Slowly after Sandy...

A quick check in since the storm.  Things have been crazy here in town.  We have power (yay) but half the town is still out.  :(  No school till Monday and Halloween is postponed.
Few pics...

Boat at the marina, sail doesn't look so good.

This is 2 days later and the finger piers are still under water.
And they are coming apart, I didn't walk on that. 

That box floated there from further up, the water was high
(it still is).  

Boat stuck on the piling.  There were a few stuck on docks.

Can't tell where water should stop and land begins.
When you tie the boat across the lagoon it helps protect it during
the rising and lowering of the surges.   

This boat was on a lift but it clearly didn't hold in the wind.  

Boats in the house 

Power lines down in the lake. 

This is the most devastating photo.  This is my friend's parent's and
grandparent's home.  50 years and they have never had water.  That was the bay,
but now you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.  Heartbreaking.

During the storm I did some sewing by flashlight, some cutting of fabric while wearing a headlamp and some knitting during the daytime... oh and drank plenty of wine with my sister who was evacuated.  Love her!

Prepping for Sandy...

Crazy to think that a couple days ago the bay looked like this...

And today it looks like this...

This beach has bulkheads so it is not as rough as the rest... 

Getting blown away!

I prepped by stocking up on some new fabrics and some veggies.  I am set for the next few days, even if I loose power.  The storm is set to hit my town sometime tomorrow.  Hope everyone is safe!

Chasing Rain Baby Quilt and Bloggers Quilt Festival.

So the other day I was hanging with a boater friend of mine and we were talking about kayaking and my goodness do I miss being on the water.  And to top it off, lately I have been seeing posts on Facebook of everyone checking levels of creeks and rivers to see what is running where.  So essentially they are "chasing rain".  One particular day when rain chasing was happening I decided to whip up a fun quilt that said to me, chasing rain.  I pulled out my fabrics left from Puddle Quilt and got to cutting.  I sliced up a bunch of equilateral triangles and sewed them together randomly, ending up with this super fun quilt.

 I quilted it by stitching a quarter of an inch outside the diagonal seam lines.

The back is an extra row of the triangles pieced into some solid purples.  (I love how the quilting makes the back look like argyle!)

I headed to the Barnegat Bay bay to snap some pictures before the storm, Sandy, makes her way up the coast.

Maybe I should have called it chased by rain, as soon as I finished with my pictures a quick shower rolled in.

This baby quilt finish comes just in time for Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side

Chasing Rain Quilt Stats:
Measures 32" x 34"
Made with Kona cotton and Bella solids from my stash in blues and purples.
Pieced by: Me
Machine quilted by: Me
Best category: baby quilt, two color quilt, quilt photographer.

I am so excited to see all the quilts that the blogging world has to share.  Head over and check them out.

Squishy Mail

I got happy squishy mail today. I won a prize recently from the remember September project at Hopeful Threads for my mustache Kindle cases. And here is my prize, a fat quarter bundle of Alexander Henry fabrics with some kona solids. Love all the colors! Thanks to Contemporary Cloth for donating such wonderful fabrics an supporting a great cause!

100 Day Hustle... 33% Over Eek!!

Oh my goodness, we are already 1/3 the way through the 100 Day Hustle and I feel like I have next to nothing done.

1. Complete horse show ribbon quilt.  This is my total number one thing to do! - Done! (And sent back to VA)

2. Haunted house mini quilt for LQS (This has to be done before October 9) - Done!

3. T-shirt quilt - Finally got the rest of the fabric to get this busted out.  (At least the top of it)

4. Matt's space quilt -  Still a pile of fabrics

5. Mom's blue quilt.  Chopped up a ton of blued into 2.5 inch squares so need to lay it out.

6. Finish Mom's hand stitched pillows. - They are at the top of the blue pile now instead of the bottom.

7. Work on my kayak quilt design. - And it still sits waiting

8. Patchwork chevron with Lucy's Crab Shack - Nope - thinking this is going to wait til next year.

9. Christmas charm quilt - This is changing to Christmas log cabin style tree skirt because that is what mom wants and she will be helping (we will see how much she helps, haha)

10. Quilt for Aunt Carol for Christmas. - She wants blue, thinking string quilt, but it must get done since I made one for Aunt Viola and will never hear the end of it (haha).

11. Christmas things for my two sisters.  (Thinking edging dish towels and making potholders for some stuff for my one sister and still no idea for the other)

I have added to the list though...

Joined the scrappy stash quilt along... I have 16 blocks done 

Finished baby strip quilt for fun.
Whipped up some mini granny square pin cushions.  

Gave Aunt Viola a hug with Aunt Viola's Flower Garden quilt  

Created "Chasing Rain" baby quilt (post coming soon)

Joined the Scrappy Swap 

Oh and I need to make a baby quilt to send to a friend in Germany!  She is expecting a boy.  

Must stop adding to my list and start really finishing things!  

Aunt Viola,s Flower Garden

Do you ever have that feeling that you want to hug someone and you are just too far away from them almost all of the time?  I feel that way about my Aunt Viola.  Actually she is my Great Aunt and I love her to death.  She is fun and spunky and you always see her zipping around in her little car going to work or doing something.  I hope that I have at least half her energy when I am her age!  (Seriously... she has 2 jobs during the summer and one the rest of the year!)

So I saw Aunt Viola this weekend and I decided at that last minute that she needed a quilt because sometimes when things aren't going as expected you want to hold you family close and what better way than in a quilt made with love.  I went to one of my favorite parts of my stash, my 30's and 40's reproduction prints.  I grabbed a stack and started slicing off strips of random lengths ranging from 2.5 inches to 8 inches.

I stitched them together in no particular order and then backed it with a pretty pink and blue from my stack.

I used then squiggle stitch on mom's new machine to stitch horizontally over the seams across the front then stitch vertically down the front in 5 spots (no measuring).  It is bound with pieces of the prints that I had in my strip box and a few left over pieces from the quilt.  It is perfectly cuddly with warm and natural batting.

I grabbed a few hexies out of my box that are waiting to be put on to my hexie quilt and made a tag for the quilt.

This quilt named Aunt Viola's Flower Garden was made with love for my amazing Great Aunt Viola.

Now I will never hear the end of it until I make one for my Godmother ;)  (haha)

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

A little scrap swap.

I signed up for the Scrappy Swap over on Flickr hosted by Kat at Diary of a Flutter Kat. So super excited. I love scrappy things and I am sure you know that I love my scraps, too!

My mosaic, full of fun and color.

1. scrappy pouch : made for the Pretty Little Pouch swap, 2. scrappy bag, 3. hexblock pouch 1, 4. Hexie Pouch, 5. Tote front and back, 6. Scrappy Hexagon Pillow, 7. My first pillow- gift for a friend., 8. DSCF4745, 9. Scrappy Mini Quilt, 10. The Traveling Quilts ~ Round 3 for Dan, 11. Scrappy pouch side 1, 12. Modern mini

Horse Show Ribbon Quilt

It's all done.  I finished the horse show ribbon quilt.

Backstory... a few months ago my cousin asked me if I would be able to make a a quilt out of horse show ribbons that her daughter has collected over the years.  She competes in many events throughout the year.  I was nervous to work with the ribbons, but I am happy to say that it came out perfectly.

I believe there are 80 printed ribbons in this wall hanging.  There are also the solid ribbons used in the center of the blocks and on the top and bottom edge.  The rosetts are not permantly attached, they slip into tabs that I sewed into the quilt.  This makes it easier to change them out or display newer ribbons that she has won.  I love all the colors and the fact that the grand chamopins worked to frame it perfectly.  All different places are represented in the quilt alond with many of the different competitions that they participated in. 

I have to say one of the favorite things in the quilt is the strip across the middle of the quilt with all the printed ribbons.

She loves it (I sent her a picture).  I just have to pack it up and send it to her. 

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

So excited to cross another thing off my 100 Day Hustle List. 

Some log cabins

So I spent today working on some of my monochromatic scrappy log cabin blocks to go with the scrappy stash quilt along at Ellison Lane Quilts. So far I have 8 blocks, 4 green and 4 purple.

Love how they are looking. I am excited to see how everyones blocks turn out 

Haunted House Mini Quilt

Yay it is done!

I finish off my haunted house mini quilt.  Of course I was late for the contest so I couldn't turn it in, but that is ok cause it is cute and I love it.  I did run it over to show the girls at my LQS.  They loved it.

 

It is all free pieced with out a pattern.  I appliqued the green bushes and the pimpkin on the front lawn and th one ghost is half appliqued and half sewn right into the seems.     

 The shutters open revealing a big spider web in one and eyes that say boo in the other. 

 

The back is just a fun green with purple spiders.  I love that all but the spider web material came from my stash (the spider web was required for the contest).  

 

I have since found a dowel to hang it with and it is hanging by my front door. It makes me smile.  Another check on my 100 Day Hustle List. 

 



Haunted house mini quilt

So I am working on my haunted house mini quilt and I am sad to say I don't think I will make the deadline for my LQS contest, but I am going to finish it anyway.

It is mostly pieced with just the one ghost being appliquéd on. I started with the top little section and worked down, adding bits here and there as needed. I love the shutters and you can see they open too. I think it might need an appliqué tree, but I'm not sure. I'll just see where it takes me.

This is in my list for the 100 day hustle. I hope everyone else is keeping up with their lists, too. 

Mini Granny squares

So the other day I was reading Krista Stitched and she had made the cutest little granny square pin cushion. I was in love with it, I mean it was so cute who wouldn't be? So I decided I needed an upgrade for my own pin cushion. You see, my pin cushion is actually an old McDonalds toy... a Piglet head.

I pulled out my batik scrap box and cut up some tiny squares and went to work. I made my granny square and then added the sashing. I added fusible fleece to the back to give it a little body.
I love my new pin cushion. It definitely is an improvement. The next one will have to have a loop to hang it with. I've already pieced out a few more to work with.

Oh and thanks Krista for the help with the iPad photo problem.