Tension Headache!!

As I quilt my Ghastiles Quilt, I think I have spent more time with my seam ripper than doing the actual quilting. Any clue why my machine keeps doing this to me? Ugh!

Positively Ghastly!

My blog title today is intended for many different reasons...
#1 ...it has been a ridiculously long amount of time since I have blogged! I am so sorry to all of you, I know you have been on the edge of your seats to see what is going on in my crafty little corner of the world. :)
#2 ...I am finishing up my final semester for my undergrad degree...and meeting with advisers on which route to take for my Master's degree. Why am I doing this? I think I am a little bit mad, wanting to put myself through even more school after this has taken me nearly 10 years to finish. I am weighing my options: Early Childhood Special Education, Counseling/School Psychology or maybe Cognition, Learning, and Development. This last one is most interesting to me. Recently in my preschool classroom I have had a few students that have expressed some sad feelings, unhappiness, stress etc. I would love to get an understanding of education and child psychology...someday work with families to help troubled children/naughty behaviors. Let's face it the "naughty kids" are the most rewarding to work with.

#3...my Ghastlies Quilt is FINALLY being quilted. It WILL be done and on my couch by October 1st!

I am experimenting with my straight line quilting. Here I used a walking foot, which I do not have the patience for. Plus it is too hard to turn with this bulky quilt.
So I have tried free motion straight line quilting. Here is the first square I did. These are not "straight" lines. I think this block of quilting will have a date with my seam ripper soon.

I did a bit better on this block, the sideways lines are the hardest to keep straight and an even distance apart. I think I like this method of free motion straight line quilting is better. It is much faster, and a little wonky, like my blocks on the quilt.

I can't wait to finish this guy up. The back of my quilt is great, I love it and really want to show you how awesome it is. It took some careful calculations to work with what little fabric I had on hand, and a lot of help from my very smart husband. Stay tuned. I promise I will report back soon. :)

Up and Running Again

This weekend my husband and I participated in our first 5k. The first of many to come I am sure, I loved it! I set a goal to finish in under 30 minutes and succeeded. Lee runs faster than me, but was kind enough to stay at my pace and push me along. I never told him what my goal was, which incidentally enough was his goal as well. He encouraged me to run faster, when I really didn't want to run any longer. The thing that kept me going was running with others around me, and running for a purpose. The 5k raised money for our local Relay For Life, as well as money to help out a local teacher whose cancer has returned.
Here we are after the race, hot and sweaty. :)

My post title has to do with more than running. My cousin came by this week to have me help her make a towel wrap for her new sorority "baby" in Alpha Phi at UNL. She and I made a trip to JoAnn's for materials and put together this fun little wrap for the incoming freshman to use.

I loved picking out the colors and materials and spending time with my little cousin. This towel wrap took very little time, although it was not so kind to my machine when it came time to add the Velcro (I broke 2 needles!).
Spending time at the sewing machine has released my creative juices once again and I am working on another new project. Which means I have way to many things  started and not being finished. Isn't that a true quilter though, WIPs always outweigh finished quilts. :) So this girl is up and running once again. I'm excited to get back into quilting and to prepare for the Color Run I'm doing this July in Omaha.

*sorry for the bad photo quality, one was taken with a phone, the other at 11pm

Have Quilt, Will Travel

Remember my cousins quilt, the one with her shirts from cheerleading and dance. You know the one I've been working on for over a year. Well I'm hand quilting it...and it is much harder than I thought it would be! 
I think our ancestors who quilted for generations would cringe at my stitches and technique. I'm not using a thimble, which hurts! And I am only just finishing my first block...of twelve needing to be quilted. I'm thinking straight line stitching this with my free motion foot on the machine would have been better. I will not give up though, so I'm going to push through. Wish me luck!

Hippie Babies

It has been WAY too long since I last posted, sorry friends. I have been enjoying the freedom of no school work and have been busy reading books for leisure rather than quilting. I plan to jump back into quilting this week, I have a quilt on my design wall that needs to get down and basted, and another couple of quilts swirling around in my head. :)

Back in April I finished up these twin quilts for my neighbors' boys, they turned out great! I quilted them with random straight lines and I love how the quilting adds to the simplicity of the quilts. I wanted to do an 'I Spy' feel to their quilts using some of the fabrics from my stash, and I wanted them to be similar but different. I love how they turned out! The binding fabric is a polka dot, which has many colors that match the block alphabet fabric on the back. When Lee and I took the quilts over to the family, the big sisters decided to cuddle up with them too. I'm glad they can get some use when the boys are laying on them.

The boys' parents are huge Jack Johnson fans, so I named the quilts after Jack Johnson songs. This one here is for baby Max, the quilt is called "Banana Pancakes." I used alphabet block fabric for the backs of the quilts and was able to piece together the letters to have each boy's name on the front.

This quilt is baby Jack's, named "Better Together." I choose these song titles because they were both songs of love, and who can't love these wonderful baby boys.

What I loved the most about these quilts was how grateful our neighbors were to receive them. A few weeks ago Lee and I got a text from them saying how much they enjoy the quilts and how thoughtful it was for me to make them. It made my day to hear their kind words, and I hope all the babies I've made quilts for are able to enjoy them as they grow into amazing little people.

Giving the Left Brain a Break

The semester is coming to an end. All my assignments are in, and with 3 exams in 2 weeks I have decided to give my left brain a rest. My right hemisphere has taken over for the time being, and it feel great! I am finishing up two baby quilts for my neighbors' twin boys. Hopefully I will have pictures posted soon of the completed twin quilts.

I'm Still Here

Wow, time is flying by so quickly! This semester has kept me very busy, and with limited time to be creative. Classes have sucked up a lot of my free time, and exercise has taken up most of the rest. Not to mention we basically skipped winter/spring in Southeastern Nebraska and have quickly jumped into summer...in March! My last post of Lee and I making the snowman in the front of the house, well that was the end of our winter. Needless to say I have been enjoying the weather on walks/runs with Penny and riding my bike to and from class/work.
It has taken me 27 years but I am finally in love with exercise! In the last six months I have lost 35 pounds and am the most healthy I have been my whole life. The most use my sewing machine has gotten lately is to take in my clothes, none of my old wardrobe fits anymore! For those of you that hate exercise but want to loose weight, give it a try. Try new things, join a gym with group exercise classes and try a few out, you may surprise yourself. The Y has great exercise classes that keep you motivated and that allow you to challenge yourself at your own pace. I absolutely love kickboxing, I get out all my stress and aggression by punching heavy bags 2 days a week. I also love running now, something I NEVER thought would happen! Working out for an hour 6 days a week has been great for my stress and energy levels and I have such a happier outlook on life, gotta love the endorphins! For those of you that don't already, try getting in a bit of "me time" by doing exercise, once you start the habit, you will never give it up. :)

As I said, I haven't had much time for crafts and quilting. I slowly managed to finish my cousins T-Shirt quilt top and back, with a bit of a measurement issue along the way. I was off by a small fraction of an inch on my squares I cut for the pieced blocks on the cheerleading side of her quilt. This fraction of an inch caused the blocks to be 1/2" too big. Rather than taking all the blocks apart and piecing them back together I just trimmed them down...the squares along the outside of these blocks are smaller than those in the middle, but I know Nicolette won't mind. I am a prefectionist, so this flaw is testing my urge to start over, it has also made me realize not everything can be perfect.
Today I am basting her quilt. I decided I am going to hand quilt this one. I have an idea for the quilting and it is going to be way too much work to do it by machine. Since I pieced both the back and front of this quilt I have to try and line the blocks up while basting. Rather than start pinning in the middle and moving outwards I am starting on one end and smoothing and pulling it in line as I go. Hopefully this works, everything is a learning process.
Speaking of learning....I signed up for my last semester in my undergrad program this week! It has taken ten years, but I will finally have a bachelor's degree next December! Then it is on to my master's. :) There is no rest for this girl!

How have all of you been? Hopefully everyone is enjoying beautiful weather like those of us in the mid-west, yesterday it was 91 degrees! I hope to get in more quilting and blogging time, but the semester is coming to an end, luckily I have the whole summer to quilt. Happy Spring everyone!