Friday Night Sew-In

Friday Night Sew-In, hosted by Homemade by Heidi,  is all about committing to 'you time' to work on a sewing project each month.

In order to prep for my intense sewing session I picked up a few things to make my sewing machine happier.  I also learned about the need to oil my sewing machine from time to time.  Whoops.  Before last night, I had never.  Last night was interesting.

So, I started to take apart the sewing machine to clean it really well... all I wanted to do was add a few drops of oil where the metal parts touch metal parts and then be back in business.  Have you ever taken apart a sewing machine?  Urrggg!  Let's just say I learned a lot.  And I have extra pieces.  Ya, don't ask. 

Oh, and huge huge shout out to my darlin' Mr Happy.  I love that man!!  I would still have an out of commission sewing machine if it weren't for him.  Yup, he saves me like that a lot.  Certainly one of the reasons I love him so much!!

After the take apart and cleaning adventure it was already late.  Ya, feeling like I failed Friday Night Sew-In I went to bed.

But, my machine now runs like-a-butta!!  I'm talking smooth as a baby's butt awesome!  I think that's why I woke up bright and early and got a quick start on what I was originally planning. 

I have a lot of detail shots to share today.  I promise to reveal the final quilt as soon as I finish it off and gift it (remember I told you here about starting this Plaidly Quilt for a special guy in my life?)

I loaded up a few bobbins of my new metal bobbins with pretty blue thread.

I added more borders to increase the size of this lap quilt.

I used a lot of pins as the piece got bigger!

I added some fun details with hand sewing.

My incredible assistant was never too far away.  After all, someone has to quality inspect the softness what will be the backing.

I think this is a passed inspection, don't you?  Thanks Katie!

I laid out the backing and cut it to size in order to start the sandwich part of the quilt.  A little gray-blue fleece, the pieced top with squishy and warm batting in the middle.  My kind of sandwich!!

And, good news!  The sandwich has also passed softness quality inspection.  Love love love that dog!!

So, there you have it.  Another happy sewing adventure.  I made great progress and should be able to get a good start on the quilting tonight.

I am very glad to have another excuse to close myself in my sewing room and churn away!!  You can check out other Friday Night Sew-In participants here.

Happy Moment #7: Pucker Up!

A Friday ritual with Soulemama.  A single photo (ok, maybe two today) - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary, happy moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments too!

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

~Omar Khayyam

Plaidly Manly Quilt

I am working on a quilt for a lovely person in my life who I want to make a tad bit warmer and snuggled!

The inspiration went as follows:

I had this pair of pants that didn't fit right, but I wanted to steal the pockets from it and incorporate them into a quilt.  Who doesn't want a quilt with a handy pocket?

The person I am making this for is of the male variety... so I dug through my fabrics and pulled all the manly colors and patterns out.

The blue swirls and stars fabric didn't end up getting used (yet) and it may not be used in this project.

As I started to pick through the fabric I noticed a cool theme of plaids.  With all that action in the fabric already, I knew I would benefit from a simple pattern.

Like squares!!

I was feeling a bit lazy to follow a particular quilt pattern, so I just started cutting the fabrics into strips and then squares of three sizes with a lap size quilt in my head. 

This quilt has been itching to come out of my head for a few weeks now and it's great to see it shaping up like I thought it might.

Once I had lots of squares all stacked up... I started to lay them out into a sort of 'planned' pattern.  --read, I  made it all up here folks.

Yes, I'm on the floor and this is the layout I ended up liking the most.  I need to learn more about what a piecing wall is and figure out how to get one/make one pronto! 

Yes, fabric on the floor drove my doggy crazy.  At one point she leaped into the room and did a home run slide on all the loose squares and then ran out like a wild banshee!  See what I mean about needing that wall!

Dang, I love that dog!!

As of last night I have sewn most of the top together -- the middle, the borders, that cool pocket!!  And even though I free hand cut the squares, they fit -- phew, perfection doesn't really live here, this is more about love and comfort!

I am still not sure if it's big enough... its coming in about 45 x 36... but I will make a final sizing decision once I get the rest of the pieces together tonight.

A closer look at the pocket that started this whole thing.  Doesn't it look neat with those different sized squares surrounding it?

I'm thinking you could put tissues, or a cell phone, or a fork and knife, or a pretty letter in that pocket.  The options are really endless -- well I guess the size is limited, but you know what I mean :)

All the fabric to this point was left over or saved from other projects... but I didn't have anything for the back that said "uber soft and warm -- like a big big hug." 

So, I picked up this very light blue-gray fleece material and can't wait to start making up a big 'ole plaidly sandwich.

I'm hoping to have this sewn together, loose threads clipped, quilted, and binded by the end of the weekend.  Really looking forward to putting this quilt in the person's hands!!  Yes, I'll tell you more once I gift it!

Linking to My Creative Space hosted by Kootoyoo, where you can see lots of other creative works in progress and kicking the Midweek Blues with Rebecca at The Dusty Cellar.

Come Walk in the Woods

Even with fall setting in and the weather cooling off I still can't resist a walk in the woods. 

Come for a quick walk, won't you?
There are seed pods releasing seeds and old rock structures looking camouflaged in the orange and red leaves.

The lake is looking gorgeous with it's surrounding pop of color.

There are bushes brightly changing and giving off one last show before the snow.

The fluffy tails are blowing in the wind.

It's blustery... leaves blowing this way and that, dancing down the sky and landing softly on the water.

Yup.  It's fall alright.  Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week too. 

Hope you enjoyed the slower pace today.  More projects and creative goodness coming tomorrow!

A Little Monkey Business

Ok, promise you won't laugh too hard, but honest this counts as playing with fabric!

There once was a puppy....

... who had a large stuffed orange monkey...

This puppy just adored playing with this monkey.  The love showed...

...in the form of holes where monkey stuffing started to come out.  (and slobber and drool in the fur too!)

Luckily, there was also this loud orange fabric...

The flowers and stripes had made this very hard to use previously.  But, alas, the perfect reason to whip this fabric out and use it to it's full potential!

The puppy waited patiently for the monkey to come out of 'surgery.' 

An nice flowery neck brace was all this overly loved monkey needed to get back to playing with the adorable happy puppy.

It was quickly cut to size, pinned in place, and then stitched all the way around top and bottom using doubled up thread for extra strength. 

Once the monkey was done he felt renewed!

And even a little bit more stylish!

Puppy and monkey were reunited in a burst of excitement.

The morale of the story?  Don't ever throw that scrap of fabric out ... even if you don't totally love it any more, because you never know when you might need to patch up your own 'monkey.'

The end.

Check out other sew-o-holics and their projects at the Quilt Stories Fabric Tuesday!

The adventure has just begun!

On this day, two years ago, I married my best friend.

It was a 60 degree November day in NY.  The rain had stopped.  This mysterious fog had set in.  I put on a wedding dress and tied an orange ribbon around a bouquet of white roses.  As I walked down the spiral stair case I got to see my Mr. Happy smile ear to ear.  I think it was a moment where we were both realizing that today was the day we would marry each other.

We drove together, to one of our favorite hiking spots, talking the whole way about whether or not we were nervous or excited.  I was initially a bit nervous, but found the whole thing very calming, very natural.  We met the minister at the hiking spot.  Katie was all ready to go as our flower girl.  Our families arrived shortly after. 

We started the ceremony right before noon.  It was short and simple, but infused with words that held a lot of meaning for us.  Rings were exchanged and we were read this final blessing...

Old Apache Blessing (Author unknown)

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other.  Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.  Now there is no loneliness.  You are two bodies, but there is one life before you, and one home.  You will take each others hand and you’ll turn together to look at the road you traveled to reach this---the hour of your happiness.  It stretches behind you and the future lies ahead.  A long and winding road, whose every turn means discovery, old hopes, new laughter and shared tears.  May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years, May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth.  The adventure has just begun!

Then came the moment where we shared our first kiss as husband and wife.  (and yes those titles still sound funny!)

Once the ceremony was through, we both had the biggest smiles on our faces.  I like to remember that moment.  I hope we can always be those two crazy in love happy's! 

We celebrated the rest of the day with cupcakes, dinner, and lots of merriment!

And they lived happily ever after!!

Mr. Happy, I love you so much.  I am so proud of all we have been able to accomplish together and feel like the luckiest girl to share my life with you. 

XOXO XOXO XOXO

Last year's anniversary thoughts and more wedding details can be found here.

Happy Moment #6: Photographer

A Friday ritual with Soulemama.  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary, happy moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

~Omar Khayyam

Looking for Guinevere

I have gotten so used to looking things up on my blog now that I nearly have two years of content.  I love how easy it is to find old projects, see progress on things, and find archived Katie photos.  So, when I went to look for my pink and orange girly quilt and didn't find it I was puzzled. 

I think it was a timing issue.  I started this blog in February 2009 and finished the quilt in March 2009 -- so I can see how it was maybe left off.

Why am I on this tangent?  I am planning a new quilting project and was looking back on my previous projects for inspiration.  That's when it hit me that I hadn't properly shown you this quilt yet. 

Let's fix this... introducing "Looking for Guinevere." 

The name is inspiration from my dog Katie who's original name was to be Guinevere.  You see the breeder gave all their pups royal names -- funny right?  And making this quilt was like the adventure we took for Katie to join our family... bits of this, a little bit random and lucky, not quite perfect, but we couldn't be happier to have her with us!  And the same goes for this quilt!

Here are a few of the blocks in progress.  So fun to see them come to life in the colors and fabrics I picked out.

I remember when I was working on this quilt.  It was cold.  And I enjoyed just dedicating myself to running into my command center (office) every night and working on this until my eyelids were too droopy to stay open. 

I just couldn't get enough.  So, when I saw the top sewn together for the first time I knew I was in love.  This is my first quilt.  My first large fabric piece.  The spark that ignited the intense love of all things soft and fabric!

At the time the largest space I had to work on was a small card table that I set up in my office.  I'm not sure I remember what was under the quilt at the time to cause that bulge, but I am guessing it was heaps of fabric, scissors, and books.

I originally did a quilting pattern only on the outer two most rows.  At the time it was all I could fit in before an art show that I entered this piece into.

Now, nearly 1.5 years later I have this hanging on my wall in my first house... and I realize just how much I love it! 


Here are some fresh outdoor pictures taken in the cold November air. 

And there it is.  My first fabric love. 

I have since started a queen-king size quilt for our bed and am ready to pick that project up again.  I am also working on a lap size quilt this week for a special person in my life who could stand to be a little bit warmer... a little bit more cuddled.

Quilting certainly sparked and re-sparked my love affair with fabrics and the comforting hum of the sewing machine!