Tyler went to an awards dinner last night at the Elk's. Uncle P.J. took him. He won first place in his age group at the Kick Off that is sponsored by the Elks. There are five brackets that you kick three balls into. Each bracket is smaller as you go and worth more points. I was amazed since he is our only child that does not play soccer. He really had a good time and he was very excited to win a trophy (even though it had the wrong name printed on the bottom). Tyler is considering playing soccer in the spring.

My First Five Rows

My first five rows.
Originally uploaded by deanaarcher.

I have started a new quilt top that is called Smokey Mountain Stars. I have been buying a bunch of flannel material out of the dollar bin at Wal-Mart. I really did not think that they would go together well, but the way that the pattern is set up, it does not look too bad. I still have ten more rows to go and and border. I am going to start actually quilting on my first one tonight. Hopefully that is not as hard as it looks.

My First Finished Quilt Top

My First Finished Quilt Top
Originally uploaded by deanaarcher.

I added my border stripe to my quilt top. I now need to finish the backing and the batting. I think the mitered corners were the hardest part for me. I will probably avoid them in the future. I have a few flaws in the quilt but overall, I am satisfied with the way that it turned out.

My Finished Quilt Top

My Finished Quilt Top
Originally uploaded by deanaarcher.

I worked on this all day yesterday. My kids went camping with my mom so I took the oppurtunity to get some sewing done. I still need to add the batting and backing. I haven't figured out what material I want to use for the backing. This pattern is called an Irish Chain. By the way, Ginger wasn't much help. Everytime I turned around she was laying on it.

This is the first two rows of the next quilt that I am making. I think that there are a total of nine rows plus a border. I really enjoy doing this and I am actually getting a little better at it. I seem to have too many projects going on right now and I need to slow down. I keep seeing different patterns that I want to try but I am afraid that I won't finish the ones that I have already started. I am almost done with my first one. I have my quilting class tonight so I can learn how to finish it. I should have updated pictures this week.

Now the pieces are coming together.

Now the pieces are coming together.
Originally uploaded by deanaarcher.

I have come down to the final step. You can see my individual squares on our flickr website on the left. I put all of my pieces together better than I thought I would. I still need to add my border stripe and backing. I need to wait for my class on Tuesday to finish up. I am not really sure where to go from here.