WIP Wednesday- Itty Bitty Finish

 I have two finishes to report this week, courtesy of my new weight loss plan. I realized that when I'm sewing, I'm not snacking. More sewing = less snacking = pounds lost. Win-Win!!

Earlier today, I finished an itty bitty mini for the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap.  The flying geese variation blocks go way back to twiddletails' Geese in the Forest BOM in 2009. The original blocks were 6", I reduced mine to 3", and for this mini, I reduced them further to finish at 1.5"! This tiny quilt is only 8" square.

I always get nervous when it comes time to quilt these little pieces. I wanted something wavy, like the quilting on my 2009 piece.

On the back, I added folded triangles in the top corners for hanging (just insert a dowel or bamboo skewer cut to size).

I had fun photographing this little cutie on various backgrounds: green kitchen wall, rhododendron bush, yellow living room wall, gray front porch siding.

 The other finish this week was my T quilt. Read more about it here.

Next up: I picked up Pete's quilt today from the quilter and it's ready to bind. And our t-shirts for boot camp graduation arrived today. I'm getting so excited to see him again!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Welcome to Seaside Stitches!
Here's my entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival Spring 2010.

Geese in the Forest, completed October 2009.


It was a paper-pieced block of the month designed by Anina at twiddletails.
Her original blocks were 6" finished, which was too big for me.
Mine are reduced to 3", so the quilt finished at 30" square.

It was pieced from a variety of green batiks on a solid white background.
It was machine quilted on my Bernina 153.
I'm hoping it will be accepted at the Lowell Quilt Festival.

To see more than 600 more bloggers' quilts, click on the button!

Ready for the Quilt Show

Our guild show is this weekend and set-up starts tomorrow. I'm not sure where this procrastination gene comes from, but I do know I've passed it on to my kids. My quilts are ready to go, but Julia still needs to finish binding the QOV and put a label on it and on Josh's quilt.

I'm so happy that my Geese in the Forest is finished. I love it!
Thank you, Anina, for this fun BOM project!


I wasn't sure how to quilt it, but I knew I wanted an all over random pattern. I doodled on paper until I found the look I was after, then started quilting.


I also finished Wildflowers, from Bonnie Hunter's Weed Whacker pattern. I was really happy with the top and the stash it used up. I was lazy and skipped the pieced border.


The top row (the bottom in the photo) was made from leftover strip pieces cut into bricks and the leftover triangles from the weed whacker piecing. I had a few of these blocks left over from Lily's quilt.


I'm not crazy about the quilting on this one. I realized over the past couple of weeks that I really enjoy machine quilting small quilts, say under 50". But I don't enjoy free-motion on larger quilts. From now on, I'll be farming out those jobs to my friend, Pat. Live and learn.

I made this tessellating hexagon table topper 2 years ago after I saw the Simply Quilts episode with Martha Thompson. We have a mass of bittersweet in the backyard this year, so I plopped a bunch in my hand-painted Italian pitcher from Florence. That's about as far as I've gotten with Fall decorating. Sad, but true.


Sending happy thoughts to Karen.
Tina

Geese, Band, and an Anniversary

My Geese in the Forest top is done! Now how should I quilt it? Any suggestions?


That was a lot of paper to tear off ! But I love paper-piecing, so it's a small price to pay.


We went to a friend's long arm studio to watch her new computer drive complete one of Julia's QOV's. So cool!


I created two band geeks! I'm so proud!
I loved being in marching band in high school, and I'm happy to report that Pete and Julia love it, too. (Don't let the goofy teenage grins fool you!)


Their first performance was at a football game on Friday night. Pete has a really cool snare drum part in the marching cadence that the horn section was dancing to in the stands. They had more fun than anyone at the game! Unfortunately, they got rained out of the Fireman's parade on Sunday. That gives them more time to practice marching before the Veteran's Day Parade.


These 2 cuties started "dating" 2 years ago today.
(13 year olds don't really date and 15 year olds don't have any money, so they mostly hang around at home. That works for me.)


They make each other happy and that makes me happy.

Julia made Josh this neat card. Then they cooked dinner together.
So sweet.

Have a happy day!

I Sewed!

Yay! I finally had some time to sew. I made a list of what needs to be done this fall and it's not pretty. Well, the finished quilts will be pretty!

First up: Three by Three swap blocks are almost a completed top.
I need to decide on the border(s) and if I'll quilt it myself or give it to a longarmer friend.


Silly long-arm story:
At our last Guild meeting, I was asked to read a blurb about an upcoming guest speaker aloud to the members. As I tired to focus, I had to move the paper farther and farther from my face. When I finished reading about this award winning long arm quilter, a friend said:
"Tina, it looks like you've become a long arm reader!"
Hahahahaha!

While I was waiting for my new washing machine to be delivered yesterday,
I finished my Geese in the Forest blocks. I'm hoping to get them sewn together today so I can pull off the paper during Pete's game tomorrow.


During the Mentalist, I laid them out and pinned them to my foam core design wall.
When Bill got home from DC late last night, he said "It looks like a forest."
He's so smart.

Not sure if I mentioned this before-
I don't like paper-piecing large blocks. The original patterns for 6" blocks were just enormous for me, so I reduced them to 3". Without borders, the top will finish at 30", my favorite wall-hanging size.


I need to call Sears this morning to mention that as the washer delivery guy was bad mouthing the salesman, he was hooking up the water lines wrong. I set the washer for a COLD wash. I went in a few minutes after it finished, and the laundry room felt like a sauna! Bill reversed the lines this morning, so I'm ready to spend the day attacking Mount Washmore.

It's going to be a crazy fun weekend.

• Drum lesson and Boy Scout popcorn sale after school (P)
  
• Marching band at the football game tonight (J&P)
  
• Baseball game tomorrow (P)
  
• Airing of the quilts at Cranston Historical Society (1/2 mile from baseball field!)
  
• Silver Award - last few hours of work (J)
  
• Sunday Mass and religious ed class (J&P teach 1st grade)
  
• Firefighter's Parade (J&P)
  
• Praise! rehearsal (J,P &B)
• No School Monday- hurray!
  
• Drive to Providence with Silver paperwork
  
• Celebrate J&J's 2nd anniversary.
  

We will enjoy every minute!

Patriots Day Memories, etc.

Today is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, which means the running of the Boston Marathon and an early Red Sox game. Twenty years ago, Bill and I were living in the Boston area and were newly engaged. He gave me a ring the Friday before Patriots Day. (I don't remember the exact date. Is that bad?) Anyway, since we both had the day off, we headed into town on the T and watched the start of the marathon on the big screen at the finish line. We walked along the race route until we found a place to sit and wait for the runners. Bill watched the race and I watched my new ring, glistening in the sun! My hand isn't what it was 20 years ago, but diamonds are forever. And so are we!
I got a little sewing done on Saturday. I was determined to get caught up with the Geese in the Forest and succeeded. Have I mentioned that I reduced the block size from 6" to 3"? That's more my speed. I'm thinking about going even smaller: 1.5".
I forgot to show you my Moo stickers that arrived last week. Love them! I will definitely be ordering more from them soon. Maybe mini cards or note cards.

When we went to Federal Hill last week, we bought a deck of Italian playing cards. I remember my grandfather playing Scopa with his friends, drinking homemade wine. So we googled the instructions (the ones that came in the deck are in Italian!) and took some time to learn the game. Julia kicked our butts. I'm blaming my poor performance on bad cards. Yes, you can play Scopa with regular cards, but how cool are these?

It's game time. Go Sox!
Tina

Shopping Day- Crafts & Shoes

I had fun shopping today, first with Mom, then with Julia. Mom was crocheting a baby blanket for the new baby and ran out of yarn. So we started at JoAnn's. Not what she wanted, so we got some at Michael's. It's so convenient that they are at opposite ends of the same strip mall! I was very well behaved. I bought 3 yards of dark brown solid (40% off coupon) for Julia to make one of these with her collection of large prints. On the way into JoAnn's, there was a bin of the Eco-friendly batting on clearance. I hope this doesn't mean they won't be carrying it anymore. I like it, so I bought 2 packages.
I really needed a new cutting mat, so I got this one for 40% off. I love the light green and yellow. I have a smaller one in bright blue, and it's too dark. (see below) I hope these light colors will be better.
The only things I bought at Michael's were these cute decals, similar to this post. I 'll have to wash off the layer of winter crud (salt and sand) before I put them on the car.Then Julia & I went shoe shopping. That was fun! She's going to a dance in a few weeks and she needed shoes to match the dress which is cream colored with metallic gold accents. The high heeled sandals are actually gold metallic. Then a pair of champagne gold flats for when her feet start to hurt. Yes, those heels are awefully high for a freshman, but keep in mind that the boyfriend is 6'2" to her 4'11".

And red flats for me in the same size and style, because they are so cute! I love Payless. 3 pairs for $50.

Yesterday, I started working on the Geese in the Forest block of the month. I prefer working with small paper-piecing patterns, so I reduced the 6" block to 3". I'll be using batiks on a white background. I'm not sure about the background, but I love the batiks. I can't wait til the next installment! See the blue mat? It was really hard to cut those green fabrics on it.
Someday soon, I'll show you how small my paper-piecing gets.

Ciao,
Tina