Thursday, November 13, 2014

WIP Wednesday: Weekend sewing continued!

I'm in the middle of two (relatively kid-free) quilting weekends, and it's fantastic! 
This past weekend my parents had my two older boys and my husband was out of town participating in a bike race. I took the baby and headed to my best friend's house for a weekend of girl time, good food, and projects. It was like my own personal quilting retreat.

She spoiled me with good food...
Egg bake and monkey bread

Deconstructed cabbage roll soup and homemade foccacia with flavored olive oils (the bread was my one food contribution to the weekend--I've unsuccessfully made foccacia several times and I can happily say that I have finally conquered yeast... ha ha ha!)

Dessert...pecan and brown sugar crust, a cream cheese layer, chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, whipped cream, chocolate shavings...

Wait, isn't this post supposed to be about quilting?

I finished piecing and trimming the backings for my big boys' new bed quilts (now off at the machine quilter's!):


I pieced a quilt top that I'm planning to donate using the adorable Smudgy Cat collection:

I basted my tree skirt...there's still a chance to get this finished for the holidays!

And he hung out on his play mat while we sewed, chatted, and ate!

I loved this quote Kathy had hanging up--the word you can't see is "Every." Planning to make a wallhanging with this quote on it.

Kathy is a quilter but she's really found her niche in mixed media artwork. She and I started this painting in July for my mantel and she took it home to finish. I love what she did on top of our original work, and it's now hanging over our fireplace!

Our selfie along the shores of Lake Michigan. We didn't leave the house on Saturday, but on Sunday ventured down to the lake for a little exercise and fresh air.

We had a fantastic, relaxing, productive weekend, and I can't wait to find an opportunity to do it again!

And now for my WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. I'm thrilled that I basted the tree skirt because basting seems to be a stumbling block for me--it's just so tedious! So I was excited to get started on the quilting. And tonight I did! 
Now...did you ever have one of those projects where while you were working on it, you realized that you hadn't thought through exactly what it would involve? That would be this tree skirt! It has 40 wedges. I'm quilting it 1/4" along both sides of each chevron seam. That is A LOT of stopping, rotating the skirt and redirecting the walking foot. As in 40 times per ring. For 11 rings, stitched twice on each ring. Yowza! But it'll be worth it in the end. 

Here's what I've got done so far.

And speaking of projects that ultimately take longer/more effort than originally thought, I'm also at work transforming this car into a camper for my son's kindergarten class. But I'll be saving that story for another post. Like when I'm finally done with it. Next June.


Friday, November 7, 2014

November ALYOF Goal

Back when I joined the A Lovely Year of Finishes party in January 2013, my first goal was to finish my two boys' Christmas stockings. I did, and by the time December came around, it was a huge treat to pull them out, completed, and hang them on the mantel.

This year, there's a third kid, so we need a third stocking! Luckily, I bought enough fabric way back when in case we needed an extra stocking, so I'm ready to go.

Because I pay someone else to do the name embroidery and I haven't gotten her the fabric for doing that yet, my goal for November is to get the stocking quilted, cut out, and ready for the name to be added to the top.