the backstitched saying and the honey comb backstitching with a little bit on the bees and butterflies a the bottom.. Then the beading!

I worked a ton on the website yesterday. I'm very happy where i am on that and I think I can finish it up maybe next weekend. I have a kink with the emailing still but hopefully i can resolve that when I do the payment processing anyway.

I worked on quilting the border of the baby quilt. I got the triangles all around done then I did one side of diamonds. My hope is to finish that tonight and *maybe* even add the binding too??? But I do have tomorrow night. Then I can hand stitch the binding the rest of the week and have it done before Saturday!

And now it's back to work - feeling loads better from my cold last week! I'm hoping to keep the week relatively light as I've been overworking so much but we'll see how it goes!

Quilting :)

When I got home last night (after dinner), I managed to spend another hour at the sewing machine. I finished the quilting in the center of the quilt! Now all i have is the border quilting and binding. I haven't figured out what i'm going to do for the border quilting so I've mocked something up to send to my mom - opinions welcome here too of course :)

What's in red is what is quilted (I colored over the pink so ignore that), what's in white are possible options for the border.
1) (top) Triangles and diamonds - my preference, something different than the rest of the quilt but still straight lines.
2) (right) Continued Cross hatch - a simple choice, a little hard on the machine quilting in that it's not really continuous but it will run off the edge and when the binding is added those parts will be reinforced.
3) (bottom) Diamonds - Continuous but I would have to figure out a 1/4 inch along each edge to estimate where the binding will end. Could easily cut off points.
4) (left) Mimicing a pattern in the border fabric. I've never done free-style - this would still be using the quilting foot so it may very well come out as it looks above where i was wrestling with a paint brush in paint :)

Ideas welcome!

No other stitching last night, we finished up the second season of 4400 and loved it, unfortunately i have to wait until May for the third season to come out :(

Weekend wrap-up:
1. Work on website - YES - spent over 6 hours on it!
2. Start quilting baby quilt by machine YUP!
3. Start appliqué of block 7 Finished appliqué, started embroidery!
4. out for dinner and bowling (7 year anniversary on sunday!) Nope -watched P&P instead

What a great weekend, I worked a lot more than I would have liked but I got the feeling of accomplishment from all the work I did do.

Website work went well, I have a long list of what's left but it's broken down so it's maybe a day or two of work and all time dependent, so hopefully next sunday I will be just wrapping things up!

Started quilting the baby quilt about an hour ago - did quite a bit. I think I can finish the center quilting tomorrow night even and then I just have to measure out the border quilting :) I need to send this picture to my mom with the quilting lines drawn out so she knows what i'm doing and we can stay in sync.
The red is what i've quilted so far, the pink is my plan. Then I'll do the big square (in ditch by border), and then figure out the border stuff. I think that should be enough without having to also outline the pinwheel squares.

Now for one more episode of 4400 (season 2) and a little more embroidery maybe. I never did pull out peaceful silhouette last night - but it will surely come out this week when i get bored with block 7!

Block 6 Finished!!!


Somehow I managed to finish this block last night - all I had to do was the two small squares off to the right. I worked a bit at the dentist at lunch time and then finished it up while baking pies last night.

It was a long night - I got home after 7, went for a run outside again (warmer than monday night!), then baked two pies - unfortunately i really packed in the pumpkin (3/4 batch) and it took almost 2 hours to bake! It came out around 10 to 11.. yikes, that was close!

So it was a late night but I got a lot done and tonight I go to my aunt's house, I hope to start the applique on block 6 which I'll continue tomorrow at stitch. Friday will be barnabee night, and to make up for last week probably a bit on saturday for barnabee as well. I'd like to finish part II and get a good start on part III.

A little stitching - no picture yet.

I'm almost done with Leanne's house Block 6 - so very close. I will try to finish it tonight and take a picture. Then wednesday i can start on the applique to block 7! Wow only 3 more blocks to go!

I didn't get a lot done last night, I got home late, we went for a run (still light out - love that early time change!) - then I settled in and worked on the block while watching the Prestige (which I loved). I couldn't stitch much because I had to pay a little bit of attention (I kept getting lost).

Unfortunately I stayed up until 11 reading and didn't get up until almost 8am! (now i'm hating the time change :) ) So it's a late day in to work - but i planned on working late anyway - I'll be running in the dark tonight :(

Anyway - hopefully a picture tomorrow and it looks like the quilting of the baby quilt won't start until friday...

Quilting weekend!!
My mom and I made the quilts for the twins - all that's left is to machine quilt them. Here's mine:
And the one my mom made:
It was a lot of fun. We got the pinwheels finished saturday night and a start on the flying geese blocks. Then sunday we finished it all up. I got back home around 5 so my fiance and I went out to dinner and then settled in for the night around 8 - a nice headache had started so I pretty much just zonked out.

Poor Barnabee -- unfortunately I did not get to him last friday because we went out for the night (and I worked late). So there's nothing to show there, I'll post a picture of him after I get to work on him this week - probably friday, maybe thursday.

And now of course the quilting bug has hit. I haven't set up my quilting station at home to start machine quilting but I'm going to do that tonight. I'd like to set little goals each night, like stitch in the ditch of the main diagonals tonight to get started. Then the stitching of the diamonds from the center out another night (one diamond in each pinwheel). Then the zig zag in the flying geese another night. And lastly the border zig zags which I have to measure and draw out first. My goal is to be finished by March 25th, put the binding on and finish attaching the binding before the weekend of the 31st so I can maybe work on another quilt :)

Pictures monday - i promise...

I did go to stitch last night and I worked on Leanne's House block 6 - finally. I finished about half of the embroidery that I have left. I think I can finish this block next weekend and then start on the next.

And speaking of Leanne's House, block 8 arrived so now I have all 9 blocks! Next month I get the borders as my last installment. I'm not going to sign up for another block of the month right away (but i want to) only because we'll be moving at the end of May and it's easier to wait until after we move to sign up but I've already got it narrowed down. I've done so well actually completing these blocks that I think I will keep up with another as well. Maybe one with more applique and less embroidery??

Still have the quilting bug - I can't wait for this weekend to start - going to be a semi late day at work though and then tonight we're going out bowling!!! Yipee - a night out with my sweetie!

Getting the quilting bug...

Well with my cross stitch going so well (having made so much progress on Peaceful Silhouette and Barnabee)... what happens.. of course I get interested in quilting again. I really really want to make a new quilt. Of course I get to make one this weekend - a baby quilt in batiks.

Why did this happen? Well my mom mentioned that she wanted me to pick out a quilt pattern for her and my grandmother to make me for my wedding (which isn't until the summer 2008 but a bed quilt takes a long while!). So I started browsing the quilts - and there's so many I really want to make! I found one that I love but it doesn't have a pattern so I'll have to mimic it and re-design it myself. I can't wait!

But I must remind myself that I need to finish one of the many quilts I have started already - need to get my quilting needle going and work on my amish quilt or my sampler quilt and finish them up!

But I did place an order with some new fun gadgets (rulers and such) so now I'm looking forward to getting those things! Since I can't cut my batiks tomorrow night (i still have to wash them), maybe I'll pull out one of my quilts and get working on it (which means I have to find all my supplies!).

Saturday after the birthday party my mom and I will start the baby quilts (they're for twins). So monday I will have a picture of a hopefully pieced top I made and then I'll machine quilt it - hopefully by Easter when I see my mom again. Is it friday night yet??? :)

Tonight is stitch night - i'm bringing Leanne's Quilt to work on (still haven't touched it). Last night was a computer night all night long, still fiddling with Vista. Looking forward to the night off tonight though!