Flannel Baby Quilt - Quilting is Done

As I mentioned in a previous post, my original gift idea for our nephew's new baby was a flannel baby quilt using a large piece of flannel that I had in my stash.  I subsequently found a lightweight crocheted afghan at the thrift store in new condition and sent that instead.  The flannel quilt will probably end up being the baby's Christmas gift. 

This was definitely a quick and dirty quilt.  The flannel piece was just large enough that if I cut it exactly in half I would end up with a quilt about 3 feet by 5 feet, plenty big to lay in the crib or on the floor.  A few weeks ago Dawn and I had a quilting day and I spent the day basting and quilting this quilt.  The quilting was simple too as I just quilted on the wavy lines in the flannel, alternating every other line so it wasn't too dense.  The binding will be a blue moda marble from my stash.

Here is the full quilt.  Not the greatest picture, but I didn't want to take the time to vacuumn up the dog hair from the shedding dogs in order to lay it on the floor.  You can't tell how bright the fabric really is in this picture. Click on the close-up picture below this one and you will see the true colors of the fabric.  It's really quite bright and Dawn said that all the activity on the print will provide visual stimulation for the baby.  Who knew?  I just bought the fabric because it was cute and on sale :-).

Confessions of a Fabriholic

I figured before I show you all of the fabric I bought before and during vacation, I better fess up to some other stash enhancing that I've done this year that I never posted about.  I just finished washing all of the fabric I've bought so far this year and let me assure you, it's ALOT.  We are already in a drought and I don't think I have helped the situation one bit.

Given that I have gone a bit overboard with the buying this year, I have challenged myself to a "no-buy" goal from now until the end of the year, when I will use the GC my sister got me from the Fat Quarter Shop when they had GCs for 20% off over the 4th of July holiday.  Given that I already have the GC in my hot little hands, and have had it since I arrived home on July 9th, I'd say I'm doing pretty good so far having not even been tempted to use it.  Have I mentioned that the GC is for $200????  But it only cost $160.  Great deal, huh?  I kicked in $10 and the rest came from my sister.  I am making her more table runners so the GC is what I got in exchange.

Are you ready?  Here goes.  This is everything else I've bought this year that I haven't already posted about.  You might want to grab a cup of your favorite beverage and maybe take a bathroom break too as this is going to get a bit long.  What can I say?  Some people can't resist shoes while I can't resist fabric *sigh*.

During tax season I finally broke down and bought one of the Fat Quarter Shop's grab bag boxes that I'd been eyeing for quite some time.  These boxes contain 12 pounds of fabric.  That's alot of fabric in case you were wondering.  They were on sale for 58.49, so a pretty good deal for that much fabric.  FYI, they are REALLY cheap right now for anyone that is interested - $41.99, plus $10 shipping.  I removed some fabrics from the box for my post tax season giveaway and this is what I had left.  As you can see, most of what was in the box are good size pieces of fabric.

The darks:



The mediums:

And the lights:

I'm not sure when I bought these batiks, but it was on one of mine and Dawn's quilting days when we stopped by the shop near our houses.  I think she needed something and I was supposed to just be along for moral support, but of course I had to get these, because I'm weak I tell ya.

Then along came a sale at Burgundy Buttons, which is a great on-line shop.  I found them through Ebay, but you can buy directly as well.  Anyway, this older Moda bundle was on sale for $60.  It's Soiree by Lila Tueller.  It fit right in with my new infatuation with "modern" fabrics.  It's the first and only fat quarter bundle I have ever bought.  So far *grin*.

And then there was the quick stop at the Quilted Apple in Phoenix while I was across town for a chiropractor appointment.  These lovely items came home with me.  A couple of yards of black dot fabric for a potential border, a batik, and two rolls of 6 inch strips.  They sell the rolls of strips for $5.00 and there are 12 different fabrics cut 6 inches by WOF.  Great for a scrap quilter like me.

Hmmm, what else.  Oh yes.  The pre-cut sale at Fabric World right before Easter - 25% off all pre-cuts.  I have also developed a fascination for Layer Cakes, so off I went.  I was really weak at this point as Easter weekend this year was right before the end of tax season, so I really needed something fun.  I got two Layer Cakes and two Charm Packs of Butterfly Garden:

And two Layer Cakes and one Charm Pack of Blush.  The charm pack was used almost immediately, so it did not make it into this picture.

Finally, I loved the Blush line so much that I decided that I had to get some coordinating yardage of my favorite pieces so I could make a decent size quilt or two from this line.  I know, a scrap quilter wanting to limit themselves to just one line of fabric in a quilt.  I couldn't believe it either.  Here is the yardage I purchased from Fabric Shack, my favorite on-line shop.

I think that's it.  Congratulations if you made it this far in the post!  Soon I will post the sequel to my fabriholic confessions when I show you all of the fabric I bought before, during, and unfortunately after vacation, although the after vacation fabric wasn't much and most of it was the backing for the kit I won from Carrie. 

Cross Stitch Pieces Framed & Ready to Hang

One of my goals for this year was to get these two cross stitch pieces professionally framed.  I finished the stitching on both of these pieces in 2009, so for once I wasn't dilly dallying too much to get them framed and on the wall.  We won't discuss the year in which the stitching was started.  I waited patiently until Joann ETC had a 60% off your entire framing order coupon, which happened to be in June, and then took both pieces in to have them framed.  They were ready for pickup when I returned from my trip to North Dakota.  Can you believe that the framing for both of these pieces with custom frames and museum quality glass was only $120?  Plus tax, of course. 

I've found that the key to getting pieces framed at places like Joann's is to find a good framer there that understands how to properly frame needlework using silk pins and stretching and then make sure you ask for them to do the work.  I know how to do it, and Joann's will let you do the stretching and pinning part yourself, but I find it's more cost effective to just pay the pros to do it if I'm buying a custom frame, etc.  If I am using a frame I have on hand, then I do everything myself.  Don't even get me started on what Michael's did to some of my pieces.  Never again will they touch any of my stitched pieces.

The first piece is by Shepherd's Bush, whom you cross stitchers out there will probably recognize since they've been around so long.  I love their pieces.  This one was a kit called Old Glory.  It's stitched on linen with silk thread.  Interesting lesson learned with this piece.  I have always washed my silk pieces before framing, even though they say not to, and I've never had a problem.  Until this piece.  I used the Orvis soap for needlework like I've always done, but this time, one of the green silks used in the flower sections completely lost all of it's color.  Everything else was fine, but I had to take all of that stitching out and re-do it. 

The second piece I had framed is "B" by M Designs.  I've met Mary, the designer behind this lovely piece, and for a time we talked frequently via email and on the phone.  She's a great lady!  Anyway, she charted an entire alphabet using this letter styling.  The letter "B" is the only one I've stitched so far and it represents our last name.  I stitched this piece on hand-dyed linen with Silk 'n Colors thread in Amethyst.

And for the kitty fans, here's Sassy helping me with some of the fabric I washed last week.  As a side note, that dot fabric is one that I picked up in North Dakota.  Isn't is great?

Testing the pile:

She also made sure that the drying rack was ready for the laundry I was doing:

She's so helpful!

Scorpions!

I mentioned in a previous post that scorpion season is upon us here in the desert.  Well, we have just had something happen that has never happened in the previous 13 summers that we have been in this house.  I was working away in my office and DH was in the kitchen when we suddenly heard hissing and what we thought was a cat getting beaten up by one of the others.

Not so much.

DH went to investigate, as did Koda.  He got there in time to see Echo take off running.  When he caught up with him he realized that he had a scorpion in his mouth, as evidenced by the tail hanging out.  Thankfully, Echo chose to drop the very much alive, adult scorpion at that point and DH stomped it.  Oy vey.  We've caught both Maya and various cats batting at scorpions or following them as they walk across the floor, but NEVER have we caught any with one actually in their mouths.

Echo seems to be fine and in fact has been hunting the same area hoping for more new toys to play with.  I think I would have stroked out seeing that tail hanging out of his mouth.  This after he ate some yarn yesterday and thankfully threw it right back up before it could do any damage.  I know how dangerous stuff like that is for cats, so I'm normally very careful with the yarn, especially around Echo who I know likes to chew on stuff like that, but he got into some anyway.

Afghan for Nephew's New Baby

One of our nephew's on DH's side of the family had a new baby on July 10th.  Ok, he didn't have the baby, his significant other did, but you probably already figured that out.  By the time I found out when the baby was due, I didn't have much time to come up with a gift.  The first plan I came up with involved using a large piece of children's flannel from my stash, cutting it exactly in half and using half for the front and half for the back.  By doing do, the quilt ended up just the right size for a baby and I had an easy to make gift.

After I got the quilting done on the quilt, I ran across this afghan at the thrift store.  I had a coupon for 30% off, which made the price about $1.50.  Can you believe it?  $1.50!!!  It is in perfect condition and much more appropriate right now for a summer baby.  So I snapped it up and both Dawn and I thoroughly examined it to make sure it was indeed gift worthy.  I ran it through the wash and it's been wrapped and mailed and is on the way to it's recipients.

Here is the full afghan:

 And here's a close-up of the pattern and yarn.  It's really pretty in person.

It is kind of depressing to see items like this end up in a thrift store after someone put so much work into it, but I'm glad I was able to rescue it and hopefully give it to a good home, provided the parents like it and will use it.

Oh, and I had an unplanned break to my work the other day. 

Why, you ask? 

Well, it could have been this that did it:

You could never accuse Echo of not getting comfortable wherever he's at.  I know sooner snapped the picture when he suddenly rolled into the cup full of pens, etc., behind him, which of course tipped over hitting all of the other junk around it on my desk (yes, my desk is very messy right now), and startling him into full awakeness, which of course knocked more things over and off the desk.  He's such a dork sometimes :-).

Mail from The One Who Isn't Rosie (aka Carrie Nelson)

I had a really good week this past week.  It started out with us getting DH's health insurance premium from Aetna - $366/mo with no pre-existing conditions excluded.  Much more affordable than the portability policy through BCBS so we were very happy about that.  Having our health insurance lined up has taken a huge load of stress off.

On Tuesday I found out that I was the runner-up winner of this lovely giveaway on the Fat Quarter Shop blog, courtesy of Miss Rosie's owner, Carrie Nelson.  You know it's a good prize when Carrie's involved!  Carrie is a fast shipper and seeing that we live in the same city, the box made it to me yesterday. 

First I found a lovely handwritten note from Carrie.  That lady has the most perfect handwriting.  I'm so jealous.  Anyway, in the note she mentions delivering my next parcel in person, but what she doesn't know is that if I win another giveaway from her, I want to come pick it up so I can see the "Magic Closet" full of Moda fabrics that Darlene mentioned over on her Quilting Daze blog awhile back.  That seems like great fun.

Oh, and speaking of fun, I've had stuff leaving the house all week for ebay sales so it's been great to be getting rid of stuff I don't need and making some extra cash in the process.

What's that?  You want to see what I got from Carrie?  Oh yeah, that was the title of the post, wasn't it?  Sorry, I have a short attention span and can get distracted faster than the wind blows.  So here you go.  The giveaway included this beautifully packaged Lumiere de Noel fabric, enough for the entire quilt top, plus a signed Schnibbles book, and this great Schnibbles project bag.  Oh, and this cute little drawstring bag from French General.

But that wasn't all.  Carrie being Carrie and the generous person she is, also included this extra little prize - two Wiscasset layer cakes!  Woo hoo!  This fabric, as well as the fabric in the kit, is gorgeous!  Thanks Carrie!!! 

If that wasn't enough good stuff for the week, this morning I was sorting the mountain of fabric needing to be washed, and there nestled between the bottom two pieces in the stack, was my 1 carat diamond solitaire ring that had been missing since the day after we returned from Texas in June.  I knew exactly what had happened.  I had taken the ring off in my sewing room to put lotion on and forgotten to put it back on.  Well of course Sassy the thief has to take everything she can find that is loose and portable so I knew she had taken it, but just couldn't find where she'd put it.  The fabric was stacked on the floor near the nightstand where I had left the lotion and I searched everywhere in that area, except in the fabric stack obviously, and could not find the ring, but I was convinced it was in the room somewhere.   

About the same time the ring went missing I also found that the large eraser from my desk was MIA (Sassy again) as was the insurance policy I knew I had received for our Texas house.  All three items were still missing when I left for ND, although I had ordered another copy of the policy by that time.  One of the first things I noticed upon my return was that the eraser was back on my desk.  DH said he had found it while I was gone, but couldn't remember where.  Then I was going through my stack of paperwork to do's and there was that darn policy.  I KNOW I looked through that stack multiple times before I ordered another copy.  At that point, I was 2 for 3 and was really hoping that it meant the ring would show up soon too and today was finally that day.  It is back on my finger and I will never leave it laying again!  I swear!

Recycling Afghans & Kitty Convention

I mentioned in my catchup post that I'd bought some afghans recently from the thrift store in order to recycle the yarn.  Before I ever bought any afghans, I recycled one of my own.  I had most of it torn apart before vacation, but had a few squares to finish when I got back.

Here's what the afghan looked like before.  This afghan was made by me long before I was a quilter and it got a lot of use.  I really liked the pattern I made up, but it was coming apart in a number of places and needed more repairs than I was willing to do.  I decided that recycling the yarn to make cat mats or a new scrap afghan would be the best use of it at this point.

And a close-up of the block pattern:

And here's what I had after everything had been torn apart:

Rather than wash all of this yarn to get the kinks out, I spent a lot of my TV watching time last week winding it into numerous larger balls that should relax the kinks if left that way for awhile.  I didn't tie the yarn together like I did for the cotton yarn scraps I wound into a ball because I don't yet know what I'm going to do with this yarn and if I do anything other than my cat mat pattern, I don't want knots because there will be nowhere to hide them.  I ended up 14, four inch diameter balls of yarn from the pile of scraps above.  That is quite a lot of yarn that I now have to use for something else and it didn't cost me a dime!

Now on to the kitty convention.  I walked into our bathroom last night and this is what I found going on in the separate toilet room.  I've never found all three of them in there at the same time.

I'm assuming they were looking for bugs, crickets, etc. to play with.  It's also scorpion season here and so far the score is Cats - 4, Laura - 2, and Scorpions - 0.  Sassy has found two and Echo and Tyrone have each found one.  Of course we don't let them play with them or try to kill them themselves, but they are really good at spotting them for us so we can arrive with a shoe to take them out.  We seem to get quite a lot of the crickets, scorpions, etc. in the area of this bathroom and I think they come in through the vents and are attracted to the water.  Tyrone is always staring at the ceiling near the vents in either the toilet room or the master bathroom, so I'm guessing it's because he sees stuff come out.