Dude. I had to.

I wish it was a little more Boone's Farm-y, but it's not bad.

ETA: Wine snobs, don't read any further.

I added some Mountain Dew to it and now it's AWESOME!!

The new additions to our family

I have been a bad blogger! I forgot to announce the birth of my beautiful new niece! Future Niece has finally graced us with her presence. She was definitely worth the wait. She had a bit of a rough start, but is doing very well now.

I have proof of her cuteness:

My mom and I were playing dress up with her already and we think she liked it. She is a sweetie and is already satisfactorily spoiled. (Just as a firstborn should be.)

My boys think their new cousin is "so cute" but were wondering if she would turn into a boy when she got bigger.

Mmm, probably not.

I have been promising my boys sock monkeys, so we finally did it! I have been trying to have something done so I can link up to Lit and Laundry's Finish for Friday, so we (I) labored away today (Thursday) and came up with these fellows:

The boys each picked out a pair of socks and this was what they wanted. Not the tie dye ones or cool striped ones. They wanted brown and black. (Are these really my kids?) So they got brown and black. Then they each picked out some button eyes, but Brady said he really really really wanted googly eyes on his, so we super glued some googly eyes right onto his button eyes.

Brady's monkey is named "Blackie". (Brady is a fairly literal child.)

And Lukey's unfortunately named monkey is "Poopy-head".

We will probably be renaming the monkeys tomorrow, especially since Lukey isn't supposed to say that word. The monkeys are snuggled in with their happy owners and hopefully not keeping them awake.

These monkeys were an absolute blast to make- talk about instant gratification! I used this tutorial, which was entertaining as well as informative. I do have 5 nieces, so maybe I will get to make some polka-dotted, stripey cute ones yet...

Now run over to Lit and Laundry and see what everyone else finished up this week!

Vintage Sheets

I have been seeing a lot of pretty vintage sheet quilts all over in "blogland" lately. I love these and since I love to "thrift", I had already bought a few sheets. When we go out of town, I always look up the local thrift stores and make Paul take me to them. (Better yet, I ditch Paul somewhere and go on my own.) My collection is getting bigger now, but I have yet to make a quilt entirely from vintage sheets. I have used them in other quilts, but I basically just view them as more fabric. I also have been buying old clothes when they are cheap enough. I have a little litmus test: if this was a fat quarter, would I buy it? If the answer is yes I will pay up to a dollar for a shirt or pillowcase or set of napkins or what have you. Any more than that and I will usually leave it there.

This sort of quilting makes me think of the "old ways". My great-grandma, Nanny, was a very prolific quilter. She made what we would call utilitarian quilts and gave them away to anyone in the community who was having hard times. When she was older, she suffered from macular degeneration and was considered legally blind. Her quilts showed it. However, she didn't let a silly thing like blindness stop her! She kept sewing away even if the seams didn't always get caught. I have one of her quilts and even though my mom went through it and tried to fix all the open seams, there are a few areas that are going to need some attention. Nanny used old clothes- polyester, cotton, blends, whatever she had on hand. People would bring her bags of old clothes and she just cut them up and sewed them right up into quilt squares with no thought to color placement at all. Christmas fabric, Halloween fabric, baby prints- everything went together.

Nanny tied most of her quilts, except for the "nice ones" which she would hand quilt. I can remember playing under the frame in her living room- her house was tiny and when the grownups were tying off a quilt there was literally no room to walk around the quilt. If you were on the "wrong side" and wanted to go to the kitchen or bathroom, you had to go out the front door, around the house and then go in the back door. I love that this is my heritage- making do with what you have, making old into new, giving a new life to something destined for a landfill.

Here are some pictures of my vintage sheet stash. There are some pillowcases and tablecloths in there too. The cabinet that I store them in is also my ironing station and it was given to me by my dad's mother. One of my uncles made this in shop class before I was even born. They just don't make things like they used to! Our table which is only 2 years old is in worse shape than this cabinet!

I pulled some of my favorites out and took pictures of them. Since I am poor (lazy) and didn't have (want to run downstairs and find) a quarter, I used a clothespin to show scale.

Can you see the polka-dots in this one? They don't show up true- they are pink like the flowers.

This may be my very favorite.

It says "Oleg Cassini" on it. I googled that but can't find anything that tells me about his vintage bedding. All I find are references to clothing. This is one that will be hard for me to cut into.

I like florals.

I am drawn to butterflies, too. This one is perfect for fussy cutting.

I have three of these- each one is a bit different, but they obviously came from the same line. I have a couple pillowcases in similar patterns also. I plan to cut the squares out and use them basically as a charm pack. The blue ones will go into the centers of some "squares inside of squares" blocks for the back of my quilt for my bed.

This pile is a set of homemade curtains and a "spread" as they called it at St. Vincent DePaul. I got a TON of fabric for $7. I am going to use it as a kind of stack and whack, but instead of squares I will make large Dresden plate type wheels and applique them onto alternating blue and green solid squares. I have some linen tablecloths that match the colors and will use those. I am going to end up with a VERY cool, wild quilt top for around $12.

.This sheet is not very old, but it was so cute I couldn't leave it there.

This floral is "Aunt Grace Ties One On" (I think) and it is a new fabric, as is the black and white polka dot. The green and yellow are vintage sheets, though. Don't they look nice together? I have no qualms about mixing new and old.

These are newer sheets, also, but they are cute. The green whales on pink is a Tommy Hilfiger sheet. It is a bit worn, but I will cut around those parts. Once again, these were too cute to leave there.

The orange and pink sheet is a vintage find, but the white with polka-dots is newer. I got the pink and orange (fitted and flat) from an estate sale down the block from my house and the pink one was a dollar at Goodwill. The pinks match perfectly. (The white and pink one is a Disney sheet and has a ruffle at the top with Baby Minnie on it.)

This blue and yellow pile is all shirts, pillowcases and a set of napkins. I want to make this quilt as sort of a tribute to Nanny and will use her favorite quilt square (churn dash) but I will make it wonky so that it will reflect my style as well. I will use a thrifted white sheet for my setting fabric so this will be another VERY inexpensive quilt top. I am still collecting fabrics for this one.

I hope this post inspires someone to think outside their fabric box. I do buy designer fabric, too, but "reclaiming" fabric makes those pricey fat quarters and half-yards go a lot further. Just don't start shopping at MY Goodwill. Or if you do, leave some good stuff for me.

I'm gonna call this one a learning experience!

First off I want to make clear-this quilt is not completely my design. I "copied" (sort of) one that Kellie made and anything that looks awkward about my quilt is NOT her fault. I did eventually buy a pattern from her, but started this before I got it. If I had waited I am sure I would have much prettier flowers and butterflies. I feel a little funny ripping off someone else's design so I wanted make it clear that she provided the inspiration for this quilt!

I had a great experience purchasing from Kellie and there was the added bonus of the exchange rate working in my favor. I got a deal when her site converted my U.S. money to A.U. money! (Is that the proper initials? For Australia?) Her pattern was very clear and included a large section of paper with the placement of the little pieces on it. Sometimes you get a pattern and you have to tape together some smaller letter-size sheets of paper, but Kellie's was great. Now that I have the proper pattern, I will make one of these and keep it! For ME! I will use the pillow pattern and just convert it to a quilt.

So anyway, Future Niece's first quilt from her "Auntie Leesee" is finished! And it has been put into her mama's care. Before she was born even! I didn't have it done in time for the baby shower, but I did get it done before she was born, so in my book, that's on time! I used these colors because my brother has always loved purple and green- he used to have big lifted-up "monster trucks" and he would paint them one of the two colors. Or both. Well, after I gave this to my SIL, she said it was one of her favorite color combos, too. So that was cool.

This was my first try at a lot of things- free-style handquilting (which I think I made up), raw edge applique, bias cut binding and a scalloped border.

On here you can see how I just sort of started quilting "straight" lines (without marking them). At first I liked how wavy my quilting lines are, then I didn't like it, and then I switched back to liking it. It is basically what I had in mind, but after a while, I wasn't sure if I liked it in real life. I have decided that I do. I said it was "organic" and my mom laughed at me. Then all day she kept teasing me about hypo-allergenic quilting or something. I take so much abuse from my family. At least Sherry understood me.

I liked the raw edge applique, although I am a bit leery of how it will wash.

I LOVED bias cut binding and will now switch to that. Up until now I have always just done a straight cut. Straight cut is faster, but this looks and handles SO much nicer!

The front:

I just realized I took the picture by the one straight seam in the whole binding. Nice.

The back:

The white with purple polka-dots is a "vintage" sheet. (Or maybe it's just an upcycled sheet. I don't think it's very old.)

Yeah. And then. Scalloped borders. Right. Um, won't be doing that again. Not for a while. A LOONG while. It is pretty, and it turned out... well, it turned out ok.

Some areas (by that I mean ONE) even turned out pretty good.

And Future Niece herself could have done a better job on some of these BLANKETY-BLANK-BLANK pointy-inside-corner-things! From inside the womb!

I have posted this picture so that I may inspire (fear into the hearts of) those who are possibly considering making (a BIG mess of) scalloped borders!! It's a great way to finish off a quilt (if you are masochistic) and gives it a little extra charm (and some arthritic lumps). So if you want to try taking your binding and border making skills to the next level (and by that I mean if you are INSANE) go ahead and try this. (Just don't do it my way- which is trial and error, mostly error.)

Someday I will write a proper post about how (not) to make a scalloped border.

In the meantime, I would suggest you make a (slightly) wavy border and call it good.

I do other things besides quilt. I also paint.

Here is a sampling of my work.

Each item is completely original, and made either by me alone or with the help of my two assistants. Or maybe the assistants made it and I helped... I am never completely sure who is in charge.

We like to use found objects in our art. And color. We are quite fond of color.

(Our neighbors would attest to that fact.)

By far the most utilized component is the "googly eye" which Lucas demonstrates here:

Unfortunately yesterday's work session quickly degenerated into an ant attack. That is, my assistants attacked the ants. With paint. So someday some confused geologist is going to find some poor ants fossilized in bright pink craft paint.

We will be displaying these pieces in our garden all summer, so feel free to stop by for a private showing. (Prices are negotiable.)

Whazzup??

What's up on my design wall, that is:

I am working on my quilt for Project Improv. I think I can use this for the B & W plus One Challenge, too, actually. It's black, white and dark green. I have it this far and now will leave it up there for a few days and switch things around- sort of mull it over. I somehow have a glitch somewhere because I only used 90 of the 100 squares I made. Anyone see the problem? I don't, but I bet if I leave it up there a while I will figure it out.

One picture shows the fish swimming clockwise and one shows them going counter-clockwise. They will be cut down smaller and have a border put around each one.

I am leaning toward counter-clockwise at this point.
So if anyone has any suggestions or input, I am wide open over here!

Edited to add: I figured out where I went wrong and it's 10 x 10 now, but I am not sure it's improved. I don't like how two of the white strips end up on the outside.

A quilt show from Mom's house

The boys and I went to my mom's house last week and spent a week there sewing and having fun. She has THREE weddings on one day next month and was trying to get a quilt made for each one. She had them all cut out and two of them sewed together. So we put the completed tops on the frame and pinned them and she quilted those two while I worked on sewing the third top together and making a fancy backing.

Here is quilt number one. This is for my brother's friends' wedding and is the one I worked on sewing together. My brother is standing up in this wedding, so he helped pick out the fabric and my SIL helped with the sewing, too. For having three different people sewing on this top, it turned out remarkably square. I was proud of us! The back is gray camoflage.

This one is for a friend of the family's wedding. These are the colors in her bedroom. The binding on this is really pretty- a large scale blue gingham.

This one is for my brother-in-law's brother. (Wow- all the apostrophes in these relationships are confusing me!) Mom started this one a while ago and worked on it at my house so you have seen pictures of this quilt in progress.

There was a flaw in the (Walmart!) fabric that my sister had gotten for the backing for this quilt. (Not the spot- that was on my camera.) So Mom said we should cover it with a heart with the wedding couple's names on it. I agreed and said we should look at their invitation and use a heart from that. Well, there was nary a heart to be found. They had really cool, sort of gothic/bohemian invitations. So we decided on a fleur de lis instead of a heart and my bestest friend Sherry and my SIL helped me make a really big one. Then we printed their names using a cool font, appliqued them on and voila! the back is almost as cool as the front!

A closeup to see the font. My SIL designed the fancy "plus" sign and Sherry freehanded the fleur de lis. Cool, huh? Lots of artsy fartsy types in my family. Sherry is technically a friend, but she has been around long enough that we have "adopted" her. (She's just crazy enough to fit right in.)

I cut out my scalloped border and started hand quilting the purple and green heart quilt for Future Niece and the other two quilts are a lap quilt with the Lord's Prayer on it for my grandpa's birthday and a panel baby quilt for one of my cousins. My mom made those two in between making the big ones. (She's a busy lady to put it mildly.)

All stacked up.

Lukey wanted in and so he held Katie's quilt for Future Niece.

My parents have a log cabin with 2 lofts which are perfect to hang quilts on. Mom switches out the quilts seasonally. She had her spring quilts up so I took some pics so you guys could enjoy the view.

The tulip quilt is the one my Mom considers to be her "best" quilt. She made this one for herself and had it machine quilted locally by Arlene Readman who does amazing work.

This is a pretty daisy quilt that Mom made to keep. (She gives most of her quilts away.)

This quilt is MINE! My mom embroidered these fans for two years. She has over 40 hours into each fan. My mom has MS and she likes to take hand work with her whenever she gets an IV of steroids when she is having an attack. (Right now she is working on a bluework quilt that is going to be stunning.) I loved the squares and the pretty colors she chose, but had no idea that it was for me. Then when I got married she gave it to me for a wedding gift. I couldn't believe it! What you see is only half the quilt so there are another 5 fans on the other side of the railing. She saved enough of the yellow so that I can make a bedskirt out of it, but I won't take this quilt home yet. I will use it in a guest room someday and I don't have one right now. Also, I have two small "ruiners of everything nice" at this point who would get marker or koolaid or something on it and I will wait until they are a little older to have this treasure in my house. Also, I need to put this in a room with a door that closes so that I can keep the kitties off of it. Normally we use our quilts so that we can enjoy them, but this one is too precious to me to risk damaging. I will use it, but not at this point in my life.

I should have gotten a closeup of the fans, but my camera batteries were dying and it kept turning off. They are VERY pretty. I am a lucky daughter!!!