What I have and have not been working on.

I had big quilting plans for last week. I started this whirlygiggle quilt from the pattern that I won from Camille's blog. I had also planned on starting my blocks for my next quilt exchange. I may have mentioned before that a group of us from my old neighborhood used to quilt together. Of the 15 or so of us only two still live in that neighborhood, but we've been able to continue to do block exchanges. This time we are planning on doing a blue and cream quilt. I still need more blues, but this is the fabric I'm using. Those two plans got put away when we bought bunk beds for my boys. We had been looking and looking for a few months now and finally found some we liked and that were sturdy. I already made Caleb's quilt but hadn't even started Jake's because he was still in a crib. My other projects of the week were put away to get moving on his quilt. I figured it wouldn't take too long to do since it's so easy...... Several weeks ago I was asked to teach a block of the month quilt for my church. We had planned on one quilt where everyone chose their own patterns, but people wanted to do it who had never quilted before so we decided to do a quilting basics class. Tuesday was when we scrapped the other quilt ( no pun intended) and I started planning the new one. I want to start very basic and each month get a little bit harder.

Another surprise came yesterday morning as we were getting ready for church. My husband was getting breakfast for my boys while I showered. When I was done the hot water would not turn off. I gave it a strong turn and it went off. I didn't think much about it at first until Jeff came down about 20 minutes later and the water was still running. He couldn't get it off at all! So, while I took my kids to church Jeff stayed home turning off the water to the house and trying to figure out the problem. He was able to get there only a little late, but we now only have cold water. My kitchen is stacked with dirty dishes, nobody has showered or bathed. And laundry is (ok, already was) stacked to the ceiling. So once the problem is fixed I have a lot of cleaning to do before I can get too far on quilting. Wish us luck... and hot water!

Also, I did get this blog award from Anna. Thanks so much!

Football fever is half done!

I finished Caleb's football quilt! Yeah! I have admit I don't love the quilt. We're just not big football fans. But it's nice to have something with a little more color. The quilt he has had on his bed is the first quilt I ever made and it's not very well done. And it's blue and tan. I needed something with a little more color in the boy's room. I also wanted something that wasn't little, little kid looking that could be age appropriate for a long time. They have tan carpet and tan walls. I am going to paint the walls though. Or, I may switch them to a different bedroom that has blue carpet and yellow walls. Yes, we've been in our house for almost 2 months and no I have not painted a thing. It's time as I'm sick of their very blah room.
Here's an up close picture of the football players. One down, one to go. Jake's is probably not going to have the borders that Caleb's has. I bought a blue border just like the red for Jake, but since Caleb's turned out so huge (slightly bigger than a full) I will probably piece the large footballs and the blue border and use them for the back.
Here's a picture of the fabric I used for the back. I let Caleb choose what he wanted and he chose this robot flannel. Football and robots. I think I have enough to make him matching pj bottoms!

The quilt that keeps going, and going, and going..........

A few days ago I made this little dish towel. I need a few more Halloween decorations and thought this would be quick and easy. On another note..... don't you love almond appliances? Welcome to the 80's.
Today I've been working on quilting Caleb's football quilt. When I bought the kit at American Quilting it said it was 60x84. I knew it was close to a twin, but not quite. I asked the girl working what size a twin quilt was and she told me 86x102. Well.... that sounded kind of big, but I figured she was the professional and knew what she was doing. The quilt at the store and also the kit did not have boarders so I added some making them the bigger size. I bought enough backing for a twin size quilt. I layed it out and ummmmm..... what happened to my twin quilt? It's now a full, or so I thought. I bought some more backing. I'm planning on getting the boys bunk beds when Jake is out of a crib so I figured the quilt will probably be tucked in on the sides. Well.... I bought enough batting for two full size quilts. One for Jake and one for Caleb. I just added some of Jake's to Caleb's. I'm not going to do the boarders on Jake's unless I need to add just a tiny bit to make it fit a twin so I figured I should still have enough, but as I'm quilting this thing I feel like it keeps going and going. There is no end to this thing. Actually, I only have the bottom boarder left to quilt, but needed to make a phone call before I forgot and then ended up adding this post. Tonight I'll be binding.
Here's my Pfaff. This is machine I do my quilting on. I use my Bernina for piecing. I really do not like the Pfaff. I know some people love them, but mine is only 2 years old and I just hate it. It does not keep the tension so I am constantly having to adjust it. It's just really finicky. Are all Pfaffs like this or did I just get a lemon?

Football Fever

It's football fever at my house as I'm finishing Caleb's football quilt. I need to quilt it, but my frame is not set up yet in this house. Hopefully this week sometime so I can take it to the quilt show. Also, our camera is broken and beyond repair. Not sure what happened, so until we can get a replacement here is an online picture of the football fabric. As I mentioned before, we are not football fans. In fact, I have no idea who won the Super Bowl this year or even who was playing. Also, I really don't care. It's hard to find boy fabric. Blue or brown fabric is easy to find, but it's hard to find that doesn't have some type of flowers on it so we settled for football. I have about 10 inch blocks of this football fabric with 4 patches in between. For Caleb's I have a red border with white dots and Jake's is blue with white dots. This big football fabric is the outer border. I let Caleb pick the backing on his quilt. He wanted flannel so it was soft. He chose a Robot print. Welll..... the colors are similar and it's on the back so I let him get it.

Here's the outer border.

This is my next project. I had planned on making a new quilt for our bed with this fabric, but when I saw it all I went crazy and bought a layer cake and this pattern instead. I may do it before I start Jake's quilt. He's still in a crib and can't use it anyway. Caleb was in a bed long before this age, but Jake would leave. As soon as he heard us walk down the stairs he would get up and either play in his room or follow us. That's the type of little character he is. That is also why he'll be in a crib for a little while longer. Fortunatly he's also very short and is not tall enough to climb out of the crib. He's tried though.

I love everything about the Cotton Blossoms line. I can't wait to start this and the colors are not what I would usually choose so that's even better. I love doing something different and I love these colors. I can't for their next line to come out.

Did I just do that?

Yesterday I had a family reunion in Spanish Fork. I had a baby shower in Pleasant Grove 2 hours after the reunion so I had time in between. One thing I miss about Utah County is the quilt shops. There are no good quilt shops here in middle Davis County (if someone wants to open on I promise I'll shop there!). I need to make quilts for my boys beds. They love to share a room and my 2 year old will soon be in a big boy bed. I went to Cornwagon in Springville but didn't find anything. It's hard to find cute little boy fabric! Then I went to American Quilting in Orem. They had the cutest little football quilt hanging up! I got two of the kits. They are not quite twin size so I'll have to add boarders. The one hanging up was boarderless. We aren't big football fans. To tell you the truth, we got caught in BYU football traffic twice yesterday and I was a little annoyed, but I thought the fabric was really cute and would be super cute on a little boy's bed.

Also, during the shop hop in the summer American Quilting had a darling appliqued quilt hanging up in the shop. It's out of 30's print. I love any 30's quilt and wanted to buy the pattern then, but they were out. They had the pattern yesterday and I bought it. Did I really do that? If you look at my list of quilts on the side you'll see that I don't really love applique, but I couldn't resist this pattern. It looks so old fashioned. So today I find myself cutting out flower pieces. All my 30s scraps that I have been saving for many other 30s projects just found a new use. I don't know if this quilt will be the size it says on the box, but if nothing else I'll make a wall hanging. I have to have these darling flowers! Each flower is running stitched in black floss. Hopefully this will go quicker than the Baltimore Album. I found myself a new Conference Project!