WIP Wednesday #3

After not touching my sewing machine for close to two weeks, I knew I needed to get back at it! And I'm so glad I did.

 I've sewn together three rows of my kaleidoscope quilt. You may think they look like columns, but I promise you, they are rows. I love how the shapes are popping out already. I can't wait until it's hanging on my wall and I can gaze at it all day. There are only two more rows to go. I was excited to finish her up when I saw this:

How did this happen!?! The orange block is the one with the mistake. At this point there would be a disgusting amount of seam ripping to fix it so I'm trying to decide how much it will bother me. I am thinking that appliqueing new triangles over the existing ones will be the easiest fix. 

 Since I will be in San Antonio for about two weeks next month, I decided it was time to pick up embroidery. It's a bit unreasonable to think that I'd actually get any sewing done there, but this is something I can pick up and set down easily and shove into a bag when needed. My first attempt was actually not bad, I didn't feel the need to throw it away, it might even get used to label a quilt.

 Rachel let me borrow this book, and I love it! Super easy and some great project ideas. Some of my stitches need some serious work, others are tolerable. While I'm in SA I plan on meeting up with Amy and getting a few pointers.

This quilt just needs to be bound! I cut the strips and now need to sew them together. I will probably stitch both sides of the binding on the machine for this one.

What are you making?

Construct a Party

Today is Daniel's 3rd Birthday. He has been such a blessing to our family; I cannot imagine life without my sweet boy. This past weekend we celebrated by having some friends and family over and throwing a Construction themed party. I neglected to take pictures of many of the cute decorations Tommy helped me create, but that's okay because we were busy enjoying ourselves!

In no particular order:

We didn't want to leave our little friends out, so we found some plastic hammers they could slobber on.

 Food was devoured.

 Thanks to my hubby who made some awesome signs!

We drug Daniel's work bench inside, along with all the tools he's acquired.

We started the party with a gravel box and a sand box, and ended with two sand and gravel boxes.

The kids couldn't get enough!

Our new living room layout is much more conducive to large groups.

Daniel had plenty of help opening gifts.

Tommy scored some foam from work, made some wooden mallets and let the kids hammer golf tees in. Everyone loved this activity.

One of the highlights for Daniel was unrestricted access to the juice boxes.

I absolutely love how his cake turned out! It was cute & tasty!

The bigger kids got some time alone with the sand.

Chocolate and Vanilla layers, with sweet cream filling and homemade chocolate frosting.

Praise God the party was such a success. There wasn't any major squabbling among the kids, they really seemed to enjoy themselves the entire time. Daniel was thrilled to have all his friends here to celebrate, and I don't think he really even 'got' that it was all for him. I think it will be hard to top this party next year, but we had so much fun we might just recycle the theme.

Grayscale

**I accidentally deleted this post, but with the help of my husband, have recreated it. All original comments are lost however.


When choosing fabric for my current project I knew that value would be really important. I pulled several fabrics from my stash aiming for strong values and light values. To see this better I took some shots in black and white. Some of the fabrics have more of a medium value and I regret a few choices. I still love the fabrics but I think they might get lost among the others.

The Final Cut

Top in B&W

Top in Color

Can you see the patterns? The Kaleidoscope? 

I didn't spend alot of time arranging the fabrics here, just tried to make sure same fabrics weren't clustered together too much. The 2nd, 3rd and 5th blocks on the last column are my least favorites. I'm not sure that I'll change them, but the contrast isn't very strong. I can see the pattern within the blocks but I think it will only get stronger once they are sewn together.

I have planned for it to be 6x6 blocks, but I want to hang it on the wall and I'm not sure that will fit the spot I have in mind. This one still has quite a bit of work to go, arranging and sizing. I haven't even thought about borders yet!

Any suggestions?

Life Lately



Two dozen beautiful roses for our 6th anniversary



Sadly they didn't even last a week

There is much more order here than appears

WIP Wednesday #2

**I accidentally deleted this post, but with the help of my husband, have recreated it. All original comments are lost however.

This week I got the urge to re-organize my stash after coming across a post from In Color Order about folding methods. She also gives great advice on how to sort fabrics as well. I only did this to fabric less than one yard, the rest is folded differently.

Christmas Fabrics- I can't wait for cooler weather!! It's hard to even look at these when it's 108 outside!!

 

These are whites, black & whites, and batiks,

and prints with many colors

ROYGBV

And I finished 2 quilts this week!!

I used several different thread colors to outline each block in this cheater cloth.

This panel and several of the fabrics came from my grandmom a while back. I finished the top sometime last year, but didn't get around to basting it until recently.

And the show stopper:

Half Square Triangles made for a dear friend.

I suppose you'll just have to tilt your head.

Sometimes I really hate Blogger. But blogging takes enough time without figuring out how to do it 'better'

 

Tiffani has been an incredible source of support and encouragement as I've dealt with infertility the last two years. She and her husband have been trying for a while too. What a blessing to have a friend to commiserate with and to seek joy in the midst with!

Tiffani has mentioned a few times that she knows when they have another baby I will make them a quilt.

The Lord hasn't withheld good things from me while I'm waiting, Why should I withhold this from my dear friend!?

Though I am kinda withholding since I won't let her take possession until I can show it off at quilt sitters at my LQS.

Tiffani- I love you like a sister and pray that the Lord would open your womb and bless your family with another baby to raise to his glory! Until that day, I can't think of anyone I'd rather wait with!