Finished Quilting

Finally, Mom and I finished quilting the Christmas Punch quilt top with a few blemishes but it's been a learning experience the whole time, especially for me a brand new quilter and never having touched a long-arm machine before either. It was FUN let me tell you - boring at times to follow the panto but I loved the snowflake pattern I found. The photo doesn't do the quilt justice and I still have the binding to complete which will have to wait until our return to New Orleans after the New Year! I really had ambitous plans but throw in the holiday fun, food, visiting and shopping and you sure run out of time rather quickly. I think Mom will be so happy using her long-arm over the next few months - she has 12 quilts lined up for quilting - WOW! I wasn't too happy with the batting we used - we used a Hobbs 80/20 that I picked up from Hancocks back home and brought several for Mom as well since they had King size in stock and she wanted them but we both agreed that the Hobbs 80/20 is not as nice as the Warm & Natural or some of the other batting out there. Live and learn - just another one to chaulk up to experience and learn from your mistakes but still, the quilt came out great and will be great on our bed back home and yes, even after Christmas too, at least for a little while!

We're quilting!

Well I had a mission when we drove to New Mexico and that was to quilt my first quilt on Mom's Voyager long arm and well, after several little tweaks to tension and getting the darn thing rolled correctly, it was a learning process for both us and why not let Mom learn on my quilt rather than some of her own, and we were quilting in no time. We're doing a little at a time between visiting, cooking and a little shopping, but we'll get it done before we leave on the 31st. Here we are setting things up and me at the quilting machine following that pantograph of snowflakes. I'll post some new photos after it's done and binded, I hope this week!

Happy Holidays From New Mexico!

We arrived in Aztec, NM on Wednesday around noon after a very long 20-something hour drive from New Orleans - we had an uneventful drive, just a little rain in Texas, moderately warm temperatures until we hit Amarillo where it dipped down to about 15 degrees over night or was it really early in the morning - I can't remember. We immediately unpacked the van, made our hugs and kisses, showered and then took a nice snooze to recoup a little after that drive. Plenty of snow up here in the upper elevation of northwest New Mexico but it's so lovely. Jody took some snaps outside today and it supposed to snow again tonight but then that's supposed to be it. We plan to take a day trip to Santa Fe and Albuqurque on Monday I think and then we'll be in Albuquereque for a couple nights for New Years eve and New Years day before we head back to New Orleans on Friday the 2nd. Hope everyone is well and had a wonderful Christmas.

Win Free Fabric!

Thanks to CJ for letting us know about this new contest, you could win some free fabric starting January 2nd. Check out WinFabric.com. If you win you get to pick 2 yards of the fabric of your choice!

Holiday Tote

I've been wanting to create a holiday tote with some whimsical holiday fabrics in my stash. Tonight was a test run and a couple hours of stitching and here is what I came up with. I created this with a couple different sized pockets inside to hold a cell, a note pad and a skinny pocket for a pen. I used batting in between the fabric layers which was great for a soft bag as well as the straps. So here are the different pieces of fabric before assembly began.

I used 4 and half by 18 inch strips that I pieces together to create the front and back of the bag, then I used two 18 inch squares for the inside lining and some fun snowman fabrics for the inside pockets.

Couple of days and a couple of bags completed

A couple of nights of sewing and I've completed two bags for gifts. I don't think the folks getting these even know about my blog so I'm safe posting about them here. I used a pattern from The Quilt Connection called "Sack It To Ya!" - there are two sizes, I went for the smaller size on these two and I am going to create the larger size one in the green/pink cat print as well. The first bag took me several hours to complete over two days since I didn't have dedicated time to complete it and it was my trial run on the pattern. The second only took about 2 and half hours to complete - not bad!

Pink Kitty Cats and some new labels

I found this really great fabric with Hot Pink Kitty Cats all over it (isn't it a fun fabric!) a while back and I knew right away I wanted to make some gifts from it. I am currently working on some projects, one is a purse-type tote and I'll probably create a larger tote back as well and then see what's left over to create a couple fun things as well. This is what I've been up to the rest of today after I finished my christms punch quilt top in the post below.

Then I thought I wanted to add a little personal label insdie my gift project so I grabbed some ribbon, white first and embroidered some wording on the ribbon -- then I saw I had some narrower brown/white poka-dot ribbon and embroidered on that too. I like the brown/poka-dot ones more.

Christmas Punch Quilt top is pieced!

Well I finally finished piecing the Christmas Punch quilt top. I'm ready to bring that to mom's in another week so we can long arm quilt it on her Voyager. I like it - it's not perfect but i'm learning.

Curtain and Drapes sewing project

A while back I began a long-term project for our friends Missy and Sonia to create curtains and drapes for their new home here in Louisiana. I measured and designed for their many tall windows and we went fabric shopping one afternoon. They chose some wonderful colorful fabrics, any stripes because they are not very florally people but that's OK - makes the sewing a lot easier because I didn't have to match up much of a pattern! Yipee! So here are some photos of their living room where some very bold stripes of green, red, brown, black and white really accent their avocado-ish green walls which is a similar color to our living room here at home which they loved and wanted something similiar. Their bedroom has a golden green/red stripe fabric -- both rooms are lined with blackout lining and interlined as well for that hot Louisiana summer sun! The black is great since these gals love to sleep in all morning so this helps them do that. In the office, they went with a green and pink strip which I made into some poof/ballon type curtain which really is just an accent - not much of a function - it covers these smaller square windows above the larger rectangular windows that go nearly to the floor.

SNOW DAY - Can you believe it!

The last time it snowed in New Orleans it was Christmas Day 2004 and prior to that, any accumulated snow fall was back in 1989! Well, I work up today to snow falling - it started off as rain, went to a nice mix of sleet/ice/rain and quickly changed to a nice heavy wet snow pretty quickly and it's now accumulating and covering everything in a nice blanket of snow. The forecast is for this to last a few hours this morning before it stops and possibly goes to rain. As you all might not know, in South Louisiana, there are no snow plows and thankfuly, the roads are warm enough to keep the snow melting at it hits it but people are dumb and don't know how to drive on this slippery mix of stuff. Anyways, we're going to enjoy this great white fluff today before it melts quickly this afternoon.

I took a couple quick snaps this morning. I didn't go much further than my little covered entry porch -- I am in my night shorts and t-shirt still! O my it's frigid --- reminds me of being back home on Long Island growing up and listening intently on the radio for the news that school is closed today!

10:00am update -- the snow is now ice and rain but mostly small ice pellets. Lots of our bridges are closed because the road is icy so they are advising everyone to stay home and not drive this morning.

2:00pm update -- it's all gone except for the bitter cold! What a tease that was from mother nature! LOL

It's an Anniversary Give-Away - Check it out

Nanette over at Freda's Hive Blog is having a one-year blog-anniversary with a 7 day give-away contest. Go check things out and leave a comment daily and you may just be a winner! I am just loving all these cool and wonderful blogs that are all linked together and everyone is just one big giant family!

http://fredashive.blogspot.com/

Holiday Quilt Continues

So Judy's quiltathon may officially have ended with the weekend ending but I still have a bunch of work to get completed on this holiday quilt before I call it complete. Today was a long day in the photo studio - so many calls, so many emails, so many orders to push through because everyone needs photos and cards in time for the holidays. So as evening began to fall, it was time to get some quilting done too. I knew I had my border pieces to stitch into rows. Done. Cut the rows into two rows and stitch into border rows. Done. Now onto creating a smaller border that will go between the blocks and the larger stitched outer border. Since I only had two fat quarters of each Christmas Punch fabric, I was limisted on a king size quilt so I decided to use 2 fat quarters each of a biege and green holly print to create my 2" border strips which I sewed into alternatining strips. Here's my progress photos of that. Tomorrow, I need to attach the border strips and outer border rows to the quilt and then I think the quilt will be ready enough to take to Mom's in two weeks and machine quilt on her long arm. BUT I still need to find backing fabric and figure out the binding fabric too. I'm still waiting for my new Joann's circular for this week!

What's up with the postman

I might have some sort of OCD thing going on with my post man and his delivery schedule. For the last several months, he comes later and later in the evening... Getting our mail delivered around 4 or 5 was OK - it was routine for nearly a decade. Then suddenly, things changed a little and he was coming around 6 or later -- a few nights he strolled the neighborhood delivering mail at nearly 8pm! Holy smokes - I wonder if the USPS pays overtime rates after 5pm?

Well anyways, my reason for the post is this - - - Upon our return from Tunica, MS over the Thanksgiving holiay, I just went about my business and I had been having a little fabric store withdrawl - so I searched for my Joann's and Hancock's circulars. Low and behold, I found them - Joann's was for the previous week and Hancocks was good through 12/6. OK, no big deal but then I was like, where's my new Joann's circular? I don't ever remember receiving it. So of course the days roll by and I pay it no mind because I didn't ever get out to go to Joann's nor to Hancocks. So here were are in a new week and Saturday's are usually the day my Joann's circular arrives in the mail. Well, low and behold Saturday arrives and what's in the mail box but my Joann's circular, FROM LAST WEEK - it was the circular for the post Thanksgiving sale through 12/6 -- I received that circular on 12/6 -- what good does that do me? Not much at all. No 12/6 has come and gone and it's now 12/8 and still no Joann's or Hancocks for the new week! I'm a bit P.O.ed at the PO. I wonder if there is anyone I can complain to about this tardiness of circulars.... is it OCD????

Editted - Tuesday, December 9, 2008 9:54pm: Maybe it was something I said but wouldn't you know it - as soon as I post something like this, the infamous Joann's circular finally arrived in today's mail and with two 50% off coupons inside! woo hoo! Still waiting for my Hancocks' circular to arrive ------ tapping fingers on laptop!

Moda Fabric Matcher Contest

Moda fabric sent an email announcing a new contest for linking to their FabricMatcher which by the way is a pretty niftly online application for matching up your fabrics. I need to use it more but sometimes time takes the best of us. So if you'd like to check out this fun little application, be sure to visit Moda at http://moda.fabricmatcher.com

Half Way on the Quilt Top - Quiltathon with Judy and friends

It's sew much fun to be a part of an internet quiltathon -- thank you Judy. http://www.patchworktimes.com/

I'm about half way through on the quilt top here at 7PM - taking a break now and will return to creating rows tomorrow. Sorry for the bad picture -- just threw it on top of the bed to take a pic. What I have come to find out in the quilting journey is that my design wall is too small or I need a better placement of it.

First Christmas Quilt - Progress

So I had intentions of logging in earlier today when I was finishing up the half square triangle blocks, which are not perfect by the way but I tried, and then I started cutting squares and strips for creating the rest of the quilt block. This is how far I've gotten so far and I'm now using my make-shift design wall to design the quilt and piece the blocks together. My goal is to finish this by tomorrow night. Wish me luck!








I got iTunes radio dialed into country christmas hits and i'm just moving along. I think my quilt will be really busy looking at the end.... we'll see!


Saturday PM update is above this post or just click this link to read the update and see how far I got: http://whimzeestitches.blogspot.com/2008/12/half-way-on-quilt-top.html



After dinner and kitchen cleanup duty, I went over to my design wall and put the last 4 rows together and then stacked everything to get ready for sewing on Sunday morning!



Sunday 11:00am -- well I thought I'd be up early today - NOT --- Late sleep in today which felt oh so good! So now it's 1:00pm and i'm blogging - reading email - responding to emails and just switched on the Bernina --- but one of the cats had a field day with the thread last night - it's wound around the machine completely a few times --- Oh Kitty -- I have something for you! SMACK ---No not really!



1:05pm - I'm going to get started on sewing!


3:00pm - two more rows almost dones -- I have a total of seven rows in this quilt. I think I'll get it done -if I can stop chatting and emailing for a bit! LOL.

4:55pm - the top is pieced -no border yet but that's next. Here's what it looks like.. I like it - very colorful and once it's quilted at the end of the month, i'm sure it will be great I'll have to display it well after the holidays too! why not!

8:45pm - Back at it after a couple friends came over to visit - saw the quilt top and said can we order one from you -- i'm like, for next year sure! I was humbled but I can write it down and hope and plan for that during the summer 2009. They brought over their two adoable little chiwawa's which we took out back to my photo studio and captured some holiday fun image for their christmas cards - i'll have to post an image tomorrow after I upload the card. Well, after dinner and cleanup, I said I need to make some kind of border for this quilt so I looked at my Christmas Punch fat quarters and pulled several of them to create a pieced border - this is what I came up with - now I need to stitch the strips, cut them and create a border and sew that on to the quilt. I'll get that going and probably stop soon since it's getting late and I want to watch a little TV before hitting the bed tonight.

New Blog Background

I just discovered that I can change the background of my blog as the seasons change and other holidays approach. What do you think of this festive background! I love it! It works so easily with Blogger blogs - just look a the upper left hand corner of the my blog and you can click on the link and find out more info about changing your blog backgrounds!

Holiday Decorating Time

So it's my absolute most favorite time of the year not only because December is the same month for both my birthday and my Mom's birthday but it's also Christmas! I love decorating for the holidays ever since I worked for a big florist/greenhouse back in the Hamptons on Long Island - I have never lost that talent and nor have I gotten rid of much of the decorations I have collected over the last 20 plus years - the attic is busting at the seems with boxes and boxes of decorations I could probably decorate the whole neighborhood and still have some things left over. I guess I'm saving them all for that one day we buy a much larger house with many rooms and high ceilings. I can dream! Well - I did a little decorating this year even though we just got back from spending Thanksgiving in Tunica, MS with a little casino action and a very disappointing eating experience at the new Paula Deen buffet at Harrah's casino, and then we are leaving on December 23rd for a week and half to New Mexico to visit my mom and stepdad and I get to play with her new long arm she bought over the summer! Enjoy the decorations folks!

Since we don't have a fireplace, I decorate the tv cabinet in the living room like a large mantel - I went a little overboard on the pinecones and large green balls.


I dug out the bigger tree this year - I have a red/green theme going.


The mirror next to the tv cabinet - it needed something.


This is our entry way in the dining room - I love my big sugar pine cones - wish I could find more of these but not in New Orleans.

New Project in progress

OK - so my best intentions of updating my blog more often didn't really work but I'll give it another try. So I've started a whole new project - actually it's my first pieced quilt project - here are two of the blocks that I am creating for a holiday quilt. The pattern is half square triangles from the December 2008 Fon's and Porter magazine and the fabric is all RJR Thimbleberries Christmas Punch fat quarters. It's coming along, slowly, and not so perfectly but i'm learning along the way. I hope to take some quilting classes in 2009 so I can get a bit better at having my pieces meet up better.

Second applique project

OK - I had so much fun creating the first applique project I created a second just in time for Halloween. Yeah, I know it's almost Christmas and I'm just posting this now -- forgive me - I'm behind on the blogging. The pattern came from a recent Fon's & Porter magazine - loving that magazine subscription - there always seems to be a project or two in each issue that I want to create. Now if I can only carve out more time each and every day to create some quilting magic in my sewing room.

My first applique project

So - for my first quilt project - I decided to do a fall applique. I picked up this pattern at the AQS show for a buck, yes, a buck! I found some fabric that appealed to me and thought would make this wall hanging come to life for me. Here is the pattern I picked up:

Now some may think i'm nutts for picking an applique pattern for my first ever pieced project but the pieces are pretty large, the smallest items are the applique leaves, acorns and stems but does that count as quilt pieces - rather applique pieces. What I did find is the the applique process is pretty time consuming... I dug out the small light table I have in my photo studio out back, that came in handy to trace out the applique designs on the heat-n-bond I picked up at Walmart. After I got into a rythm, things were rolling along.

As I got into my rythm, then it became clear that stitching around all these small applique pieces was either going to be fun or frustrating -- well, most of them were fun but some of them were just pure pains - I made some mental notes for future applique projects. The project really came along - I have yet to put the batting and backing together and bind it but i'll do that tomorrow or later this week.