There's a lump in the quilt!

Summer Madness...

Hello blog world,

It's already nearly the end of July - where is the time going???

We finally posted photos of the completed "Phish" T-shirt quilt. This quilt is fabulous & HUGE!!! I have put more photos on my facebook page & our website, but here's a sneak peek:




The hubby & I just got back from our only beach vacation of the year, where we celebrated my grandmother's 80th birthday with her entire group of 7 kids & over a dozen grandkids. I worked my hiney off to create a Shutterfly photobook with photos of her over the years with my Grandpa who passed away 13 years ago. And the majority of the family submitted their favorite photos & personal letters to Grandma. I also contacted her nieces & nephews, with whom she has always kept close contact. 2 of them showed up to the beach weekend as a surprise for her, which was my favorite part of the weekend. She chastized me for planning so many surprises for an 80 year old woman. I told her that I know how strong she is & that I knew she could handle it :)


I am so proud of the photo book, and so thankful for the contribution from my family! Here's a link to the photo book:

Click here to view this photo book.

And here are a few photos of the weekend:

Now that I'm back home, I'm working on vinyl orders non-stop. I don't know how these vinyl orders have kept rolling in, except that the Lord is taking care of me! I've had 10-12 orders in the past couple of days and several more on the way - Thank you Lord!!

Mom & I are finishing a t-shirt quilt this week (crossing fingers...) for a friend's daughter. It is made with her high school, college, camps, etc. shirts. We love the story about a couple of the T-shirts that her mom told us. Apparently Natalie was a HUGE Chipper Jones (of the Atlanta Braves) fan back in her elementary/middle-school years, and one of her teachers even called her "Mrs. Jones." So there are a couple of Chipper's shirts on the quilt to commemorate her celebrity crush.

Last, but certainly not least, I want to pass along a blog giveaway that is absolutely worth checking out!!! Here's the link to Abbey Lane's Quilts' blog. Enjoy! :)

Thanks for reading my long update!

Julie

The Streamer Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

The Streamer Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

I'm kind of obsessed with this dress... please let me win...... :)

Surprise!

I have such great intentions when it comes to blogging... but LIFE happens... Why is it that I push so hard to accomplish my goals, and I am too busy to enjoy the success??? I guess that's what comes with my 'Type A' personality. I keep reminding myself that this is just temporary. When our debt snowball is complete, I will be able to pursue Fishtail Designs full time, as well as fitting in my love for coaching baton, spending time with friends, volunteering at church, etc...


Anyway, we recently finished this quilt for a girl that I've known since she was a little tiny majorette. She recently made the UT Majorette line, and her mom asked us to make a T-shirt quilt for her surprise graduation gift... It turned out really cute, and we've gotten so many comments on the way the sports bra is highlighted in the quilt. We also incorporated the orange backing fabric since she'll be a freshman at UT this Fall!

Enjoy!

 

Knot on Call

UPDATE - thie treasury is no longer active, so the link won't work anymore...

Treasury Wests are WIDE Open! It's not much of a challenge to get a "Treasury West" on Etsy anymore, but I snagged one for fun this morning.

We're headed to the lake tomorrow - to spend the day on a family friend's massive house boat called "Knot on Call." It's the ultimate in luxury, and I am just dying to have a relaxing day on the boat!

So, in honor of "Knot on Call," I have posted a Treasury West with some boat loving goodness :)

Check it out here!

When my hubby told me that he was being sent out of state to work for 3 months, I cried a little, thinking of the lonliness, but then reality set in...

• "I have to sleep in our house alone 5 nights a week?!?"
• "I'm going to clean out EVERY closet in our house!"
• "I get to watch old movies without Kevin complaining!"
• "Kevin can watch the Braves every night without me complaining!"
• etc...

Well, thanks to Netflix, I have watched probably a dozen classic movies the past 3 weeks. I have this list of movies that I feel like I'm supposed to see in order to call myself a classic movie fan... So I've watched Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, The Three Faces of Eve, A Streetcar Named Desire, All About Eve, & Summer Magic. I snuck in my favorite Doris Day movie called Move Over Darling. She is such a fun actress!

And I worked in some of the other films that aren't as old, but I've always wanted to see... Kramer vs Kramer, It Could Happen to You, & Peggy Sue Got Married.

I'm totally not watching these movies out of laziness. They're my "craft time" entertainment - when I'm sewing or cutting vinyl art jobs. My ultimate "me" time!

I'm nearly done with my first "mini-quilt." Its such a fun pattern & I'm excited about the fabrics that I put in it, but nervous about sending it to my partner for the mini-swap. I've seen her work & its fabulous! Little does she know that I'm making my very first traditional style quilt... Yikes! It is a lot of fun though, and I want to make another with the same pattern - it's called "windmill," but its not the traditional windmill pattern.

Here's what it's supposed to look like when its done: Windmill Mini Quilt... So I'll post photos soon :) 

On the T-shirt quilt end, we are kind of panicking because our top-quilter promised the top stitched & bound quilt YESTERDAY. It wouldn't be a huge deal, except we promised that the quilt would be sent to the gift recipient in time for the graduation party on SUNDAY. Today is Thursday... I just wish that we could afford a long-arm machine so that we wouldn't have to rely on others for the quilts that are under deadlines!

On a positive note we're starting one of our largest quilts right now. It's a compilation of concert T-shirts, including Dave Matthews Band, String Cheese Incident, Widespread Panic, & festivals such as Bonaroo. The best part about this quilt is that the owner plans to use it for sitting outside at concerts, so we're going to get a lot of publicity from those crowds!

My mom & I also have a connection to Yee-Haw Industries through our day job, and they take their fabulous products to Bonaroo every year. We're hoping to get a chance to show them this quilt & maybe get some networking going through them...

We're also setting up a table at the Miss Majorette of Tennessee pageant on June 5th. I'm launching a new line of Baton Twirler decals, so I'm hoping that we'll get some good exposure there. I have posted the first installment of the line on my Etsy page here: Baton Twirler Decal. I grew up looking for decals like this - and only finding cheerleaders or dancers. Baton twirlers have always been left out of the accessory market! ha!

By the way... I have cleaned out a single drawer in the house... haven't made it to the closets yet...

My first quilt swap - yikes!!

Ok, I'm nervous about this, but with Kevin working out of town the next few months, I think it'll be a great opportunity to stretch myself...

So the first assignment was to post quilts that I love so that my swap partner will have a good idea of who I am, what I like, etc.

Because I'm hopelessly addicted to Etsy, I made a Treasury East here with my ideas to get the ball rolling.

But basically, I have a newfound passion for quilts. In the past 2 years, my mom & I have started a t-shirt quilt business, where our goal is to create quilts that defy the cheesiness of t-shirt quilts. So far we've had great success... I was in the opinion before this venture that all quilts were granny-esque, and I didn't want a part of the grandma quilts. Well I've since discovered Amy Butler, the Modern Quilt Guild, and endless resources for modern quilting. I'm hooked...

So THANK YOU Modify Tradition for issuing this challenge to do my first quilt swap. I've already checked out my secret partner that I'll be quilting for, and I am intimidated by her beautiful quilting, but want to use this as a growth experience.

Anyway, to my secret partner who is quilting for me, I am so excited to see what you'll create! The link to my Etsy treasury above will help you see what colors draw me in, and there's a paragraph at the bottom of the treasury that explains colors & etc.

Good night!