I don't mean to brag....

...er, well, yes I do:

One day
One City
One Phone Book
One TomTom
Two Sisters
$29.98
=
18 sheets and 2 pillowcases


Giant smile, and, yes.... a little gloating... :0)

Ghetto-neck

Can you imagine this car...

without these horns?

Of course not.

Yes, this is my car. Yes, I am totally a redneck. But sort of a ghetto kind of redneck.
Ghetto-neck.

I have wanted a huge old convertible ever since I got my driver's license. We got this car about three years ago, but it was lacking something- it wasn't quite tacky enough. So one of Paul's friends gave me this set of steer horns for it. In a fit of gratitude I promised him a quilt. I have been working on it for well over a year now and it's finally done!

I robbed the fish skeleton shape for this from our friend's tattoo. He has this on his upper arm. I had to simplify it a little, but it's definitely recognizable as his tattoo.
This is the quilt I started for Project Improv. I really wanted to piece the fish skeleton rather than applique it, but I tried and tried and finally gave up. I guess I just don't have the wonky gene.

I did use batiks in the quilt and really "guyish" colors so it was WAY out of my comfort zone and it was hard to make myself work on it. I do like how it turned out. It's funny- I often choose clothes in these colors but I had a hard time sewing with them.

The back was inspired by this quilt. It was a little tricky to match up with the front. I would not have been able to do it if I hadn't had my mom's help. She has a set of wooden rails that we use to either tie quilts or pin-baste them. It was much easier to match up that way than if I had been trying to tape it to my floor which is what I usually do.


I like this quilt, but I don't love it. It isn't one that's hard to give up. I am so glad to have it off the WIP pile! I have been working hard this summer to whittle down my stack and have made a lot of progress on it. It will feel really good to be able to start new projects guilt free.

"M" is for Madison

This is a quickie quilt I made for a birthday party this weekend. One of my son's cute little kindergarten classmates, Madison, lives 2 blocks away but we never realized that. Now that we know I am thinking we will see a lot more of her. (She's a doll!) Brady said her favorite color is pink so I made this up for her party yesterday. It was a quickie- no piecing, just a little satin stitching and a border. These pics don't really show the colors well- the pink is very bright. It was dark out, but I finished it late and had to wrap it right away so I couldn't wait for daylight pics.

I did make sure the rick rack was sewn down really well. I stitched close to the edge on both sides so it won't curl after it's washed.

I just did straight line quilting about 3/4 of an inch apart. Then a striped binding because they ROCK.

I think she really liked it, and so did her mom. :o)

Huge massive finish. MASSIVE!

My Cherry Surprise Quilt is done!!! Down to the last stitch in the binding. I am so relieved. I started this over 6 years ago and thought it was just the Neverending Quilt. But it has ended, and now I get to enjoy it. I am afraid to use it, though! I put too much into it. So I will just look at it for a while, and maybe in a few months will work up the nerve to sleep under it.

The back. I used a Kleenex box to show scale. It was the closest thing handy.

I was going to hand quilt it and had it basted together and then couldn't bring myself to start. So I picked apart the basting stitches (which kinda stung) and sent it to a local long arm quilter. She did an amazing job and I hope my pictures captured some of her beautiful work. She did something different in each row of the log cabin going around.

Then she did some feathers and vines in the borders and made them look so pretty!




These are my corners- they are much improved! I have been working on that this year. I am proud of these. Lots of practice there.

I am just so relieved this is done! "Ahhhhhh!" *big sigh of contentment*

I linked up over at Lit and Laundry for this post. She holds a "Finish for Friday" every week and I have been able to hit them quite a bit this year. If you would like to link a big finish, head on over. Or you can just see what others have been finishing up this week.

Another Giveaway!

Listen up people!! Another unbelievable giveaway! Shall I see if three times is a charm? (More about that at the end of the post.)

I assume anyone who is interested in quilting at all knows what an AccuQuilt Go is. YOU CAN WIN ONE!!!! FOR FREE!!!!

The blog doing the giveaway, I have a Notion, is doing a lot of giveaways this month to celebrate their one year anniversary. Unfortunately, I missed out on most of these, because I didn't know about them. But then someone posted about the cutter and I was able to catch this one in time.

The online store of the same name, I Have a Notion, is where you can purchase just about any color thread you can think of. They also have Paintstiks, which are really cool and fun to embellish with, along with a ton of other, well, notions!

Now, some of the fine print stuff needs to be passed along, and I am going to do a copy and paste here so I make sure I get it right: "You also must let everyone know that all giveaways from March 15 - April 15 2010 are open until 10:00 PM CMT. Readers can post on any of the giveaways they choose but the comments need to be relevant to what was asked for in the post. Saying, "add me to the list" does not qualify as a comment relevant to the post. "



And now, I hate to brag... ok, no I don't. I have won TWO giveaways in the past couple weeks!!!!!

One was the one in the previous post- 10 fat quarters of Naturella. How lucky am I?? Since (obviously) you didn't win, you can get these delicious fabrics here.

(There are also lots of other awesome new fabric lines there, too.)

And then there's the book- one that I have been wanting ever since BEFORE it came out- Color Your Cloth, by Malka Dubrawsky, which you can read about on the author's blog. Amazing blog- amazing quilts- amazing fabric! I can't wait to get it!

I won this from the Fresh Modern Quilts Flickr group in their celebrating 2000 members giveaway. This Flickr group is the first place I go for inspiration. I just love that all these talented quilters put their work out there for others to enjoy.

So, good luck to you on the AccuQuilt Go, and if you win, cut some stuff out for me! :0)

Awesome Giveaway!

Check this out!! Really pretty fabric, also sold here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FabricFlair

Here is the giveaway addy: http://fabricflair.typepad.com/blog/2010/04/naturella-by-art-gallery-fabrics-has-arrived-giveaway.html

Now don't win! Or if you do, send me the Garden Aquarella!

Finished for Friday

I have another Finish for Friday. You can join all of us "FFF-ers" at Lit and Laundry.

This quilt is a (late) wedding gift that I started about a year ago. So I guess it will be an anniversary gift now. (Lest I appear completely lazy and stingy, I would like to point out that we did give them a gift at the time, along with the promise of a quilt.)

I only used one black and white print for all the squares. The couple decorates with a lot of black and white architectural photos (that they have taken themselves) so I wanted to reflect those. I think this works. I ended up really liking the black and white, which is surprising since I usually like color and scrappiness so much.

I quilted it about a half an inch on either side of the ditch.

The back is solid white because I found that anything with a print showed through on the front of the quilt. I also just think it looks really nice with the simple front.

This quilt measure 70" x 80", so it's a very generous throw size. Plenty of room for two to cuddle under. (If they still like to cuddle. It has been a year, after all.)