A Sneak Peek....

I had to post a picture of the jelly roll quilt that I am working on for my youngest daughter! It is coming out so cute! I still have a lot of rows left to sew together and on, but here is the sneak peek...

Its That Time Again...

Well Casey will be arriving home again in the morning. I have been busy for the past two weeks while he was at work. But now its time to put things away for the week. I got the jelly roll quilt half way put together...lol! My it was a lot of strip piecing. I swore that I would never do another one, but when I started getting the rows done it transformed into a awesome quilt! I will do another one, maybe even a couple of them. I got my rail fence all sandwiched together and I started hand quilting it. I love that quilt. It is so pretty. I love the colors! I'm so slow at hand quilting, I think its because I'm trying very hard to make small stitches. All that practice has finally paid off. My stitches are much smaller and more uniformly spaced. I am using a burnt orange thread to quilt with. It looks really good on the back of the quilt, the back is a chocolate brown. Something I learned while making this Rail Fence quilt is: SQUARE UP THE BLOCKS! I had never done this prior to making this quilt! I had to take a picture of all the mess that had to be cut off! I actually followed the reciepe for that quilt to the T, well I didnt wash the fabric prior. It came out so good, no puckers, the seams matched perfectly, and it looks fantastic! I am going to start following directions! Lesson learned. I still haven't got my churn dash quilted, but that's okay, I'm working on it, slowly but surely! If I get it done before spring that would be great! It will be nice for my bed in the summer time. My son adores his Scooby Doo quilt! I am happy that I made that for him. Now I only need three more! lol! Well Millie's is going to be the jelly roll quilt. I think I will attempt to machine quilt that one. Maybe in a little flower design...I don't know but something besides stippling. I really want to go fabric shopping. Casey said that he would take me...uggg! I hate it when he or my children are with me. I need concentration...lol!

"Scooby-Doo, Where are you?"...

Oh there you are! I whipped this quilt up this weekend for my little guy Justice. I got a book from Thimbleberries called "Tried and True". It has wonderful patterns in it and they are easy. I bought cheapo fabric again!!! And now look, my points don't match. The yellow fabric was practically see-threw, it didn't feed into the machine right so it puckered, and it seemed to shrink when I pressed it. Not only that but it raveled when I cut the triangles. Did I just say a couple of weeks ago that I would never buy cheapie fabric again? Will I ever learn? I have that jelly roll that I am going to sew today. I am excited to see how it turns out. I was thinking about going out of town and looking at some fabric, but I suppose I should finish what I have cut first. I still have that Moda "Northern Solitude" fabric, just sitting there. I suppose in a way I am scared to start cutting it. First of all if I screw up, its a lot of money cut wrong, and since I live in B.F.E, I will have to order more of it. It is beautiful fabric! I think that I will do this jelly roll quilt and then start it. I made a label for this Scooby quilt. It was the first label that I have ever made! I wish I would have done it with all my quilts. Especially the ones that I had given away. I didn't realize how easy they were to make. I tried to print some out on the computer using freezer paper and fabric, however when I washed the labels all the ink ran...so I just settled for a handwritten label using a fabric pen. I think it turned out cute!

I will bend....but not break!

Well now, I thought I would do some research as to why my needles are bending, while I am quilting. At first I thought I was being to rough, perhaps the loft was higher, maybe my hands were even cold, who knows, but I had to find the answer. Please note that I have not had any problems prior with my needles bending ( I bent 4 today, in less than an hour). I found this...

Harikuyo, the Festival of Broken Needles
On February 8th, all across Japan, Harikuyo will take place in Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Hari means needle, and Kuyou is a Buddhist memorial service; Memorial services are usually held for spirits of the dead but it is also common to hold them for inanimate objects that have served well in life, or indeed that life depends on.

Known as the Festival of Broken Needles, it is a ritual of thanks and respect for tools of the sewing, tailoring and embroidery trades. It dates back 1500 years; women (and men) dress in fine kimono and gather together all of the needles they've used, broken and/or and worn out during the previous year. They proceed to the local temple or shrine, where a three-tiered altar is prepared. In the center section is a large slab of tofu, into which everyone plunges the pieces of their broken needles.

Later they will be taken to a sacred final resting place. The tofu keeps them safe and not forgotten, yet because of being protected in the tofu they can do no harm with their points. In a second sense they are still present in life. The priest will incant a sutra, that reflects the passage of the needles from use, and invokes a Buddhist blessing that is passed on to the users of the needles. By showing respect to the needles they have used through the past year, they are offering thanks and requesting that the power and energy of the needles be present in the stitchers for the coming year, so that their skills may be improved. Priests will also sing sutras to comfort the needles, heal their broken spirits and thank them for work well done. No sewing takes place on this day.

"...women have many secret sorrows in life. These sorrows are often passed to the needles during the long hours of stitching and the needles are thought to take on the burden of some of these sorrows thus taking them away with the stitching that they do."

Resources: Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History; Rufus, Anneli: The World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994; About.com/Japan


Early last week my family was hit with a crisis. We are trying to pull through it but will not know the outcome until early March. It has been a very stressful week, full of fear of the unknown, fear of loss, and trying to find trust in someone that holds our well being in their hands. I feel that the above paragraph about women's sorrows being passed to the needles is particularly ironic. And I kinda think it holds some truth...

Another Hectic Day....

Since Casey has been home we have ran and ran and ran! Dentist appointments, Eye doctor appointments, shopping, taxes, driving...Everyday has been a trip to the city! I am so tired! I have two Valentine parties to go to at the school! Last night we wrote out the little cards, prepared the candy, did homework, took baths, ate supper, went grocery shopping....uggg! Thank goodness its almost the weekend! I am exhausted! Tomorrow we have a birthday party to go to. So today somewhere with all the appointments we have to find time to go get a gift. And I have to get Casey's laundry done, get him packed, and ready to leave early Sunday morning...Thank goodness that he is only off work for one week! I don't think I could do this for two weeks! I don't think I am going to be able to shop for fabric this weekend. At this point I don't care! I hate going into the fabric shop rushed for time. Maybe next week.

Quite Charming....

When I first started quilting I got on ebay and seen an auction for charm squares. I was so taken in by them that I ordered and ordered and ordered. I made a quilt for my mother in law with purple and green pinwheels. The throw was entirely made out of charm squares that I had ordered on ebay! I don't have any pictures of it. I wish I did, so I think I will send her an email and ask her to take some pictures of it for me. I also did this nine patch/friendship star quilt with charm squares. The border is made out of a charms cut and rowed...Oh my thinking back on piecing all those little tiny strips makes my head spin. I must have been very determined to make that border! I love this quilt simply because I did not have a recipe for it, I did all the measurements and block placing! And I hand quilted the entire thing! It was the first quilt that I made for myself! After that quilt, in my stash layed all these packs of squares, mostly ugly ones that I did not put in my nine patch. I didn't know what to do with them. So one day I got them all out, sewed them together row after row after row, and made this scrappy quilt! At first when I looked at it, all I could see was yuck! I hated it! It looked to me like a child who had been at the State Fair all day eating cotton candy, corn dogs, soda pop, ice cream, ya know all that fun stuff?! Well that quilt looked as if that child got on a ride and threw up! I hated all the colors, the prints, it had no form, no design...nothing! So I decided to do some machine quilting...ha ha ha ha ha (in my evil mad scientist voice). I watched some YouTube videos on how to stipple, bought a free motion quilting foot for my machine, and got busy! I thought I was doing really good, not crossing any lines, smooth, flowing, and when I stopped to wrestle the quilt to a different position, I peeked at the back! HOLY MOLY, what a mess! The thread was all nested! I cant even explain how it looked it was awful! So I spent most of the morning removing the stitches, or whatever that mess was on the back! Did some more research about machine quilting and found that first off I needed to get a grip! No seriously a grip on the fabric, that they sold gloves to help this problem, well ya know I live out in the middle of freakin nowhere! But since I am a resourceful person I cut some dish gloves down to wrists and thought to myself that will work just fine, until I can get to town and get those fancy gloves! I also discovered that I was not doing that little back and forth thing in the same spot when you start. I have to admit it was a lot of fun once I got the hang of it! However, the dish gloves, did not work that great, way tooooooooooo much moisture, my hands got hot! I thought I was almost done, when I noticed that I had ran out of bobbin thread probably 10 minutes before...I simply hate it when I run outta bobbin thread! I finished the quilt! I had a few puckers on the back, but it wasn't bad for my first go at it! When I went to town and bought my 1/4 inch machine foot, I spotted those gloves! So I bought them! And like most of my fancy gadgets I haven't used them....yet! Go figure! After machine quilting that quilt, it wasn't so ugly! It was like I bonded with the ugliness of it and accepted it for the scrappy thing it was!

My Name is Carol and I am a.....

Quilt-A-Holic...I admit this with pure joy! I relapsed today! I put all my sewing stuff, quilting stuff, away for when my dear husband arrived home. However he got a late start and will not be home until 5:00 p.m. I searched the house high and low for something to occupy my time and found nothing, as I had spent all day yesterday cleaning and organizing. Not even one load of laundry needs to be done. So I caved! I remembered some fabric that I had bought and got the idea to make it into strips for a jelly roll quilt for my three year old daughter! I had ordered this book "Jelly Roll Quilts" and I have been looking for jelly rolls. However a jelly roll is around $40.00 with shipping. The tight ass inside me says "$40.00 for a roll of 2 1/2" fabric strips, good grief, I have that in my stash, make my own and save money"....So under the temptation of the book and the fabric in my stash....I had to cut the strips! I got out just the cutter, mat, fabric, iron, and ruler. Well cutting the strips killed about 15 minutes...So I thought, "I wonder how they roll the strips into such cute little rolls...???". I googled it and made two jelly rolls out of that fabric. I had five different fabrics and even though its not 40 different fabrics I don't care! I am going to make this quilt anyway. Its a scrappy quilt...It might matter, but I guess I will find out later when its done...mark another one for my trial and error process....Just a few more days and I will be off to the fabric shops molesting fabric! I have been thinking a lot lately of what exactly I love about quilting. There are so many different aspects to quilting. I love fabric, the color, the design, the textures. I love looking at quilts on the internet, in books, in person. I love reading quilting books, looking at the patterns, trying to pick one, then finding the fabric! I like the sound of my cutter cutting the pieces! The hum of the machine... The smell of the iron pressing out the creases. The only two things that I hate about quilting are (1) The math! The math, oh crap the math! I am not good at math, and I get so frustrated! (2) Walking into a store, school, or gas station, with thread hanging all over me. My kids go to school with pieces of thread and snippets on them...My dogs even have thread on them! But ya know the thread things is kinda cool in a really weird way...

I Rock the Rocking Stitch!!!

I have spent the weekend hand quilting my Churn Dash. I think I have finally got it down. I need to work on making my stitches smaller. However I have read that the small stitches come in time that uniform straight stitches are more important. My husband has been out of town working since late December and he is coming home tonight!!! I am so excited! He will be home for a week and then he will be gone for only two weeks. He works in the oilfield for Halliburton. I cant wait to see him! I have decided to put all my quilting stuff away so I can spend the entire week with him. I am going to take my sewing table down as well. I took the Churn Dash out of the hoop last night to see how much I still had to quilt. I have about 12 blocks left. Then I have to quilt a large square and then a small square between the blocks. I was on a mission to find the perfect thimbles and by golly I think I found them!!! After wasting money and time on some others that didn't work! I quilted several quilts without thimbles and without knowing the rocking stitch. They came out good, however my fingers would get so sore and I couldn't quilt very long bc of the pain. When I started this Churn Dash, I was determined that I would learn the rocking stitch! I read blog after blog, watched You Tube video after video trying to learn it. I bought several thimbles the ones that the ladies in the video swore by! They didn't work for me. I am still not sure what exactly my bottom hand is supposed to be doing. And really, I'm not sure what exactly it is doing under there...lol! But its working! Three weeks ago when I started this shit-nan-a-gan I felt like a total moron putting the thimbles on and then trying to pick up that teeny tiny needle! I didn't even think they made a needle that was an inch long....OMG those needles are sharp! Super sharp, I didn't even know I had pricked myself until I seen the blood on my quilt!!! But now after a few weeks of practice, a lot of finger poking, about $100.00 deposited into the swear jar, everything feels good! I can hand quilt!!! I have to say it again because I love seeing it in black and white!!! I CAN FREAKIN HAND QUILT!

My Bad Ass Batik...well kinda

I bought the fabric in 2006. I started the blocks with no recipe to go by. I chose the Annie's Choice block. Of course I bought the fabric at a little boutique in the middle of Kansas. I was watching "Quilt in a Day" and that is where I got the idea for the block. I quickly jotted down notes, learned about Batik fabric, and thought I could do it! Ha Ha Ha...I was shocked at how expensive the fabric was and how little of it there was. It was supposed to be my first quilt, other than baby quilts. I soon realized that I was going to run out of fabric...I made about 5 blocks and put it away, neatly in the cute little bag that I bought it in. There it sat until a few days ago! Now today I got the top done! I can not believe it! Its a few blocks short, but ya know I don't care! I love it! Now I can start my Northern Solitude quilt...ooooohhhhh ahhhhh, Moda fabric! I am afraid that I will be forever hooked on Moda now! I feel as though I have graduated from the cheapo fabric at Walmart to the AMAZING Moda, Thimbleberries, Kaufmann.....hmmmmm. My quilts have consisted of el cheapo fabric that run about $40.00 for the top and backing....to $40.00 for the backing used with Moda....maybe not quite $40.00 but pretty darn close! I am so excited! I pray that I cut it right! Knowing me, I will probably cut it wrong....get mad and put it away for a few years...After this next quilt I will have no projects lying around. I don't know how I feel about that, I usually have at least 3 that need finished...I cant wait to go molest some fabric next weekend! I wanna buy some Jelly Rolls, Hunnie Buns, Layer Cakes, Charm Squares....all those nicely cut, pretty, eye catching things....

The bear is crawling out of its cave early this year...

Okay, so this winter I have gained a lot of weight! A lot meaning a good 20 lbs! I ordered "the new diet craze" Nuphedra. It cost me about $65.00. I hate working out, I hate walking, and simply despise the whole diet thing...However my big butt wont fit into anything but my husband's sweat pants. I weighed in last week at a whopping 148, and then I started taking the Nuphedra pill. Did I forget to mention that I am only 5'3"? Anyways the first week, I did nothing different that I usually do. I took the pills in the morning like it suggests, and only one pill in the afternoon. I noticed that when I was up and doing things (like laundry, dishes, and vacuuming) I would get "juiced"...not a rush of energy, but a flow of positive warm feeling "lets do this"...type of energy. However when I would sit down and rest, or quilt, I didn't have that feeling. Its like it knows when to go to work. I didn't notice any appetite change, I still feel like eating an entire birthday cake even though its no ones birthday...After 8 days I weighed in again...and I lost 2 lbs! 2 lbs, and I didn't make any sort of changes! Well that was enough to get me motivated! Yesterday I decided to follow the directions on the pills and in the brochure. I took 2 pills upon waking, 2 more prior to lunch, and then 2 more before a workout! Yes I actually did a workout! Exercisetv.com has a crap ton of free videos for all levels. So I did a couple! And I took the pills 30 minutes before I ate, and I was hungry when I took the pills, but by the time I got dinner on the table, I wasn't hungry anymore...hmmmmm is this scam working? I don't know! But I sure slept good last night after the workout, and I didn't do the whole sweet and salty late night snacking thing that I always do....

Another Day....

Well another day has almost come to an end. Its still freezing cold here in South Dakota. We are supposed to get an ice storm tonight...this will make three for the week. I finally dug out my batik quilt that I have been working on since 2006....I got all the blocks finished and I am putting the sashing on. However I have no back for it yet. I made an agreement with myself that I could buy some Moda fabric but first I would have to finish all the projects that I had started. The batik is the last one! I am excited to start my Northern Solitude quilt. The fabric is so pretty. My blue and yellow Churn Dash is in my hoop getting hand quilted, my rail fence top is completed, and the batik is in my machine...Lots to do still! I love quilting. I taught myself how to quilt....At times I swear that I will never ever quilt again due to the trial and error process. I have wasted so much fabric by cutting it wrong. I have literally fried my brain doing the math...trying to understand "scant", how to do the rocking stitch, and how to make perfect points. But once I finally get it....ohhhh I love it! I have learned a lot by reading other people's blogs therefore I have decided to write my own.