Beautiful Bride

This beautiful bride is the daughter of a dear friend and what has kept me from my projects the last 2-weeks. Jennifer lives in Hawaii and fitting her gown was a bit of a challenge with the distance. With her arrival home on the 4th, it has been a blur of alterations and adjustments. That and a weekend trip to Bakersfield to visit with my uncle and aunt. More on that here. 4am Friday morning found me putting the final stitch in and me hitting the sack for a two hour nap before final preparations for the 11 am wedding. This project was a learning experience in many ways as it had me doing things I'd never done before. Finding a modest pattern was impossible so that was my first alteration. Then there was the plus size issue, patterns in her size were tough to come by. Defiantly a market that is being missed. With her mother's help and four attempts we finally got a beautiful, modest fit. I did think we should have put an organdy overlay on the skirt but with the time constraints we had to let that pass. And how about that groom, does he looked pleased or what!

Even More Stars

Did not finish my wonky houses as I had hoped but I did get the rest of the star blocks assemble from AmandaJean's Block of the week. Now I am on to finishing the top assembly. Took a side trip from sewing this week and broke out the crochet hooks. Don't recall where the pattern came from but I absolutely love these pot holders. I have a set that I have used for the last 15-years and look as good today as they did way back then. They are also nice and thick so when my friend Kelly was saying she needed some good potholders I knew they were just the thing to give her for her birthday on Friday. She loved them.

More Stars

Worked on a couple more star blocks today as well as started putting together the blocks. Still a bit more to do but I am pooped and calling it a day.

Seeing Stars

AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts has a tutorial/ star quilt along on her blog that I've wanted to do since I first saw it. I recently purchased a set of 10 fat quarters (exclusively Quilters) to use in a quilt for a friend that is getting married and thought this a great opportunity to try out AmandaJean's tutorial. Using this finished top as inspiration I was able to complete the first 7 in the series today. I have started adding the boarders to these blocks and am hopeful that my fat quarters will hold out to allow me to complete at least 9 of the 13 blocks but it will be close. When I purchased these fabrics it was the last the shop had and I've been unsuccessful in my online searches to find more of it. I think if I throw in some solids it just might do the trick.

Wonky Houses

I could not resist doing Jenny's Wonky Houses and have blocks 2,3 and 4 complete and 1 on it's way.

A Little Home Makeover & Ivy's Quilt

It has been a super busy two weeks. Now that the work on our roof and ceilings is complete I have been painting each room. The girl's room came first as I needed to get them moved back in. They got a lovely soft shade of pink (Shermin William's "Romance") after having had white before. The bathroom came next but was mostly just touch ups from when I painted it last winter. Painting the new ceiling was the main task there. Then I moved on to the living room this last Monday and after priming the sage green that was there originally this is what we have now: Shermin William's "Blonde" Wasn't quite sure I liked it at first but now that the photos are back on the walls I am loving it. Now I am on to stripping wallpaper from the dining room/Kitchen and then these rooms will also have their coat of paint. Then the new carpet can go in. In the middle of all this home makeover I was able to get Ivy's Quilt back from the quilter and the binding put on. She is thrilled with it and loves to snuggle in it.

The Buffet and Fowl Play

I am so loving these stitcheries from Willowberry. I am looking forward to seeing the end result at the close of the year. Was able to complete April and May's this week. Now I am working on "The Wonkey Houses".