Oh Sew Addicted

This week I decided to participate in a challenge from Amy's Creative Side. Amy wanted to motivate all of her readers with this challenge to just pick one item.... define a specific goal .... and complete that item within one week! Sounds like an easy peasy challenge, doesn't it? Well.... maybe not!

I wanted to motivate myself to work on my "You've Got to be Croaking" froggie quilt. Everyone knows that I ♥love♥ all things froggie. Well this was my first frog project! And I started it and had all the blocks sewn together, but when I got to the borders, I lost my inspiration... darn! I guess I just was more excited by another project I had picked up! So I challenged myself to finish the quilt top! So, here it is on my ironing board.......again......

As soon as I started ironing out the quilt top, I rediscovered my ♥love♥ for these funky frogs! I did a pretty good job on the piecing -- even though this was the first quilt I had worked on in years! I love the colors, the dark green shamrock fabric with gold flecks that I chose for the frogs and the pale yellow backgrounds. I ironed out the entire top and trimmed all of the loose threads. Then I set out to cut and sew on all of the borders. I struggle with this part... it is probably more about the cutting than anything. Perhaps I need some different cutting tools to make this part easier. But the long side borders give me fits! LOL! I made it through the cutting. I have all of the borders on except the last two and I will get those done before I hit the rack tonight. So my challenge will be complete. Maybe I need more of these kinds of challenges!

Otherwise this week was so very productive! In fact, I do not have a word for how much I really accomplished. It is an awesome feeling. Euphoria even. It gives me joy! Truly an inspirational time. I will post the things I worked on throughout the next few days because there is just too much to put in one post! YAY! You go girl!

I started off the week by finishing a retro apron. My son's girlfriend, Kelsey, loves butterflies so I bought this fabric for her. I saw it and I knew she would ♥LOVE♥ it! And she did!!! When I asked her what she wanted me to make out of it, she said an apron! So here is the apron I made for her......

Kelsey loves it! And it is so colorful and uplifting like her cute personality.

Kelsey was nice enough to make her yummy enchiladas for all of us last night! Yum!

Thanks, Kelsey!

On Saturday afternoon, my daughter Diana and I drove down to the Long Beach Convention Center for the International Quilt Show. I was overwhelmed by how many people were there and how many businesses participated in the show. There were so many different things to see that there is no way we could have seen them all in one day. I was so inspired by all of the beautiful quilts! Unfortunately, there were signs posted that we could not take photos of most of them. This one in particular caught my eye. The back was just as beautiful as the front.... or maybe even more beautiful....

The photo does not show the beautiful quilting and I love the lattice pattern.

The other quilts we looked at were the ones that were made throughout the 1800's. These quilts were all hand sewn and I just could not believe that they were so beautifully constructed.

Every stitch in this huge quilt was by hand. Unbelievable!

This one is very similar to the first. All hand stitched.

I found this presidential quilt to be particularly amazing. The fabrics were still in such great shape!

Another vintage beauty!

Close up of some of the hand stitching. Incredible!

And last but not least, this one is not a vintage quilt, but these days I am into bright colors and black backgrounds, so I really loved this quilt!

And I bought a few goodies. I could have easily spent $1,000.... but I had to refrain!

Cute fabric with peace signs and little birds!

And I bought this quilt kit with a quilt and wall hanging called "One Froggy Day"! YAY! I also bought some froggie fabrics to use on my Simple Sampler Frog quilt. I was a little disappointed by the lack of frog fabrics at the show, but I did not get to every booth before my feet were dog tired! LOL. A great way to spend the day and I will be looking for more of these shows to go to ... even if I have to travel to them!

I will be posting tomorrow with more of the projects I worked on last week. But now, I am back to working on my challenge so I can finish before bedtime! I will post more photos of the finished quilt top soon!

Until next time, happy stitching!!

Carla