Greeting cards for my friends.

I made a bunch of cards for gifts for various people. In fact, I still need to mail a package of them out to Laura! God, I'm bad. *sigh* It'll get to her eventually. . . .

Caught up!

And now Mary's scrapbook is all done and ready to be wrapped! Woo hoo! Look at me go. A week left to get any other little things done and out of the way, and then it's off to Illinois! And the cold and snow. Ick. :)

Ready for Illinois!

I will have to get a picture. Seth's quilt is ready for the trip to Illinois! Last night I got the binding all made (although I could have sworn I already had it done out of one of the matching pattern fabrics!) and tonight I got it sewn on! It's looking good. Still too busy, but, live and learn, right? It's pretty cute, despite the busyness. I like it. And I told Seth is was his quilt and now he'll point it out and ask, "Set's kilt?" That's what it sounds like, anyway.

So now I am just desperately behind on Mary's scrapbook. :-)

Cards that I made for my moms.

My mom had mentioned to me that she wanted some more cards that were just plain greeting cards, versus referring to any specific event. So these are the two designs I came up with for her, the oak leaf lover! I also made some of the first card for my step-mom, with different leaves as the focal point.

Weekend baking.

Friday I made these "simple fudge tarts" from a recipe in a Better Homes and Garden magazine. I don't love them - not a repeater. I also made mamool, though, and those are delish! They're the only ones I didn't get a picture of! They are a Middle East shortbread cookie with a date in the middle. Mmmm. I also made sugar cookies!

Saturday I spent icing the sugar cookies. Holy crap, that took forever. And I don't even really like them, so I don't think those are a repeater. I do love my little pink and purple snowman that's in the upper left of the lower sheet! :-) I'll have to try the other recipe for a different kind of sugar cookie, which Jenn prefers.

Sunday I tried, and failed, to make fudge. Major disaster. The second picture shows you what I was able to pull from the hardened glob in the pot. Not so good. I also made homemade chocolate chip cookies. They're not my favorite, but they are my father-in-law's favorite! I also made lemon bars, but they didn't really turn out very good, either.All these treats, and all I really want to eat is the Oreos in the cookie jar!

Holiday baking.

It's going to get in the way of my getting my stuff done! But that's okay. I'd rather bake (and probably gain five pounds!) than go the whole Christmas season with no cookies! Last night I made Mexican Wedding Cake cookies. Yum! And Jason likes them, too, so, bonus! This week I watched What a Girl Wants while working on Seth's quilt. Then, since that one had Colin Firth and considering the season, I started watching Love, Actually. I actually love that movie! I'm not done with it yet, but will finish it this weekend while finishing Seth's quilt! I am so close to being done quilting it. It's very exciting. So here's my to-do list:

1. quilt Seth's quilt
2. machine sew the binding on Seth's quilt
3. finish Mary's Costa Rica scrapbook
4. finish my Christmas cards
5. finish the top for Maya's quilt

It seems like a lot, but I think I can put a huge dent in it this weekend! Assuming I don't get carried away with the baking thing, that is!

Seth's quilt

is coming along. I'm going to try and work on it a bunch tonight. My goal is to have it all quilted in time to work on it in the car on the way to Illinois this winter. I think I can do it! I think if I can work a couple of hours straight on it tonight, I will be well on my way to getting it done! I'm very excited. Although I'm also tired and hungry, so I'm not actually really feeling like doing anything. :-)

I quilted tonight!

Only for about 20 minutes, but it was great anyway! :-)

Update on To-Do List

Here is the list I posted a couple of weeks ago, with updates!

- buy backing for Seth's quilt Done! I got a pretty, bright orange. I love it.
- buy batting for Seth's quilt Done! And I have it washed and basted. It's just waiting to be quilted.
- get Seth's quilt done by Christmas! (I saw a sign over the weekend saying it's only 67 days 'til Christmas! So it's less than that now! Yowzers!!) I really need to get it done by Thanksgiving because we're going to move Seth into the blue room then, but I really, really doubt that's going to happen! Thanksgiving is in a week! And I'll have guests starting on Sunday. I'm sure Saturday will be a blur of cleaning, so I just don't see it getting done. . . .
- plan Nanette's next t-shirt quilt Done, and she gave me the go-ahead to start!
- plan Lyla's quilt I looked at some patterns one day at JoAnn's, but nothing officially planned so far.
- sew a quilt top for Rebecca's new baby (I have it cut, just need to get it together. It is called Flocks of Geese and it is going to be really pretty, I think. It would be nice to get this done by Christmas, but I'm not sure that's do-able.) I have worked on this, but the top still isn't done. . . .
- finish my cards Done!
- make up some sentiment cards for my mom Done!
- make cards for Jason - I have a great design in mind! I have the bulk of the work done, but I still have to put the cards together. They were not drying very well. I should check them out - I haven't looked at them since Sunday. Maybe the silver is dry by now!

Update

This weekend, I finally bought batting and backing for Seth's quilt. It is now washed and ready to go! Yay! Maybe I will manage to get it done by Christmas! I'm still piecing the quilt for Rebecca's new baby, but it will go pretty quickly if I can just sit down and focus. I also planned Nanette's next t-shirt quilt, but I'm not sure if she wants me to start it yet, so that's on hold. I guess I will focus on Maya and Seth's quilts, and get them done hopefully soon, and then next year I can focus on Lyla's baby quilt! I still haven't picked a design for it! I need to do that. I looked at some books at JoAnn's and saw some very cute patterns. . . .

Too much to do and the days are counting down!

I have so much to do! I need a list so that I can keep it under control:
- buy backing for Seth's quilt
- buy batting for Seth's quilt
- get Seth's quilt done by Christmas! (I saw a sign over the weekend saying it's only 67 days 'til Christmas! So it's less than that now! Yowzers!!)
- plan Nanette's next t-shirt quilt
- plan Lyla's quilt
- sew a quilt top for Rebecca's new baby (I have it cut, just need to get it together. It is called Flocks of Geese and it is going to be really pretty, I think. It would be nice to get this done by Christmas, but I'm not sure that's do-able.)
- finish my cards
- make up some sentiment cards for my mom
- make cards for Jason - I have a great design in mind!

I haven't sewn now for at least a month. I need some time home! It's not going to happen this weekend - maybe next!

Oh my gosh.

I have been too busy to post anything, but since I've been busy, I have lots to show for it! I am hard at work at my Christmas cards. They are mostly done, but not quite. I worked up these samples yesterday. The first is for my dad. You can't really tell in the picture, but I added some green sparkly dots at points in the tree.

The next sample is for Mary. I used the same basic card idea, which I found in the Stampin' Up catalog, but with a different stamp. I love this stamp set I bought. It's all swirly and pretty and girlie!

I also did an order of cards for my sister-in-law. The triple Christmas trees seen below are a variation of a card I made last year, shown below the triple trees. She took some of both. And I did an order for my friend Laura of these cards from last year.


And, finally, I'm working on the cards for KAZ Design! They are looking awesome. Here is what they'll look like. Busy, busy!

Recent work.

Whereas this time last month I was up to my eyeballs in quilts, this month I have been busy making cards! I just finished an order for my boss KAZ, for her Save the Date cards. First you see the sample she found me, and then the card we created based off of it.

I just finished her order of 40!

Now I'm going to play around with my Christmas card! Then, I will settle down and finish Jenn's Christmas cards. She is getting this one, and a variation on it with another stamp.


After that, I will work more on Mom's cards.


Hopefully all of these cards will bring in some much-needed extra money. And maybe I can get some other orders going, too.

Round-up

I just want to say, my stated goal at the beginning of the year was to finish five quilts. As of today, September 10, I have completed ten. Ten! I'm on a roll! Of course, I haven't finished a book in over a month, but oh well. It's hard to find that balance. . . .

Finito!

I sent it off yesterday!

Seth's quilt.

Still in pieces, but looking pretty cool!

Coming up. . . .

Here is my sketch of a mosaic pinwheel pattern quilt, which I am doing in blue and brown elephant fabric for Seth's bedroom (when he moves into the blue room with the "big boy bed"). I have it cut out and started sewing it together last night. I want to finish Peyton's quilt before going full-blown on it, though, so time for a slight pause from elephants while I concentrate on hot pink!

List before Baby Number 2 arrives:
- finish my quilt (mark that as done!)
- Peyton's quilt (so close to being done I can taste it!)
- Seth's quilt (on the way)
- another quilt for Nanette (not really a glimmer in my eye yet)
- baby quilt (what baby?)
And I have a really cool idea percolating for a quilt for my guest bedroom. I'm hoping I can make it out of scraps.

Ready for sleeping under!

Peyton's quilt!!!!!

I forgot to take a picture with the backing material showing! I'll have to get another. It is a really cool hot pink batik. Now I just need to get it bound and signed and it'll be ready for the mail! I could wait until the Race for the Cure in November to give it to her, but since I'll have it done so much sooner, I think I'll just mail it. Although, they may be in town in a couple of weeks for Seth's birthday, so maybe I'll give it to her then. Hmmm. See her mom's quilt here. It is the same pattern, with different sashing and accent fabrics, different backing, and a some variations in the memory fabric, as well. I used softer pinks in Debu's quilt and more hot pink in Peyton's.

My quilt!

It's done! It is currently in the dryer. Woo hoo! Now on to basting Peyton's quilt! It has turned out really pretty. I'll get some pics.

Seth's birthday party invitation.

They turned out really great! They're based on a picture in the new Stampin' Up! catalog. Teresa did a variation on this card, as well. It's just a great color combo!

Round-up

I have gotten a lot done lately! My new quilt has been machine-bound. I just have to go through the long, grueling process of hand-binding the other side. I finished hand-binding the third baby quilt. I need to pop those three into the washer and then sign them and voila! Finito. And tonight I got a bunch of work done on Seth's birthday party invitations! They are damn cute. I will have to post a picture.

Almost done!

I am so close to being done with my quilt, but I was so tired last night, I just could not keep going. I have a triangle left with a 3' side and a 2' side. I think it'll take about 30 mins to an hour. I'm hoping to get it done tonight!

Next on my list:
- Peyton's quilt
- Seth's quilt
- another quilt for Nanette
- new baby's quilt

I think that seems fair. One for my family, one for someone else. Hopefully I can get all four of those quilts completely done before February. That's my (kinda lofty) goal.

My quilt!

It is 3/4 of the way quilted. Isn't that exciting? Jason was home most of the weekend so he was able to play with Seth some and I got to do so much quilting! So much quilting, in fact, on my hard wooden chair, that this morning when I got in my car to come to work, my butt bones hurt! Ha ha ha.

My quilt!

The quilt top for our bed, finally done! And we've only been married for two-and-a-half years! Doesn't it look great? Now I just have to find backing material, buy batting, and get the behemoth quilted!

Seth's new quilt.

I found the cutest fabric yesterday at Joann's for the quilt for Seth's big boy bed. It's a little babyish, but it was too cute to pass up, and if he uses it for 3 or 4 years and then wants a new one, that's good for me! It has blue elephants on a brown background, and then there are a bunch of coordinating fabrics. It's so cute! The only thing that could have made it better is if it had had orange in it. But I think I'll put orange on the back and return the coordinating fabric that I got for the back. I don't like it very much, anyway.

Current project.

The other set.

Here is the other set of cards that I made a couple of weeks ago. All of the paper colors are Stampin' Up! Rich Regals. I used six of eight stamps in a Stampin' Up! stamp set for the cards. This was a fun little exercise! I'll have to do it again sometime. Maybe once I buy the new Stampin' Up! colors. They are so pretty. . . .