Elephant Parade top

Hi all !

I finally finished my Elephant Parade quilt top! Can I get a WOO-HOO !!!!

A huge shout-out to Kelly, who saw my plea for more blue background on Pat Sloan's Facebook page, and sent me some that she had bought!

It's the top and two side sashings of the blue background, that was all I had to finish, but I was completely out of it. And after searching and searching, it turns out Joann had discontinued the color. Kelly had a different brand, but it was named the same color name, and sent it to me. You can't even tell the difference!  Thanks so much to Kelly!

Tonight I did a lot of pressing fabric for quilt backings, measuring and marking centers.

I got pieces cut for piecing together two different backings. That's a lot of fabric!

Backing for Elephant Parade.

Backing for Sunnyside ModaLove.

I am all about getting prep work finished at once. That way, when I'm ready to start, I just pick up the pieces and put them together. In this case, it's quilt top + backing = layer and baste a quilt together. (All right, so I admit that I still need to cut batting too.)

Update:

I finished the back of Elephant Parade too! I found cute elephant flannel at Joann and Walmart.

Cute cute cute !

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts!

Friday Finish

Hey look what I finished last night!

The backing for my baby's star sampler. Whee!

I love the snowflake swirls from Henry Glass that is the main fabric for the backing. What do you think of my crumb strip, " made fabric" ?

I sure have more yellow crumbs, but I had enough sections finished to finish the backing.

And I'm skipping with joy!

My last fabric print came in the mail, for the Kate a Spain Christmas Swap. It's the Solstice line "Constellation in Berry" red. It's so pretty, I almost don't want to cut it.

I love discovering new shops. Cupcake Fabric and Quilts is a great shop. They have a lot of selection and they answered my Facebook questions right away. Two days to ship from Texas to Utah. It was great!

Swappy stuff

I participate in a Facebook charm swap group. I got a bunch of envelopes ready and mailed yesterday. They consist of an August scrappy swap, and a bunch of birthday charms.

I'm also participating in Michele's Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap. (Www.crayonboxquiltstudio.com)

I asked for two spots, which means I need 4 fabrics. I had one print already from Solstice. 

Then I bought the red snowflakes from the new Jingle line at American Quilting in Orem, Utah (and picked up their Row by Row pattern too).

I ordered a bunch of Solstice prints from Rossvillequilts.com for an incredible price, and they had listed the red prints from Solstice. They called me before they shipped my order, saying that they didn't actually have any left of the red prints, so I substituted the blue ones, instead, because I love those prints. But since those prints were already spoken for in the swap, I actually received only 1 print that I could use for the swap, the Polaris green print.

So that still leaves me with 1 more fabric to buy for the swap.

Then I keep checking back at Joann's to find the Blue Radiance Country Classic solid that I need, to finish the Elephant Parade top's two side sashings.There is none to be had! They have discontinued that color! Frustration!

I appealed in Facebook to Pat Sloan's Quilt Along with Pat group, knowing that at least a few of 20,000-40,000 quilters in the group work at Joann's country-wide. One answered me back, and she actually had bought "blue radiance" but it was a "Made in the USA" solid, not a Country Classic. Joann's just recently started carrying Made in the USA solids. She sent me a yard, and here's the comparison.

Pretty darn amazing! The strip of mine (not wide enough for the sashing, as it's a ragged cut to straighten edges, all that's left of mine), is on top, and the Made in the USA yard is on the bottom. It's almost like it's a different dye lot, but you can barely tell.

I'm so happy! And grateful to belong to a generous group of quilters online!

I can't wait to cut my strips and get started, but I have to go to work now. Sunday night is calling my name already......

WIP

HandiQuilter and AllPeopleQuilt are hosting a photo contest on APQ's Facebook page. The prize is a Handiquilter retreat to quilt your own quilts on Handiquilter machines. How awesome!

Here's my entry:

This picture perfectly summarizes nearly everything that I have worked on for the past 2+ years. UFOs galore. (Count them: 9 quilt tops ready to sandwich and quilt!)

And I sure could use a longarm or sit-down longarm.

More BOM

Hi there!

Just showing progress. We're more than halfway through, if you're following along like me, with Pat Sloan's 2015 Mystery BOM called Vacation Time !

This is Block 7: Hot Dog Stand. It's a modified Shoo Fly.

And here's the rest of my blocks so far!

I'm going to link up with Pat Sloan.

#PatSloan2015Mystery

Also Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Summer fun

Hello!

I've been busy, but not much to show for it.

We took our family trip to Yellowstone. It was awesome. There's so much to see and do; there's no way we could see it all in one trip. Guess we will need to go again in a few years, when toddler can walk more on his own.

And of course, souvenirs are awesome. I found just the right ones! A matching necklace and earrings. The design is called Sunburst, but I thought they looked more like snowflakes and similar to my Celtic knots. Yellowstone gets plenty of snow and sunshine! And they make me smile, and more anxious to make a snowflake quilt.

Pretty keepsake Christmas tree ornament, too.

Next up: we celebrated J.'s birthday late because of our trip.

I'm pretty proud of my craftiness and cake decorating. Simple chocolate cake mix, chocolate frosting, crushed Oreo cookies to make a racetrack, frosting outlines of the Start/Finish line, and a Lightning McQueen candle to win the race.

Next up, we are finally convincing the boys that riding bikes is fun and getting them to practice. Our church building's parking lot is a great place to practice.

Whee!

First fireworks that we have set off as a family. We had to do it a few days before July 4, since my husband had to be on shift. We invited my brothers-in-law and had a great time. I'm so glad my boys love playing with their uncles. Even my toddler feels safe and comfortable in the face of something loud and new, when he's being held by his uncles.

S. likes to have the noise-reduction earmuffs on. They make it easier for him to enjoy movies in the theater, loud events, loud fireworks, and even the noise in the lunchroom at school. These are earmuffs that we bought at Cabelas, rated for noise protection when practicing on a gun-range. People with autism often have hyper-sensitivity to noise, light, and other senses. Each autistic person and each family with autism, learns what helps them to cope and adapt and also enjoy participating in the world that is often overwhelming.

So far, it's been fun. And the summer isn't over yet!