completed quilt and more fish...

I'm at my parents' house and my mom was kind enough to let me take some pictures of the completed quilt... though I realized I just got *half* of the quilt since it's folded in half over the back of her couch.

But really, I've already posted the full top, so half will just have to do. And really, you should be glad I forgot to take pictures with my own camera. Hers is MUCH more lovely anyway. A new, fancy camera is absolutely on my to-purchase list... (okay, I'll admit, I probably have a list a mile long... but this is certainly in the top three... fabric *might* have it beaten out... though looking at these pictures, I'm not so sure).


And more fishing...
The youngest actually LOVED playing with the fish head for a long time... it was when she suddenly looked at it and said, "Mom, I think it's dead..." that she got that look on her face.


This has to be one of my all-time favorite pictures ever. It's the perspective of it all that just has me tooting my own horn on my photography skills (see?! get me a good camera and life is amazing! It doesn't hurt that in my past life -- aka, pre-staying-at-home-with-the-kids days -- my job did involve taking pictures for my paycheck).
Don't your children play with fish heads?
(... are you like me and keep singing this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn73Wtem0No ? I can't help myself!)

Fishing hat at Sunshine

We went fishing yesterday (Sunday). My mom, my husband, me, and our three girls. We caught nine lovely cutthroat trout -- three of which were caught by me!
I knew on Saturday that we would be fishing with my mom on Sunday... which of course is not without some sort of sewing challenge. Yes! *Fishing* can even present sewing challenges!
The older two have been fishing with my mom many times, but the youngest really hasn't and she didn't have a fishing hat! I *know* there are bound to be about a million little girl wide-brimmed hats somewhere in this house, but they all seem to turn up missing the minute I actually need them.
So, my 2.5 year-old needed a hat.
And while this might not be something everybody else would think of as lucky, I happen to think she's quite lucky that her head circumfrence is equal to that of a paint can! Lucky girl! That made it very easy for me to make up this hat.
And sew I did. I made it up as I went along, but I figured a wide-brimmed hat couldn't be too tricky... and it wasn't really. I used two pieces of half-yard remnants from other projects I had worked on with Heather Ross' Mendocino line, which lent itself perfectly to a sewing-for-fishing project. The hat really isn't so floppy. When I went to take the pictures, the wind was picking up, so it just looks more floppy than it really is.

The lining on the underside of the brim is lovely seahorses... and while we don't have seahorses here, nor in Sunshine Reservoir, I thought they added a nice aqautic touch.

And the scenery? Isn't it just lovely? It really was a perfect day for fishing.

distractions..

The quilt for my mom is done. I just need to wash it now.
I'm so pleased with how it all went (other than not paying attention while I was quilting and getting terrible fold-overs)...

The proof that I've been too busy with binding and not tending to my artistic children...

Note that there are glasses here... (and be thankful I spared you the leg shots... if there were red spaghetti noodles... and one could swim in them and have them stick... that's what the middle child's legs looked like)

And not so distracting, except maybe for the cheesey-cute factor...

I'll get the finished quilt in a bit. I really have to catch up on laundry first (that's a problem when I get immersed in projects... like making a quilt in four days... the rest of the house goes to shambles... and the amount of laundry that three little girls can generate is mind-boggling)...

Pureed flowers

My mom's birthday is this coming Monday (Aug.25) and I figured I better do something for her, since she is my mother and I love her DEARLY!

What better way to show love than a quilt? At least that was my way of thinking... so into the stash I dove. I came up with a stack of 20 fat quarters that I got at the most amazing discount from my local quilt shop. They aren't all prints I would normally put together (and really, only about half really appeal to me on any level), but I'm always up for a challenge and decided I would try it anyway.

Because time is of the essence, I figured I'd go simple in the technical construction of the piecing of the top. And so it's together. One day for cutting and sewing the strips. All while homeschooling too (yesterday was the first day of school).

I even pinned it to the batting/backing and got just a few lines quilted thus far.

It was hard to work on for a while because I wasn't loving it. At all. I don't know if it was the simplicity (and that it's not quite what I had in my head) or if I just didn't like the prints at all... but it was challenging.

So now I need to finish the quilting and move on to the binding ... and we'll see if I can get it completed in less than a week.

edited to add: I'll sneak in the dimensions here... it's 62" x 72" ... all the strips are cut 4" wide and at varying lengths....

And then... oh, I can't WAIT to move on to other projects. I have a Feliz I've been just dying to cut into but I'm a bit nervous and worried it might take some time... after this is done, I just need to dive in. I can't let it just sit because I'm nervous I might mess it up.

Medocino beauty for sweet slumbers...

Oh yes, another pillowcase. I just can't help myself. I *smile* when I see fun accents like custom pillowcases out of favorite fabrics!

Yes, I know, I've been planning the most gorgeous Feliz dress... and I do have all the fabrics prewashed and I even have the pattern traced out in the size of my oldest... but I'm just not feeling super focused and I need a few quick projects to get my sewing mojo flowing again.

And let me tell you, these do the trick.

I love the fabrics from the new Heather Ross Mendocino line. Or maybe I love the *feel* of Heather Ross fabric even more. Or maybe it's my girls who love mermaids and I can't help but comply by helping them foster that love.

Whatever the reason, I love this pillowcase.

And the wrinkles on my lovely white sheets? Sleepy wrinkles from the littlest who just woke up from a nap. She gave the pillowcase her sleep of approval.

completed quilt, golden slumbers

When I'm not off galavanting around the beauties of nature, I am still sewing.

I finished the quilt for dh last weekend, actually, but haven't shown it yet because I was quite distressed about it.

Oh, the binding is PERFECT. Really. It's the most perfect binding I've ever done. The corners? They couldn't be better. The hand stitching to the back? Okay, I'm sure *somebody* could find a flaw or two, but I think it's amazing.

But I washed it and dried it. On hot. And it seems that a blue (or two or three, I can't be sure) was not colorfast. And the color bled. There were three oranges that picked up some blue tint, with one of those orange prints taking the brunt of the hit.

I was quite upset about it for a while. I just spent *HOURS* of time on this quilt, pouring in blood, sweat and tears (really, I did! I poked myself with a pin while handstitching the binding! so that's the blood... the sweat came because it was hot last week here and we have no air conditioning and working with a quilt on your lap is NOT a cool thing... and tears... yeah, they came afterwards)... after all that, the color bleeds and it just doesn't look as vibrant as before.

Now that I've had some time to think about it, maybe it's not as bad as I originally thought. But it's still upsetting. Not that dh will even notice ;)

And then, I made The Most Lovely Pillowcase Ever.

Loosely based on this tutorial: http://jonag.typepad.com/stop_staring_and_start_se/2008/07/banish-percale-forever.html

It would be completely based on that, but I'm terrible at actually following directions and I just made up my own measurements ;)

Isn't that dreamy? I'm certain I've slept better since I've had this.

The pinkish fabric is one from Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut line... and the green is from Heather Bailey's Bijoux... and the pink/red stripe? It's some Candy Stripe print, I but I can't remember more than that!

What I do when I'm not sewing...

I love where I live. All sites posted are within two hours of where I live (including Yellowstone)!

opposites attract

My husband claims I make nothing for him.

Of course he's completely wrong on that. I've made him a pillowcase and a pair of pajama pants (which the dog chewed up).

Wait, that doesn't count for much compared to the oodles of dresses, pants, shorts, shirts, etc., that I have sewn for the girls? I guess not.

As it turns out, his birthday (shh.. his 30th) is next Friday. Last week I had a brilliant idea: make him a quilt.

You know, because quilts are "quick" projects... right? It's something I can throw together in two weeks.

Well, I've just about managed to do it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

One of the best things of this project was it's cost-effectiveness. I purchased the material for this quilt *gasp* at least two or three years ago (yes, see, I'm a lovely wife... I *thought* about making him something... I just never got around to it). I dug out the bag (original bag from the fabric shop, still holding the very same material it came home with) and it still had six half-yards of orange fabrics and six half-yards of blue fabrics.

Why orange and blue? Because they're the colors of his favorite football team -- the Denver Broncos.

But I didn't want to purchase Broncos fabric... I wanted this to be 'classy' (no offense to those who sew with team fabrics).

(sorry, I know most just want pictures, but I'm a story-teller)

While I do love seeing the results of quilting, sometimes it can be challenging for me. Actually trying to follow a real pattern really doesn't suit my personality. I just can't do it. But randomness? Ah, that's right up my alley.

So, I cut out a bunch of 6" squares from the fabrics. Then I sewed them into half-square triangles. And my randomness went to work (all the while I was praying it really WOULD all work out!).

So, I pieced and pieced and pieced (or at least it felt like it... along with not being able to follow a pattern, I easily get bored... I don't have the attention span of a good quilter).

And the result of the piecing? Oh, I love it. It's so much more amazing than I could have hoped for.

I'm always amazed when I finish any project, but especially quiltling ones.

It All. Worked. Out.

All those random fabrics came together and formed *this*! Now really, how amazing is that?

I pinned it all up last night and quilted it also (nothing terribly fancy, but it will work). I thought about at least starting the binding, but it was already 2 a.m. and I couldn't do it.

So I'm hoping to be able to show the finished quilt later today or at least tomorrow.

And, for the record, I finished piecing the top in three days... and during those three days I really didn't a lot of sewing time.. but I got it done and I'm quite pleased. Now, onto the binding!