January finishes

The end of the month really snuck up on me! It was one of those weeks where after work I just came home every night and collapsed and yesterday was full of must-run errands so I finally made it into my sewing room today. I managed to bang out all five of my blocks for my heirloom sampler quilt that I needed to finish for this month and can't quite believe that I actually got them all done! They still need to be washed to get rid of the markings and trimmed but at least the hard part is done.

On this block, I finished the stitching on the crazy-quilt center, then stitched on the lace frame and cut away the fabric behind the lace.

This one had almost been finished in class, I just needed to stitch open the cathedral windows in the center and then add the decorative stitching to each side of the center panel.



On this one, I needed to stitch the pink waterfall panels onto the block on each side of the embroidered center. I almost wish that I could re-do the waterfalls as the stitching on the lace isn't the greatest. I usually do much better than that!

On this, I did the sharks teeth on the sides. They look relatively simple to do, and they are, but jeez, they take a lot of time to do!

On this one, I did the bias-shaping in the center then stitched it down. For some reason, I could not get my bias pieces to work in class but when I cut new ones tonight, they did what they were supposed to do without any problems at all.

Sewing party- 2

Ok! My first block is finished! This will be the center of my hanging and I am going to piece together two heart blocks to go above and below this one. I haven't actually done the embroidery yet as that will be done when I am quilting the hanging, so for now the stitch-out that I did last night will stand in for it.

Thank you all for the lovely comments so far! My hubby just informed me that my best friend who lives out of state just called and has a fabric emergency that she wants my help with so as soon as I've finished talking with her, I am going to take a break and see what you all have been working on!

Meanwhile, Lorelai is doing what she does best: napping.

Sewing party- 1

Welcome to my sewing room! Here it is, all ready to go!

Lorelai is in her little bed! She loves to be in here with me and is allowed if she stays in her bed or on the window sill. She knows she has to leave the room if she doesn't and she hates that, so she's really well-behaved.

Here's what I am going to be working on. I recently got this embroidery design and will build a wall-hanging around it. I don't have any specific pattern but will be winging it, using some different block patterns that I've picked out.

Here are my fabrics that I just picked out at the quilt shop an hour ago:

Ok, I'm ready to get started!

Aaa-Choo!

Well, the cold season finally caught up with us and hubby brought home a real doozy! Just as he was getting over his, I came down with mine. There's nothing like the feeling that your entire being is comprised of one big sneezy nose! I ended up staying home from work Tuesday and Wednesday feeling like death warmed over and went back to work today feeling much better.

I'm really looking forward to the Valentine Sewing Party on Saturday! Unfortunately, being sick this week meant that I couldn't get to the quilt shop last night when they were open until 8 to pick out fabric for my project so now I have to wait until 10 am when they open on Saturday. Sigh... I really wanted to be ahead of the curve on this one but that was not to be. The good news is that my sewing room is ready for business again! I'll take pictures before I start on my party project as it won't look so pristine once that gets underway!

I'm drooling

Hi, my name is Esther and I'm a shoeholic. And today I fell off the wagon yet again. When I first saw these shoes the other day my heart literally stopped, and I'm not joking here, I could actually feel it lurching about inside my chest. Remember the Charming Girls tag a couple of months ago that had you pick the pair of shoes that described you the best? Well, these shoes are totally me. And tonight when I cruised by Zappos yet again to gaze upon them with utter adoration, I discovered that there was only one pair left in my size and before I knew it, they had leaped into the shopping cart and I was whisking them through the check-out as fast as I could type in my password.

Now I'm left to count the very hours, minutes and seconds of each day until they arrive and I can strap my feet into them and go forth to conquer the world. Sigh... Well, that and coming up with a reasonable explaination for hubby as to why I absolutely need yet another pair of black shoes.

Snowbound by Bunny Hill

I've decided to do Anne Sutton's delightful new block of the month quilt, Snowbound. Now that my stash is organized, I have just the fabric in mind for it. I just hope that I have enough!

I haven't done much applique but would like to give it a go so I am going to do that particular version rather than the embroidered one.

New Year's Resolution #1

One of my resolutions for this year is to loose the weight that I've gained over the last year or so before our niece's wedding in May. No Auntie Pudgy Pants in those wedding pictures! No siree!

Frustrated!

I'm beginning to wonder if my sewing room will ever be done! My hubby is on call this month and had to cover a noon-midnight shift on Sunday so I seized the time to work some more on the Great Reorganization of 2009/10. I worked from 11 am to 11 pm (when I finally made myself stop to go to bed) with just a short break for dinner and it's still not finished! I did get an enormous amount done, though, and the end really is in sight now. I just need to run to JoAnn this weekend and pick up some thread boxes and other storage items for the remaining odds and ends. As frustrating as this has been at times, I'm feeling a tremendous sense of accomplishment in tackling a job that I have put off for far too long.

I do have a bone to pick, however! How I wish that there was one standard way to fold fat quarters instead of all the umpteen different ways that the quilt shops have of doing them. Some like to fold them up very small into bulky squares that take up a lot of room. I have fat quarter boxes that I really like and had to iron out just about every FQ and refold them so that they were larger and thinner in order to get them all in. Needless to say, that took much more time than I would have liked! My new iron has been getting a very good workout and it's been aces in terms of performance. No pesky auto shutoff either!

January project

With December being so busy and my getting a bee in my bonnet to reorganize my sewing room, I didn't get anywhere near my posted project for December so it's playing an encore this month. These are blocks that are in various stages of completion for a heirloom sampler quilt. It's time to "git 'em done!"

Happy New Year!

Clock tower-downtown Denver

New Year's Eve

Photo by Carl Gehring

Wow! It's hard to believe that it's almost a month to the day since I posted! December turned out to be a very busy month for me and I was "off the grid" until this week and now I am playing catch up. I was just over on Joan's blog, Ouvrages d'une Acadienne, and she mentioned that she was inspired by other bloggers to get her sewing room organized as they were doing. There must be something in the air because I've spent the last week doing the same thing! My room isn't quite finished yet, but I can say that the light is shining at the end of that tunnel. I'm a notorious fabric addict (I don't call it woven crack for nothing!) and my fabric collection was wildly out of control. Half the time I had no idea where something was but only that I could remember buying it. Something had to be done! As soon as I'm finished, I'll post pictures of my reorganized sewing room. I am very happy with the results so far and wish that I had done this a lot sooner. Being a member of Charming Girls has really played a part as the more I worked on projects, the more I became frustrated by the disorganized state of my work area. I also discovered that I have amassed a number of quilt kits and patterns/fabric the past couple of years and have vowed that 2010 is the year that I get them done!

SECRET SANTA!

This is the lovely Secret Santa gift that I received from Carol of Carol's Craft Creations! Isn't it just lovey? I especially adore the embroidery and since red is my most favorite color, it's a real hit with me! Carol had posted a picture of the embroidery when she was working on it and when I saw it, I was so hoping that she was my secret Santa because I loved it so much. And isn't that hanger just too cool? Carol also made me a wonderful pin cushion that is now at home on my ironing board as it is the perfect size and shape to nestle up next to my iron and unlike other pin cushions, it does not roll all over the place. As soon as I finish up my reorganization project, I'll include a picture of it.

A close-up of the wonderful embroidery of Ohio Star blocks hanging on a tree:

I popped over to Peggy's blog, Bienvenue Chez Moi, and discovered that my Secret Santa has finally arrived at her home. Peggy lives in Ireland so it took a while to make its way to her. I was pleased to see that it made it safe and sound!

This is the candle mat that I made for her using Mary Engelbreit fabric that I had in my stash. I did the embroidery with my machine and adjusted the colors to coordinate with the fabric. I think by now it's no secret that I love embroidery and I pretty much try to work it in one way or another on my projects.

I also made Peggy this free-standing lace snowflake ornament with my machine. You stitch it out on water soluble stabilizer and then rinse it way when it's done and voila, you have lace!