Aggie Fever

Here's a quilt my mom made from the jungle fever pattern, but we are calling it Aggie Fever (Texas A&M's colors are maroon and maroon).  Mom hopped all over that end of the color wheel, and the result is gorgeous.

Of course, how could you go wrong with batiks.

 Mom made this quilt for her friend Cindy, who is going to raffle it for the Texas Nurse Practitioner Organization (more information on this will come later if Cindy tells me how we can buy tickets to win it). 

 Silly Mom asked me to quilt it.  I'm definitely not "show quality," but I like what I can do so far:-)

A little bit inspired

You are never going to guess what I've done.  I've sewn up darn near all my fabric.  In fact, it pretty much fits all in one armoir.  For the first time in years!

Oh, and this pile on the floor.

Yeah, and this one, too.

I was making such great progress.  But then I got inspired when I found this fabric.

And I just had to start sewing, but more on that later.  Like tomorrow.

I'm just so excited.  And addicted to quilting!  It's weird, but I think I need a 12-step program for quilting.  Honestly, I can't get enough.  I probably sew on average 4 or more hours a day.  And I work full time.  But all those hours I'm not quilting, I'm thinking about it.  It's not like this is new either.  I've been doing quilting for 17 years... so why now am I obsessed?

They say to find what you love & do that as a career.  Is this God's way of telling me to quit my job and start quilting for a living?  How would I make a living if I kept or gave away all my projects?  Please provide input.  I don't want to dig in to my fabric money to pay for therapy.

My first award!

I rarely win awards.  In 4th grade, I won second place in an art contest in my homeroom.  A couple years ago, I was Teacher of the Year for my school.  Now, I'm up again:-)

Dee gave me this!

She said I make incredible quilts and have cute toes.  Or is it that I have incredible toes and make cute quilts?  LOL!  Anyway, Dee, I'm so honored to receive this award, so thank you!  You know, I started blogging so that I could find an online community and not feel like I was always sewing by myself, and it worked.  Guy and gals, thanks for having me-- it feels like home already.

Sew & Tell Friday- first pantograph

The wonky squares have been quilted!

And I used a pantograph for the first time.  I should have practiced on play fabric first, but I got a little cocky.

 

I am really in love with this quilt.  I used an Ikea sheet for the backing and sashing (for the first time ever).  The jury is still out on that.  I haven't washed this yet, so I have no idea if it will crinkle and all that good stuff.

                            

 

I can't wait to try out the pantograph on something else.  I have great hopes for this and can't wait to see how quickly the learning curve is.

 
This quilt is going to go live with my teaching partner Lizzy who is the peas to my carrots.  The Diet to my Coke.  The Thelma to my Louise.  She had a baby three weeks ago today, and work is just not the same without her.  I miss her like crazy and can't wait for her to return in April:-)

Thanks, Amy, for hosting Show & Tell Friday.  Without you, this project would sit another week or more waiting to be bound.

Flange Binding

I love learning new things, and tonight I learned something that I can't wait to try.

 

My friend Vickie came over to finish her first and last paper pieced quilt.  So we threw this baby on the long arm and stippled it up.  Paper piecing isn't the new thing I learned, though.  Check out what she did instead of binding it...

 

That edging is called flange.  Have you heard of it?  I know I'm a little cuckoo, but I love binding, so I've never searched for other options (nope, never tried prairie points either).  I really like this, though.

 

I think this quilt is just precious.  I also love how Vickie added a little variety to her blocks (the squares within the squares were the paper pieced blocks), but didn't end up with a sampler.   I also love that she is never paper piecing again.  I remember one era of my life when I bought a gazillion (or 7 or 8) paper piecing books and was really hooked on it.  How quickly that passes, thank goodness (Sorry, Carol Doak).  Of course, Vickie's quilt looks beautiful, and doesn't look paper pieced at all. 

Speaking of beautiful, here's my baby making his own quilt.  Clearly he's had good modeling.  He did ask me to take the walking foot off the machine so that he could sew.  I don't think it's normal for a four year old to know what a walking foot is, but whatever the case may be, I just love having his company while I sew... even if he is pinning his Thanksgiving fabrics on a pink background.

Broken Promises

Remember how my friend Kim and I promised we weren't going to shop this weekend?  Well, we didn't mean to, but we just had to get some minkee for one of her quilt backings, and then, before you know it, we had hit 3 fabric stores.  But this is all I bought.

I won't share what Kim bought.  No really, we didn't go overboard.  As you can see, these are all necessities.  Except for the patterns.  Oh, and the magnetic pin cushion (okay, not really a cushion, but what else would I call it?) that matches the one in the background. Saturday morning, we had a class on fondant (I'm in love with it!!), and we were already ten minutes toward the quilt shop in Boerne, so what the heck, we drove the remaining thirty minutes to get there.  And then discovered our new lunch place because we always have good luck finding good lunch places when we're together.  Of course, we have good shopping luck when we're together, too.

As you can see, I bought a little pattern for the purse.  I also bought the hardware for the purse, but I conveniently forgot to put it in the photo.  I was dying to make the purse for a gift for a darling five year old's tea party birthday on Sunday.  Charli, the birthday girl is an old soul, so I knew she's love a handmade purse.  And I was right:-)

That's my stinker beside her.

 

If this were my little bag, I'd put my cords and electronics in it for a road trip (ipod, camera, chargers, ear buds, etc.).  Kim would put make-up in it if it were her bag.

 

Did you recognize the fabrics?  I used scraps from the heart quilt in the last post.

 

Extra notes:  

*Kim's daughter Morgan took the photos of the purse (and she took pics of the Laurel Burch quilt, the Halloween BQ quilt, and the Christmas Tree quilt).  She's only 19 and just got her SLR camera for Christmas, but she is already shooting like a pro.  I want to keep her nearby for all my photography needs.

*My sweet husband made the little table the purse is sitting on.  It just moved in the house Saturday, so I have yet to decorate around it.  I was too busy breaking my vow not to shop to decorate my little table.

*I also finished the chirp baby quilt.  I kind of improvised it & just went with it.  It's cute:-)

Sew & Tell Friday

I was up til midnight finishing the binding on this baby.  I like the result.

I was planning to use fabric on hand to stash-bust.  But then I bought the charm pack in the pieced border. And then I found the binding fabric.  And my friend Kim, who also made one, pulled out the Love fabric for the inner border out of her stash.

 

I quilted a large stipple for various reasons.  1.) I'm not experienced enough to do something that looks amazing. 2.) I had to work around all those thick layers and avoid where the seems converge.

And then I gave it a wash and dried it until crinkly.  I love the ruffly hearts.

Have you checked out amylouhou's Sew & Tell?  There are always some neat things to see every Friday.