See You in September Blog Hop

My summer was mostly spent making memories with the family and playing in the lakes and waterfalls of South Carolina. We took several weekend trips and had one full week of camping fun.

As far as making things at the sewing machine, I spent a lot of time finishing up some UFO's, which I have been blogging about throughout the summer. I am always trying to whittle down my UFO pile but I always like to start new projects - probably why the UFO pile never gets smaller. Luckily this hop gave me incentive to start and FINISH three new projects this summer.

First on the list, I made another Ruffle tote with pockets.  The first one was made in March for the Ruffles blog hop and I made it to carry my drawing pad. When my Mom saw it, she told me if it was just a couple inches bigger it would be the perfect bag to carry her iPad around.
So I made another one this summer and made it a couple inches bigger just for her.

I also took some pictures as I made it and turned it into a pattern. It is my first attempt at making a pattern so I am offering it for free at Craftsy just for this blog hop. You can click the link at the top right on the blog or click here to go to Craftsy to get the pattern.

The bottom.

Here are both totes together.
You can see the new one is slightly taller, it is also an inch wider,
Perfect for iPads or any other tech pad.

For my next project I started out with this pile of lovelies.

This was my first time working with Riley Blake Gingham and I must say it is wonderful fabric to work with.  In the past I would avoid gingham in my projects because every other gingham I came across was flimsy, very light weight, and would cut all wonky.  Riley Blake is just the opposite.  It is soft and thick and wonderful to work with.  I will definitely be using Riley Blake's gingham the next time I need more for a project.

I turned some of that yummy goodness above into the quilt below.

I first saw this quilt block on Geta's blog. She calls it a modern dresden, but I like to call it Wagon Wheels or Steering Wheels because that is what I think of when I look at it. I've seen others call it windmills, dresden fans, and sunburst.  No matter the name, I love the block and when I first saw it, I put it on my quilt "to do" list.  It stayed there a long time though because I could never decide which fabrics to use.  During the summer I found out that gingham makes a wonderful Wagon Wheel quilt.  

When I was working on the layout of the blocks I split the quilt in two and put one of each color on the top and one on the bottom, but my son said if I move the red and yellow around every color would be opposite each other in the same way a knight moves on the chess board.  So I swapped the yellow and the red blocks and now each color can find its mate if it goes over two and down one or vise-verse.  I suppose I could also name the quilt "Knight's Movement".  So many names to choose from.

The quilt is 47 inches wide, just a few inches wider than most fabric, so I went for an easy pieced backing.

While cutting the strips for my Wagon Wheel quilt, each strip left me with two scrap dresden plates.  Just enough for one more mismatched block.  I decided to turn that into a pillow.  I finished it up with a band of dark blue gingham and stuffed it, leaving just enough room for it to squish up nice and soft when you hug it.

 My final project was a hedgehog coin purse.  When I first saw this on Craft Passion I knew I had to have one of my very own.  I think she turned out fantastic with her pink gingham quills.  

Thanks for stopping by to see my summer projects.
Be sure to check out the other hoppers today and see what they have been working on

Wednesday, September 10
Secretly Stitching
Buzzing and Bumbling
Quilt n Queen
Quilted Delights (Me)
Grandmama's Stories 

To see the whole Schedule, wonderfully hosted by Shari and Mdm Samm, click here.

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More Purge Progress

I spent a week at the lake last week.  It was so much fun I wasn't ready to come home.  This is my favorite picture from our trip.  It captures the whole trip perfectly. We were on Lake Jocassee in SC and I definitely want to go back.  The lake is so clear and pretty and cool to swim in. 

The forecast had called for rain all week, but we never had any fall on us other than the first night while we were sleeping.We strategically avoided the rain at our campsite by visiting waterfalls in the area during the afternoons.
 

Brasstown Falls - Cascades section

Brasstown Falls - Veils Section

 Luckily the showers were scattered and we picked the right falls to visit and had sunshine almost everyday.

Another view of the veils Section

Riley Moore Falls

Station Cove Falls

When we got back I jumped right into my purge projects.

I finished up the second Brick top...

Then I cut out some white squares from my white scrap bin to go with my newly cut animal scraps...

And then I started a new charity quilt.  This one is simple squares with white sashing.  

I used up most of the left over 4.5 inch scraps for this one.

The white is Kona Cotton in Snow.  I like using snow since it isn't such a bright white and is a little more forgiving when it gets dirty.

Next on the purge list is to use up some of the 2 inch squares to make a checkerboard quilt. Then I want to go through my left over bins and get some pink fabrics out for some little girl quilts.  I really love the brick tops and think they would look lovely in some girly pink and purple flower fabrics.

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Play Clothes

I haven't been doing much personal sewing this week, but I have been sewing.  I've been finishing the quilting on some of my guild mate's quilt, which I can't show yet but I can finally show off the play clothes I made for the Lake City Community Theater's production of The Sound Of Music.
The play ended last Sunday and was a wonderful success.  

This was taken during dress rehearsal right after Captain Von Trapp told all the children to get in a straight line.  The material looks really light under the stage lights, but it was really a flowery light blue upholstery fabric. My Thomas is right in the middle.  He played Kurt - I wasn't quite finished with his shorts in this photo.  I still had to hem them up with a cuff. They were done just in time for the first production.  Phew!  The heads in this photo near the children's feet are the live orchestra. Lake City sure knows how to put on a great production!

   Here are four of the girls back stage waiting to go on.  They look fabulous with their smiles.

Check out the nuns in the background too.  Thanks so much to Liesl for this photo!

Can't wait for the next play!

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Ice Storm and a Quilt

I can't believe we had two winter storms within two weeks of each other.
Seldom do we get one winter storm, but two and so close together... Why that is unheard of in these parts.

 

There was no snow this time.  At least not for our neighborhood. 30 miles north got 6 to 8 inches of snow.  All we got was freezing rain.

And with tree branches falling all over the neighborhood from the weight of the ice, we ended up losing power.

We lost power at 3:30 pm on Wednesday and didn't get it back till after 7pm on Thursday.

Some of our neighbors got their power back this morning.  Others are still waiting.
Shouldn't be too long for the rest of the neighborhood though.  All the ice is gone and they sky is a beautiful blue.  Other than all the branches down throughout the neighborhood no one would know we just had a spectacular ice storm.

While the first of the ice was coming down, I finished the binding on this quilt.

It is one of the UFO's on my Finish A-Long list.  It is a Schnibble pattern called Dimestore.

 It is also my February Finish for "A Lovely year of Finishes".  I quilted it using my current favorite design of swirls and feathers.

I put this quilt as my February finish because I had plans for it to go to a friend this month and wanted to make sure it got done on time.

It got done on time, but the ice had different plans for me delivering it on time.

Everything shuts down here when there is ice. Even the Wal-Mart was closed.

Everything sure is beautiful encased in ice, but it sure does cause a lot of havoc.

My poor Birch tree will never be the same.

The ice was just too thick for a lot of trees.

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Celtic Solstice - Still on Step 2

Yep, still on step two, but I am making some progress.  I got all my white and yellow squares marked, and have various steps completed for step two.  I knew the king size would slow me down a little but not this much, but to be fair, I do have some really good excuses for being little behind on the mystery.

First off, when step two came out and after all the Christmas parties were over I had to study for a final exam for my Microeconomics class. I aced that with a 96 and got an A in the class, and I am sitting pretty with a 4.0 GPA over all! Yehaw!

For those who don't know I started back to college about a year and half ago.

I'll finish this coming May with my Bachelors degree.

When step three came out I was packed and driving so I could take a ride on this: The Carnival Dream.

When Step 4 came out I was somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

The kids said all they wanted for Christmas was a cruise, so Santa brought them one a week early.
We spent the week walking on beautiful beaches

Snorkeling in the blue water...

And exploring the islands of  Nassua, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.

Can you believe I did not even miss my sewing machine?

After the cruise we spent a little time in Daytona Beach, Florida. We got home in time to relax for a day before heading out to visit relatives for Christmas.  The wee bit of sewing time I did squeeze in was reserved for my Starry Night Quilt. I really wanted that one done by the end of the year.

So December was a busy a month which didn't leave much time for Mystery sewing.
And those are my excuses, and I'm sticking to them.  ;)

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Halloween Costumes

It's that time of year again, the Night of the Nan Ya Halloween party.  It is usually held the Friday night before Halloween, so costumes have to be ready by then.  This year the kids helped out a lot with their costumes.

My youngest wanted to be Gandalf.  He has really been into the Hobbit lately and he was determined to be the wizard.  I found a hat pattern in the internet and used it as a base for his hat.  Then I did some quick throw over the shoulder and sew up some seams for his robe and cloak.

I found a cool tutorial for the staff.  Mine didn't turn out quite as spiffy as the one on the website, but turned out good enough for what we needed.  We bought the beard and wig online.

My next oldest couldn't decide what he wanted to be.  It was down to the last hour before the party so I suggested we at least paint his face, so we came up with this.

My next oldest is playing Frodo in a road show in November, so he decided to go ahead and be Frodo for the Halloween party.  His outfit was more "put together" than sewn.  We collected his items from the thrift store. $1 for pants. $1 for the shirt.   The vest came from the ladies side for $1.98. I hemmed up the pants and took in the waist a little. For the shirt I ripped the collar off and that was it. 

The only thing I sewed was the hood on the cloak.  The cloak is from fleece so I didn't even have to hem it.  I found a good pattern for the cloak on the internet.  The furry feet are trimmed flip flops with a dog wig cut up and glued on.  I think we need to find some brown colored hair spray to lighten them up for Halloween night and the road show.

My daughter's pirate costume was was thrift store finds too.

Shirt $3, Pants $3.  (It is interesting how the ladies items are triple the price of the men's items at the thrift store.)   The black striped pants fit her perfect and didn't even wrinkle.   I was little sad to cut them shorter. They would have made a nice addition to her regular wardrobe.  I was going to make her a red vest, but we found this one at Walmart.  $14 was worth a few hours of my time so we bought it.

Make up, jewelry, and boots we already had on hand.

I sure get a kick out of Frodo being way taller than Gandalf.

We took home two prizes at the Halloween party.  Yay!

They don't announce 1st, 2nd, or 3rd - they just pick top three.

Gandalf took home top three for his age group of 9-12

And Sarah got picked as top three in the Adult category.

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