At a Crossroads

Life often finds me stuck at some crossroad wondering which way to go. Usually, I have no problem quickly assessing the pros and cons of the situation and making a decision. When this is not the case, I tend to get frustrated. I am bothered by indecision, especially in myself. Seriously, who cannot look at a menu and select a meal? Or decide between two pieces of fabric? Or between two possible guilds?

Today is the 4th anniversary of the scarriest and best day of my life. My daughter came into the world in harrowing fashion, scaring me nearly to death. She's a delight of a daughter, well mannered, happy, loving and sweet. We cannot imagine our lives without her.
And lastly, because my blogging has been a bit sketchy lately - here's a quilt I finished recently. She didn't really like the top. It was a mystery top done at a quilt shop class. I think she really liked what I did with the quilting. It's a slight departure, even for me, but it brings a different dimension to the simple layout.

It was cloudy and rainy this week so my pictures are muddy. The center was done to mimic the pinwheels that are in the corners. One of the prints is SO busy that little shows up on it.

And a peek at the border and center of the more neutral blocks. The desigh mimics that which is in one of the fabrics.

So, My Saturday is busy with the guild A quilt show. And then I am sadly back to working 3 mornings a week come Monday. On the flipside, kids are back to school so my afternoons will be clear sailing/quilting!

A Birthday Dress

With 2 months to spare, her birthday dress is completed. She changed plans on me after I'd cut out the smocking section. Originally we were doing a ruffled skirt and shirt, but then she became very adamant about it being a dress, one-piece! SO...I had to get creative as how to put this thing together.
She's all about being fance (AKA Fancy Nancy), loving ruffles, trims, bows, etc. If it twirls out three feet, all the better. I am hoping to find or make her (or better, have someone else make her!) a play dress up wedding dress for her birthday! Initially I was going to do a peasant-style skirt out of 4 or 5 coordinating fabrics. When I got to putting this together, it seemed out of place. Consequently, I have several extra ruffles made! Luckily, we bought plenty of fabric to do this all in just one.

I kind of botched the smocked section. It was made a couple inches too narrow, so a patch was added at the ends. That is not too visible, but then I failed to gather it to the skirt so it didn't hang quite rigt. I added the ribbon ties in those area, and viola, it is not obvious (and it is more fancy!)

Very simple smocking since the fabric is busy.

And under the layers of ruffling is a ribbony fabric.

My happy model.

And she's twice as happy because I came home from Target with these new sandals for her - her first ever. They are still hard to walk in, but she loves them all the same. They'll be perfect on the beach.

Not Really Making Quilts

If you have been following Emma's blog lately, you'll notice that she has great blog titles, as well as fantastic quilts to see. There's been Inspiration, Speculation, Celebration, Obsession, Anticipation, just to name a few. In keeping with this simple thought, here's my take on why you haven't been seeing finished quilts here lately...

1. Loneliness - I had proposed to my mom to jointly make a donation quilt. I thought she'd love it. I had a bunch of fishy novelties I wanted used up too. I made my 6-12" blocks. Turns out she doesn't really want to make "fish", sigh. I think she just doesn't want to sew. Oh well, here's 3 of my 6 brightly colored fish blocks. I will gather the fabrics I gave her this week and make my other 6 blocks for this Linus quilt myself.
2. Meticulation (is this a word??)- I spent time last week doing bullion embroidery on the front of Sophie's birthday dress. Very time consuming, but well worth it! The roses blend a bit, but are quite pretty.

3. Perfection - A lovely bodice/neck is done. The "Coin" Fairy Frost is absolutely perfect with this fairy material. It shimmers perfectly. I also used it on some sleeve and bodice piping, and the bottom of the dress will have a band of it. She'll ring in her 3rd year next month in high toddler style.

4. Obligation - I'm working on blocks for the row robin I am doing. Diane has selected "Monochromatic, Big-Small" as her theme. We are making a one color row with a larger and smaller block. Here's a couple of my blocks. The blocks are now done and need assembling into a 60" row. I love the aquas, and my styles for blocks turned out nicely I think. Of course I did one of these blocks (like I haven't seen enough of them lately in the 4SQS summer block swap!). I did 4 different blocks - I'll post the finished row soon so you may see the others too.

5. Exhaustion - I am just tired of this quilt. It's Sophie's dress quilt and this Saturday is the day it's being turned in for the Maine Quilt Show. The longer it is around, the more I find to do on it. It needed a label, but I did more hand quilting too. It needs a cloth bag made and it is DONE. The picture on the label is hard to really see well, but it's a shot I took recently of her wearing a dress I started kindergarten in. It was a cute profile shot, or so I thought. The inscription reads:

"My sweetest little girl, My only little girl, and my favorite reason for making pretty dresses".

Seemed appropriate~

6. Pandemonium - As if sorting nearly 1100 blocks to over 50 recipients is not enough, the 1st mailing of the 4SQS summer block swap left me with other things to do/worry about. I discovered one person should have gotten 40 blocks not 20, but I discovered this after all the "choices" of blocks were expired. I had 4 different blocks left when I realized it! She'll get her blocks at the next mailing. I also discovered over a dozen blocks with errors when I was sorting the packages. I pulled these aside and used my personal blocks. I had no way of knowing who to send them back to at that point. Talk about more Frustration. So, yesterday I took each of these apart and resewed them so that they could eventually be used. Not fun, but productive.

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7. Procrastination - Procrastination sewing because our summer weather finally arrived. It rained much of June, sew or so I chose to sew at naptime. Last week the rain stopped. There are few things that I love as much as sewing/quilting - few places that I get absolute peace and serenity. My gardens are one of them. Here are a few pictures I added to my other blog last night of the glorious colors that surround my house. It's a magnificent spectacle of color!! As all of you Australians are suffering with the middle of your winter, let this bring you some warmth :-)

Blocks 'n Rows

These arrived last week, on another rainy day like today. It's my favorite thread to work with, despite it's price. Hard to imagine these six spools ought to cost $50. Even harder to swallow that they charge another $7 to ship them. Oh well...

Thought I'd show a couple of my recent things. Here's my last birthday block, for Michelle, who asked for purses and/or shoes on white. I really love how it turned out and hope she does too. I am finishing up Kate's block. Hopefully before month's end...

The row robin swap, despite not having a host anymore, is on the 3rd row too. This is for Robin, who asked for a "beachy" feel. My row is the umbrellas. I'm not a fan of machine applique, but I did it so as to match the previous row. Parts of the umbrellas have Fairy Frosts, so they shimmer like real umbrellas might.

...and a closer look (maybe if you dbl click!)- I had a very productive weekend. I took my kids off to an animal park Saturday morning to give my husband a break. He watched them on Sunday morning until lunch so I could sew. Sounds fair! I managed to get these block/row finished, a binding on a Linus quilt, and work most of the machine quilting on my SFRR3 quilt, which arrived last week. It has some hand beading & label to still add, but the binding is even on! It's really awesome and I can hardly wait to show it. The gals that worked on it before it came to me did a FANTASTIC job! On Sunday, I even got started quilting my ALQS3 Orca mini. This one is looking really good as well, but has a bit of quilting left still before it's July due date.

- Yesterday I shirred a piece of blue check that I've been waiting to make a smocked dress from, only to find I really dislike it. I've had it a couple years, and everytime I get ready to use it, something changes my mind. I have decided that this 5 1/2 yards of 60" check must go elsewhere. I perused the web for something I like better and found this. It will look fantastic, and is nice and playful for my daughter when she turns three in August.

The Weekly Ramblings

I have been puttering along with this and that, a little slower than usual because of going back to work 3 mornings a week, and having to prep for class, grade homework, etc. But none the less, there are still some sewings going on. And plenty of plans in the works (naturally!).

My youngest turned two a week or so ago. Here's (sadly) our best picture in the birthday dress I made for her (Damn her affinity for that silly hydrant!). She just loves the little red enameled ladybug buttons on it too-

I have finished up three Project Linus tops in I had lying around this past month. Last year I must have had lots of UGLY fabric donated because this is definitely not a beauty. It's well made, and machine quilted, but far from lovely. Someone will still be warm.
Here's a closeup of the quilting. I am obviouslt still working on machine quilting and various shapes, etc. I did flowers in each square.
I have started on this Unicorn quilt. I must have fallen and hit my head, and am losing my mind. I found this on the internet. It is massive paper piecing. I think it has 50 sections to paper piece. PPing is far from my favorite thing to do, being that it is slow, wasteful and I frequently mis cut and have to take out those awful tiny stitches. UGH! Luckily, I have all but one section pieced and will start to see the sections come together later today. I'll hold onto this for Christmas.I am also going to make my daughter a smocked dress for the holidays. The fabrics I have ordered are not "holiday-ish" but will look fancy and will be great for all of spring. I thought the ribbons and ballerinas were so girly. Plus she looks great in peach. I am anxious to try out the smocking pleater a former colleague of mine lent me last year once this fabric arrives.

Other notes...

~I am still awaiting my Miniature Booty quilt. Don't know if it's lost in the mail or if I have another no-show this session. Looks like it's time to quit swapping!

~My ALQS quilt top is getting closer to being pieced. I have been hand sewing bias strips the last 4-5 days (no hints for what they are!!). Maybe a sneak peek in a week or so.

~I have finished up a couple more blocks for the birthday block swap and will post pictures of September's next time. Julie - Your house is not a shed!! And no it's not a double wide either (though that'd be funny!). I think it looks good. But remember, every neighborhood has that one house that raises an eyebrow and makes you think to your self "What were they thinking??!"

Sewing Something a little Different

I mostly finished up my daughter's birthday dress. Her birthday is still 2 months away, but now she can wear it this summer too. I have used this pattern, but made a few small modifications/enhancements. I opted not to do a more time-consuming smocked dress like I did last year, in hopes of getting it done faster, and perhaps having her wear it more. It is a sleeveless jumper too so that when it cools down in the fall, she can put a long-sleeve shirt underneath.
It's much simpler than others (here and here) I have done...no ruffles, no petticoats, etc. But I still think it is cute. The bottom has a border of this colorful floral. I used a variation of this type print (only a smaller floral) as the bodice lining.
Sadly I could not find my wing-needle yesterday so that I could do a prettier edging on the collar. I can do a nice entredeux stitch to give a collar a great vintage look. This is one of my favorite needles, and I am distraught over misplacing it. Instead, I just did a double row of top-stitching with a narrow twin-needle. BTW, the collar is scalloped (the curvyness is not by error!).
Here you can see what I added to the bodice...a few pleats, a little decorative scallop stitches some ivory eyelet leftover from another pfoject, and 4 sweet ladybug buttons.