Mini Quilt

 I made another quilt!

OK. It's a mini quilt.

I pieced it and quilted it.

So that counts.

A quilt is a quilt in my book

Nolan asked me several weeks ago if I could make a quilt based on a symbol from a video game.

So I sketched it out in my quilting graph paper notebook.

I asked Nolan what size and we talked about options.

We came up with the idea of making a wall hanging.

That's where it ended until a couple of days ago.

Nolan asked me if I could make it for his birthday but not necessarily have it finished by then.

So I began to plan on making it pronto!

I began figuring out how much material, what cuts to make, and how to assemble it.

Then I realized it would be easier to make it a different way.

There is a quilt piecing process called foundation paper piecing.

I had read about it but had never tried it.

I watched a few videos to educate myself.

Then I did a practice square with scrap fabric.

You print out the pattern and line up your fabric according to the instructions.

Then you literally sew on the line.

Once you get the hang of it, it is super easy.

I mean crazy easy... and addicting.

I forgot to take a picture of the paper before I started.

I had one corner left to do.

After you sew all your fabrics, you carefully rip the paper off of the back side.

Then you trim it up nice and neat.

Now you have a perfectly pieced quilt square!

No pieces to measure or cut to exact sizes.
So quick and easy.

I loved it!

I may have to put a paper pieced quilt on my quilting bucket list.

Here is the finished product next to my sketch.

I made a photo copy my drawing and used that as my pattern to sew on.

It was that easy.

Not bad for a first time!

Here it is as I started to quilt it.

I decided to use the backing fabric to do the binding.

I had never done that by machine before.

 Mini quilt:

7 7/8" x 10 1/2"

paper pieced

machine quilted

quilt #11

Quilt Quack 2

I'm so original when it comes to naming blog posts.

Since I already used "quilt quack", I decided that it could become a regular thing.

I guess a lot of my posts revolve around ducks and quilting.

Go figure.

I read a lot of quilting blogs.

Sometimes they make a post with secret sewing.

It drives me crazy for them to talk about some awesome

quilt they're working on and then not even show it.
Now I know why they do it.

I'm about to do the same thing.

Like those other bloggers, I'm excited about this quilt and just want to share.
But I can't. It would ruin a surprise.

Actually it's not one, but two quilts with the same pattern.

I absolutely adore the fabrics and the pattern.

Don't worry, I'm taking lots of pictures along the way.

When I am ready I'll post all about it.

Until then, it's a few teaser pics and a couple of other quilt blocks I can show...

along with some duck news too.

Yes, this is the back side of the blocks.

I have about half of the 15 blocks needed for one of the quilts.

This is part of one of the blocks.

It has two different blocks that make the pattern.

When I get the first set of blocks done I'll tackle the second set.

This is a scrappy log cabin block.

By themselves they're not the prettiest, but in a whole

quilt with a bunch of others they look great.

I'm making these as I work on my secret quilt.

It's a technique called "leaders and enders".

So dubbed by a quilter because you start and end each sewing with one

of these instead of having long thread ends when you start and stop.

If you sew, you know what I'm talking about (I hope).

Since I'm not a seamstress I have no idea what it's called.

I will leave this block in my sewing machine until I'm ready to start sewing again.

This wastes less thread and you get bonus quilt blocks in the process!

Eventually I'll have enough of these bonus blocks to make a quilt.

It may take a while though.

_______________________________________________________________________

The little runners having bath time.

We've acquired another duck (the one on the right).
We were actually his original owners.
My in-laws took him with the intent to butcher him.
They ended up keeping him as a pet on the other end of the farm.
Well, he kind of got himself in trouble by harassing and wounding chickens.
He showed up at our place today.
They didn't "dump" him.
It was more or less a conspiracy of Pa and Nolan to
see how long it would take us to notice the extra duck.
It took me thirty minutes.
So I jokingly said that I'd give him our rooster for the duck.
Now Ra, our last rooster, is going down on the farm tonight.
:)
____________________________________________________________________

And on a totally unrelated topic, I may post fewer than usual posts in the next several weeks.
I will be making a trip to Texas for the trial of the man who murdered my dad.
I'll be gone for one week.
Then I'll be home a week and leave the next week for camp.
That makes for a busy July.
Which leads to August when school starts.
So much for a summer break.
We need a vacation...

Remembering

I'm remembering two things today.

Today marks three years since I had my brain surgery.

I'm still incredibly grateful for all God has done and continues to do.

I do not want to miss an opportunity to thank God.

Especially today.

And of course, it's Father's Day.

I'm remembering my dad today.

The pain isn't quite as sharp today but it still hurts deeply.

Today is hard as I endure the second Father's Day without him.

I still miss him terribly.

So today I'll shed tears as I remember

his laugh,

our long talks.

and his silly jokes.

I don't have many pictures of my dad.

I found this one that I really like.

It's my dad and his dad.

They have such great smiles in this picture.

That's what I want to remember today.

My dad's great smile.

And So It Ends

Shortly we will be finishing up our lessons.

It's always a good feeling to finally be done with school for the year.

A sense of accomplishment and relief at the same time.

But this year it will be bitter sweet.

We will finish our eighth year of homeschooling.

It also seems to be our last as we've decided to put the boys in public school in the fall.

I don't believe homeschooling is for everyone but we loved it.

I remember when someone asked me if we homeschooled.

My response was, "I could never homeschool."

I think God kind of chuckled on that one.

About a year later we were homeschooling.

Doing what I never dreamed of in a million years.

I think Dwayne thought I was crazy when I first approached him with the idea.
Once we made our decision, we ran with it.

No school is perfect, they all have flaws.
We had our good days and not so good days.
We had days with lots of fun... and days we just called it quits.
Some years were easier than others.
We've learned a lot over the years.
Things that couldn't be learned from a book or in a classroom.
(Although I think I finally got the basics of grammar!)
Our time of schooling was special.

The first day of homescholing 2009 and today.

First day of Connor's homeschooling 2010 and today.

My phone takes OK pictures, except for selfies.

Every selfie that has been attempted ends up like this.

I'm OK with that, I'm not a selfie kind of person anyway.

Second attempt... still fuzzy.

 And this is what happens when Connor grabs the phone in a bout of orneriness.
Stinker.


So that's the end of our homeschooling chapter.
It was a good run.

Sampler Finish

I have officially finished quilt number 10!

I joined a sampler sew-along that used half-square triangles.

This one project tackled two of my quilting goals for the year.

I learned several things along the way with this quilt.
Mainly things not to do... haha.
All in all it was a fast and fun quilt to work on.

I did another printed label.

I learned that I could simply tape my fabric to a piece

of printer paper instead of ironing it to freezer paper.

This greatly simplified the process.

And I figured this out all by myself... and it worked!

Another thing I learned with this quilt is that you cannot have too many basting pins.

This photo was from the second time I pin basted.

I started over after my first attempt of quilting.

Let's just say it didn't go as planned.

Puckers are not a quilters friend.

I spent quite a bit of time with my seam ripper that afternoon.

I wanted quilting that wouldn't add to the craziness of the fabric.

I decided to quilt this with all my stitching going in the seams.

Quilters call this "stitching in the ditch".

I kept track of my quilting with this sheet so I wouldn't forget where I had been!

The best place to see the quilting is on the backside.

We've had beautiful bright sunny days.

Unfortunately, my phone white-washes the yellow fabric a little.

I will confess that the colors of this quilt were not my first choices.

It's growing on me.

 Certainly is a bold quilt.

I found this adorable fabric for the backing.

It's a fun one with lots of cute little Woodstocks frolicking around.

Quilt stats: 56.5" x 56.5"

designed by Andrea Smith

machine pieced

machine quilted