Happy Birthday!

 

 

My mom and I share our birthday, and today was very nice!  I turned the big 3-0, and am not daunted by the idea of being three decades old.  I'm one of those oddities that is actually excited to age, to go through life getting the experiences that I can and being able to show at the end that I LIVED!  My mom is very much the same.  Possibly one of the biggest things she has done recently is 3 years ago she donated her kidney to the husband of a gal she went to high school with.  She felt that she was just called to do so, so she did.  He is living a very full life, and they have become fast friends (his name is Carl, my mom is Sheila, and the kidney has been named Carla, LOL, that's my family's sense of humor).

 

 

 

Mom and I did have to work today at her store, but it went by quickly and the ladies I work with are all so great, I got a hug from everyone when I came in.  After work we met up with many of my family members at a local pizza place called Sweet Basil and spent the next hour in pleasant company.  I was pleasantly surprised to receive gifts from everyone, it's been a while since we've had a party so I was just expecting the pleasure of everyone's company.

 

I had to laugh at all the cat-themed cards, what are they saying about me?  And the one from my cousin actually made me teary-eyed, we have grown quite a bit closer since working at the store together for the last couple months.

And I get a kick out of this photo, what a variety of gifts!  The ammunition is from my great-uncle, and as soon as he handed me the box I squealed because it means we get to go target shooting soon, yay!  Chocolate and movie tickets and wonder clips, then tools from John because he knows I need some around the house and we never have any, and then there's this:

 

My present from mom and dad, individually wrapped bills that mom apparently spent all morning wrapping for me!  Look at all the pretty colors!  They said it's for a new laptop, I say let's plant it and see if it grows into a tree...  Oh, I nearly forgot, mom also bought me some daffodil bulbs, and they are so close to ready to bloom I can hardly wait!!  They are my favorite flower.

 

I also got a singing message from my dear friend Lacy-Jean (who is a zookeeper at the San Diego Zoo, awesome!) and I sure hope to talk to her this weekend, and then I received a photo-text from my other best friend (Megan) that made me feel so great.  I love my girls!

This is from almost five years ago now (whoa!) and it's Lacy-Jean, Jennifer (my sister), myself, and Megan.

 

Oh by the way, I'm making progress on my UFOs!  I did actually complete the rose:

I felt like my revolver was fitting for the Guns' N Roses theme.

When I took it to the lady at the fairgrounds where they hosted the banquet she was so excited, and tried to walk away with it for her very own :)  I may need to make up a couple to just have on hand, I saw some great key fabric that I think would also make a good background for the rose.  With the border this finished at ~16.5 inches square.  I'm working on photos of the quilting which I will share later.

 

And I am nearly done with the braided runner, this was just when I started and of COURSE the bobbin ran out, right in the middle of a feather.  It is coming along quite nicely, I just have the outer border to quilt and binding to put on and that will be two things done!

 

No progress has been made in my room though.  Hoping to get something accomplished this weekend, as we have no current engagements.

 

Belle is telling me it's bedtime, so I must follow orders.  Plus I can hear sleeping noises from John in the other room, so it really must be time.  Thank you for visiting!

 

~Brandy

 

 

Thomas: Whoa, wait, I swear she put this down here so I can burrow.

Belle: No, it's meant to be slept on so our fur cannot be extracted from the batting, silly boy.

New Year's Eve 2015

I have been doing pretty well organizing myself the last few days, and have made some good progress on the table runner.  It's actually at a point that I can baste and quilt it, but now I need space to tape it down for the basting.  Which involves cleaning off a table... we will see if that happens this morning.

 

The top of the French Braid table runner completed.  Loving how striking the colors are.

This is how I pass the time until the Seahawks play.  Also, check out my NEW JERSEY!!

I pieced the back with the strips cut off the sides of the runner when I squared it up.  I would like to make a larger version of this, again, very striking.

I also found in my organizing my Mini Stitch that I had started summer 2015 and got that pulled together for a completed top.

The pattern was fun to work with, it's also mini sized so assumes you know what you're doing basically.  Not many instructions.  You can find Mini Stitch and more mini patterns at Fig Tree & Co's website here.

This is going to make the best wall hanging, I am very excited to have it ready to quilt.  I picked colors that make me happy and will stay interesting to me.  Some of them will also bring back some memories, but as I haven't made a lot of quilts most of this fabric is just from my stash.

And I completed mom's Christmas present the day after, but it sure turned out nice!  And she is very excited to have a sewing project bag of her own, she has really been picking the sewing back up lately (I may be causing some of that...), even made 12 Seahawks hotpads for Christmas gifts, and 4 pillowcases!

This fabric is so pretty, I got it at the shop in Bonner's Ferry when we went to Montana.  I keep hoping to find it in blue for myself.

Another chance to practice my FMQ, I did not mark this feather, just made it happen, and filled in the gaps with pebbles..

I am learning the best way to install my tags is to wait until I'm finished and sew it on the seam afterwards.  I redid this one 3 times before I figured that out!

 

I have to laugh at myself, I have made this project bag at least 7 times, and I make it differently every time.  I have been making notes on the last 2, and taking pictures, I'm hoping to pull it all together into a tutorial for you all.  And to help myself be more precise and timely in the construction.  What is taking the most time (and I'm pretty sure I said this before) is the quilting.  I keep using these bags as my practice pieces for free-motion quilting techniques, so instead of it taking me 5 minutes to quilt it I end up taking closer to an hour.   The bag assembly itself is only taking ~30 minutes. Quilting is my hobby though, I'm not in this to make things REALLY fast.  I am trying to enjoy the act of MAKING.  And lately, I've just been very thankful to have the time to sew at all.

And without further ado, I'm off to take advantage of the bit of time before I go to work!  Make the most of every minute, the year is nearly done!

Happy New Year everyone, here's to strong finishes and exciting new beginnings!
~Brandy

Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

 



Ahh, a break

Hello again!  It's been radio silence for quite some time, perks of working for a packing and shipping store during the Christmas season. :)  We have been quite busy, as I'm sure you can imagine.  I have found time to sew a couple times this month though!  We had our potluck guild meeting on the 8th and had a gift exchange, so I made this potholder:

 I had to fight for my chair again...

He is getting entirely too comfortable.

 

Also, I took the time and painted my nails during a Seahawks game!  Strings of lights, next time I will go a little more simple though.  I ended up changing my nails to just the red and green tips halfway through the week, and had a ton of complements on them.  Simple is effective!

 

I made up some wine bottle bags to sell at the store, last year we had people asking for something similar (we are the only place in town that can ship wine besides doing so directly from the winery itself) so I figured I could pick up some pretty fabric from Joann's and whip up some bags pretty inexpensively.  We only have one left now!  I think I made a total of 10.

We put together a little gift package for my brother-in-law Joe and his daughter Eryka, and I included this jar in the hopes they will bake the cookies up together.  Or Eryka will do it with Joe's girlfriend Sarah.  Whatever, just make the cookies!  I was pleased that I was able to cut my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe in half and it fit in the quart jar without issue.  I do understand now why people put the brown sugar on top of the chocolate chips though, that flour sifted right through them hahaha!  Silly me.  Next time I will do Flour, chips, brown sugar, flour, brown sugar, white sugar.  Then I'll still have the layers but it will be more clean.  I think.

I also was able to use almost all of this last Sunday to cut up fabric for this table runner, it's a French Braid runner and the first time for me making one.  It is coming along nicely, I just hope to finish it before 1pm on Christmas (that is when I will see the intended recipient).

 

I have been making tumblers as a leader-ender project as suggested by Bonnie Hunter.  These are pairs laid out next to each other, it's fun to see the progress!  Of course I went with 2 1/2 inch tumblers, why would I use larger ones that might go together quickly?  I have decided I need to go through my fabric and cut 2 1/2 inch strips from each piece so I can have more variety in my pieces, I don't have a lot of scrap in general and definitely not in that size.  So I will have to create some.  And I'm fine with that, just need to make the time to do it.

I also finally sat down to see how long it would take to make this Hunter's Star quilt, and it turns out it takes ~half an hour for me to make one block.  I need more than 30, and that means at least 15 hours just to assemble the blocks for the top.  So I will not be trying to complete this for Christmas.  Probably Father's Day though.

 

We have had one GOOD frost this month.  Even snowed for a day!

And then we had sunshine.  It's actually sunny right now, I can feel it on the back of my neck.

 

 

The cats were so excited yesterday morning, running back and forth between the side window and the front window, and then John and I heard this thunder-like noise, and when we looked outside we saw a HUGE cloud of birds flying in our yard!  It was the first time we've been so close as to hear them flying, it was really neat.  We tossed some birdseed in the yard with the hopes that they will entertain Belle and Thomas for a while.  It's working.

 

I also took a few minutes this weekend to finish decorating the tree.  It always makes me so happy to bring out my ornaments, I have many old friends in my boxes.  And John and I have picked up some new ones, the black and white zig-zag one on the bottom left is from our visit to Mesa Verde in Colorado.  And our topper this year is an heirloom from my Great Grandma Schuster (the same grandma who I inherited the White from).

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, I am personally excited that I have Christmas Eve all to myself for ~8 hours to make candy and sew up a few more items before John gets home and we head to my aunt and uncle's house for the annual Lasagna Feed.  Oh, I better remember that I'm making a lasagna this year, oops!  Guess I know where I'm going after work tonight!

 

Merry Christmas!

~Brandy

 

This may be one of those times it's ok to let the cat out of the box...