Sunny Beach Quilt

What I have to show today is a summery quilt made with Lucy's Crabshack fabric.  When I first saw this line of fabric I really liked it.  It was the orange that attracted me.....a few pops of orange and I'm sold.

I followed the "Sunny Skies" tutorial by Missouri Star Company.  I love the 16 patches, and because the fabrics are beachy I decided to add some "sand" color in the Chevron blocks.

I tried out a new method of quilting -- new for me, that is.  I followed Maureen Cracknell's QAYG (Quilt As You Go) method. (For this method you actually quilt the quilt top blocks on individual batting blocks -- without the backing.  Then you sew those quilt blocks together, press, and finally add the backing -- sewing along the edges of the blocks.  So the back is not quilted as the front, but instead has a square grid.  Check out Maureen's tutorial.  It's cool.)  I love the idea of this method because the couple of quilts I've done on my home machine drove me crazy because I couldn't handle the bulk of the quilt and doing all that quilting at once (well, in a few sessions) seemed so long!  Breaking it into small quilting sessions sounds much more appealing.  Here is what I learned while doing this quilt:

1.  Quilt as you go....learn as you go.  I read the directions, which are really clear and detailed.  It's a great tutorial.  However, I decided not to just do straight line quilting.....instead I wanted to do a checkerboard pattern on each 16-patch and just a few lines on the Chevron blocks.  What I didn't foresee was that doing these simple patterns rather than straight lines....I was going to lose some stitches (and part of the pattern) in the inseam.  So I readjusted and started quilting to 1/4" from the edge, so the edges of the diamonds wouldn't be cut off.  Then....I realized that in Maureen's tutorial I was supposed to use a 1/2" seem to join the blocks.  Aaahhh!  Instead I used a generous 1/4" seem, which cut off the diamond corners, but hopefully it'll wash up fine.  I realize these lost stitches aren't going to be noticed by most, but it was something I realized I need to think about when doing this QAYG method.

2.  Better basting.  Also in the tutorial Maureen basted her blocks before quilting.  I decided my blocks were so small this wasn't going to be necessary.  The outcome is just okay.  It would probably look better if I had basted.  And if I could baste the backing on better it would help too!  I ran out of Basting Spray and tried to just straighten it as I went.  The result is some puckering.  But it's not horrible.    

3.  I'll try this again.  I really do love this QAYG method -- this time with the straight line stitching.  I like to change tasks often, so being able to stop piecing blocks and start quilting at any time was fun for me.

4.  Not my Style.  I am lukewarm on the finished product.  I gave a lot of thought to "my style" as I was putting together this quilt.  "Sunny Beach" -- not so much my style; "Overcast beach" would be more my style.  :)  I've decided I need to try and zone in on what I really love -- instead of just doing lots of cute projects.  But I'm happy with what I learned and still enjoyed making the quilt.  And I do think it would look very cute in someone's small beach house by the sea.  Anyone have one of those?  Maybe I can trade you this quilt for a weekend vacation! ;)

I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.
I am also linking up to Sew Can She's Show off Saturday.

Family Reunion Review

I am so clever with my post titles, don't you think?  But if I tried to be clever while writing these I wouldn't get much done....so descriptive and to the point is what you get.

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Rexburg for a family reunion with my parents, siblings, and their families.  The boys and I headed up a few days before Brian so we could spend more time with the cousins.  My sister, Marie, flew in from Seattle and we also took another sister, Susan, and two of her kids up -- it was so fun to have a full car with all those cousins/Aunts.

Dave and Allyson made this cool rocket launcher....you put some water in these 2-liter soda bottles, tip them over onto the pipe, then stand back, push the button which causes air to shoot up through the pipe, and the soda bottle shoots up into the air really high -- 100 feet???  Anyway, it was great fun for the boys.  They could have done that for hours.

We also went to Fat Cats and did some bowling and Arcade playing.  The pictures turned out pretty dark -- but still wanted to share.  Of course the kids are separated by gender....the girl table and the boy table.  :)

One afternoon we went on a little hike to Cress Creek.  It was a nice, paved trail with a beautiful veiw.     Eric fell and hurt his knee on the way up, so we stopped at the creek.  Grandpa stopped there too and we had a nice visit.  Andrew and Tanner continued with the rest of the group.  

Here is a picture of Tanner giving himself bunny ears.  Funny kid.  :)

When all the kids came back down the hill Grandpa quizzed them on the surrounding plants.  It was cute to watch him teach -- he was a High School Biology teacher....once a teacher, always a teacher. (:  

One morning we went to the Splash Pad.  I was disappointed I didn't convince Andrew and Eric to come along.  They would have had a great time with the older cousins.  Tanner enjoyed it a lot and it was so nice to have some older kids there to help when he got "stuck" at the top of the slide and stood there shivering for several minutes.  I would have had to get very wet had I climbed up there to encourage him down.  

James' family gave him a snow cone machine for Father's Day.  They brought it along and the kids loved having those snow cones right in the backyard.  I enjoyed it too --- yum.

A niece on Brian's side of the family is going to BYU-I.  We met her at the park for a while and visited.   She is such a nice girl and it was nice of her to take some time out of her studies/socializing to come and hang out with us.  Here is Brian, Tanner, and Katelyn riding the carousel.

The more scheduled part of our Family Reunion involved family history work.  Previous to getting together we were each assigned some names to research.  We were all researching the posterity of my Great Grandfather, John Frankman.  He died when my grandfather was only 3 and we have no pictures and know very little about him.  After finding some more names, dates, and information, Allyson and Dave wrote up life-sketches and gave them to us all.  There is such a special spirit about doing Family History work.  I really enjoyed the few hours I spent on it.  

We also spent some time in the Rexburg Temple with our family.  It was a special experience knowing the connection we were making to long gone relatives.  I believe my Grandfather is grateful that we care about his family, that they haven't been forgotten, and that he was smiling down on us from heaven.

Happy 4th of July!

I am writing this as I listen to hundreds of fireworks going on out there.  Brian took the older boys to watch the city firework show.  Tanner and I stayed here.  I'm hoping he'll fall asleep soon....but it is pretty noisy!

I wanted to write a quick post so I can link up to Crazy Mom Quilt's Friday Finish and to Freshly Pieces WIP Wednesday.  I have been overwhelmed with partly finished projects, so I picked this small project up and finished it.  It is a small wall hanging from a Quilts and More issue a couple of years ago.

I made a pillow with this pattern for my niece last year when she had a baby.  It was so cute so I thought I'd make myself one.  My boys aren't too excited about being the middle of a flower -- but I'll be hanging it in my sewing room so they don't need to love it.  :)  The one I made for my niece was my first Dresden block, this is my second.  It wasn't too hard, but I must have used a scant 1/4" seem rather than an exact 1/4" seem.  As a result the flower center was too big for my picture (which I printed on Ink Jet Fabric Sheets on my home printer.)  Since the flower center was bigger than my picture, I had to add the brown background to the center.  I think it actually added a little "ruggedness" to the flower and works well for the boys.  

Speaking of boys, we went to a parade this morning.  This has been a tradition for the last several years.  First up is Andrew...feeling too old to chase after the candy anymore, but still happy to get a few pieces while sitting and visiting with cousins.

Tanner was so cute dancing to the band music....and for each picture he made sure to give us an "awesome" expression.  Eric enjoyed the parade for a while, but was quite disgruntled about the fact that almost all the candy was Salt Water Taffy, which he can't eat because of some orthodontics in his mouth.  About halfway through, Eric had seen enough....but he tried to be patient.

Brian told me he took his first "selfie."  He did a pretty good job, huh?  Eric's doing a goofy face, as usual.  Brian looks great...I love that dimple!  ;)

This evening we had some cousins over for dinner.  The kids all sat on the patio.  It was so quiet inside that the adults stayed inside to enjoy some quiet.  :)  After dinner we walked over to the park and played.  It wasn't as hot as I thought it would be.  Yay.  A pretty low-key day spent with family.  A good way to celebrate the 4th.  

Salt Air Butterfly Effect Quilt

After 5 days in Idaho for a family reunion, then back home trying to catch up, I haven't been sewing much.  I am missing those few hours of alone time when my kids were all in school!

So I am hoping a quilt from Amy Smart's book Fabulously Fast Quilts is just that --- fast and fabulous.  I had a scrap bag of Salt Air fabric by Cosmos Cricket...mostly long strips.  So I decided to try the Butterfly Effect quilt.  I love the fabric but am still unsure if I chose the right pattern for it.  But I did enjoy using the strip piecing tips in the book and the tube method (that is probably not the technical term.)

Here is a crooked picture I took with my Kindle.  The computer is occupied so I am making do.  I am linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and to Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

Grandma's Quilt

Recently my mom brought me some embroidered blocks of Grandma's -- some extras.  Grandma died more than 15 years ago, so this is a special project for me.  I've never done anything with Embroidered blocks -- there are 50 of them, 6 1/2 inches square.  I ordered some fabric from Connecting Threads, "Nana's Pantry".  The colors work well, which was a relief since I'd never seen them in person.  I was inspired by Crazy Mom Quilt's quilt here.  I would have never picked out this fabric, but seeing it in her quilt made me love it.

I'm still unsure of the design I will do -- either a block I'm not sure the name of -- it's the inside of the economy block -- kind of like the first picture below.  The blocks would be on point so the birds would not sit at a diagonal.  I've contemplated a Log Cabin too, but there are 50 blocks and more than one or two strips might just get too big.

Another thing I've been debating is whether or not I match the bird to the background color.  Does that make sense?  (Red Cardinal, Red background; Bluebird, blue background -- or do I mix it up?)  If you have an opinion, let me know.  (:

I can just picture Grandma sitting in her quiet, clean house, watching Lawrence Welk or Billy Graham, doing her embroidery.  She made a lot of embroidered quilt blocks which my mom made into wedding quilts for each of us.  Here is my oldest, Andrew, sitting in front of my wedding quilt -- it only shows one of the twelve blocks, but you get the idea.  Plus, Andrew is so cute I thought I better share!

Just a bit about Grandma - she lived across the street from us when I was growing up.  She smelled of Mentholatum and Coty's face powder.  She had the "gift of gab" -- something I didn't appreciate like I would now.  She had a great memory for details.  She knew everyone's birthday, childhood friend's full names, and war-time songs she was taught when she was growing up.  Sometimes I wish I could go back and visit with her again so I could really pay attention to all those stories, songs, and poems she told me.

Lastly, I will leave you with a cute picture of Tanner -- "peeling corn."  Whenever he sees corn on the cob he says "Oh yah!  I peeled corn with Grandpa one day!"  That was about a year ago, but he still talks about it.  Funny how clearly I remember doing the same thing with Dad when I was little.  (:

I'm linking up to GoGo Kim's Saturday Sewjo Party.

I'm linking up to My Quilt Infatuation party too!

Stars Baby Quilt

My brother and his wife are having a baby in October.  I have owned the Yoyo Mama Designs Antique Baby Quilt pattern for years, but have never made it.  So I thought it was about time.  I used all scraps from my stash.

I've decided to write something I learned from each quilt -- this is not to point out the imperfections, but merely to write it down so I'll remember those lessons next time, and maybe someone else can learn from my mistakes.  So here's what I learned when making this pattern:

1.  Use more glue!  Glue????  Yes, this quilt is done by gluing the squares to a piece of muslin; putting the quilt backing, batting, and top together; and then sewing the squares on.  It's a quick process which results in the cute raw edges.  But I found that as I ran it through my machine the little squares shifted.  Afterward I watched a video online that talked about glue basting with Washable Elmer's and then heat setting the squares.  I think I'll try that next time.

2.  Think ahead about the backing -- I bought a brown backing and then realized that I'd need to use white thread on the top...and ideally white on the bottom.  But since my sewing isn't super straight I was worried the white stitching on the back would look glaringly crooked.  I opted for tan thread on the back, white on the top...hoping it wouldn't be too obvious if my tension wasn't perfect.  So....I'm fine with how it looks but next time I want to think about the thread on the back before I buy the backing.

3.  It's fun to put a little Star Wars into the quilt.  I wasn't sure about doing this -- and hope that the little yoga faces won't scare the baby!  But I am glad I threw them in there and now the older kids can enjoy the "Star Wars blanket" like Tanner did.

So that was really wordy.  Not sure if it makes sense to any of you reading this...Allyson and Karen.  (:

I am linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and to GoGo Kim's Sewjo Saturday.

Plus Quilt

I finished binding this quilt today. It is one from Camille Roskelley's book "Simplify".  I used a Jelly Roll by American Jane -- School Days.  Although this has pretty simple construction, all those little squares and rectangles took some time to sew together.  I started it more than a year ago, so I'm happy to have finished it!

Each quilt I make, I learn something new.  On this quilt I learned:

1.  I don't have perfect 1/4" seams -- oh, I already knew that.
2.  Pay attention to how white/cream a background is -- I picked out the backing and in the basement sewing room it looked fine.  When I brought it upstairs I saw that it was a much colder off-white (less yellow) than the front fabric.  Luckily, it's the back so not a big deal -- but it still kind of bugs me.
3.  Next time I want to take the time to "fussy cut" the cream/red binding so that the red lines go all the way around.  I thought about this but was too excited to just get it done.
4.  I love the dot-to-dot fabric in this one -- it takes me back to my younger years!

So here it is!  Yay!  I am linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Small Scraps

All the sewing I had time for this weekend were putting together a couple of bookmarks.  It was my Sister-in-laws birthday, so I snuck down to sew a couple bookmarks to add to her gift.  This is a good little project for teeny little scraps.  I am linking up to Sewjo Saturday.

Spring Break Review

For Spring Break this year we headed down to the Phoenix, Arizona area.  I haven't been there since a quick trip for a wedding back in 1995 (or 96?)  And Brian went for a quick trip to watch his team (the Utes) in the Fiesta Bowl in 2005.  The weather was even hotter than I expected, since it's only April!  90's most days, topping out at 100 on Easter Sunday.  Perfect for swimming, but it's good we didn't go in the Summertime -- I wouldn't have left the hotel room.

On the way down to Phoenix we went to the Grand Canyon.  I have never been, and it was awesome.  It really is incredible to see it in person -- the vastness and the colors are breathtaking.  The boys liked it too.  Andrew enjoyed taking several pictures of the canyon on his 3DS.  Eric did much of a "Junior Ranger" activity booklet.  And Tanner enjoyed running around and jumping off rocks.  We took a .4 mile hike into the canyon, which was fun to do, even if it was pretty short!  Tanner still randomly cracks up and shouts "Donkey Poop!" a couple times a day.  (We saw some from the Mules that go down the trail.)

The boys wanted to swim every day.  The place had a great pool, and also had a splash pad and a kiddie pool which Tanner loved.

As mentioned in my last post, we went to an outdoor barbeque featuring some amateur bull riding.  I had high hopes, but was a little disappointed -- lots of waiting for a few seconds of bull riding.  But the boys enjoyed the show most of the time.  

One morning we went to the Railroad Park.  It had a miniature train that went around the park, a carousel, and a few playgrounds.  Also, a train museum where you walked through a train car.  It was interesting and the boys enjoyed the playgrounds.  The train car is a "Pullman" -- so even though it's spelled differently, I had to take a picture of my Poelman standing beside it.

We also spent an hour or so in Old Scottsdale -- it is much like other tourist towns like Park City, Jackson, etc -- with stores and restaurants and art.  Probably better suited for those who like to shop (rather than little boys who just want to buy candy.)  But here they are in front of a giant head statue.

One favorite part of the vacation was visiting some old friends.  Brian has a friend, Phillip, who he has been friends with since Jr. High.  I've always been impressed because Phillip calls Brian on his birthday every year.  Who is that thoughtful after 20 years of not living in the same town?  Not many.  Anyway, it was nice to meet him, his wife and their 3 girls.

After that we went over to my friends' house -- Amy was my roommate in college.  It was her wedding I went to in Mesa back in 1996.  And now, NINE children later -- Amy and Matt are as cute as ever.  The boys had a great time -- despite the fact that the youngest 7 kids are girls. :)  And here is a picture of Amy and her daughter.  Such a great family.

On Easter we found a chapel near the Mesa Temple to attend church.  Afterward we went over to the Mesa Temple to enjoy the beautiful flowers and watch some fun family films in the Visitors Center.  It was a good way to focus more on the Savior and the hope his Resurrection can bring to all of us.

So that's it!  We survived a long one-day drive home and are back in school and routine.  Hope you all had a great Spring Break too -- and Happy Easter!

A quick hello

Just a quick post -- we are on vacation, heading home tomorrow.  But since I intentionally brought a little project along with me so I could link to "Sewjo Saturday," I thought I'd better do it!  It's not an actual quilt, but a cross stitch project of a quilt block.  I have been watching this stitch along and think it's so cute.  So I pulled out my old stuff....it's been a long time!  It was perfect for our long drive.  It sure reminded me how long cross stitching takes!  I only managed to almost finish one block.  It didn't help that I messed up near the beginning and need to do some unpicking.  Argh.

 

And just for fun, here's a picture of the boys at a bull riding show we went to.  Tanner fell asleep on the way so he's a little dazed.  :)  More on the vacation later.  Oh, and Happy Easter!  It's been kind of mellow here without family!  Hope you all had a great day.