First Finish of 2021!

Woohoo! Comfortably Quirky is the first finish of 2021! I was starting to wonder if there would ever be one. This quilt was started in December of 2019. The general thinking was that this would be another 'Christmas' quilt for the seasonal stacks, but now that it's totally completed? Not so holiday-ish looking after all.

Comfortably Quirky is finished!

In fact, it's residing very comfortably on my bed right at this moment. This quilt got its design genesis from a rather funky looking quilt in the Roderick Kiracofe book 'Unconventional and Unexpected'. {Look at the December link earlier in this post to check it out.} I took that particular quilt and multiplied the basic design times four, and then of course, had to take a little bit of artistic liberty to make it all meld properly together.

A little spotty looking....

While the original quilt looks charming with just a few circles, increasing the amount x 4 was perhaps a bit of overkill. Perhaps. There's really no regret here, in case you were wondering! There are some things you don't/won't know until you see it. That's just the way it goes when you're flying by the seat of your pants and making things up as you go along.

A little softer looking in certain light...

One of the things that I was trying to do, was to use up some of the old, tired green fabrics in the stash. Mission accomplished! The fact that I also used up many other older, difficult {but well loved} fabrics during the making was just bonus. I loved being able to finally work in a small piece of vintage green, a plucky blue and red recycled shirting, a dotty green/cream that never really played well in other quilts {but looks so wonderful in this one!}, lovely {but troublesome} florals and other various bits and pieces that just were never enough. You know how it is. 

Probably could have put more floral
in the border areas....

In that regard, this quilt is a magnificent success. You cannot even begin to comprehend how very pleased I am with the overall vibe of this particular quilt! Especially when viewing it up close and personal or draped over my bed. It's very, very good in the soft winter light, however the pictures try to portray it as dark and gloomy. Blame that on the photographer! Also, I'm always so pleased {and just a little bit startled too}, by how much difference the hand quilting texture can make. I should know better. Time after time, I am amazed to see a rather blasé quilt top take on life after just a few evenings of stitching. It's rather remarkable really and always makes it entirely worthwhile.

Very cozy vibe

Though the timing was terrible, I am so, so happy that I actually stopped and added the applique tulips when I did. It would have been much easier to say, 'Nope, way too late for this quilt!', and just leave it be. Admittedly, the quilt was quite insistent and probably would have put up a pretty good pout. Lovely to see proof that these six little pieces of applique indeed are important and definitely help to make this quilt shine just a little bit brighter.

Loving the center!

Next up in the hoop is the Hst Medallion quilt, started clear back in 2017! It's been a finished quilt top for quite awhile, but I kept ignoring it in the hopes that some quilting fairy would come and hand quilt it while I wasn't looking!

Middle section of HST Medallion

It wasn't meant to be I guess.*sigh  It's just that this quilt is SO LARGE! HST Medallion finishes out at somewhere around 103" square, which is absolutely ridiculous. I don't even know what I was thinking. Regardless, the time had finally came to move this quilt off of the unfinished quilt top list by hook or by crook. No sense spending a million hours sewing together a quilt top and then leaving it for the kids and grandkids to chuck into the Goodwill bin some day!

Ready for pinning

Would you believe it's been sandwiched and pinned since early December and even then other quilts got in the way? Yep. I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to this quilt. Maybe because it always feels just a little bit overwhelming?

Trying to get the full quilt effect just isn't possible on the floor!

Years and years ago {lets say about 15 years and not get too jiggy with the correct time frame}, I would set up a floor hoop every January for the largest quilt top resting in the queue. There would be a very intense four to six weeks while I quilted and dealt with grumbly family members over the monstrosity taking over the corner of the living room. Great motivation! Nowadays, those floor frames are long gone and it's just me and the hand held hoop on the couch. Which totally works. Uh huh. If I can manage to get the quilt into the hoop and a needle and thread in my hand to actually do some stitching....

Finally in the hoop!

So here I am, nine rows out from the center are totally hand quilted now! Lots and lots to go of course, but officially at a point where I am positive it won't end up being buried back in the quilt top drawers in a fit of pique. There was no way I could ever hand quilt this one during the summer months and well, it's gonna take awhile... Hard to explain, but where I'm at now, it finally feels like the rest is doable. Which it always was if you look at it from the perspective of 'one hoop at a time'. It just took getting a big chunk of the center done to be able to feel it. Don't ask me why that matters. Or why this quilt messes with my head. Best get going on it and hopefully bring it to a true-blue finish some time in the near future. Hope I don't run out of thread!

Wrapping up the Giveaway and A Few Christmas-Look Quilts

The Giveaway for free Autumnal Tulip applique templates is now over and I'm totally caught up! Can you believe that I sent out 86 pdf's in all? Crazy. Definitely underestimated the lure of free applique templates! For those of you who requested a pdf and did not receive one, please email me directly. 

Quarter Triangles for the finish!

Quarter Triangles ended up being the very last finish of the year. I started the quilt with the idea of using up old tired green fabrics sometime last winter.

Loving this backing fabric

Then I found the Christmassy floral languishing in the bottom of a tote and decided the entire thing would be a marvelous Christmas-look throw! I'm never in the mood to work on Christmas quilts until the season so I'm always putting ideas off. Maybe later. And then later usually never comes....

Easy peasy throw quilt

It's not super exciting, but this one makes me happy. The hand quilting went very fast and the binding was found in yet more of those tired old green fabrics. Can't argue with that! I had a little bit of fabric bleed with the reds {I thought they had been properly presoaked!}, but they mostly rinsed out.

This one's mostly about the fabric...

Next up in the hoop is this funky looking quilt that I made based on a U & U quilt. I took the simple, utilitarian look quilt and multiplied the base of the quilt times four. Then I inserted my color palette along with the floral vibe and made it mine.

Love the not-so-perfect circles

I'm not exactly thrilled with the overall look of the quilt, but I do so love the soft, floral vibe to the end product. Having it in my lap for hand quilting just makes my heart melt and I'm charmed that these difficult florals finally found a good home. It's a quirky home, but it still looks and feels right.

And the applique ends up being icing on the cake!

And you'll be shocked and appalled, but I just had to add just a teensy bit of applique after all. The quilt was totally sandwiched and pinned {of course!} when I made the decision to go ahead. Why oh why does that happen to me? Such a difficult time to start adding on applique pieces to a quilt, but now I'm even happier with the quilt. Much, much happier. I guess it was meant to be!

Another Christmas quilt in the works

And then there's this quilt that has finally progressed enough to actually mention it here on the blog. It's another one that I cut out last December in the hopes that it would end up being another Christmas-look quilt. I've been piddling around with it off and on all during the month of December, but it's been very slow go. All the fabric is oldy moldy stuff that somehow ends up looking perfectly fine in this holiday themed quilt. Right? This particular quilt block has been on my bucket list for probably well over 15 years and I thought, why not? 

My seams are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination so I will probably end up sewing the blocks together with a very thin sashing. In my mind I'm thinking a plaid would be good, but we'll have to see what's hanging out in the stash totes. Not planning on spending any extra money on this one. Nine blocks are done out of sixteen! Might actually have a another quilt top done before the years end....

Moving Things Along

Directions From a Local is a true blue finish! The hand quilting went very quickly and then it was just a matter of getting the binding properly attached. A quick look through the stash totes, and no worries, plenty of fabric to choose from for binding possibilities. 

Directions From a Local is finished!

Not surprisingly, I ended up sewing scrappy pieces of odd blue fabric together for the binding as that color seemed to have the very best effect. Some of the fabrics had been in the totes for a very long time and I had begun to question why they were ever acquired. But that's exactly why we buy the odd/interesting/unusual fabrics as our instincts nudge us to. So they are there waiting for us when the perfect opportunity crops up!

Love the feel of this quilt

Most of the fabrics used in this quilt are not solids, but a very subtle print or tone on tone. One fabric in particular, the brown and white gingham, is not 100% cotton and seemed to want to warple and wave at the slightest provocation. Still, I absolutely love the vintage look of it mixed in with the quilt.

So happy with the fix-it corners in the middle...

The choppy, cut up corners of the log cabin are a result of sewing the first part of the quilt together without ever measuring strip lengths. Just sewing them on and cutting the excess off at the corners. Eventually there came a time when the quilt began to misbehave entirely too much and it just had to be addressed. I am so in love with how that turned out, there is absolutely nothing to regret!

Hard to see, but some of these fabrics are very sweet...

This quilt was started as an attempt to recreate or rather, interepret, one of the lovely quilts in 'Unconventional and Unexpected' by Roderick Kiracofe. You are probably so very tired of hearing me talk about this book, but it is one of the best buys that I have ever made, quilting-wise. Still finding lots and lots of inspiration within the covers of this book, sometimes just enough to pull me out of a slight mojo slump.

Probably could have added more stitching, but I wanted
to keep it loose and drapey....

I am still kind of in awe that these colors came out of my quilting room, much less, that they all came together in such a successful manner. Playing with color is one of my very favorite things about quilting. Building a different 'to us' color palette often feels easier when trying to base it off an already finished quilt and using it as the ultimate guide.

Whimsical touch to add the 'white line' piecing

Creating a 'mood' in quilting just feels ridiculously fun too. 'Cuz of course, that's exactly what we're doing. Oh sure, it can be a bit anxiety inducing during the attempt {so many decisions}, but after? If it turns out well? High fives all around!

So happy with the Turn Right arrow effect

The next quilt in the hoop will be Vintage Coxcombs. It's been a finished quilt top for a couple years now and one that lately I've been itching to get into the hoop.

Vintage Coxcombs getting sandwiched and pinned

I actually took the time to pin it between all the rows for machine, stitch-in-the-ditch sewing. Ughh! Takes so very long and it was while I was feeling pretty rotten too. Totally underestimated how much energy I had and how much time it always takes. My general optimism about how easy it would be to get it all ready was probably rooted in the idea that it is completely unacceptable to have an empty hoop. My goodness, however would I survive without a hand quilting project warmed up and ready to go?

Still happy with the pieced backgrounds

The unfortunate saga continues as I discovered when eventually getting back into the sewing room to actually sew. Somehow I totally forgot to engage the dual feed with my special Stitch-in-the-Ditch foot, which basically eliminated the entire walking foot effect as hello? There was no 'walking foot' apparatus engaged. Oh yes. You guessed it. I ended up having to rip out some of my machine stitching and start over. Fun stuff.

Going to keep the hand quilting very simple on this one...

Thankfully I didn't have to rip everything out. Apparently the benefit to quilting with low ebb energy is that I was moving the quilt slower through the machine than normal. Wonder of wonders, that helped everything behave better than it should have/could have. While the stitching didn't end up looking fabulous by any means, the quilt is in the hoop now and there's no looking back. I refuse to be a slave to perfection and choose instead to just pick my battles. Stitching lines meandering a bit over the top of seams? Fine and Dandy. Wavy outside sashing? Time to pull out the seam ripper!

My husband and I are both feeling loads better these days and even got to see our grandkids over the weekend. He will be taking a bit longer to recover to absolute full health, but if spending time with the granddaughters doesn't help accelerate the feel-good endorphins, I don't know what could! Still working on some hand applique when time allows and feeling very optimistic that this is the week we mostly return to a 'normal' routine....

Needing a Creative Lift

This past weekend was a rare, quiet pocket of time for us. I took full advantage and was able to get this #AHIQFlowers challenge quilt up on the wall. If you look closely, it's obvious that the left side is mostly sewn together while the right side is still in a state of flux. And yes, some of it is pinned well above the design wall. We do what we have to do, don't we?

U&U quilt interpretation for #UHIQFlower challenge

I've been craving a good boost from creativity time, so it felt absolutely wonderful to piddle around on such an oddball, no-pressure sort of project. In the lower right corner there is an empty space where 'the flower' should end up. Normally I've tended to work on one long strip at a time, but at this point in the quilt, I thought it best to look ahead and plan out/balance the colors in advance. For comparison to the inspiration, I posted a pic back in August at the end of this post.

Parts of the design {can we seriously call this quilt 'intentionally designed?'}, are driving me crazy and so I'm ditching those particular areas. Skimming over them or just cleaning them up a bit. It's mostly the areas that look super chaotic and don't even make sense to re-create. It's my quilt so I can do that! It's at a point now where I want to leave it on the wall for a day or two before sewing. There's something that feels out of whack but I'm not sure exactly what needs to change in the mock-up.

Only two more new starts....

Lately I've been thinking longingly about the potential of having, literally, stacks of Christmas quilts, but that would be absolutely absurd, even for a prolific quilter. Right? So instead I decided to just make two--to go along with my other two sorta, kinda Winter/Christmas quilts that get pulled out during the season. It's pretty insane timing and who knows how far I'll actually get. The fabrics for the first one, based on the spotty quilt in the 'Unconventional & Unexpected' book pictured above, having been stacked up and hanging around for well over a year.

Definitely gonna add some green after the blocks are sewn

The problem is, I'm never in the mood to make Christmas quilts until December {if then}, and then there's even more crazy going on than normal. At the same time that these thoughts have been swirling around in my brain, I've also been thinking deep thoughts about those pesky oldish quilting fabrics which seem to want to swallow my stash whole. In an impulsive moment I dug through the green totes and pulled out three different, very tired stacks of green fabrics. They definitely need to be used up or just go away. I am so very weary of seeing some of these float around unused and unloved. For the first pile, I gleefully challenged myself to incorporate them into a Christmas quilt, which, yep! Is very good timing. See? Just have to work the angles and then we can easily convince ourselves any brand new start is a fabulous idea!

Already prewashed and soaked the reds!

But first! I made myself cross something off the list. I do have a tiny bit of discipline in this freewheeling quilty world of mine, believe it or not. The Roman Stripes quilt was started back in September as a result of a problematic stack of fabrics that was giving me troubles getting off the ground. It seemed to demand a complicated quilt pattern, but then could never quite gain any traction. Finally, I used a free Sharon Holland pattern {unfortunately not available any longer}, put out while she was promoting her latest book.

Uh oh, getting a lot of quilt tops on the to-be-quilted list!

I had thought to use it in a baby quilt and then couldn't get her instructions to cooperate with the way that I tend to buy fabric. Oh yeah. Same problem with making the throw quilt. But I didn't let it stop me, just kept cutting fabrics and making sure there were plenty of 'pairings'.

The smaller Roman Stripe quilt

Which led to enough blocks for two quilts! They are both the same length {76 1/2"}, but the first one, above, is only 59" wide while the second one, pictured below with an extra vertical row, is 66 1/2". It's really hard sometimes to make these quick scrappy-look quilts with fatquarters {the most frequent size of fabric I buy}. Instead of agonizing about it or trying to determine which fabrics would work better, I just made more sets and determined to work it out later.

This one is wider

There's something about this 'coins' pattern that really intrigues me. It's all very formal, yet the way that Sharon encouraged a light/dark fabric pairings, it has a wonderful flow to the stripes. I especially like the repetitive stacks of like fabrics with the occasional scrappy 'make-do' element mixed from using smaller pieces of fabrics. See? Nothing wrong with adapting a pattern to fit what you have available!

Loved adding the easy borders to wrap it all up

One thing that I've been wondering about lately is whether strips are pre-cut or free-cut, is there always going to be a certain amount of seams coming lose at the edges or long lengths of the quilt top? I thought it was mostly a free-cut strip issue, but no. Anytime there are lengths sewn and then cut or trimmed later, I'll have to go back here when joining the long rows and re-sew random seams starting to come loose. This is something I had forgotten. It's just part of quilting because even when you back stitch, if the fabric ends up being cut in the middle of the lengths, there goes the reinforcement. Ughh! Oh how it annoys me! But now maybe I won't isolate it to free-cut, improv. sewing and let it hinder me from new starts. There's just something about wonky strip sets that make my heart go pitter patter but I was starting to get a little resentful of the extra time that it takes to clean up those coming-loose seams.

So happy with these fabrics!

I'm not at all sorry to have two of these quilt tops {instead of one} as they should make wonderful comfort type quilts for friends in need of a quick pick-me-up. The colors are just that warm looking, with a cozy and comforting  vibe that should only improv. with quilting texture. So glad I didn't throw these fabrics back in the stash totes! It's good to have a couple comfort quilts out in front of me for once, and not have to be all in a rush one day throwing something together!

Kinda boring to sew together, but great fun seeing the top finished!

Now I'm thinking about making some quick little Barbie quilts for my granddaughter and possibly a doll quilt or two for the nieces. I really, really hate last minute DIY Christmas gifts, but sometimes with quilting, it's just pure fun to sew these little bitties. Especially when there's no expectation whatsoever. I think the first place I'll look is in the orphan block totes. Doesn't that sound fun? lol

What's on the Wall {and Floor} Today

Sometimes I don't even know where to start, how to walk you through to where my quilting is at this current moment. It's kinda a mess really, but hopefully more of a 'creative' mess than an ugly sort of mess that we'd all probably turn up our noses at. After getting two other projects up to completed quilt top stage, it seemed like a perfect time to dive head first into this U&U interpretation project.

The very beginning of the  Interpretation quilt

This fabric has been all stacked up and ready for play since August, but somehow the 'right time' never came along. It's one of those projects where I'm really excited to see how it works out, but kinda scared too. Interpretation is never as easy as it might seem! Finally the time came where I was ready, the project was ready and hallelujah! There was actually available hours in the day!!

Making things easy

It helps so much to have the fabric pre-selected, especially when the color palette is a bit outside of my normal comfort zone. Wading through all the stash totes for one specific color or shade can be a total time suck too. The pre-sort gives me options, value changes, and limitations too. Okay, here's the best choices. If all else fails, my fall back will definitely be scouring through the stash totes once again, but it would be great if I never have to.

I started everything with the larger floral rectangle, mostly because I was absolutely determined to put that piece of fabric into this specific quilt. It's got an old fashioned charm to it that is important to me as it pertains to 'shaping' the look and feel of the entire quilt. Does that make sense?  The size cut for that rectangle determines every other measurement from here on out. Can you believe that? Better make it right the first time, 'cuz that's almost all there is!

Will this work? Or that? 

Some areas are measured out, others are 'eye-balled'. There's a little bit of free-cutting and a lot of rotary cutting. Everything is cut out and placed based on proportion of what it rests directly next too. A little bit above or below? Wider? Longer? Though I adore the rambling, curvy, rough cut look of the original, it just wasn't going to work for me to work without any boundaries whatsoever. I am absolutely NOT a perfectionist anymore, but my quilts do need to lay flat and mostly square.

Always auditioning

Will it ruin the look and feel of the quilt if things are trimmed and tidied up? I am crossing my fingers it won't. Maybe crossing more than two fingers. I just don't know. That's just something you have to 'see' and that requires a little bit of effort first! I'm hoping the quilt will finish up somewhere in the range of a good sized lap quilt, but who knows. Though I tried to start with a reasonable estimate of 'if this column is 3" then that will make the quilt X amount of inches across', it's still just all guess work. Knowing me, it might need scrappy borders or something later on to finish out a decent size. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

The first big chunk of the quilt is done now

There was a certain point where I was spending way too much time thinking about how the original improv. piece came to be. Doesn't it look like someone upended their scrap basket and just started sewing? So of course that's exactly what I did! Ditched the current project and started in on yet another. Why not? It was definitely time for a break from the color palette if nothing else! After all the sorting that was done last summer, all the new scrap pieces have been thrown into a smaller basket. The idea being that eventually they too would be sorted and dumped into the 'proper' color totes. Uh huh.

Playing with the scrap bin

I happily spent one whole evening sorting out all the scraps that looked like they might play nicely together. Yes I did. And it was great fun! A few things were sewn together impulsively, but most of the time was spent ironing and sorting into similar size units. I don't have a clue where this project will end up, but it sure was great to imagine. How ironic that this one nights play would never have even taken place except for working on {and needing a break from} the Interpretation quilt! For now it's taking up important real estate on the floor, right where I normally walk through. I am determined not to clean things up until enough work is done on it that it will not be unceremoniously tossed back into the scrap bin basket. There's just something about this project that feels.... interesting? Worthwhile? Important?

All ready for binding!

And then there's the little fall table runner which was fun to sew on initially, but since has not fired me up at all. Last night saw me putting the last bit of hand stitching in and so now, it's ready for binding! Which is good because the gift date is rapidly approaching.

The start of the Autumnal Tulip block applique

And it might not look like much, but all thirty {yes, I said THIRTY} of the tulip block stems are sewn into place now. I keep getting derailed or I'm sure there would be many, many of the tulip flower parts stitched down as well. They are just that simple and straightforward. Oh well. It's all good times, I guess it doesn't really matter what gets the attention so long as my fingers are busy stitching...

Lattice Quilt at the Quilt Top Finish Stage!

So this is what I finished up with for the #AHIQRED and combined #UANDUQAL challenges. It's been difficult to get a good photograph of this top as all the very lightest of the green/blues and grey fabrics end up looking white. In reality, there is only one fabric used that is truly white based.

Red is a Neutral challenge quilt top

I spent quite a long time rearranging all the blocks and trying to get a good 'flow' going. There was a brief space of time where I almost tossed one complete row of blocks just because the corners weren't playing nice. That's the inherit risk of making limited repeats of each block--how hard it is in getting similar blocks to cozy up to one another in a sort of seamless look.

Looking a little closer....

Finally it got to the point where it felt like this is it! Overall, I'm happy with the shade changes in the background of the quilt and the lattice design definitely keeps the eye happily moving around the entire quilt. That's always an encouraging sign!

Really enjoying the background color variation

Now that it is sewn together, there is a velvety look that has sort of surprised me. I was really crossing my fingers concerning how smart it was to try marring tomato reds with deep crimson and cherry reds. In actuality, it seems to help create layers of interest and a lovely, subtle background play. At least in my eyes! I suppose I'm too deeply invested in the idea of making truly scrappy quilts to want single fabric backgrounds for every single quilt.  It's even hard to believe how much the more obvious printed background fabrics disturbed me before, as now they are just part and parcel of the whole.

Looking at the upside down view

Though picture number one is what I consider the 'right' view of this quilt, I turned it upside down and looked at it from another angle. It seems like everything works nicely from this view as well. Just asking out of curiosity, but what do you think? Did I make a mistake adding the large floral gray print like a couple of my kids questioned? Does it need a border? Does the red truly function as a neutral? The more I thought about that question, the more confused I was!

I'm very much inclined to call it good, fold it up and put it away until it's time for quilting. As always, being directly inspired by the 'Unconventional and Unexpected' quilts is always a wonderful adventure. I especially love that there's no way to know what the outcome will be until we're finally staring at the finished product! So very glad that I went with my instincts and drew directly from the depths of the stash totes, including using fabrics that were marginally {or completely} 'iffy' in terms of that sly, sneaky question our creative subconscious loves to throw out: 'Is this a good idea?' So much to learn about playing with fabric and color. On to the next quilt.....! 

Red Is a Neutral U&U Project and the Bullseye Medallion Centerpiece

A little bit of applique work and I'm finished with the centerpiece for the Bullseye Medallion. I'm rather fond of how the darker blue 'flower's fade into the dark background. None of it is perfectly straight, but that's because I generally use the method called 'eyeballing' it. I just keep moving things until it looks right and then I sew. End of story. If you want rigid formality, you are currently visiting the wrong blog!

Centerpiece is done

I went ahead and dove into the #UandUQAL project as it has been taking over my mind. Haunting me until I broke down and spent some time with it. It's combined with the AHIQ Red is a Neutral challenge and also, to further complicate things, done in colors that are specific to a certain person I'm considering gifting the quilt to. I know, I know, that sort of thing was supposed to be over and done with around here. So difficult to feel truly creative when there are {personal preference} color boundaries boxing us in!

Sewing the blocks

There are 120 blocks in all so this is just a small sampling of what it might look like. I can say with all certainty that I am most definitely at the stage with my hands in my hair wondering what in the world was I thinking!

The first layout audition

LeeAnn made a version of this same U&U Lattice quilt and hers was simply stunning. So light and airy! Mine is a nightmare waiting to happen! lol  Or maybe not. It's really too soon to tell. My son is leaving for the weekend and so I will be taking over his bedroom floor upstairs near the quilt room in an effort to wrestle these blocks into submission. 

Gonna take some reshuffling.....

At first glance I am despairing over my decision to use leftover bits of fatquarters and thus, severely limit the number of repeats that I have per block. On the other hand, limitation is part of what can make these quilts look so charming, right? The only thing that I'm immediately happy with is the different shading of reds in the background. And it looks even better when I stand back and take the long view. This was the part that was really stressing me out. Digging into my stash for these reds the very first time was fine. The second time a bit more difficult. The third time {when I ran out AGAIN} was a joke. Basically I just threw everything that might, possibly, sort of? work together, especially if you were riding by on a very fast horse. There will be NO going to the store and buying new fabric for this one. That would totally defy the reason we are doing UandUQAL quilts in the first place!

Okay, lots to work with here! Time to roll up my sleeves, break out a Pepsi and get to work. Linking up with Wendy at her Peacock Party!