Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Flag Quilt is Finished



I did all the hand sewing of the binding yesterday when I got home. It took pretty much all night...I went upstairs to read in bed for awhile when I finished it and fell asleep instead!!






I love how it turned out. A part of me wishes I would have had time to hand quilt it, I love the look of hand quilting-especially in a quilt with "country" style fabric, but I still love it and am quite proud of myself for how quickly I was able to get this project turned around. (I have OVER a week to spare from when it HAD to be completed by!)




I hope G&G Binks like it! After I finished it Kevin asked if I was sad to give it away, I am a HUGE fan of all things Red, White and Blue, but I am excited to give it to someone else who loves RW&B nearly as much as me!

In other news...here is some more fabric I recently picked up.





I am in LOVE with this animal print! Isn't it adorable!?! I am going to try a pattern similar to this one from Allison Harris at Cluck Cluck Sew.



I just love picking out beautiful new groups of fabric and dreaming up wonderful ways to use them...now I just have to work on actually getting some of these projects done!!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Weekend sewing

My weekend was busy (as usual) but really fun!!

I finally got to visit with my fried Rachel and meet her little boy Jonah! He is four months old already and an adorable little guy! (With some scrumptious little rolls in his arms and legs-I love it-too cute!!) It was great to catch up with her (and her mom) for a couple hours.

Then I got some info I needed from Stonewall Manor and saw everyone. They were catering a reception at the Booth Museum in Cartersville. I wish I could have been a part of that one, I haven't been inside that museum yet! I've got three weddings coming up in September, so it is time to get to work on the details of these and make sure the brides are ready for their big day!

I did some shopping and errands and did some sewing that night when I got home. (Kevin spent the afternoon and evening out. He had worked on the Jet Skis and so he took them out on the lake with Tim and they seem to be doing better...still not where they should be...but at least both of them were actually running!!)

Sunday morning I went to my first ever sewing class. It was at Tiny Stitches in Marietta. It was the first class that the AtlMQG set up and we had a pretty good turn out. It was fun sewing with everyone and although I didn't get a block completed, I was working on several at a time, so I have a few blocks in different stages.

Melinda taught the class...she is showing off one of her amazing quilts here:

Here is my start...

moving right along...

My messy work station! (That awesome half cutting board/half ironing board is one of my purchases from Saturday...I had a Michaels coupon so I picked it up! It was nice to have it right there at my station where I was sewing!)

My fabric (I picked it up the night before...I decided to go with a fun Halloween theme for this project!)

Some of the scraps from today's class-I sifted through these and took a bunch home!! I just love scraps!!


I also got some FANTABULOUS scraps from Nicole!
I LOVE them and I am so exited to work with them!!


Mary came over to hang out Sunday afternoon and we watched some movies, visited, sewed and had a great time together just chilling!

Here is the owl quilt I am making for her from all the blocks I got in the owl swap I did.


And here is my flag quilt I am making for G&G Binks. It is almost finished! All I have to do is hand sew down the binding and I am done!! Yipee!! I hope they like it! It is one of the biggest quilts I have ever made...even Kevin was impressed with this one!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

A Quilt Giveaway!

Wow! I can't believe how generous this lady is! She is actually GIVING AWAY one of her hand-made quilts online!

How sweet is that!?!
Her blog is called Craftopotamus! (So cute!!)
Check her out here and you can have a chance at winning it as well!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I wasn't home much this weekend.
Saturday we decided to drive up to North Georgia and look at a few mountain homes. It has been a dream of mine to own a lake or mountain home for a long time...so we thought we would see what was out there with the market being in the slump that it is right now!) Kevin's mom went with us, and then we all went to my parents for dinner so it was a full day, but I really loved one of the properties we looked at! It is super cabiny (do you like my made up word there?) and has a homey feel to it. (A tin roof and everything!!) So cute! We will see if the dream becomes a reality or not...purchasing a second home is a HUGE decision so we will have to think long and hard on this one!! (But wouldn't it be so much fun to decorate!?!)

Sunday we took the jet skis out...one of them was working great, until we hit the major wake from a boat...then it decided it didn't want to get to full power anymore...the second one (the one that hasn't worked since we bought it) still wasn't working properly...at least it started-that is an improvement! We did still have fun being out on the lake together and just took turns on the one that was working better!
(I am trying to decide it I want to write the name of the place we bought these at on here. A big part of me wants to write about how corrupt they are everywhere I can...I feel it is my responsibility to warn others about their lack of a moral compass-tricking the unsuspecting (those who are not knowledgeable in the mechanics of jet skis) into buying CRAP...but I don't want to do it while I am feeling angry, because then it will just sound rude. (ie: see what I just said...so NOT me to be so hateful...I probably should just delete this post!)

On to other news:
Here is a look at what I did end up finding time for in the sewing room over the weekend...I started the quilting on my flag quilt! The photo shows the seam ripping action going on when I tried to "guesstimate" a straight line...(Really what was I thinking?)...after one line I quickly learned my lesson and used some blue painters tape to help make actual straight lines, or at least as straight I as I am going to be able to get them with my patience level! I got a few lines done, but have a long ways to go still. This is a pretty big quilt for me since I normally just do small baby quilts! (Machine quilting it may be a challenge since it is bigger, but so far it is still small enough that I haven't had any issues with it in my small machine!) I only have a few weeks to get it quilted because I want to give to to G&G Binks when we go up to Indy on the Sept 10-12 weekend. (They are moving and it is my housewarming gift for them.)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A bit of sewing

I got the chance to spend a little bit of time cutting and sewing earlier this week. (Although most of my time was spent looking through my fabric stash and sewing books/magazines dreaming about the projects I would like to take on!!)

Here is a peek at what I was working on...






*ADDED NOTE*
I have done this quilt a few times lately, which is from this amazing quilter, and have never put the white border between the "waves" in it. I think I would like to try it that way...here are some others who have done it properly, and it looks so great...I guess I am just too lazy to cut and sew all those extra pieces!!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

New Dress A Day

I was going to check my email at yahoo this morning, when I saw an article I had to read!

Check this out!!



I LOVE it!!

Marisa is amazing!!

I have added a link to her blog on my sidebar! What a fun and creative challenge! You go girl!!

Be sure to check it out, some of her re-creations are absolutely fab!!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Vacation all I ever wanted...

Since Kev decided to spend our vacation money (plus some) on these...

(Which we bought used and so far still haven't gotten one of them working-it has been over a month-so frustrating!!!) We didn't really have money to spend on a vacation this Summer. Therefore, we decided to spend a few days camping at St. Andrews Park in PC Beach, Florida. ($28 a night, can't beat that price for a beach stay!!)

It was perfect! Time to escape from the rest of the world and sleep, read, play in the ocean and spend time together. I didn't take but a few pictures, and none of the beach (sorry!) but here are a few of how we spent our time!

On the trip down I quilted my mini quilt for the Mini Quilt Challenge from the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild. (I love it!!-I will have more pictures soon, because I got the binding sewn on last night and I think it looks pretty good if I do say so myself!!)




We did a bit of shopping (and Kevin bought me new "nice" sunglasses-I don't think I have ever owned a pair of sunglasses that cost more than $10-and that was when I was spending the big bucks too!! Most of my sunglasses have come from the dollar store!!) I will have to be extra careful that I don't drop these in the toilet. (That is how a lot of my sunglasses have been retired. I put them on my head when I go inside and then they slide off into the toilet when I am putting down paper at a public restroom! Oops!!)


One of the places at Pier Park we saw was the Beer Garden, which reminded us of our wonderful trip to Germany last Fall!!




Kev ate at this BBQ place that had this too cute pig out front that I had to get a picture with!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Mini Quilt Challenge

At our July 10th AtlMQG meeting at Whipstitch we were given a new challenge.

It is to make a mini quilt by our Sept 12th meeting, which will then be put on display at the store.

What an exciting challenge!! I am a bit nervous though...that means, a little piece of me and my artistic expression with fabric will be hanging up for all to see right next to some other amazing artists work.

I have never made a mini quilt before, but I have been seeing them online in the blogging world a lot lately. So the question is what to do? Wednesday evening I finally set down with some scraps I had organized (from some recent projects I had made, or cut out to make) and starting sewing whatever came to mind. It was so relaxing, and exciting all in one!!

Here is what I have so far...now to find the time to finish this up so that I can get to work quilting it. I am really excited about my plan for the quilting!!



Monday, August 2, 2010

My wedding blog...

I started another blog this evening.

This one will be for my wedding coordinating information.

I have just set it up, so it is a little bare at the moment, but if you want to check it out...please do!

It can be found at EventswithEmilee.blogspot.com