This is Love

These goodies are going to our neighbors later today!

Also, a Happy Birthday to my nephew Isaiah who turns two today!! We are going to help him celebrate this weekend, and once I show him his birthday gift, I can show you! Can't wait. Guess I should finish it...

WIP Wednesday

I've been working on several different projects and thought that perhaps it's time for an actual list! With categories!

Done:
no finishes this week

Still Working:
Log Cabins quilt top, need to choose backing fabric
I forgot to take pictures of the top before I folded it up, but I ended up going with the zig zag pattern. You can sort of see it here.

From l-r: log cabins, oriental, juice boxes

This is what I do with tops once they are finished. Fold them nicely and hang them up from the door frame. Then they aren't out of sight-out of mine, but just out of the way.

Nephew's birthday gift, about 90% complete, I think...

No Progress:

Juice Boxes quilt top, waiting for batting to be cut and to be basted

Oriental quilt top, need to choose backing fabric

Double Hourglasses, need 100+ more

New:

In Color Order's Block of the Month

I came across this sew along and decided to join in. I usually come across these things too late or they aren't quite my style, but really liked this one. And now that I've chosen my fabrics, I'm even more excited.

Since most of my fabrics have white in them, I decided to go with black for the background fabric.

I didn't size down my squares to 3.5" like she recommends, but that just means the block finishes larger than 12.5", which I am fine with.

This is the January Block all sewn up.

I couldn't decide which layout I liked best for February's block, so after a poll on facebook, I decided on

This one! Now I just need to sew it up!

Growing

Remember this post, from almost 2 years ago?
Well check this out.

Allie, Isaac, Daniel and Jonathan at care group last Wednesday.

Kaleidoscope

I finally finished up my Kaleidoscope quilt! You can see my progress here, here and here. It went together much easier that I first thought and I absolutely love the result. I used the quilt along at Don't Call me Betsy as my guide, though I changed the sizes.

My quilting was a simple outline of each of the large rings. They were much easier to follow that I thought.

The backing is the fun fabric I picked up at Golden D'or over a year ago. I'm itching to go again!

Our weather is unseasonably warm, but beautiful. Especially with a nice breeze.

And for those of you who care, I used a big smattering of different fabrics. Some from JoAnns, some Hobby Lobby, some my mom bought for me and some from the fabric fairy. I don't really keep track.

Interested in making one yourself? I'd recommend:

WIP Wednesday

I've joined up with the recently formed Fort Worth Modern Quilting Guild and we're following Sew Mama Sew's Modern Block of the Month, though we're several months behind them.  I wasn't particularly excited about the pattern until I saw it in my own fabrics. 

I've been seeing this pattern pop up several different places and really like it. It lays out similar to the cross/plus quilt. I had in mind some particular fabrics to use and a certain person to give the finished quilt to. But now I'm not thinking she will totally love those fabrics. So should I choose different fabrics? Or should I make her a different quilt?

This is my first time playing around with a log cabin block. I'm not sure where I'll go with it yet. I will probably make these blocks bigger, and will for sure make some more blocks. This jelly roll had been floating around for a couple years and I figured it was time I did something with it.

This is my new design wall! It's just a flannel sheet tacked up but I love it! I pulled out these double hourglass blocks from ages ago and was reinspired to keep making them. My hope is for a king size!

You can also see 2 finished tops hanging also. The one on the right is awaiting basting and the one on the left is waiting for me to choose some backing fabric and decide how to quilt it.

And Daniel thinks he has to be in every picture.

I decided to keep a note with them so I can see how I'm progressing. I need about 130 more!

What are you up to?

Four for Friday

Van: Earthquake Tourism

These are the kinds of shelters Tommy worked on. A 5'20" Dutchman from India named Titus (the Titan) tried to recruit Tommy.

A view of Van and the Iranian border from our friends' apartment. From what he heard, if you climb the mountains, the gun ships will come.

A shelter he built.

Tea, bread and cheese breaks hourly.

Remains of a collapsed hotel after clean up.

Van: Katie's Home in Rubble

When we flew out of Istanbul, Tommy flew into Van to help our friend Joseph pack up their old home as well as help with some relief effort and shelter building.
These pictures are from inside our friend's apartment and building. They were not home during the earthquake.

The stairwell outside their apartment

Entry hall

Fallen bookshelf; why anchoring them to the wall is valuable

Kitchen; none of their dishes broke

Kitchen. The living room sustained no real damage, even the china cabinet there was fine.

Stairwell after Tommy swept the debris to the sides so the movers wouldn't slip.

They don't have freight elevators, so everything goes up and down flights of stairs. One man will carry a whole couch up the stairs by himself on his back.

One more Van post, and we'll move on to our Christmas celebrations (of which I haven't even looked at the pictures!) and some new year resolutions.