Puppy Shower

My girlfriend lost her poor, sweet four-legged baby a few weeks ago. Shortly after, she went and adopted a new "baby" (not quite a baby at 9 years old). She decided to throw a little "Puppy Shower" for the dog this weekend, and I wanted to make her a little something.

After HOURS of scouring the Internet for the perfect pattern, I came across a tutorial for a really cute dog bed. Being as though I'm on a time crunch to get it done, I decided to use the tutorial to make a small quilt instead. 

Picked up the materials from Joanns last week and got started on this over last weekend. 

The blocks came together really quickly, and with only 12 needed, I had the top done in no time!

All the patterned fabric with the exception of the white with flowers came from a fat-quarter pack. The white with flowers is some Keepsake Calico cotton. It'll be backed with plain black cotton, and the binding is going to be hot pink. 

Worked on the quilting between Tuesday night and last night and managed to get the binding started. All that's left on this one is to finish the hand-binding to the back, add a label, and wash it. :). I think she's going to like it. 

Also on the agenda is a self-binding receiving blanket for the pup.  Again, I found some adorable flannel at JoAnn's to use, and I think it's going to come out SO CUTE!

Off to go finish up the binding and get the receiving blanket done tonight.  Should have finish photos tomorrow for you!

Linking back to Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and I Quilt Thursdays at Pretty Bobbins.

Falling Behind

Seriously, are we half-way thru September already?!?!?!  How on earth did that happen?  I've honestly been so busy that I don't know if I'm coming or going anymore.  Lol.  With my grandma being sick, and then Hubby's grandma having hip-replacement surgery and is now in rehab, I've been "burning the candle at both ends" since the middle of August. As a result, I am quickly falling behind in my list of stuff that I need to do and things that MUST get done!

Here's where I stand:

Christmas Gifts:

• Quilts
• Grandma - about 80% done.  Need to finish the quilting and bind
• Aunt #2 - Need to get started.  Have all the materials ready to go
• Gram (Hubby's Grandma) - Have all materials
• MIL - Have all materials
• FIL - Need to get materials.  Going to do camo rag quilt
• Pot Holders - need to make as many sets as possible for co-worker gifts.  Have all materials 

Other Sewing Projects:

• Sewing
• (x4) Button-Down Shirts for Hubby - have all materials ready to go
• (x5) Pajama Shorts for Me - have all materials ready to go
• Quilting
• Puppy Quilt for my BFF - NEED DONE BY 9/27!!
• Fall Table Runner for my Mom - have all materials
• Halloween Table Runner for Me - have all materials
• Christmas Table Runner for Me - have all materials
• Christmas Tree Skirt for Me - have all materials
• (x4) Quilts for the niece and 3 nephews - have all materials

Other Projects To Do:

• Finish editing wedding photos from July - NEED DONE BY 9/30!!
• Gut spare bedroom & move craft room back downstairs - Would like done by end of October
• Gut/re-organize garage - Would like done by end of October before the snow hits

Phew.... it makes me tired just thinking about it all!  Throw in the regular weekly stuff (chores, laundry, etc.), I seriously need another 5 hours in the day!  I'm taking things one at a time (for the most part) and working on finishing all those projects that are in process.  I.E. When I get home from work tonight, it's dinner time and then editing photos for the rest of the evening.  The plan is the same for tomorrow, and with any luck I'll be over half-way done with them by bedtime tomorrow night.  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights Hubby is DJ-ing, so those will be my crafting nights.  Going to wrap up the quilting on my grandma's Yellow Brick Road quilt and hopefully get started on the "Puppy Quilt" I need done by the 27th. 

If I can stick to my little "schedule," I should be able to get everything done on time... but you never know what is going to get thrown at you at the last minute! 

Off to finish up my day at work, and then get started on the list as soon as I get home.  Wish me luck!!! :D

WIP Wednesday: For Grandma

My poor grandma!!!  She came to visit us from PA back at the beginning of August.  The plan was to stay a few weeks with my parents and then a week or two with her sister up in NW Ohio.  Well... that was the plan.  About a week into her stay, she landed herself in the hospital in congestive heart failure :-(  A week in the hospital and she was good to go.  Left to go to visit her sister and within 3 days of her arrival up there, she had to be brought back down to be admitted again.  Another two weeks in the hospital and they finally released her to a nursing home near my house.  It's been nice having her so close, but it's under terrible circumstances :-(

That being said, I decided to bump up grandma's quilt from a Christmas gift to a "sorry you're not feeling well" gift.  I actually managed to get this entire top pieced and ready to go in one evening two weekends ago!

The pattern is Yellow Brick Road and the fabrics are from the Downton Abbey Fat Quarter bundle I got a while ago.  I honestly should have paid more attention when gals were saying to be sure to read the directions completely before starting...  I didn't and ended up with a mega goof!  Instead of three different block layouts, I ended up with only two.  Whoops!  I just did a little adjustment to the layout and all seems to be OK.  Shhhh... no one will ever know :-D

Fast forward to this past weekend and after all the marathon sewing I did to crank out two more of the Comic Book Button-Down shirts for two of Hubby's friends, I buckled down and wanted to get this one basted.  Only one problem.... I was a bit tired when I decided to start basting this.  "Cheated" by not spray basting and relying on just safety pins.  Ended up with a boat-ton of puckering on the back :-(  Being the perfectionist I am, I had to re-do it.  Problem was I was a little too tired to tackle it Saturday.  Put it to bed for the night.

Monday night I decided to take care of pulling out the 150+ pins I put in, re-aligining everything, and then basting again.  I even managed to tear Hubby away from the football game on TV long enough to help :-)  Fortunately, once it was spray basted this time (Yea!), the pinning went by rather quickly.

So excited to be wrapping this one up!  I really want to give it to grandma before she heads back to PA next weekend (that's the plan).  Now it's on to the fun part.... quilting!  My mom convinced me I need to overcome my fear of FMQ.  Just bite the bullet and jump right in, according to her.  Well.. I'm a bit of a chicken.  There was no way I was comfortable enough doing FMQ to even attempt it on a quilt yet!  Then the light bulb went off!  I ran to JoAnn's after work last night, picked up some simple quilt stencils, and came home and started to practice.

First Attempt - Two pieces of muslin with batting inbetween

Tracing the stencil on the fabric was the easy part!  Man, is this a lot more difficult than I imagined it to be!  The butterfly in the top, right-hand corner was the last one I did on this sample.  I can definitely see the improvement, but I still need much more practice!

Attempt #2 - Extra border fabric, muslin backing, and actual thread I'm using in my project

Attempt #2 went MUCH better than the first!  I think I am finally getting the hang of this!  It's going to take a lot of guts, but I think I'm actually going to attempt this design in the 5.5" squares on my quilt :-)  I even got a butterfly border stencil that I want to use in the border.  Hopefully it won't be too hard.  We shall see!

Let's hope this one is finished up by this weekend and I'll have a finish to share!

Linking back to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday and Sew Fresh Quilts' Let's Bee Social