It's been a whole year since I last posted.  I have a new home... you can find me at:

somethingeveryminute.blogspot.com

Sigh

My sewing time is infrequent and valuable. Which makes the 25 minutes I just spent chain piecing without any thread very sad. 

At long last!  15 minutes a day dedicated to sewing has paid off. I have this completed quilt top

My first full quilt using corduroy. I'm hooked!

I finished blocks for another quilt. 

Most importantly I cleaned off the ping pong table so now I can get some basting done ...and then quilting...and then a finish!!

Finally!

Last night after a long absence I finally sat down to sew.  Nothing fancy, just  hemmed a new flannel blanket for the little guy. Perfect nap time blanket for a spring like day ( my daffodils are coming up). 

It's been a long time since I've posted anything.  It's been even longer since I've had a decent finish.  Maybe that will change in the New Year.  Having a 18 month old again is challenging some days.  But even though there's not much sewing going on, I'm having lots of fun.

I started my yearly cleaning and reorganization of my sewing room. Wow, do I have a lot of projects going.  Hopefully a good tidying up can help with that.

Most recently I participated in Chookyblue's SSCS http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/ .  I've been a serial swapper in this for many years now.  It's the only swap I do and I've made some lovely blog friends around the world through it.
My partner was Jenny from  http://birdontheborder.blogspot.com/ Bird on the Border.  She made me the most amazing gift.  The work and time that must have gone into it, really touched me.

 Thank you so much Jenny

Piles, stacks and overflowing bins

I really need to pull myself together. After a recent assessment of my sewing room I realized that I have piles of projects I'm working on, stacks of things I haven't started on, and overflowing bins of scraps. I haven't had that much sewing time lately, so when I go into my sewing room I tend to do 15 minutes or so on one project.

I've been working on these blocks using scraps from a couple of baseball quilts I've previously made and that terrific red corduroy. I've used the pattern Corduroy Cobwebs from Stephanie's http://stephaniedunphy.blogspot.com/ book Uncommonly Corduroy. I love this book, I want to make every quilt in it. 

In the midst of all of my chaos I naturally decided to do a quilt along. These little letter blocks from Temecula Quilts are quick and easy. I'm proud to say I'm staying caught up on them and I'm using up some of my very old 30's fabrics here

I have a huge stack of things I want to make for the little guy. So again I saw this darling fabric and decided to start another new project. I want to do something interactive with it and I have a few ideas. I hope they work out. Stay tuned.

Caution: If you ask me to test a pattern it may take much longer than anticipated. Fortunately Emily of Emscrapbag http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com/2014/10/picnic-in-paris.html was very patient. This was such a fun quilt to make and like so many of her patterns works well with yardage or scraps. If you haven't done so check out her patterns http://www.auntemsquilts.com/patterns.html, they are so much fun to look at and to make!  I stuck with just two colors and was really happy with the way it turned out.

I used fabrics from my 30's stash. You may see some more projects from me using up some of this fabric.
This picture doesn't show the prairie points, I still have one side to finish putting them on and I'll show an updated photo as soon as I do (see what I mean about being slow).
This quilt is for this little guy.

When there are no more blueberries left because you ate all of them, the best course of action is to lay on the floor and cry.

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Finish it Friday http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/10/teal-socks.html !  

Help!

We have a very busy garden!

Using the pedal on my sewing machine hasn't been a piece of cake since my knee surgery. I wish I could be more comfortable using my left leg. But I can't seem to get it to work out. So my finish this week consisted of sewing on binding.

A scrappy peanuts quilt I started pre broken leg. 

I need to figure out why my pictures look blurry when I post them. They look fine when I take them. Hmmm. 

Linking up to Finish it Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts

This summer I had all sorts of plans. Among those plans was sewing. My knee injury and subsequent surgery curtailed all that.  Yesterday I finally felt like I could comfortably sew for a bit and I finished up this top. It was so close to being done, 20 minutes was all I needed

It was a start a long time ago as a leader/ender project. From scraps too!

The other plan I had was to finish the little guy's room. On this front I had lots of help. I wish I had of taken a before picture

We channeled our inner pintrest fanatic and repainted this previously white furniture. It was discolored and ugly. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. 

I also managed to do a fun banner thing on the windows and a pillow too. 

Poor Molly is very confused, between everyone returning to school and missing her long morning walk she's particularly needy

 It's rare that she sits still.

I'm crossing my fingers that I can have a productive weekend. 

Wishing everyone a happy weekend!

I'm linking up to CrazyMom's finish it up friday  http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/

We've had some changes around here and spent the past couple of weeks redoing a bedroom for the little guy. I haven't been able to take too many pictures. Hopefully next week I can share more. But for right now I can share this quilt which is finally hanging up 

I also have these guys back out. Hopefully I'll be up and around soon. 

Keep your fingers crossed!

You know you have a fabric problem when even the scrappiest scraps seem pretty

A few weeks ago I came across this fabric 

 

It's the Italian alphabet. I wanted to make an Italian quilt for my daughter who traveled to Italy for a study abroad semester last year. Did you know there are lots of Paris themed fabrics but after much looking this is the only Italy fabric I could find. It's a Michael Miller print. I also found this

I spent way too much time looking for a go with fabric , but I'm glad I stuck with it. I'm happy with the way it turned out. (It's a rotten picture though)

I spent my sewing time this past

week playing with laminated cotton fabric. I made the little guy a new bag for daycare. 

Since bags and totes are always a challenge for me I was pleased with this one. 

I also finished up some bibs. Now that he's feeding himself,  meals are a pretty messy event. I got the patterns from a blog I found via pintrest (see I actually do make things I find on there), JRoxDesigns http://jroxdesigns.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/easy-reversible-bib-pattern-featured-on-craftaholics-anonymous-today/      

When I contacted Amber to ask her if I could link to her blog, I found out that she lives about 10 minutes away from me!  Small world.    

.

Oh, and one little girl bib. 

I love this pattern. Thank you Amber for sharing the tutorial.   It's a perfect size for a toddler or a just turned one year old who's toddler sized. 

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom's http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/Finish it up Friday 

Love

I love watermelon, so cool and refreshing.  But, I think I need to get help. I've developed a watermelon addiction. Each one more perfect than the one before. I don't know how I'll cope when the summer is over. 

We  have done lots of swimming   The little guy LOVES the pool. On nights when there's a swim meet  and we can't go to the pool we bought a kiddie pool for him. He loves that too

Speaking of love, I am loving working with corduroy. It is just dreamy to sew with. I'm using it as the center part of my scrappy blocks.  I think I've discovered a new fabric love. Thanks Stephanie!

Happy 4th of July!

I've been able to do a bit of sewing the past few weeks. I have a long overdue box going to Margaret's Hope Chest. With this quilt included

Also I finished this wall hanging. I saw this pattern in my local quilt shop and needed a last minute gift. I made it in a couple of hours (using machine appliqué of course). 

  

I'm hoping later in the week to have more to show. 

The past several weeks have been busy here. And with a baby in the house a little bit sleep deprived. 

I did manage to get some sewing in. An appliqued table topper. This was a present for a friend and I'm crossing my fingers it will fit the table.            

Speaking of the baby, there's been lots of growing going on, and even a little walking. 

 

This little guy loves the pool and swimming. We take him to the pool everyday, and even got a baby pool for home. 

My husband built a sandbox for him.  Although I think we need a larger one. 

Other things go on here too. My youngest graduated from high school. 

The ceremony was in downtown Raleigh.

 We are so proud of him. He is a great kid. Who still says yes sir and no ma'am. He's always been so fun and happy

Wait need a quick snack before pictures and dinner

And a picture of the whole family

Oh and just for reference right now he's 6'4. I'm betting he'll get to 6'5. Ask the girls that's a lot of little brother. 

On my list of things to do is buy him a longer bed. I swear he looks like this. 

Gee I really need to get back in my sewing room. Hopefully my next post will be about that. 

Learning how to miter corners

Learning how to mitered corners is something I've always wanted to try. It took a while to get it right

No

Not this one

Got it!!

I also did some appliqué this week.