Happy Weekend!

What a crazy week!  I'm so happy it's the weekend, aren't you?

We're covered in a pretty white blanket here, with more on the way!  Should be fun, since I've got a busy Saturday ahead of me.  I hope you're staying warm and dry- I don't think I will be.

Completed, Finally.

It took me about 2 months, but it's done now.  The Hooty Hoot Kangaroo Quilt for baby Kenny (Kenny is the son of some friends of ours, now about 7 weeks old).

I was just about in tears when I finished it, I was soooo happy and excited and proud to have it done!  I learned a TON from it.  It was my first venture into free-hand quilting, and let me tell ya:  That is not an easy thing to do!

I can't even tell you how many hours I spent ripping out stitches gone wrong because I didn't realize that despite how good the stitches looked on the front, they looked horrible on the back (the picture above is just one example... there were SO many spots where the stiches pulled on the back!)

I based the quilt off of the cover quilt on the book "quilts, bibs, blankies...oh my!" by Kim Schaefer.  Instead of applique blocks, I used blocks off of the Hooty Hoot Kangaroo Panel, adding borders to make them 12" square.  Originally, I was going to do a pieced border, just like in the book.  I based my binding choice off of that, but the quilt already seemed huge at that point so I cut out the pieced border & now I wish I wouldn't have because the border blends in with the binding.

Fabrics used:
Hooty Hoot Kangaroo by Doohikey Designs
Kate and Nate by Sherri Berry
Love U by Deb Strain

I can't remember the border or binding fabrics, unfortunately.  The backing is mostly some mottled blue flannel from Joannes, with a strip of the Kate and Nate flannel, so its super soft and cuddly. 

This is my favorite block with echo quilting in it... I added some quilting in the waves, and I just love how that turned out.

Things I learned:
*Cleaning your machine is important. 
*How to clean a machine (ugh!)
*Needle choice really does matter
*So does thread choice
*My old machine does have a feed dog guard, so I didn't have to keep taping and untaping a piece of cardboard over them
*Instead of spending money on a single hole throat plate, an index card taped onto the feed dog guard with a hole poked through it works just as well. 
*Check the back of the quilt before quilting the entire thing
*I need a better labeling marker!

What's next you may ask??  Well, Christmas is right around the corner... I may be showing peeks of what I'm working on, but I don't want to make it too easy for anyone to guess what they're getting for Christmas, so I may be a bit secretive.  Hehehe.

Grateful

Wow- it's been a while since I've posted anything, but what can I say.  We've been busy.  With Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, and multiple projects in the works, life has been crazy!  I'm actually taking advantage of a post-Thanksgiving dinner quiet time while we're on vacation at my in-laws house just to post.  I made the HUGE mistake of not packing any portable projects, due to space constraints in Luna (our Pacifica), and already am feeling like I'm wasting time by not having anything to work on.  I am starting to think I have a little bit of obsessiveness... or maybe its compulsiveness.  Heck, lets just call it OCD.  Is it really so bad that I can't just sit and not do anything??  That I need to have something in my hands to work on?  That on Thanksgiving Day I was horribly tempted to drive 20 miles to the nearest Walmart, just in the hopes that they were open so I could at least pick up some yarn & knitting needles?

OCD aside, I've been seriously slacking on the MOG project.  My camera was MIA for a bit.  It was of my own fault, but at first I believed that the kids lost it.  In reality, I took it with me to a Cub Scout Meeting, and forgot that I put it in a certain box, and then totally forgot that the particular box even existed, until we looked all over, gave up, then I finally had that ah-ha moment.
Here are a few more things I'm grateful for:

1. Quilting Goodness, 2. My Son's Cub Scout Pack, 3. A Husband that can, and will, fix things, 4. Jake joining us for Thanksgiving, 5. Karma Infused Starbucks runs, 6. Our local zoo, with face-to-face baby jellyfish encounters, 7. Toys as old as me that now entertain my children , 8. Rocket Making with my Son

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have You Done it Yet???

Did you join the Month of Gratitude yet??  I won't nag anymore.  I love seeing everybody's submissions, and while I'm grateful for many things, I do soooo wish that my camera was better!  But, here are a few things I'm grateful for:

1. Filtering, MOG 11-01-10, 2. Seam Ripper MOG 11-03-10, 3. Voting, MOG 11-02-10, 4. Morning Coffee, 5. Play Doh Soup, 6. Impromptu Silliness, 7. Geo-caching, 8. Firefighters (this is a statue dedicated to those that lost their lives in 9/11), 9. Applesauce, 10. Black-eyed Susans, 11. The love of my life, 12. Ultimate excitement, even when the ball hasn't hit the pins yet.

November

Did you have a great Halloween? 

Ours was pretty good- a trip to "The Eye-Ball House" (complete with haunted walk-way up to the mad scientist with a corpse's abdomen full of candy) during Saturday night Trick-or-Treating...

Candy is overflowing orange plastic buckets and children are begging to help alleviate that problem.  ;-)

Last night before bed Tommy and Maya were sorting their candy on their blankets.  How funny!  I don't ever remember sorting it, but I do remember trading candy with my little brother.  I was so bummed when he was old enough to realize that I was trading those crappy peanut butter taffy candies for the coveted Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or Snickers.

Speaking of Tommy, he's home sick today- cough, stuffy nose, and I'm about 99% sure that he's got an ear infection.  Poor little guy.  Thanks to the medicine I gave him this morning, he's feeling well enough to play with some Play Doh with his baby sister, but that will only last a little longer.  He just has to last until later this afternoon when we go to the doctor.  (PS- before I even got finished with this post they were fighting with each other, and now Tommy has somehow bonked her with the broom handle while he was sweeping up Play Doh crumbs!)

Can you believe it's November already??  We've been really spoiled here in Wisconsin with a warmer than usual Autumn.  October was pretty gorgeous for nearly the entire month.  Today our weatherman reminded us that while November here normally starts off with highs in the mid-50's, by the end of the month highs will be in the high 30's.  Gah- I'm shivering just thinking of it. 

Enough of cold weather talk though!  I'm participating in Lisa Clarke's Month of Gratitude.  So, I have to remember to bring my camera around with me!  I hope I can keep up.  Check out the details here.  I have to say- she's got to be my favorite blogger.  I love her mix of crafting, photography, baking & cooking, and family.  Join in!

Time out for Halloween

I'm taking a time out from quilting this beast of a baby quilt to bring you a little Halloween surprise.

A free download for you!  These are Halloween Labels- I made them for a coworker today and thought I would share them with you!  Click here to download.  I made them to fit on Avery name badges #5395 (2 1/3" x 3 3/8").  Enjoy!

Saturday

Saturday is our fun day.  We made a visit to the library in the morning, dropping off old books, picking up new. 

We came home for a quick lunch, put Mrs. Boss down for a nap.  The hubs and I may have taken a nap ourselves... our were we just resting our eyes??  When the kids were ready to go, we grabbed our backpack and hit the trails down at the park.  All of us have really been enjoying some geo-caching lately. 

Ms. Artsy enjoys the journey of it, hiking, climbing over big rocks, trudging through tall grass, hopping over logs across the path. 

The Bowling Ball & Mrs Boss like the destination-- receiving a prize when they find the cache, searching for the little or not so little box that you know you're close to, but just can't quite see it. 

The hubs & I just like spending the time out and about with them.  You never know just how long they'll enjoy that time with you.  And with Ms. Artsy going on 10 in a few days, time just seems to be flying by...

PS.  Ms. Artsy and I may or may not have stepped slipped into the river while trying to cross some rocks looking for a very well-hidden cache... Just saying.

Random Photo Archives...

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