Tracing Hands and Making Plans {Artsy Fartsy With Aurifil and Island Batik}

This month our Island Batik challenge theme is Artsy Fartsy! The ambassadors have been tasked with making a project that uses at least three different weights of Aurifil thread. We are supposed to channel our inner quilt artists to create something Artsy Fartsy!

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics and Aurifil thread to use and share with you!

My plan for this month is to make a fun mini quilt for my hallway that is art quilt-inspired. But also, it's a little on the cheesy side and I had to enlist my lovely husband for the project too.

While its hard to see in this picture (and slightly easier to see in the second picture) I traced the hand and forearm of myself and my husband. He only agreed to participate if he did not appear in any pictures, so action shots of me tracing his hand are unavailable.

Next up, I pulled out a great brown Island Batik blender to use for these appliques.

A little trimming (and smoothing) later, I have a lady hand and a man hand for my project.

I pulled a number of half yard cuts and larger pieces for my background.

What color do you think I decided on? Any guesses on what I'm making here?

Happy Monday!

Puttering along

Lately I've felt like I have been puttering along with my projects and not getting very much done. I've been working a lot in the evenings and on Saturdays at my second job so this seriously cuts into my sewing time. 

I have finished all of the centers of my Block Bs for my Romantic Garden quilt and started adding the outer parts to the centers.

Lots of stitch and flip triangles going on here. The pattern actually calls for two HSTs plus a square of the large light floral, but I didn't want to chop up the pattern, so I did stitch and flip corners on larger rectangles instead.

Here are the last sets of side pieces ready to be sewn on to my Ohio stars.

I also finally got started on my Halloween Mini Swap quilt! My plan is to make a mini row quilt wall hanging about 18" by 24". Here's the first row -- lil' candy corns! God bless my 60 degree ruler.

I have lots of ideas for the other rows -- witch hats, black cats, bats, headstones, more candy, frogs -- but I'm not sure what to do yet!

In other news, yesterday was my 27th birthday and my husband took me to the Maryland Zoo for the day and I got to feed Caesar the giraffe! Next to bunnies, giraffes are my favorite animals.

Here's the action shot:

And here are Park Ranger Husband and I hanging out with the penguins!

Happy stitching! Linking up at Fabric Tuesday, Linky Tuesday, Building Blocks Tuesday, and WIP Wednesday!

Our Wedding Quilt -- One Year Late

In getting ready to post about Amanda and Mike's wedding quilt, I realized that I had never shared the quilt that Park Ranger Husband and I received as a wedding present made by my mom. I figured today was as good as any since it is our one year anniversary!

The backstory on this one isn't quite as elaborate because my mom was the only one involved in making this quilt rather than three of us. She did tell me that even before we got engaged she had decided that she wanted to make us a quilt for our wedding and that it should be a Civil War style quilt with Civil War fabrics because Park Ranger Husband is a Civil War historian.

(PS. I am SO happy I found this picture, because the other one I found was me holding it up with wet hair. Ew.)

The pattern for this quilt actually has some sort of floral motif in the center, but my mom decided to put a monogram there instead.

There are two of each little block (one on the outer ring and one in one of the inner rings) and every one is different! The entire quilt is hand quilted (you can see the cross hatch quilting in the medallion center) and my mom had to wait until after I came home for my cousin's wedding to put up the quilting frame to do the hand quilting. She had about 5 weeks to get the whole thing done and my dad says she disappeared every night to work on it.

So happy anniversary to us (we are going to VA to learn history and drink wine for three days! YAY!) and happy quilting to you!

Don't forget to sign up to participate in the Stash Bee for 2015!!

Bits and Pieces

Park Ranger Husband and I went up to Gettysburg and hiked about 2.5 miles. Go us! We're really trying to get our fitness on. He also bought me a Civil War Quilt book!

Do you think this means that he wants me to make him another Civil War quilt? We already have two -- one that I made, and the one my mom made us as a wedding gift (which I don't think I've ever blogged about!)

We also stopped by an AMAZING farm stand on our way home. I am most excited about making some stellar ribs with the apple butter BBQ sauce.

I have been doing a little bit of sewing that I can actually show you now. I have the base for my October wall hanging all put together:

Most of the yellow and orange on black floral print will end up behind the pumpkin. Hopefully this week I can start getting the pumpkin and border decorations (maybe little bats!) attached with fusible web while we watch TV tonight and tomorrow. I decided to skip from February to October so that I can actually use this one once we get back from my sister's wedding! Now to just buy another magnetic wall quilt hanger...

My scrap stash is still out of control, despite starting making my monthly wall hangings, participating in the Stash Bee and the Sew Pieceful Bee, I still have a pile of fabric just sitting on the floor. Oops. So I started making a few of the Lori Holt house blocks in the most recent issue of Quiltmaker. 

These are so cute and fun and I am very excited to make more! It'll be a little "dream house" quilt.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Happy Birthday, Park Ranger Husband!

Happy Birthday to my Park Ranger Husband -- my sometimes quilt spirit guide and always best friend.

Even though he can't bear to listen to the hum of the sewing machine all day, it's probably preventing me from going deaf as young as I might otherwise so I appreciate it, sort of.

Really Random Thursday: Thomas Pillow

This post could also be titled "How to make your husband love you forever."

I don't typically participate in Really Random Thursday at Live A Colorful Life but always enjoy reading it. Today I have a really random sewing project to share and show.

My dear husband uses a lot of pillows and not too long ago he bought himself a travel sized pillow to use between his knees. Since then he's had it in a regular sized pillow case which is two times too big.

Fast forward to me working on FMQ-ing my 2013 Stash Bee Quilt (that I don't think is going to get done this month, boo!). I always test my tension on scrap fabric and batting sandwiches and the fabric I was using was from a piece of Thomas the Tank Engine fabric and when my husband saw this he went on and on about how much he loved Thomas when he was a kid.

So using the travel pillow as a guide, I cut two rectangles of fabric and made him a pillowcase that actually fits the small pillow in less than 15 minutes.

The stripe on the back is actually a coordinate in the line that the Thomas and friends print is from so it matches perfectly! My husband was very excited and wants me to make him a second one for when this one is in the wash.

Sharing my silly story at Really Random Thursday!