One-a-week

Flirtations is a wonderful new line of fabric by Sandy Gervais. I just love her style! I just had to make something with it so Sharon and I both are making table runners. Here's mine:



I think it is so fun! I'd like to do placemats, and a wall hanging, and a quilt for the living room etc out of this line! Sigh... so much fabric, sew little time!

A week ago Friday I purchased fabric for a quilt. Took it home and promptly began cutting it up. On Tuesday, I called Mary and managed to get ahold of her and told her that I needed this quilt done this week. She said she could do it if she had it by Wed morning. So that night I got the backing ready for it and I was able to get Paul to bring it over to her Wednesday at 9 am when she opened. I was so shocked though, when she called me on my cell phone that afternoon to tell me that it was done! Since I only had "check-in" for labs this past week, they didn't take the full 4 hours and I was finished earlier than usual and could leave to arrive in Sherman before 5 to pick it up! That just left binding! The quilt was finished on Thursday-a week after I started it. My family has decided that it is a record for me! Of course, I did have help with the machine quilting part.

The reason that I needed it in a week is it is a gift, of course, for some friends who are moving down near San Antonio. I am actually going to give it to them on Wednesday evening. Here are some photos of it.




It uses the "Take Five" quilt pattern which is why it was so fast and easy. Plus it wasn't too large to get finished either. There are 5 main fabrics in the body of the quilt: music, water, marbles, blue kaleidoscope, & fireworks. I chose the fabrics not only to "go together" but also because they have some special meaning for the family for whom the quilt was made. Music: both of them were involved in the choir and special music in our church. He was also our accompanist. Water: last summer, she was in charge of "splashdown" a free water carnival our church sponsors for the community. Marbles: this past year, they were given a foster son. Blue kaleidoscope fabric: reminded me of stained glass and they helped with putting the "stained glass look" on our sanctuary windows and the colors were similar to them also. Fireworks: they are alot of fun! And at choir sometimes they shoot zingers at each other. Well, I hope they enjoy it! It was fun finding all of those fabrics!

Gosh, and if I could keep doing one quilt a week for the rest of the year, how many quilts would I have done by Dec 31st? It boggles the mind!

Happy Calculating!
Wasie

Be Warm!

This week, one of my friends, Sharon, and I drove down to The Quilt Asylum and picked up our first installment in our 12 month BOM — Nancy Halvorsen's Be Attitudes. I worked on my block starting yesterday and finished it up today. It is "be warm". Each one of the months is "be .... something."

This was the first time that I had blanket stitched on my sewing machine around little pieces with curves and corners that were tight and angles etc. I made up a little practice piece using scrap fabric with an "m" and 2 mittens — thought maybe I could get some use out of that... And I diddled around with the length and width of my stitch. Well, I thought I was doing okay on the lil' practice piece, so off I went on the snowman! Aargh! I did not like it! The scarf, in particular, looked terrible. I ended up finishing stitching the entire block, then pulling out the stitching on the entire scarf and redoing the whole scarf. I used a slightly narrower stitch this time on the scarf and that seemed to help plus my experience from doing the rest of the picture and all of those letters probably helped too. Also, see that strategically placed green button...it's my favorite. I loved that it was a wide button — hides all kinds of things... There are also little cream shiny buttons that go on the ends of the snowflake arms, but I was afraid that I would just have to take them off later for quilting, etc. I will probably have to take off the carrot nose and the green button, but I just couldn't resist putting them on!

Well, if you're tempted to join me, the website for the BOM is The Quilt Asylum. They will ship them to you mail order each month if you can't get to the shop to pick them up!

Be Warm,
Wasie
;o)

Tote Bag, Tote Bag, Everywhere a Tote Bag...

I have truly been the tote bag queen lately. And every time I make one, my daughters go, "Oh, I want one like that!" Using the Charm Party Tote pattern by Quilts Illustrated, I ended up making 6 different tote bags. I truly think I have the pattern memorized now! Three of them were for the church bazaar; then 2 more were ordered from that and I finally was able to make 1 for a gift to give from us! Here's picks of some of them.


These three were the first 3 for the church bazaar.


This one is a gift for Grandma Pat.

Then I made a little purse for Peng from a pattern by This n That. And a Jelly Roll tote for my sister-in-law Linda for Christmas. I can't seem to locate a photo of Peng's purse right now, but here's Linda's jelly roll tote.

The jelly roll was a fabric collection called shangri la. I have enough strips left to make one more bag, and now that I know what I'm doing it should go faster!

Happy Toting,
Wasie

Hey! Where'd November go?

The pics of the November Happy Blocks never got posted!
Here they are. The theme was Christmas.


Ho, ho, ho. Merrrrry Christmas.

Oh, and a Happy New Year everybody!!!
Wasie

the stockings were hung...

For Christmas, our fireplace would not be complete, if Peng, our exchange student from China, did not have a stocking to hang! She had never celebrated Christmas before so the customs of hanging stockings and decorating trees with ornaments were all new to her. I made her a Christmas stocking for Santa to fill for her and to take home as a momento of her first Christmas in America.


(clicking on photo will make it larger)
I started with a pattern in "Fast, Fun & Easy Christmas Stockings" by Susan S. Terry and modified it to work with some of the Christmas strips that I had received in a swap. Then I added buttons: a gold glittery star, Christmas lights on the tree, and presents in the snow. I also glued on some garland. Some buttons were added by her name also. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Santa came and filled it with all sorts of goodies too!!

On Christmas day, I finally finished my happy blocks for the month of December. The theme was jewel tones. The centers were off-white and the outside borders were jewel tones. Here's what I came up with:


I decided I had better use my time wisely so I went right on ahead and completed my January blocks as well. The theme is winter blues. I found some fabric with dogs playing with snowmen in the snow—sledding, falling, building snowmen etc. I fussy cut the centers from this fabric so they are all different and then cut the borders from 3 different blue fabrics. Here's a shot of 3 of these:



Hope everyone had a grrreat holiday! And keep the spirit of Christmas and the memory of Christ's birth in your heart all the year through!
Wasie

Fun Fabrics...

I thought I'd share this fun fabric that they have at the Quilt Asylum. I don't do that very often, but I think you would get a kick out of this! Wouldn't it make a great backing? I will have to get some!!

Oh, their website is www.thequiltasylum.com and the fabric is called wranglers. It's in the New Additions right now. Don't buy it out on me, please....

The gals from the Quilt Asylum -and probably every other quilt shop in the country- are at Quilt Market buying & ordering all the newest & coolest stuff for the next season. Wouldn't that just be so much fun? Of course, I don't know how they ever decide! Everything looks so great, and you can't get it all! I'm sure they are dead tired when they get back.

I am fighting a headache today and monitoring a test for my students right now this very instant!! Wow, huh! Of course, that means I have to grade them all.... I printed them on halloween colored paper. ha ha ha ha....

I haven't decided if or what I will dress up for on Wednesday for halloween this year. I am not feeling good today so it is not a good day to pick!

BOO!
Wasie

Charmed, I'm sure.

I finished my surprise to take to church tomorrow. Well, nearly. I need some matte board for the bottom and I don't have any.
It's a tote bag made with charm squares. The pattern is from Quiltsillustrated.com and is called Charm Party Tote.
Here's the pics.
Front
Back
Inside
The fabric I used was from a collection called "Decorative Color and Contrast" by Marcus Brothers. The photos make the lining and handles look more orangey red than they are. The color is a soft medium peach tone. The colors in general are more muted than they are tending to look. We'll see what the gals at church think about it for the bazaar next month. Maybe I can get another 1 or 2 finished by then--especially now that I know what I'm doing and I have the details worked out! And I need to get that matte board for the bottom....

Happy Sewing,
Wasie
:o)

Whew.... life goes on.

October Happy Blocks are in! Here's the picks.




The fabric is from Moda's "Fall Back in Time" line designed by Sandy Gervais. I just love her stuff. She also did the "Holly Jolly" Christmas fabric line I just love too. I am going to use it for my Happy Blocks for November—Christmas prints.

And I am working on some cute stuff for our bazaar at church. But there will be no photo before its time. Or something like that.... We'll see what I can manage before the due date.

Keep pluggin'
Wasie
:-)

Yes, I am around, folks....

Life has been a little hectic lately. I guess a lot hectic. (Is that correct English?) So I have not taken any time to post any photos or anything! We have a new gal living with us, we said good bye to a dear friend who has moved many states away, and the semester is going full steam ahead! Whew!

Well, first off, meet Peng! She is from Changsha, China in the Hunan province and will be living with us for the next year. She is delightful, sweet and very studious. She is going to high school with our girls and working very hard. Her English is pretty good. So I think in a couple of months she will be feeling more comfortable than she is now. She is doing a great job trying all of the new food and she is eager to try all of the American experiences like the movies and football games! I think she is looking forward to homecoming next weekend too. Here is a photo of Peng taken her first day in Texas at the airport with our daughter Jessica. Peng says that "everything in America is big!" Her high school in China has 10,000 students! Denison High School must seem quite small to her!

Then just last Sunday we said goodbye to our dear friend Pam. She is moving to New Jersey to be near her father as his health is not great. She is in the last year of her bachelor's degree in music education and Southeastern is going to let her do her student teaching and finish it up there in NJ. She lost nearly everything in the floods this past summer here in Texas. I sewed her a quilt after the floods hit. And all that was left was the binding. So I finished it up and gave it to her before she left town. Here is a pic of it--"Musical Memories." I hope that we keep in touch, she has been such a great friend over the many years we have lived here. I think we have known her nearly the entire 17 years we have been here.


Another month means Happy Block time! September happy blocks were blue and yellow. Here are mine. Now I just need to get one of each shipped to the winners!!


Well, take care. Hope all are doing well.

Keep smiling,
Wasie

Hmmm... what's the theme?

Here's the latest Happy Blocks for August. Can you figure out the theme?? Let me know if you're having trouble!!




This one I paper pieced the center using a neat lil' pattern from this month's Quiltmaker Magazine. I had to shrink it down by 70% to get it small enough to fit in the center of the happy block. It is so cute though! The regular size would be 6 1/2" instead of 4 1/2" -- finished are 6" and 4" respectively.

Enjoy !
Wasie
:o)

Happy Birthday Lucy!

It's birthday time! My car-Lil' Lucy-turned ONE! Wow! Just 22,000 miles ago we picked her up all shiny and bright at the dealership! I wanted to give her a lovely scrubdown for her birthday but it keeps raining & pouring every day here! So first chance I get that's what we'll do. And then we'll go and take a birthday photo for ya. MINI sent her a birthday card too.

This morning I put the labels on two quilts for some darling little gals that are daughters of two friends of ours. Their baby was just baptized last Sunday, but I didn't get the quilt back from the machine quilter until this week so it didn't make it last week.

This is "Pinwheels for Alyssa" who is just over 1 month old. It is done with fabrics from the Spring Fling line. I used charm squares to make the pinwheels, and I did the entire quilt without a pattern. Calculating out the sizes of the triangles was a learning experience!



This quilt is "Sarah Smiles" and was made for Alyssa's big sister Sarah who is 4 years old and will be going to kindergarden in the fall. She is so delightful and reminds me so much of my oldest daughter Jessica! The pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. The bright colors are Sarah's favorites.



I also completed my July Happy Blocks. I'll let you figure out the theme! Three guesses and the first two don't count! I went all out and did 10 this month instead of 8--5 different ones, 2 of each.



Have a great day and stay dry!
Wasie

A Yarn of an Adventure

Jessica and I went on an adventure the other day. Dad & Michelle are out of town, out of state even, as he drove her to swim camp. So Jess & I went looking for some yarn, Mission Falls Cotton to be precise. I called down to our regular shop in Plano, The Woolie Ewe, and they didn't have it. So I started phoning around. I found a shop a few miles further south of The Woolie Ewe and I called them and they didn't carry it either, but they suggested a shop in Fort Worth yarns unique. Well, I searched "yarns unique" in Ft Worth in the White Pages and didn't find it. Hmmm. Then I tried "yarn shops" in the yellow pages in Fort Worth and there it was "Yarns Ewenique." The computer is such a slave to correct spelling!

So Jess & I drove down to Yarns Ewenique (I love that name) all the way in Fort Worth on the day that she didn't have her evening swim practice. My new nav system surely helped! I do not know my way around Ft Worth at all. The traffic was terrible! The shop closed at 5 and we were panicking that we weren't going to make it! It took us over 2 hours to get there. We managed to arrive 45 minutes before they closed. Whew!

Yarns Ewenique (Did I tell you I love that name?) is a cute shop! It is stuffed with yarn and the ladies there were most helpful. We had a lot of fun looking at and squeezing all of the skeins of yarn. Jessica found some Rowan country yarn that she liked and a new kind of knitting needle neither one of us had ever used, Daisy by Crystal Palace. It is a lightweight plastic needle. Both of us knitted with it at home and liked it. It comes in cool colors too!

I did find my Mission Falls Cotton and they had lots & lots of colors! I think I saw nearly every one. I was looking for it cuz I want to knit this baby blanket that I saw on the internet and it was done in that yarn it stripes and they left all of the ends hanging off. Then they braided the ends together for fringe. I thought it was a great idea--although you couldn't let the baby just sleep with it cuz of the fringe. Too tempting to chew on! Anyhow, the colors they chose were sorta dullish and drab. I wanted to swap some of them out and make it a little more cheery. I looked at the yarn color card on the Mission Falls website, but you just never know when you are on a monitor. So I really wanted to see them in person and choose them all together. I hope it comes out okay. Jess approved of the color choices! Unfortunately, they didn't have the pattern book I needed, so I have ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive so I can get started. Yarns Ewenique gave us the cutest bag with our purchase! It has a sheep on it knitting!

Afterwards we went to the Apple store at Willowbend to pick up a computer game for Jess that she was just dieing to get! There were actually a couple and she did not call ahead! So after fighting the traffic to get from Fort Worth to Plano, they only had 1 of the 3! She kept insisting that they would for sure have all of them as they just came out. Well, they told her that a lot of the times that means that they get shipped that day. So we made up for it at Macy's and found some great sales. Plus she needed some khaki pants for volunteering at the hospital this summer. So it was nice to find a good deal on those.

(No pics since hubby has the camera with him...)

Wasie

It's Black & White-almost

I realized I never did put up a photo of my Black & White Happy Blocks. Black & White was the theme for June. And by the way, I was one of the two winners! I found that out after I returned from London. How's that for a nice lil' homecoming?! I am busy receiving all sorts of lovely little packages in the mail every day!! What fun is that!!!!

Here's my Black & White Happy Blocks Photo:


The next month-July-has red, white & blue for the theme. But no patriotic fabrics since some of the gals are not residents of the USA, and if they win the blocks, we don't want them to have blocks with all of these US flags all over them! For example, one month a gal won from Australia. The blocks are very cool and are pictured in an album in the forum at block central.

EEEK! I went back and looked and I never posted up a photo of my May blocks! May was a pretty hectic month what with the end of school and getting off to England... Well May's theme was flowers. You know, April showers bring May FLOWERS!

Here's my 4 blocks. (I always make 3 of each: 1 for each of the 2 winners, and 1 set to keep. That way at the end of the year I can make a quilt out of all of the different blocks that I made.)








Happy Day,
Wasie

Stonehenge Rocks!

On our last full day in London we took the train out to Salisbury and traveled to the Stonehenge site. It was pretty amazing. They are still figuring out why it was built and there are many theories from astronomical to a calendar to purely religous. I learned alot about the site that I didn't know before. For example, there are large mounds of dirt surrounding the stones throughout the area and they are burial sites and both men and women are buried in them. Also at one time a wooden structure was in the center of the stones. And they also believe they have figured out how they lifted the stones upright using a system of wooden platforms. It is totally unbelievable that they went to so much trouble over so many years to work on this. So it had to be terribly important.

Here is a photo of me with the girls at Stonehenge.


After Stonehenge & Salisbury, we jumped on a train and went up to Bath and saw the Roman ruins and the still functioning waterworks. It was awesome how much of the structure was still preserved. It was also cool how the Romans had worked out the plumbing which is still being used today. The hot springs underneath still services the large pool.


The water is green now because the roof no longer exists and it kept the UV rays from the sun from reaching the water. The sunlight allows the algae to grow. In the Romans' era the water would have been clear. If you pump up the water from underground it's clear.

Here is Jessica at the Roman baths. In the background you can see an abbey that was right next door to the Roman baths. We didn't have time to visit it. Awesome architecture everywhere!


Here is part of our group on the top of the double-decker bus taking a tour around the city of Bath.


This is the "most photographed bridge in Bath." Well you can't miss an opportunity like that, can you?



Happy Sightseeing!
Wasie

Hey! The London Bridge didn't fall down!

We're back from our week-long trip across the ocean to London. I went with my daughters and their girl scout group that I assist. We had a marvelous if wet time! We saw lots and lots of attractions, but not nearly everything. So I guess that's reason to go back and to bring dad! We also went to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace), Salisbury (Stonehenge), Bath and Paris. What's that? You thought Paris was in France? Well, it is! We took the high speed train and went through the chunnel (channel tunnel) under the English Channel. It took about 20 minutes to cross the English channel or should I say burrow?

On the looong plane trips I did manage to get in a bit of knitting. They did allow size 15 circular knitting needles. Mine were also not very long--16 inches and plastic. The flight over was 9 hrs the flight home was 10 hrs. On the way there I finished up a scarf done with tape yarn. The brand was Sensations CARLO.

On the flight home to Dallas, I made a roll brim hat using Plymouth Yarn Yukon both print and solid. It is a very bulky yarn so I totally finished it up. However, Gatwick airport in London had greater restrictions for carry on baggage and I was afraid they would not allow my little scissors this time. So I put them in my checked suitcase. That meant I couldn't clip each color of yarn so I had the skeins still attached as I went until I arrived home and could clean it up.

After I get my photos from the trip sorted -- there are only hundreds and hundreds, literally -- I'll start posting a few for ya. And tell you some stories.

Cheerio!
Wasie

Off to England

Here's a pic of a bright little flower quilt top I finished up. It's off being quilted now. I'm sure some little gal will like this one. At least I hope so!



We're busy packing up for our jaunt to London Friday. We'll be in jolly ol' England for a week! We're going with the girls' girl scout troop which I help out with. We've saved up the cookie money for 2 years to help pay for the lodging. I think everyone is pretty excited. Jessica said that she wants to meet Prince Edward! I wished her luck! It's supposed to be rainy and cold; although we've been told the weather can change quickly. Maybe we'll bring Texas sunshine with us.

Cheerio,
Wasie
;o)

A Star for a Star!

Things have been pretty hectic lately. I'm sure you know how that goes! It is the end of my semester and that is what always happens. Anyhow, I have managed to sneak in time to put together a paper-pieced star block for a friend of ours who is graduating from high school. She is a close friend and has been swimming with the girls for years. She lives in Oklahoma and will be attending college up there this fall. She is valedictorian of her class too! This block is full of little meanings for her. I chose a star because Torie has always been a shining friend to the girls. She was right there when Jessica was so very ill. And she is a "star" in many other ways as she has so many talents. The "bubble" fabric for water-both swimming (how we all met) and the Christian symbol fabric for her to remember to keep Christ by her side and to follow His lead. The colors of the block are blue and purple for loyalty and faith of which she has a lot. Inside the star are other colors too and movement for Torie is full of life and fun and has a full future ahead of her.


Remember: if you click on a photo, it gets larger.

As far as the paper piecing goes. This was the first time, I have ever done such a large block using this method. It was harder than I realized it would be to put the paper-pieced sections together. I think it takes some practice and perhaps knowledge of some tricks (?)! All in all, I think it came out fair and if i did another, I'm sure I learned from my first experience!

Congratulations to all of our graduates!
Wasie

Happy "Happy Blocks"

I managed to get my February "Anything Goes" Happy Blocks ironed and photographed for ya. I just laid them out on the floor and stood up high on stool. I hope you can see them! It was fun seeing what everyone came up with. I feel like I had an insight into everyone's personality.

(Remember: click on the photos for a larger view.)
I am not sure how I am going to put them together. I am trying to be "creative". So who knows what will come out!! Eeek! It could be scarey! So watch out!

I also managed to finish my "Bug Blocks" for the April Swap. I think they are pretty cute! I had to go and get bug fabric as I did not have any! Imagine that! Fabric I didn't have! It was fun hunting some down.



The May theme is flowers. I am sure I have some of those! So I will dig in my stash and scraps for those.

Happy Day,
Wasie

To TLU & Back...

Friday, I drove my oldest daughter, who is beginning the fun and somewhat arduous process of choosing a college, all the way down to Seguin, Texas. We did not make it all the way home. I caved in and we stopped at a hotel partway and finished the 6 hour trek on Saturday. She did help with some of the driving; although she is not fond of high traffic situations, her highway driving skills are improving as she gains more experience. Anyhow, we did survive the drive, despite a couple of creative stop-and-go situations on the way home -- where once you finally merge all the way over in stop-and-go traffic and get to your exit only to discover that a fire truck and police car have it blocked and now you get to drive across three lanes the other direction to a totally new route! Or playing stop and go for 30 minutes to move only 2 miles, merge over to the right to try to exit to find out that you are forced to merge all the way back to the left, finally get there, get up to the front, and watch 2 police cars drive off and all the lanes open up! Isn't big city driving an adventure?? sigh...

Well, back to our story... In Seguin, we visited Texas Lutheran University (TLU) and Jess just loved it. We took a tour of the campus given by a senior business major, and met with an admissions counselor. We also were able to visit with a friend of ours who is currently a freshman student there. So she was able to learn alot about what going to school there was like. It is a private school so we will have to see about paying for the tuition. I am not sure how much scholarship money she can garner. But like I told her, if you don't try you will never know or get there. She really was excited about possibly going there. She still wants to visit some other schools though, but she certainly has been bitten by the college bug! She just has to remember that there are 3 more semesters of high school first!

Before we left for TLU, I was able to finish the 3rd Cowboy Quilt top! And get it dropped off at Mary's Quilt Shop for quilting. Here's a photo of the top, held up by my hubby. Hope ya like it. The quilting in this one will have saguaro cacti in it -- it has them in the "map" print -- and stars and longhorns.

Yee haw!
Wasie

Quilt Quazy!!

Last weekend was the Dallas Quilt Celebration and my hubby and I (yes, he actually went too and is still living) drove down and spent several hours amidst the cotton and wool and carbon-based lifeforms. It was a huge show and we saw the most spectacular quilts! The winners are at the Quilters Guild of Dallas Quilt Celebration Results. BUT all of the quilts were tremendous and I don't know how the judges can pick! Paul and I had a terrible time picking one for our viewer's choice entries. We each chose a different one this year.

Paul's was nontraditional and nongeometric--very different for him.


My choice was a landscape--something I would love to be able to do myself!


I also wanted to post this photo of a stained glass quilt as we have mentioned doing something similar at church to put on the walls since we do not have any stained glass in our sanctuary. Well, gals, are ya getting inspired yet? I have some closeups and a ton more quilt photos too!


Happy Stitchin'
Wasie