Fabric, Fabric, Fabric!!!

You know what I have a perhaps unhealthy obsession with at the moment - FABRIC! There are just so many wonder fabrics out there to create with. I could spend hours browsing fabric shops and imagining all the wonderful projects I could create...I say I COULD because the fact is that I have small children and a job and household to run. However, I do find time to browse some great shops online and especially on Etsy.

Recently, I came across another great blog called A La Mode where I can also see some beautiful fabrics and great creativity. Even better, Heather over at A La Mode is having a fabric giveaway this week and next as well!!! If you get a chance, head on over and take a look at the site...and if you love fabric as much as I do, sign up for the give-away!

Day out With Thomas...

Yesterday we took the kids to see Thomas the Train! He was in town for a short time pulling train cars at the Vintage Railroad near us. For those of you that don't know, meeting Thomas is like way up there on the list for 3-year-old little boys...not so much for 8-year-old sisters but she had a great time as well!My son could not believe he was standing in front of THOMAS THE TRAIN!

Here we are as a family riding in one of the train cars. All the while on the ride songs from the Thomas series were playing and the kids were singing along!

Here they got to meet Sir Topam Hat. They are looking at the person there you pay to take your picture and not at me, but still a cute pic. The Little Prince had said all morning that he was going to shake Topam Hat's hand! He just beamed when he met him.

They had lots of Thomas and Friends models for the kids to play with.

Then there were some very elaborate models to look at but not touch.

It was a crisp sunny morning and a great time! There were bounce house, carnival food, music and stories for the kids and a great way to spend a weekend morning. The Prince has yet to stop talking about meeting Thomas!

Mod Quilt-Along Back Complete!!!

I DID IT!!!!

I completed the back of the quilt for the Quilt-Along today! I LOVE it. Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson was such a help and good guide through the project! I am quite pleased since this was my first time to attempt anything like this. You can see the other finished pieces at the Flickr site.

My little boy, for whom the quilt is for, was helping me this morning as I finished the back. He found a great new use for my sewing rulers! Roads! He was making roads and driving his little cars over them...it was precious!

Mod Quilt-Along Quilt Top COMPLETE!!!

Obviously I went with the blue sashing and am happy that I did! I think the quilt will be perfect for my little boy and a quilt that will grow with him since it it not too 'cartoon-ish'. Tomorrow I will take care of the back of the quilt. Hopefully that will not take me as long since it is not as involved as the top. This has been a great learning experience and I am quite happy with my first quilt so far.
Now off to enjoy an ice cold Diet Coke as my kiddos play outside some. We had some rain here yesterday and today so everything looks squeaky clean and greening up. Spring is here!!!

Finished Blocks all Laid Out!

I laid out all of the finished blocks for the top of the Mod Quilt from the Quilt-Along this afternoon! I have gone back and forth on which sashing to use on my quilt top for the baby-man so I put down the fabric for the blue sashing on one half of the blocks and the fabric for the cream sashing on the other half of the blocks and I made a decision.

The BLUE is the winner!

I appreciate how the cream stands out against the blocks, but I think the blue just really makes them pop and brings the work together. I will use the fabric you see in some in that bottom middle square with the darker navy background and yellow stars as the binding.

I will start sewing the sashing to the squares tomorrow. I was hoping to get to it today but I had too much work to catch up on, a meeting at church, dance class for the princess, a mountain of laundry, and a little boy that needed me to play!

As an aside, here is something soooo cute I watched and heard the baby-man say today during play. I had a neighbor friend over for a bit and she brought her son who is my son's age. They both have just recently turned 3. They were zipping around downstairs. As my son zipped by he says to the other little boy "Hey Jeff, I mean Batman, wait!" I stopped my son and asked him if he had said 'Batman' and he said yes so I asked him who he was and he said "I Superman!" It was such a sweet moment. Really the first time I have witnessed him really playing with a friend in a pretend role like that! He is growing so fast and it is such a blessing to be a part of his milestone moments!

My daughter just turned 8 and it happens so fast. It is such an amazing and truly awesome thing to be a parent and to join these little beings on their journeys to discovery. I cherish every single moment of it and am truly grateful to be their mother.

Block F Pieced and Sewn...

I finished piecing and sewing all the blocks for Block F this morning! Whew!!! I am still awaiting the alternate fabric in case I decide to nix the bottom far left and bottom far right fabric (both with stars in them).

I also laid all of the blocks out both with the navy sashing and the cream sashing and took pics so I could make the final decision on that with it all laid out. HOWEVER, I went to put my camera card in the computer to upload the pics and THERE WAS NO CAMERA CARD!!! It was still in my computer from uploading the last bunch. I desperately need to shower and tidy up around here so I will lay it all out again sometime later and CHECK FOR THE CAMERA CARD before taking them all up again!!!

Block E Pieced and Sewn...

I finished piecing and sewing block E for the Quilt-Along. I am wondering if the dominant fabric on the bottom far right and bottom far left work with the quilt...hmmm...I found some fabric in the Casbah line from Timeless Treasures that coordinates with the dominant fabric in the top far right and have that ordered to see if perhaps I want to remake the blocks containing the two 'star' fabrics and use the Casbah fabric. I will decide once I have the Casbah fabric in my hands. Right now, I have just block F left to go before all the blocks are complete so I will continue using the 'star' fabrics as if nothing else, I will use them in another project at some point. I also ordered some fabric called Modern Love for Timeless Treasures. So I will have some decisions to make about the 'star' fabric once all of these arive!!!

I am pretty sure I will go with the navy sashing as all of the votes were for navy and my hubby and sweet daughter both like that one too!

Which Color???

Option #1 off-white/cream sashing: Option #2 darker blue-on-blue tone sashing:

Okay I need advice.

I first chose an off-white/cream color for my sashing on the quilt for the Quilt-Along. However, my fabrics tend more towards the traditional instead of modern and I now think that the lighter color sashing might not work. I laid out the fabric I had chosen for the binding and wonder if that looks better for the sashing. I would have to choose a different binding fabric but that is okay because I have time to do that. I think the blue-on-blue tone fabric pulls out the blues and navy blue from the other fabric and makes the chocolates and tans look warmer.

What is your opinion? Do you like the lighter color or the darker blue OR do you have another suggestion???

Block D Pieced and Sewn...

I finished up Block D for the Quilt-Along this morning. Elizabeth had a great tip on her blog site about using freezer paper to help square up your blocks in case you are off a bit. I used it with these blocks as I did get a few a bit off. It worked great!

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Today is my Princess's EIGHTH birthday!!! I cannot believe she is 8! She is sitting here behind me while I type...She awoke this morning and came downstairs where I had the breakfast nook table all decorated and had her cake and presents out for her. She was so excited and could hardly wait to tear into the gifts. Daddy was just leaving for work so she (being the sweet little diplomat) asked to open one gift before daddy left so he could see and then save the other two for when her little brother woke up so he could enjoy too! Gotta love her negotiation skills ;-)

Will post pics of the Birthday Girl later, but now I want to go spend some time with her!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBEY!!!

Block C Pieced and Sewn...

I finished all the blocks for Block C in the Quilt-Along this evening! This is MY VERY FIRST quilt so while I am nervous that I am going to screw something up, I am just as anxious to see the finished product! I think, so far so good...

My little boy loves to look at the block above (first row, middle) and decide which woof-woof, or 'gog' as he pronounces 'dog' is hiding behind the little blocks that make up that big block! He is so cute...he will say, "um, this gog is hiding behind this whittle block." Just makes my heart smile!

Block B Pieced and Sewn...

I got Block B for the Quilt-Along pieced and sewn this morning! My little boy get so excited when he sees me working on his 'woof-woof' quilt ;-)

Yesterday I went with a friend to the Quilt Show in Dallas. There were some great quilts and yards of great fabric. I reined myself in and just bought a few great fat quarters to go with my Bee Fabric and then did buy fabric for my daughter's quilt when I finish with this one I am currently working on for the Prince!

Block A Pieced and Sewn...

I got all of my "Block A's" pieced and sewn. When I went to square up the blocks, there is really nothing to square up. In fact, I measured and I am a tad under the 8.5" across that the patterns says there should be. I measured my seam allowance and it is 1/4" and my pieces are the 4.5" each so what is the deal? If I pull it apart more it reaches closer to the 8.5" so am I just not ironing flat enough? I just did not want to distort the fabric. Elizabeth says that there is minuscule pieces if any you should be trimming up so hopefully I am okay!

I had my first experience with breaking a needle on my sewing machine this evening! Luckily my hubby was here to talk me off the ledge and help me get the broken needle out and a new one in and my machine working again! (I had the wrong stitch chosen for the presser foot I was using...just hit the wrong stinkin' button!) However, (and this was BEFORE the needle breaking fiasco) my sewing machine will not feed my fabric backwards to reinforce my stitching! The last time I used the machine it worked fine but today it won't feed it towards me for reinforcement but will totally feed it properly when sewing so I am not sure what it going on with that.

On a lighter note! My sweet hubby drove me and the little Prince over to a quilt shop in a neighboring town that a neighbor of mine frequents and I found the yummiest fabric! AND all the fabrics are $4.99 per yard that is 50% of what I usually find them for! Check out the Chloe's Imagination by Tina Givens for Free Spirit that I found! Wow. I bought her very last yard. I LOVE this fabric. Now I need to find some pretty yellow daisy fabric to pair it with and some brown and yellows and off we go on another project, perhaps for the Princess!

Go check out the Chloe's Imagination pictures at the FreeSpirit Quilting Fabric site as my pictures don't do it justice with this rainy day and low lighting.

Now off to snuggle the kiddies as it is officially SPRING BREAK for us and the Princess has a whole week out of school! YAY!

Quilt-Along...

Well, I am jumping in and doing my first Quilt-Along! Oh, Fransson! is hosting it at her site. I have admired her work for ages now, always checking and keeping up with her blog as time allows. She has some great step by step directions so far - even for us newbies! There is a Flickr group so we can all see each others' color choices and progress.

I decided to make my quilt for the little Prince, since the afghan (which the finishing border is IN PROGRESS on) is for the Princess. I found a great fabric at the quilt shop that features Blonde, Chocolate, and Black Labs! I just HAD to use that and then work all my coordinating fabrics around that one:

The lil' Prince's first Lovie happens to be a Webkinz Chocolate Brown Lab! (along with his blanka blue of course!) so you see, I just had to have these little puppies on the quilt! They will also be on a large part of the backing as well as the pieces of some blocks. The complimentary fabric for this one is a chocolate marble from Moda...of course...chocolate lab lovie :-)

Here are all the fabrics I have chosen:

The photos are a bit dark as we are having some rainy days here and there is little good natural light...sorry!

Here is a shot of all my patterned fabric:

And here is a shot of all the solid marbles from Moda:

Here is what I am using for the binding:

I cut all my pieces for the quilt yesterday! I was short less than 1/8 of an inch for one of the 4/5 x 4/5 squares I need for just one fabric so will have to run back up to the shop today to get a tad more of that one but otherwise, all the pieces are cut and ready for the fun part - piecing!!!