You Should Be Writing!!!

For the last five weeks every time I have sat down to relax there has been a little voice in my head telling me " You should be writing. You should be writing. You should be writing." I know I SHOULD be writing but the fact is I'm just plain tired! Luckily not tired in a bad way. It's just been a busy few months. Not to mention my printer died, My iPhone 3G is officially crapping out on me and on top of that Cadence spilled chocolate milk all over my mac book =(. I lost the function of several keys for several weeks. I attempted to blog with out the use of my w, r, a and ! keys, thinking maybe I could just copy and past them in. Oh how foolish I was... lets just say the level of frustration was IMMEASURABLE!!! I was considering an expensive repair until it finally occurred to me last week to buy a usb keyboard and whaaa laaa $20 bucks later we are back in business. Wish I could say the same for the new printer and the iPhone4 LOL. So while I have been very busy outside of sewing, I did still manage to get quite a few things done...

One of the best things thats happened is that I finally started teaching my art quilting classes at Quilt and Sewing Center. I've done two rounds so far and its been wonderful. My students have been great and all of their pieces turned out beautifully! Here are a few highlights... Diane, Babara and of course, teachers pet, 13 year old Jorame!          

 I've also been enjoying a lot of time with Mr. Delicious (still in the picture, surprise, surprise). He has taken me a on quite a few adventures. From concerts to camping and then some. One of the best trips we went on was to Charlottesville VA. While window shopping on the downtown mall we found a little shop with a back corner full of quilts! Mr. Delicious is the grandson of a quilter so he fully supports my fabric addiction. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got but still worth sharing.

We also had a wonderful dinner at Mikes...

Went to an amazing Trey show at the Pavillion...

and CAMPING of course! 

My biggest project of the month was this lock and key quilt. It was an older piece I had made back in 2009. I was never really happy with the way it came out. SO when Mr. Delicious needed a special gift for his parents anniversary this quilt was a perfect fit. I took it completely apart, restitched much of the design. I customized it with their names and wedding date. Gave it a new border, new backing, new binding and finally re-quilted it.

The final results of this reworked quilt made me very...

Nothing beats Isacord "Applesauce" the best gold thread of all time in my opinion!

Soon after I finished the quilt, Mr. Delicious (or as we call him Rick) brought home a little gift for Cadence...

She named him Ricky of course! Ricky has become a big part of our little family and one boring saturday he inspired me to create this...

And then these...

The Batik Beta were a big hit. Cadence has already claimed the pink one as her playmate! And I have decided to use them as the pattern in my next round of Art Quilting classes.  

This one's my favorite... I call him hippy fish.

My final and most challenging project of the month started with this...

Rick is a huge Grateful Dead fan and I wanted to make him something really special for his 39th b-day. You know before he becomes an old man and all. LOL.When he mentioned one day the he didn't have a Christmas stocking I knew exactly what to make. A Steal Your Face stocking! I had only three days to make it so one night while he was passed out beside me I opened up the sewing table and got right to work! Good thing he's a heavy sleeper!

Stitching the design was pretty challenging at first but once I got into the groove and got some good music on it actually came along very quickly.

I used Pellon Fusible Fleece for the lining. It sticks well with just the iron and it has just the right amount of fluff without being to bulky for a stocking.

I screwed up the lining a little but had run out of time to fix it. So I took it back a few days later and worked out the ripples =) 

The final product came out looking even better than I had hoped. Using all batiks was the perfect choice.

Needless to say HE LOVED IT! And I'm officially the best girlfriend ever! 

(Which I of course already knew ;)

So anyways that bring us finally up to date. I don't have a lot more sewing planned for 2011. Just looking forward to relaxing with my girl and my man and his boy... making some cookies... drinking some cocoa and all the other good things that come with this time of year.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!