family reunion time & quilts

It's been a great holiday weekend so far, 
as I hosted the annual paternal family reunion today (Sunday).
It is so great to see the extended family!
The weather wasn't the best today
as another couple inches of rain arrived (after midnight and continued until 2ish).
But the good thing about the rain?
It washed the nasty ragweed pollen out of the air,
making it so much easier to breathe!

There were sun rain canopies set up everywhere out the back door...
on the decks, the stone patio and in the back yard.
Food was delicious and bountiful -
this is the family that cooks like they are Amish,
OR like it is a competition
to see how much you can make to bring share,
so there was plenty of eating.
Also, visiting, laughing, story-telling, 

Jumbo Jenga after the rain left.

games,
and talking QUILTS.








 Five generations were here...
ranging in age from the newest little gal at 8 weeks old,
to a great-aunt who is 87 years old (and is a quilter!).

Moore family reunion 2014

I gave one of my new little nieces her birth quilt that I made for her.
The great-aunt/quilter always checks on my latest quilt, 
and had me get out
my Lucy Boston quilt-in-process to look it over,
and we talked fabrics, preferences of hand-piecing threads and needles.

And from all the reminiscing today,
Great-Aunt Mary and I 

decided that families and quilts are very similar...

there are so many threads that tie us together...

threads of memories, 

of love,

of tears,

and of laughter 

within each family 

and sewn into every quilt.

For all the folks here in the U.S., 
I wish you a pleasant Labor Day Monday,
I hope you have some family time,
and also, get a little stitching time in!

Debra
In memory of Uncle Angelo, Uncle Ron, and Uncle Dick -
who each made me laugh.

oops, I did it again!

No, not the song,
I fell off the fabric wagon!  Again.
I hate fabric diets.

Recently I fell of the fabric wagon in a hard way,
I had ordered the whole collection of Snowbird by Edyta Sitar.
And I knew that the Lexington line was arriving about the same time.

It really was going to be one or the other...
NOT BOTH. 

How could I have been so good for 3/4 of the year
and then in two months, 
go into a total fabric-pile slide?
I'll tell you how...
just look at this scrumptious-ness:

Lexington by Minick/Simpson

See? Scrumptious!
How could I resist??
It doesn't help that my 'friends' sent me links and emails and pictures to the new line,
just nudging me along.  (You know who you are & I can repay in kind :)

The bottom two stacks came from OldSouthFabrics.com, Murfreesboro, TN  (excellent service again, thank you Wanda),
and they didn't receive a few of their ordered bolts.  
But I told myself, that's ok, 
because I really don't NEED 
a small cut of E.V.E.R.Y bolt in the entire line.

Then....
one of those above mentioned friends sent me another link!  
to a shop that also had just received the entire line - so I could fill in any missing pieces!
So the top stack came from OldTownFabricShop.com in Chillicothe, Ohio.
(I've shopped here in person before, really cute shop, but it's a good hour and half drive. This was my first mail order here, and it was excellent service!, They rushed it to the post office so I had it the next day!  Thank you Terri!)

For the fun of it and only because it was in the clearance and the shipping wasn't more, I added a couple more 'text' prints:

Honkey Tonk by Eric & Julie Comstock

You always need more words in your stash, right?
I don't even remember which order this came in...
I was on fabric over-load!
A total fabric-pile slide!

Now it's really time to get busy, don't you think?
I need to go play with my new wagon-load of fabrics.
Happy Friday and Happy Stitching,
Debra

meandering

I had this post ready and scheduled it 
for when I was out of town for a wedding,
But, for some reason unknown to me,
it didn't ever share. So, here it is now.

Quilts that I got to meander over!

Janet's quilt of flowers and ladybugs,
for a new niece:

Loopy flowers free-hand quilting

Patty's own design in batiks:

The quilt (excluding the borders) is made entirely of one inch squares!!
And a close-up of some of the quilting:

Both quilts were beautifully made and a pleasure to quilt over.

Hope you have some stitchin' time this week!

welcoming another great-niece to the family

Time to sew something up!
I checked out the pinterest page of the new mama-to-be ,
gathered some fabrics in teal, coral and yellow
along with some Kona Snow,
and cut a bunch of six-inch squares.

Half-square triangles,

(Notice the trimmings from my over-sized cutting method)

pressed, trimmed to 5 1/2 inches
and spread out across the table.

As you can tell from the top picture to this one /\,
I did some rearranging of blocks and stitched it together...
pieced together more of the fabrics to make a back.

I now have it on BigDD - the quilting machine,
ready to quilt in the name and birth date!

Looks summer-y I think,
but more importantly, it looks great-niece-girly! 

I found out that Lucy has arrived, 
so now it's time to get the name quilted in and the binding done, too!

weekend sewing time

A friend came by one day this past weekend and
we talked and laughed and stitched...
for EIGHT hours!

We have not done that for months and months.
It felt so good.
Almost spa-like rejuvenation!

I stitched more of my
churn dash blocks:

6 inch finished churn dash blocks

I think I only have 12 more to do;
and I stitched more of the 1 1/2 inch finished four-patch blocks.
I think that brings me up to date!

And what could add to the great weekend?
Our little garden patch is looking pretty pitiful :(,
but we were gifted fresh produce!

Isn't that a beautiful beet?

The other beets were already sliced and in the pan cooking when I decided I should dirty another cutting board and take a picture of that gorgeous redness.

Happy last week of August to you
and hope you get to stitch a little this week!

sew along - month 8 of 10

My half-pint sized August block/row for the ongoing
Quilt Doodle Doodles sew along is DONE 
(and it's not yet midnight on the 31st - lol)!
It another cute block -
a whole row of little wrapped sweets:

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
August's row for QuiltDoodleDoodles sew along

Just had to make ten!

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
August's row for QuiltDoodleDoodles sew along

(I'm always asked, so here's my disclaimer:
Yes, my blocks are smaller than the original pattern -
each of my squares finishes at 3/4 inch 
because I've cut at one and a quarter inch, 
not the two and a half inch as Cindy's pattern has shown.)

Thanks again Cindy, for another cute pattern!

sorry in advance

I know it's a pain for those leaving comments, 
but I turned on 
word verification.
And I'm so sorry, but the spam was
getting out of control and making me crazy.
(: And I'm crazy enough already, 
without adding "spam crazy" :)

I hope you continue to comment when you visit -
I really appreciate your thoughts and time!!!

Here's some fabric sanity fun I'm into today:

I almost always over-size my blocks then trim to square.
I like how I can get perfectly squared blocks EVERY time with this method.
Do you do this also???

I also like that pile of little trimmings.
I don't know why... not like I use them regularly or anything.
Sometimes I take them from the accumulation in the waste basket and stuff them into pincushions.  Guess I need to make pincushions more regularly.
 No, I do not need to save more scraps! 
THAT would be another crazy! :)
Happy Stitching!

Lucy Boston POTC for JULY

Yes, I know it's mid-August,
but with family fun stuff going on around here,
I never shared my July 
Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses additions!
Not that there was much in the way of finishes last month, :)
but, here's the pile:

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses

Though it doesn't look it,
that is about 130 one-inch connecting squares, 
enough to connect the next row of blocks...
all basted and ready to attach to my finished blocks.

Not much accomplished, huh?
Still better than nothing, I say.
Now to get them stitched onto the blocks!
By the way,
I only put those connecting squares 
onto two sides and the corners of my blocks:

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses

the left and top sides, as shown in the above pic.
Then they are ready to sew into rows

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses

and sewn onto the previously connected rows:

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses

Maybe I'll do better this month...
err, the last half of this month :)

destination Destin & happy tears

Whomever said that a destination wedding
is less tiring, or is less work is totally WRONG!
After a wedding week away,
I need a vacation! lol

With multiple carloads of needed stuff,

and a 15+ hour drive down to Destin, Florida, 
my Sonny-boy tied the knot!
So excited for both him and his new bride!

Sonny-boy has always been a contrary child,
so when he fell in love,
got engaged,
had a baby,
had another baby,
then got married,
I was only a little surprised.

I've had 4 years (since engagement) 
to think about his wedding quilt,
and for this contrary child, 
I wanted to make a wedding quilt that was a little different...
a contrary signature quilt.
So I had Sonny-boy draw his 
true love's initials and a heart 
(like the time-honored tradition of carving into a tree).
I then quilted through his drawn paper, 
and used three colors of thread to carve/thread-trace it onto the quilt top,
and added some 'bark' lines to complete the quilting.

I finished binding it on the condo balcony the evening of arrival in Destin:

(It's not as dark brown as it looks in this picture.)

 And though the quilt was not pressed in the above picture, 

I think you can see the 'bark' quilting lines.

I think it turned out with just the right amount of contrary.
I provided black pens for the wedding guests to use to sign their sentiments,
and there are now signatures and well wishes written all around his 'carved' heart. 

Introducing the new Mr. and Mrs....
my sonny-boy and his beautiful family:

Beautiful, just beautiful...
The ceremony, the families, the weather, the unplanned three doves that did a fly-through after the kiss (which I believe are family members in heaven approving of this union), the  pink sunset and then the full super moon that arrived for the reception. 

Happy tears were shed. 

I fell off the wagon - hard!

The fabric wagon, that is.
I'm talking fabric acquisition.

I've been a very, very bad girl...
And I had been so good the entire 7 month so far this year!

The fabric that made me fall off the wagon
was a line that I knew was coming out early Summer, 
so I thought I'd purposefully missed it.
But when a friend showed her recent fabric purchase on her blog,
I knew I was in trouble. (Thanks, Rosemary!)

It just took a quick, online search, and
there it was...
the whole collection...
I really did it - all 15 pieces of the collection...
Click.
Done.
Off the Fabric Wagon, just like that.
KABOOM!!
Did you DJ girls hear that all the way up in Michigan, ? :)

Snowbird has come to my house!

I ordered this beautiful collection 
from Wanda at Old South Fabrics, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
and was SO pleased with the service!  
I immediately received an order confirmation and thank you by email. 
The next day I had a shipping confirmation and
within a couple of days my order arrived! 
The fabric was very nicely packaged.
It came double-wrapped, 
first in this beautiful tulle presentation, then in plastic.

and there was a very nice thank-you note attached.
Included was a copy of my order with fabric swatch pictures.
AND to top it off?  They offer free shipping (for an over $75 order - like that would be a problem).
I will certainly be ordering from Old South Fabrics again!

so pretty! and I can't wait to start another project!! :)

And then, because I was on a roll, 
Click. 
Done.
KABOOM, again!
This time from the Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio:

some reproductions

some text-y fabrics

Piecemakers by Kathy Schmitz/Moda

So, you ask, are there particular plans for these new fabric acquisitions?
Nope. Not really.  
It all started because I need to make a wedding quilt gift and the chosen colors were neutrals and blues.  
But I don't know if I can cut into any of these gorgeous fabrics anytime soon! :)

SO,
here I am,
climbing back up on the wagon.
I will be good.
I will be good.
Shop only my stash.
I WILL be good.

Until the next time. :)

I've been working on the railroad...

On the railroad?!
Sure seems like the railroad, anyway.
Just exhausted every night,
and not a whole lot accomplished each day.
Do you ever feel this way too?
I need to get out of this routine and
stop singing that railroad song over and over again!

In reality, I'm just working on the normal 'stuff' around the house...
I could dust every day and the next day the whole place is
coated in another lay of thickness -
as there's construction again in the neighborhood.
The type of construction where they are planting houses
instead of corn in the cornfields,
so heavy dirt movers 
every day - dawn to dusk.
Combine that with the hot summer breezes wind tunnels,
and it seems as if construction is happening in my house, not near it.

I have been doing a little machine-piecing...
I've joined Barb (of Fun With Barb fame) in her 9-Patch Swap:

The blocks aren't due until October 1st, 
but I've chosen the fabrics, cut the fabric into blocks and sewn a few.

For some reason, I have a lot of that blue, so I'm going to use it with both of the light fabrics.
There are 50 of us in the Reproduction Block Group, so I just need to make a pair of blocks for each person in the group.
The group is closed now, but if you visit Barb's blog (here)
you can see the method she's having us use to construct the blocks.
I've used this method before, but because you end up with two opposite blocks,
I've only used it a few times, as most of the time I want all my 9-patch blocks the same.

And then, I've been working on these blocks for a small quilt:

Churn Dash blocks!  
There are 12 blocks in each of the above stacks.
I love Churn Dash blocks!
Churning and churning...maybe that's my 
'I've been working on the railroad' 
problem from above... 
all of those Churn Dashes!
I'm just 'churning' away. :)

Happy August!