Coping Mechanisms

Sometimes the stars align and the kids play beautifully together, and sometimes the kids are fighting on their way down the path from school before they even reach the car.  When that happens you just know it's going to be a long evening.  This is when I intervene with craft therapy.  They craft and I avoid therapy.  This gives me at least 30 minutes of peace, and that's priceless.

 BB painted a sun burnt Santa and then ran off to tear apart something, but here's my proof he can create instead of just destroy once in a while:

A Little Progress

After a 5 year hiatus,  I decided to pull out my Christmas quilt and work on it.  I was thinking that I didn't have any required quilting projects for a bit since Stitches takes a break during December.  I thought I could at least piece together my leftover Christmas fabric to form a back.  It didn't take very long, and before I knew it I was laying everything out in the front room and pinning it together!  I kind of like that the Christmas tree is peaking out in the corner of the picture.  It makes the quilt even more festive.

I'm still planning out the quilting, so I haven't started that part yet.  This week is crazy, so I won't be doing much quilting, but I like the thought that I've actually made some progress.  At this rate I may actually get it done before another 5 years pass! 

Square in a Square

Today is my quilt club and I've finished up my row.  Technically speaking, this one is 4 blocks that she wanted us to leave apart.  She's going to arrange all of the blocks at the end.  The only stipulation she had was that the blocks needed to by 8 inches out of her fabric.  I chose a Square in a Square block.  It's not the most creative name for a block, but it fits.  I love the colors in her fabric, so I enjoyed working with these.

Another Finish

I forgot how much I love rainbow quilts.  This is a bit more in the pastel category since it's for a baby girl.  She's set to arrive next week, so I've got to hurry up and get it in the mail.  I seem to always manage to wait right up until they're due. 

 I did a large stippling for the quilting.  It's been so long since I've stippled anything, so I was a bit rusty, but I enjoyed it.

The backing comes from my stash from a previous project.  It was the wrinkliest piece of fabric I had ever seen.  It obviously did not fare very well when stuffed into a box during our move.  I made a noble attempt at ironing it, but it was nigh unto impossible to get some of the creases out.  It led to some puckering in the back when I quilted it.  I like to think of it as texture. 

5 Little Hens in a Row

My quilting club met this week, and gratefully, I finished my row with a day to spare.  I had Rebecca's Americana and Civil War fabric.  The only stipulations were that the row needed to be 42" long, and no block larger than 8".  I found this adorable tutorial for a hen, and decided that's what I wanted to do.  They are surprisingly easy to piece together. 

 I pretty much love my row.  I almost wanted to keep it!

You can see Rebecca's row of flags that I'm adding on to.  I think her quilt top is going to be adorable!

Scrappy Quilt Top

I was looking for a cute quilt top that I could piece together quickly for a baby who's coming in the next 2 weeks.  I saw this quilt top and knew I could do it quickly.  There wasn't a tutorial, but I decided to just make everything 2.5" in width, and it was very simple, but nice. And of course, I love that it came completely out of my scrap bin.

All in a Row

I finished my row of Dragonflies with one day to spare.  Phew!  Tomorrow night I'll pass on my fabric to another woman in the quilt group and she'll add another row of whatever block she wants.

This is going to be fun.

Carrying the Banner

This weekend Newsies came to OKC, and my loving husband took me to see it.  He's not much of a fan of this particular musical, but he knew I really wanted to see it.  The highlight of this musical is definitely the dancing.  It's insane!  The tap dance number in King of New York was ridiculously amazing!  I know the music inside and out, because I grew up loving the movie.  The musical adaptation is a bit different from the movie, but the changes didn't bother me.  The plot is not the deepest thing on the planet and the musical moments themselves are alright, but it's definitely the dancing that makes this musical good.

Small Town Quilting

Some ladies at my church have a quilting group.  They invited me to join them.  The majority of them are in their late 70s with the one closest to my age probably being around mid-50s.  We have little in common except love of quilting.  We even have opposite tastes in fabric, but they are seriously hilarious.  I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy the group.  Two of them took me on a trip to go to a quilting store out in the middle of No Where, Oklahoma about an hour north west of where we live.  It was so much fun.  We drove through small towns.  They look exactly how I would picture old towns off of Route 66.  They are almost stuck in time with their old buildings and one stop light.  It was so charming.  The ladies informed me that other than the military bases, OKC, and Tulsa, this is what the rest of Oklahoma looks like.

The fabric was drool worthy.  I mostly just window shopped, but it's fun to look at all of it.  I loved all the gorgeous quilts that lined the walls.  They were truly stunning.

 This sign outside their shop just cracked me up.  Only in Oklahoma...

The ladies then took me to another small town called City of Kingfisher for lunch.  We stopped at an old school pharmacy that has a little kitchenette in it.  The food was surprisingly good.  They're famous for their orangeade.  It's made with freshly squeezed oranges and it's delish!  BB loved the orangeade and drank most of mine for me.

Wonky Stack

September's block for do.Good Stitches consisted of stacking fabrics and wonky cutting.  I really enjoyed this block.  Kristin asked us to use the colors white, red, yellow, and orange.  Doing through my fabric I realized that I have very little yellow and orange compared to any of the other colors.  I rarely gravitate to those colors, so this was good for me to move out of my color comfort zone.

 This block is a lot of fun, because you stack all 4 blocks on top of each other and then randomly cut outside and inside borders.  When you undo the layers you have 4 different blocks.

 (Excuse the carpet pictures.  It's storming outside.)

Pillowcases

When we moved to Oklahoma I went to the JustServe website to see what service projects were in the area that maybe I could help with.  One project in particular looked doable.  A local hospital has fabric that they would like people to turn into pillowcases.  When a child stays at their hospital they get to choose a pillowcase and keep it.  It was on my list of things I wanted to do once things settled down around here, but imagine my surprise when I found out the Young Women at Church were working on the same project.  I came to help sew, but I ended up showing everyone how to make them instead.  Nora and I were the only two who had ever made them before, so we helped everyone with the process.  I didn't even touch my sewing machine that night.  Since I didn't get to sew I took a bunch of cut fabric home with me.  Yesterday during nap time I whipped up 4 pillowcases and then finished the fifth one in the evening.  I like fun and easy projects like that.  They're finishing up the project tomorrow night at church, so I'll probably take home whatever is left to quickly make the last of them. 

Scrappy Sunsets

I finally finished my March do.Good Stitches quilt this weekend.  It feels good to finish this one up since the quilt top had been sitting in my to-finish bin for several months. 

I took the pictures as the sun was setting and it was kind of fun to see the moon as I was trying to photograph the picture.  The light kept shifting and I got wrapped up in seeing the sunset change the quilt coloring.  I completely lost track of the time.  My husband came outside and asked me if I was ever coming in.  :)

Several of the ladies in my Peace Circle sent me extras from their blocks, so I used them down the side of the back. The rest of it is a fuzzy flannel my mom gave to me.  I used my walking foot to do some straight line quilting.  The front is so busy that I wanted the quilting to be minimal in a structured way.

This quilt is so bright and cheerful.  I'm excited to give it to one of Joel's patients.

Scrappy Star Quilt

Well, I finished it a week late, but I did get it out in the mail.  Here's Baby Emma's Scrappy Quilt Star: (We're kind of partial to their name choice)   ;)

I used the flannel that I really like from Hobby Lobby for the back using loopy lines with stars for the quilting.

Maybe one day we'll make it out to Wyoming to meet her.

First Quilt of the School Season

I don't get any quilting done with the kiddos home during the Summer, but school is officially back in session and I'm totally behind on a quilt I need to make.  My friend is going to have her baby any day now and um, I've picked out the fabric.  That's about it.  I'm excited to work on the quilt this week, but since she reads my blog you won't be getting any more info than this until she gets it in the mail.  Sorry, Heidi, this is all you're going to see!  ;)

Sewing Sadness

On the whole, I have very little to complain about.  The move has been good.  We're doing fine.  The kids are adjusting well.  My only true sadness is a petty one.  JoAnn Fabrics is 35 minutes away.  yep.  There you have it.  No more quick trips to get something to finish a project.  Can I get a moment of silence?  I totally took for granted her proximity to me in Columbus.  So, after a moment of depression, I looked things up and found a Hancock Fabrics really close, so I bounced back a little.  I headed there only to find an empty store.  All Hancock Fabric stores closed in July.  This is when the true depression set in.  Gratefully, there's at least a  Hobby Lobby close by.  The fabric selection is small and expensive with very few good sales/coupons, but at least I have some options when in a pinch. 

I went to make a last minute quilt when I realized I didn't have any batting anymore.  I keep forgetting how many things you have to replenish after a move.  Anyway, I had one day before a baby shower, and I wanted to do something for her, because she and her family are adorable.  They sit behind us in church and entertain my baby.  Luckily, Hobby Lobby pulled through for me and I found some cute flannel to make a receiving blanket.  I guess it's not all bad in the world of sewing.

 I always like an excuse to use a different stitch.  Today I chose a wavy line.

Snow in August

Technically speaking I was supposed to have made these blocks in July, but the month got away from me.  Also, these are supposed to be beach balls, but I like to think of them as snow balls since it's over 100 degrees outside right now.

July Peace Circle:  Beach Ball Block

It's the only sewing I've done the entire Summer.  Maybe when school's back in session I can start back up on my list of things to quilt.

Extended Family Pictures

Lisa Ruth Photography