Mom's Yellow Brick Road

This is my mom's Yellow Brick Road top.

I brought it home with me from our trip. It is a bit wrinkled because I haven't had a chance to iron it yet. I will be quilting it for her. I got it out last week thinking I could at least get it basted. Nope! I only got it photographed. It still isn't even ironed. My goal is to get it basted this week.

A Little Saturday Sewing

My husband is still recovering from foot surgery. His next appointment is Thursday afternoon. Hopefully he will be able to walk on the foot after the appointment and then be more independent.

So ... still not much sewing going on over here.

I was able to sew most of the afternoon on Friday while at work at my LQS. Not so good for business (since the reason I got to sew for so long is because we didn't have any customers) but good for me. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture. I guess I'm out of practice at sewing and then photographing. I left the project at work so I'll photograph it next time I work.

On Saturday I was determined to make some progress on a sewing project - ANY project. I chose to work on the next block of the Christmas Quilt I'm finishing for my friends. If you want to see my previous posts on this quilt, click on this link.

The next block is the seventh of twelve. It has only a few pieces to be appliqued, but the main one is a large tree that required some machine piecing before cutting out the applique.

Above you can see the pieced applique background and the section of pieced strips that will become the appliqued tree. All those seams are making it interesting (read "interesting" as "difficult") to hand applique the tree. Never having done this before I thought I'd try it. I'm not sure I will do it again. At least not anytime soon.

There is some other machine piecing for this block. I went ahead and did what I could of that before starting the applique.

The rest of the machine piecing will have to wait until I finish the applique and square up that section.

It was nice to spend a good chunk of time in my sewing room on Saturday!

Moving Slow

The only time I was able to sew last week was at work. Below is why.

This is a photo of my husband's right foot. He had toe surgery on Tuesday morning. This involved two trips to Salida, CO (about a 3.5 hour round trip) last week, one being an overnight since we had to be at the hospital for his surgery at 6:30 am.

He is not allowed to put any weight on the foot for two weeks. He does a lot to help out around the house and he hasn't been able to do anything. Thus I have not had any free time to sew. And things don't look promising for me getting to sew very much for the next two weeks. So if I'm not posting very much, this is why - I don't have anything to show!

I do however have something to show you today. I finished the second of three embroidery panels for my Over the River and Through the Woods quilt.

The bottom one is the one I just finished. I got worried about where I had put the first one so I did some looking. Luckily it was right where I thought it was. Now they are together. I did a lot of work on this in the car on our recent trip. I've started on the third panel which is not as involved as either of these. Hopefully I will be able to finish it up quickly. Embroidery is a great work project since I can stitch a little in between helping customers.

Lastly, check out this huge dragonfly.

This guy was about 4 inches long! He was taking a nap on my son's bike. At first we thought he was dead since he didn't respond to our shaking the bike. We poked him gently with a stick and he took off.

Flying Geese Block Challenge

My LQS, Heartstrings and Heirlooms, is hosting another block challenge. This time you purchase a fabric kit and must use all four of the included fabrics to make any 12.5" square unfinished size block that contains at least 3 flying geese. Below is my entry.

The print fabrics are the ones included in the kit. I added the solid Kona Ash from my stash. I used this free circle of geese paper piecing pattern. I changed the pattern to make the star in the center by using a fabric other than the background for that piece. The pattern was very accurate once I figured out how to make my printer print the pattern full size. (This was not a problem with the pattern but with my computer and printer)

It was fun to make but did take a while as all paper piecing does for me.

If you are local and want to participate the kits are available in the store near the register. They are $2.50 each. As with our previous block challenges, there are prizes.

Work Sewing

I finished up my second and third samples for the QAYG (quilt as you go) class I'm teaching this quarter at my LQS, Heartstrings & Heirlooms.

I finished the first sample last month. Click here to read that post. The first method is my favorite one but does require sashing on the front. This is why I found two other options that don't require sashing on the front.

I'm also working on another HST project for my August Scrap Group meeting.

All the HSTs are sewn and squared up. I'm just pressing them a little at a time.

My Baby Quilt

My LQS is having a Baby Quilt Show. I needed a photo of a baby quilt to advertise the show so I dug out this quilt.

My mom did the embroidery while she was in college. Her mom and a friend assembled the blocks into a quilt and finished it. Then mailed it to me in Hawaii when I was born. The quilt was never really used except as a decoration so it is still in great shape. It is a treasure!

Changing the subject, Miss Spooky Boo is finally starting to feel better. She started eating some and drinking last Friday, the day after our trip to the vet. Up until yesterday she was still sleeping all but an hour or so a day. Yesterday she went out several times and even disappeared for a couple of hours. Shew! She sure had me worried! We still have quite a few days left of daily antibiotic. Hopefully it will kill what is ailing her.

Poor Miss Spooky Boo

Our kitty is not feeling well. She and I spent an hour at the vet yesterday. She was poked and prodded and stuck with needles. Sadly, she felt so bad that she didn't even complain.

All of this told us that she has a very bad urinary tract infection. She wouldn't eat or drink and hadn't for two days so they also gave her some fluids. I'm happy to report that she did eat a little this morning and drank some both last night and this morning.

I've been doing more hand sewing lately with all the travel. I'm almost finished with my second panel for my Over the River and Through the Woods quilt.

I planned to do some quilting yesterday, but since Spooky had such a bad morning I didn't feel like moving her so I could quilt.