Some Non-Quilty Sewing

Since DD#2's wedding is in nine days, I decided it was time to get the wedding sewing out of the way.

I needed to make a ring bearer pillow, so here it is. I put an elastic loop on the bottom, and I think we are going to slip it on Mr. L's wrist like a wrist corsage. The twins are not yet three, so young to be flower girl and ring bearer.  I'm not sure how well they'll go down the aisle, but they'll be cute at any rate.

The weather finally turned cool. It was downright cold for a few days, which sent DD#2 into panic mode. The wedding is outside, and in December, that is risky, even in southern Arizona. I bought some white and blue fabrics and made a cape for DD#2, just in case she gets too cold. I'm sure she won't wear it during the ceremony, but it may come in handy in between photos.

A couple of the bridemaids dresses needed some minor alterations that I could handle, so I got that done too. Any major alterations I let the experts handle. I just don't have the tailoring skills necessary to redo a dress.

I have half the place cards done. My calligraphy skills are rusty, but they'll do. I realized after I started I could have done them all on the computer, but I actually think it would have taken longer to do them on the computer than hand-writing them.

Thanksgiving was a pretty quiet affair. We had eleven people for dinner, which is a very small group around here! The weather was amazing, so we put up a couple tables outside, and ate out there. The artificial turf goes in the day after the wedding, and I can't wait for the yard to be finished!

Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery started today, but I finally decided I just can't do it this year. With one kid getting married in nine days, and another getting married in March, along with all the regular holiday madness, my plate is full! I will watch the clues as they come out. I saw the first clue, and I was happy I am making the same units for DS the Younger's wedding quilt, so I can feel kind of like I'm playing along.

DD#2 moved her things to Phoenix this past week, so I will be turning her room into a guest room. I'm taking over her walk-in closet too, moving my vintage machines to one location instead of all over the house, and I'll store batting and non-quilting fabric in there. I'm moving a couple cabinets out of my sewing room, which should give me enough room to set up another sewing station. I really love having a different project going on each machine. Does that make me crazy?

I'm thinking the next week won't be conducive to getting much sewing done. I'm going to work on moving things around in my sewing room instead, as I have time. I'm sure I'll have other things to get done for the wedding, but I knocked several things off my to do list today, so I'm happy!

Rorange, Blurple, and Brellow

I have actually sewn a little this week. I have been piecing on DS the Younger's wedding quilt. I haven't had a ton of time to sew, but it's a start.

I have been thinking a lot about color as I've been cutting and sewing. I had several browns I planned on using in DS the Younger's quilt, but when I was in cutting mode, I realized the browns were too green. Since his wedding quilt is a brown and green quilt, I need good contrast between the browns and greens. Some of those I had planned to use ended up back on the shelves, stashed for another project.

I was cutting for another color controlled quilt, that has both blue and green in it. Some fabrics are just so in between blue and green, that you just aren't sure where to put them, and if you use them, will the overall design disappear?

In Lisa Boyer's book, Stash Envy, she talks about those in between colors, like rorange, blurple, and brellow. Sometimes an in between color is exactly what you need, and they add just the perfect touch to a quilt. Lately, I've been doing so many color controlled things, that the in between colors can be difficult. If I am doing a two color quilt, say green and white, I will use every shade of green I can in it. I go from the really yellowy greens, pastel greens, to the darkest greens going towards black, as well as the blueish greens and everything greenish goes.

 

This is a green string quilt I made three years ago. All the greens are in there.

This is a green and cream quilt I made the same year. I love how all the different greens play together and create a sparkly effect.

I really love scrappy quilts best, and almost all of my quilts are at least multi-fabric quilts, whether or not they are from true "scraps". Why use one green when you can use 40 or 80?

This wedding quilt I'm working on I really had to pay attention to the color, since a lot of greens run to brown, and a lot of browns run to green. I need the colors to contrast, so I had to be much pickier than I normally am.

I am piecing the wedding quilt on my jazzed up Singer 301. Very fun to sew on it! 

I realized I told my mom a while back I'd post some pics of the twins from their vintage photo shoot and I never did. Here is your daily dose of cuteness!

 

BTW, if you have never read of of Lisa Boyer's books about quilting, like Stash Envy, check them out, she is hilarious!

Cutting Spree

I'm at it again! I can never work on just one project, and now is no exception. I started cutting DS the Younger's wedding quilt...

 ... and while I was cutting...I started cutting a quilt for DS the Elder...

 ...and another wedding quilt I will need for next year.

 I just found out one wedding quilt I thought I'd need next year, I won't need after all. Funny thing is, that's the one that had all the blocks done and just needed to be assembled. Oh well.

Did you ever have one of those times that your math skills were WAY off, and you completely mis-figured yardage? This was one of those times, and I am really short on background for both my sons quilts. I am using the same background on both of them, and I'm using a solid. I usually go for scrappy everything, and that is the beauty of going scrappy, if I run out of the fabrics I had planned to use, I just grab more fabrics of the same color and go on. The good thing is that the solid I am using is Kona Khaki, so even though the new yardage I ordered will be a different dye lot, it should be really close and unnoticeable. I think my new order will arrive sometime next week. Yes, I could have gotten it locally, but I haven't had any time for shopping. Point and click shopping I could squeeze in.

This has been a busy week with family stuff. We had to finish cleaning out DS the Elder's apartment and get his keys turned in. He is already in Indiana, but his stuff is still stored here in town. He'll fly back in three weeks for DD#2's wedding, and then rent a truck to move his stuff.

The wedding is fast approaching, but honestly, I've done nothing for it this week. I needed a break from that. The bachelorette party was tonight, so I stayed home and put the twins to bed so both my local daughters could go. I need to start working on the placecards, and brush up on my calligraphy skills!

We arranged to have our backyard makeover finished. The artificial turf goes in right around the wedding. It's going to be a crazy time, but it will be nice to have that project done. We are paying to have it installed, we would have waited if we were doing it ourselves. We need to get the yard finished so we can start working on DS the Younger's wedding (in March), which will be in our backyard. Fourteen weeks between weddings, with Christmas in between! It's busy around here.

DD#2 is almost done packing her personal stuff, and now she just has to work on her business. She sells used books on Amazon, and she has a dozen sets of bookshelves to move, and about 40-50 boxes of books. Her personal items don't looks like much in comparison.

Once the wedding is over, I'll be in a hurry to turn her old room into a guest room. I think the newlyweds are coming down the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with us, and I want them to have a functional guest room to stay in. I'd love to paint the room, but with everything going on, I think that will have to wait.

I need a quilt for what will be the guest bed. I was planning on taking the quilt from our bed, and moving it down there, and putting a different quilt on our bed. The thing is, that quilt isn't finished yet! I did all the ditch quilting on it last weekend, and this weekend I hope to get some more quilting done on it. With the current paint colors in the soon to be guest room, the quilt from our bed would look awful in there, but the quilt I am working on will look fine. If I can get it finished, I'll likely just put the new quilt in the guest room until DH has a chance to paint that room for me. We can switch quilts later.

I think that covers most of the chaos around here. Happy quilting!

Two Weeks Later....

Wow! Hard to believe I haven't posted in two weeks! It's been crazy busy around here! DD#2's bridal shower went very well. They were very blessed and they are certainly ready to set up house now :-)

I finished Thrice Broken Dishes!!!! I even finished it in time for the shower, so I threw it over the air hockey table which is where I had everyone put their gifts. It looked nice while you could see it.

Today we managed to get some photos of the quilt finished.

^A closer look at the quilting.

This is the back. I've made too many blue, green, brown quilts with the same fabrics, and it was time to clear them out. This made a pretty good dent in them. I find I don't mind piecing backings like this if I do them as leaders/enders while I'm working on the top. If I wait until the top is finished, I just want to get the quilt done, and piecing a backing seems to be a nuisance. I made this backing while working on the top, and the backing was finished long before the top.

A couple weeks ago, DH and I had gone thrift store shopping, and I spied a vintage machine that I wanted. I didn't get it, but it's been on my mind ever since. I checked on ebay and other online sites, and I couldn't find another for a better price. Today we went back to the thrift store, and the machine was still there. This time it did come home with me.

 

A pink Atlas straight stitcher made by Toyota. Isn't that bubblegum pink a great color? The wiring looks like it's already been replaced, so hopefully, after a good cleaning and oiling, this baby will be up and going.

I'm actually glad I didn't buy this the other day, because today at the same thrift store, there was an Arrow Gidget folding table, which I've been wanting for a while, but hadn't gotten because of the price of a new one. I feel so blessed to have gotten one!  Cost of the sewing machine and table? Well, actually, it was almost the exact amount I saved at Joanns today, when I was buying batting for upcoming quilts. I bought four king size battings, either on sale or with coupons, and I ended up getting them at less than half price. I told DH we'll just say I paid full price, and the sewing machine and table were free ;-)