changing directions

Just to be sewing something new i started 9 patch blocks a week or so ago. My plan was to make them into a quilt for a friend who has had surgery recently... simple 9 patch blocks with some sashing.. batta boom, batta bing, i have a quilt.  but... as usual my plans change.

I'm using my 2 1/2 in squares or cutting from my stacks of scraps for the 9 patch blocks and its totally scrappy (no matchy matchy for me) I do try to match the 9 patches but i have everything from hot pink and black to baby blue and purple in the 9 patches.

I love the scrapiness of the original idea, but, its too simple and plain to be that scrappy... does that make sense? I want to scrap it up a bit more. So i think I'm going to be taking the 9 patches and making them the center of stars. so some scrappy points with a background fabric in something other than white then a scrappy corner block of some sort.. hmm...  i will have to play with it.

 I also have a TON of 2 1/2 in squares that are red yellow and blue, (and even more small pieces that i can cut into squares) i think i will make a bunch of those into 9 patches and make the original quilt that i had planned... still scrappy but tied together with the color scheme so that makes it ok that its that simple.... maybe a corner block that ties it together even more.... so does this mean im starting ANOTHER project... hmm have to finish a few before i start that one.

What have i finished this week????

Ally's Dress:

When her mom brought her into the store in it i just squealed. With the big red daisy and her big blue eyes... she was absolutely beautiful!

I Love Sophie...

ok, so i haven't hand sewn the binding down, i plan on finishing that today and tomorrow at work during the slow times... but I do have it quilted and the binding attached.


The other finish soon progress:

bathmat - no progress, its buried under a pile of fabric right now!

kegan's quilt (heard from his dad, still no baby yet... but he and his gf are planning on moving to Texas in the next year. They are currently in Alaska. The army owes both of them a move and it will take some paperwork to get that done, but as soon as they can they are coming home. I asked how many "they" are.... (we haven't met his gf yet and i knew she had some kids before Jess) and he said 2 adults and 4 or 5 children! akk... i have more quilts to make for our growing family!! He wants to build a house on the ranch so they will be close and it will be more kids we get to spend time with! I'm so happy and i hope he really moves home this time!) - but... i did put what i have done up on my design wall and tomorrow i will finish piecing the flimsy. I think i just have 5 strips to sew together yet!

Jonathan's Camo: still sitting in the neat pile on the extra chair in the dining room waiting for me to pin it.

Dallas HST - Ive been trimming these suckers... and have decided this will be the layout.

I don't know what it is but i have been more tired than usual and i haven't been spending as much time sewing. Sunday i took a 4 hour nap instead of sewing!

Wedding Progress:

Ralph's friend has agreed to marry us. He is an ordained methodist preacher who doesn't have a church (he is a postmaster instead) Ralph married him and his first wife a long time ago (ralph used to be an ordained preacher) and now Richard is going to marry us!

The bridesmaid dresses. Am i crazy... i want to make them? We picked out this dress which has the colors but i really wasn't in love with it. I just dont think it would look good on everyone.

Source: jcpenney.com via Tamara on Pinterest

but if i made 5 using this pattern:

Source: simplicity.com via Tamara on Pinterest

and these 5 fabrics:

 

oh boy gotta run.... linking up to freshly pieced work in progress wedensday. Go check out some other great progress!

of course it was a quilt that inspired the colors of the wedding!

Source: etsy.com via Tamara on Pinterest

To give credit... the quilt is for sale on etsy and the seller is kelbysews. BUT when i checked the listing today she has taken it down and says she is moving. Hopefully she will have it back up for sale soon because it is a beautiful quilt!

Anyways, this is the inspiration. I love the blues, teals, light blues and light greens. It is all over the place as "sea glass" inspired. Sea glass, however beautiful doesn't really inspire me because well, we live 200 miles inland and it is not a beach wedding! however i then saw this.....

Source: google.com via Tamara on Pinterest

The photo is by One Girl Photo and her website is www.onegirlphotography.com

I cant afford the blue jars but i am definitely using the hydrangeas and the jars... The reception will be after dark so i also plan to make ball jar candle lanterns for everywhere. And I'm calling it sophisticated country. Why sophisticated country? One from somewhere other than East Texas might think that its just plain ole country, or simplistic country... well its sophisticated because camo weddings are all the rage here and THAT is country for this part of the world... we're going a bit more sophisticated than that! lol.

We reserved the church yesterday. We are going to get married at McMahon Chapel which is the oldest protestant church in Texas. It is beautiful inside. Ralph is a HUGE history buff so the history behind the church makes it special. It was a Methodist community formed before Texas got its Independence. The creepy side is that founder is actually buried under the pulpit. This is the third church built in this spot, each time they are careful not to disturb his grave... ok... creepy... wont think about that while I'm getting married.

Source: toledo-bend.com via Tamara on Pinterest

Ok... yall might get tired of hearing about the wedding... sorry... I'm preoccupied with it right now.

On the quilting side... a friend just had surgery. I'm trying to finish up a 9 patch quilt for her in the next week! Pictures to come.

work in progress wednesday

I'm getting MARRIED! yep... i said yes! It was cute he even got down on one knee to ask. We have been living together for 2 years now but we are officially going to get married on July 7th. Its kinda scary.. i never thought id want to get married.. but i do.. its just so exciting.

Now he is going around asking EVERYONE for their address to mail an invitation to! lol... one woman he asked, it was her first visit to our restaurant, we didn't know her from Adam! I admit she was cool and nice but seriously is she going to show up to our wedding??? We do want to have a small ceremony and then a big reception/party at our house and we decided we were going to invite alot of our customers.. lol.. but i meant the regulars, not every other one that showed up to buy a pizza! I'm laughing as i write this. The one thing Ralph has taught me is to not sweat the small stuff. I cant control his crazy antics anymore than i can control the moon or the stars... so i just have to laugh and figure it will all be OK... hes cute collecting addresses though.

I cant believe it but i bought a dress at a yard sale!! I was at a church yard sale and as i was paying for the books i found, i looked up and they had a really pretty dress hanging there... i knew it would fit when i looked at it so i tried it on and i now own a big fluffy wedding gown for only 30 bucks! It needs to be taken in at the hips and hemmed... but i have someone who can do that for me. This is my first wedding so i wanted the big fluffy dress... but i didn't want to pay for a big fluffy dress. This works perfect! I'm sure you will see plenty of pics of my dress in the future!

but on to quilting......

yeah! my quilting mojo is back!! I spent some time in the sewing room this past week... bout darn time. I found out what it took... FABRIC!!

I have bought fabric online, at my local quilt shop and at walmarts, i still have about 30 bucks i can spend on fabric but i have to find a quilt store that takes paypal online to use it. but ohhhhh i love fabric! all the pretty colors... sigh... i love fabric!

the bottom fabric is for sundress #2 for ally!

I started and finished a cute little sundress for grand baby Ally this past week. It was my first attempt at clothing since i started sewing again. So... the last button hole i made was at least 20 years ago. But for my first attempt it didn't turn out bad! I am still waiting for her mama to take a pic of her in the dress to post. I also started this...

I'm excited about the clothes thing. I have two more sundresses planned for ally and a few for grand baby Sophie. I would love to make some work shirts for me too!!


so... i plan to finish these two this weekend:

I love Sophie: She is more than a month old! i really need to finish it. I pinned and quilted it last week and will get the binding on this weekend!

Johnathan Camo: This is by far the ugliest quilt i have ever made. It was inspired by camo and uses 4 inch strips of brown and green fabrics. The front is denim, back is the camo. I have the batting now to finish it... will hopefully work on that this weekend. Jonathan is Ally's daddy. I told him its the perfect blanket to keep in the truck for when they go fishing or he wants to take Caty on a picnic. lol... it really is a truck quilt because if i was Caty i wouldn't want it in my house (although she does put up with other camo things in her house, which i wouldn't!)

Bathmat: I need one more sashing on it and some borders then i can quilt it up. I'm determined to finish it this weekend!

Waiting for batting:
travis' star - big star using plaids
jess' hst - its a denim with diamond flannel hsts
Lucille's Trip Around the World -  I found the perfect backing material for the quilt top Ralph's mother made. Its very bright and summery so I'm going to finish this one soon.

Almost ready for batting:
Trevor's paw paw kisses - need to finish borders
Landon's paw paw kisses- need to finish borders
Kegan's zig zag - about 4 more rows to sew on

I pulled out and put up on the design wall so i could get some new perspective on what to work on next:
Dallas' hst - we kept Dallas' quilt since she didn't come for Christmas! (lonesome dove) I have a mess of hst's i made with white and bright fabrics that was going to be for Adrianna (but since her and Coleman are getting a divorce, i think i will skip making her one!) I am going to use these for a quilt for Dallas. Ive started squaring up the hst blocks.
Orange Crush - I'm still in love with orange right now so i have bought some new fabrics to finish cutting for my orange crush (broken dishes)
Lovely little windows - I have a bunch of squares made and this is what i work on when i want some mindless sewing. Its a 3 1/2 in white square with 1 1/2 in squares as sashing... i am love love loving it and i think i will make some more progress on this one. I need 576 different squares (i put two sides of sashing on them) and i have about 50!!!
Stephanie's 9 patch - ummm... well yes i started a new quilt!!! guilty! Stephanie is a horseshoeing customer and i wanted to make an easy quilt for her using some of Lydia's shirt... I'm going with 9 patch blocks from 2 1/2 in squares. I'm going to put sashing between them and there you have it. I made 10 of the 9 patches this past week.
Sandy's kaleidoscope - I'm making it out of strings and i seem to have a ton of strings lately... so pulled this one out to mindlessly sew strings together.
My shabby stripes - I have so many striped shirts, Ive started cutting for my own shabby stripes... i loved the one i made Sharon so much!

This is Sharon's shabby stripes.

I made it using striped shirts i have bought at yard sales.

still waiting for some attention:
Harley's shabby stars - need more striped scraps... I'm making plenty with my shabby stripes.
Faith's Flower Garden - just not inspired.... sometime i will be.

In the back of my mind and i am sooo tempted to start:
Lea's Seashore - Lea loves teal... another color I'm crushing on right now... i have an idea for a quilt for her and I'm collecting teals now.
Carolyn's Vintage Flower Garden - Caty's bio mama said what she liked best about my quilts was the vintage sheets on the back and how soft they were. I have enough sheets and scraps that i can make a whole quilt out of them so I'm planning one for her.
The Maroon Sheets -  our favorite set of sheets have been retired to my sewing room. I'm going to make us a quilt using it and some brown and tans i bought recently. (same pattern as the bathmat but with bigger pieces)

Backing sheets. The two yellows and greens will go on the back of Lucille's quilt. The bottom flower i used on the back of Sophie's. The scraps will go in Carolyn's!

Im linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced... be sure to go check out other beautiful works in progress!