You Can Always Come Home to Texas

Well, The Texas Quilt Along is in the books!  It was a fun journey through my own state,visiting many of my favorite cities and some I have never visited in person!

As you can tell if you were following along, I used my own designs for quite a few of the city blocks.  It was fun to come up with ways to mix things up and incorporate my own memories of those places. 

The hill country block might be my favorite of my designs!  Rolling hills covered in flowers.  I also swapped chili peppers for The Valley (very Tex-Mex down there) and a star for Austin, the capital city.

I debated swapping in a house block or something similar for Tyler, the city I live nearest to, but decided against it in the end. Tyler claims to be the rose capital of the world!  I really loved the paper pieced ferris wheel for Dallas, where the State Fair of Texas is held.

I am particularly proud of how this oil derrick came out.  I am generally not a fan of applique, raw edge or otherwise, and this quilt required a lot of it.

Finally, west Texas.  Love the flying geese out there.

I was in a rush to get the quilt done for gifting so I did a quilt all over stipple to save time.  In the upper right of the quilt, approximately over Oklahoma ;) I free handed the words "Always come home to Texas." You can make out a few of the letters in this picture.  The quilt's recipients spend far too much time overseas for work, enough that they don't really have anywhere in the states to call "home."  She recently said, "I know that I always come back to Texas."  So I just took the liberty of making us "home."  :)

The back is pieced from two large pieces of blue fabric.  The one on the bottom was on sale at ConnectingThreads.com and the one on top is a super soft light denim-like material that I just can't get enough of.

Elvis tested and approved.  I had to hurry and get my pictures before the quilt was given away! I was received very well and will soon be winging its way overseas, a little piece of "home" while they're away.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Aaaand We're Back!

Did you miss me?  I've basically been on vacation for the past 3 weeks, which meant not much quilting and not much blogging.  I've enjoyed myself immensely, but tomorrow I go back to work and things around here will be back to regularly scheduled programming.

Two of my quilt are going to their forever homes tomorrow. Is there anything better than quilts ready for gifting?

The Sherwood Forest quilt is for a wedding, along with a couple of jars of pepper jelly.

The Sherbet Lane quilt is going for a new baby, along with a couple of bibs and tie-dye onesies.

And on the design wall this week, yup, it's still Texas!  I am so ready to have this thing together so I can use my design wall again!  Here is a close up of central Texas. Only one block to go, I still need to do the Valley.

Although I am not particularly ready to go back to work, I am looking forward to getting back to my routine sewing :) 

Stay-cation sewing things

I haven't been posting reliably lately, but it isn't because I haven't been doing things. I am having a stay-cation at the moment from work and have been sewing, tie-dying, pickling, and generally crafting to my heart's content. This afternoon I made cayenne pepper hard candy :)

I'll do a more thorough post on the tie dying later, but for now here are some photos of the finished shirts drying and Wilson being "helpful".

After being removed from my folding board, Wilson holds down the laundry basket.

Speaking of Wilson.  If you've been reading here for a while then you probably already know that Wilson is a highly-allergic, generally sensitive kitty.  He basically has kitty COPD now from all his chronic respiratory issues.  For the past 6 months or so he's been on a daily low dose steroid that have helped a lot, and he will probably stay on it for the rest of his life.

Wilson was jealous that Elvis was sitting in mom's lap.

Anyway, it's flea and tick season as you probably know and Wilson can't have the drops between his shoulders because it gives him a nasty rash and makes his hair fall out. We've always done flea collars in the past, so I put one on him about a week ago, then today I noticed that the hair had fallen out under the collar all the way around his neck and parts of it were rashed and bloody!  Needless to say, the collar is off and antibiotic ointment is on.  Sigh.  Does anybody have any ideas for flea and tick solutions for allergic kitties?

I am still managing to stay up to date with the Texas Quilt Along.  We are on the last quadrant now.  That's what is on the design wall. And on the design floor, as it were, I basted this batik quilt I made from the Summer Slice pattern at Cluck Cluck Sew.

 

I had no idea I even had that many batiks until I started cutting in to them!  Have a happy week, everyone :)

Linking to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Still working on Texas

Design wall Monday snuck up in me again. Those 3 day weekends always seem to go so fast! I have still been working on Texas for the Texas Quilt Along.  The entire West half of the state is done and the final quadrant, south-central Texas, is begun.

The first city block for this last quadrant will be posted tomorrow.

I have also been working on more crumb blocks.  These are the crumbs that weren't big enough to make the cut for the Crumb Jar Nines quilt.  Not sure what I'll do with these yet... I'm just enjoying looking at them.

Happy Monday y'all! I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

West Texas on the Design Wall

We've made it to West Texas in the Texas Quilt Along!   The Crumb Jar Nines quilt was well received by its new family, thanks for the sweet comments on Friday's post :)

Linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

The WIPs are multiplying (again!)

It's design wall Monday, time to take account of the WIPs!  There are two projects currently swapping out on my design wall.  First off is the Texas Quilt Along.

I made a rose block for Tyler this week. The next city block, for Fort Worth, will be up on the 12th.

I am also working on this split nine patch for a friend's house warming party.  This one is based on a quilt I saw at do. Good Stitches here.  I have 3 more blocks to go on this one.

Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Dallas {Texas Quilt Along}

The Texas Quilt Along is under way and the first city block was posted Monday, Dallas Texas!  It's a paper pieced block of the famous fairgrounds Ferris Wheel.  I was actually in Dallas today and saw the wheel from a distance, then came home and pieced the block tonight :)  Looking forward to more city blocks in the future.

Linking to WIP Wednesday.

1/4 of Texas

After having so much fun with the Triangle Quilt Along I have found another quilt along to play along with!  This time it is the Texas Quilt Along hosted at My Fabric Relish.  I loved this quilt ever since I saw the inspiration quilt, but it is especially appropriate since I live in Texas.

I went with traditional red, white, and blue for my color palette.  This is the first quarter of the state, minus the missing city blocks for Ft Worth, Dallas, and Tyler, which will be revealed this week. I can hardly wait!

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.