stitchin' up a storm

This isn't news to the observant,

(I gave it away in this post)

but - I've been hand quilting for the past week.

I know.

I wasn't going to.

I'm not normally a wishy-washy person,

but this quilt,

it just wants what it wants...

Turns out,

the quilt was right;

it's far too luscious 

to quickly FMQ and be done with it.

This is a pleasure project, after all.

That said, though,

I think I may FMQ the (remaining octagon of the ) stars blocks.

I know.

I know.

I said I wasn't seeing mixed quilting in this one.

But I think I can see it now.

Plus,
as much as I am enjoying working on this quilt,
I do have lots of other projects I need to get to,
and not just a ton of time to get to 'em...

Linking up with Do-it-Yourselfer Lee

In the past week,
I've also made 2 dresses (1 for Lily and 1 for myself)

 and started on a couple of belly bands for my KacyGirl 
and got 3 grocery bags for another gift 1/2 finished -
but no photos of any of that.

In addition to sewing, I also read about sewing.

We got

Stitchin' and Pullin: A Gee's Bend Quilt

from the library a few weeks ago.

I'd read it to myself, but I hadn't read it to Lex, and I knew she'd love it.

When I read it to the girls, I got choked up a few times.
Sweet book.

We'll need to check it out again.

And now I need to add 'research Gee's Bend Quilts' to my list...

exciting times

I just sent all of our changes to the (2nd) preliminary house plan to our draftsman.

Including asking him to return my kitchen to the way I had it!

(thanks so much for your input!)

I just can't even express how excited I am!

We have been working towards this for so long,

and it's finally happening

(Lord willing...)

I'm trying to get lots of sewing in while I can,

'cause things are going to get real crazy up in here.

happy National Donut Day

(Brandon and Lily left early so they could get donuts this morning, too :-)

Lexi's not the only planner ya know...)

and she's off

Her first night away from home,

except when she stayed at Gramma's house with 4 siblings 2 or 3 years ago.

(what will Lexi do without her?!)

I love you, Lil! I hope you have a super time!

turtles like tomatoes

Or maybe not...

~
(I sat so long,
kneeling next to the black tub,
hunched over,
my elbows digging into my thighs,
holding my camera which I'd stabilized on the side of the tub
my finger poised and ready,
 waiting for him to emerge from his shell,
that when he finally popped his head out,
my fingers had fallen asleep
and I couldn't click the button.
So I got a chair.
And waited some more :-)

the fun continues

I am still thoroughly enjoying every bit of the making of this quilt!

I've been planning all along to machine quilt it,

just relatively quick all over free motion quilting 

to create lots of texture and crinkling once it's washed.

But as I was pressing my backing

(yep, got that made, too :-)
I got to thinking that maybe I should hand quilt it instead.

So now, I'm in a quandary.

quick awesome texture?

or 

slow awesome big stitches, 

but not so awesome texture?

('cuz there's no way I'm hand quilting that much)

I know I just blathered on about how mixing machine and hand quilting was sorta my signature...

but I'm not really seeing them together on this quilt;

I'm seeing one,

or the other.

Conundrum.

~

Oh!
I almost forgot;
I came up with a great aid for pressing seams open after joining blocks and/or rows.

Lots of times, when I get to that stage,
when I press the current seams,
I kinda mess up some of my previous carefully pressed seams,
so I thought a long narrow pressing surface would be ideal.

What to use???

A 1 inch, 4 foot dowel rod.
It worked fabulously.

Fab u lous ly !!

I will be using that technique often in the future.
Not only did I not mess up a single previous seam,
the seams pressed on the dowel were so flat.
It's almost as if
the dowel worked as a clapper.
From the wrong side...

So many delightful fabrics, all in one place.
*happy sigh*

linking up with the crafty people at Lee's WiPW
and Finish it up Friday 

church camp

I wasn't sure I was entirely thrilled about the girls going to church camp.

But, they wanted to go,

Tyler was fine with it,

and the boys had gone last year....

Lexi made a chart up several weeks ago

and has gotten out of bed more than once,

because she'd forgotten to mark off a day.

She about drove. me. nuts. with the "where's my packing list"

(hers was a day camp.)

"What vehicle should Brandon drive us in?

Prob'ly Dad's, because the other vehicles hold more people."

"What time to we need to leave?"

etc

Saturday morning, she was up bright and early,

and was ready to go well before the 

(earlier than really necessary) 

7:25 departure

She had a great time and can't wait to go again next year.

Lily goes Friday.

(and stays over one night!)

Needless to say,

she's got her chart made up...

Jeremiah and Josiah go the following week.

(They stay 3 nights)

(They don't have a chart.)

(yet)

Brandon's week is the one after that,

but he's actually going to all of the camps,

as a Counselor in Training,

and will be at Camp Joshua more than he'll be home this month!

(that's going to be weird)

(He doesn't have a chart either.)

the last of the bags

I finished the last of the graduation 'money holders'.

This gal's mom told me she liked pink, pale aqua and gold.

I fretted a good bit over fabric choices,

thinking I really didn't have anything just right,

and almost ordered fabric.

Then I reminded myself,

these are just supposed to be simple bags,

to take the place of a greeting card;

they aren't the entire gift.

It would have not been a bit prudent of me to order fabric.

But still, 

I want the young lady to like it....

I was folding my fabric immediately after cutting it on my last project

(I never do that.

In fact, my black and white remnants and scraps are still in a box in the dining room!)

when I realized that The Way of Flowers by Rashida Coleman had all of those colors :-)

(and then some!)

What is the secret to pressing a bag? I sure need to figure that out!!

I paired it with some gold Cotton + Steel,

a mauve-y pink solid for the lining,

a berry pink zipper,

and a little scrap of teal with white polka dots Lecien for the zipper.

I tried the fusible fleece again.

 I liked the structure it added to this one,

and since the bag is much bigger than the other one I'd used it on,

the puffiness didn't bother me.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out

and hope the graduate likes it, too!

~

It's not for graduation,

but I had one more bag I needed to make.

A few months ago,

while I was still piecing Ties That Bind,

I found 

(what I thought was)

the perfect fabric for the back.

But it was from Ikea,

and the nearest Ikea is 5 hrs away.
They don't sell fabric online.

I put our a plea for help on Facebook,

and one of my friends

went and bought some for me,

 and got it in the mail right away!

(That's huge - I have a horrible time getting to the post office.

My nieces and nephews, poor things, can vouch for that.)

I wanted to make a little something

to thank her for her trouble.

(Actually - some other friends went to their Ikea and tried to get it, too,

but it was out of stock.

I should probably make them a little something also.... hmmm...)

The fabric ended up not being perfect for my quilt after all,

but hey,

I've got a lot of Ikea growing things themed fabric....

I decided to use some of it :-)

It looks fabulous with red, so I used a red zipper

and a scrap from my still-being-quilted

- but only when I'm not working on other projects -

Any Which Way quilt.

I added batting and quilted the exterior pieces  in a 1" square grid 

with a little bit of hand quilting thrown in for good measure :-)

I do love a mix of hand and machine stitching!

It's becoming my signature, I think.

I used some leftover black Widescreen for the lining and the little tab on the zipper.

Leftover from what you ask?

The binding for Ties That Bind.

That's right, I ordered 108 inch wide backing fabric

to use as the binding.

Which turned out to be a fabulous (and inexpensive) idea;

It only took me 62 minutes

from the time I opened my package

to make,

attach,

 and press to the back,

binding for a queen size quilt.

Yay for backings for bindings!

Back to the bag...

Again, I just made up the size, letting the fabric lead me,

and installed the zipper ala Anna

Sadly,

getting this deliciousness to my friend will require super human effort on my part.

I have to take it to the post office.

I really hope she likes it ;-)

linking up with the scraptastic Amanda Jean and Finish it up Friday.

I'm also sharing the link at Elizabeth Foss' recently resurrected With Needle and thREAD.
I read Coal Run on our trip and finished it up after we arrived home.
It was an enjoyable read;
I teared up a few times, and laughed several times, or at least chuckled, too,
but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.