Blu D PITA finished!

Hey everybody,

I'm so excited to be back! As you could read from the title of today's blog I finally finished the first blue&white quilt. I was done with it a few days ago, just when we got about 12" of snow, but by the time I've hand sewn the binding on the snow was melting. I mean, what was I expecting in March, right?

Today was the perfect Spring day when I could go outside and shoot some nice photos.

So I  named the quilt Blu D PITA because it's blue and white (obviously) and it was a pain in the behind to quilt. As most of you  know it's from last year's Craftsy BOM class with Amy Gibson which was a really fun class to take. If you're not familiar with Craftsy you must check it out! Tons of great classes to offer in quilting and other exciting subjects. 

In class throughout the year we made 20 blocks  which I divided up to make 2 quilts. I figured it'll be 9 blocks each and I kept 2 of them for a later project (which I have no idea what will be). I special ordered some nice cotton thread for the quilting from Connecting Threads (which were really cheap btw. around $2.50 a spool) and used that for the free motion quilting. The design came from Leah  Day's also Craftsy class called Free Motion Quilting a Sampler. Which I have to mention is the very last class on the bottom of the quilting classes  page, so don't panic if you can't find it!

I was very nervous to start because I've never stitched the designs She was using. I quilted in the ditch around each block with Aurifil monofilament (invisible) thread on the top and an Aurifil 50wt gray on the bottom. I used my  newer singer machine for that which now I only use for piecing. Since I have a double layer of poly batting in the quilt (I like it poofy) I had to wrestle the quilt through the machine bed which I later realized resulted in a very wrinkled sashing. Which didn't help me with the sashing quilting later. That was the reason for the PITA part :)) I custom quilted each block with a different design, that's the reason for the separate pictures for each and every one of them.

Anyways, I'm really glad it's finished and out of my way and could work  on the second one which is much easier since I started it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way, too.  Now I  can cross  this out from my 1st Quarter FAL list.

I feel like I talked to much, so I'll just paste the photos for your enjoyment!

Front (inside of our bedroom):

Back (no, there's no label on it since I don't have PFD fabric to print on):

In the front yard:

And the blocks one-by-one:

And a little Spring at the end:

 Hope you liked them as much as I had much fun making the quilt.

'Til we blog again! :)

Double wedding ring mat finished!

Presenting my first finish for the First Quarter FAL 2013:

I started this project on May 2nd, 2012. Listed it in several FAL posts, but somehow it always got overlooked. Do you remember what it looked like?

It's a little wobbly because I used my less quality fabrics and I believe the white was a sheet from my friend. I knew I will not make a whole quilt out of it, just wanted to try what it looked like if I strip pieced the fabrics and used the large curved templates as opposed to cut out the individual patches one-by-one. It doesn't look bad, but will try the patches anyway.

As some of you know I signed up for Leah Day's class Free Motion quilting a sampler on Craftsy with the intention of getting an idea of how to quilt my  blue and white baby quilts. She  had these  3  patterns I liked and wanted to practice so that's what I decided to use.

So here are the finished pictures after washing:

Close-up paisley ring:

Close-up paisley stitching:

Close-up  ring crossing pattern:

Close-up smaller paisley:

Close-up swirls:

That's all for now, I'm in the process of deciding what pattern to use on the blue-white baby quilts. Stay tuned! :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Basting done, Nemo pictures

Hi  Everyone,

I've been away from the blog because I don't have much quilting progress to report. Except that I'm still on Easy Street, have all my patches done and finished sewing all my "B" blocks together. I  still have to make 7 "A" blocks, and 3 set-in triangles. Sigh... I'll get it done eventually. Right now I decided to take a short break.

This weekend while we had Winter Storm Nemo howling through dumping 15 inches of snow on  us I finished basting my Baby Boy  Blue quilt tops. Yes, both of them! I only have phone pictures, but they'll have to do for now. By the time I was finished I ran out of safety pins. I'm not gonna say I had just enough because I could've used a few more for safety, but it's alright.

While I was basting the boyz were hanging out on the futon next to me. Guess what were they doing...

As some of you  know yesterday we went for a hike in the afternoon with a goal of taking some pictures of the sunset from the top of a hill that's about 3 miles from our house. It never occurred to me that the snow will be knee deep (we got 15 inches of it, hello?) and only had sweat pants and an ankle high pair of boots on with ankle socks. Clever, isn't it? By the time we got half way up the hill my ankle was frozen from all the snow and so was my shin. I just couldn't feel my legs! So we turned back and marched home defeated. I have to mention that it was almost 5:30 and we were late for the 5:23 sunset anyway. I saw no point of continuing.

We took the kitties outside this morning and have some pictures of them enjoying the snow too :)

Looking for trouble!

He's a nice size kitty and the snow is still above him

His Royalness is so serious!

Notice that he's sitting on TOP of the snow!

The 3 brothers from left to right: Grumpy, Gandalf, and Furry. They have the same mother as Sleepy.

Attention, the snowball is in the air! :)

In the afternoon we went out to the park to look around and decided to take the hike again with the modification of taking the car up  to the park and just climb the hill which was about half a mile long. I was still sore from yesterday and was really glad Fiance decided to drive there this time. I was still having a hard time trying to balance to step into his footsteps to get the least amount of snow in my boots as possible. It was fascinating that no one, but us were there since last night.

The ducks were having a blast at the park:

Someone went cross-country skiing:

The  view from top of the hill:

Cool ripples made by the wind:

Love the way the sky looks!

Now I think I'm done for the day :)

I'll be back with the questions answered part 2, but right now I can't even think straight.

'Til we blog again!

Some questions answered Part 1

Hi Everybody,

I'm happy you're here on this cold day (at least in the Northeast it is)!

I read a great blog post by Sandy and it was a real eye opener to see her answering those questions. Since most of us live in blog land and mostly blog about our quilting passion I thought it would be fun to answer these random questions. I know I'm the kind of person who is curious about other people and like to know what's going on with them. So maybe I'm doing it for me, or those who have the same personality as I do.

Now get ready, because it will be a rather long and text heavy blog post! I'm doing questions 1-5 right now.

1. List 20 random facts about yourself

1. I went to music school through 8th grade by the recommendation of my kindergarten teacher
2. I played the piano, recorder and clarinet in aforementioned school
3. I was in the school choir and went to places like Germany and Canada for contests
4. Won the spelling contest in 8th grade and as a reward I got to say the graduation speech
5. I have very good language skills and pick up languages very easily
6. My  now Fiance moved in with me the first day we met in person (over 12 years ago)
7. I did not speak any English when I came to the US 15 years ago
8. I prefer tea over coffee even though I started to drink coffee a few years ago, but still not friends with mocha flavored anything
9. I'm very good with numbers and could calculate in my head pretty quickly
10. I'm an organized person when I have enough room to put things away :)
11. I learned to embroider from our neighbor who was 18 and pregnant at the time and tried to make some extra money by selling her things. My Grandma has all my masterpieces :)
12. I used to knit sweaters when I was in middle- and high school, I did knitting for hire
13. I'm obsessed with log cabins :) My dream weekend is to go to a snowy part of the country in a log cabin, have fire in the fireplace and watch the snow falling outside
14. I also love snow :)
15. Never lived by myself, although I'm an independent person
16. I can change a flat tire :)
17. I am a procrastinator...  Always leave things to the last minute (bad  habit, I know!)
18. I'm a morning person rather than  being a night owl
19. I used to be a dog person until one of the cats we started to feed in the backyard had babies and abandoned them. THEN I became a rescue person and babied 2 of the kitties that were still alive, one of them only made it for 3 days :( The other one became one of the helper cats... Now I'm a dog AND a cat person :)
20. I haven't been on the Subway in New  York City by myself  :)

2. Describe 3 legitimate fears  you have and explain how they became fear

1. I'm afraid of the dark. My parents used to leave us alone with my sister on the weekends when they went out and because of that I was afraid of the dark. Still don't like to go on the street in the dark by myself. I used to stay up until I heard the key in the lock turning and knew they were home.  There were no babysitters in Hungary that time (talking about the '70-s)
2. Tornadoes. I used to babysit for an Indian family watching 2 kids. One of them were taking tennis lessons and one day while we were at tennis a category 2 tornado came through (Hawthorne, NY). I've never seen destruction like that in my life. The building next door collapsed. It was in July and we were stranded for several hours outside in the sun, no shade. Since then I'm terrified of tornadoes.
3. I have a fear of heights (which my Fiance says is rather a fear of depths). I'm getting better at it, but have that block inside me that says if I fell I'd be paralyzed. I think it comes from me being overweight through most of my adulthood and I know I can't hold my own weight when it comes to hanging off things. My arms are too weak.

3. Describe your relationship with your parents

Sooo..... I was always a Daddy's girl growing up. He used to travel for work quiet a lot and I was always eager to have him come home every time. I used to run to open the gate for him to pull in the driveway. My parents were fighting a lot and I think on the edge of divorce when He suddenly died at age 36 when I was 14, sister was 10. I was devastated and kind of lost for years. Somehow I never had a good relationship with my Mom, I never felt like She loves me. I always compared her to my friends' Moms and was expecting her to be like the others, and She never was. We're still distant in a way. When I finished high school I couldn't wait to go to work to be independent financially so I never went to college (which I highly regret now). I think my Mom was never the house wife type, She's not the best cook in the world and doesn't bake at all. I think because of this I'm trying to be the opposite (I bake a lot and somewhat  like to cook) Her being the way She was with me definitely shaped me into the person I am even though I still catch myself being like her sometimes. I'm always fighting with that part of me. Now I know She loves me, just in a different way. I'm still not sure if I could be with her under the same roof for a longer period of time. That lad me to leave everything behind when I was 25.

4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old yourself if you could

1. Listen to Mom, she always wants what's best for you
2. Spend more time on studying so you can go to college, work can wait!
3. McDonald's is not the coolest place to hang out...
4. Don't let your future boyfriend tell you what to do
5. Keep taking German lessons, it never hurts to speak more languages
6. Make your bed every day, you never know who's gonna drop by
7. Always clean up after yourself
8. Stop drinking diet soda, it doesn't do any good for you!
9. Go back to playing volley ball, you're good at it, doesn't matter if you're too short!
10. Sweets are not part of healthy eating :)

5. What are 5 things that make you most happy right now?

1. My virtual quilting friends
2. The sun is out
3. Our kitties
4. I have 3 days off!
5. Our heat is working and don't have to use electric space heaters to warm up the house... it's brutal cold outside!

There you have it! Next time I'll do  the next 5 questions that are on the list.

6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?
7. What is your dream job, and why?
8. What are 5 passions you have?
9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.
10. Describe your most embarrasing moment.
11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
14. Describe 5 strengths you have.
15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?
17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?
19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.
24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What is your love language?
29. What do you think people misundertand most about you?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

Hope you had fun and if you feel like playing along please leave a comment and leave  a link for your blog post so I can read your answers too! I'm always eager to learn about others! Thank you! :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Q1 Finish Along 2013 goals

Hey Everyone,

I'm happy you're back! 

I haven't been blogging in a while because I keep on marching through Easy Street. It's a long street to be strolling on, but I'm starting to see the end of the tunnel. I was stuck for a few days because I only have 1 kind of black&white fabric left and would need to make some patches with at least 2 kinds. Luckily I had my birthday this week and I got to order some fabrics from the Fatquarter Shop and hopefully they'll be here next week. Until then I keep working and managed to finish all the pieced triangles, and last night finally  all 9 block "B"-s! I have to say some of them gave me a hard time because I had to pay very close attention to which way  the patches go and the first block was ripped and ripped again maybe 3x by the time I got it right. AND by block #6 I realized I had to re-trim all my 4 patches because they  were a hair too big and I had to do a lot of easing while I was putting the blocks together. Now the last 3 was a lot easier to finish. All those things I can remember in case I want to make another one which may or may not happen in the future.

I also started to look through my quilting books and got inspired by 101 Fabulous Rotary Cut Quilts by Judy Hopkins and Nancy J. Martin. It's an older book, but the patterns moved me in a way I haven't been moved in a while. It'll be time to scan my newer fabrics and play along in EQ soon. Which takes me to...

As I was reminded on Twitter today is the last day to link up your goals to the First Quarter Finish Along hosted by  She Can Quilt. She has some wonderful stuff to finish and I can't wait to see her end results! If it's not too late  you should join us.  She has some cool sponsors and prices to give away at the end.

My list  is gonna be very long, but I was thinking to put everything I have out so I have all my UFO-s/VIP-s in one place, so just bare with me!

Chocolate pink monkey quilt:

Plain squares (the kitties are fighting over this one already)

Double wedding ring top for kitties

'N Blu

Craftsy "D"

Easy Street corner triangles are all done:

Set-in triangles all done:

Block "B"-s all done:

Some block "A"-s:

And the rest lined up, ready to sew:

Tote bag with no handles

I think I'll need to do an inventory of how much batting I have on hand. I have a feeling it's not gonna be enough for all the tops I have lined up. I decided to use wool batting on the Easy Street quilt since it's for me and I'd like it to be puffy. Might throw in a cotton batt also for good measure :)

Oh, if  only I could have at least 48 hours a day that would be grand! :))) I  have so many ideas in my head and I haven't even sat down to play with the computer designs. That's life, right?

Finally 2 bonus pictures of our babies:

Sleepy in one of his favorite drawers enjoying "nature"

Smoky

'Til we blog again! :)