Nada Nada Limonada

In the last 2 weeks I have not stitched a single thing.  Nope.  I cut some fabric for one of my Skill Builder blocks and then promptly left for vacation.  This week I've been browsing all of the beautiful quilts at the Quilt Festival and checking out all of the giveaways at Sew Mama Sew.

And then there's my poor yard:  It needed some major TLC.  I've been planting flowers and trying to prune back all of the bushes.  Whoever did the original landscaping made everything way too close, so it was hard to tell where one bush ended and one began.  I'm not a fan of most of them, but since a complete overhaul of landscaping is not at the top of our budgetary priorities I am making due by cutting them WAY back.  I really wish I would have gotten a before picture, because it's a huge change.

 It took me 2 days worth of naps and evenings to get all the pruning, planting and mulching done, but I'm happy.  My next project is to take care of this lovely hole.  I pulled out a rather ugly bush last summer and then never got around to extending the landscaping out and planting a tree.  That task will finally begin tomorrow.  Thank goodness, because I was getting tired of looking at that oh so attractive plastic and I'm pretty sure my neighbors were starting to give up hope that we would ever do something about it. :)

Giveaway Day!

Hi!  I had so much fun exploring people's blogs last time and even won some fabric, so I decided I had to give something back this time around.  I made this mini for the Modern Mini Challenge back in February.  It's 23" x 23"  with the Album Four-Patch in the center.  Tutorial for this block is here.

 I love it, but I don't have anywhere to put it in my house - it doesn't go with anything I own, so for the giveaway - there are no hoops or requirements - I just want it to go to someone who would actually want it.  That's it.  It's open internationally as well - it's only fair that everyone should have a chance. :)

 Just to make life a little more interesting answer the following:  What is your favorite place you've ever traveled to and why?  The winner will be randomly selected from the comments this weekend.

Update: Winner is #28:

The New Mrs.

My favorite place to travel so far has been Nantes, France. I went for my 6 month anniversary with my husband and loved the culture and the people.

Thanks- and hope you enjoyed Giveaway Day!

Blogger Quilt Festival!

I love the Blogger Quilt Festival. I found some of my favorite quilting blogs just by looking at quilts.  I'm super excited to share this quilt- I just finished it last weekend (just in time to leave on vacation for a bit - wahoo!).

This quilt contains 12 of the 36 blocks from Skill Builder Sampler.  This is the very first Quilt Along I ever participated in, and it has been especially rewarding - it's true to its name - I've learned quite a few skills and tried a lot of blocks I otherwise would never have done.  So fun!  I'm kind of sad that there are only a couple more blocks and then it's over.

You can see that I quilted each block differently according to the design, so the back is funky fun.

Another reason why I'm so excited is because this quilt is for my best friend from high school.  For some reason I've given tons of quilts away, but I've never made one for her.  I meant to do one for her wedding, but I was busy writing her wedding song; it was concert season, and we were getting ready to move.  It was also the same weekend the hubby was graduating from Medical School.  Here's my cute, little family at her wedding.  You can tell from the lilac bridesmaid dress I'm wearing that Tara likes purple, so I knew the sampler blocks would be perfect for her.

My wedding (Tara's on the right of me)

Tara is one of the first people I met in 7th grade when my family moved to Upstate New York.  We actually bonded on a particular day during lunch in the cafeteria.  I was imitating our chorus teacher when the teacher walked up behind me.  I don't have any idea to this day if my teacher realized I was doing a rather impressive rendition of her, but it bonded Tara and I together for life.  It's slightly ironic, because I ended up being a middle school choral teacher. :)

Some fun facts about Tara and I:

• We never had a single class together in high school and we traveled in different circles of friends, but we spent tons of time outside of school anyway.
• She was in band and I was in chorus.
•  In the almost 20 years I've known her we've never once gotten in a fight - I'm serious.  We tried to start a fight a couple times and we would just end up laughing.
• After high school she headed East and I headed West, but every year we make the pilgrimage back to our hometown to watch her mom's high school musical (she's the choreographer and ex-Rockette).

This quilt is actually one of two - I'm making a "companion quilt" for her mom.  She's like a second Momma to me, and so it seemed only fitting that I would make one for her as well.  I have the quilt top done on this one.  As you can see - it's similar but different at the same time: (it's also completely comprised of Skill Builder blocks).

This is next on my list to finish, so I can mail them off.  So there you have it- it was fun to travel down memory lane a little with you while showing you my finished quilt.

This quilt is part of my 2nd quarter goal for the Finish Along (original post here)

Making Strides

It's been almost exactly six years since we had our engagement pictures taken.  When Joel saw them he made some comment about the glory days being over.  It made me laugh.  It's not like we're old and decripid or something.  It may be true that these past six years have not been kind to our bodies, but I also have 2 lovely children that contributed to those changes.  So, six years and 20 pounds later I thought I would give it a go again to get back into shape.  I've tried several times to eat better, work out - you know the drill - but for some reason I could never lose wieght and I would get really frustrated and just give up. 

This time around is actually different - I've lost 9 pounds in 3 weeks (which for me is nigh unto a miracle, because I wasn't able to work out much with Joel out of town for one of those weeks).  I couldn't figure out why all of the sudden it was working when Joel reminded me that this is the first time in a really long time I'm not on progesterone which can cause weight gain.  He's even down 6 pounds after a week of eating really well in New Orleans, so maybe...just maybe we'll get back the "glory days."  :)  Either way I still love us - I love him.  These last 6 years have been wonderful and I couldn't imagine taking this journey we call life with anyone else.  Looking at these pictures make me smile, but I would argue we decide every day whether or not it will be a day of glory, and I'm pretty happy with my life right now, so no offense to my hubby, but I consider the glory days to be on-going.

I Love Productive Weeks!

Well, first - do you ever have days where you couldn't sew in a straight line if your life depended on it?  That was me yesterday.  I don't know what my deal was - I was just trying to outline each of the blocks on my quilt, and I'm pretty sure the quilt was mocking me, because I was doing such a poor job.  If I had gotten pulled over - I would have failed the line test and I don't even drink!

Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of quilting this guy and I've been doing a lot of micro-stippling and "normal" stippling.  I know - right after I say I'll never micro-stipple again I start using it of my own free will and choice.  It's just so useful in small spaces.  This block is my favorite so far (it's regular stippling):

 A look at it from the back:

The other exciting news is that I finished 2 quilts this week- Yippee!  I'm on a roll.

Full posts here and here.

Other projects:
Skill Builder- behind one block, quilting 1st quilt & a second quilt top is waiting to be finished
Blogger BOM- up to date

Christmas blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging- no progress

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 2
WIP- 6

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced and Free Motion Quilting Project.

Another Finish!

I'm on a roll - 2 finishes in a week- Wahoo!   I love when that happens.  I got an extra push of motivation from Amy's One Thing, One Week Challenge and got it done right away.

This quilt is for a 12 year old girl who is a major tomboy.  Her favorite colors are blue and red.  I think my favorite part of this quilt is the diamond quilting.  It was so much fun to do.  The quilt also happens to be reversible...

 I got lucky and squeezed in these pictures before the rain started.  So - 2 quilts down and 2 more to go this month.

Phew- Finally a Finish

I finally have a finish to share.  This quilt is for a 12-year old girl who loves the color yellow, and is very much a girlie girl.  She loves high heels and tries to be as grown up as her older sister.  She's super cute.

I'm excited to get this one under my belt.  I've got 3 more quilts I need to finish this month, so it feels good to have this one done.  The quilting is all over the place on this quilt, but it works.  The large section is all organic lines.  Some are straight- most are curved.  Then each block on the left is a different stitch that I've been learning from the Free Motion Quilting Project. 

 The top square is stippled, but it completely blends in with the busy pattern.  The second one in the picture is sharp stippling.  I love the texture on it.

 Here's the back of the quilt:

Yay for finishing a quilt!  Now on to the 3 other quilts (luckily the quilt tops are at least done). I'm linking up to TGIFF.

Match Day!

All I have to say is this better be the last Match Day, because I feel like the second time around was way more stressful.  I was on pins and needles all morning waiting for the clock to strike 12.   

I'm relieved to tell you that we matched at Nationwide Children's Hospital right here in Columbus, so like it or not Columbus is stuck with us another 3 years.  Yea- Happy dance!  The thought of selling our home and moving was giving me anxiety, so this is perfect.  Bravo to Joel who has now gotten his first choice for both Matches.  I guess they must like him here or something. ;)  I'm so proud of him!  I know it's been a long and painful process at times for him, so it's wonderful to know where he will be completing his Hem/Onc Fellowship.  Now the 14 months of waiting begins until the program actually starts.