And more

Thanksgiving has been here and passed.. and I'm still no where near more ready for Christmas. Mom and I went out shopping on Black Friday, and did most of the shopping then (I was in Kohl's three times!!!) and got most of my gifts. Now they're all hidden all over the house (so Bean doesn't find them, or the hubby) and I have to get them wrapped. Now all I need is more time! :)

Here's more of what I've been working on (instead of wrapping!!)

For Dee, only a little sneak peak: Yours is in the mail on Monday. I finished part 2! :)


This was the mini quilt that I sent to Maya for the Four Seasons Holiday Quilt Swap. She did receive it (so now I can post it!), but was away for Thanksgiving so it took her a little bit to respond.



This is the beautiful Mini I received in the swap from the extremely talented Sara:



Would you believe she said this was her first time doing embroidery?? It's too perfect, and already hanging up on our walls.

This was one I was late on, it was for STUD October to Kathy: (She did receive it in November, I just got around to uploading it.



And...
I conquered Triangles!!
I'm still nervous about making them, but I'm no longer scared.

Some of what I've been working on

Showing off some of the mini quilts I was alluding to yesterday.

For Dena: She should be getting this one any day now:
For the My Favorite Quilters 6" and under swap:



And the back:


For Jess:
The October (I was a little late finishing) STUD quilt:




And the back of it: (Hand Quilted)


For Kathy J:
October STUD Anything Goes - we both chose to do Halloween:
Hand Quilted:


For Ruthie:
6"-12" Swap Group - Theme - Hawaiian. This is a bit larger than the 12", its 16" and all hand quilted. In the center I quilted a dolphin, then there is a star, a swirl, seaweed and a shell. I chose bright colors because to me Hawaii was all about brightness and fun.

I'm so proud of this one I pieced another top and will eventually quilt the other one or me.



True brightness:


Stitching close-ups (some are in black and white so you can see the contrast):












And the Back of the quilt:

Ornament Swap

Ya'll need to go and sign up for this quick swap!

I mean quick - it took me under an hour to make all of my ornaments for this swap - and it'll look just adorable. :) I really hope we get 20 participants, it'll make an AWESOME lap quilt. Right now there are only 4 participants - so hurry up - you don't even have to paper piece!!

Sewing, Company and Free Furnature

Yesterday was super busy. I cleaned up the house because I was having company come over and even though we moved in about a month ago, I still have tons of boxes left to unpack. And that's kind of difficult especially when we don't have the furniture for three rooms. So I keep trying to put stuff away but I keep on moving things around.

So A & M came over yesterday to see the house (and my lack of progress in putting things away) but more importantly to spend time with me and the JellyBean. They got here around 3, so I cooked up some lemon pepper chicken with a side of pasta shells, a little salad, fresh carrots and fresh fruit. I really thought that it was good - I love to cook. One of my favorite channels on the television is Food Network. There's just something awesome about cooking up a good meal.

Then, A & M left around 5:30 ish, and I fed the baby, and the phone rang, it was Deb, one of my friends from way back in grade school - I've known her since we were about 6 years old. Terry (DH) and I moved about 2 blocks away from where her parents live! Deb wanted to know if Terry and I wanted to take her parent's extra twin size bed and frame and a lounge chair. Since free is certainly in our budget, I said of course. :) Then Terry got home from work around 6, he brought his co-worker over who's also moving, so she's taking all the boxes that we've unpacked so far. Danielle (his co-worker) brought her sister over and they packed up about 12 boxes!! Deb and her dad came over and set up the bed in the spare room and Terry and I took the baby and we went and picked up the lounge chair. It's got a little scratch in the bottom of it where their cat was, but other than that it's absolutely perfect and it matches our living room so well.

Then we ate dinner and I finally got to do a little more quilting. I got one more block done - not much, but still, it was a bit of progress. I'll post pictures of the progress later today. :)

More Progress

Today was pretty busy. One of my friends from work invited DH, JellyBean and me over to her house for dinner and some video gaming on the Wii. We played Wii Sports at the Resort and it was a ton of fun. I won the Frisbee game on it, and nothing else. But I had fun with it - and it was so much fun! DH won a few of the games, one of them was Canoeing and the other was Archery. JellyBean fell asleep about four hours into being there, so we drove back home. It's not a long way, but it was about 30 minutes of a sleeping baby in the car. She hadn't napped at all since getting up at 6 AM, so it was a nice little break for Mommy and Daddy.

Tomorrow I have 3 more of my co-workers coming over to have a mini house-warming party. There are still a bunch of boxes in one room, but overall I think that I have gotten the house to a relatively neat and orderly state. It always seems like there is just "one more thing to do" before I go to bed at night. But, since having JellyBean, I've really learned to relax and let things go - or at least make reasonable priorities.

Here's the progress on the quilt. Since these photos were taken I've gotten 4 more blocks quilted, and it really feels to me like I'm making progress. I just hope to keep up this good progress and have it totally done before I go back to work in September.



And here's a few close-ups of the center squares. I fell in love with the fabric and wanted to make something beautiful for my beautiful little JellyBean.









I've got a handful of these blocks left over, but they're only about 7 inches or so(I forgot the exact measurements of the blocks) and I have no idea what to do with them. Any ideas? Feel free to comment!

And after I finish this quilt, I'll be making miniature quilts for Alzheimer's research. I've been following Ami Simms and her work for a while, and I decided that I was going to make the $1000 promise. Goodness knows I've enough orphaned blocks laying around and ideas to make some miniature quilts. If you don't know about this project check it out here:
The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Till tomorrow night! Have fun