Long break....

To all of my followers...

I am on a long break from sewing and crafting. Needless to say it has been a very interesting and stressful last few months. I had to fight to get my daughter back after her father didn't bring her home after his summer visit (no surprise there). Then my computer decided to crash during this process of getting her back. I am back online but at this time I am in school full time and need to focus on that. Due to the fall out of my ex's actions I was forced to drop 2 classes during the summer therefore putting me on academic warning. *sigh* My unfinished projects are still there and I will eventually get to them when I get my life back to being stable again. I am in the process of looking for a full-time job but am having no luck due to the fact that I am in school all day 2 days out of the week. I have a feeling that me being on academic warning will affect my financial aid next semester or next year. I quit my job back in December so that I could focus more on school and my daughter. I hope to be able to sew again in the next couple of months again.

Jenn

Recent Projects...

Here are my recent projects in the last few weeks...

Things to occupy my childs time and mine before she left for her dad's for the summer. The flip flops were fun to make. Katlynn enjoyed her flip flops she took them with her!  I am yet to finish my pair will probably get those done this week. The paintings were pre-printed canvas's I picked up at Micheal's. Katlynn had fun until it got too HOT outside.

Almost done...

Here is the quilt I have been working on for Katlynn (for her Birthday that was back in March) my goal is to get it done in the next few weeks. I have decided that I love this quilt! It is a cheerful quilt and while I was putting on the board to take a picture of it, it kind of looked like a stained glass window from the backside.  This quilt has been interesting to put together. I have had to make a few modifications as I went, have had to go "frogging" a few times as I was not satisfied with how something looked. When I started I had to undo about 20 blocks because I had some shrinkage problems with a particular fabric. Then I didn't like my first pick of border, I needed something to break up the greens and make it pop a lot more. This quilt is used out of the leftover fabrics I used to make the miniature quilts for my daughter at Christmas time. Giving her a matching blanket when she is playing with her animals. The first picture is of  what I am going to put on the borders. The outer border is also what I plan to put on the back somehow (I want to piece the back so she can have 2 blankets in one). I have about 4 weeks before I start my summer classes so I have plans to finish some of the projects I started but haven't had time to finish during that time.

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! 

Thank you to everyone that have served are serving in the military. Those that have lost their lives to allow us to have the freedoms most of us take for granted. Those that have fought recently and are haunted by the images of the things you saw. Those that fought decades ago and still remember things as if it happened yesterday. There will never be enough ways to say Thank You for everything that you have done or are doing for this country. Also thank you to all the military wives and families for giving their soldiers the support they need.

Thank you!

Finals this week...

It has been a bit since I have been able to sit down and blog. I have reached the end of the semester and that is when all professors squeeze in those projects and papers. 4 papers later, the last thing on my mind was sitting down to write some more! This week is finals so after this week I will be back to blogging regularly and will be posting some more pictures of almost finished projects and new projects to squeeze in before the summer session starts. Was just curious how much care packages were running these days... they are still about the same price they were when I was attending Stephen F. Austin.  (way over priced!)

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all mom's out there and all women who hope to be mom's and haven't been able to.
Look at all the pretty flowers... the 4th picture looks like the flowers on the card my daughter got for me. 

Spring Cleaning!

I have been pretty busy lately with school. I am taking 4 classes right now and it is down to the final 5 weeks where papers are due, projects are due and final reviews. This has been a great semester I ended up dropping my History class (in search of a different professor). Needless to say I haven't been getting a lot of sewing done the last little bit. I have gotten some (almost done with my daughters birthday quilt, will blog and post pictures soon). I have been working on de-cluttering my life when I am not too tired at the end of the day. I rediscovered a book that I had bought awhile back when I was still employed and forgot about it (never reading of course). This book is called It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff.He helps you go through every room in your house and get rid of the extra stuff you don't need anymore.  I have been plucking away at some of the chapters and have found it helpful in letting go of the things that I do not need anymore. Those little things that we tend to hold on to with intentions of doing something with them someday (the someday that never comes and you end up with this huge pile of stuff). I have consolidated several containers in my closet by throwing out old papers (that may have meant something to me 5 years ago but are meaningless now). Old ticket stubs that I probably had intended to scrapbook (never got around to that too). I did organize a few photo boxes and managed to go through some books I have read once and didn't really enjoy or have never read!(I will probably be posting those on e-bay soon).  I even found a fabric stash in my closet. There is another great book that has been comical to read (very similar to the 1st book) Clutter Be Gone: Cleaning Your House the Easy Way.

One thing to remember when spring cleaning is... to not go out and buy more containers (unless of course you absolutely have to). The object is to get rid of stuff so you can make room for new stuff, or just to make room! I will admit I have too many containers because I would buy them to store stuff in. I get more stuff so I need more room to store my stuff. *sigh* I finally bought a few shelving units to go inside my closet to give me more shelf space in there and am pleased with the results. Eventually, hopefully soon I will have some of the stuff that came out of my closet back in my closet nice and neat. The rest will be posting on e-bay or donating.

There is another great website out there for organizing! Flylady.net, she also has a book now Sink Reflections


  15 minutes a day makes a big difference. Don't get discouraged and give up. 

Cross Stitching 365

I have been cleaning out my closet the last few months. Discovering things I forgot that I had. Anyhow I discovered this cross stitch book and have started cross stitching again.... after a long long hiatus. I remember doing the sunbonnet sue's on a hand towel for my bathroom. So I think I might do a sampler of some of these patterns.

I have been moving things around a little....

I have shortened one of my previous post... I made the Bunnies a post by itself because it was taking way too long to load with all the pictures.... In the process I lost some of the pictures. I will try and bring them back later when I have more time to sit down and work on it.  Looking at it now I have lost a lot of pictures in other blogs too *sigh* It will have to stay that way till I can work on it....

Bunnies... Bunnies... and more Bunnies...

Bunnies... Bunnies... and more Bunnies...













This is another on going quilt I am working on. I have had these panels for awhile now. I have even purchased several fabrics to go with these very cute panels. I like bunnies just not sure how to put all these together. I have thought of doing filler blocks (I know at least some nine patch because there are nine patch blocks in some of the panels). I finally laid them out on my mom's design wall and was hoping that the panels would talk to me and they started to but then it was time to get my daughter from school. Here are some of the fabrics I have so far to work with...
Some of these I have been collecting and when I put my panels up my mom came out with a stack of fabric that she had actually purchased to make something for me a long long long time ago. I am excited to be working on this one. I don't foresee it getting done in the next while though. It will be one of those I will have to work on gradually.

Why I Quilt...

I quilt for many reasons but the main reason is Stress Relief!
I can get in the zone once I have all my squares or strips cut out. I can stitch for hours as it calms me. My ex stresses me out when it comes to our daughter. Needless to say I have been stressed out this week. Not knowing if he was going to come get our daughter for Spring Break (he never showed) but the disappointment he left behind (broke my daughters heart).

I have started a few more projects in the last week. Have picked up a few that I had abandoned temporarily (one involving a lot of Froging). I am almost done with the one I abandoned, I had to take apart about 20 4 patch blocks because my seam allowance was too big (forgot to change my settings on the machine). Now I could have adjusted all my other blocks and strips but I didn't want to think too hard on having to re-measure everything. I only have about 6 more to piece together and then figure out what I am going to put in between the blocks. I will post pictures later in the week.

I Quilt to create and bring out my artistic side. Growing up I would paint and draw. I am able to look at something and tell if it is missing something or has too much of something. I can look at colors and tell if they are or aren't going to work together.

It has been proven in various studies that sewing, creating, crafting, drawing, painting, etc. is calming. Art is powerful. It can tell a story. It can convey a feeling or emotion. What is your current project telling us?

Lots of projects going on...

I haven't been blogging as much as I would like so here is what I have been doing quilting wise. Between school and my daughter I try to squeeze in as much as I can when I am not studying or doing homework... This week I have been busy!


Cupcake Table runner is Finished! this is the finished product before I turned it over to the school... I will have to eventually make one for myself (once I stop seeing cupcakes everywhere).

This is a quilt I am working on as I get ideas for it. I picked up the bird panel from the donated fabrics table from a previous quilting bee I attended. I framed the panels with more donated fabric. I am trying to decide what to put in between the squares. I was thinking of solid color panels (muted tones). Then I was thinking of doing window blocks (not sure what colors to use for the squares).

Yes some birds are flying upside down at the moment of this picture. My daughter went and rearranged them and put some upside down. :)




This beautiful miniature I am calling "Mother's Flower Garden" I am trying to get some miniature quilts done to sale in the next little while. I just need to finish the border. I did this from a few fat quarters I picked up from JoAnn's. Some of them the prints were pretty but I decided the flowers were too spaced out so I fussy cut the big rose prints out. I love this combo and might at some point buy yardage to make a bigger version. That is when I can support my habit again!

There is another miniature that I finished yesterday that I haven't taken a picture of yet. I will include that in my next blog.


Ok here is my final thing for this blog entry.... (drum roll please)...
We have a "Leftover" quilt! There are Jelly Rolls, and Honey Buns and Turnovers. Well I have "Leftovers." Leftovers is just that, fabrics leftover when cutting out blocks. Most people throw these pieces away. My mother even told me that they were too small to do anything with! I will admit I did too up until I had a big stack of pieces just big enough to do something with. This quilt is about 7" X 6" and the perfect size for my daughters polly pocket dolls and her doll house furniture. I used left over binding from other projects and left over strips that didn't get used.


I am open to any ideas y'all might have to offer.

I have ADD when it comes to quilting!

I have decided that I have ADD when it comes to quilting. How do I come to this conclusion?
Well it is simple really, I have started a few projects ... no more like many projects in the last few weeks or so. Not to mention my stack of finished tops that are waiting for backings and to be quilted. My least favorite part of quilting is the finishing part. I have finally finished the Cupcake Table runner! One thing I can add to my small stack of finished projects (I will post pictures of the finished product later). I have a perpetual scrappy 2 1/2 & 1 1/2 inch square quilt I am working on (I know it will take awhile because I want it to be big enough to go on my bed and drape on both sides). I have started a crazy quilt. I have cut squares for another doll quilt. I have plans to start another Sunbonnet Sue quilt. I have a "Blue" quilt in the works. I need to finish my sampler quilt I started during the summer in a class my mom was teaching. The "Strawberry Shortcake" for my daughter (perfect time to finish it is now since her birthday is coming up in a few weeks). I have cupcakes started for either a table runner for myself or a lap quilt (or perhaps both haven't decided yet). I have lots of ideas too! Perhaps I should be more diligent in writing the ideas down on paper.

This week...

Monday:
1. Finish binding for Cupcake Table runner... Should be done with that tomorrow (maybe even today depending on how motivated I feel after church).

2. Work on crazy quilt squares...

4. Clean everything out of my closet and actually put stuff away (have been working on this for a few months now)....

5. Homework

Tuesday:
1. Go to school...

Wednesday:
1. Work on crazy quilt squares...

2. Work on closet...

3. Homework

Thursday:
1. School

Friday:
1. work on something....

2. work on closet...

Ok this is an idea for the week... most likely I wont stick to any of it except for the homework and go to school. Oh and I will finish the tablerunner!

more cupcakes

Here are a few of the cupcakes I have finished. I almost want to make some cupcakes to eat... (almost). I have more cupcakes cut out just haven't had the time to piece them together. I will need to make many more to have enough for that quilt I want to make. I figure this can be an on going fun project for me.

I am almost done with the table runner. I finished piecing it together Monday. I will admit it didn't go together as smoothly as it should have. *sigh* I forgot to take into consideration the shrinkage of my squares when I did the appliques. I made it work though. Didn't help that my seam allowance was bigger than it should have been too *lol* I have no idea where my brain was that morning. All said and done here is the almost final result.... *drum roll please*



All I need to do now is put the batting and the backing on and the binding. Not sure what I am going to use for the backing yet. I will have to go through my stash and see what I am willing to part with.

Cupcakes in the oven...

Cupcakes... get your cupcakes!

Every year my daughters school does an auction at their Spring Festival. Each class has a theme for a basket to be auctioned off. My daughters theme is "Cupcakes." So I am working on a table runner for the basket and the idea is to do a few pot holders as well. Not sure if I will get the potholders done in time or not. Anyhow I have gathered my fabrics and I have traced my pattern onto my fabric and fusible stabilizer (for the applique). I only need 3 cupcakes for the table runner and a few more for the pot holders. But I got bit by the cupcake creating bug and now I have several and the need to make a cupcake quilt for myself. I love applique work. I find it to be relaxing for me. So here is what I have cut out....

I will post pictures of the actual table runner when I have finished it tomorrow. These have been fun to make.

Quiting Bee Update...

Just an update of the quilting bee... I ended up not turning in the quilt I have been working on. A few days before I got sick with some 24 hour bug and was down for the count all day and all night hoping to hold food or anything down. I managed to finish tying it however and was going to turn the backing up for the binding .... as I was trimming the batting I cut a whole in the backing ( I was certain I had folded the back out of the way).. *sigh* So I will have 2 to turn in next year. I just ran out of time and didn't really feel good still that I decided not to worry about it.

There were many groups there participating and I think at last count before I went home there was 230 quilts turned in.

This year I took my daughter with me. She was excited to go because she wanted to see her quilts displayed. I volunteered some of my quilts to display for decorations.

She was quite bummed about having to give up her quilts for the night. She had a blast though. In attendance this year as well was my mom and my older sister. My sister I call the closet quilter. The quilt she did turned out nicely. I handed her the leftover squares from the quilt I did and she added her own fabrics and created something amazing. I wish I had a picture to show. Needless to say she has been bitten by the quilting bug and has been busting out the quilts almost overnight.

My sister has also been enabling me to buy more fabric. I have bought a few bags worth of fabric in the last week. A few pieces to turn into miniature quilts in the near future. Also a few pieces to compliment a project I am working on right now for my daughters school. I will blog about that later. The running joke at the moment is that I need a 12 step program for my buying more fabric. Then again I am beyond a 12 step program. I just need to create and turn my impulse buys into something.

Here is my loot from the donated fabric table at the Quilting Bee....
I see another scrappy quilt out of this. But this year I plan on making more than 1 quilt. I plan on making a few kid quilts as well. I have a lot of left over kiddie fabrics from various projects that I plan on making an "I spy" quilt. I picture a crazy quilt in the near future. I have never done a crazy quilt before so this should be fun.

inspiration for cupcake table runner

Here is some of my inspiration for my cupcake table runner I am working on for my daughters class basket. The theme for the class is Cupcakes. The parents provide stuff for the baskets to go with the theme and then the basket is auctioned off at the spring fling....




http://www.flickr.com/photos/46525731@N05/galleries/72157623254814355/

Goals for today and this week...

My goals for today and this week:

1. Put backing on scrappy square quilt

2. Pin quilt together so I can begin to tie it

3. Finish reading chapter 2 for my Interpersonal Communication class

4. Plan a design on paper for this tablerunner I am wanting to do for my daughters school basket auction.

They do a "spring fling" every spring and each class has a themed basket
that gets auctioned off to raise money for the school. My daughters class
theme for the basket is Cupcakes. I have an idea in my head but haven't
been able to put it on paper yet.

Alright I suppose I should get to cutting batting and a backing so I can get to reading and designing!

Annual Interfaith Quilting Bee

Here is the info for the Quilting Bee I am making the quilt for and the few I have made over the years. http://www.namonline.org/site/c.ktJYJ7MNIuE/b.2116653/apps/s/content.asp?ct=6493447

Annual Interfaith Quilting Bee seeking quilting enthusiasts to donate time, talent Area quilters are invited to participate in the 13th annual Interfaith Quilting Bee benefiting Northwest Assistance Ministries (NAM) on Saturday, Feb. 21 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 16535 Kleinwood Drive. The theme of this year’s Bee is “Piece by Piece: Stitching Lives Back Together.” “The Quilting Bee is a coalition of volunteers dedicated to creating quilts for families in need,” said Becky Black, Quilting Bee Chairman. The event is free and open to the public, and beginners as well as experienced quilters are encouraged to attend. Participants this year will donate the quilts to NAM programs including the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) for families in transition from homelessness, Meals on Wheels, the Children’s Clinic and the Family Violence Center. Civic or religious organizations, businesses and individuals may participate by donating quilting supplies, volunteering to assist other quilters or sponsoring their own quilt. “The Interfaith Quilting Bee is truly a symbol of the mission of Northwest Assistance Ministries, which strives to meet basic human needs through Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” said Carole Little, NAM President and CEO. “The quilting bee goal is to create a heartfelt gift that provides warmth and security to the recipients.” A recipient of a quilt from last year’s event said, “These quilts mean so much to us. Our children came into IHN feeling insecure and with nothing to call their own. [The quilts] help them to feel safe and loved. The hours these quilting volunteers invest will remain with us for the rest of our lives.” A luncheon will follow the quilting bee. For information about the event or to register, call Becky Black at 832-717-0622. For information and photos of last year’s event, visit http://tc3.hccs.edu/publicservice1/.

Borders on!

Borders are finally on! I finished the borders Friday afternoon. Then ran out of steam for the backing and batting... I didn't get very good close up pictures of the quilt top but I wanted to include a picture of it before I finish and tie it. I found this (or rediscovered) country patchwork fabric which I used for the outer border. Not a bad find from my forgotten stash.