Stitching while waiting...

This will be a very short update this morning. I don't even have pictures to go with! ;-) 

I was able to stitch up 70 hexies and two flowers in the surgical waiting room on Monday while my friend had a double mastectomy and re-build. I finished another flower on Tuesday while she napped in her room and was able to get 3 petals on a fourth flower yesterday while she napped.  Hopefully she comes home from the hospital on Saturday and I am packing up my handsewing projects and moving out to the trailer to be there for the first week, so I should be making some real progress on flowers and my Raggedy quilt!

Sadly, her surgery will slow down our quilt shop hopping but we're so glad to still have her! And its not like we don't have enough fabric to keep us sewing for years now as it is!!

VBS, Tenth Avenue North, a few flowers & a How-To!

It has been an incredibly busy week, this week! I am Heidi Claire, super-sleuth extraordinaire, in our VBS progam.  I normally do the craft classes, but couldn't pass up the chance to be on stage! And our stage ROCKS! It took us the two weeks prior to get this all painted and assembled, but it is SO neat!

There is Chef Pierre practicing his lines, as I get a picture of him while he is not paying attention.  Once he noticed me, he scooted back stage to get out of the pictures.... silly Chef!

During the last week of painting & stage prep, my middle son and I went to see a concert - Tenth Avenue North. It was a much needed time to blow off some steam before VBS started, and they were SO good!! It was so HOT here in San Antonio, but they didn't let the heat slow them down one bit!!



While I didn't have time to work on my flowers for One Flower Wednesdays during the daytime this past week, I did have two hours between sets at VBS to get some flowers put together!

The picture is very dark... I tried to use my camera and the batteries were dead. I tried to get a picture with my iTouch and my son didn't plug it in to charge, so the battery was dead. So, I had to take it with my phone. :-)

I need to remember to update my tally on the sidebar, it's been a while... now I will have to sit down and count hexies....

I finished one of my sewing pouches for a friend, lets see if I can put it into a How-To. 

----OK, no How-To at this point.  Blogger keeps automatically turning my pictures and half of them are upside-down or sideways... so I will need to figure this out before I can write this.  It may be because I am uploading them from my computer rather than using picasa.  Whatever the reason, I will figure it out after VBS is finished.... sorry!!!

Let the flowers bloom

I tried to post this on Wednesday, but internet was too slow. Lets see if I can upload it all today!!...

I was only able to finish two flowers this week, and both were done last night while I was watching NCIS!

I keep flip-flopping between keeping them all small flowers like that for a very scrappy flower garden, or to do another row around each flower and possibly add a path.... or to go totally different and do something like this:

Any input?? I love that quilt above, maybe I will just need to make another hexie quilt when I finish the flower garden. :-)

I finished most of the applique on the flamingo quilt yesterday.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to put the beads around the rim of the glass like I saw at the quilt shop:

Or leave them off and applique or embroider an umbrella in the glass instead:

You know.... my favorite tool when I am doing applique is my glue stick!

Just keep it away from the edges so you don't gum up your needle and there is no need for pins!  My resulting applique also seems to finish much flatter.  I don't use Wonder Under or anything like that because I don't like the added stiffness. The glue stick washes right out and I have used it on many, many different fabrics without ever having it soak thru and/or stain.

I have the pony nearly finished for my nephew's quilt.  Apparently I took the picture before I added the eye... he does have an eye now! LOL  He is still missing his bandana around his neck...

But I cannot add the bandana until I attach this block to the 9-patch below it because the bandana will cover the seam and drop down onto the lower block.  Now I need to draw my cowboy hat and cowboy boots for the two other large blocks.

One last picture - saving the best for last! Here is my grandson at his 3rd birthday party!! His grandpa is helping him get ready to break open that pinata!

My oldest son, is in the back holding the rope.  I can't believe my kids are so big now!  AND before I know it my second grandbaby will be here! I CAN'T WAIT!!!! :-)

Coming up Flamingos!

I finally managed to hit some of the quilt shops outside of San Antonio this weekend, thanks to two friends - Caryl and Jan.  We had fun flitting from one shop to another and driving the back roads thru to the smaller towns around San Antonio.

We started out at Fabric 'n Friends in Castroville. I started this trek knowing that all I really need is several different train prints for a quilt for my nephew.  Well, our first stop was a bust on the trains.... but I found a kit for a flamingo wall hanging that I fell in love with and decided I couldn't live without! LOL Of course, I don't want to make just the small wall hanging...so bought extra coordinating fabric to make it into a lap quilt, or possibly a twin quilt.

Here's my cool flamingo... I plan on finding some summery letters to embroider "HANGIN' POOLSIDE" down the side that has the checkerboard strip. It will also have some palm fronds hanging in the upper right corner.  Then I am adding two large borders in these fabrics -

I have a darker blue/green fabric that I may use as a thin border between these two.  We will see after I get them cut and laid out.

Our second stop was Gone Quiltin' in Bandera. I actually didn't purchase anything here because there were no train fabrics AND it is on my list to return to soon.  I saw a few things I like, but was determined not to buy them until I finish my nephews quilts!  While getting back into my car to head to the next stop, I noticed my back tire was pretty low and thought "I better remember to tell hubby about that when I get home!".

Our last quilt shop stop was in Kerrville, Creations. There is SO much to see in this store!! I walked and touched and ooh-ed and aaaah-ed.  There was alot of self-talk in this store...."No, you cannot buy a kit to start working with wool until you finish the boys quilts." "No, you cannot make yourself a minkie blanket." "No...", "No...", "Ummm, ok! Cindy WOULD really like a little coffee wall hanging. Just get enough for a small one though."  That was the last conversation with myself...I had to give in for SOMETHING! :-)  So I purchased a couple fat quarters to go into my Raggedy quilt -

and a couple fat quarters to border a little "borg-like" coffee cup & saying that I am going to embroider for a friends kitchen.

We finished out the day by having High Tea at Queen B's in Ingram.  Yummy!!! I also found a few things there that I haven't had since we moved away from Enland. I will be having Treacle Pudding and custard tonight for dessert!!


I forgot to tell hubby about the back tire, I was so excited about my flamingo that it totally went out of my head! Thankfully a neighbor noticed it and left a note on my windshield, where I found it this morning (as I was getting in to drive to church...I would have totally drove on that flat this morning!). Apparently the tire went flat somewhere between Kerrville and home and I never noticed, the feel of the car never changed! Add a new tire to my list of quilting expenses... oops!

Everything is coming up hexies!

Our annual trip to Michigan enabled me to work on my poor, neglected hexagons! Here are just a few of the flowers I was able to stitch together during the four days of travel time.

My little bin, that I thought I was never going to fill, is starting to get crowded.  I think I will need to get two more bins... one for fabric squares, one for hexagons and then just fill this current bin with flowers. I already have most of the hexagons in this box pinned together into flower groups. There are some random hexies that are still homeless and waiting for me to get some more hexies in their color finished.








Here is my hexagon carry-case.  I keep it stocked with everything I need to make hexies and flowers. It is just four zippered pencil pouches stitched together onto batting and pretty fabric.

It all folds up and has a strip of velcro to keep it closed.  One of these days I will make some more and post a how-to.  I need one for my Raggedy quilt with a larger pouch and two of the regular sized ones, am just looking for the large pouch.  I think I will also add a velcro loop so I can hang it from my purse or bag.

I have started a cowboy quilt for my nephew. I saw the quilt somewhere (I don't remember where!) and took a picture of it. I am making a few changes to what I saw and adding his name, hopefully will have pictures to post soon.

Tomorrow I will be hitting some area Quilt shops with some friends and looking for train fabrics to make a train quilt for his older brother.  I THINK I know what I want to do for the quilt... fabrics I find tomorrow may change my mind! :-)

A Day of Finishing

I have missed my sewing.

I don't know how life gets so busy that the things you really enjoy doing get set aside.  It's not that I haven't done ANY sewing over the last few months, but I haven't done much besides patching & altering & "must dos"....

So yesterday I broke the cycle! Pulled out some fabric to make myself a bag for my role as Super-Sleuth extraordinaire, Heidi Claire.

The bag turned out a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but it will do its job.  I made it reversable, so after VBS (if I really like it) I can put Heidi to the inside and still use the bag! :-)

My middle son graduated High School the beginning of June. I can't believe time went so quickly!  Thankfully I finished his quilt before graduation and so only had to re-decorate his room! It is now bright and shows his personality!

My sister got to come down and stay with us for a while.  She was such a huge help getting things ready for graduation!

I decided that I would embroider her & her girls some aprons, so I had them go thru my programs and pick out what they liked.  Here is what we ended up with:

I will post the 4 other aprons when I get a chance. Right now I need to go finish my daughters birthday present! Just one more page to go!!

My Review of One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp

Originally submitted at DaySpring

One Thousand Gifts beckons you to leave the parched ground of pride, fear, and white-knuckle control and abandon yourself to the God who overflows your cup. It invites you to wake up to God's everyday blessings, and discover, as Ann did, that in giving thanks for the life you already ha...

One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp

One of my One Thousand Gifts!

By Christina from San Antonio, TX on 3/30/2011

 

5out of 5

Ann Voskamp is a poet with a heart for God. Don't be satisfied to read thru this book only once, for each time you go back and read - another layer is revealed and another message is there that your heart wasn't ready for the first time through.

I love this book! I would encourage everyone to get their hands on a copy, find a friend to read it with and discuss each chapter as you go. This has been a true blessing to me!

(legalese)