Horse Show Ribbons

A while ago I was sent two boxes of horse show ribbons from my dad's cousin.  She sent me probably over 500 ribbons!  She asked me to create a ribbon wall hanging quilt.  So they sat and sat until I got up enough courage to start on it.  Seriously, I was afraid to start it.

I sorted out my ribbons and well... the kinda took over the entire living room and dining room.

After I sorted them and stared at them for a while.  I needed to have the ribbons tell me what to do (hmmm... now I sound crazy).  I came up with my blocks.  

 They are all made of ribbon, but sewn onto a white cotton muslin for stability.  .   As you can see, the main ones all have writing signifying different places and states that they travel to with their horses.  The center will be areas for her to hang either the rosettes from the ribbons I have taken apart or hang future ribbons that she wins.

Now that I have the blocks done I feel I am well on my way to getting this thing completed.

Now, to keep going with it and not let my sewing ADD take over and move to something else.  

At least this is for my 100 Day Hustle list  :)

Poor pink laptop :(

Ahhh... the magical smoke came out of my computer!  My little Acer pink mini laptop is done.  :(

Today there was a little pop and then a poof of smoke came out of my computer where the dc port is and my laptop shut off.  The little prong in the port broke loose. :(  My poor little pink laptop is done.  I let is sit for a bit and then tried to see if it would work just on battery. I had 20 minutes to get off what I could before the battery died.  (Note to self, back up more times than once every 8 months or so).

So I got off my photos and application stuff and score reports and some other important things.

I called around to see about getting it fixed and I was quoted that it could range from $100 to $600.  No way!  That is crazy when I can get a new mini laptop for $200 to $300.  I am sad, I loved my little pink laptop.  I got it in 2007 after my hp fried and I couldn't go without a computer at school.  The price was right and it was pink...I loved it!  So now the search begins.  And the all important question... should I go pink again?

A little hustle in your step... well more like sewing

Over at Kelsey Sews, Kelsey is awesomely hosting a 100 day Hustle link up.  You see, she kindly pointed out that as of September 22, there are 100 days left of the year.  Yikes!  I can't believe that is all that is left of the year.  Where did it go?!?

So I have decided to link up.  I love lists and I like even more being able to cross things off a list.  And I have a huge growing number of projects that I really need to get done.

Here we go...

1. Complete horse show ribbon quilt.  This is my total number one thing to do! - Done!
   
2. Haunted house mini quilt for LQS (This has to be done before October 9) - Done!

3. T-shirt quilt.  Just got the shirts, but I need to get this done

4. Matt's space quilt - currently a box full of space fabrics and an awesome sheet with space theme I found for the back.  This will be twin size and his Christmas gift.  The only thing with the back is I have to decide if I will use the fun sheet or if I will go with fleece.  He has pointed out to me many times that his favorite part of his baby I made him quilt is the fleece on the back.

5. Mom's blue quilt.  This will be made of 2.5" squares and the blues will fade like waves.  Planning for this to be 80"x80" and her Christmas gift.  I have all the fabrics (they fill an entire reusable bag from my LQS!).

6. Finish Mom's hand stitched pillows.  I started these quite some time ago and they got pushed aside (... actually to the bottom of the blue quilt bag of fabrics.)

7. Work on my kayak quilt design.

8. Patchwork chevron with Lucy's Crab Shack - Not even started.

9. Christmas charm quilt - I have a ton of charms cut for it.

10. Quilt for Aunt Carol for Christmas.

11. Christmas things for my two sisters.  (I have no idea what to make them yet!)

I am also adding to the list... learn to use my good friend Linda's quilting machine.  She has had it for quite some time and she has never used it!  So I will move into her sewing room (aka basement) and in the most selfless, benevolent, charitable way I will learn to use her machine... you know... so I can show her how to use it... not so that I can quilt the pile of tops that I will be accumulating as I complete this list, nope not at all.

I think I have a few more things on my to-do list that I can't remember at the moment, but I am sure I will remember them eventually.

So I am linking up to Kelsey's 100 Day Hustle.  Wish me luck on crossing off things on my list!

Happy Birthday Mom...

This past Friday, September 14, was my Mom's birthday. I won't say her age because I am sure she would not appreciate it.. but for fun say that my age = x; x + 32 = mom's age. For her birthday I decided to dye her a little bundle of fabric so she had something new and fun to play with on her new machine that my Dad got for her. (She picked out the Singer 160th anniversary edition).  I have some blues, purples, and pinks in the bundle.

I also decided to make her a yo yo pillow... well it will be one eventually since it is not put together yet.  She has mentioned a few times that she remembers as a child sleeping under a yo yo blanket her Mom made her.  So I decided to make her a little pillow.  I made a bunch of yo yos and put them together.  I will take more pictures once I put it on the backing and make it bigger because she has requested it be longer.  

Mom was surprised with both her gifts.  She also got to see both my sisters, my nephews, and my brother in law this weekend so it was a fun birthday weekend for her.

Friday the 14 was also a strange anniversary for me.  It marked exactly one year from my date of injury to my knee.  That day changed so much for me... it has been over a year since I have run or been in my kayak.  I have made slow progress with my two surgeries and many physical therapy visits and I believe I might just be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  It took all summer, but I can now kick my leg in the pool and now cry in pain!  Wohoo!  I am hoping that I will be able to kayak by the time of the November Tohickon release.  We will see when it gets closer, but hey a girl can dream.  

Kindle Cases

Just popping in to show my fun new Kindle Cases I made up this weekend.  I saw that on Hopeful Threads there is a Remember September project where they will be sending out e-reader cases and pillow cases to out the deployed battery of Melissa's husband who is a great blogger at Sew Bittersweet Designs.

I made these two fun cases.  I hope that they like them.  I pulled out my mustaches (that you know I love!) and appliqued them on with heat and bond and then some fine machine stitching.  I free motion stitched loops on one and wave like curly cues on the other.  They are closed with elastic and a button.  Can't wait to send them off.

Tetris Quilt Completed!

Wohoo... here it is... in all its fun, colorful, scrappy glory.

I love it!  It is perfect and cuddly and already in use as my quilt to use while I ice my knee.  

The back is a pink batik with yellowish circles and the binding is the same.  I also did a tetris strip down the back in all batiks.  And yes there are no repeats in the strip... can't stop that trend just because it is the back.  

I love this batik!

Batik tetris blocks on back and Spooky.

I quilted it by spiraling around in straight lines from the center out, but following the lines of the blocks so I didn't cut apart any of the tetris blocks with the quilting.  And I did it on my little home machine so I had an interesting time making it work without bunching.  

I love the mix of old and new fabrics in this quilt with so many memories attached to many of the fabrics.  

Spooky approves, too... (I think she just comes to visit to check out quilts.)

Quilt stats:
Size - 46" x 72"
Pieced with 100% cotton fabrics.  936 2.5" squares make up the front with 225 unique fabrics on the front.
The back is all batiks with 123 2.5" squares making up the tetris strips, 31 different fabrics for the blocks.
It has warm and white batting and is machine quilted.

I loved the Tetris Quilt Along at Happy Quilting.  It was so much fun!  Thanks Melissa!

Linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion by the River and to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

A little update

So I finished my Tetris quilt last weekend which will have a post once I get photos all set for it.  I am totally in love with it and it has found a place on my bed, perfect for laying under while I ice my knee for hours.

In the mean time, I did a little playing today and came up with this...

Can you tell what it is?  Em, I bet you can guess :)

I will admit that I totally have kayaking on the brain.  I have officially been out of my boat for a year with my knee issues and I am going through some withdrawal.  So I figured what better way to fix that than to sew something (ok maybe not really, but hey a girls gotta try something to keep her mind busy).  Now that I have the first block down I am going to do some more playing and see what I can come up with.  And I actually have my pattern I used to piece the block, I didn't mess it up (so not the usual for me).  How awesome would a river quilt be or maybe a slalom course... I have a lot to think about.  And if pink polka-dot boat is ever made, I will be the first in line for it.  I mean, I need something to match my pink sparkly helmet.  

Of course I really shouldn't be starting another project while my dining room table looks like this...

I am working on a wall hanging made with horse show ribbons for my cousin.  I was stumped at first because she said I had free range of the style.  I find it easier to be given direction (not free range...eek!), but I have figured it out and I am working away on it.  I did practice with a few plain ones before I started to make sure I could easily sew them.  I just put some strips together and then turned them into this hexagon.  

I had to piece a corner of one of the triangles because the pink ribbon was shorter than the rest.
So much left to do on that quilt, but my goal is to finish it by next week.  Keeping my fingers crossed.