Finish it Up Friday- Summer Sampler, The WHOLE Thing!

 Stick a fork in her, she's done! She's stippled, bound, and big stitch quilted!

 She is all ready to be labeled and sent off to California to be auctioned at the 2014 West Coast MCC sale!

 The final touch was the black big stitch quilting with DMC perle cotton, to echo the look of the focus fabric in the border, and the center star block.

 It was tough to get through all the seam allowances of this paper pieced star so the back isn't as neat as it could be, but the front looks JUST the way I imagined it should!

Now mark your calendars, West Coast MCC Sale 2014 Quilt Auction April 5! Be there and bid her up!
I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday!

Finish it Up Friday-A Big One

I have been working on this Summer Sampler Quilt Along quilt for approximately three summers. Whew! I'm so excited to announce that this quilt top is DONE!

Some people hang flags in front of their houses....I hang quilts. 

This quilt is going to MCC. I think it will end up in the West Coast MCC sale. Now my big dilemma is do I send it to the NFC quilters to big stitch or do I machine quilt it myself and try to top stitch it with some DMC embroidery floss to make it look like the argyle focus fabric (Remix Argyle Plaid, by Ann Kelle)? Also, I really want to bind it in black. Do ya'll think it'll take away from the look?

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it Up Friday.

Finish It Up Friday-Pillows, Skirts and a bit of Dallas Fun!

I just finished these pretties just in time to brig them with me to Dallas to give to my sister and Matt!
When I was here for the Dallas quilt show Val eyed the fabric I intended to use for a project for my friend Destinie. They also needed couch pillows that matched their decor. I took some of the pillows home with me to use as reference. Then I used scraps from Destinies quilt to make these cases. Look how good they look in their Living Room with her Pinterest art and Live A Colorful Life's wedding quilt.
Our dolls have been reunited as we are going to have an American Girl adventure tomorrow. They are looking a little loved and disheveled.

So I finished some skirts for them to wear.

Val is one of my favorite sandwich makers. They taste like home. She made me this one for lunch.
This evening we went on an adventure of the golf nature to Top Golf. There are two stories of driving ranges and you play games where the balls have GPS trackers in them and track if you hit certain targets and how many points you get.
Matt's friend Graham joined in too and it was great to have him with us! He's a new golfer and he's picking it up quick!
The orange sections are the ones Luke hit. Shortly after he hit his ball in the 9 target.

It's like bowling. And they have giant lawn games, snacks, meals and grown up beverages.

So much fun!!!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it Up Friday!

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Finish it Up Friday- The Table

 I have just finished the cotton bale table!

 I love it! It's everything I hoped it could turn out to be! I'm so glad I found out about gun bluing and that Mary was willing to tutor me in wood staining and finishing!

Here it is in it's new home! I'm not sure how long the chairs/split couch will last like this but I like the way this arrangement frames the table. I couldn't bring myself to stick it in the corner! One more bonus to a couch made of chairs! For more details regarding the "process" for the table, see my blog post here.

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish it Up Friday!

Finish it Up Friday- Yellow Rose Garden Shawl

I finally finished this challenging piece of  "No Talking" knitting! 

 It's called no talking knitting because the lacework was such that I couldn't talk to anyone or I would lose my place! I could hardly even watch TV when working on it.

 I think it's one of Luke's favorite projects.

 It hasn't been blocked yet because I've been on the road since I finished it. 

 I'm counting on the size increasing substantially once I block it out!

The pattern is called Rose Garden by Jayme Stahl and I found it in Jane Austin Knits Summer 2012. All my other info (Yarn, Needles, etc.) is on Ravelry.

This is one big finish and I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish it Up Friday!

Finish it Up Friday

I finished a whole handful of skirts!
These two were made solely for the purpose of having a reason to wear these shoes.


On the left is Flora in the Alchemy line by Amy Butler. On the right is Stella 203 by Dear Stella.
The right skirt is inspired by this Pleated Chevron Skirt tutorial by Crafty Cupboard. I say inspired because I follow tutorials and patterns the way I cook from a recipe. Barely. By the time I'm done I've fudged so much it can hardly be from a pattern.  The left skirt is loosely based on a bunch of shirred skirt tutorials from Pinterest. Then I slid some elastic between the top two rows of shirring to make it sturdier. All have pockets inspired by the Chevron Skirt.

This next one is because I LOVE this fabric! Okay really I love all the fabric but these colors are me to the Nth degree.


I made the skirt and the bag which was supposed to be just a simple little project bag....that got a zipper, decorative stitching on the straps etc. Pat W's picture has better lighting.


I have a small square of this fabric left and I'm saving hoarding it for something special!
The binding on this crib size quilt is finally finished! Mary started it a while back, passed the blocks to me recently, I assembled and quilted this project and Val and I both worked on the binding this weekend so she could practice!


It's a group project! It will go to Kansas or Fresno MCC world relief auction.
Another WIP that has been going on for some time has been our lawn. It finally feels like a finished project as I picked up our cute lawn mower today! I kind of want to call her Poppie because of her bright orange coloring! She looks like a beetle all collapsed to go in my car.


Luke came home to change shoes just in time to help me unload her and got to take her for her first run around the lawn.


He did the edges and then I took care of the middle when he went back I work. She drives like a dream!


Maybe someday our lawn will be strong enough to apply weed killer! Yay Kansas weeds!
Dad, Cheri and Cindy are coming out this way so I picked up some grown up soda from the liquor store. (No you can't just buy it in the grocery store here.) I found these fabulous ideas. Has anyone had them before? Am I the las person on this planet to discover them?


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I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday!

Finish It Up Friday- I Got the Blues

In my color palate for sure but I am definately down in the dumps because I have TWO fantastic Friday Finishes! The first being my blue sweater that has been in the works since FOR-EV-ER.

I got the delicious to work with and feel Malbrigo yarn from my cousin's online shop called Needles and Ewe back in September!I kind of hit a road block at the button bands and buttons but theyre DONE and I will hopefully have lots of pictures of me wearing it today at the Dallas quilt show!!

 

 

Also finished is the mariners compass quilt!

 Valerie requested that it find a quilter in/near Dallas and I believe I have found one who will do the job quite nicely! The best part!? She's going to be at the Dallas quilt show too so I can give it to her then! Here it is all packed and ready to go!

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it Up Friday!

Finish it Up Friday- Boot Cuffs

Boot cuffs have been trending on Pinterest. The weird thing to me is, people are cutting off the sleeves of sweaters to have them be the cuffs!!! EEeek! I don't know about you, but I don't have any extra sweaters laying around. When Mary very generously shared this yarn her mother had hand spun my mind went straight to boot cuffs! The yarn had a bit of grey and a bit of brown making it all the more versatile!

I can wear these boot cuffs with my black riding boots, and black leggings

and my cowboy boots and jeans!

I put a shorter ribbing on the top and a thicker ribbing on the bottom. When I wear them with my tall boots I put the short ribbing up so more cable will show and because I don't want the cuffs to stick out as much. With my cowboy boots I flip them because I want more cuff to show!

Materials:

Size 1 40 inch circular knitting needle

Fingering weight yarn. (Regretfully I do not know the yardage because it was hand-spun yarn, and not by me)

Cable Needle

Pattern:

Cast on 72 stitches. Join for working in the round with the magic loop method.

K2P2 rib for an inch and a half.

Switch to a K6 P2 cable for about 2.5 inches

K2P2 ribbing for an inch. 

The cable twists did regretfully make two tight spots in the cuffs and I have relatively large calves. I might have considered working 80 stitches but I was not going back. Once I had wet blocked them on these Costco size peanut butter containers they fit perfectly!

I'm linking up  to Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it Up Friday!