family trees

I'm in the middle of my second family tree quilt.   The first was a gift to my sweet MIL a few Christmases ago.  This one was commissioned by a relative and her hubby for his grandmother.  It has been fun to do but kind of like birthing, I forgot just how much work was involved in this project :)

Once I got the background pieced and the tree cut out and appliqued onto it, I spent a good while at my computer with my Bernina software, creating the leaves with names and dates. I printed out each leaf design and double checked spelling and dates to be sure they were correct and then cut around them and pinned them to the tree to get an idea of placement.  I had to make a few changes such as flipping leaf shapes vertically or horizontally and correct a few typos.

 Once the files were created, it was on to making the actual leaves.  I had grouped them by threes so I ended up with 16 hoopings plus a few more with just the leaf shapes so I would have some extrea leaves for fillers.  Somewhere in there I added the borders to the wall hanging.  A very narrow one and then a 3 inch border.  I like how that turned out.  And yes, I left all those paper leaves on there when I added the borders.  I kept thinking I was sticking myself as I sewed but I'm sure it was just my imagination.  The embroidered leaves replaced the paper ones and I finished them.

Can you see the two leaves below that I had to redo because they needed flipping.  I pinned them on wrong side up so that I wouldn't forget.

I kept respacing and moving things over, up and down just a little until I got everything just the way I wanted and finally was ready to zig-zag the leaves onto the quilt top.  I decided to let some of the leaves hang over into the border and really like the way it looks.  In the picture, the right side is hanging off the edge because I was working with laying out my "extra" leaves.  They are not sewn on yet but all those leaves on the tree are. 

Once I finish attaching those extra leaves, I'll get my backing and batting and get it all sandwiched and then I just need to quilt and bind it and it will be finished. 

wips

I've been working on several things simultaneously.  A family tree quilt that I will show in another post has been taking up most of my time.  I've also been trying to finish up my Civil War quilt.  I've got all the sashings and corner blocks finished and ready to attach to the blocks.

 Jennifer and I worked together on thie quilt for a family member's soon to be born baby girl.  Her nursery is based on the movie UP.  She was really happy with the quilt and we had lots of fun working on it.

I also embroidered these for the old and new sisters

I took a class on using the new "Twister" tool and made this pretty table runner.  Still a work in progress
I started by sewing together four charm squares, then added a border.

Once that was done I started cutting squares out of the square I had made using the Twister tool.

You line up the lines on the tool with the seam lines in your squrare and then use your rotary cutter to cut out the smaller square.

As you cut each smaller square you create a new square similar to this one,  Then you end up with this

I've got the squares sewn together and the borders on but the pictures are on my camera and I'm too tired to upload them right now.  Anyway, all I have to do is cut the backing and it will be ready to quilt.  I may take a break from my family tree and do that over the weekend.

birthday cookout

We celebrated #1 son's birthday today with a cookout after church.  A good time was had by all.

The birthday boy gets help from his favorite redhead to blow out candles.

 

 The Titans made a touchdown!

 The grillmaster and his apprentice

 

Micah playing on the swings with his favorite person:)

It was a beautiful day for a family get together.

kisses quilt

I'm working down a to do list and today after I did all the other things that I needed to I pulled out the last two blocks for the Kisses for My Beloved quilt.  I finished those and took a picture of one of them

After finishing those, I dug out the borders and backing.  There is still a good bit of work to do

Just the sashing involves three strips sewn together and then a little  9 patch block at in between AND there are three borders after that.  I'll be working some more on it tomorrow.  So far, I'm really liking the results.

done

I was going to embroider a bunch of leaves for a quilt I'm making but my Deco decided to act up so I finished as in TOTALLY FINISHED this instead.

There is a nip in the air -- it's beginning to feel like Fall!

best bargain ever

I must begin by saying I am not much of a shopper and very seldom do I walk away feeling like I got a real bargain.  I've been wanting to get some sort of a "Weekender" bag for short trips that would hold a few changes of clothes, pjs, etc and my toiletries.  I liked some things I saw on the Vera Bradley website but they were well over a hundred dollars and I didn't want to pay that much.  Today at the mall, Jen and I went into a shop that carries Vera Bradley stuff.  We were looking at the Grand Traveler so I could at least know how big it is and maybe watch for it to be on sale.  Then we noticed a whole section of 75% off bags.  I ended up spending $52 for $192 worth of Vera.  I decided that was a really good bargain.  Though neither is a true "weekender", the two bags together give me plenty of room, will be easy to handle and the smaller one is actually a baby bag so is fully lined with plastic which makes it great for a toiletry bag.  What do you think

he passed!!

Congratulations to Michael for passing the last part of his CPA exam.  He was relieved and I was very excited.  We took him out to eat to celebrate.  Here are some of the few pictures I took.  They don't include everyone because some of them were very out of focus.

Michael and his girlfriend Erika

 Katy, Jennifer and Micah.

The goofy boys and their mom

We had a fun time at the Outback.

I will leave you with Vail showing off her newest "gap" where she pulled a tooth. (even though all you can see is the grin)