WiP Wednesday: Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!?

Yeah, just ignore my punctuation there. It's scary! But I'm excited cause it's WiP time again and I finished the back for X Marks the Spot! Don't forget to go over to Lee's and check everyone out this week!

It's been a while since I posted about my X quilt because I just couldn't get motivated to do the back. I had one sort of large piece of green and a ton of small black, white, and black/white prints. I just couldn't make up my mind what to do with them. Well, I figured out that I was thinking about it; that was the problem. I plan the fronts but I have yet to plan a back. I usually just start sewing and see what happens. So that's what I did.

As a reminder, here is the front of the quilt.

And here is the back that I finished last night.

I am pleased with it and I plan on sandwiching it today. I'm not really sure how I'm going to quilt it yet. I only straight line stitch but I think this quilt lends itself to that.

New Projects:

I was taken with the display of red and white quilts exhibited at the American Fold Art Museum in March. This is a little more traditional rather than modern but I wanted to try to create something with my take on it. I decided to do a hexie project that I gave a sneak picture of here.

I picked up some Kona cardinal and bleach white for this project. I started with a yard of each because I still need to organize my fabrics. Things are getting a little out of hand. 

There's also a picture there of the hexies I've been making for an unnamed project. Well, I'm up to about 62 of those and I think I'm going to turn them into a girl's quilt for the 100 Quilts for Kids project. 

Completed projects:

My sister's Random Reflections quilt!

Purse

Whew! Okay, time to get some kids to camp so I can start sandwiching!

A Purse...and Life with Kids

So I got another purse done. I thought I gave it up without getting a picture of it but remembered that I'd sent her a text of it so here you go.

Not the greatest picture, but it's pretty much exactly like this purse I made the other week. It's based on the Hobo dance bag, but I boxed out the bottom like the Phoebe bag. I also added a magnetic clasp.

As for the other topic, I have been thinking this morning. There are certain "givens" when you have children.

1. When a child is moving through the house with an object in hand, said object will be dropped to the floor (wherever he/she might be) when he/she becomes disinterested with it (or if someone calls for the ice cream truck, or something else of similar high interest level).
2. The top to the toothpaste in the children's bathroom will never be put back on the toothpaste again unless you have the gumption to do it yourself.
3. At times, you will not be able to locate the top to the toothpaste in the children's bathroom (note: check the floor).
4. Stray toothpaste will adorn the sink and counter in the children's bathroom; get used to it.
5. You will never again be on time for any event to which they are also invited.
6. Even after repeatedly being told to put things away where they belong so that said child will know where to find them the next time (we're talking at least 100,000 times), and even after bearing witness to the credence of this (having it proven time and again), the child will be unable to locate said objects when it is imperative that it be located in the next 5 minutes or the world will come to an end.
7. Even after having the "BEST DAY EVER" which includes a long list of fabulous events, wonderful foods, best company, and more fun than could possibly be imagined, it takes only one infintessimal moment to create the "WORST DAY EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!" (i.e., time for bath, time for bed, some undesirable food item for supper,...)
8. Children suffer from selective listening, selective vision, and selective understanding (poor dears).
9. Inanimate objects are to blame (or will be blamed) for most mishaps around the home.

Which leads me to today's event. Apparently my kitchen floor has a sweet tooth. And these cravings only appear to occur just after I've cleaned it. Yesterday I spent much of my time cleaning while Thing 1 was at Girl Scout camp all day and Thing 2 was at Science Camp in the a.m. and the neighbor's house in the afternoon. This morning, my floor revolted against me and send out seekers for it's sweets attack. The result? Thing 1 was able to provide it with lemonade...twice. And as all of us moms know, anything with sugar in it that has been spilled on the floor takes no less than 10 moppings and half a week to stop being sticky. I'm currently on mopping #5. And I'm not happy. The floor can take it's cravings somewhere else for all I care.

Need a laugh when you've had a bad mom day? Do check out Jana at http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/. She makes me laugh. Out loud. A lot. And when I feel like my kids think I'm a horrible mom, I just go read about Jana's life and I feel better. Or at least content to know that I am not the only one. Jana has a literature degree and her writing is superb. She can make the most mundane events amazing to read about.

Productivity Report: Poor

Okay, so not much got done this weekend on the quilting front. We were at ballet dress rehearsal for 3 HOURS (count 'em, THREE) Saturday night. My neighbor's girls were also in it so they were there. She was teasing me about never sitting still. See, I took hexies to the rehearsal. But you know what? I got 45 of them done while I was waiting.

These were supposed to be for me to do on the way to the beach but I have altered what I'm doing for that. I'm working on a design for combining a red and white quilt base with a hexagon design.
Here's a little preview...

What do you think? I'm going to use this as the center and do some side designs, as well as some smaller medallion type designs in the corners. Hubbie said I had to stop doodling if I wanted to keep it under 10 feet wide!
Okay, so this next part is kind of for Jennifer because she commented on my hubbie's vintage Singer and table. I mentioned that we also have hubbie's grandparent's very first toaster but I'm not sure she understood when I was explaining it. So here are some pictures.
I told her it was open on all sides.

I decided to offer up a piece of bread to the cause to show you how it works (it's the heel, so no one would eat it anyway!).  So first you open up one of the sides and place your bread in the toaster.

Close that side and add bread to the other side. Then allow it to cook. Only the center generated heat.

So when your bread was sufficiently toasted on one side, you flipped it.

Then cook the other side and you're done. Wow, we've come a long way, Baby!

Sunday...

It's hard to take pictures of moving objects...

Quilted, check; Binding, check; Finished, CHECK!!!

I'm so happy to have my sewing machine back! I finished quilting my sister's Random Reflections quilt last night and I sewed on the binding. I was going to wait to post a picture but I couldn't so here you go:

Here's a closeup of some of the stitching.

I did all straight line and I followed the seams so there's bound to be a little wonky stuff, but you learn from everything.
Here's the back.

Rebecca's Quilting 101 class today is about quilt backs. So cool. I really like giving the back some character. It doesn't necessarily have to be a reversible quilt but I like for the back to look interesting. Luckily I had plenty of leftovers from the front (I still have leftovers!) so I pieced some blocks down the middle to stretch my backing fabric.

I really like that backing fabric and it blends perfectly with the Kona Maize and the jelly roll I used.

Oh, and I also finished putting the last strip on the last square for the Clover and Violet's Embroidery 101 so I'm ready for that too.

I'm still working on the backing for X Marks the Spot. It's a little harder because I do have to piece some but I'm being particular about how I do it.

It's the weekend for ballet recitals so I don't foresee getting much more done. My parents will be staying in the bedroom down in the basement (my sewing machine resides in the room next to it). Hope you guys are productive!

All about Sewing...

Check it out...

Since I already started embroidery with mine, I'm excited about this one!

As a sidenote, got my JAM stripe in from SewLux so I can finally finish the last strip on my Embroidery 101 squares! And the shop just called for me to pick up my sewing machine. As my daughter would say, "Best. Day. Ever!"

Hey! There's my jam stripe but where did that other fabric come from? Wow, wasn't that nice? Some extra fat quarters just happened to appear in my package. I wonder how that happened? (Ahem, cough, cough, um, ordered it, cough, er, uh, yeah).
Also dealing with sewing, I noticed Katy at I'm a Ginger Monkey got herself a new little treat today; a vintage Singer! What was strange about it is that I'm sitting 3 feet away from one owned by hubbie's grandmas. Okay, so we got the table and the Singer from a grandmother and a great grandmother but I don't know which came from which. The sewing table was bad. It was very bad. Putrid green color. Very very bad. So hubbie stripped and refinished it to this.

Bad lighting in the dining room, sorry. Needless to say, it looks mucho better. Anyway, it's a table for a full sized machine, but the machine is a travel Singer, so he had to do some adjustments.

Here she is. And see that line around the edge of her? Like I said, the table was meant for a bigger machine so hubbie had to add some wood to make sure the travel one would fit. I feel kind of guilty. Katy's is all shined up and pretty. Ours is kind of on the dusty side. I think it still works. I wouldn't even know how to use it. My MIL still has her old Singer as well. Katy's right. They just don't make 'em like they used to.
You know what's funny? Hubbie's great grandmother was a seamstress, and his grandmother and mom both sewed. MY great grandmother? She worked in the cotton mills making fabric. My mom still has a shuttle from a loom at the mill. And now I quilt. Hmmm... makes you think.

Oh, last minute thought (but not because of a lack of importance!). Do check out SwimBikeQuilt's project to provide quilts for kids. You can donate in your own community so don't worry that she is out of Washington. It runs from 9/15 to 10/15 so there's plenty of time. Get your quilt on and make a child happy!

My Mind is Racing...

Where do you guys get your ideas for projects? I never cease to be amazed where ideas originate for me. After seeing the cute embroidery ideas out there I got to wondering where people get their drawing ideas, and wishing I was a better drawer? artist. Then I took the kids to Burger King of all places. Have you seen the crowns lately? They have the BK kids on them.

They're actually kind of cute. In fact, that's sort of where I got the idea for the little embroidery drawings I did of Thing 1 and Thing 2. Not exactly, but close. There are also animals...

And monsters.

I was thinking it might be cute to come up with some kind of Halloween quilt from the monster characters (plus more).  Just an idea.

Also, my Japanese fabric finally came in and it's perfect! I put it with the Hideaway and the colors just all blend together perfectly. I think it would be great for either gender so I'm in the clear.

These are the fabrics I am meshing together for the Japanese/Austrian baby quilt. I love how the colors all seem to blend together. The Japanese fairy tale fabrics seem to go perfectly with the Bavarian village look of the Hideaway fabric. I can almost see Hansel and Gretel living in a home like that. Funny how the fairy tale fabrics are supposed to be Japanese but they depict German stories (Hansel and Gretel), French stories (Puss in Boots and Red Riding Hood), and there's a princess in there as well! So we're just going to depict several cultures.

I'm still waiting (impatiently) for the return of my sewing machine. I'm ready to finish my sister's quilt. I want to be able to report some finished projects next week! Arrggh!