Sew Together Stitching Lounge and a Day in Pasadena

Happy New Year! 

December was a whirlwind of activity, as always, with so much going on at work and at home. This year we capped off the holiday celebrating with a few days in Southern California to watch My Middle Child perform at the Rose Bowl with the Redcoats, the University of Georgia's marching band.




We also got in a great visit with my brother and sister-in-law, and my niece and nephews. It was so much fun to hang out with them and enjoy the gorgeous weather when it was bitterly cold at home. We ate so much great food while celebrating "Second Christmas" and New Year's Eve.

I had hoped to meet up with Kristin, but our visit was jam packed and, of course, the holidays are busy for everyone. Kristin did have a quilt shop suggestion for me and my sister-in-law, who is also a quilter. One afternoon while Batman was napping, we snuck away to the Sew Together Stitching Lounge for a little fabric therapy.

This is such a great little shop with the friendliest staff. In addition to some great modern fabrics, they also had a selection of patterns and a few knits for garments. 

Flying will put a damper on shopping for fabric, but I did tuck a few things into my suitcase. 

I couldn't resist this knit by Sarah Watts, a designer with Cotton + Steel, since my littlest nephew is a tiny bit obsessed with octopus and squid. It's called Mystery Food, and it's going to get me over my fear of sewing knits.

I also picked up two prints from the Journey On line from Dear Stella Designs (by Rae Ritchie).

Extra bonus if you are not monogamous in the ways of textiles: there's a yarn and embroidery shop called The Knitting Tree right next door. Go wild.

I thought I was going to get to see an art quilt show as well one day when we were driving around. I spied this banner, and my brother dropped me off at the corner to get the details.

Sadly, they were closed until January 3. But if you're in the area and can get past the fact that they used the phrase "Not Your Grandmother's Quilt Show," it's at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica through March 18. (I'm looking at you, Frances!)

We had a great visit and are now back to reality. I hope you all had a marvelous holiday season wish you a wonderful 2018!

WiP Wednesday - Quilt for a Cure - Operation Smiley

Saturday the WannaBees got together for a few hours. So many of us have gone back to work full time that it's been harder and harder to meet. Lately we've been trying to get together one Saturday morning a month.

I decided to pull some yellow and navy fabrics and cut out blocks for Operation Smiley. As much as I love this color combination, I didn't have a lot of choices that read mostly solid. These blocks are so quick and easy to put together!

Sunday we went to Athens to visit My Middle Child, and I got some hand quilting done in the car. This is a quilt made by a friend's mother, and I'm trying to finish it for her. The Pit Boss wonders why I will hand quilt someone else's quilt when I won't even hand quilt my own.  I guess it's because quilting is a gift of love!

I've also been working on the binding for the Sweet Hearts quilt. I still don't know who it's for, but I'm so happy with the way my FMQing turned out after class with Christa. I'll have to take pictures this weekend if the weather is good.

I'm playing around with my whiteboard, trying to decide the best way to keep track of everything. Between this and my design wall, it helps keep me on track so projects don't get buried in the piles.

What are you working on?

State of the Stash

Happy New Year!

This seems like as good a time as any to reboot the blog and my quilting habits in general.

In 2016 I was thrilled to get a sewing space all to myself, thanks to a couple of kids moving to their college towns. Don't get me wrong; I'd give it up and take them back in a minute, but it is really nice to have all that room. Just the design wall is a game changer!

While moving into this new space, though, I found lots of UFOs, plenty of fabric that is, well, not to my taste anymore (to put it nicely) and some gadgets I'd completely forgotten about. My goal is to get rid of what I definitely won't use and finish up the rest.

I did manage to finish some projects last year. In addition to the quilt for my father-in-law, I also completed a Turning Twenty for My Middle Child's twentieth birthday. I'm not sure I mentioned it, but he transferred from University of Kentucky to University of Georgia this year, and it was so wonderful to be able to drive over to Athens to celebrate his birthday with him.

I also finished my Twilters in the Air quilt, which was made up of the Birds in the Air blocks that we swapped among the #twilters in honor of the release of Frances Dowell's novel, Birds in the Air. It was so fantastic to have so many of the Twilters attend our guild's quilt show to see Frances do a reading and to have Pam and Lynn from The Stitch TV Show tape two episodes in front of our live quilt show audience. This quilt won third place for group quilts.

Alas, those were the only two quilts I finished this year, other than the mug rug above. I hope 2017 is better. To help achieve that goal, I hope to get back to blogging, which gives me some accountability, and to track my stash usage. I'm going to link up with Patchwork Times each Sunday and post my stats.

Let's wipe the slate clean and see how we do:

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 0 yards
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Fabric for 2017: 0 yards used

WIP Wednesday - Birds in the Air

My Birds in the Air blocks are here!

Recently one of the Twilters suggested a block swap to celebrate the launch of Frances's book, Birds in the Air. For once in my life I didn't wait to start working on my blocks at the last minute. For once I beat the deadline with time to spare. The waiting was excruciating!

But they're here! The blocks are here and I love them. It is such fun to look through and see the familiar names mixed with the new. My Middle Child and I were choosing our favorites last night - how can you pick just one? - and he couldn't believe the ones from so far away. (Whoops! I must have forgotten the pick of OzzyPip's block from Australia!)

I'm working on a layout now, and think I have one I like. I'm keeping it a little bit of a surprise until the top is together. I keep going back to my studio to look and swap blocks around and then leave it for awhile so I can look at it with fresh eyes, but I think I might have landed on my favorite.

I am so grateful to Tina for organizing and to everyone who participated!

What are you working on today?

Happy Mother's Day!

Longer post later, but both my boys arrived home from college Friday afternoon, so I am enjoying the best Mother's Day gift ever - all five of us under one roof again.

Hope all the mamas out there have a great day!

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Blank Slate

We have been on a home improvement kick the last few months, so not much going on in my sewing room, but that is about to change! Now that both boys are off to college, Gracie convinced us to play musical bedrooms. She moved into Deuce's room - which has been largely undisturbed in over two years as he prefers the queen sized bed in the guest room when he does come home - and took over the much larger Jack and Jill bathroom that the boys used to share. My Middle Child (MMC) will move to Gracie's old room so the two of them aren't sharing a bathroom when he is home this summer, and his old room will become...wait for it...my new sewing studio!!

We have painted and changed out the twenty year old tub hardware and light fixtures and builder's grade ceiling fans. We have cleaned carpets and given away childhood furniture and emptied closets. The people at Lowe's know us by name.

Finally I have an empty room and, of course, I'm frozen; unsure of where to start. One decision I'm putting off  need to make is what I'd like to use for a sewing table. My current space and money saving setup is okay, but not ideal. Unfortunately there aren't any big shows coming up close to me soon where I might get to see some in person (or take advantage of show discounts).

If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear them. I hope to share pictures along the way and start sewing soon in my new dream space!




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Royal Squares or Christmas Wishes

I'm so happy to be blogging again and hope not to disappear on you again. More on that later, but first I wanted to show you my latest finished quilt!

I started it on retreat back in August when none of the projects I had brought with me were going well. I found this antique jelly roll of Legacy by Howard Marcus that I had picked up at Sweet Home Quilt Shop back in 2009.

A quick search found this perfect pattern for free over on Craftsy - it's called Royal Squares by Emily McClendon. I didn't have a suitable background fabric with me and contemplated a run to the fabric store, but one of my retreat mates generously offered me two yards of this fantastic white-on-white dandelion print that she had just picked up. I was able to get almost all of the blocks together on retreat before I ran out of white - it turns out the the two yards was almost certainly only one and a half. A search for more ensued, and luckily we were able to find enough for me to finish the quilt and replace the two yards from my friend's stash.

Several people asked what the quilt would be for, and I honestly didn't know. It occurred to me that the quilt might make a nice Christmas gift for My Middle Child's girlfriend. They've been dating for over two years now, and we absolutely love her.

When searching for the back I stumbled across another dandelion print in Minky that was perfect. I wouldn't have to piece the back, and the quilt would be so cozy. I decided not to add batting, and to quilt it in this gorgeous, pale blue thread from Aurifil called Mint Ice (2800). I just did a random meander with some loops and hearts thrown in. It's not my best quilting ever, but it sinks into the Minky so beautifully and crinkled up exactly how I was hoping.

I wasn't sure how to bind the quilt. When I made Gracie's Minky quilt, I used satin blanket binding which, quite frankly, was a huge pain. While searching for possible solutions I ran across this tutorial by Pam of Hip to Be a Square Podcast way back from her episode 4! I still had a few questions after reading the tutorial, so I re-listened to the episode. It was so fun to hear Pam and Zapper again! But Pam's method worked perfectly, even though I wanted a much more narrow binding than she used.

Although it wasn't finished by Christmas, it is done while the kids are still home for Christmas break. I'm calling that a win. I am calling the quilt "Christmas Wishes" and hope that all of this sweet girl's wishes come true.




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Houseworks Holiday Plan - Week 6 - Wardrobe Week

It's Week 6! Time to make sure everyone's clothes are ready for parties, pictures, and other special events.

Once again, this is one of those times when scaling back pays off. We don't get really dressed up for any of the holidays, and I don't do a family photo. We are making sure My Middle Child (MMC) has nice threads for the Homecoming Dance next weekend, so he'll be set if we have some unexpected fancy party. We decluttered closets when they cleaned their rooms right before school started, but I will go through the coat closet and give my laundry room a good scrubbing.

The Pit Boss and I have been brainstorming some gift ideas for the kids; as always, we're totally stumped for our parents. It's the annual struggle. They mean so much to us that it's hard to express. Everything we come up with seems so insufficient.

As for work gift swaps, we don't do too much, but my closest coworker and I have come up with a couple of ideas that we may do together for a few of our favorites.

I'm hoping that once the quilt show is over today I can focus on these tasks again. How are you doing with the plan?







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Menu Plan Monday - Hell in a Handbasket

It's Menu Plan Monday and this week jumps to a whole new level of crazy. We have two cross country meets, a day off for each kid (but not the same day, of course!), an orthodontist appointment, two lacrosse practices plus a game, THE QUILT SHOW and...oh, yeah...tickets to the One Direction concert.

How did I get myself into this? The Pioneer Woman said it so much better than me.

• Sunday - leftovers from MMC's awesome birthday dinner
• Monday - Baked Pasta with Sausage and Spinach from the freezer, mixed green salad.
• Tuesday - Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches (that we didn't get to again last week!)
• Wednesday - dinner at the concert
• Thursday - leftover buffet
• Friday -  quilt show preview party dinner
• Saturday - oh, who knows at this point?

What's on your menu?



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Overheard - Like Family

Thursday night at dinner, I was telling my family about a VIP guest who would be coming into my building on Friday. I was debating what to wear to work since Fridays are normally casual; I didn't want to be too casual, but I also didn't want to be horribly overdressed.

The Pit Boss asked if we had been given any guidelines, and I told him that we had only received an email which asked us to give the VIP "a warm welcome." We assumed that was a euphemism for, "We know it's Friday, but please don't come to work in your pajamas."

To which my boy said, "Maybe that would be the perfect warm welcome. 'Come on in! Wear your pajamas. Have some cocoa.' Like that."

I don't think my boss would go for it, but I like the way that boy's mind works.



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#TBT - Throwback Thursday - Noah's Nine Patch

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It's Throwback Thursday here at Quiltin' Jenny, and I hope you'll link up and share your own creative adventures from your pre-blogging days.

Today's project is a little bit of a cheat because it's a quilt I didn't make.

Remember when I told you the story about my first quilt and how Mom and I made them together? Well, this is the quilt Mom made for My Middle Child (MMC) while I was making that one.

Our nursery was all done in a Noah's Ark theme, but back then there wasn't a lot of ready made decor. We found this fabric - I can't remember where - and fell in love.  The back is my favorite!

Mom hand quilted it, just as I did mine. These pictures don't quite show how beautiful the quilt was in it's prime, since they were just taken this week. The quilt itself, just like MMC, is eighteen tomorrow.

Where does the time go? Happy birthday to my beautiful boy. We love you so much!

Do you have an old mature holiday craft to share with us this week?

An InLinkz Link-up

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Menu Plan Monday - Schrodinger's Meatloaf

It's Menu Plan Monday and it's fall, y'all! You can tell by the sports, the break in the weather...and the allergies. Grace has been home sick off and on all week, but is much better today. Let's hope it stays that way!

These weeks when we are on the go, have meetings and practices and games and meets and late nights at work, are tricky for planning dinners. We are headed in all different directions, so the menu plan is even more important for those nights when we can sit down as a family. Tuesday and Thursday are the worst, leading The Pit Boss to question "If you make dinner and there's no one there to eat it, does it still taste good?" (Also known as Schrodinger's Meatloaf).

• Sunday - Skinny Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy, mashed potatoes, mixed green salad
• Monday - Pollo Sabroso, yellow rice, oven roasted green beans
• Tuesday - YOYO
• Wednesday -  Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches (that we didn't get to last week!)
• Thursday - leftover buffet
• Friday - Almost Famous Broccoli Cheese Soup, bread bowls
• Saturday -My Middle Child's 18th birthday dinner! - TBD

What's on your menu?



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