Tucker's Bag

Monday night I received this text from my niece, the mother of eight children, "I'm sure you're busy, but I was wondering if you might have time to make Tuck a bag for ballgames.  We're at our first one tonight & he keeps stealing the girls'.   Hard to believe of this angelic little fella. 

His sisters bags have pockets, so so does Tucker's.

I was going for "manly", so I started out with some velveteen cotton that I had, but for Tucker's we'll call it imitation suede.  It is soft.   They have horses, so I thought a cowboy hat and boots would fit the bill.   The pocket linings and the bottom of the inside lining are blue handkerchief pattern. 

And so he doesn't get bored, I did the opposite side pocket in a different color.   It's not perfect, but I used a lot of extra thread to make sure it can stand up to the rough life that could be coming its way.  There'll be lots of ballgames.  Now, I'm trying to decide whether to make his 3 younger sisters crayon rolls.  If so, I'd probably need to make one for Tucker, too.  I'm anxious to get it in the mail, it sounds like an emergency request.
I did decide to make his sisters some crayon rolls.  I didn't make one for him though, I was trying to hurry so I can get them in the mail today.  I used the tutorial from These Moments of Mine here  and it was as simple as she said.  The directions were very good and they are nice and cushy.  I could have done better with more time, I would have used different ribbon and I would have wound new bobbins.  I figured the charcoal wasn't too bad with the black ribbon though.   Now I just have to go get colors or colored pencils and little writing pads and then it's off to the post office.

Craftsy BOM 2013 April and May

Not perfect, but it's done and it's huge.  4 fan blocks and together they make one 18 1/2 inch block.  I told you it was huge.  This was Aprils.

May's block is Strippy Spools and we make 8, but only use 7 in the quilt.   Less challenging than Aprils, thank goodness. 

My Mock up is getting more filled in, which is logical.   Still a ways to go though.  Again, logical.   My brother in law's friend says older people are staters of the obvious, I guess I need to watch it.  Only a third of the month left and to catch up I still need to do May's Civil War block, and April and May's Craftsy  BOM 2012 and also April and May's Sugar Block Club.  I'm hoping to finish, but the baby my brother and I have been waiting for arrived yesterday, so now I need to do the label, baste it and quilt it.    The baby quilt goes to the top of the list, oh well, eventually I'll get to the other two projects I want to start.  I may just start the Fat Quarter Shop Deck-ade the Halls and hold off on the Barn quiltalong.  I'm starting to feel stressed and bogged down and that takes away from the fun of it all. 

 

OKCMQG Block of the Month - The Least Difficult BOM Done --- and Soap!

I really like this block (sorry, it's a bit blurry).  It is visually striking and

"This block has a bit of history to it as it is designed after a portion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial."    It is simple but meaningful.  I was catching up, this is the April Block.

Another relatively simple but striking block.  This is May, so I'm caught up on one BOM now.

January through April, the block with the prints seems to stick out a bit, but there are more blocks coming so we will see.

I love my battery operated soap dispenser, but couldn't stand the price of the refills, so I got the idea to order a wine stopper from Amazon and cut a hole in the soap.  It was much tougher to do than I thought and I'm lucky I didn't enjure myself, as I used scissors, paring knives and box cutter.  It is jagged and if I were to do it again, I'd try some kind of saw if one was available to me.  Anyway, I love my glass rooster, he goes right along with my kitchen, and it is nice to just put sticky kitchen hands underneath and let the electric eye handle it for you.  (The frog needs a good washing, but he holds scrubbers and reminds me of DH, so he will always have his place on the sink.)  Now my soap is refillable, and I can enjoy the savings.

I love my Rowe Stoneware too, though, so I have to keep the old fashioned type on my sink still.   We are either extra clean, or extra dirty.

Gathering

I have started gathering fabrics for my Fat Quarter Shop Deck-ade the Halls.  The back row is the figures.  They have 3 light greens, 3 reds and 3 turquoise blues, I had to substitute 2 blacks and a dark green (1, 4 and 7), 3 reds (2, 5, and 8) and 2 greens and a partially green with red (3, 6, and 9).   Their inner border and binding is red, mine is red peppermints with a black background, and their outer border is a small print with all their colors, mine is the musical fabric.  I'm 2 inches short on the musical fabric of what they say it requires, but if worse comes to worse there will be some kind of corner treatment added.  
PS  I'm thinking now that to keep with their 3 of each color that I'll swap the dark green, fabric number 1 on the top row,  for the black with peppermints, change fabric number 2 on the top row to be the inner border, make fabric number 9 on the top row a red, and still bind it in the black with peppermints.  Oh, and then fabric number 1 on the top row, the dark green, can be one of the 3 greens.  Clear as mud in my mind.

This is theirs and I think that it is adorable.  I think that with my colors it will still be good.  I got the required amount of background (Kona White) with a gift card from Hobby Lobby, and the inner border and binding fabric with a gift card from Joann's.  I think that if I use the fabrics that I've pulled, this will be a very efficient use of my Christmas stash and gifts from my grandson. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge May - Bright or Dark Blue

I've been trying very hard to catch up with my RSC and BOM's.   This week does it for my RSC although, I may do a collage for the last week.  This is the first month that I didn't have any duplicate fabrics for the Rainbow Scrappy Trip Along, but I did have to resort to cutting a few strips from stash. 

My 16 patches, 4 1/2 inch 9 patches, and 6 inch 9 patches. 

Table topper for my dresser, the color here is more true than below on my dresser.   The whites are white, not cream.  The reverse is rather cute Christmas, you can see it here if you like.

I am enjoying it on my dresser.  All my quilted and scrappy table toppers, runners and tablecloth seem to be getting comments from visitors, and I don't think that they are always positive, but I like them and my husband doesn't object, so it's ok.  They can do their house how they like and I'll do mine how I like, and I like quilts, large and small.   I've seen comments on forums about "Would Visitors Know if a Quilter Lived at Your House", and it amazes me that some people don't keep any for themselves, and don't have any displayed or even on their beds.  I do, I do, and I do, and I will have more before the end of the year. 

Snowball and 9 patches.  I think maybe I should have raided my stash a little on these and stuck with either dark or light frames, but maybe it will look nice in the finished product. 

My mini Stacked Blox has at least a temporary home.  I don't think it is technically RSC, but it was made from leftovers from a larger quilt, so maybe.   Anyway, except for my kaleidoscope, which I made in error in an earlier month, and my 2 1/2 inch scrap strips for my RSC Jelly Roll Race, that's it for the month.   Now it's on to catching up on my BOM"S.  I have April and May to do on my Sugar Block Club, Craftsy 2012 BOM, OKC Modern Block, and Craftsy 2013 BOM, and May on my Craftsy Civil War BOM.   It's sad, I feel an urgency to hurry because I can't wait to start the Quilty Barn Along from Bee in My Bonnet, and the Deck-Ade the Halls from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I also loved the In From The Cold Hot Cocoa pattern from UnitedNotions, but since there are mugs on the Deck-Ade the Halls I'm opting to put Hot Cocoa on my someday list.  If you'd like to see more Blue Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, go here on Saturday, Angela's Soscrappy will have lots of linkups.  
Sorry about all the links, but it keeps me from having to look things up and it gives credit to those who have shared.  

I had a gift card left from Christmas and so we stopped by Joann's today.  My RSC had overgrown the top container last month and with May's added, there was no way that the top was going to close.  I got the new container with my gift card and a 50% off coupon.  regularly 29.95, and then I got 1 1/2 yards of Christmas fabric for my Deck-Ade the Halls inner border and binding, regularly 6.95 a yard.   With those and a box of Good N Plenty's, I still have $2.88 on the card.  Not too bad.  I think the new container will hold all the way until the end of the year.

Reverse of RSC May Table Topper

I finished this top for my dresser this morning, the other side is the year round side, and of course, this is reversible to Christmas.  I got the snowmen as an incentive for a shop hop a few years ago, each shop gave you one or two.  I gave away a few, and these I decided would be a good solution to my runner.  It's about 20 by 60 inches.       

I didn't center the snowmen, as I knew that the back would be filled with jewely boxes, perfume and such and I wanted the snowmen to not be covered up.  I didn't include the other side, as it is part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge post for this Saturday.

Disappearing Pinwheel

I had good intentions of working on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, and then I ran across this:   http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutorials-f10/my-pinwheel-disappearing-4-patch-using-charm-packs-t68180.html   A tutorial on the disappearing pinwheel.  I had to try it, so I decided that I haven't done a table topper for this months color, and it would be the first month that I hadn't, so I dug out my scraps and this is what I came up with.  Now I have to find a table or maybe a dresser that I want to use it on, decide if I need sashing or borders, depending on the size, and decide on a color for the back and make up another strippie, and I'll be on my way to another small finish.  
PS   I started out with four patches made from 6 1/2 inch blocks (6 inch finished) and ended up with 10 3/4 inch blocks (10 1/4 inch finished).  

New Projects on My Mind

I was reading my yahoo group emails today and one from Cyberquilters referred to free patterns from UnitedNotions.  http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/fp   I went there and there were indeed many free patterns.  My eye was attracted to this one, and I think I may have to add it to my list.  I've already added the Barn quilt a long (   https://secure.flickr.com/groups/2183559@N21/    http://www.beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-back-of-my-farmers-wife-quilt.html   ).   

Isn't it adorable, it's the Quilty Barn Along from Bee in My Bonnet.  It's already been going on a few months, but I hope to catch up my other projects and then start one of these two.  I was in my local quilt shop a couple days ago and purchased these fabrics to get started.  

And these, because they were on the half price table and I thought they would be useful.  The one on the left is a Thimbleberries Christmas line fabric, but it doesn't look Christmasy to me, and I think it might make a good border, if not, it'll be fine in many scrappies.   I was thinking of giving up quilting, or at least slowing down considerably, but it seems hard to do when I am constantly seeing new things I want to try.  I guess there are worse problems in this world.  
Candace

        

Mini Stacked Blox and May RSC Finally

I did sort through my blue scraps as Angela suggested.  This box has all 3 of the categories and it is chock full.   This is after the cutting out I did tonight. 

I hadn't finished anything for May's RSC, but I did get myself going a little tonight and got the 3 snowball and 9 patches blocks cut out. 

We had a very pleasant day today, Olive Garden with my daughter, her husband, and one of the grandsons.  My daughter and her husband gave me this Old Country Roses biscuit barrel, a belated birthday gift.  Tomorrow should be nice too, as my son is meeting us at the Mexican restaurant.  It may be a wait though with Sunday and Mother's day.  Hopefully, since we plan to meet at 11:30, we'll miss some of the worst of the crowds.   

The leftover block version from Connecting Threads kit, Stacked Blox.  We have to wait for the baby to be born to finish the larger version, but it should be any time now.  This may be able to squeak into the RSC, as there is blue, and it is from leftovers.  
I'm going now to link up with Soscrappy's RSC, if you'd like to see lots of pretty blue projects, go here.

Mini Me

40" by 50" baby quilt top.

26" x 30" from leftover blocks.  I've been using the Essential Pro from Connecting threads for piecing and have had seams coming apart for the first time ever.   I had one come apart today and figured out that for piecing it's not good as I believe that when it is pressed with a hot iron, the polyester essential pro must melt.  I had a whole, about 4 inch seam come apart in my hand today and it was one where I had really put the heat to it.  Oh well, so much for saving money, it's back to Aurifil for piecing.  Hopefully, the quilts that I've made won't be coming apart.  I already have had to mend 1 top, and I noticed a day or two ago a seam about 1" long on one of my table toppers that had come apart.  You live and you learn, but hopefully not at the expense of quilts that I've made for others.