Pomp and Circumstance!

  

Lots of weird stuff happening at the Mantz house.  Hunter turned 21.  It's totally surreal to see him have a beer with dinner or buy a bottle of wine on a road trip.  I'm used to all that stuff being hidden from me...

Any who, it was past time to make a new Birthday table runner.  I made one, really badly, years ago.  It was one of my very first projects.  So, we're talking YEARS ago.  The old one was stained and shredding enough that after Bethany & Rich's b-day in January, I just tossed it.  I used the cake pattern from Snap Shots, a free online pattern through The Fat Quarter Shop.  Again, my girls thought it was very modern for me and gave a thumbs up.  Yes!  I'm on a roll!

 So, for about 5 years now I've been doing this State Flowers embroidery project.  Last we spoke about it, I was hating on it pretty hard.

I have good news!  I'm finished!  What?!  What?!  That's right, you heard me.  They're done!  Please insert "Pomp and Circumstance" here.  Now imagine a little parade, with confetti....  Ahhh, thanks guys! It means a lot to me!  My family just wouldn't cooperate.

I split up the pics, again.  Don't want you to get too bored but I'll be darned if I'm not going to post every last one of them!

  I thought Wyoming was kind of cool.

Last but not least, Bethany graduated from High School.  Cum Laude, I might add. (Pomp and Circumstance, another mini-parade).  She chose to take the cash instead of my throwing a party.  Smart kid, did I mention she graduated with honors?  Even so, I still made this super cute table runner for the family dinner/ day of overflowing emotions!  She wanted to take it with her but doesn't have a table in her little apartment.  So...I guess  that means, it's still mine!

Tune in next week for more State Flowers!  Same Bat channel!

Taking Stock

Hi Friends, long time no see!  I'm glad you're stopping by because I've got tons to catch up on!

I'm not even kidding.  So much, in fact that I'll do us all a favor and split it up into few posts, again.  Prom Season is all but over and I've finally taken a moment to look around me and take stock of my life.  And by life, I mean quilting because that's all I think about anyways.

First, I finished the Art Nouveau Tiger Lily.  I love her yellow cheery-ness.  I'm about half done with the May block but there's lots of little pieces.  So, it's taking awhile.  I think I might be addicted to the black background now!  It makes all the colors look amazing!

My third and final "Neighborhood" is done.  I'm not in love with the beading I did to frame it but I couldn't decide what I really wanted instead.  Maybe it's the color?  Doesn't pop as much as I envisioned, maybe?  I do like the potted flower and the binding is one of my favorite fabrics.  I had it out for another project and laid it next to this piece by accident.  And, poof, ah ha!  It'll suck to remove all those beads but I just don't think they're adding anything.

 Did I already show you the owl quilt?  It turned out soooo cute!  The yellow fabric is little owl eyeballs.  Ahhhh!  I did some simple quilting and a faux piping binding.  Even my girls said it was cute & 'modern'.  I was recently commissioned to make another baby quilt.  I'm looking forward to that!

TAS issued a challenge this year to get a UFO done this year.  I chose my Hearts and Tulips project.  I may have already shown you this as well.  Honestly, I can't remember.

I'm not sure the red and blue works with the rest of the project.  But, looking at my picture, I think what's bothering me is the messy embroidery.  Maybe if I clean up the hearts a little, I'll like it better.  The red and pink plaid is one of my all-time favorite fabrics, so it can't be that...

I think this is where I will leave you for now.  There's much more to come but I don't want to out stay my welcome!

Hope you have an amazing day!

Choices, Choices, Choices

I finished the Mar BOM just in the nick of time.  I'm pretty happy with my plums.  Apr is a Tiger Lily but I think I need to buy some yellow fabric before I get started.  But, I need some time off to get to the fabric store.  Which means, it could be awhile.

Since it's prom season, I decided to dig out my State Flowers quilt.  I seem to only work on this during season.  Seriously.  I've been working on this for YEARS.  I started back when I was working at Sweet Annies.  Maybe 4 years now, close to 5?  There's a lot of states.

Montana was quick and easy...  I finished in 3 days.

Pennsylvania, however took 2 years.  I've decided I hate embroidered wild rose.  SO MANY states have the wild rose as their flower.

I was really curious what I had so far.  I laid them all out and it turns out this is going to be a HUGE quilt.  The funny thing is, the original idea was to add solid squares between each flower.  There are still 15 more to go.  I've got a few really ugly ones.  I totally regret using pale pink and white on my flowers.  And, South Carolina was just ugly for ugly's sake.  The plan right now is to finish them this prom season.  If they ever become a quilt, will be another issue.

Life is all about choices.

Happy Spring

Hi there, friends!  It's been all kinds busy around these parts.  I hope you have all had a chance to enjoy some fabulous weather lately.

I thought I'd take a moment and show you what I've been working on.

This is my 2nd 'Neighborhood' entry for the quilt show this summer.  But, since it's the opposite of a neighborhood, I've already started another one...

I've decided to call this the Irish Country Side.  It's based on a photo I saw on Pinterest.  I basically played with some different embroidery stitches to decide which flowers got planted in my gardens.  I feel like adding just a few more boullion roses down in the far bottom left corner.  I'm particularly fond of the crocheted rose.  And, the fat sheep.

On to my third 'Neighborhood'...

Another Pinterest photo.  It's hard to tell but the little cone of flowers on the door is woven.  There's a little handle on the door.  The rose vine is couched and the roses are french knots.  Eventually, I'm going to add a pot of something on the left of the door.  And, maybe a something on the right of the door.  Not sure what. Maybe a topiary?  I kind of feel like that might be too high class for this neighborhood.

Roberta Anne with an 'E' got another addition, too.  This month shes tasting a strawberry.  I was feeling a little weird about this one because of the greens I used.  In person, they blend a little too well with each other.  They do photograph well, though.

This is 'Love In The Mist'.  It's a Y-seam nightmare.  I only have 5 more to go but it is absolutely the reason I have no desire to sit at my sewing machine right now.

There's more but I'll put it in another post as not to bore the snot out of everyone!

Happy Easter!

A Seriously Lucky Weekend

Last weekend I was able to go on a "Stay in your own bed" retreat in Mascoutah.  It's always a good time.  The only thing I was able to finish was my Family Tree quilt.  The top has been done for a long time.  I'm sure I've showed the top before but now it's quilted!

I did manage to break my chair, though.  It started leaking hydraulic fluid when I got home.  That was a giant mess.

The second month of my Art Deco quilt is done.  This one went so much smoother!  I'm much better at back basting and it's not as hard to do with the black background as I thought it would be.  March is plums.  I've started it but don't have any pictures.

I narrowly escaped starting a new project on a couple of occasions this week.  It's soooo tempting!

I dug this one out of the depths of my cabinets.  It was a store sample for Sweet Annies that was so time consuming that I decided to buy it.  No way did I want all my hard work to go home with someone else.  I only did the first six flowers for the shop and everything else was cut up and just sitting there waiting to be put together.

There's  an origami bud in the center of each flower and by the time you attach everything, you end up with a seam of about 10 layers thick.  I ended up trimming them down but, jeesh.

I got to the last yellow flower and all the petals left were the same fabric which was the same as the origami bud!  Yuk.  Small heart attach.  AHHH!  A quick search of my stash and I found enough ready made blades of different fabrics to finish!  I didn't even remember them being in there.  Then I got to the bottom pink blossom and was short the very last sashing strip.  AHHH!  Another heart attach!  Another search of the stash and I came up with a piece of the right background fabric that was JUUUUSST big enough.  Talk about lucky!  I told Rich we should buy a lottery ticket!  I know I had used that smaller print in my Civil War quilt from a few years ago because I was such a big fan of the little rose buds on it.

  

My step-daughter is newly engaged and I was ready to start a new project, again, for a wedding quilt.

I was pouring through my patterns and was planning a trip to the store.

Then, I remembered about this Twisted Mystery from 2011.  I had messed up the center medallion and then there's another section not shown here that had complicated piecing that had turned out really badly.

For real, this was going to be trashed.  The uncut fabric was in my stash and this was a lost cause.

I salvaged the fabric from my stash, fixed the center and next is to try those funky y-seam blocks again.  I can't believe I was giving up on it when I was 2/3 done already... And, I love the colors on this!

This was my last weekend off before my extended hours start.  It was a great weekend.  But, I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing the next few months.  We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's All About That Art Nouveau

Is it just me or does everyone have to clean their sewing room before they can work?  Somehow, I had managed to cover every surface with junk during the few weeks since I went back to work.  When it was time to sew again, I had to clear off a spot first.  I'm not one of those people who work best in clutter.  My life has to be squared away or I can't think straight.  However, I hate wasting time with housework...

This is my latest and greatest project.  It's a free BOM from Morning Glory Designs.  I'm really excited about it.  For one, I'm all about Art Nouveau right now! The other reason is that I've been waiting for the right moment to have a black background.

So, I started doing this using an overlay and freezer paper templates.  I was going to be super proper about it so the end result was going to be masterful.  No.  It was not masterful.  I have sewn and re-sewn almost every piece on this thing.  I finally gave up and went back to back basting.  I may still re-do some petals that are less than symetrical.  This pattern is far more complicated than it first appeared.  I'm much better at letting things be natural and organic.  Precise is not my thing.  But, I will persevere!

I also finished my final Guild BOM.  This project was a lot of fun.  I love the color I chose for it but I'm not convinced the patterned fabric was a brilliant choice. It is what it is at this point.

All together, I think it's adorable!  Here's my disclaimer.  The pattern I used had fusible square in a square blocks.  I didn't realize that when I chose the pattern.  I couldn't do fusible and my hand applique in the same project.  yuck.  So, I decided to use math and piece my own square in a square blocks together.  OMG.  They are terrible.  I literally had to chop off corners on EVERY outside edge.  I'm so sad about it.  Math and me, not a good combo.  But, naturally, I didn't mind enough to re-do them.  Because, yuck.  Math.

A quilter will be "Oh girl, get handle on your quarter seam.  Those corners are sad".  Anyone else, " oh, cute".

Then their is my peacock.  These pics are a bit out dated because I've done a ton of embellishments since then.  I've got disco balls at all the corners of the Cathedral Windows.  To distract the casual observer from noticing that all my corners do not match.

The upper portion of the guy has crystal beading to look like feathers.

And, I have glass leaf beads in with the magnolias.  That's my favorite, so far.

There is also more of the fringy purple yarn on his feathery bits.

The whole thing.  I'm really pleased with it so far.  Not going to lie, this almost ended in the trash a few times.  Problems would pop up or I wouldn't be able to think of what to do next.  Knowing I only had until May, I couldn't see it working out at all.

Now, I think when it's all said and done, I'm going to be pretty happy with it.

Mad Dash To The End

 Alas, all good things must come to an end!  This was my final week of layoff and per usual, I didn't get as much as I'd hoped done.  I always start full of ideas and only accomplish about 1/2.

Rather than finish what was waiting to be finished, I started a new baby quilt.  A quick and really easy one.  Look at how cute it is!

Ethan liked it so much, he wanted it.  Naturally he had to explain how untrue to life it was.  He proceeded to tell me that once Friend Bear came on the scene, everyone else was Sunday breakfast.  This is why we shouldn't let teenage boys be around little children.

Then, the latest Guild BOM got done.  This one is quite modern/ funky.

The most exiting thing that happened was Vintage Christmas!  I know I started this some time before last Christmas.

For months, my little lamb waited and waited.  I was able to stitch him together in a day.  Who knows why I took such along break?

Maybe, because I knew the borders were coming!  The good news is that I learned how to do a proper outline stitch before I started.  It looks so much better now!

Then, I was putting down the sleigh and danged if I didn't cut right through both layers of fabric!  I'm talking edge to middle sleigh!  I know!  That's what I said.  Once I was resuscitated, I decided to piece the border at that particular spot and move on with my life.  From a distance, at gallop, you can't even tell.

  

Sierra made some pretty bath bombs.

Today, I met with friends and we made this cute quilt!  It was this year's SuperBowl Mystery.  We meet every year on SuperBowl Sunday.  The person who organizes it gives you a clue every hour or so and before you know it, you've got a quilt!  Mine will be a Quilt of Valor.  Good times!

One of the things I made myself accomplish was finishing Strawberry Social!  I pieced it last summer?  Maybe longer ago.  It was one of those patterns that I just HAD to do!  I quilted it with wiggles and then I did a machine binding with red flange.  This is my first Challenge entry.  Bring on the money, honey!

I should have taken a picture of a place where my stitches were straight but you know me, full disclosure.

I love it!

Sadly, that ends it.  Tomorrow it's back to reality.  Let's hope I can remember how to do my job:)

I'll check in again when I have something to report!