Paper piecing fun

A few weeks ago I made this adorable paper pieced pin cushion. I needed a good excuse to break out the heat set tool and jewels and this was as good a reason as any! I forgot how much fun paper piecing can be.



I gave it to a friend so she too can be a princess!

State of my backside

It is a never ending cycle. Yes the weight is coming off BUT I have been sooooo busy that I haven't had time for the gym. The weight loss is great but the muscle loss is awful! Toned is so much more important than a number on a scale and shows just as equally. No, I'm not complaining. I'm thrilled the pounds are coming off again, just annoyed with myself for not making the time necessary to work out.

The truth of the matter is I only have less than 30 pounds to lose to BE AT GOAL! Maybe by fall...........

Wedding prep 1

A few weeks ago we had a massive wedding prep day. Noone (read bride and groom to be) was safe from the weekend of crafting.

Chris and Aviva used large amounts of glue and made even larger mounds of hot glue strings in the process!



Aviva is making a lollipop topiary with white fabric. Up close it kinda looks like white and red roses. Not so much in this shot.



Chris was the winner this particular weekend. He created the most amazing Tootsie Roll topiary. Give a guy a job with very specific instructions and plan to receive amazing results.


He was meticulous in his application. However, boys will be boys and after a few hours of crafting fun he couldn't take it any longer and resumed his Mortal Combat game!



The picture of the finished product does not do it justice. You'll just need to hang around long enough to see actual pics from the wedding. Those tootsie rolls are packed tight! It is absolutely adorable. There are about 5 lbs of candy on this thing. He said if you get close it smells like a tootsie roll flower!

A few weeks earlier, I made this starlight candy topiary. It is holding 7 lbs of candy. I made a mistake and used permanent glue! LOL!!! The only way these puppies are coming off is if you unwrap them!

Here Chris is cutting papers to cover water bottles and Aviva is assembling candy bags.



See my sewing machine? I wasn't just the photographer, I was busy finishing the last bits of the kippot.

Just a cool shot. My phone has a panorama setting and I wanted to see how it worked. All that mess you see around is crafting stuff! It was a very busy and very productive weekend!

Minkee Monday

The view from my chair.......














Nuff said.

Presents for the bride

My design wall looks very empty...that's because everything I'm working on right now is 3 dimensional! I managed to finish everything on my list for last week...unfortunately we are now in a new week and the craziness re-starts!

I went very simple for Ms. Aviva's shower gift. First, I made her this bag. The entire wedding is candy themed. I made candy fabric kippot and used the same fabrics to make this bag.









This is the bag pattern.





I also made her pillowcases from this adorable fabric.

The best thing I included in her gift bag was a pair of booties!!! (they were $1 at joanns and I couldn't resist the joke) She wanted to kill me! I couldn't stop laughing!!! "MOM!!!!!!" (yes, I unashamedly would like grandchildren but no there are none on the way!)

Stash Report

I haven’t shared a stash report in 3 weeks. I just haven’t found the time to sit and file the report.
The “INS”
I did buy a little bit of fabric. I am making some covered bowls for Aviva’s wedding and needed the perfect cheery fabric for that. I also found this really cute “bones” fabric at Joanns. I mean who knows when you will need fabric with bones on it so you have to buy it when it’s 60% off right! Plus there was this green….it reminded me of my favorite “dimples” line from I believe Andover. All in all 5 yds. Not too bad.

The “OUTS”
The chuppah, a tote bag, and 4 pillowcases. Not too bad considering everything else I have going on….

BTW>>>>Pictures will follow in additional blog posts of the tote bag (SO CUTE) and the pillowcases (THE MOST AMAZING FABRIC FOR A BRIDE).

Used this period: 10
Used year to Date: 48
Added this Week: 5
Added Year to Date: 76.5
Ahead or behind 2011: 28.5 purchased...therefore behind

Judy is the keeper of the statistics! Hop over there and see how other quilters are busting their stash!

State of my backside

Is improving! I nearly have off the 5 7...9 lbs I gained!

I am interviewing a new trainer...read working out with him for a while. He is the owner of a Crossfit gym and I learned one thing....I haven't wasted my money thus far and I am waaaay more in shape then I thought. I think I surprised the guy!

THe downside is that I feel awful that I am not using the trainer I've been using. I feel like I'm having an affair on him!!! I go to the gym and have a hard time looking him in the eye! I think it's safe to say I'll never really do anything bad or I'd explode in a burst of guilt!!!! I may or may not go back to him but I'm giving the Crossfit guy a month first.

Ahead of the game

Well, I.DID.IT! I finished Aviva's chupppah!

(that funky line is just a reflection)

That also means that I finished a UFO for February!! It doesn't exactly seem fair but it was started last year.
That also means that the night before the wedding I won't be furiously applying the binding!!! WHOOHOO ME!

I entered the chuppah in the quilt show. No earth shattering reviews. But on the other hand, nothing said was unexpected. The judge "appreciated the custom quilting." All in all the negatives weren't too negative and the positives were just enough to make me feel ok, so I am declaring it a good review!

Here is a lousy shot of the feathers.

I don't know why I didn't take better pictures, but, don't despair! I'm certain this isn't the last time this silly thing will be shown as the wedding is coming soon! Also the color is sooooo off in this shot!

State of my backside

I gained 5 lbs......ok, I gained 7 lbs. URGH! I need to lose weight before this stinkin' wedding not gain!

New resolve. New determination. (uhm...and no more pizza) I really only have 30 more lbs to lose. I've already lost more than that so it should be easy peasy right!???? If I could only get taller instead.....

Big sigh.......I WILL NOT GO BACK TO FAT!

Now we will go back to our regularly scheduled quilty posts!

Design Wall Monday

My design wall "a few miles down the road" now looks like this!



You know what that means? Yes indeedee! The quilt is quilted and being bound. No more peeks at it until it's finished and hanging at the quilt show! However, to be fair, I'll give you a little teaser at the so-so quilting. (I'm pleased because it's the best I can do but I'm not thrilled with my best. Make sense.)

Stash Report

It's all I can do to keep up with the crazies of planning a wedding....I'll be posting sporadically until it's over. BUT! BUT! BUT! I, for once, did not purchase one little teeny, tiny piece of fabric!!! Of course, I have nothing to the minus side either but......I will! I only count the "out" when a project is finished. Hopefully next week will be an "out" week!

Judy is the keeper of the statistics! Hop over there and see how other quilters are busting their stash!

Used this Week: 0
Used year to Date: 38
Added this Week: 23
Added Year to Date: 71.5
Ahead or behind 2011: 33.5 purchased...therefore behind

I found the picture somewhere in cyberspace....I'd give credit if I could....If it's yours, let me know!!!

Minkee Monday

Not being cat people...ahem....we are always surprised by the funny things this silly cat does. You daresn't leave a chair for a second or you have an instant seat cushion! She loves to sit at the kitchen table with us during dinner. Poor DH got up to get a napkin and was greeted by this at his return.








Like a small child, only a face a mother could love and INSIST on showing off!! LOL!! Thanks for indulging me with these Minkee Monday posts. They soooo amuse me.

Design Wall Story....

Until Aviva's wedding canopy is finished, my design wall is a few miles down the road on Ms. CCCat's longarm.... I therefore submit a story about my "design wall" along with pictures, in lieu of the real thing.....
I am a math idiot. If there was a book, Math for Dummies, I would need to own it. Geometry to me reads, Gee, I’m a Tree. When I went to college, my degree required no math classes at all. I however, had to take a rudimentary math class! It was computations and probabilities. It was a two week course and I couldn’t pass it!!!

Also, I decided that it would have been soooo much easier to have been born any other religion then Jewish. Christians have crosses (a rectangle and squares) Muslims have a crescent moon (circular and therefore appliqué able) but Jews, Jews have the Star of David…. 60 degree triangles!! Not good when you are a math dummy!!!!

Aviva’s chuppah (wedding canopy) is based on 6 pointed stars.

Each star is based on a 60 degree angle. At some point when I was cursing the borders on the chuppah, I shouted out, “What angle am I supposed to set this at!!!” From the other room, DH aka the guy that READS MATH BOOKS, calmly shouts back, 30 degrees….HUH!??? I stormed into the other room. NOW WHY WOULD I NEED 30 DEGREES IF THIS IS A 60 DEGREE STAR!!!???? Because,”Mr. I read math books for fun explained,” 30+60 = 90. But why do I need a 90 degree angle if I’m working with 60’s? Big ole sigh from Mr.” I know how to do calculations in my head without a calculator.” Because, if you have a 60 degree angle, the opposite is a 30 degree. WHATEVER! All I care is that this star here, lines up with that star there, and that the borders don’t look wonky.

Fast forward to last week. Ms. CCCat and I are trying to figure out the straight line quilting in the borders. The quilting will be mimicking the 60 degree angle of the stars. I started with the top and bottom. It looks great.As we were going, I kept saying “How are we going to line up the top border quilting with the side borders? Even though there are feathers between the borders, the lines will need to be in the same place because the eye notices it. I couldn’t explain it but I voiced over and over about these lines needing to match up. Today I finished the top and bottom border. After much agony, we marked the left and right borders….with the same 60 degree angle. I worked on the side borders for a bit until we decided to quit. For some reason I rolled the quilt. UHMMMMMM!!!!!! 60 degrees on the side and 60 degrees on the top will never match!!!!!!! What the heck??? WHY DON’T THESE **&#$%^%&*))*@&^ LINES MATCH!! Suddenly, Mr. “I knew you weren’t listening to my mathly wisdoms” voice was in my head….60 + 30 =90. 60+60 will never = 90.

I still don’t completely get it. All I know is that I need to rip about 10 rows out of my border…and I thank my annoying 60 degree stars that I don’t have another daughter to make a chuppah for!

Stashbusting

If I were little, my sister would be running towards my mom shouting over her shoulder, "I'm tellin!" S-I-G-H! Then.....

Mom-
"Tell me what you did.".....silence......................................
"Tell me what you did".....silence.......................................
"TELL ME WHAT YOU DID"
Me-
"Walmart had a bunch of fabric on clearance and....(words coming faster now as I try to spit it out in a hurry.) it was only a dollar and $2 a yard. And it was nice. And cotton prices are rising. And I was bored. And I'll use it all I promise. I mean it takes many, many yards for a backing. I have really big plans for it! I only bought fillers, no novelties.And I'll take reeeaalllllllly good care of it.!"And. And. And.

And..........

Used this Week: 0
Used year to Date: 38
Added this Week: 23
Added Year to Date: 71.5
Ahead or behind 2011: 33.5 purchased...therefore behind

Good thing I'm trying not to buy huh.

Scoot on over to Judy's blog and catch up on all the other participating stash busters! Perhaps they are more productive than I!

Girl Power!

Longarms. Lovely fabulous machines that quilt our quilts so beautifully.

Longarms. Mechanical, heavy monsters that require maintenance and sheer strength from time to time.

Ms. CCCatlover has a wonderful A-1 longarm. Last year we needed to replace the rails. Not as easy as you'd think as you have to lift the entire machine head off of the rails in order to accomplish this. But, we did it. We also were having a problem with the machine being level so Ms. CCC pushed shims while I lifted one area then another. It's like being a mechanic on a car.....with not much of a manual! (Oh she has a fabulous dealer that once walked us through a timing/computer issue for about 1 1/2 hours but mostly these things happen on the weekend or at odd hours and we are on our own!)

Thank goodness Ms. CCC kept the blocks of wood we used to rest the machine on because this year we were at it again! I was prepping to quilt Aviva's wedding canopy. This is going to be the most involved custom quilting I've ever done. Everytime I hit one spot the machine bucked and kicked and knocked me off my quilting line. The machine had been doing this for a long time. At first we thought it was the tracks. Once they were replaced the problem got better but it wasn't perfect. Plus if you let go of the machine when it was at the far right, it would roll backwards. (remember a longarm machine moves side to side and front to back). If you forgot and let go, it would roll and bounce just enough to give you heart failure thinking the thnig was flying off it's housing!!! (also remember I'm a guest quilter. It's not my machine and everytime I forgot and the machine rolled back and went C-LUNK, I'd nearly plotz!)

After a bit of measuring, repositioning a level and head scratching, (notice I said head scratching as we are women and actually scratch our thinking parts) we realized that the machine itself was off level. Fixing it required #1 removing the machine head from the rails,



#2 me crouching down and crawling between the two rails to reach the wheels, (so this picture is posed as when we really worked on it there were no extra hands for cameras!!) #3 both Ms. CCCat and I using muscle to turn, hold and reposition everything, in tandem. At one point we didn't have the right sized piece of equipment. DH said he would bring us one but just the idea of a man entering our inner sanctum was enough to urge us on to fix it ourselves!

In the end, we did it! No directions or instructions. No helpers other than ourselves. That puppy "drives" better than it has in a long time! Just in time for the chuppa-a-thon!!

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is a few miles down the road right now at CCCatlover's house! Aviva's chuppah (wedding canopy) is finally being quilted.

These pictures show us loading it on the frame.

I HAD to take this picture as I NEVER, EVER, EVER make things square! This chuppah was built on bias edges. I had no real pattern other than the stars. Every turn was an agony of "what to do next." (my poor friends had to suffer in what we like to refer to as chuppah "hell" also) However, all of the agonized, kvetching and picking the brains of those around me, resulted in something that was square! I have no earthly idea how I did this but attribute it to sheer, utter luck!!

Here are some shots of the continuous curve quilting I did on Sunday. It's not the greatest but it's the first time I've done continuous curve. It's getting better but is a far cry from smooth! The thread in the pics looks like the tension is off but I think that's just because I had my camera setting on macro.

Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the rest of the design walls listed on Judy's blog.

UFO Challenge-a finish

I managed to finish 3 UFO's this month! There weren't the most difficult but a finish is a finish! Count me in!!

Started this tablerunner last year. Made it from a pack of charm squares and a Charmers pattern.



I finished two of the snowman tablerunners. I started these last year at retreat.







So sorry, the photos aren't the greatest.