In looking over some of the older pictures in Adobe Photoshop today, I rediscovered some very cute ones of Joshua at the sewing machine and the Fabric Attack episode. This first picture is of Joshua attempting to operate a modern piece of machinery ~ aka as my sewing machine!!!!  The picture is from January 2003, so Joshua almost 2.5 years old.

These next pictures are from September 2003, so Joshua would be almost 3 years old. We (hubby, Joshua and myself) had an awesome time literally THROWING fabric into the air and watching Joshua attempt to hit it like he was playing baseball. Yes, he still loves to play baseball.

Yes, the fabric is above his head!!!!

Do you think he is proud of the mess he created? Trust me, he was!!!

And in case you are wondering, that handful of fabric was headed towards me. Thankfully fabric is soft.

Nope, he's not enjoying himself at all. Ya, right!!!

Batter up!!

I really like this picture as it captures the fun he was having with us and it's just too cool to see fabric suspended in mid-air.

Thanks for looking and letting me share some memories with you.

No, this isn't going to be about UFO's ~ unidentified flying objects!!! But about quilty unfinished objects. Most of these projects, and this doesn't represent all of them, have been around for years. Maybe this is THE YEAR to get them FINISHED.

First up is a Friendship Star 6" block swap that I participated in with the girls on the Wrap Them In Love Yahoo group, um, back in 2004. So it's not that old....just aged a bit. I don't know how many blocks I have, but a simple and easy setting is definitely a requirement for this one to be finished.

This one is more recent as it was started in mid 2007. On the Stashbusters Yahoo Group, a lady was asking for volunteers to test a quilt pattern. Um, sounds interesting to me so I put my name into the hat. Well, it was a great experience for me. I had all the intention of making a king sized quilt for our king sized bed. And trust me I have more than enough bits of scraps to make a king sized quilt and pillowcases, and, and, and....well you get the point. This is the middle section of the quilt and this is as far as I've gotten. I had thought of making it into a doll quilt for my niece for this past Christmas, but went with a Barbie instead. I think a simple doll quilt would be a good finish for this. As for the rest of those 2.5" squares I've already cut, well, I am sure they can be made into something, sometime. The name of the pattern is Grandma Cora's Quilt.

Okay, this one is just pathetic. I think the first New Year's we were in our current house, back in 2006, I really wanted to make something that day. Well I cut up fabric into 6.5" squares and attempted to make a flower type of quilt using the flower fabric as the center portion. Um, you can see how far I've gotten with that. I was simply impossible. So right now I'm not sure what I'll do with this mess I've started. Maybe I'll picked up some other fabric, unless I have something in my stash, and make big 4-patches out of it. I'm honestly not sure this one will ever get made into a quilt of any kind. Um, maybe Dixie Grits, the dog would like it when I'm finished.

This is from a class I took for the Bethany Reynolds Stack -n- Whack quilt technique. I bought the fish fabric when hubby and I were in Charleston. Note this was started before kids, so that would have been before mid 2000. Um, quite a while that this one has "aged". I apologize for the quality of this picture. It was taken at night and my craft room just doesn't has the best lighting. The setting triangles are yellow, almost a marbled effect. The center block is a swirl orange cream soda color fabric. It's very pretty, but I didn't have enough of it to do a border. So years later, a few quilt guild friends and I went to Mary Jo's in Gastonia, NC.  It was at Mary Jo's that I finally found the orange cream soda color fabric and yes, I did a happy dance right there at Mary Jo's. If you are within 5 hours driving time of Mary Jo's, you HAVE to go. Imagine a super Wal-Mart sized store FULL OF FABRIC and notions. My heart is in palpatations just thinking of it. Um, sounds like a birthday present for me -- hint hint hubby!!!!   In order to finish this, I am ripping off the fish border that I had originally put on, then I'll add the orange fabric, then the fish border again. The green fabric is not good quality, nor do I have enough of it to do another border. Finishing this one shouldn't be too difficult.

This is a Double Wedding Ring (DWR) quilt that was started before kids, so it's aged a bit too. Again this was a class that was taught at the local quilt store. The difference in this DWR quilt is you sew strips, then using a template, you cut out the rings. It definitely is easy to do it this way. Of course learning to sew the curves was a challenge. I can't say that I'm good at it, but only the quilting is left to do on this one. It will be a challenge doing the binding ont his one as part of the curve of the rings are the outer edge. I am not sure that I have much left of the pink fabrics, but I do know I have a ton of the periwinkle main fabric. I really like this quilt and would really like to have it finished soon.

It's probably really difficult to tell, but this quilt is made up of Africian animal themed blocks. I had originally thought this would be Caleb's baby blanket. It might have been if I had used a much thinner and less stiff heat -n- bond type of product to fuse the blocks to the sky fabric. The border is a cool leaf fabric. So all that is really needed for this one to be finished is the batting, the backing and probably a black binding. I think for the quilting I'll just do swirls or maybe swirly clouds. The blocks themselves have already been sewn down with a buttonhole stitch. So hopefully this one can be done quickly.

I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, um, well, I've had the JOY banner around for a loooong time. I think this was goes back to 1999. Gasp and I've still haven't been able to actually enjoy it for Christmas. I can't remember the magazine I found this pattern in. The problem and I know you can't tell from this poor quality picture, is I used gold thread (don't ever do this) to do the buttonhole stitch around the JOY. Um, won't ever do this again. And because I used a stiff fusible on the back, it's beyond difficult if not impossible to rip out the stitches. I've ripped out some, but I don't think I'm going to be able to get them all out. So right now I am at a stand still on how to finish the buttonhole around the letters. Suggestions anyone? Once the letters are done, and probably the leaves too, then it's a matter of deciding whether to do any quilting on the white background, and add the binding. So I have a bit more than 300 days left to finish this one. Can I do it? Yes, I can!!

This was a "Row Robin" that I did with a quilt guild I use to be in. A Row Robin simply means that everyone does a row and sends it to the next person. I didn't have a theme in mind when I made the pinwheel blocks (the row above the trains at the bottom). I did use a cream colored Gingerbread themed fabric and then thebrown fabric has little hearts.  It was again at Mary Jo's that I found a good quality black fabric. So I think in order to finish this quilt, I need to figure out if the black will be the first border or that pinky purple fabric in the next picture. The final border will be the batik. I'll probably bind the quilt in black. One thing I have learned that hard way, when it comes to black fabric, don't skimp. Pay the money and get the best quality available. So buying black fabric from Wal-Mart wouldn't be a good choice. Here's another picture showing the quilt up close.

The amount of work these ladies did for this quilt is simply awesome. There are police cars, boats, trains, ballons. Maybe one day this quilt can be finished too.

And this is probably the oldest (if my memory is correct) UFO I have. It's a two-color Delectable Mountain quilt. The original pattern had a Sawtooth border, but I had already had my fill of making half-square triangles, so I went the easy way and did a stirp border. And just like a lot of my other quilts, the border is "wavy". So I'm ripping off the border and hoping to making it better the second time around. I have a ton of the blue flower fabric, but I don't think I have any significant amount of the white left. By the way this was started in either 1998 or 1999.

Well that concludes part 1 of the UFO Project List. I know there are at least 2+ UFO's that I haven't unearthed yet in the craft room. When I do, I'll share pictures of them. Of course once I find the rotary cutter that I really like and make sure it has a new blade, then I can really begin tackling these quilts.  As always, thanks for looking!!

While I am rolling along sharing some of the quilting/sewing related projects I've completed (ah, what a wonderful feeling of something FINISHED), here are a few more.

I picked up this remnant of fleece at Hancock's only because I really liked the vibrant colors. Originally I had thought of making it into a scarf for hubby, but decided it wasn't "manly" enough. Last night after finding a rotary cutter that is in desperate need of a blade change, I trimmed it up the best I could and made some little fringe. Since the weather is a bit chilly right now, if I do venture outside, I'll be happy to have a fleece scarf to warm me up!!

In the early months of 2007, I decided it was time for me to have an apron. Whenver I cook or bake, I have a tendency to wipe my hands on my shirt and pants. So an apron really is a necessity for me.  Even though I have two aprons patterns, of course I couldn't find them. After thinking about this for weeks, and looking at towels at Wal-Mart, I knew it could be done frugally.  I bought a cheap bath towel, some grossgrain(?) for the ties and  coordinating dishclothes. Sewing through terrycloth isn't easy. My machine was less than happy with this task. I flipped up the towel in the middle so that I could create pockets. Into one of those pockets I sewed two of the dishclothes. I wished I had made the tie ribbons longer as it's hard for me to reach around my back and tie/untie them. As for the tie around the neck, it works, but the weight of the towel is too much.

In hindsight I am glad that I was able to envision this idea and make it work. However, if I were to do this in the future, I probably wouldn't use a towel as the weight of it is really too much on the neck.  Plus I really like the idea of having dishcloths to wipe my hands on. So I would definitely add that feature, but attach them with a button so they could be washed separately. My apron has been used by not only me, but the boys ~ they like to dry their hands on the towel, ur apron. 

While hubby was working in my craft room before Christmas getting the computer ready for the boys, I found a piece of fabric that I didn't recognize. Talk about suprised when I opened it up and realized it was a Chrismtas apron. So on Christmas Eve, while hubby was doing the computer thing, I sewed this little apron right up. I am very happy with the end result. So happy that the last time I was at Hancock's I picked up four more aprons, all Christmas themed as they were 75% off ~ can't beat that frugal deal.

And for the last project of the day, here's a purse I did a few years ago. The actual purse is from the craft section of Wal-Mart. I think it was just a few dollors. I found this Fun Fur (?) and crocheted it. That was the most  difficult crocheting I've ever done. I found a huge hook and made sure my stitches were definitely loose, very loose. Then I sewed the "fur" around the top of the purse. It's definitely cute, but I don't know that I'd do the crocheting of the fur again.

Here's my follow-up from the wonderful hours of peaceful~quiet I enjoyed on New Year's Day. In case you missed it, go here and then come back.

First I had to change gears a bit on my project list because I couldn't find my rotary cutter. A modern quilter just doesn't do well without a rotary cutter and a decent blade in said cutter. So I had to think of what could be done, so that I could claim something "finished" with just scissors. Can't ya just hear Winnie-The-Pooh saying "think, think, think."?

The first Christmas in this house I picked up a pair of PJ bottoms for hubby. I don't think he really ever liked them, but at least they were worn. Then one day, the outside of one of the legs rips. Of course it's not a nice clean rip of the seam. Nope, it sorta frayed along the long. Um, to the craft room they went for repair. Here's a picture of them. If you look close at the non-flat leg, you can see the whole that is the rip.

At this point I knew I wasn't going to repair them for hubby, but find another frugal use for them. So this one pair of PJ's becme 14 napkins. Yup, 14 napkins and that includes the pockets that also became napkins.  They aren't all the same size, nor shape, but they can sure wipe milk off of a kids face!! And therefore they have finally found their purpose!!

Before I show you the finished napkins from the PJ's, let me tell you what I did when I found the bottoms of jeans that were made into cut-off shorts. Yup, you guessed it ~ MORE NAPKINS. First I found one leg behind my sewing machine and went, um, napkin anyone? Then as I was putting more fabric away, I discovered more leg bottoms and made them into napkins too. Sewing on demin was an experience. I went through 2 needles during my napkin making frenzy. One needle became bent due to the demin hump at the seams. And I broke another one. The one I broke I had to really work to retrieve the actual needle point out of the fabric. And I also went through 3+ bobbins of thread. It's a good thing I had re-learned how to do up a bobbin on Chrismtas Eve. Yes, I had forgotten - it's sad, so very, very sad.

Here's the finished product of the 14 napkins from the PJ bottoms , including 14 demin napkins.

The plaid napkins in the front are from the PJ's

Well this gal ~ ME ~ just kissed, hugged and loved all the little men in my life, including their father and now my house is  PEACEFUL and QUIET.  Did you hear the  angels  singing? I sure did!!!!

Grandpa Dave suggested finding an indoor pool so all the men could go swimming. To say my little men were EXCITED would be an understatement. Oh my, I only hope they are exhausted from swimming and actually sleep tonight. Hey, a gal's gotta have hopes, even if they are high!!

Thought I'd take a few moments to share a few pictures of quilts I made about three years ago for an organization called Wrap Them In Love. These quilts were made with um, less than pretty fabric, otherwise known as "why did I think this fabric was pretty enough to buy?" -- uglies. But the fabric has been used in a quilt and a child has been blessed and kept warm with that quilt of ugly fabric. So that is a win-win to me. The pattern is a simple Rail Fence block. I don't remember the exact size of these quilts, but they were probably a larger sized lap quilt, but definitely not big enough for a twin sized bed. The quilting was just a stipple all over. My favorite is the last one - the one with purple fabric.

Let me share a bit about Wrap Them In Love (WTIL). I honestly can't even remember how I first heard of WTIL, but I first joined their Yahoo group in December 1999. To me a quilt represents  love and snuggles.  I have a greater appreciation for all that a quilt is and can do for someone since I'm made a few. If you are interested in seeing gallery of quilts that spans from 1999-2007, then just click on over to WTIL and at the bottom you'll see the links for the gallery pages. I've also provided a link on my sidebar.

My dearest hubby has been working many hours trying to make sure the computer in our office has all the pictures, music and documents from the computer in my craft room. (This next part is real hush-hush - so no emails to the boys or calling them with the good news). We have been wanting to get them their own computer for a few years now and it simply hasn't worked out that way. About a month ago they wanted to play computer games. Well, that means playing noisey computer games on the office computer while I am trying to work. I can only take so much of Mickey Mouse, Stanley, even Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger too! Finally a  light bulb  decided to flicker on and I realized as much as I really enjoy having all of my crafts in one room, I don't frequent that room as much as I would like. Um, so this means that the computer that is in there is not being used. What shall we do??? So I proposed the idea to the hubby (trust me he's definitely more computer and electronic minded that I - trust me on this one) and he thought it was a great idea.

This is one picture of little JOY Banners I made for Joshua and Caleb's preschool teachers some years back. When I say it's one of many, I mean just that. They were in one Preschool MWF and each of them had two teachers. Then on T & TH they were in another Preschool and each had two teachers. So, I was busy making many JOY Banners that year. I think that was the last year we really did much making of anything for the preschool teachers.

Just a baby to lap sized quilt I made using some star blocks.

I tend to use this pattern when I am needing to make a quick and easy quilt. I have my 6.5" square ruler and just cut 36 squares. I either use two different fabrics or three. Using the 9 patch block pattern, I make up 4 blocks and then sew them together. Baby quilts work up really quick this way. One time a co-worker asked me to make a baby quilt and I needed it done the next day. I timed myself and from start to finish for one this size, including quilting and binding. was about 4 hours. To me that's a quick quilt and the reason I keep making these. I also think it's a great way for a beginner to learn about cutting out fabric, etc.

Just another variation of the quick quilt.

This was is a tad "busier" as I was using any Christmas themed fabric I could find. At least the blue fabric in the middle tends to calm the quilt visually.