Blogger's Festival

*Updated note: I noticed on another blogger refer to the Blogger's Quilt Festival as BQF. For some reason the first thing that popped in my head as I was reading was "Best Quilting Friend!" So that's what it is for me now; Best Quilting Friends!

Okay, so I have been absolutely killing myself to get one of my own designs ready to show at Blogger's Festival. However, it looks as if only the top will be finished to show. So I will give a sneak peek at the bottom of this post (I have been asked to do a quilt along for it so anyone who wants to come back for it, you are more than welcome!), and I will show a different quilt instead.

A couple of months ago a friend and I hit the sale section of the fabric in Hobby Lobby. I noticed several coordinating pink-based prints, but I am not a big pink person so my initial instinct was to pass. However, something kept leading my back to those prints so I finally decided to just purchase them for a possible donation quilt through my quilting guild.

When I got home I went online to get some ideas and almost immediately came across Randi's wonderful quilt along for the Road to Spring quilt. I immediately knew that was the quilt, and I immediately knew who the quilt was for. Back in November, my cousin and his wife lost their only daughter, Reagan, who was about a year and a half old.

I incorporated some fabrics I had in my stash and began sewing. I felt like I just knew how the whole quilt was supposed to look. I finished the top easily (though now I see places where I probably should have moved some fabrics around more!) and moved on to the back. The front is a mixture of girly colors, green for grass, pink leopard for when she was 'wild', polka dots, and a cute print that says 'Love' all over it. The back is a letter from me to Reagan.

I know it may sound crazy that I think it's a letter, but hear me out. The top is a synopsis of the fabrics from the front. Where on the front they are just a description of her and about being girly, on the back they are what we will miss about her. I cut out a small block of the "Love" fabric to put near the bottom as a sign-off for the letter. Then I added my label which states the name, that it is in memory of her and that I made it. I found a block of fabric that was just X's and O's that I started to cut a piece out of, but ended up deciding that she deserved all those hugs and kisses so I left it whole and attached it under my label. The very bottom is pieced to show the chaos of what we all feel now that she is gone. I still want to handquilt a couple of hearts on it here and there, but I just finished the binding last night and wanted to get it posted.

At first I couldn't really figure out why I was making a quilt in memory of her. I make lots of things but I really felt strongly led to make this quilt. My aunt told my cousin about it and he loved the idea. He wants it presented to his wife at a fun run they have sponsored in Reagan's name in July. And he wants it placed in a very special place. See, when she passed away, they asked for donations in lieu of flowers. These donations went to Courageous Kids out of Kentucky; they provide camp experiences for children with special needs. Well, undoubtedly the donations brought in enough were enough to 'purchase' a camp bed in her name there at the campsite (they actually name a bed after her). My cousin wants the quilt to go on 'Reagan's bed'. I just cried when I heard this because I didn't know about the bed in her name. I really feel like God just had his own plan with all of this.

So after all of that, I just wanted to show a quick peek at my quilt I am working on. Keep in mind that I have only been quilting less than a year (though I've been sewing for a while) and this is my first design. I was so anxious to get it done so I could actually see it in quilt form, it is far from perfect but I am happy with where it's going.

It's called "X Marks the Spot". This is only the top and I don't have the border on, but I'm getting there. I've been asked to do a quilt along for this one so stay tuned!

Progress...

Okay, so I hated to let the day go by without any post at all so...I've stayed up half the night sewing (well, it's past midnight so I guess it's tomorrow already!) and Road to Spring is finished! Binding is on! Also, I have been working very hard trying to get "X Marks the Spot" ready to post for Blogger's Festival. I don't know that I will make it but I'm going to try. I will probably only get the top done, though I don't know if that's acceptable. We'll see. So far I've finished the top row and 2/3 of the middle row. I just need to finish that end of the 2nd row, the two blocks on the bottom, and add the border. That's doable, right? Plus everyone has decided they need me to make stuff so I'm not sure how this is going to work but I'M TRYING!
I will post pics of Road to Spring ASAP.
Good night....

Happy Birthdays and Anniversaries!

Today is a very special day. My little sister turns 40 today. She lives about 240 miles away so I will unfortunately not get to see her on her birthday. So Happy Birthday Sis!

Hope you like your gift! It's not complete yet but, here's a big hint. It's 'random' and you can 'reflect' on it! It will look a lot better when I get the back on it, but I'm getting there.

I hope your hubbie and kids are great to you today! Tell them to give me sis a happy birthday squeeze for me!

Also, one of my blogging buddies is celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary today. Linz has been working on something in secret but has promised to reveal it today in celebration of her anniversary. I'm dying to find out what it is. So far, no pictures. But I figure we have to give her time to tell her hubbie "Happy Anniversary," right?

On a side note, several people mentioned a quilt along or tutorial for my "X Marks the Spot" quilt so I'm trying my hand at that. I just want to make sure everything works before I start posting it.

WiP Wednesday #7

Internet issues all morning. Aarrgh! Now, where were we?
Wow, Wednesday again already? I think Lee is making the weeks shorter for so we can do WiP Wednesday again! But I did get some quilting done this week so I feel like progress was made!

Ongoing Projects: Road to Spring is quilted!

Now I just need to decide whether to add black binding on the left or the pink on the right. I could also do the pale pink if I get up enough fabric. Any thoughts?

I purchased backing material for Random Reflections and will start on the piecing portion of that this week. I hope to get it together so I can get it pinned for quilting as well.

Unfortunately there were a few ongoing projects that had no progress this week. The charm pack quilt sits in the same spot as last week.  I also got nothing done on the string quilt. Sigh... though I did sew on 5 Girl Scout patches this week as well!

New Projects: 

Well, remember this fabric?

Well, I went through several ideas before finally deciding to sew up one of my own designs. I'm calling it "X Marks the Spot" for the moment, though that may change.

I've made two blocks so far and I love where it's going. However, it's a good thing God let the first block come together the way it did. If the second block had been the first one I was making for it, I would have quit. Wrong fabrics sewn together, wrong squares sewn together, plenty of seam ripper use. It was not fun. I was no longer excited about my quilt. But it finally came together so we'll see where it goes now. I also like it in this direction.

I also have two purses to make for a friend out of the following fabric.

The stripe is the liner, with the other fabrics being the outer fabrics.

  

Completed Quilts awaiting quilting:
None

Completed Quilts awaiting binding:

On the Road to Spring quilt

On Hold:

Fancy Stripes quilt 

This week's stats: New projects - 1 

Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress – 7

Goals for the week:
1. Prepare backing for Random Reflections
2. two purses
3. more blocks for "X" quilt

Off subject but funny, this is what happens when you have a hubbie in the medical field and squirrels that won't leave the bird feeder alone.

Don't forget to check out other quilters' progress over at Lee's WiP!

So far the hemostat is doing an excellent job 'locking' the top so the squirrels can't get in, thank you very much!

Making Mistakes

Don't you hate it when you mess up? I was working on block number two of my own "X Marks the Spot" quilt. I had begun sewing the squares together and began working on strip number two when I noticed something. See, in this quilt there are black/white HSTs, there are green/black HSTs, and there are are print/green HSTs.

Yeah, see that stack on the upper right side? What are those? They sure don't look like print with green. Not like the one I fixed right below them. Luckily I only did enough for one block; I was being lazy and only doing one block at a time but this time it was a good thing. Now I have to pull out the old seam ripper and undo all of them so I can affix them to green instead. Unfortunately they have also already been trimmed so I have to be especially careful. Fortunately, they are being attached to green that hasn't been trimmed yet so that will give me a little play room (thank goodness!). I blame this on Cinco de Mayo.

I really wanted to get another block done for WiP Wednesday. We'll see how much work I get done today. Hopefully a lot.

Have you ever done anything that set you back on a project?

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all you moms out there have a wonderful day of quiet solitude, with no arguing, no whining, no breaking of objects and lots of love from your kids! Well, one of five will have to do!

*Teensy update: Road to Spring quilt is quilted!Woohoo! Here's a little peek! Binding next, then done!

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe...

Around here we are currently in the midst of t-ball/baseball season. My son is 5 so they get several chances to hit a pitched ball before relying on the use of the tee.  We've had several games thus far and Little Man has been harbouring a deep longing for the game ball. Well, it finally happened. We played two games this week and he not only received the game ball, but he also received a different kind of ball at Monday night's game.

You got it; he got the tough guy ball! He was running from first to second when a kid from the opposing team went to tag him. Instead of going for he body, the kid went for his face. He basically hit him in the face with the hand that had the ball inside the glove. I realize these are 5-6 year olds but I think someone needs to let them know we don't aim for the face! Luckily he was fine but he did cry (he's pretty good about not crying unless it really hurts though). Another kid got the game ball that night but one of the coaches came up with the idea of giving Little Man the "Tough Guy" ball for taking a hit and getting right back in the game. So, here's this kid who's been waiting for a game ball and which one do you think is his favorite? You betcha. The game ball is great but, a "Tough Guy" ball? That's cool. No one else has one of those. He may have just graduated to Big Man!