oh yes! it's done!!!

It's done!! It's done!!!

I can't tell you how thrilled i am to be learning how to do this!!!! I have found that free motion quilting is soooo fun, and soooo my favorite part now!! Granted... I don't play by any rules. LOL Not even sure if there ARE any rules?? :)

Got the big alter ego quilt finished last night, after almost 5 hours of sewing down the binding, i was ever so eager to get it in the wash!!! It turned out sooo good!! I am in love!! And blown away that I did this!!! LOLOL

I also got another one finished... it's a mini quilt... 32"x32" for a swap with my good friend Jacque. So... yah... can't show you the front. LOL At least until i send it to her!! But here's the back :) I am almost loving this little quilt as much as the big one!!! It's a good thing I love her as much as i do! Or else it would be taking up residence in my living room!!! Again, crinkly goodness!! :)

Back of alter ego quilt after washing....

back of alter ego quilt, wide view...

and.... voila!!! the front!! It measures 6ft x 7 ft

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

Total love affair!!

Too bad it's going to someone else!!

:(

But that's ok, cuz I'm keeping my first one... the practice quilt...the smaller white one down below!

I am starting on another one, as a Christmas gift for a friend. But probably won't put much time into it this week or next. I HAVE to get my house in order!! I sorta played the "run away" game after getting home from Texas. You know that game, don't you?

It goes something like this...

Go away for a week, leaving kids and hubby to wreak havoc in house while you're gone...

come home to house that looks like tornado actually touched down INSIDE your house...

immediately run away to the one safe place in house...

creative haven of craft room...

stay in room for days on end, focusing on large project....

only come up for air when one must cook for their people...

pretend rest of mess doesn't exist until one can cope...

finish big project, and take horse blinders off....

realize the mess hasn't magically dissapeared...

take pride in newly finished project...

as it was intant gratification compared to what awaits...

and return to house with renewed sense of ability to rise and conquer...

and finally tackle what the family tornado left in their wake!

with a sense of "I am woman!! (I made a quilt!) Hear me roar!!"

LOL

too bad the runaway game is over! I really enjoyed being dissapeared for a while!!

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL BLESSED week this week!!!

I will be cleaning my little heart out!

Wish me luck!!! :D

xo

Bren

Hiya :)
It's been a crazy week. Soo busy! But, I'm alive and well. I worked on my alter ego quilt yesterday and got it all quilted. Yay!! Will work on the binding today. So I should have pics of it by tomorrow all crinkled and ready to use! Wooohooo!!! I'm finding that i LOVE the quilting process!! Who woulda thunk? The part i was most "afraid" of! LOL
Been working on getting my craft/wool room/studio in more of a semblance of order and organization. That in itself is a tall order! But it's coming along!
Have a doctor's apt this morning and hopefully getting into see the chiropractor, as I'm all outa whack and my bones are screaming at me. :(
Do you ever feel like you are chasing your tail? And doing it real fast? But getting no where?
That's me these last couple weeks. Trying to slow down, and accomplish more, and trying to breath each day. Hate it when I get "in this place" !!
But trying to focus more on God, and less on the hurry and scurry of the world. Hard to do sometimes!
Hope you have a bright blessed day!
xo Bren

Crinkly goodness!!!

I DID IT!!!! :D

You have nooooo idea how nervous i was about machine quilting this!! And the big one to come still!! Well... after finally finding quilting gloves, the right foot, some awesome cool thread, and took a big gulp of air, I dove in! About 10" into it, I wanted a curly cue ... and once i did one.. i wanted it ALL to be that way! So went with lots of looptiloops and just had FUN with it!!

Well... I AM IN LOVE. LOL

I stayed up late last night hand sewing on the binding. Cuz I wanted to get this in the wash and dryer as soon as i could!! I couldn't stand it any longer! Those 3 hours of hand sewing seemed to last forever (not normally an issue for me! lol) just cuz i couldnt get it in the washer fast enough! hahaha!!

I was questioning if i had quilted too close together... and was it "too much"?? But now that it is fresh out of the dryer.... my answer is and emphatic NO!! It's just what i wanted!!! :D YAY!!! YAHHOOOOO!!!!! I AM TICKLED PINK!!!

There is such a crinkly goodness about the puckers in a quilt! Love love love!

So here are a few pictures to bore you to death, i'm sure. But I am beside myself, and so thrilled to have done this! You have noo idea!! LOL

This is what my wonky quilting looked like before being washed. Loops, swirlys, and just plain whimsical! :) I know to any good quilter's eye, there are many many mistakes and i probably broke 100 rules. LOL

And here it is after binding and washing. I tell ya. It's love! :D

Thank you sooooo much to Dana for putting on this quilt along for all us new naive quilters!! And now to tackle the BIG HUGE HONKIN alter ego quilt!! Wish me luck!!

And to all my primitive loving friends.... remember.... i am immersed in pink day in and day out, as i have two little girls!!! LOL

Learning!

OK... so... stippling.

Not so much a "natural" thing! LOL Although... it could be really fun! I finally got my machine figured out... had to really crank up the tension, and lowered the stitch to 0 . The hard part was having the pedal to the metal, and hearing the needle going 100mph, and NOT trying to zoom your hands around! LOL!! High speed needle, medium speed hands. DEFINITELY going to take some practice!!! :D

This is a quick picture of my first try. Found out that this LITTLE (12x12?) sandwhich was even hard to control, as my hands kept slipping. I'm told having quilting gloves will help with that. So now I need to go find a pair! I just know once I have the weight of the quilt on there, it is going to be a booger to move around freely like this! And no... sigh... i didn't win the long arm quilting give away :(

AND ... sigh... Jacque is NOT going to quilt all my quilts for me... UNLESS I win the awesome Janome sewing machine and then give it to her! LOLOL THEN she will quilt all my quilts for me!

Sadness!! :(

Soo.. guess i better learn how to do this, huh? LOL Or become a really good customer of Russ'!!

Got the white quilt sandwhiched and pinned and ready to go. Just waiting on some quilting thread that I ordered... going to try this thread from www.connectingthreads.com that Crazy Mom Quilts reccomends. The thing that really caught my attention was that you get 5,000 yards on a spool !! Unlike those little bitty spools of quilting thread for $4 a piece, and you go through what... about 50 0f them?!? LOL it feels like it!! So hoping this is GOOD thread - for that price, and that much I will be doing the happy dance if it is!!! I'll let ya know how it goes! Hoping to try quilting it this weekend! Oy. Wish me luck!! LOL

So last weekend we went to the ballpark market. Like a little antiquy flea market. :) I didn't buy much, just a couple things. And my husband thinks i was nuts to spend $5 on this...

But hey... #1 it is a great idea! #2 will i EVER get around to putting one together myself?!? NOPE!! So it was worth the 5 bucks!! LOL I hung it in my sewing room right above my sewing machine. Great for clipping ideas up on.. inspirational thoughts, fabrics, things you dont want to forget!

AND I got this darling basket!! Perfect for my wool strips that seem to multiply all by themselves! Cute, huh?

I like it!!

I got a few other things... cant mention them here as they are gifts for other peeps that read the blog. Sooo... that's about all I know today! Will be down at the shop all day tomorrow. And the Old Glory fair is this weekend! woohooo!!! Looking forward to that, as I go every year! Will be missing my son though, as he usually goes with me and we make a day of it.

Wish he still liked to hang with his mom! :(

Any of you are welcome to come with if you want! It's a prim junkers heaven!

xo

Hope you have blessed weekend!

Bren :)

Sunday

Good Sunday morning!
Well, my two older kids are leaving for camp this morning. I know they are really excited, and probably didnt sleep much last night! LOL This is a much looked forward to event each year. This will be their last time at this camp... junior high... next year they will be "thrown in with the sharks" in the high school camp! LOL The high school retreat is such a huge change from this one.. it's life changing. My oldest son came back from CIY (Christ in Youth) completely and totally humbled, in awe, and in the Spirit! I think I can honestly say that week was a paradigm shift for him..
Both Em and Bay could have gone to that one this year... but I just didnt think they were ready, maturity wise, just yet. They're still all about silly pranks and fun games! LOL
But I know they will come back with a renewed sense of excitement and love for their Savior!! :)

I have been a total slacker the last few days. Have been sooo tired, and can't seem to focus on any one thing for very long. Have had ants in my pants, and in my noggin apparently!
My darning foot arrived yesterday - was soo excited!! And I went and bought backing and batting for the quilts. Now to get my backing for the small one put together and pin it all up and give this a whirl!
I'm hoping to spend a little time down in my sewing room puttering with that, and also hoping to pull out my rug and the wool mess that goes with it, and plop down on the couch and hook a bit, while enjoying a Bones marathon! We'll see how that goes. LOL Good intentions and all that...

I also need to get some things packaged up and ready to send out on monday morning. And that seems to take ALL day.. but if i can get them done, THEN I can sit and create a little!
Looking forward to church this morning. But not looking forward to the kids leaving afterward! I always miss them sooo much while they're gone. But knowing how much fun they're having helps me to get over it pretty fast! LOL
Hope you all have a wonderful sabbath day, and enjoy your day of rest!!
Bright blessings,
Bren :)

Adult ADD and quilt progress

Quilt along progress... got all but two rows sewn together of my alter ego quilt :) Yay! Shoulda finished that up today... but was going all ADD after being stuck at home with no car for 3 days... and got a bee in my bonnet to do this instead.....

I think it's going to be wayyy cute once it's quilted and all puckered up!! Isn't it sweet ? I used the left over odd sized blocks from the alter ego quilt, and bleached muslin, since that's what I had. Everything was going along juuuussstt fine... until I added that top row... and ruh roh!! Why's that one soo much longer than the others??!! LOL... apparently one of my odd blocks was a good bit larger than all the others and threw that whole top row off!! Well i'll be darned if i was going to pull it all out - specially since i didnt have another block! lol So... did the next best thing... improvised a little!! hahaha!! Added some extra borders to the side - it needed it anyway! :D And besides, I did this not only because i thought it would be wayyyy cute, but because i wanted a smaller one to practice machine quilting on. Well... it didn't turn out much smaller. LOL This one is 46 by 72, the other is 72x84 - so i shrunk one side down at least! hahaha!!

And my friend Jacque has informed me that the reason i hate to machine quilt is because i don't have the correct sewing machine foot - that supposedly makes it MUCH easier! So I'm willing to give it a go! I bought a darning foot off of ebay and hope it arrives before i totally lose interest in trying to quilt these myself! LOL And if that doesn't make it easier and more enjoyable (ANYTHING has to be more enjoyable than the two I have done previously!!!) well then... Jacque is going to quilt ALL my quilt tops from that point forward!! Whoooohooo!!! Lucky meee!!!! :D

I want to do a wonky log cabin next! Squares squares and polka dots! LOL Having soo much fun!! My poor comstock rug has taken a little vacation till i can get this out of my system! :P

Hoping to get my van back tomorrow so i can get outa the house!!! Been scootering all around my little 2 mile radius the last few days :)

Hope you have a blessed day!!!

Alter Ego Quilt

Ok, ya'll are going to think i've lost my marbles! :)

But I haven't.... really!

Do you remember me sharing with you a loonngg time ago, that i have this little "alter ego" that just DIGS on polka dots and squares? And do you remember me also sharing that there was somthing about lime green, and pink... and blues and browns that just make me HAPPY??

And I'm talkin WAYYYYY outside my normal seriously primitive palette. LOL

WAY WAY outside.

But ... they just make me smile, and feel like turning in circles and blowing bubbles, and playing hide and seek... basically an inner child. (funny i was soo NOT into pink when i was little!!)

Wellllll.... i'm embracing my wild side! :D

I have always wanted to make a quilt with bright pinks, greens, blues, whites, purples... but then i catch ahold of myself ...cuz my love of prim far outweighs these little crazy moments. And besides... WHERE would it go?? LOL it would stick out like a sore thumb at my house!!

Well no better time... Dana from Old Red Barn Co. is having a quilt along! I have long admired her quilts (bright and funky) and her quilter's skill - Russ from Back Porch Quilters - seriously drool every time she posts a new one that he sends back!

She is doing a 6 week quilt along.. and giving step by step instructions, with pictures, and a group over on flikr. Check it out! and I thought no better time to try this than NOW!!! hee hee! I am soooo excited!

So I got my strips cut, sewn together and the blocks cut. Laid it out in my family room..... now to sew all the blocks together.. and then... to ... gulp..... quilt it. This is a BIG HONKER and i am reallllyyyy not excited about the quilting portion!! LOL (small girth sewing machine does not make this fun! lol)

So... laugh all ya want at my HOT PINK, GREEN & BLUE quilt!! But I LIKE IT!!! :D

hee hehe heheheheee

Camp progress

Here are some pics of the in progress rugs from our class with Jayne Hester. I am missing one rug... :( But this is the progress we made in 3 days. LOL Apparently we were labeled "the brown group" .. hmm... wonder why?? :D

Just gotta say I LOVED going to this camp. And I love Jayne as a teacher!! Her color sense is unparalleled.

Maybe some of you will say... gee... we dont wanna see a bunch of half finished rugs! LOL

But I know there are others like me out there that love seeing them in progress! Our group was serious hookin fools and got tons done in that short amount of time!! Don't forget you can click on the pics to enlarge them and see more detail.

Hope you have a wonderfully blessed day! I have a ton of things to catch up on here at home (yay! finally home!!) before going to the shop tomorrow. Wish I could just sit and hook!!! LOL

xo Bren

Still in Texas.. pics for you

Hi Ya'll !
I'm still in Texas... my last day :)

I have sooooo thoroughly enjoyed this camp! Pretty much chatted out... tired brain! But thought I would post some pictures for you... about a third that I have and will share with you. More eye candy so to speak! :)
I truly believe that seeing other people's work not only inspires and motivates us.. but trains our eye, educates us, and helps move us in a more positive direction in our art!

I believe that if we stop on things that are are great - and actually analyze WHY IT WORKS, and works so well... you LEARN! Similarily, if you look at ones that aren't neccesarily fantastic.. but just "ok"... and analyze WHY it's only ok... you learn what not to do, and maybe what could have been done better to make it a better piece! Don't you think so? Others motivate us with style, design, or color... and we recognize right away that THAT is what I like!!! What is it about that piece that you like?? Can you incorporate that particular concept into future pieces? How? LOL or if you're like me... can you REMEMBER that concept long enough to incorporate it into your next rug?? LOLOL

Anyway, I hope some of these wonderful rugs INSPIRE you to pick up your hook today!

These are some of the finished rugs that were in the rug show this week.

Enjoy. Create. Grow!
Blessings,
Brenis :)

ps... you can click on any of these photos to see larger more accurate representations!!