Disorganization and Mondo Birds

Had to rearrange the sewing/crafting area. Again. It seems it never can settle and stay one configuration for long before something happens and it has to move again.

This time it was the arrival of some new bedroom furniture. Don't get me wrong, I love the new furniture, but having my crafty space cramped and unusable once again is frustrating. And so I'm sneaking off to sew amid the messiness of the room I am supposed to be putting back together!

I'm working on the free pieced study group blocks. My partner and I settled on aqua, red, and white as our color scheme. I've already had trouble sticking to just those colors since I typically use lots of colors together. And this is not a combo I frequently use, so I'm having some difficulties seeing what really works well and what really constitues the color "aqua".

For the month of January, we have two blocks to make - a "Mondo bird" and a log cabin house. Here are my versions of the "Mondo bird". Sarah named them that after the Project Runway designer since she always gives her birds fun black and white patterned legs. (If you watched last season of PR, you'll get it!) I gave my birds orange stockings.

Next will be wonky log cabin houses! Yippee!

DQS8

Wow! It's been way longer than I thought since I last blogged! Lots has happened, but I mostly wanted to show pictures of my amazing new quilt from Mama Urchin. She had me as her swapee during our latest round of the doll quilt swap - DQS8.She made an amazing scrappy log cabin with some beautiful fabrics.

She also sent me a fabulous stack of charm squares with some really great fabrics in there!

Here is another close up. I am in love with this doll quilt! She did such an amazing job!

Fine Art of Fiber Show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens

Got to see some amazing fabric work this weekend at the Chicago Botanic Gardens Fine Art of Fiber show. It didn't hurt that it was a gorgeous weekend here, so hanging out at the gardens was nice. So nice in fact, that we went Saturday for the show and then went back again on Sunday just to enjoy the weather! Here's some pictures...

Working on Green Bed Quilt

Here's some photos of a green quilt in progress right now. It's partially laid out on the floor of the spare bedroom and partially on the sewing table downstairs.

The floor of the bedroom is the only place I have large enough to see all the blocks laid out, so I have to carefully transport them downstairs so they can be sewn correctly. I've developed a number pinning system that seems to be working so far.

My only problem has been that even after lots of calculating, the top is turning out to be wider than the backing. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong, but this means I'm either going to have to shorten the width of the top or add some border panels to the backing. Which is the lesser of two evils? Probably narrowing the top. I think I've used up all the green backing fabric that I had and I have no idea where I got that shade of green. oh well.

Some Time to Sew

I've been busy with life and haven't had much time to sew lately. So today being the Columbus Day holiday from school, I have some time to sit down and sew - hooray!

The projects have been piling up... I finished and sent out my Sept. mini quilt last week (late!) to Upstatelisa (here's the super-cute owl quilt and mushroom pouch she sent me), I'm now planning and working on my October mini quilt for Calamity Kim, I'm also working on a lap quilt for the Bend the Rules Sewing Swap as well as DollQuilt Swap 5. I had also started sewing a birthday gift for my sister... AND if that weren't enough, I'm so ADD I had to throw in a holiday-themed quilt that was a challenge for the Collaborative Quilting group from Krom mama. Whew! So what have I done today?

Yep. Sat on the couch with the cat and watched all my Tivo'ed shows.

So now it's time to get down to business.

Visiting North Georgia (part 1)

Just got back from a vacation to the North Georgia Mountains to visit with my folks. We stayed up near Ellijay at the cabin of a family friend. It's a georgous location on several acres of land right near where a stream meets a river.

During the time I was there, I spent a lot of quality time outside communing with nature, I guess. It's just so peaceful there & it's so good to get away from the "big city".

I also got to spend some quality time with my parents. Dad was working on various projects - but never the ones he planned to work on.

I dragged my mom to several quilt shops in the area. Some I had found online, and others we found by mistake. Either way, I found some fabulous fabrics. I also became a fan of the super inexpensive fabric section of the many local Walmart stores we visited. We don't really have Walmarts in my area and I have mixed feelings about that chain of stores, but down in Georgia, that was frequently the only option. And when you have to drive 30 minutes for the only shopping option, you take what you can get.

I took lots of pictures and have lots to share, but not all at once, so expect more from me about my trip! I've been distracted lately 'cause I'm getting geared up to get back into the classroom again. I've been putting my classroom back in order and tomorrow have to attend the beginning of the schoolyear "pep rally" for the school district. Not really looking forward to all that just because it seems like the official END to my summer.

Oh well. It had to end sometime, right?