The trees and tulips are blooming!

Wow, what a week it has been! April vacation wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Our dog, Serena had an emergency vet appointment, Abigail was sick at the end of the week, and I was sick almost all weekend, and into this week. So not much has gotten done at all. I'm currently working on a hand embroidery piece that will be part of a wall hanging. I'm almost done with the outline, then I'll fill in the colors and start picking fabrics to go with it. I'm thinking of just doing a series of borders.

Got a cranky baby on my hands today so I have to go for now, but I'll try and post some more when I get some time.

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Life has been pretty busy. I had pieced the quilt top together on Thursday and start cutting and piecing the border. The border is made up of flying geese with black as the background color and the different colors in the quilt top as the corners. I'm not working on it as much as I should be, but I guess I needed a little tiny break from that project.

Angela and I have started her rag quilt. I've cut about 180 sqaures so far and sewn X's on a small handful. Angela's scared to sew on my machine so she insists I do the X's...although I'm going to have her try on some scrap fabric and get used to the machine so she can work on the quilt. I don't want to do all the work on it, I'd like her to have some hand in it as well.

On a side note, we have to take our dog Serena to the vet today. We've had this on-going problem with her constantly itching and biting and licking herself raw. We've had to resort to keeping a cone on her at all times, but yesterday it broke off and 45 minutes later she had a giant spot on her back raw and bloody, so...it's off to the vet and hopefully we can find out why she has this obsession. I pray it's not serious. So please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

That's all for now. I do have pics of the quilt top put together so when I get some time, I'll post them.

Much love and God Bless.

So close to the top finish line!

I've completed the sashing on all 12 blocks. Pretty simple when you have the right fabric! I've also measured and trimmed all the blocks down to 14inches square. The next task at hand is to lay the blocks out, make sure they are the way I want them, and then start sewing them together. I'm still undecided on the border. I thought about doing a thick black border, but with the sashing, it might be too much black. We will see once all the blocks are sewn together.

I'll post pics later if I can.

Sashing Adventures

On Monday, I started measuring and cutting my 1 1/2 inch wide strips for the sashing on my blocks. My plan was to cut enough strips to test on one block then cut the rest, 48 strips total. The fabric is black. I chose black because I had 4 yards of it (for free) and I knew it would make the colors of the quilt pop. Well, I started cutting and noticed that the fabric was very stretchy, as mentioned before. I had the hardest time sewing the first strip into place. I starched and starched and not a bit of difference.

I went to my wonderful fellow quilters on quiltingboard.com :) and got lots of feedback on the fabric, and was told I was better off not using what I had, and to go out and get new, 100% cotton fabric. So I did that yesterday. I bought 4 yards, at $2.77/yard from Walmart! They have awesome prices on good quality fabric!

I'm happy to say I have cut all 48 strips from this new fabric and am very pleased with the way the blocks are coming out. I should have all the sashing on within the next 2 days, if not sooner.

Right now, I'm off to Joann's to get a yard of flannel to make a flannel board. I think it will be much easier for me to layout pieces for a block with this and it's so cheap to make! I already have the cardboard and tape, all that is needed is the flannel.

On another note, next week is April Vacation for the local schools and Angela will be off. I've promised her we would work on a quilt together and I've decided it will be a rag quilt. Either Friday or Monday we will head to Joann's or Walmart to pick out the fabric and batting and we'll get started. I will do most of the measuring and cutting, and she will do the majority of the sewing. It should be a fun project together and I can't wait to see how it comes out!

That's all for now...much love to all and God Bless!

The blocks are finished!

I finished piecing the last of the blocks and I am so excited! I've started cutting the sashing to border each block. I'm not too fond of the fabric, as it's pretty stretchy, but it was free, so I'm not going to complain too much! :)

Here are some pics!!

12' Friendship Star

12 Dandy Quilt block

12" Flyfoot

Blocks all laid out in the fashion they will be assembeled...carefully being inspected by 2 furbabies.

Final layout before sashing.

TGIF

It's once again Friday. Normally I don't get too much quilting done on the weekends. I spend most of the time with my husband and my kids. I don't expect to get too much done at all this weekend, but I want to try. I'm hoping I can at least finish piecing my blocks, and start the sashing. I'm really excited to see how the blocks will come out with the sashing on them. I'll take and post pics as I complete them.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

How exciting!!

I am so excited! I'm making great progress on my first quilt. I completed my 9th block last night and started the 10th. I'm doing 12 altogether. I'll then add black sashing to each block then start piecing them together. Here you see the pic of the 9th block, 12" Dewey's Victory (My variation). It's my variation because I pieced the middle part of the block backwards, but decided to leave it instead of ripping it apart, and I think it still looks great! The 2nd pic is the 9 blocks laid out on my living room floor. I was dying to see what they all looked like next to one another! I'm feeling so motivated and excited! I'm really looking forward to the finished top!

12" Dewey's Victory (My variation)
The first 9 blocks laid out.

Here are 3 more blocks I've finished over the last few days. All are 12" blocks. I'm getting there!!


This is a 12" Blazing Arrows

This is 12" Beacon Lights Variation

This is 12" Austin

Welcome to the REAL One Quilter's Adventure!!

I feel like such a dumbie sometimes!! I can't believe I went over a week with the wrong spelling in my blogs address and never noticed it! *Thanks Diane for pointing out that the old link wasn't working.*

So here is the real thing! I imported the old blog to this new one so the old info is there. I just have to tweak the blog now to get it the way I want it. I'll work on that today as well as finishing a new block and possibly starting a new one, depending on how much Abigail lets me do.

Sorry for any confusion and inconvenience!!

School Days!

I am super super excited!! I've thought about going back to school for a long time. I finally found the motivation to do so. I started the application process back in January and also applied for financial aid. Now, the only way I could do this was to take online classes, and at first, I wasn't sure financial aid would pay for online classes. Well, after the long application process, I've officially registered for my fall semester classes, Math 99 and English Comp 1! I'm so excited to finally move forward with this adventure!

My grades in the past haven't been too well, but I'm determined to do my absolute best and not just settle for mediocre work.

Once classes start, quilting will be put on the back burner, and I'll work on it whenever I can.


As for quilting, I'm working on a block right now, as we speak and I'll be cutting boarder strips for each block today and piecing those on. Not sure yet how big I will make this quilt, thinking it'll be just lap size.

More to come!!

Ahh, moving on.

I finally finished my Anvil block. Feels like it took forever to get the motivation to work on it. Here is a pic of that block and of the others I have done in the last couple weeks. Thanks for looking!

So so busy!

I have so wanted to work on my blocks the last few days, but Abigail has got me running ragged!! Now that she is crawling, I spend most of time chasing her around and it's almost impossible to quilt when she is awake. By the time she goes to bed, I'm so tired I just don't have the energy to work on anything. I do promise to get to it in the next couple of nights. I'd love to finish the anvil block I started last week.

For now, the chase is on!

~Jen

I thought my machine was going crazy!

Hello!! What a frustrating day yesterday. As I was finishing a block, my sewing machine started making a grinding noise. Having very little knowledge of sewing machines, I tried to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. I figured out it was happening when I hand turned the balance wheel. So I did what I was supposed to and cleaned the nesseccary parts of my machine and oiled them as well. I also changed threads because the spool I was using had run out. I ran the machine with no threads in, to get the oil into the parts it needed to be in, and then threaded the machine and it continued to make the irratating grinding noise! So I put in another spool of thread, one less as thick, and that seems to have cured the grinding for the time being.



I'm sure this little adventure of mine is quite boring to a expert quilter, but none the less was frustrating for me!



I'm working on a block now called "Anvil" I have most of the pieces cut, and will be piecing them tonight if I get the time. Most of my quilting time depends on my almost 10 month old baby and if she will cooperate!



Until next time, which will hopefully have some pictures as well,

Take care and God Bless!

As I embark on this amazing journey, I want to share with anyone interested, my many ups and downs of this adventure in my quilting quest.

My name is Jennifer and I'm 28 years old. I'm married to a great guy, Matt, who complains, but supports all my hobbies and interests. I've crocheted, knitted, cross-stitched, scrapbooked, and now my latest quest, quilting, all thanks to the inspiration of my Mother-In-Law. I also have 2 children, both girls. Angela is my oldest. She'll be 10 on May 20th. Abigail, who is a true blessing, will turn 1 on May 24th. As you can see, I'll have my hands full that week! I do also have five pets. Four cats and one dog. The cats, at least a couple of them, love to incorporate themselves into my work, by leaving pieces of fur here and there on my fabric. If I'm not careful, they will use the fabrics as their own personal beds :)

I'm a beginner at quilting, having only made a few 12" blocks. I'm making a sampler quilt for myself, as well as my family. I'm using blocks patterns from www.quilterscache.com. Thanks Marcia!!! So far, I have 3 good blocks that will be used in this quilt. I have a Monkey Wrench (Snail's Trail), Jacob's Ladder, and an Ohio Star. I've made a few others that have come very short of 12" square, so I've put those aside for use in a quilt that will use smaller blocks.

When I have a few moments, I will post pictures of my completed blocks.

Thank you so much for taking interest in my blog and taking part in my amazing journey. I hope you'll leave comments, advice, tips and anything else to help me along the way.

Much love and God Bless.