Sam's Football Quilt - In Progress

You must have thought that I dropped off the face of the blogging earth.  I'm still here.  I could blame Nora Roberts for the second installment in "The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy" as reading it certainly distracted me for a few days.  (Now I have to wait until November to find out how they vanquish the evil wizard). I have been working hard on a few projects since I last posted, but some projects take longer than others and sort of evolve as you go.

Sam's football quilt is a good example.

Sam will be 13 in June.  It's hard to believe that my sweet baby is now 5'9" (with no sign of stopping).  Obviously the baby quilt I made for him 13 years ago isn't going to cut it any more.  (This is the big guy holding it.)

He is a HUGE football fan and a walking encyclopedia of football facts and statistics. Making him a quilt with a football theme was an obvious choice.  I started gathering fabric with football prints, (nothing that was specific to a team) and greens and browns to complement the theme fabric.

The quilt pattern I choose was actually a baby quilt from Winter 2011 issue of Quilts and More.  The original pattern was a square, but I planned to make it 4 blocks by 8 blocks instead to make it longer.  I also made it wider by changing a two square block into a four square block.

When I was done with all the blocks and laid them out on the floor, it still didn't seem wide enough for the big guy. Also, the greens and browns worked like camouflage and blended together.  Using white sashing solved both problems, by setting the blocks apart and making the quilt wider and long enough that I decided to go with seven rows of blocks rather than eight.






The quilt still didn't seem wide enough though.  I gathered up the scraps and sewed a quick border alternating the green and brown prints.  The border will go down each side. (I'm still working on this part)

Now I am happy with the size the quilt will be and soon I'll head to JoAnn's for some batting.  Sam already chose a sports themed flannel for the back (I have to make sure that I have enough of it now that I added to the width!).  I am planning on machine quilting it with a diamond pattern (no squiggly lines for me yet!) although I might hand stitch a football in the center of the larger blocks.

I am sure that this will be a quilt Sam can use for a long time.  Once this one is done, I can move on to the other quilts on the UFO list.  There's Jamie's, Peaches', Maria's, a couple of baby quilts... well you get the idea.

Snow Day Catch Up!

Today is a Snow Day! We have already had quite a few this winter, although some were more like Frigid Cold Days, when the wind chill factor was -20.   We are under a blizzard warning, so the six of us are hunkered down. I have already baked a batch of cookies and a loaf of banana bread.  The younger three kids tried going outside for a little bit but the snow isn't packing, and it is COLD.  Soon, I want to break out some board games, but for now everyone is attached to a screen. Phil is playing Skrym on his PS3, Sam is playing on the Wii, while Max is battling someone in Pokemon on his DS, and I am pretty sure that Brooke and Vince are crafting some mines.  So that gives me the chance to share some projects.

Once I finished the ruffle scarf, I went back to the yarn stash to see what other scarves were waiting to be made.  I bought this rainbow yarn years ago when a fabric store was going out of business.  I knew that Brooke would love the bright colors, and that it would go with any coat as she gets older.  The stitch pattern is very easy and with such a thick yarn on 17 needles, the scarf worked up very quickly.   I found the pattern on Pinterest called a  Scrunchable Scarf.   Cast on in a multiple of 3 (I did twelve for Brooke's) and then Knit 2, Purl 1. Because of the multiple of three it makes its own pattern of knit row, purl row, and moss row.  Brooke loves it - she gave me a big hug when I gave it to her.

Next up, I finished my St. Patrick's Day ribbon wreath.  For this one I did buy all the shamrock ribbon but I used the plain greens left from Christmas, so I kinda used stuff up, right? I love having that bit of sparkle on some of the ribbons, and how the orange pops, in honor of the Irish flag colors.  I just started working on one that for a dear friend of mine next.  I gave her a Christmas ribbon wreath, which she has hanging on her door in her retirement community. Since it's March, I thought she would like something she could leave up all the time.  Purple is her favorite color, so I have a nice variety of purple ribbons for her.

After 16 years, I finally took my sewing machine in to be serviced.  The tension has been so off, (I think because the bobbin wasn't winding at the right tension) that it has been hard to work on anything without getting extremely frustrated.  If you sew too, you know those little loops that form on the back of your seam when the tension isn't right.  So annoying.

The last quilt I worked on is still a work in progress but I can finish it without the machine. I pieced the top of this autumn log cabin before Sam was born (He's almost 13) and since it was one of the very first things I had ever done, I made the mistake of using the polyester batting. It made for a rather puffy quilt when I machine quilted in the ditch in the log cabin section.  My intention has always been to hand sew leaf shapes in the border, using a gold metallic floss. I thought it would pick up the gold that is in some of the dark fabrics.  I used to have several leaf shaped copper cookie cutters (they had a purpose too, but I can't remember what it is) that would be perfect for this task. Unfortunately, I have no idea where they have gone. I know where they used to be before we moved. Now, not so much. Plan B - I will find some leaf shapes online and make my own templates.  Of course, ask soon as finish the quilt I'll find the cookie cutters. Never fails, right?

Hopefully, the Autumn Log Cabin will be another item crossed off the UFO list soon.

Time to go round everyone up for some game time.  I hope that you are all warm and safe and happily crafting wherever you are!

My first "ruffle" scarf

I don't know about you, but when I go to a craft store for one thing, very often I bring home a lot more than I intended.  Stickers, paper, a yard of fabric, a skein of yarn...or two...or three.  When I finished Vince's scarf I went looking through all the boxes and bags of "impulse" skeins to see what might be the next project.  That's when I found a skein of purple yarn, the kind that makes the ruffle scarf.

I had not made a ruffle scarf before, but I followed the directions on the inside of the skein wrapper.  I worked on it for a bit but it didn't seem to be working.  Instead of a ruffle, it made kind of bell shape.  So I went online and found a very helpful blog that said to knit every other stitch on the flat edge of the yarn. This did the trick and soon I had a very cute scarf.

It didn't take very long to make, as you only knit six stitches a row, and the yarn ruffles by itself.  I can see many more ruffle scarves in the future for friends and family alike.  There are so many pretty yarns to choose from, some with sequins and sparkles, I might just have to make them all!

Baby Boy quilt #1

About five years ago I had six friends who were having babies, and one was a two-for-one! I set out to make quilts for all those babies, and got a good start on them, but sadly, most are still sitting in the craft oasis in different stages of being finished.

This baby boy quilt was one of those projects.  I forget where I saw the idea of the columns of small strips with the border in between.  It's a great way to use up scraps and worked up pretty quickly.  Think of the possibilities with this quick pattern - white strips with red and green Christmas fabrics, black strips with Halloween fabrics, brown strips with pink baby girl fabrics.  

I cut the brown strips into 2 and a half inch strips from salvage to salvage.  The blue strips were also cut to 2.5 wide and 4 inches long (being that most of the fabrics were leftovers from other projects, I think that was as long as I could go). If you wanted to make the vertical strips longer, (if you were doing a project for a kid or adult) I think that would work as long as the widths of the strips are the same.

Once I had finished piecing, I wasn't quite sure how to quilt the layers together (which is why it sat for so long).  Stitching in the ditch along the brown borders was easy and an obvious way to quilt, but I was at a loss for how to quilt in the blue area.   My sewing machine is just a regular Singer, not designed specifically for quilting, so doing straight lines when quilting is all I have tried.

Since the Candy Corn quilt had turned out so well, I figured I would try something a little more complicated for the baby quilt.  I grabbed a star shaped cookie cutter and used that as my template to draw stars along the blue sections of the quilt.  Then I machine quilted each star.  It took a few stars to get the tension just right in my machine (it's always been a bit touchy with the tension controls) but I thought they turned out well.  I used the same brown strips for the binding and ta-da!  another UFO is finished. 

As the baby I started this for is now a five year old boy in Pre-K, who is probably much more interested in cars, dinosaurs, and superheroes, this quilt will go instead to a new baby boy, who is the long awaited son of one of Phil's oldest friends.  I wish they lived closer so we could visit and coo over the little man, but I am happy knowing that a dear friend will enjoy it for years to come.

Candy Corn Quilt

I hope that you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend.  How nice that it stretched into the long President's weekend.

Not so nice for us here though.  We had an uninvited guest - the stomach flu.  So all of our planned treats for Friday evening were set aside for another time.

My poor honey got it first, on Friday night no less, and so while he slept most of Saturday, Max, (my younger son) and I had a Lord of the Rings movie marathon and I worked on some quilts.

 This Candy Corn quilt was one that I had started about three Halloweens ago.  The pattern came as an insert in a quilting magazine and their idea was to have the quilt be a two sided table runner- one side with the candy corn motif, and the other with a slight modification to make Christmas trees.  Both were adorable.  But I knew me, so I didn't attempt to do two sides.  For one thing, I am still a novice at machine quilting and have never had the courage to try a wavy, roving pattern.  So far, I have stuck to straight lines.  There would be no way to line the trees and candy corn up.  I also thought it would be cute to make the Christmas trees in a single row, in a wall hanger instead.

I went right to work on the candy corn pattern and did finish the top for that Halloween.

Bot then another Halloween came and went, and it sat unfinished.  (In my defense, I did get married at the beginning the month, and was slightly preoccupied with all the wedding preparations)

Before Halloween 2013, I layered the top with batting and a backing and began machine quilting it.  I went around the candy corn pieces, and stitched-in-the-ditch around each of the center blocks.  For the border, I decided to do a diamond pattern.  It was moving along nicely, but when I didn't have the chance to finish it and have it out for Halloween, it was put aside to make time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts that were soon to follow.

Until this weekend!  It was the first quilt I tackled during our marathon. I completed the diamond pattern and put the binding on.  (Then I moved on to two more quilts - you'll see them later this week.)

This Halloween I look forward to finding the perfect spot to hang it up.  With or without Max photo-bombing it.

"Gather Hearts" Stitching

Yay! Another project crossed off the UFO list and added to the Project Gallery!

I started this stitching about two years ago when I saw it in the March 2012 issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework.  I liked the bright green and pink combination and the use of memory thread, which I've never tried before.

I met Phil shortly afterwards.  We like to watch movies at night and stitching is the perfect craft to do in front of the TV.  My step-daughter used to watch me working on it and wanted to learn how to stitch too.  When I showed her some of my other UFO's she asked why I didn't just finish one before starting something new.  I think I chortled.  (If you're a crafty lady, you probably just did too).

When I finished the actual stitching, I kinda chickened out of doing the memory thread for awhile.  It was actually much easier than I thought.  You simply shape the thread the way you want, pull through the fabric where it starts and ends, and then couch along the thread, using a similar color.

I wanted to frame it in the hot pink color and was lucky enough to find a frame on sale at Michael's.

Since this was the piece that caught Brooke's eye and made her want to stitch, it's going to go in her room.

And I'm working on that whole idea of finishing a project before starting a new one.

Yeah, right. ;)

Happy Crafting!

A Martha Moment

Before I tell my Martha story, I want to congratulate Ann Barton for winning the Valentine's Day Ribbon Wreath. I hope you enjoy it, Ann!

On Monday, I had a Martha moment.  Not Martha Stewart, although I've had those moments too, but Martha from the Bible.  Do you remember her story? Martha, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus were all particularly good friends of Jesus.  When they found out that he was visiting for dinner, Martha set off into a flurry of preparations.  When Jesus arrived, she continued to rush about taking care of the guests, while Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened to him teach.  Martha became increasingly frustrated and finally said, "Lord, tell Mary to come help me!" Jesus' gentle reply was, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, one thing is needful.  Mary has chosen the good portion which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41)

So here's my Martha moment:

My day started off by my younger son slipping on the ice and banging his elbow pretty hard.  He couldn't feel his arm or wiggle his fingers so off to the MASH (a local Urgent care) we went.   After x-rays on both arms (to compare) the doctor said that she thought Max had broken his elbow and we made an appointment to go to the orthopedist.  I gave him a dose of ibuprofen and took him to school with his arm in a sling, since there really wasn't anything else we could do then.  (As it turns out, the orthopedist said that it's not broken, just banged up pretty hard - but growth plates don't show up in x-rays very well, so it's better to be cautious)

Then I headed to the church for my one day of office hours.  When I finally had the chance to sit down at my desk and get to work, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. My job as the Coordinator of Educational Ministries had started out at 20 hours a week, but a year and a half ago, we dropped it back to 10 hours,  for several reasons.  What I was feeling on Monday was that the decrease in hours wasn't allowing me to do the job the way it should be done - putting the time into it that it deserves.  In the two or three hours I had left in my office day I had to plan for a bake sale, plan a lesson for Sunday (after the bake sale) and prepare for our mini-Vacation Bible School (we do that the week of February break) which is focused on the story of Esther this year.  Pile onto all of that that I was concerned for Max's arm.

As my computer booted up, I turned on Pandora on my iPad and selected the "Newsboys" station that I had created there.  The first song that came up was the live version of "Blessed Be Your Name" which happened to be the song that I asked my Youth Group to sing at the wedding when I married Phil. (If you don't know the Newsboys, go look them up - they are awesome!)  Before the song was over, I was feeling much better and pretty soon I was gathering ideas about our lesson for Sunday.

Our theme for this year's curriculum is "Why Me, Lord? Why not Me?", the inspiration coming from a poster that lists people in the Bible and why  they might not have been "right" for their job.  For example, Moses stuttered, Jeremiah was too young, Martha worried about everything, and Lazarus was dead.

Our story for Sunday is about Martha, and as I fleshed out my lesson, it hit me.

I was Martha.

I had been rushing around worrying about how I was going to get everything done, missing what has most important.

We've all done it when we've had earthly visitors.  If you were like me, you had some people over to watch the big game on Sunday (That was my Martha Stewart moment for the week - making sure I had equal amounts of food colored orange and green  for the teams). I spent so much time getting the food out and talking with guests, that I didn't really watch the game, although that may have made this particular Super Bowl a bit less painful.

One of the activities  I plan on doing with the kids on Sunday is filling a bottle with popcorn kernels, representing all of the things that we do that keep us busy.  Then we're going to try to shove something big in the bottle (like a ball) representing God.  The ball won't fit when the bottle is already filled up, but if we put the ball in the bottle first and then fill it up with the other stuff, we are making sure that God is first and that he touches everything that we do.

I hope the message gets to the kids.

I hope that I really get it too, that I can remind myself that it doesn't really matter how much we bake on Saturday morning and sell on Sunday afternoon - what matters is that the kids learn how to provide for others and the joy that accompanies that.

It doesn't matter how many kids come to our VBS about Queen Esther, but that the kids who do come learn - about God's love and protection, about a girl who saved her people from annihilation, about Purim, ancient festival still celebrated by Jews today.

While Jesus wasn't really scolding Martha for her efforts in hospitality (which was a BIG DEAL in those days) he was pointing out that sometimes it is better to sit with our loved ones, and soak them in.

To remember what really matters.