let's make it . . .

. . . a wonderful Wednesday!!  (Did you think I was going to say something quilty-cutesy? Psyche!)

I'm just going to be straight out honest and say that I got in more napping than stitching on Sunday afternoon. (insert cheesy grin here) But I have done a smidge of stitching on Evey's quilt . . . 

"G", to be exact.

I found a cute pattern for bubble britches for Evey (to go with her turtle smock). I was prepared to buy a pattern when I remembered I've got a pretty decent arsenal of patterns for little girls' clothes saved on my laptop. Sure enough . . .

Just the bloomers. For now! Pdf patterns are interesting, because you've got to print them and then put them together . . .

Tah-dah! That was quick...luckily for me, these little cuties only needed five pages. But I still had to find some appropriate fabric! Luckily for me, there's a little shop *two*doors*down* from my place of work -- Barb's Sewing. I think I've got the perfect little print to hide a diaper and go with the smocked turtles . . .

Isn't that cute stuff??? Add that half-yard to my stash and out again.

I found a *GREAT* video tutorial for baby bloomers from Vintage to New.  

This tutorial is definitely worth checking out if sewing a pair of baby bloomers is in your future. LOL!  (insert another cheesy grin here)

So that's where I stand on Wednesday -- hoping to have bloomers finished on Friday and powering through letters "I" and "J"! Linking up today with Esther's Quilt Blog WOW (WIPs On Wednesday) post. Have a GREAT day!!

:)

what's that refrain?

Oh yeah.

Same song, second verse,
A little bit louder and a little bit worse!

LOL! Well, maybe not a little bit worse, but I did feel like I was perhaps living out a scene from Goundhog's Day. Even the view out the window was the same . . .

Gray, cool and dreary. Oh wait -- there's rain! Loverly! That does make it an extra good day for stitchery, right? I was going to share window pictures throughout the day again, but since they all looked the same (again), I figured I'd save the bandwidth. If you really want to, you can just scroll back up to this window view every couple of paragraphs. Hah.

I was a little bit ahead of where I was at this time on Thursday. I'd gone ahead and sewn all my strips together so they were ready to be pressed and cut. I got that done in no time. I admit, I started the day feeling a little cocky about getting this second set done.

I didn't plan it, but I'm glad it worked out that I was playing with these two particular fabrics on the second day. I love that cheddar print. It's gorgeous and fascinating and captivating. I could have looked at it all day long. Ummmm . . . . . . yeah. The shirting I picked to go with it is really beautiful too. It was during my shop for these fabrics that I realized how rich and beautiful CW prints are.

Look at my "little Indians" all stacked up in neat little rows! When I'm working on something this size, I like to work in increments. Each one of these stacks represented one block. Since I was making twenty blocks, I worked with them in groups of five.

Before I got to stitching, I decided I'd better do a little PMS (preventative maintenance service) (what were you thinking?!?!?) on my machine. I'd taken a lot of stitches the day before and so a quick twist with the screwdriver and removing the plate and . . .

Whew! Yeah, glad I did that -- it was full of fuzz and lint. While I was at it, I replaced my needle, too. Now I'm jazzed and ready to sew!

I did a lot of chain piecing. A. Lot. Of. Chain. Piecing.

Round one. I got them snipped and pressed and grouped up ready for round two. I started running round two through the machine and hit a thread snag. Literally.

What in the world? This happened once yesterday, too. Thread was still feeding through the needle, but it was piling up on the other end of the needle too. Gah. As I started to pull the thread off the spool to re-thread the machine, I found this:

It rolled of my spool this way!!! What?!?!? I was very put out. It's the same thread I always use for piecing -- dual duty, cotton thread, cement gray ... I must have gotten a bad spool. Sheesh. Just out of curiosity, what do you consider the best thread for piecing?

Round three. The task ahead still looks ginormous and impossible. Ugh. What was I thinking?!?

Round four, chugging along. I sewed with my right (cast) foot up and my left foot pushing the pedal. I'm a sight, that's for sure.

Round five ... I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel!

It kinda cracks me up -- it looks like the same photo, over and over and over. But I promise it's not!

And finally, all the stitch work is DONE! All that's left is to unpin, press and trim. Whoohooo!!!!

It really is a nice looking block. It'll be fun to deliver my two stacks today and come home with 38 different blocks, along with two of my own!

Wanna take bets as to what's on my design wall come Monday?!?

:)

40-block journey . . .

Look -- a post from me that actually records actual quilting work! LOL! Yesterday morning I realized I had two days to complete forty blocks (yes, *40*) for a swap we're doing in our Stitcher's Group on Saturday.

*gulp*

And this is the block. It's a really cool looking block and we are doing it in Civil War fabrics. I'd picked out my four fabrics: we're to do twenty with two colors -- a dark and a shirting -- and twenty with two other colors. Or we could mix and match, but the object is to have two different blocks for each woman participating. Luckily I'd already gotten my fabric and washed it and cut it (I wasn't that far behind the eight ball), it was just a manner of stitching and constructing.

The thing is, I wasn't sure how stitching would be on the machine, with the cast. Uh, yeah. The nice thing was, since my sewing table is down, I set up at Todd's desk (he was on shift yesterday). Look what a great view I had while I was sewing! Of course, it was a dark and grey day, but still. So at 7:30, I got busy.

I stitched my strips, cut them up and made my four patches.

At 10:30 the view was pretty much the same out my window.

All my four-patches were stitched together and I needed to "pop" that back center seam.

You flip the block and gently give that long seam a tug. See how where the four seams meet, they separate?

Press flat and Voila! Look, it's a little teeny, tiny baby four-patch on the back!

But it does allow the block to lay flatter, which is great, especially if you've got a bunch of them in a block, and a lot of those blocks in your quilt! The popping and pressing actually went pretty quickly.

I should note here that just after lunchtime, I had a couple of (very welcome) visitors. Kim and Sawyer stopped by to chat! If they'd done nothing else but come to the door, the grin he gave me when he saw me -- you know, the one that said, Hey! I know you and I like you and I'm glad to see you! -- did me sooooo much good!!

It was mostly a quiet visit. He sat with me on the couch most of the time, looking at pictures with me or looking out the window. He *loves* to sit at the computer and press keys. Yesterday I pulled up the paint program and let him go. This is his first computer drawing. LOL! Oh, well, I put his name in there. But he's so smart, it won't be long before he's doing it himself. :)

After they left, I headed back to the sewing arena. And stitched and pressed and lined up and pinned and stitched some more.

Oh look! The view at 2:00 is still the same! LOL! I don't think the light changed one bit all day long!

Finally I had all my four-patches done and ready to put together!

Whoopsie! Ugh. I hate it when that happens. I did that with three different blocks. But for the last one -- and it literally was my last one -- it took me ripping it apart gently removing the threads from seams THREE TIMES before my muddled mind could get it together. I think I may have started praying the serenity prayer at this point. Good gravy. I marked it to make sure I got that one in the swap. LOL!

One down -- nineteen to go in this color. Thirty-nine to go total. Oh wait, let's not think like that, I might have a meltdown. Only nineteen more!!

At 4:30 the view look ... well, you know ... the same. Except, and I'd been hoping for this all day, I caught a glimpse of movement. The deer had come up to check out the corn, and often times they'll head out on a path they've created off the backside of the RV -- right out that window. The two babies (although they don't have any spots left) were wandering up. I'm sorry to say I sat there watching them, transfixed, before I thought to get the camera. By then they were on the move and the photo I caught was blurry.

And finally . . . TAH DAH!

Twenty Journey Steps blocks, all ready to go! I have to admit, it occurred to me yesterday that I'll be swapping blocks with women who've been quilting for 20, 30, and 40+ years. Women who've won ribbons for their quilts and women who've had their quilts juried into big shows like Paducah, Houston, and Atlanta -- and won ribbons there. I'm the baby quilter of the group. I've only been quilting for five years (and I'm not sure the first year really counts) and it's not like I've done a LOT of it in those years. I work really hard to do things the right way, but I know my blocks aren't perfect. It's cause for a lot of angst. Quilter's angst.

What was I thinking?!?

Oh well, I don't have time for that now. I have twenty more blocks to complete. Swap tomorrow. Gotta go, get to sew! If stitching is therapy, I should be good for a while . . .

:)

here and there . . .

I'm slow to post lately. I'm so busy, busy, busy -- what with grandbabies and ministry and the upcoming Fall Jamboree at the camp (and a long weekend at a PLACE conference), I am barely getting in stitching time, much less blogging time! (Just ask one of my favorite blog-keepers how far back I had to go to catch up on reading! LOL!)

ANYway, I *did* manage to squeeze in some sewing time. Do you remember that fabric Jocelyn gave me to make into a runner for her "reveal" party? (I'd insert a link to the post, but it was only two posts ago, so I feel a little silly doing that!) I loved that fabric. It really tugged at me. On the way over to her party last week, I took a picture of that fabric and posted it to Pinterest (my new addiction), with the caption that there would be a skirt in this fabric, this time next week. That was last Thursday. I finished it two days ahead of schedule . . .

Tah dah!! And the fabric was so feminine and flirty, I decided it deserved a little extra flounce, so I gave it a built in slip with a little something-something at the hem . . .

So it *swishes* when I walk!! The funny thing is, when I told Jocelyn I wanted a skirt out of it and asked her where she got it, she told me she had bought the end of the bolt. I almost cried. But she gave me what was left from piece I'd made the table runner, and I made it work. I was determined! Can you guess what I'll be wearing on Sunday??!

I should go back, now, and make a pattern from it, so the next time there won't be so much guess work. It went together pretty quickly, but it would have been so much easier if I'd been working with pieces cut from a pattern! (Yet another thing to add to my to-do list!)

Perusing Pinterest last night, I saw a really cute felt rose, and decided one of those in goldenrod yellow would be perfect, pinned to the shoulder of the black sweater I'll be wearing with my new skirt.

It took ten minutes. Ha!! And I think it's really cute.

I *always* have time for this little fellow . . .

Kim worked the kid's consignment this week, so I volunteered to watch Sawyer. I can't get over how grown up he's getting!! He's so darling and busy, and he runs everywhere! Luckily he's also very obedient; if he wasn't, I'd never be able to catch up with him! He hung in with me that morning, too. I had errands that took me all over creation. He didn't complain a lick, and he was so sweet to everyone, everywhere we went. He did take a four-hour long nap that afternoon, though! I don't blame him -- I would have liked to have done the same!

He also spent the night with me this past Friday. We got up Saturday morning pretty early and rode the golf cart down to unlock the gate (we had campers in the camp all weekend -- and will pretty much every weekend into December). On our way down the hill, we came upon four or five deer that were still bedded down. We sat there for quite a while just watching them. Sawyer "mooed" and all I could say was that those were deer, not cows. But I couldn't give him a sound that went with them! Perhaps next time, I'll make that blowing sound they make. When we finally started back up, all of the deer got up -- and most of them ran, too, which made Sawyer's eyes go wide! The lead doe--who was maybe 30 yards away at most--just stood and watched us move on. I don't think Sawyer took his eyes off of her, he was so fascinated.

And he's such a happy charmer. I've said it before and I know I'll say it again -- he just melts my heart and makes me smile. He's a joy!

:)

new paths . . .

I did something today I've hadn't done in over 16 years.

I bought a bathing suit! A TWO piece no less! (A tankini.)

I did *not* take pictures to post, either. You can thank me later. :)

I *did* enjoy a wonderful time at the pool with Jocelyn, Kim and my sweet Sawyer! This time, since I was in the pool playing, there aren't any Sawyer swimming photos. But I did catch a few of him after we'd headed back for lunch . . .

Look at that sweet little head! And a neck that's made for being kissed on by his Neesey!

I think that pool play wore the boy out.

Definitely. I bet he took a great nap this afternoon!

After Kim took Sawyer home for a nap, Jocelyn and I had another crafty afternoon. Last time we got together we worked on her wreath -- from this post. She didn't finish it that day, but I've got a finished picture of it now . . .

Didn't she do a great job?! I love it!

My sister loved the idea, so she made one too, only she used burlap to make the ruffle and decorated it with pine cones. She sent me a picture of it this evening (along with a text that she had hot glue gun burns over 50% of her body)!

I'd say the burns were worth it -- she did a marvelous job!! I want to do one with burlap, too -- and use some autumn mini-corn with the husks for my decoration. We'll see. I also want to do an acorn wreath. And a pine cone wreath. And a starlight mint wreath. Ummmm....I really have a wreath obsession right now!

ANYway, today we went in a different direction. Today we played dress-ups!

Joc had found this really cute shirred maternity top on DIY Maternity HERE. She wanted one for herself so she went through Jason's closet and came out with a handful of dress shirts that he couldn't wear anymore.

Then we pulled out the tape measure . . .

And started whacking off excess pieces . . .

And finally a couple of hours and a spool of elastic thread later, voila . . .

And hubba hubba! Isn't she darling?!

She was thrilled with the shirt, but she's the one that made it so cute! She wants about five more now. LOL!

The empire waistline was a challenge at first, but I think I got the hang of it quickly, and it really makes this man's shirt oh-so-feminine! I'd never used elastic thread in clothes sewing -- just in crafting. It was really easy to work with.

We ended up trimming the sleeves and cuffing them, removing the collar and then reattaching the collar tab, and creating the empire waist. Such a beautiful girl . . .

Just glowing!

:)